What We Know

 

Yon skies are over-flowing with the glowing of new day

And you and I, not knowing what waits in its come-what-may

Are never at the mercy of its circumstance alone

But ever in the faithful Keep of He who brings us dawn

He sets upon the heart a guard lest fear should paralyze

The Hope in us when life is hard and overcome with sighs

He never will forsake us, we, the darlings of His care

Are ever in the Able Hands of He who rules the air

Rejoice, The Voice of He who first uttered Time into space

And spoke all into being, but redemption, grants us grace

And though we never know what we may face, ah, this is sure

The One True God goes with us and through Him we can endure

How small man’s acumen to ken and understand His way

How vast The Everlasting God who begets day-to-day

Where, though we know time may not show the ‘why’ of its travail

His love whereby we go, we know, will never, ever fail

© Janet Martin

I Know Whom I Have Believed

David’s Prayer

 David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,

“Praise be to you, Lord,
    the God of our father Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting. 

 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
    you are exalted as head over all. 

 Wealth and honor come from you;
    you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
    to exalt and give strength to all. 

 Now, our God, we give you thanks,
    and praise your glorious name.

1 Chron. 29:10-13

To Common Kings...

It was a 'simple things' day...

For all that life leaves to desire

Much is rendered in return

Its Best, dressed in plain attire

Tendered through lessons we learn

Once upon youth’s restless green days

We were sure that joy was more

Than the commonness of freeways

Leading to home-sweet-home’s door

My, how high we held the future

Life’s best days wrapped in its gleam

Until one day we grew wiser

And began to live the dream

For all that life leaves to desire

It bestows to common kings

Happiness that we acquire

By its wealth of simple things

© Janet Martin

Lest We Miss the Melody....

Slow down, the song of living lilts in day by day appeal

Each morning like a madrigal of mist-spun amethyst

Its hour, like a flower blooms then falls beneath a wheel

Of virgin compositions that we hardly know exist

Slow down and listen to the tune of moment-metered grace

Where haste of hungry days devours spring-bowers with ease

Its green-field hallelujahs turn to bronze; bygone’s embrace

Unwilling to relinquish anything save memories

The genesis of what remains dwindles with every breath

Its skylines running over with carols we often miss

Slow down; revere this prelude to life’s last performance, Death

Love's song of living lilts and tilts toward time’s farewell kiss

God grants us Chance; we should slow dance where seasons stilly sweep

And stun the sun that runs awry on twilight’s diadem

This band of marching footsteps should slow down its headlong leap

Lest we trample on melodies that will not play again

© Janet Martin

Memory-Machine...

Hellos and send-offs and yellows and blues

Dawn of a new day then twilight adieus

Thought, like a peddler of dreams fills our gaze

Before the treadle of Touch wields its ways

Over and under, through us, in between

Time weaves its wonder …a memory-machine

Sing a song, pray a prayer, shed a tear, smile

Nothing is anything but A Wee While

See how the tie that binds unwinds anew

Begetting threads from founts heady with dew

Before then after, the laughter of years

Runs through The Now that never disappears

Crumbs from a Table above our reach

Fall into frames filled with life’s learn-and-teach

Change our minds, change our plans, change our ways,

Change spills in constant allotment of days

Arranging with it, new pieces of art

Lent for safe-keeping deep, deep in the heart

Spring-summer-autumn then winter deploys

Seasons of sorrow, reasons for new joys

Hellos and send-offs and yellows and blues

Like buds that brim then break into adieus

Stirring us to revere what dusk will wean

From our touch to time’s memory-machine

© Janet Martin

Cut Down To Sighs...

 Tonight twilight sighs in tall, shadow-shaped goodbyes

Sighs oft size up the human heart

The art of hold-let-go

Can never quite prepare us for

Its paradise of ‘oh!’

Sighs sigh in universal tongue

Glad, sad or just because

A language of both old and young

For what is or what was

They speak of a mind set at ease

Of restless wanderlust

They gather up fond memories

And matters made for trust

They utter love, longing and loss

In soft, unspoken ties

Because the very heart of us

Is oft cut down to sighs

© Janet Martin

This poem was inspired by the previous poem which was inspired, I am certain, by all the things I should be doing (see photo of prev. poem) rather than penning a poem!

Tonight my sighs are spawned by
Duty of House
versus
Beauty of Dusk...
Prudence
versus
Wanderlust

(...the beauty of Duty wins.
I hate getting up to yesterday's chores)