Shadow Art...

 

The shadows caught my attention

while I was cooking supper, but

its hard to capture their impact from the front porch!

However, I hope you can sense the halcyon aura! 

The art of shadows cast upon a canvas of day nearly done

Captures our gaze where dusk’s tableau seems just like days from long ago

And we feel like an honoured guest in front row seats all facing west

While to the east the shadows lie like blue-paint steeples run awry

Upon a canvas where the day that casts the shadows fades away

© Janet Martin

By the time supper was over and dishes done

the shadows were gone...

Transformation Process Blessing

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 12:2

'Although this transformation process is ongoing,

often has more stops and starts than a train ride,

the process helps us understand what God wants for our lives.'

Excerpt from today's Daily Bead Devotion; Joyful Learning

The above excerpt made me kinda laugh and cry inwardly, a bit

cause it sure is a jolting stop-and-go journey isn't it?!!

With lots of  ups-a-daisies after stumbles/falls

 to accomplish the transformation, but...

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,

for He who promised is faithful.

Heb.10:23

So to/through the God who cracks the morning sun like a fresh egg...

..into a sky-wide frying pan,

to/through He who knows us inside and out,

and loves us all the more because of it

on we go...

Dear Lord,

With love learned patiently

With grace and gratitude

With kindness and humility

May our minds be renewed

With diligence and joy

With peace and faithfulness

With hope, for nothing can destroy

Your Truth and promises

Through You, Creator of

The heavens and the earth

Through you, who taught us how to love

And offers us rebirth

…as we are washed within

By the blood of Your Son

Then You, if we confess our sin

Forgives them, every one

Through You, faithful and just

With joyful gratitude

As You turn doubt and fear to trust

May our minds be renewed

Amen

© Janet Martin

Most of us bear

some sort of Unspoken Broken

but

"We can still rise in the face of hopelessness —

because we are still held in the arms of God."

From When You Want a Different Timeline&

The Story Is Hard

by Ann Voskamp

Beggar's Legacy

I beg for fresh reason and rhyme

As we weather seasons of time...

I beg, but not for milk or bread

Rather, for ink-drops not yet bled

For panoramic views to spill

To the mind’s eye from fluent quill

To feel you near, though miles apart

Through Poem, dear, to cheer the heart

I beg for fresh reason and rhyme

As we weather seasons of time

For font to translate into word

Wonder; when wont to be deterred

By duty; blinded by its rod

While Beauty brims with hymns to God

For eyes to see and ears to hear

The melody borne on time’s tear

Where the veneer of here and now

Is always on the move somehow

I beg to learn to want for less

And then, in turn find happiness

...to recognize the luxury

Of phrases such as 'you and me'

To view nothing as commonplace

In today's God-made gift of grace

I beg for wishes to be awed

By the kind faithfulness of God

I beg for Brushstrokes of fine art

By He who sees my heart of heart

The Tender and the Terrible

He knows both Bard and Beast full well

Then, lest I be a fickle fool

I beg for faith, not fear to rule

I beg for joy when Circumstance

Changes the tempo of the dance

And all the steps that I rehearsed

Dismissed in light of ‘others first’

I beg for love’s ink to run rife

And pen the poetry of life

© Janet Martin

Psalm 16:11

You will show me the path of life; 

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

 At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 21:4
He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, 

even length of days for ever and ever.

Psalm 17:15
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness:

 I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

September's Remnant or September Leaves

Here's to the last week of September/summer's embers...

This poem is for we who mourn the loss of sun-warm hours and flowers

Yet eagerly await autumn's ambience and Beauty-brilliant bowers

I had to keep reigning this poem in...

It was eager to become a full-fledged fall poem but not yet!

Let's linger on September's remnant, shall we?

Time enough for autumn to have its way...

I couldn't quite decide what picture to use on this post

so it was just waiting, then I went to get the mail

and in the mailbox was a thoughtful surprise

 dropped off by a friend. 

(I partially blotted the name for privacy's sake)

This bundle reminded me that in a sense

 it is always summer in friendship's world💗😎

September’s remnant slips through cracks of summer season shorn

Where garden plot seems to relax, it’s brunt of bearing borne

Where blue jay’s harsh shriek rends the air where purple asters stream

Where poplar fronds begin to flare and pumpkin lanterns gleam

September’s remnant snares where we cannot undo its thread

Earth’s dusty, musky thoroughfares don glints of gold and red

And while we stare at summer spent, we feel it steal within

Where fingers cannot circumvent the tug of buds worn thin

Thought lingers for a little in past’s precious picture-show

Where time turns lush leaves brittle in its subtle undertow

Each treetop like a candle waiting on earth’s window sill

September’s remnant mantle like a fading canticle

Ah, who can bear to mope where hope pitches its sterling tent

September’s remnant gilds the slope where summer came and went

It dapples orchard limbs and lanes with apples, sweet yet tart

As hunger grapples with the pains that farewell’s pangs impart

The wind is like a busker playing saxophone and flute

Its audiences gather beneath lampposts full of fruit

Longing and satisfaction's sabers flash and clash; crowds roar

Caught on the sparkles of a splash that was and is no more

October loiters in yon brake, eager to be unfurled

And turn summer’s lackluster wake into a colour-world

To gather up September’s remnant in jubilant toll

Turning loss to contentment with beauty out of control

As expectation is fulfilled in autumn’s gorgeous show

As goldenrod turns silver-gilt and woodland-torches glow

With autumn’s awesome tinsel, scarlet, auburn, russet, bronze

Happiness finds fresh footholds as September’s remnant wans

© Janet Martin

Ah, who can bear to mope where hope pitches its sterling tent...

To Frame a Memory...

Today is perfect cup-o'-java-joy-bottomless-refill weather!

Part of the reason I spent this morning's hours outdoors 

was the promise of a rain-song afternoon!

I began painting another poem this morning, 

then got distracted by duty and beauty

While along came this poem to

 interrupt the previous one...

'composed' by the last 24 hours of life!

A peek onto a poet's 'colour-palette' 😊

If I could I would frame it;

that moment when she and I

stood spellbound by an egret

beneath autumn's brooding sky

That cozy fall contentment

with a coffee-pot between

That season of enchantment;

as bronze seeped through summer green

That solace of the woodland

and its shadow-dappled path

Its palace built with remnants

of butterfly aftermath

The orchard that not long ago

was wreathed in white and pink

Lanes decked in perfumed petal snow

Where now red apples wink

Dawn, as it drew ajar

windows of opportunity

Dusk, as it pinned a star

on pages of fresh history

September's cinnamon-kissed sweeps

we tasted with our eyes

The playful puppy as it leapt

through laughter's paradise

Saturday pitter-patter fueled

by rain-symphony 

Where ink and order dueled

(they will never quite agree)

My mother in her kerchief, warm

against fall's chill embrace

Love, evoking a perfect storm

*for joys so un-commonplace

Wonder, in all its rapture

never snared by brush or pen

I wish that I could capture it

to touch and taste again

...and then I smile, and then I say

Thank God for poetry

A poem is the perfect way

To frame a memory

Janet Martin

* a mother's kerchief-framed

most-beloved-of-all-faces

is anything but commonplace 

so I edited that sentence💖

Another un-commonplace joy today

is my parent's 58th wedding anniversary!

A Breath-By-Breath Ballad

Do you ever feel it:

The sweeping surge of season-song?!

The merging of moments like music-notes,

composing a breath-stealing ballad?!

The wind has been a rowdy minstrel this week,

raking a reckless, cold, wet bow across barely-Autumn strings.

Last night a hummingbird straggler took advantage of the

break in the 'music' to drink and drink to its bitty-heart's content!!

I could barely keep up with its hither-thither darting...

...a bit like hummingbird hide and seek😅

...and a main reason for planting these Cana lilies

was because they make perfect hummingbird drinking fountains!

Darkness dissolves like a sun-kissed snowflake

Beneath a beacon no bond can restrain

Seasons revolve as night falls and day breaks

Silence births leaf-song then silence again

Grinning and grieving, doubting, believing

Failing, achieving, earning battle-scars

Learning and teaching, yearning and reaching

Orbit of dreams stirs and settles the stars

Then we grow older and lend our shoulders

Like rungs on ladders for youngsters to climb

Heady with hunger and blind to the boulders

Ready to test what no one defeats; Time

Flying and falling, crying and calling

Finally crawling while learning to walk

Knees bruised and bleeding, brashness conceding

No one can hold back the hands of the clock

Autumn is always around summer’s corner

Tugging at strings tied in forget-me-nots

Heart is part dancer and partly mourner

Torn between wanting and what life allots

Laughing and weeping, waking and sleeping

Planting and reaping; some things never change

Giving and taking where living is making

Moment-mementos that moments estrange

Sometimes the soul feels like a glass-splinter

Snags in the skin of that which has no skin

Or is it a sun-sparkle where winter

Is always on the verge of closing in

Ebbing and surging, melting and merging

Dawn’s birthplace burgeoning with dusk and death

Where Time is dwindling, consuming the kindling

Seasons soft-swindling the hearth, breath by breath

Ah, can't you feel it like river-song rushing

Breath-by-breath ballad while we play our part

 In Life's Orchestra, bashful and blushing

Until the melody captures the heart

Reeling and rolling, pealing and tolling

Stealing the feeling of something amiss 

Clashing and blending, splashing and wending

Bending the minstrel of dust with God's kiss 

 

© Janet Martin

Acknowledgement of Fall's Wild and Wet Debut

The first day of fall flew through floodgates flung wide...

The second day is offering a brief breather before round two...

Fall flew through floodgates flung ajar

It flailed the crinkled countryside

And wailed at every bolstered door

That just the day before stood wide

Fall’s entrance drenched earth’s sanguine bars

September’s summer embers doused

No quixotic, poetic stars

In sighs by blue-eyed skies aroused

Fall roared like an enraged tigress  

Or like a savage beast set free

It tore at nature’s tousled tress

With tireless ferocity

Fall made its entrance, wet and wild

As if somehow a mild debut

Of sun-kisses on summer’s child

Would have been far too Déjà vu

© Janet Martin

Because We Are So Loved...

Though freedom and prosperity seem destined for disaster,

we in North America are still ever-so-richly blessed by both!

Then, why do we bicker so? 

Why do we complain?

Is it because we overlook 

the Love that should sustain

From He who gave His Son to save 

our souls from hell's eternal grave?!

Can I hear a hallelujah?!

Endless Hallelujah Matt Redman

Because we are so loved we ought to dearly love our fellowman

Jesus, our great Example proved and taught love's perfect Master Plan

With humble heart that glows with joy to be the servant of a King

As with the gifts that grace deploys, we honour Him in everything

Because we are so loved in spite of less than faithful gratitude

God, rich in mercy, melts the night; His compassion kindly renewed

Then it behooves us to be kind; not blind to one another’s need

Lest His goodness is undermined as we serve gods of lust and greed

Because we are so loved we do not need to wallow in dread’s fear

The patina that gilds the view is but façade’s shallow veneer

No height nor depth, nor life nor death, nor other power can prevail

To separate us from the love God promises will never fail

Then, because God so loves the world (He gave His Son to pay our debt)

We ought to live with fist uncurled, ready to forgive and forget

To frolic like a well-fed calf, to till the soil of soul and sod

With hope; to work, pray, sing and laugh because we are so loved by God

© Janet Martin

Malachi 4:2 NIV

But for you who revere my name, 

the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. 

And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution 

or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 

 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]

 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

  For I am convinced that neither death nor life,

 neither angels nor demons,[k] 

neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 

 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, 

will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.