Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Smorgasbord



Isn't it a gift?...to be able to devour the wonder of seasons set before us!

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Job 38:4

The land is a smorgasbord for the eye
A grand table spread out beneath the sky
How blue its dusk-hued shadows seep
How gold the folds of summer sweep
How still the rill and woodland sleep
Beneath white deep of winter’s lullaby

The hand of heaven prepares a fine feast
For hungry stares to gorge like starving beast
Yet we can never eat our fill
Of amber and plum misted hill
Where dawn’s decanters of air spill
In pale la crème and persimmon frothed east

The moon and stars splash silver to night’s girth
Like jewels on black-velvet bedded berth
How green the spring of morning sings
From founts imbued with flower-things
Each bud a rainbow-bell that rings
Then flings its pretty petals back to earth

The eye is like a mouth; it feeds on red
Of rose, on nature’s boundless color-spread
As dark and light of day and night
Snuff seasons with time’s appetite
Yet cannot strip awe from our sight
As God delights our gaze with daily bread

© Janet Martin

Monday, February 8, 2016

Last Rite of Passage





We do not need to justify
The ‘why’ of what we say or do
The finest ruse shaped to excuse
Is quite beside the point, tis true

…and it is worthless to explain
With well-laid pains the vain disguise
Of making sure that we procure
Good judgement in onlooker’s eyes

But we will pay more earnest heed
To need and greed that test our laud
If we prepare and are aware
That someday we answer to God

© Janet Martin

 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, 
lest at any time we should let them slip.
Heb.2:1

Love is a Bloom Becoming





Love is a lean-on-me learning
A living Giving grace
A rudiment where common cares
And heart-strings interlace

Love is a bloom Becoming
As blushing rose of youth
Begins to bear the weathered hand
That prunes with timeless truth

Love is a second-mile runner
It does not rule with fear
Or love becomes a landmine
And each step a trembling tear

Love is a heart that listens
Its touch-by-touch immersed
Not in the ploys of me-me-me
But choice of ‘others first’

Love is a letting-go lesson
That fills fingers uncurled
Not with the weight of ownership
But with love's whole new world

© Janet Martin

The Art of Heart-to-heart



 Sometimes our differences can keep life interesting...
At other times it is a serious business of learning humility!



This two way street of you and I
Learning how to meet eye to eye
While you prefer the things you do
And I don’t share your point of view
Can keep us relearning the art
Of hand-in-hand and heart-to-heart
But we dare not give up, for then
We choose the lesser way of men
But daily, by God’s grace commit
To make the very best of it
Lest we become bitter and sad
Numbed by the things we wish we had
Or merely learn to co-exist
Never full-loved, 
Full-held, 
Full-kissed

© Janet Martin

...and wives, may our love adapt these eyes

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Ever-present Essence of Something More





Earth slumbers beneath a blanket of stars
Time’s numbered days dwindle; dawn drains night’s bars
Darkness recedes, heaven's ebb of high tide
Unveiling streets, cities, and countryside

Oh, winter-white wonder, oh, green garb of spring
Oh, blue and gold summer, oh fall Color King
What gossamer law through thy fleet bearing weaves
Bud full of blossom to mud full of leaves

Time is no mere decoration of trees
More than a circuit of sun over seas
Or rose-blush rush toward age-sallow skin
Time runs its bow over earth’s violin

…composing a lifetime, chords of a clock
Toll, a grand metronome, tick-tock, tick-tock
Tugs ever closer that last curtain-fall
Time is a kiss on the cheek of death’s pall

Buckets and mops, mortgages, dinner, crops
Time is much more these mundane non-stops
While light swindles stars and spring kindles sod
Time dwindles in numbered days back to God

© Janet Martin



A person's days are determined; 
you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.
Job 14:5

Well, I'm off to buckets and mops and dinner-prep non-stops...for now:)

Have a Happy Saturday!

Our Saturday is covered in a fresh sweep of snow. 
Last night its big flakes filled the dark as if heaven spilled a jar of cotton-balls! 
Stunning.