Tonight Is Beautiful

I do not know
What my life has in store
But tonight is beautiful
I need nothing more
The cricket sings
The soft breeze sighs
Beneath the sheen
Of starlit skies
The air is smooth
As summer wine
No whisper moves
The stalwart pine
And now the cricket
Choirs cease
Enthralled perhaps
By perfect peace
I do not know
What comes tomorrow
But tonight is beautiful
I will not borrow
The shadow of
The great unknown
Tonight is beautiful
God on His throne

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Janet Martin

Those Buried Dreams....

They call for me
Those buried dreams
With muffled sigh
Across the sea
Today it seems
I hear their cry

Their memory spills
In misty dew
Upon the grass
The distant hills
Serene and blue
Whisper as I pass….

They call for me
With disregard
To my binding duty
I am not free
The dream is marred
It has lost its beauty

The colors swirl
Muted and vague
A powerless mist
For the girl
Of yesterday
Does not exist


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Janet Martin

Now.....

I see it now….
The ebb and flow
Of life and love
And now I know
As I walk past
The youthful tide
This life is but
A short sweet ride
A nameless sorrow
Fills my soul
As I see
The swift years roll
Though I know
I have been blessed
To clasp within
My arms life’s best
I will not cling
To wanton tears
Too little the day
To short the years
Oh how fickle
Is youths distraction
For now I see
A fair attraction
In the murmur
Of the breeze
Blowing o’er
Time’s shifting seas
Mirroring here
And there a glance
Of a brief
And fairer dance
Love cannot
Contain the power
To retain
One precious hour
As it softly
Slips away
To deep graves where
Its comrades lay
I see it now
This river of life
Will ever flow
With joy and strife
With human thirst
And endless dreams
That soon lay buried
In its streams
The fire coursing
Through youths breast
Too soon confronts
Life’s futile quest
For none can carry
‘Cross death’s sea
Any thing
To eternity
I see it now
Life is in vain
There is nothing
Man can attain
But to know
One precious truth
A Living Hope
For old or youth
Life is a chasing
After the wind
A futile course
Of blind leading blind
Until we lift
Our eyes to see
The glorious gift
For you and me
The only hope
Beyond this sod
Eternal life
Through the Son of God

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Janet Martin


It’s raining……….
A soft, comforting summer rain….
But it makes me insanely sentimental.
OR….I have been reading in
Ecclesiastes too much in these last few days!!!
WHAT A BOOK!!!

Summer's Tears

What comfort I find in summer’s tears
Falling from a window of countless years
I love her sunshine but now and again
I need the kiss of a warm summer rain

The wind-tossed maples laugh, as I
Reaching for the weeping sky
What sweet music to my ear
In the rhythm of summer’s tear

Tempo soft, now more intense
Pouring from her vast expanse
In dotted eighth notes,effortlessly
Passing through every barrier in me

And then…..a hallowed solitude
The tears have passed, earth lies subdued
As I hear the great Director say
Tears will come, and then pass away

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Janet Martin



Her face turned from tears to laughter in mere minutes......

Soul-mates of a New Kind.....

Comrades of like mind
Soul-mates of a new kind
Oft I would linger with you
While the finger of mist and dew
Brushes the roses on the arbor
Lulls the waves beyond the harbor
I stay with you for I can hear
In your gaze so blue, so clear
The Voice of our Creator
Daylight distracts with color and flavor
But you, O night, wrap your
Dark arms around me
I’m glad I found you
And you found me
For we are soul mates
Of a different kind
Kindred spirits
Of moon light and wind
And tranquility
Marred at dawn
By humanity

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Janet Martin

Silent Night

It should be a silent night
But what thoughts,
Oh, what thoughts I have
Of you, my love
The half-moon winks
His vertical eye
From a navy hemisphere
And I can’t deny
It should be a silent night
Without you, my dear
The wind with her sigh
Is dormant; asleep
The double layered sky
Of white noon-day cloud
Has vanished into the deep
And the silence
Should laugh out loud
But the tight-lipped
Midnight came
And left a summer ago
For I hear you whisper
Whispering my name
And I know
There will never be
Another silent night
For me

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Janet Martin

Tonight is a perfect, silent night.
I’ll go to bed tomorrow :

These Little Hands.....

These little hands I’m holding
Pull me along
As life begins molding
Their thinking patterns
Their smile and song
I gaze at these little hands
Pulling me along….

These little hands
Are bigger, I see
And I often wonder
As I ponder life
What will they to be?
These little hands
That are holding me

These little hands…..
Or they used to be
Are reaching, reaching
Trying to find
The hand of opportunity
As I feel them softly
Slipping away
Away from me

These little hands
Will do the deeds
That make or break them
They will plant the seeds
Of their choosing
I ask God will take them
For His using

These little hands
Will let go of mine
Yet I know
There is One so divine
That will never let go
Of these little hands
That briefly hold mine

And now I see….
I think I am holding them
But they are holding me
And while life is
Molding them
Their little hands
Are molding me

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Janet Martin

I Can Wait.....

Someday I will hear the tick of the clock
I will be able to hear myself talk
The pounding of eager, grassy feet
Won’t mar a kitchen sparkling and neat
The cookie jar will not be empty again
And I won’t be doing endless laundry in vain
I won’t sweep the floor countless times a day
Or trip over toys that were not put away…..

There won’t be spills of cheerios and milk
Perhaps then my curtains can be rayon and silk
Endless questions and ceaseless chatter
Will not alter the ingredients in the muffin batter
I can sip tea and read to my hearts content
Long before the daylight hours are spent
But I’ll gladly wait for that day to come
I love having my children at home

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Janet Martin