Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Of Wizened Ways...and Innocence

 

"I love it!' squealed the Little One
as she delighted in our weedy, flowery lawn...


...where, pray we never get too 'wise'
To see the world through little eyes
Or ever get too old to reach
For lessons only children teach...



We rise and take our place once more
Where morning breaks and seasons pour
The ink of poetry and such
Before our eyes, beneath our touch

…to steal our breath and test faith’s ‘yes’
Of heartache riddled happiness
Where 'nothing new under the sun'
Vexes a new generation

…and stuns us with the wizened way
Of whispers weaving yesterday
Of cares and prayers oft intertwined
Of ultimatums, God-designed

…where, by the granting of His grace
In the crook of mercy’s embrace
We take our place to do our bit
To honor the Giver of it

…where morning breaks through darksome bars
And rends night’s noose dazzled with stars
The heavens like a bud that spills
A garden above fields and hills

…where innocence and Wizened Way
Compose a baffling interplay
Where roles of teacher-student switch
Until we don’t know which is which

...where, pray we never get too 'wise/wizened'
To see the world through little eyes
Or ever get too old to reach
For lessons only children teach  


© Janet Martin

a little like a bud that spills...



a garden above fields and hills...



Psalm 100:2-5

Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.




Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Bitty Worship Ditty

 




How grand to stand and gaze firsthand upon a land washed clean
Lackluster lea and tree reclad in filigree of green
How lovely to drink in the view renewed by hues, God-spun
And worship He whose majesty will never be outdone

© Janet Martin

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, 
to receive glory and honor and power, 
for you created all things, 
and by your will they existed and were created.”



Bitty ditty today because to-do list keeps growing...
May has the most time-sensitive task list of all the months, I think!
...and i didn't put 'snuggle new baby' on the list because that's not a task😍💖






Monday, May 16, 2022

Earth's Exhibition of Glimpses...


Hate, war, sickness, sorrow,
greed, pain, apathy,
hearts hardened against God,
could destroy all hope of  present joy
but for the hope of the home of the soul
and the greatness of He within we who believe
so much greater than he that is in the world!

We cherish each gift of present joy
(like a foreshadowing of eternal joy)
 to balance love's ever-present sorrow)


My daughter just sent me the above photo of big brother's
good morning kisses to baby brother.
(and I weep as I pray for the families afflicted by war)

Earth's beauty (be it babies, birds or blooms)
 without Heaven's hope is futile.

Birds continue to delight...today,
a very rare and special visitor, a bluebird/indigo bunting? 

...and goldfinch


...and our resident downy or hairy woodpecker (absent for a while)

we are still thrilling to see the orioles
(sometimes our place seems to just be a pitstop on their way)



and a mediocre shot of a rose-breasted grosbeak
who eats his supper each evening around the same time we do


Chipping sparrow...


Song Sparrow...

mourning doves...


We rejoice to receive a much-needed rain!




The beauty of the earth exhibits Heaven’s Majesty
The work and word of God is man’s Supreme Authority
Nothing exists but what His favor fashions and allows
Surely at the sheer thought of this our haughty boasting bows

…Faith looks toward a rich reward beyond kingdoms of dust
Bestowed by He who shed His crown and gave His life for us
And wove Redemption’s royal robes with love’s bloodstreams outpoured
Not from goats, rams and bullocks but from Jesus Christ our Lord

There is no common cure for hearts hardened against God’s grace
Against the loving kindness of Jesus who took our place
Though sinless, to become sin’s sacrifice once and for all
The King of kings shed His own blood; no common animal

Sweet consolation for life’s tribulation, who could find
Without the goodness of God who is faithful, just and kind
Without hearts softened as belief begets wonder and joy
Without His promises that no enemy can destroy

Each desperate heart-cry would be too much to bear, but for
Faith’s hope, after salvation opens eyes to so much more
Where earth’s beauty exhibits but a small glimpse of the whole
As we press on until we see the Saviour of the soul

...until we behold He who held us through the storm and strife
Until once and forevermore we pass through death to life
Until The One to whom we pray and pray and pray and pray
Unveils His face, where, by His grace, all tears are wiped away 


© Janet Martin

Heb.4:11-13
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, 
so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 
13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; 
everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him 
to whom we must give account.…





  

Saturday, May 14, 2022

May Morning Masterpiece...

Earth throbs with God's poetry on this mint-tinted May morning...






A quiet color riot flaunts
May morning’s mint-kissed ambiance
A sacred glimpse of paradise
Unfolds its hints before our eyes
Where perfect pleasure has begun
To spill earth’s treasure, flower-spun
Where song sparrow lilts rippling lays
To He who grants spring’s glory day
Where frond of fresh foliage imparts
A pink pendant of bleeding hearts
Where green in multi-splendored swells
Immerses hills, trees, fields and dells
Where we are like surfers astride
The virgin wave of morning-tide
Where we should never take in vain
This day that will not pass again
But let the heart that we lift up
Be tender as a tulip-cup
And let love’s calls of duty brim
With joy for the beauty of Him
Who fills the barrenness of earth
With May morn’s masterpiece of birth

© Janet Martin

All things were made by him; 
and without him was not any thing made that was made.





 


Thursday, May 12, 2022

Where May Runs Footloose...

So much to inspire this little tribute to May
and childhood...

The first two lines of this poem were birthed here, yesterday
while on a little brook-bank picnic with Granddaughter and daughter...
While half-leaf tree limbs splashed a shawl of shadow-holes over us.




So little left wanting where brook-babble gleams
With nothing but nature to nurture daydreams
Listening to lyrics no pencil can trace
Sprawled on a shadow-shawl of first-leaf lace
Watching the mantle return to the wood
Gently relearning the joy of childhood

So little left needing where May-breezes strum
The pulses of earth where all birth burgeons from
...thrum of an orchestra's ballad imparts
Green-gilded gladness that streams through our hearts
Seed that soon spills into tassels of corn
Dapples the hills of a landscape reborn 

So little left slighted where May runs footloose 
 Each tree like a taper of gold and chartreuse 
Each dell like a marvelous medley of hymns
Where the bare branch blossoms and the bud brims
Annual Genesis, granting a glimpse
Of Eden's garden and love's innocence  

© Janet Martin


Annual Genesis, granting a glimpse
Of Eden's garden and love's innocence...

"M-m-m! I eat it" said two year old when I told her Janet
is planting Candy onions...



 So little left slighted where May runs footloose 
 Each tree like a taper of gold and chartreuse ...



On this weekend's to-do list-- dusting😐

Seeds that soon spill into tassels of corn
Dapples the hill of a landscape reborn ...



Beyond Compare...


We are delighted and grateful beyond words to celebrate the birth of
a new baby brother for Big Brother and Sister!
Thanking God for the safe arrival of another grandson
yesterday morning...tipping the scales at 9lbs. 10 oz.!!
Mother and Baby are doing fine!

 

Of all the lovely blessings that this life allots, I think
The kind that comes all soft and squirmy, sweet, precious and pink
With button nose and hands and toes so perfect and so small
Must be life’s most sacred and beautiful blessing of all

Of all the beauties to behold one cannot be outdone
The miracle of Baby is beyond comparison
Love overflows the heart in utter thankfulness and joy
For this gift only God can give; a baby girl or boy

The heart becomes a wellspring where sweet wonder overflows
Into our softest kisses and the gentlest hands earth knows
As arms turn into cradles and gratitude into prayer
Because a baby is a miracle beyond compare

© Janet Martin

Beaming with Big-brotherly joy.



I had the pleasure of telling them the news yesterday morning
as well as sharing their first glimpses of him last night...
which tripled the joy💖

First glimpses...
(I couldn't keep up with them as they leaped from the car
and bolted to the house leaving the front door wide open behind them
and this is how I found them)


Psalm 139:14
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
 Marvelous are Your works, 
And that my soul knows very well.

Monday, May 9, 2022

Wonder-joy or Joy-wonder...

This poem was sparked by the caption above the first photo from Saturday's post.

Thank God for joy's wonder in life's changeless things
like laughter and love as a child's childhood wings...

(*grandkiddos tucked in with 'great-gramma quilts'
Quilts/comforters made by my mom)
They both graduated to bigger beds and new blankets last week because
we are waiting for new sibling to arrive!!!



This poem is a thankful medley of corralled recent joys...

Thank God for joy's wonder in life's changeless things
Like love’s many splendors as Child's childhood wings
...like bedtime sunshine from radiant smiles spilt
As youngsters are tucked beneath *'great-gramma-quilts'/warm handmade quilts
For four-season favour’s tender metaphors
For sweet satisfaction from completed chores
For spring gardens not pestilence-riddled yet
For doors flung and fettered by sunrise and set
For floors freshly polished with pastures of green
For hello, farewell and love’s points in between
For each ‘what’s for supper’s’ God-granted reply
From panful to plateful to stomach-full sigh
For hugs, hearty handshakes and ‘long-time-no-sees’
That turn, in a twinkle, to fond memories
For mischievous puppies and children to scold
For babies and bouquets and bushels to hold
For tables to gather around, for a chair
High on a hilltop, with wind tousling our hair
For spring birds returning after winter spent
For blue heavens crowning earth’s dust-covenant
Of seedtime and harvest, cold, heat, night and day
For brook-song that sparkles on its merry away
For each friendly flower that brightens life’s path
Through trouble’s dark hour and its aftermath
For gratitude deepened because of a Cross
For thankfulness sweetened not by gain, but loss
For courage refurbished by kind word or smile
For laughter to lighten the weight/wait of The While
For wishes recanted that never came true
Where God’s mercy granted a wiser ‘thank-you’
For holy appointments like ‘right here, right now’
Of ‘nose to the grindstone’ and ‘hand to the plow’
For life’s simple bests that money cannot buy
…cloud-frigates a-float in an ocean of sky
Orchard-wicks rekindled with pink blossom-frill
Final flurries swindled of bluster and chill
For pleasures made possible because of ink
Like poetry-treasures and good books to drink
Like lingering over a page-stunning tableau
Mesmerized by the sheer surprise of the show
Like finding a friend when we least expect it
So, then we just sit and enjoy for a bit
Before paper-thin farewells, page-turned appease
Dictional echoes and deferred fantasies
As we turn to tangible matters of fact
Like laundry-mountains and dirty dishes stacked
Like love-letters penned by those still near and dear
We thank God for joy’s wonders right now, right here

© Janet Martin

For pleasures made possible because of ink
Like poetry-treasures and good books to drink
Like lingering over a page-stunning tableau...


For spring birds returning after winter spent...

For blue heavens crowning earth’s dust-covenant
Of seedtime and harvest, cold, heat, night and day...