Wednesday, May 18, 2016

To We Who Yet Believe...





Loathe not this little leap called Life
Nor its labor protest
After its wink of toil and strife
God grants eternal rest

Eternity cradles the sieve
Through which mute moments slide
Toward a glimpse none can achieve
Though many a man has tried

Upon the edge of Vast Unknown
We peer into yon blue
Ten-thousand skies, a flicker on
Forever’s avenue

To we who yet believe, in spite
Of what the masses say
Fix our gaze upon a Light
That does not dim or sway

Loathe not this strait of faith and fight
Nor its sorrow protest
After this little leap called Life
God grants eternal Rest

© Janet Martin




This Same Wind Still Shakes The Barley





(above, William Burns' words to is son, Robin,. Below, William Burns death)

(The Book The Wind That Shakes The Barley is fiction based on historical fact, described below...)
no matter how many centuries pass, this same wind still shakes the barley...


What peace our fears console
At the mercy of Love’s Sublime
Time’s numbered ages roll

…and though man’s unbelief may boast
And toast confusion’s pride
They cannot sway Love’s Uttermost

Be careful then and prayerful too
For this life that we have
Though stoppered at the grave

For all we cannot see, then trust
In He who knows The Whole
The eulogy of ‘dust to dust
Is not spoke of the soul

…but when Death leads us through earth’s sod
Then we will see in full
The faithful promises of God

© Janet Martin

the RYŪKA...(this form of poetry has no title)



Today Poetic Bloomings challenges us with a form called the  RYŪKA. First I was a little dubious but it turns out to be quite 'more-ish'. Wanna try?

the RYŪKA.

Fear mocks in cold and bold attire
But He, above life’s tearful care
Is there: higher and greater than
Mankind’s despair: gentle, the Hand
That some misunderstand and hate
But God is great and He is love
While man debates vast galaxies
Beneath His whispers move
(8-8-8-8-8-8-6)

© Janet Martin

the RYŪKA.

Velvet vespers tickle trees
Waft, silk-soft, aloft
Clothed in mist-mauve benedictions
Over dusk’s stilly croft
(7-5-8-6)

© Janet Martin


the RYŪKA

White caps stun green sweeps
Robin rogue protests
Spring's crest of crystal confusion
A snow day in mid-May
(5,5,8,6)

© Janet Martin

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Fantastic Freebies



 Photos of a few freebies that made my day...


For feasts spread on heaven’s buffet
For moss mantles on long-lost tombs
For miracles of flower-bells
Or hawthorn bush snow-white with blooms

For picnics beneath heaven's dome
For blue forget-me-not bouquet
And fodder for ten-thousand poems
Lavishing time's day-to-day

For green in sundry shade and sheen
For hills that waken wanderlust
For rain to wash the wide world clean
While we trample unconscious dust

…and fill heart-cups with hope and dream
And dance upon a fresh-spun day
Or idle by the giddy stream
To watch the minnows dart and play

For newborn calf, children that laugh
For people that we love and miss
For light that spawns sun-dappled lawns
For chubby baby-hug and kiss

For farmer’s whistling as they go
For lad that follows in his steps
For rills that bound with melted snow
And tumble to uncharted depths
 
For hedge, refurbished with spring’s leaf
And sedge rejuvenating a-ahs
For marsh-marigold gilded creek
And nature’s un-forgetting laws

For poetry of dusk-hushed lea
For winter’s holiday, hurray
For soil to plant and toil to grant
A well-earned rest after the day

For blue-eyed cares and bedtime prayers
For velvet vesper-lullabies
For songs to sing and simple things
That yield glimpses of paradise

For birds and butterflies and bees
For words to whisper what we think
For fair-as-flower memories 
And daylight's farewell, yellow-pink

For bread to break and meals to make
And garden-getaways at home
For bracken haunt and stilly lake
And wild-bloom, back-wood trails to roam

For sorrow spun in happy days
For every blessing free at large
We offer humble, grateful praise
To He who grants it a No Charge

© Janet Martin

Through Blue, Blue Deep





Daylight seeps through yon dark, blue deep
And loosens to the air
A whole new ‘Lord, guide, bless and keep
Us in Thy faithful care’

From coffers that scoffers deny
It folds the dark and fills the sky
And tends man’s countless needs

The evidence of Providence
Rustles in newborn leaves
It wakes the bluebells by the fence
Earth’s sable shroud conceives

From thought’s affairs the mouth declares
Hurrah and alas, oh
And concedes that in spite of airs
‘Tis but by grace we go

He holds us, nothing interferes
Though hope with fancy flirts
His covenanted Presence cheers
Us even when life hurts

Grace seeps through yonder blue, blue deep
Disguised as simple Day
A whole new ‘Lord guide, bless and keep’
Begins its come-what-may

© Janet Martin