Better Together...

 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 

Gal.6:2

Let’s share and bear together

For living’s gray-gold blends

Are easier to weather

And celebrate, with friends

Forbid any should suffer

Or rejoice all alone

But let love’s beauty buffer

Each other’s grin or groan

We all slip, trip and stumble

And sometimes need a hand

To keep us kindly humble

And help each other stand

© Janet Martin

May Melody...

Sweet, sweet darling days of May

Youth has crowned earth’s ancient heath

Hope abounds above, beneath

Where brown, barrenness gives way

To first, fairest greens, hurray

Grave of winter births its wreath

Soft, soft seraphim of May

Where the air is primed with hymn

Bird and zephyr-cherubim

Praise the Lord with lilting lay

Memories of gray days dim

On earth’s bud-bejeweled tray

Glad, glad golden gates of May

Flinging blue-skied ballrooms wide

Life is like a blushing bride

On her happy wedding day

Where guests fill the countryside

Waiting to catch her bouquet

© Janet Martin

The Love-language of Mothers

( Well, this mother is off to clean up some 'common cradles;-)

The love-language of mothers to others may seem quite plain

Yet, if she tried she would find it so complex to explain

How in numberless tasks poured from the flask of motherhood

She cradles common cares with care and whispers ‘it is good’

...how her love is far more than hug-and-kiss or gifted things

The cost of it her utter self, entangled in heart-strings

How she has learned and ever learns the painfulness of joy

As she with earnest vigil tends the needs of girl and boy

…how her love clings to humble trust, praying that God provides

Through daily grace, wisdom and strength for what each day betides

How, mixed with mundane spills is sacred tilling of soul-sod

How motherhood mirrors a love-language written by God

How, sometimes she will linger touching garments they’ve out-grown

And she will trace her fingers over places they’ve out-flown

How then, with kinder reverence she embraces Today

Her love-language insisting that she learns new words to say

© Janet Martin

Juxtaposition

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

Song of Solomon 2:11

Celebrating sunshine today after a cold stretch of rain-rain-rain,

meaning it will be days before we can do more than think about planting!

We live twixt After and Before

Today hinged between Future-Past

Where none return to touch once more

A moment when its ilk is cast

Surrender is a tender sword

How hard the soft slip of time twists

Hellos into heart-banners blurred

Like landscapes swathed in summer mists

And we, subjects of creature-choice

Have no choice but to bear the tide

That courses though us without voice

And leaves us on the other side

(Last two stanzas optional)

…of Nevermore where days of yore

With constant replenishment keep

Our senses keened to where Before

Turns into After while we sleep

Futile to beguile Master Clock

Or fret for fragments scattered where

The aftermath of tick and tock

Drifts through thought-scapes of painted stare

© Janet Martin

Hope in God's Forgiving Love

Oh God, those things we think we need

But course of consequence withholds

Though often bowed with grief we plead

As aftermath of choice unfolds

Oh God, the rod of consequence

Though justified, and fully earned

Depends on mercy’s Providence

To meekly bear its lessons learned

Pride goes before destruction, oh

And haughtiness precedes a fall

Oh God, still, by your grace we go

Obedient to servant's call

Forgiveness redeems us from sin

But consequence of it remains

To teach this sorrow-skiff of skin

How faithfully our God sustains

© Janet Martin

 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD.

      Lord, hear my voice!
            Let Your ears be attentive
            To the voice of my supplications.

      If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,
            O Lord, who could stand?

      But there is forgiveness with You,
            That You may be feared.

      I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait,
            And in His word do I hope.

Psalm 130:1-5