Morning Madrigal

The trees are sketched against the stretching sky in raven ink

We wake and stretch and do not know what this new 'Go' betides

Before we touch our feet down on time’s runway we should think

About the One who knows; then pray to He whose love abides

The landscape meets the skyline; we can never reach that place

Where earth and heaven meld into a mystic blue and mauve

Onward, upward, we stumble on time’s steppingstones of grace

Across crag and quagmire shod with God’s unfailing love

The leaf of autumn lingers for a little then it falls

The dust of daydreams teaches us what words can never spell

Soul-surges of surrender shape time’s tender madrigals

Where man and land have much in common; God’s love fills its shell

The birth and death of morn-noon-night begets Bygone’s attire

We should give earnest heed to deeds; they never fully dim

This little slip of season-silk that weaves Time will expire

Where God’s kind love and mercy tunes the Tide that leads to Him

© Janet Martin 

It's a beaut of a morning here! 

Enjoy its bouquet of colored leaves garnished with sun...

For Players in the Game of Baseball or Life

Matt enjoyed a never-forget-it-as-long-as-I-live night at the Sky-dome to watch the Blue-jays try to sweep the series against the Texas Rangers.

He said there was a consistent eager hum of excitement in the crowd,

but when Donaldson slid across the home-plate clinching the extra-innings win the place erupted into a beyond-words noise-level of celebration! 

Sometimes in life's

Swing and miss, 

slip, trip and sprawl

Fumble a pop-fly, 

or 

get hit by a ball

...sometimes in life's 

extra innings 

before loss

Or new-season beginnings

after 

a bat-toss 

...sometimes in life's 

hurt and dirt

Had a bad day

Bases-loaded 

grounder

then a double play

Sometimes in life's game of

Hope, hit, 

work hard, 

fall

We meet with moments 

that make it

Worth it all

© Janet Martin

September fears have turned to October cheers! 

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