October's First-frost Morning

Is there anything fairer than a zinnia dipped in stars

Or blades of grass bedecked in glass drizzled from heaven-jars

There is no upper-lower class when nature dons the robe

Of first-frost morning as it gilds the hemline of the globe

Lo and behold, the world is silver-gold with fragile sheaf

Where diamonds by the billion garnish lowly sprig and leaf

Dawn is a crystal temple, we the worshipers that bow

Beneath the Lordship of a love that lavishes earth’s prow

Soon the boon of new morning will melt fall's svelte sheen of frost

A picture of time’s taking to which everything is lost

But in this course of moment-force heaven unveils its bars

In autumn-first-frost-mornings when God dazzles earth with stars

© Janet Martin

Becoming Intimate With Father Time...

No, no amount of willpower will keep his kiss at bay

In Time, his silver starlet chaplet halos dreams of May

As scarlet undertow of come and go tinsels the trees

And petals fall like rainbow snow on summer’s plundered leas

Oft we forget the pirouette of moments; soft they splay

Then etch a silhouette of ether worlds on yesterday

In surreal outlines of a shrine which only thought can see

Ah, Father Time, you are a mime of tick-by-tock melee

The buttered side of bread, when we are fed leaves no reward

You strip the ‘buttered-side’ of us as seasons are out-poured

…and no one is immune to autumn’s swoon of brooding hue

Aha, aha we say, then gulp its noon of gray-gold-blue

Do you remember, dear, when we thought Here was long and slow

And we were anxious to vanquish the miles we had to go?

When did we start to feel the tug-of-heart where hunger wars?

As After envelopes the laughter of younger Befores

The quiet conquering of ages stages quite a show

The more we learn of love and life it seems, the less we know

So we content ourselves with living moments and not years

For one thing Time has taught us is how slick he disappears

© Janet Martin

Giving Thanks

In Canada it is Thanksgiving Weekend!

Above is a glimpse of 'fruit of thankfulness'.

Whole family is home today for Thanksgiving Dinner

(at least they are until one leaves for post-season Bluejay's baseball game, but that's for a different post;-)

...so much to be thankful for!

May our thanks be raised to much more than thin air

But to the Lord of all

  Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.  

 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 

 Ps.95:2-3

For stages set with living’s ‘Yet’

And pages writ with Past

For smiles and tears that rile the years

Where soon their boon is cast

For bread to win and mouths to feed

For gardens gilt with full-grown seed

For God, who satisfies our need

We worship and give thanks

For untamed hours that unchain flow’rs

For bowers bent with fruit

For autumn field culled of its yield

For orchard’s ample loot

For earth-havens of home, sweet home

Where mothers call and children come

For love-laugh-labor’s humble sum

We worship You, O Lord

For hands to fold, for arms to hold

For sky-scapes that amaze

For quiet awe as nature’s law

Seals seasons from our gaze

For grace that grants a second chance

For lips to kiss and feet to dance

For soul and body sustenance

God, hear our songs of praise

For Faith’s reward, we thank You, Lord

Though trial seems unjust

We rest-assured for You secured

The Hope whereby we trust

We thank You for this Crux of joy

That nothing on earth can destroy

…for twilight’s lull and dawn’s ahoy

And your mercy to us

© Janet Martin

Yours Truly, God

Dawn's silver mantle on yon vale

Beneath blush bands begins to pale

Its slow fade unveils field and street

And highways on time’s common beat

It sets the stage of this day’s war

Where wage of dream and duty spar

October’s land begets a brush

That authors grand applause from us

For while we sleep its colors spread

Gold-scarlet-russet-bronze and red

Through wooded slope and hooded morn

A color wonderland is born

Earth is inset with lakes and streams

And brooklets tucked in mossy seams

Autumnal mirth excites their vim

Where leaf-shaped medals learn to swim

And we linger longer on banks

To chase our wonderment with thanks

God grants glimpses of paradise

Nature teases man’s hungry eyes

We gape and shape vague stuttered praise

To He who equips time with days

And days with ways that leave us awed

With masterpieces made by God

© Janet Martin

Autumnal Odyssey

Dawn’s golden gilt exhales its sigh

Before it wilts in noon-blue sky

Our dust of trust soon silt of thought

Is spilt to dusk’s supernal plot

Twilight tolls its neon farewell

Hello cannot escape its knell

Hulled Haunting swells, succumbs to sleep

Like dells flaunting bloom-bells knee-deep

Life’s lot of thought and care and prayer

Is caught up on soft wafts of air

Where not one jot escapes the gaze

Of He who allots autumn’s ways

The wick of tree and lea is lit

Like flickers on a candlestick

Where tick and tock of hill and sky

Quickens the advent of goodbye

© Janet Martin

Me, oh my,

 Morning's blue sky

full of day

fades fast!

G'night~