Thursday, May 11, 2017

Counsel for Merchants of Moments or Driver of Dreams





If we leap headlong into choice
Without weighing its gain and cost
How doleful we, in hindsight see
Oft all we have is what we lost

Self can be such a jealous god
A boss that’s never satisfied
Thus, it behooves God's tender truths
To bend these necks of stubborn pride

For in life’s quest to gain and gain
Sometime we lose sight of its Whole
How, in the end, we will contend
With He who gathers back the soul

Be careful then and prayerful too
For merchants one and all are we
This wake and sleep a solemn leap
That trades time for eternity

© Janet Martin

 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mark 8:36

 


Wednesday, May 10, 2017

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



Tuesday, May 9, 2017

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



Monday, May 8, 2017

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