The Naked Truth (about This; Love)

 This thoroughfare offers much to applaud

Free to enjoy, by the grace of God

This thoroughfare of push and shove

Of glittered grit and grin

Of failure’s temporary glove

And triumph’s weathered skin

This constant attempt to succeed

In this most human race

Where we are all creatures of need

Dependent on God’s grace

This place of ‘all-first-timers here’

Learning though our mistakes

Where longing whets the tender tear

And laughter heals its aches

Where all we have can leave a hole

Beyond the reach of Touch

A hunger we cannot console

With food, fortune and such

Where love stripped of pretentious noise

And vain-glorious pride

Stands naked in its tomb of toys

With nothing left to hide

Where all it boasts is not enough

‘til we discover This;

The height of happiness and love

Is found through what one gives

© Janet Martin

 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.  

 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.  

 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  

 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; 

but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Luke 21:1-4

Oh, What A Love

(this song and this video will give you holy-hallelujah thrill-chills!)

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof

Oh what a comfort to know

Whatever happens, His mercy and love

Cradles both wonder and woe

No might or merchant can usurp the One

Who was, Who IS and will be

Heaven and earth rest in ‘His will be done’

Provident Power is He

No creature care is too big or too small

To entrust to love’s scarred Hand

Whether we flourish or whether we fall

He is the One in command

Nothing unseen or mistaken by He

Who has nothing left to prove

Though He is oft misunderstood while we

Lap from His wellspring of love

Circumstance and consequence may afflict

Heartache and hurt test and try

Where footsteps fall in the halls of a gift

The Giver reasons the Why

For, the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof

All they who dwell therein

Comprise His uttermost language of love

Faithful Forgiver of sin

He is the Father who offered His Son

His Most Beloved, to be

The sacrifice for the wrongs we have done

His loss for our Victory

Though He is God since before Time began

He suffered Death, not in vain

We are the Reason His love had a plan

Where Heaven waits to explain

© Janet Martin

Hell's Kitchen

Let’s make temptation

Feel like the right thing

Feather its outcome

With ribbons and string

Let’s make Sin’s poison

Look and taste rather nice

Let’s sweeten death’s symptoms

With sugar and spice

Let’s make the cost of love

Seem much too large

Let’s offer lots of stuff

At no extra charge

Let’s keep the sheep-ple

Distracted until

They find out too late

The full price of the thrill

© Janet Martin

Consider Yourself Warmed, oops, I mean Warned!

The word 'beware' can be replaced with 'be aware' if you prefer!

Beware of the flowers

Noon showers, blue breeze

Of bracken-fringed bowers

Of silver-capped seas

Of wild apple orchards

And autumn-tinged woods

Of moon-dappled gardens

Where willow-wind broods

Beware of green meadows

Of gold-tousled hills

Of twilight’s tall shadows

And midnight’s starred rills

Of ice-cream and daydream

Yes, beware of this

Especially the sunbeam

That feels like a kiss

Beware of the chair

That was not made for two

Beware of the air

Imbibed with dusky dew

Beware of the river

Behind the old church

Beware of the shiver

Of poplar and birch

Beware of the fingers

Strumming strings of grass

The moment that lingers

When it ought to pass

Beware of desire

Beware of the spark

That kindles a fire

Before it is dark

Beware of brook-banter

Of thoroughbred thrills

Of sky-high decanter

That drains as it fills

Pay heed to these warning;

Beware of tick-tocks

They steal mist-mauve mornings

And sunset-bathed docks

Beware of mud-puddles

And most common things

That stirs and befuddles

A world full of kings

Beware of the years, dear

You’ll learn soon enough

That nothing is as it appears

Dearest dears

If you are in love

© Janet Martin

Sheer Wonder of So Much Love

All-in-a-Friday-morning's-musing...

Last night at supper we were discussing something that led to someone saying

how those days back then (of Emily and Melissa living at home)

feel like a dream and suddenly I had to swallow SO hard

to keep from adding extra salt to the soup I was eating...

 Time, what a trickster; turning something totally common into love's tender trophy, even now!

Suddenly I understand the song Row, Row Your Boat a little better...esp. with this video.

As a wife and mother I’ve learned things

 I thought I was incapable of

And would be utterly impossible

 If it wasn’t for so much love

As a wife and mother I carry

A hold beneath ivory-ribbed bars

A vault tattooed and almost buried

With wave upon wave of brave salt-stars

As a wife and mother I’ve tasted

Love’s bitterest gall and sweetest joys

And I’d wonder if it was worth it

But for so many precious girls and boys

As a mother and wife I could be

So sad over so much lost

Until I remember that love always comes

With so much cost

As a wife and mother I know I’d be

A continuous, emotional mess

If it wasn’t for the sheer, dear beauty of

So much happiness

© Janet Martin