Of Mercy Renewed...

From vaulted hue the New transcends

Time’s archived loss and dividend

Hope’s orient halo crowns the globe

Persuasion wears a royal robe

Where fear or faithful fortitude

Will commandeer Mercy renewed

From heaven-height to earthy deep

Fathoms of moment-morsels seep

Each canon freed in tick-by-tock

As dream-deed-impact interlock

To prove, with each edict decreed

The matrix of our mortal need

The loom that weaves Bygone untwists

The proof that grace of God persists

It unfurls like a golden scroll

From He, the Saviour of the soul

To we, of Life received, denied

Surging as one to Death’s Divide

No certainty abides but He

Who tips the grail that fills the sea

Who grips the veil that keeps in place

The Mystery of hope and grace

Where, when its shroud is torn in twain

Nobody returns to explain

© Janet Martin

 Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11It is written: “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.” 12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.…

Romans 14:10-12

 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 18Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.…

John 3:16-18

Forgiving Feather Faux Pas

March made its debut on a stage of sage and barren brown

We dusted off fond garden dreams; hope’s refreshed audience

But Old Man Winter found a pillow filled with eiderdown

And fluffs our stare with feather-flurry frosting field and fence

March is a moody merchant advertising prize Maybes

We, weary of gray backdrops are an eager, easy sell

Then, while thought samples scenes of sweet, green-flowered ecstasies

White whispers wash the world where weather is a feather-well

Tomorrow March may spill a thrill of daffodilly hues

(Ah, we are always willing to forgive feather faux pas)

While nature at the mercy of whatever March may choose

Arranges, beneath feathered beds a burst of bud-applause

© Janet Martin

a few hours later...

Law and Order

Some changes bring tears, others SO much laughter and snuggles and smiles.

First time mother-Emily, first time aunt-Victoria and first time Grandma-Janet are fully enjoying this cute change.

Brantley James, 8 weeks old. He loves playing pat-a-cake!

We cannot keep what time with tiptoe-feet feathers afar

Worlds slip through us then through a door always slightly ajar

Darkness softens and often we miss its farewell unfold

Where morning wakes and breaks time’s newness across ages old

I have beheld half-heavens here, but never Flawless Whole

I have beheld half-hell sorrows that love could not console

Tomorrow never tells us what it holds; even today

Is always half-veiled until its last shadows fade away

The timbrel that tap-taps the tempo to the march of Time

 Kindles within the poet that which verse preserves in rhyme

And often after laughter, labour and daylight has stilled

The poet cannot slumber until Her hunger is filled

Change changes things and things change us in ways we had not planned

Nobody can refute the law and order of time’s hand

But of life’s things that matter most; thank God, these never cease

For we are ever at the mercy of His love-joy-peace

© Janet Martin

Dear Mothers...

 Dear mothers,

 In all the little things we do 

that we think they'll forget

We never know which ones they'll remember 

so let's just keep on keeping on!

Don’t give up

Though trust and task

Seems to ask for

More than we thought

Love,
Worth each while

Each smile,
Knee-mile

For who knows what,

When it is taught

Will with time fulfill

Its bearing

If we labour with purpose true

Someday we may hear them saying

‘This is what my mom would do’

© Janet Martin

Let's Enjoy What We Have...

 February, it seems now, was a blur of babies-birds-blooms-books-baking beauty!

...though at the time it seemed like a lot of messes and modest busyness:)

Let’s enjoy what we have while we have it

For time’s surefire undertow

Draws its ‘before’ into ‘after’

And its ‘hold’ to ‘letting go’

Let’s enjoy what we have while we have it

Time is neither friend nor foe

Bastion of both tears and laughter

…after 'hold' comes 'letting go'

Let’s enjoy what we have while we have it

Lest tomorrow we regret

Missing what Today once offered

Before ‘After' sealed its Let

Let’s enjoy what we have while we have it

Live and love full-well because

Soon, no matter what Now’s grant is

It slips to a world that was

Let's enjoy what we have while we have it

Life's 'Best Ever' wears a veil

Soft and slow its threads unravel 

To reveal Bygone's regale

© Janet Martin