Friday, May 3, 2019

May's Paint Brush

This poet optimistically believes warm weather is on the way for Canadians too!

Some shots from last May... 
(I tried for a few hours to add a few more photos but the internet simply does not stay connected!!)
Why does that happen after a year+ of uninterrupted service?
There was nothing to fix or adjust here.
It looks like shopping for a new internet provider is the next hassle
+ dealing with the grubs that are feeding the skunks that are chewing up the lawn + getting our yard cleaned up and reseeded after all the winter digging due to flooding problems + OH! Right...
I'm talking about beautiful May in this poem;-)




The brush of May spills plushest pink
And lushest sweeps of green
Beneath the biggest bluest blink
That Time has ever seen

The aftermath of winter weaves
A crown of purest form
With flower-stars and froth of leaves
That takes the world by storm

While we, cold-weary, soak our smiles
In sunshine’s yellow sea
Where Beauty all around beguiles
Our gaze with poetry

For we have crossed the frosted fields
And snow-tossed mains of mud
Where (just as promised) waiting yields
The wonderment of bud

And we, winter’s forgivers now
Are glad to be a part
Of nature’s finest picture-show
In springtime’s world of art

© Janet Martin

Learning's Work of Art (Version 1&2)


 Every so often I'm struck anew by the one thing we all have deeply in common;
our need for God's grace, and through that, more patience with each other!
. We are all broken, still-learning students!


(sorry, no photos)
internet is still not working well!


Version #1

Ah, Time plays tricks, it seems, and eases us from who we were
Whilst testing touch with lessons we are not quite ready for
Where the bare facts of yearning meet with human hand and heart
Shaping time’s no returning into Learning’s works of art

How readily the rush of moments runs through sound and sight
Each morning’s new how-do-you-do soon turns into good-night
As pomp and show of what we know (or thought we did) aha
Keeps students of life on their toes while subject to Time’s law

Then pray for love, the fool-proof, full proof of God’s Light/might within
To steer Thought’s powerhouse, the rudder for man’s flint of skin
Where Choice molds clay of day-to-day and yea-and-nay into
The life we live and leave behind when daily-grind is through

...where given Time enough we sift through shards of having held
Where felled castles of past’s postcards and hard mistakes, soft-meld
With happiness, that we confess, is not a Thing we clutch
But a heart full of thankfulness in spite of ‘such-and-such’

Ah, who can bear to shoulder care without the love of God
To fill this glove of flesh and blood and Soul and leave us awed
With the sacred awareness, that for all we should’ve/could’ve done
Grace rewards us with hope through love’s free gift; God’s only Son

Thus, all the ‘tricks’ that Time may play will never be enough
To steal the joy of life away; nothing can out-fox love
For love is kind and patient, not self-seeking, greedy, proud
Then, when we learn this Work of Heart it makes us laugh out loud

…and live without the fear of what-if’s weight to paralyze
…and give without the leer of greed to shackle us with lies
…and sing without a Thing to hold us back because we’ve learned
God’s Love, from the beginning is a gift no one has earned

© Janet Martin

 (version #2; order of stanzas reversed)


…then, live without the fear of what-if’s weight to paralyze
…and give without the leer of greed to shackle us with lies
…and sing without a Thing to hold us back because we’ve learned
God’s Love, from the beginning is a gift no one has earned

Thus, all the ‘tricks’ that Time may play will never be enough
To steal the joy of life away; nothing can out-fox love
For love is kind and patient, not self-seeking, greedy, proud
Then, when we learn this Work of Heart it makes us laugh out loud
 
Ah, who can bear to shoulder care without the love of God
To fill this glove of flesh and blood and Soul and leave us awed
With the sacred awareness, that for all we should’ve/could’ve done
Grace rewards us with hope through love’s free gift; God’s only Son

...where given Time enough we sift through shards of having held
Where felled castles of past’s postcards and hard mistakes, soft-meld
With happiness, that we confess, is not a Thing we clutch
But a heart full of thankfulness in spite of ‘such-and-such’

Then pray for love, the fool-proof, full proof of God’s Light/might within
To steer Thought’s powerhouse, the rudder for man’s flint of skin
Where Choice molds clay of day-to-day and yea-and-nay into
The life we live and leave behind when daily-grind is through

How readily the rush of moments runs through sound and sight
Each morning’s new how-do-you-do soon turns into good-night
As pomp and show of what we know (or thought we did) aha
Keeps students of life on their toes while subject to Time’s law

Ah, Time plays tricks, it seems, and eases us from who we were
Whilst testing touch with lessons we are not quite ready for
Where the bare facts of yearning meet with human hand and heart
Shaping time’s no returning into Learning’s works of art

 © Janet Martin


Ah, April


Sorry for the unplanned hiatus!
Our internet is  'half' back.

It's blinking on and off while I'm trying to post this 
so if silence returns to the Porch that's why...
Here is a poem I wrote to bid April farewell




Ah, when we met you wore a threadbare robe of russet-gray
Now, when we part, your garb of green nigh-steals my breath away
Somewhere, my dear, between hello and farewell’s beating wing
You broke the seal that held at bay the bud bursting with spring

Ah, you were such a weather-beaten beggar when you came
Now heads are turning, hearts are burning with hope’s flower-fame
Ah, April, seems that you deserve more credit than you get
Where your ground-breaking, soul-awakening is wild and wet

Ah, artist’s overlook you in their ‘Magnus Opus’ Quest
But there is something about you that outshines all the rest
Where, dressed in modest Duty, kind, you tend to nature’s tasks
Showcasing spring’s stark Beauty before blossom breaks bud’s flasks

Ah, April, you’re a looker, in case no one tells you so
I fall in love with you and could not bear to see you go
Save for the flora-bundance poised like joy-banners unfurled
Because of you, the trail-blazer to every summer’s world

© Janet Martin



Sunday, April 28, 2019

For Faith's Fortune-Seekers




Before us, to The Prize, unclaimed
Faith fixes humble eyes
Where Hope will never make ashamed
And God’s Truth never lies

The barrier twixt here and there
Is not an easy climb
Where warriors don Word and prayer
To carry them through Time

Because the fortunes that we see
Are nothing more than dust
And loving it is enmity
To God, in whom we trust

Who was before the world began
Who evermore will be
Who fathered mercy’s precious plan
For lost humanity

Then Lord, forbid that we forget
But rather, fix our eyes
Upon the Everlasting Yet
Of love’s eternal Prize

© Janet Martin

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy
and thieves break in and steal.
but rather, lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven
where neither moth or rust destroys and where
thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure,
there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:19-21



Saturday, April 27, 2019

The 'Wait' Weight

Grand-daughter is already 4 weeks old, 
while a month ago we were anxiously/eagerly waiting to meet her!

(some small endearments...one dimple in her right cheek 
and she only wrinkles the left side of her forehead, 
and she LOVES being rocked!)


Right now, in this province, waiting for spring is everyone's common ground!


On a personal note I'm still waiting for someone to fix our internet issues.
It flicks on for a minute then it's gone and I have to wait for it to reboot
(or whatever it does.)
I have re-discovered a whole new-old way of life this week...
 a paper dictionary,
... a cook-book,
 work-out DVDs,
...no weather-forecast updates
... a telephone! (can sometimes see my e-mails but can't reply!)
...and last but not least, a record-player 
since we have no working cd or cassette player...
(or no music which means listening to my rusty singing voice :-/



‘Wait’ is a weight that can wear patience thin
‘Wait’ means the gate is still barred
‘Wait’ tries the trust we must muster within
‘Wait’ even when it is hard

‘Wait’ wafts in whispers of worlds held at bay
‘Wait’ is the bud full of flow’r
‘Wait’ is a word that teaches us to pray
‘Wait’ is a long-winded hour

‘Wait’ tests the will of the woman, man, child
‘Wait’ is not ‘yes, dear' or ‘nope’
‘Wait’ is an order that can drive us wild
‘Wait’ is the foothold of hope

‘Wait’ is the prelude to ‘if’, ‘then’ and ‘when’
‘Wait’ for the good of the ‘want’
‘Wait’ is the ship that has still not come in
‘Wait’ is an internal taunt

‘Wait’ is the lad wishing to be six
‘Wait’ is the babe before birth
‘Wait’ is a sleeve full of endless tricks
‘Wait’ is the way of this earth

© Janet Martin

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart:
wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalm 27:14