Ancient Revelation...

 Some days we struggle to accept the New View...

What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done,
    and there is nothing new under the sun.

Eccles. 1:9

It is nothing new

This rise and shine

And toil and weep

And grin and share it

With the rest

Before we lay us

Down to sleep

And it is nothing new, the test

That tries the Thing

We thought we knew

Then realize

With humble sighs

And eyes, the wiser

For the view

Soft-rearranged

And changed because

The hand of time

Is never still

Where nothing new

Stuns me and you

With arguments

Of want and will

Because we are

Prone to the laws

Of human nature’s

Ancient ways

Where nothing new returns

Save gauze that

Holds the gift

Of a new day

© Janet Martin

 

another beautiful version of this song here

The Beauty of Begin Again

God takes brokenness 

and beneath His touch 

turns it into beauty... 

As the ice began to melt on Saturday, earth was over-taken by surreal beauty;

a glass world on a bronze backdrop...

We would be weary soon into love’s journey

Soon overtaken by trouble and pain

But for the mercy that comes with each morning

But for the beauty of Begin Again

We would be victims of longing’s long sorrow

Caught in a quagmire of briar and rain

But for the Hand that transforms each tomorrow

Into the beauty of Begin Again

We would be blinded by rubble and ruin

Bereft of joy where we stumble and strain

But for the wonder that wakens within us

As we bear witness to Begin Again

Love takes the pieces of plight we have shattered

Shapes from its brokenness, no seal of shame

But from the night as its starlight is scattered

Love lends the beauty of Begin Again

© Janet Martin

For the Members of Time's Choir...

Morning rain-drops 

tap-dance a tittle-tune 

on  wide-eyed windows ...

These tiny dancers 

have left their glass-galoshes at home, 

unlike a few days before!!

Mercy of new morning graces

Time’s waysides of toil and test

We, from our perspective places

Turn our faces to the west

Break thy bit of bread from Heaven

From these crumbs of give and take

Comes a testament of living

Ere we lie where none will wake

From the doorway of man’s longing

Hope, like a scepter of fire

Lights the sheet-music of morning

For the members of time’s choir

Warriors of faith and duty

We take up love’s tools of trade

Walk the way of wraithlike beauty

In this day the Lord has made

Life and death, ah, half-breath barrier

Poised upon time's skiff of sod

Where this dust sails to the hour

That unveils the face of God

© Janet Martin

'look at all these buds', cried Victoria, 'that will never bloom!'

...and a little later she remarked thoughtfully, 'there are a lot of metaphors for life here...'

Reason to Sing

 Yesterday as the choir assembled for the last practice before today's performance the fellow who opened our meeting prayed and thanked God for always giving us reason to sing!

 (We are trying to recover from another ice storm. Glad our electricity is back! Soon after the previous post we joined those who were out of power...hydro-power, that is;-) The electricity is back but not the trees! many lost trees! We, at our house are mourning the loss of our red maple and a big piece of our Manitoba Maple!)

In spite of the sudden way life changes gears

And thus reminds us of all time endears

In spite of how smiles can end in love’s tears

God gives us reason to sing

In spite of all that we once held then lost

As we learn how to love what matters most

Counting with new, humble rev’rence, its cost

God gives us reason to sing

In spite of all that is waiting to be

Poured between future and soon-history

Where its fulfillment nobody can see

God gives us reason to sing

Sing for the love that will never forsake

Sing for the hope that tunes every day break

Sing for the mercy and grace we partake

From God who gives reason to sing

© Janet Martin

It's been a hectic and wearing few days but today was spent with family and friends, counting blessings and remembering the reason we have to sing...

"Why do you seek the living One among the dead? "He is not here, but He has risen!

Luke 24:5-6

Hope is the joy we celebrate not only on Easter Day but Every Day!

Hallelujah!

Hope to share more photos on the morrow!

March Casanova

Hush, hush, my love, he murmurs in a summer-tone of dreams

Soon, soon you will be lolling by time’s turquoise-tinted streams

There, there, don’t fret; soon you’ll forget this flurry-flustered fray

For history has never failed us; spring will have Her way

And she will spill her daisies, she will thrill yon hill with bloom

And fill the rill with laughter, plant pansies on winter’s tomb

And tickle trees with fine-spun breeze and tease the roving gaze

With green in every shade and sheen foreign to painter-trays

Hush, hush, my love, soon the dull grove will wade knee-deep in flow’rs

Soon, soon, the promises of June will tune time’s tight-lipped bow’rs

There, there, don’t fret, for never yet has Time forgotten Her

Hush, hush, methinks I hear a song of pinks and purples stir

© Janet Martin