Monday, October 19, 2020

Deep-into-October Tableau or October on a Blue-gray Afternoon

 

Written in honour of this brooding, blue-gray deep-into-October afternoon







The garden has yielded its final gem 
The tree relinquishes its diadem 
The field is shorn where corn and barley gleamed 
Like gold and silver lakes as sunshine streamed 
Through a flue, gold and blue to mist-kissed piers 
The lily-dappled mead has shed its tears 
And summer like a picnic counterpane 
Is shaken out and folded up again 

The flower wonderland I dearly prized 
Where I would linger, petal-mesmerized 
Is stark and still, its thrill of grandeur spent 
Reminding me that all we have is lent 
The decanter of warmer days is drained 
The cricket melody gradually waned 
Until even the scattered cadence thinned 
And all I hear now is the brooding wind 

The chubby junco bobs among the leaves 
Quite unaware that these are autumn’s sheaves 
I wander without reason through bloom's wake 
How can such sweetness rouse such a raw ache 
Where fallow turns to furrow ‘neath the plow 
Where all we ever have is here and now 
Where we are torn between sorrow and awe 
Where earth seems so at peace with Nature’s Law 

October on a blue-gray afternoon 
Is like a bit of heaven gone too soon 
Each tree crowned in a halo, russet-bronze 
That drips and slips until the big sky yawns 
Through branches stark-naked and bold 
Etched in gnarled splendor for all to behold 
And a rush, sort of like a sudden sea 
Surges through us in spellbound sympathy 

I take my tea outside to watch the show 
The slow unraveling of red-yellow 
While dusk drops deep blue tints above yon hill 
A hint of woodsmoke wafts upon the chill 
And I am fully glad and sad at once 
Where October is a flickering sconce 
Set like a centerpiece on a buffet 
Of colour turning burnished brown and gray 

© Janet Martin 






Resounding Praise for Abounding Love

Psalm 103:1
The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 
he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 130:3-4
If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.



May our outlook always be an up-look!
The scenery changes with the season...




but never the Reason of hope!


The valley of reflection can feel cold and dark and wet 
It steals the light of laughter if we linger there too long 
The weight of condemnation can crush us with sad regret 
If we forget that God forgives and helps us carry on 

This is the day that He has made to look ahead, not back 
To walk upon the stepping-stones we stumbled on before 
To be aware of what we have in spite of all we lack 
God’s grace always sufficient for whatever lies in store 

Futile to dwell where we can never alter what is done 
Better to focus on the mercy of this present morn 
For He forgives the sinner through the merit of his Son 
As far as east is from the west, man’s transgression is borne 

Then when the deceiver attempts to drag us to a pit 
Of doubt and dark despair remember He who loves us so 
His kindness and compassion do not recount our debt 
But only sees the perfect grace He grants whereby we go 

His love abounds and metes the grounds for peace and happiness 
If we ask he will give and if we seek him we will find 
He is faithful and just and forgives us if we confess 
Then pray we live to love him with heart, soul and strength and mind 

For HE IS, WAS and WILL BE faithful, changeless, GREAT I AM
Ah, what is man that God is mindful of mortal at all
And yet for man He gave His Son to be the slaughtered Lamb
And save all who believe from that which sin conceived; the fall

Therefore no valley of despair is deep or dark enough
To hide us from the One who sees exactly where we are
For nothing can separate us from His abounding love
Ah, look! the hand that holds us bears love's signature, a scar

© Janet Martin

Thy-Way or My-Way Highway





How easy it is fall from Sunday morning's pew-secure 'Thy-Way, Lord
to Monday morning's My-way Highway😐

and the past few devotions
...are part of the inspiration for this poem

Holy and wholly Thine 
Lord, teach us how to pray 
Thy kingdom come 
Thy will be done 
Thou Potter, I, the clay 

Except the kernel falls 
Into the ground and dies 
It cannot yield 
The goodly field 
That broken seed supplies 

The hardest death we die 
Is veiled in life's façade
As we resign 
The will of ‘mine’ 
To ‘Thine alone, Oh God’ 

Aha, tis not the gift 
That anchors and assures 
But mortal lives 
Through He who gives 
And only death/faith secures 

How easily we fall 
Not to the ground to die 
But to the taunts 
Of selfish wants 
And mistrust’s crafty lie 

Holy and wholly Thine 
No lesser pleas avail 
Thy kingdom come 
Thy will be done 
All else is but to fail 

© Janet Martin 

Thy kingdom come, 
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Matt 6:10

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Noteworthy Reminders...

 






The trouble man is born to pours out heartache, pain and fear 
The battle against odds that seem stacked against sweet success 
Would cause us to despair and be robbed of all happiness 
Be of good cheer; we who believe know One that does not fail 
Do not despair though tribulation multiplies it sum 
These are the things He told to us that He has overcome 
According to God’s riches He will satisfy our need 
And when we start to see the signs that fill our hearts with fear 

© Janet Martin 

1 Cor.1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, 
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.



Saturday, October 17, 2020

Comforted With Leaves









The dirt road winds its luring form


...through summers in our sighs

The dirt road winds its luring form through summers in our sighs 
Where autumn rain has calmed its storm of dust and butterflies 
The hazy, lazy melodies that ruffled leafy arc 
Surrenders summer’s symphonies like teardrops in the dark 
As purple aster stars are snuffed like sparks that climb the air 
And harvest is hope’s homage plucked and shucked with grateful prayer 

The lark has fled to kinder climes; the lily of the field 
No longer tolls with fragrant chimes to souls learning to yield 
To time’s insistent metronome of tick by tock tirade 
Where winds rip like a steel-tooth comb through woodland’s serenade 
And milkweed pods like plump professors dressed in proper best 
Are primed for the potation that will pop their velvet vests
 
...to empty out its lining in silk parachutes, seed-sized 
To waft above the shining countryside, frost-fossilized 
And we are not so sorry now to see the summer fade 
Seduced by nature’s know-how in October’s yellow glade 
Where autumn’s climax is a-flutter with color’s collage 
Before it gilds gardens and gutters in leaf-decoupage
 
And so, we let our summer hearts be comforted with leaves 
And hills bedecked with stellar art no earth-artist achieves 
And so, we let October-awe heal wounds left by a blade 
Wielded by the orthodox law of tick-tock promenade 
That marches through our inmost parts, where if one loves one grieves
And so we let our summer hearts be comforted with leaves

© Janet Martin 


...the purple aster-stars are snuffed



Friday, October 16, 2020

Poem-Contemplations/Compilations From My Little Corner of Countryside







I love the way the seasons play upon the harps of countryside 
Their melody of majesty spills from plucked earth-strings far and wide 
I love how no one gets enough of what One greater than us grants 
Ah, don’t it make us wanna sing and don’t it make our heart-feet dance 
And don’t it wake a mystic ache as we partake of Beauty’s let
To trust the Hand that fills the land with such a gorgeous pirouette 

© Janet Martin 


I Want to Want… 

I want, not green-eyed envy when someone seems to collect 
With ease my dreams and fantasies I have not tasted yet 
I want to want unjealous joy 
And not let green-eyed mon destroy 
The happiness that waits for me in love’s kind-mind humility 

© Janet Martin 

In Plain Sight 

Be not deceived; God sees the heart 
Where our true passion lies 
He is not taken by the art 
Of winking, batted eyes 
But ever He seeketh to find 
In both aged and youth 
Worship that is humble and kind 
In spirit and in truth 

© Janet Martin 


Whether-challenge 

Whether our corner is noisy or quiet 
A color-riot or somber and plain 
Whether we borrow or whether we buy it 
Whether the weather is sunshine or rain 
Whether we ramble or rush with intention 
Push through the bramble or sail the high sea 
Whether we worry or wait without hurry 
Whatever else our whether may be 
God is the Giver of all that we savour 
Whether we consider Him, or not 
So thus, it behooves us if pray, He so moves us 
To give to the Giver the best we have got 

© Janet Martin 



Subtle Shuttle 

My, my, the metronome of moments 
Moves with smoothest ease 
It gathers both highlights and low blows 
Into memories 

My, my, time’s loom in us is subtle 
Where a shuttle whirs 
Weaving breath by breath a luminous 
Heath of lost summers 

© Janet Martin 


From the premonition of perhaps 
A sharp-edged awareness is born 
As we honestly admit our utter dependence 
On He who orchestrates the morn 

From the premonition of perhaps 
A world of fear or faith unfolds 
It all depends upon the vantage-point 
And the hand to which one holds 

© Janet Martin 

The Poet/Poem's Charge


An unexpected day off means unexpected extra-poem time! 
Between more mundane mandates, of course 😀





But writing poetry is far more than easy, breezy rhyme time!!


The poet’s task 
Pours from a flask 
That holds a large 
Charter of Trust 
Thus, if we drink 
This sacred ink 
We bear a charge 
Most serious 

For poetry 
It seems to me 
Is more than mere 
Rhythm and rhyme 
It is the ilk 
Of malt and milk 
Poured through the sphere 
Of thought and time 

…for beck and call 
Of madrigal 
is more than paint 
With verbal laud 
A poem is 
A kind of kiss 
To reacquaint 
The heart with God 

© Janet Martin 

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, [do] 
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, 
do all to the glory of God.

 - 
In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: 
in doctrine [shewing] uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,



love this song and this version!

Then Ships Ahoy And On We Sail...





This sea upon which we set sail 
Where thick of night is a black veil 
Until white, fading stars exhale 
To fill the mast of morn with day... 








This sea upon which we set sail 
Where thick of night is a black veil 
Until white, fading stars exhale 
To fill the mast of morn with day 
Is glossed with frost in autumn-tide 
Is tossed with waves of want-fear-pride 
Where drops of moment-measure hide 
What waits to test the vessel’s sway 

This surge of highways, hills and trees 
Composes a landscape of seas 
-ons juxtaposed with jeopardies 
Of treachery, hunger and woe 
But we of the household of faith 
Are not doomed to death's dreaded fate
Christ anchors hope beneath the spate 
Of deadly current’s undertow 

Then ships ahoy and on we sail 
Buoyed by joy that will not fail 
Mercy deploys both calm and gale 
With loving kindness, full and free 
Then to the drifting dory call 
Caution the careless, reckless yawl 
Lest by some sudden 'weather-brawl'
They fall into eternity 

© Janet Martin 

God's Infallible Purpose in Christ

Hebrews 6:13-20
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the [f]immutability of His counsel, [g]confirmed it by an oath, 18that by two [h]immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we [i]might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.