The End of the Ball

http://www.magpietales.blogspot.com/2011/12/mag-97.html

She parts her lips in a paper smile
it is to late to retrieve
innocence
so she waves and laughs for a little while
other throats to appease
and at a glance
she appears to have it all
but the keen observer
is not deceived
behind darkened lashes
lies a haunted void
of grief and need
silencing the infamous laugh
as she signs off her debt

Janet

A Christmas Song

Hail the fruit of Mary’s womb

In joyous celebration

Hail the Victor of death’s tomb

With hope’s grand exaltation

For this is He who sent His Son

And gave to us a Christmas song

Hail, the hand that held the nails

So we may be forgiven

Hail this love that never fails

And seals our hope in Heaven

Come gather ‘round and bend your knee

Hail, hail the One who sets men free

Hail, the Seed of mystery

The God who put on flesh

To walk among humanity

And suffer unto death

Lift up your heart and lift your voice

Mankind has reason to rejoice

Hail the King on Heaven’s throne

The Babe whom angels heralded

The Son who passed through Caesar’s stone

Where roman soldiers guarded

Hail Jesus Christ, God’s precious Son

Who gave to us a Christmas song

Janet~

All over the world our voices unite

To hail the King on this holy night!

It's beginning to feel and smell and look and taste a lot like Christmas!

Here is a peek of Christmas prep at the Martin's.

A Child's Ecstasy...

http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2011/12/word-with-laurie.html

'I just have no idea what this could be!'
she says as she peeks under the tree
continuing to explore and shake,
and find the packages with her name
as starlight dances in her gaze
and angels light the smile on her face.

Mom~

Ho, Ho, Ho;)) I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Santa been workin’ extra hard this year

Santa gonna need some of his own Christmas cheer

Santa deserves a special delight

So give your Santa some lovin’ tonight

All year long he seems forgot

And doesn’t seem to need a lot

No one thinks of his needs because

After all, he's Santa Claus

Santa been lookin’ a little tired of late

So don’t just leave cookies on that Christmas plate

Leave him some kisses, and after his milk

Show him a little delight in silk…

…Santa’s been working so very hard

Santa is looking a little tired

Santa' is needin' some ho, ho, ho

So grab him beneath the mistle-toe

Janet~

A Different Kind of Ecstasy...

http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2011/12/word-with-laurie.html

prompt; write a poem on ecstasy in 5 minutes...

Ecstasy is…

Understanding your heart when I can’t touch your face…

Or when we are apart, I can still taste your kiss

Ecstasy is…

Tracing the outline of you

Into a poem where wishes come true

Ecstasy is…

Knowing that you feel what I feel

And know what I’m saying when I’ve said nothing at all

Ecstasy is…

Not only in the holding of you, but in the letting go

It is a gift to ache because of love, don't you know?

Ecstasy is…

My pulse quickening beneath your touch

And wishing you wouldn’t be gone so much

J~

And there is a thrill bordering ecstasy to write about it in 5 mins.;)

Bethlehem's Star

Bethlehem’s star has not dimmed its glow

It beams clearly now as it did long ago

Into the darkness of earth’s desperate night

Bethlehem’s star still offers His light

Still now we gather in awe of His might

To wonder and worship and seek this true Light

Over each cradle and grave see it shine

Mercy and goodness and love so divine

‘Peace on the earth and goodwill to all men’

A message of hope as true now as then

Come one and all, oh, come as you are

Follow the Light of Bethlehem’s star

Janet~

“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Matt. 2:1

Ode to December

The grapevine o’er the lintel
Has lost its musky fare
The plot that is my garden
Returns an icy stare
The barefoot boy of summer
Sleeps soundly in his bed
Lulled by a song of winter
Through stark trees overhead

The ship waits in the mooring
For screaming gales to pass
No breeze or warm tide luring
From shores of wind-swept grass
On furrowed field of daisy
December woos her mate
Where once the breeze was lazy
And blooms declared love’s fate

No tiny bud or blossom
To clothe the barren limb
Upon earth’s frigid bosom
The little day grows dim
Night draws its cobalt awning
Before daydreams are through
As deeper shades of evening
Transform white plains to blue

The dusty lanes of summer
The long, slow afternoon
Have fled to kinder pastures
Beneath a warmer moon
The sun-drenched haunts of August
Don winter's testing shawl
While on its gleaming canvas
A thousand memories fall

Dance to the song of snow-flakes
And hold your loved ones near
Three seasons worth of toiling
Have traced another year
Dance to the tune of memories
In winter's frigid bliss
For soon her frosty candor
Will melt in Spring's soft kiss


Janet~

Thoughts on Solitary...

http://poetryjaam.blogspot.com/

The whole world over
We hold one solitary thing in common
…this moment

The only things ever accomplished were done,
Not in yesterday or tomorrow
But in that solitary gift of today

Only one, only one
Do not waste it away
Only one life
To work and to play
Only one, only one
What a beautiful gift
Tell me my friend
Are you cherishing it?
Only one, only one
Quickly it is done
What will they say of us
When we are gone?


There is a torch for tomorrow
And all generation to come
A solitary Light in our sorrow
The Light that will guide us Home

Few are the things that are changeless
But God sent His precious Son
And now by the light of Jesus love
Safely He’ll guide us Home

How great is the love of the Father
That He sent His own flesh and blood
That all who call upon Him
Will be called the sons of God

Earth has many boasts to offer
But none can compare in worth
To the solitary love of the Father
Who sent His Son to this earth

Janet~

Praise Him...Jesus is the solitary reason for the season!

To My Poet Friends...

It’s difficult sometimes to spell in words
The heart of all those thoughts we deeply feel
But I must try, for you have kindly stirred
My soul with honesty and thoughts surreal
Once I assumed a friend is one we meet
Then learn to cherish, love and trust with time
But I have known a friendship, rich and sweet
Nurtured by the magic of a rhyme

A poet’s heart is more than flesh and blood
It sees beyond perimeters of sight
It races at the mention of a word
Defining it within the dead of night
I’ve held you close to me within a pen
Yet felt you tear the longing from my chest
By words that you have woven in a poem
To strike the chord of grief and tenderness

You, my friend, have taught me how to fly
To scoff at fear wielding its scornful threat
You, my friend, have taught me how to cry
And how to dance and twirl and pirouette
Anticipation wakes with me at dawn
It trembles in each moment’s soft embrace
For who can know the poem your whispers spawn
Beneath the touch of lips in cyber-space

It’s difficult sometimes, to spell in words
Thoughts too profound for letters formed in ink
But in night’s deepest quiet I have heard
A tiny glimpse of what you feel and think
So in this Christmas season I extend
A prayer to you for happiness and cheer
Merry Christmas, my dear poet-friends
God bless you now and through the coming year

Janet

If you visit this blog faithfully you are a poet at heart
And I want to say thank-you for your love and your time,
For your words of encouragement, for your acceptance of rhyme,
Thank-you for your friendship in blog-sphere
Merry Christmas to you
And a Happy New Year!

Escapade on a Wintery Night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iriaMK5T8cA&feature=endscrhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeen&NR=1

Be mine tonight
We’ll share our coffee
No, let’s make it tea
Fit for royalty
As the moonlight exposes
Tree tops stenciled
In its glow
And we skirt their penciled
Sketches in the snow
A thermos, though not as dainty
As a hand-painted china cup
Keeps our tea piping
Until the sun comes up
And that old cabin
Boarded up for winter
Cannot speak of two wanderers
Or crackling firelight
Or the fantasy of a bear-skin rug
As we inhale its comfort
And understand each other
Without one uttered word
Although we talked all night...

J~

Heaven's Threshold has Red, Chipped Paint

I did not envision heaven’s threshold
With chipped and worn red paint
I always pictured it in gold
It’s vigil by a saint

I thought the stream beside its tread
Would be crystal, sublime
I see a river flow instead
A river known as Time

Across its brink dash children’s feet
With muddy-gilded trace
And mother is the one to greet
To let go, to embrace

I did not envision heaven’s stair
With red paint, chipped and worn
But I have held an angel there
With wing, bruised, tired or torn

And I have seen the face of God
Though I am not a saint
Heaven’s threshold warms earth’s sod
With chipped and worn, red paint

Janet

Heaven’s threshold needs paint…
But how do you close off the step
over which every hello and good-bye
to and from home passes…
worn paint on the launching pad to life…

Hollow Eyes

I cannot remember them individually
But collectively still they leap
From rain-drenched screens
Or sudden recollection
Dark and austere
Each rigid gaze
Pointing the dreamer with yellow braids
To the strait and narrow

Countenance is more powerful than speech
Those eyes staring, glaring
Judgment formed by visual discourse
Their peripheral blotted
By statutes of scribbled ink
And fear-riddled intonations
Dissuading wanderers and dreamers
From sure damnation

Look neither left nor right then
Fear clutches the seeker
As loveless eyes extol doom
Discounting grace for works
And blindness as an acceptable plight
If fortified by the law
While the chill of hollow stares
Numbs the soul

Janet~

Do you see them?...all those faces in the picture.

This picture was posted on one of the prompt sites last week.
I saved it but was unable 'find' its voice or 'eyes' immediately,
yet I felt its tug, powerful and memsmerizing....

A Night of Thoughts

Dare we to venture out into the night?
The twilight deepened many hours ago
Yet, to be entertained by Orion’s light
Is far superior to mans earthbound show
The silence murmurs loud, a thousand thoughts
And as I slip my hand across the years
I feel it reach within my heart of hearts
In sonnets born of laughter, pain and tears
How can we keep this night from fading fast?
Sharply the present wars against the past

The mind contains a broad and boundless stage
Where images of hope and grief implore
Upon its girth our dreams and passions rage
As unedited moments deck the floor
There is no script for longing or remorse
And who can tell which fuels the sudden tear
Thought against thought, a soundless intercourse
Yet all consuming in its faith or fear
Are we together now or worlds apart?
Thought spares no sacred mercy for the heart

Dare we to venture out into the night?
Dare we to vex the laws of solitude?
Will midnight render turmoil or respite?
Is darkness day’s swan-song or dawn’s prelude?
Statistics are a stark, material chart
No Hubble telescope can pierce thoughts shell
Or clarify the measure of the heart
Its secret sorrows it can never tell
Thought cannot don a fraudulent disguise
As God alone beholds its truths; its lies

Against the heartbeat of night's tranquil breast
We lay aside our masks of bravery
While some claim its nocturnal brow to rest
Some revel in its vulnerability
Beyond the skyline or beneath the soil
Thought cannot be restrained by rule or rod
A builder or a scavenger of spoil
It escapes all visage but that of God
And yet in every act that we engage
Thought opens up the curtain to its stage


Janet

A Wish Come True...but ever Renewed

http://poeticbloomings2.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/christmas-a-week-away-prompt-34/

I should wish to keep contentment…

…to know it is enough

to have what I am holding

and not what I have sought

I should like to know contentment

is worth more than temporal gold

and clasping you in sentiment

is love’s wondrous way to hold

you close when you are far way

and I should wish to be

contented, here, right now, today

and let tomorrow be

for it will come when it will come

its cares with it will wait

Within the arms of home sweet home

Contentment’s law is sweet

I don’t want to be distracted

By the things I do not have

Or dare to take for-granted, life

With one foot in the grave

And I will be content to simply

Have and hold this moment

To pine for what I do not have

Is foolishness and torment

Merry Christmas, darling

Oh, I know that I’ve been blessed

And may its sweet contentment be

The thing I cherish best

J~

On Finding Contentment

http://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/

Contentment is not found within

The resurrection of the past

If I could be a girl again

A year would soon be memory-cast

The citizen of earth is born

With naught but dreams on which to fly

Time states its wealth by what we learn

He wins the game who dares to try

Trouble and luck have lucent wings

Both happen to the faint or brave

To hope in resurrected things

Is but to lag in history’s grave

Contentment is not something sought

Nor found in memory’s purple mist

Contentment lives within our thought

In moments only that exist

Janet

…but if they could resurrect that old willow-tree, I would be content to climb it:)

Life's Deepest Pleasure

We crave the meeting of fingertips, lips

Flesh against flesh intertwined

But there is bliss much keener than this

In the meeting of mind against mind

Touch pleasing touch is a tender-sweet blush

Yet cannot compare, I find

To the wildly intense and pulse-quickening rush

Of mind exposed against mind

The True Light

We behold Him even now

Though we cannot comprehend

The fullness that His love bestowed

As He put on flesh for men

He put on thus, meek flesh for men

This One that Is, before Time was

Conceived, not of the will of them

But by the holy will of God

And by the holy will of God

He brought true light upon the earth

This true Light remains till now

As testament and Living Word

As testament and Living Word

Full of mercy, hope and grace

Moses law had never heard

A proclamation such as this

A proclamation such as this

Power to become His sons

Cleansed from all unrighteousness

Washed in the blood of heaven’s One

Washed in the blood of heaven’s One

His Light remains to lead the way

Word became flesh, God’s only Son

And we still have His Word today

We still have His word today

Darkness still cannot comprehend

But oh, to those who have believed

He dwells within the heart of them

Janet~

I was reading John 1 this morning.

One of my favorite passages, not only at Christmas

But forever.

He is the True Light.

I’ve been pondering this True Light since I read Vivinfrance’s poem the other night.

Then Mary wrote about the mother Mary and as I thought of Mary's humility and acceptance of God’s word it convicted me. We have His word still, full of grace and truth and Light. He is the True Light.

Venice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFl7L4j5bpM&feature=endscreen&NR=1
(this video sparked the following poem)

The architecture

In the nest of a dove

Is lovely to the spectator

That is in love…

We were lost in blue that day

Blue sky and blue sea

But all I really remember

Were your blue eyes watching me

There was sound all around

But we didn’t hear

As the gondoliers hailed each other

I felt your lips on my ear

And the wind swooping through the canal

Rousing rivulets of desire

As the sun fell, a molten ball

Melting across the water

While we glanced sympathetically

At stragglers on the pier

Lost in books and newspapers

Or envious stares...

The architecture

In the nest of a dove

Is breath-taking

To the spectator in love

We didn’t need Venice

To make us smile

But I think Venice needed us

Just for a little while…

J~

And Here We Dance...

She tilts her head

In delightful laughter

While words like Sicily and Rome

Roll off her lips

As if they were

Her summer homes

And so they have been

Held between fingertips

As she turns the pages

In a scene

Of people and marketplaces

Where she has stood on shaded terraces

To watch the sun set

Over rolling vineyards

He comes to her now

Against the cool blue

Mediterranean backdrop

But poetry is not enough

To bridge the ocean

Or the deserts

Between hunger and love

Though her throat is parched

With burning of necessity

She is sandwiched

Between tumbled Canadian sky

And golden bars of sunlight

Sprawled across umber fallow

In the encroaching eventide

They dance; Sinatra knows every word

To her thoughts

And eyes will always speak more openly

Than the ineptness of speech

As she feels his heartbeat

Against her chest

In mutual anguish

And tenderness

For imminent departure

Is surely love’s

Most passionate threshold

Nobody visits this lighthouse

It is too late and too cold

They have all night to dance

And say good-bye.

She closes the book...

The clock in the tower strikes nine

J~

Unwrapping Moments

She watches
Caught between the present
And the past
As her son’s awkward
Attempts at gift-wrapping
Bring laughter from us
And mumbling from him…
As he wraps
She unwraps
Moments
Stored sacredly
Where she can ponder them
In her heart
Moments being fashioned
Into memories
Even now
By hands
Caught somewhere between
A boy
And a man…

Janet~

It’s a tender-sweet stage…13.
The other night I asked him what was so funny
And his instant reply was unexpected…
“mom, guy humor”
And he never did tell me!

The verse below has been one of my favorites, for as long as I can remember..
Our hearts, the place we store our most cherished thoughts.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19

Off the Cuff #3

http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2011/12/thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhursday-think-tank-78-off-cuff.html

Focus, she commanded
And tapped my head sharply with her pointer stick
I stared at the numbers blankly
And composed an answer, double-quick
How could I make her understand
My senses were merely blurred
By the alluring, blissful enchantment
Of this beautiful thing called a word?

Janet~

Off the Cuff #2

http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2011/12/thursday-think-tank-78-off-cuff.htmlhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Oh, yes they are free
They don’t cost you a dime
All they take from you
Is a small thing known as Time

Oh, yes they are free
This torturous chain
Of consonants and vowels
Life’s most pleasing pain

So if they should taunt
Grab them by their guile
And turn them into
Your personal style

Janet

Good Morning...

I feel you pressing into me
With warm translucent sigh
As fingertips, more sensed than seen
Brush slumber from the sky

You do not tap my window pane
Yet I know you are there
Whispering to me in the rain
And softening the air

You rouse me from unconsciousness
And yet you never speak
But kindly tug night’s blanket back
To smile against my cheek

I’ve never seen you quite like this
So I have one request
Before you slip into the mist
Help me to do my best


Janet

It is an unseasonably warm and rainy morning.

Slow Dancing to Life's Music

Barefoot and blue jeans
Does it get any better
Favorite music
My old, worn sweater
Little girl slipping
Her hand into mine
I turn to kiss her
But she’s grown up and gone
And the flip-side of loving
Is sweet memories
So I dance to life’s music
In faded blue jeans
As I recall what I love
And what I miss
Oh does it get any better than this?



Five o’clock shadow
Caressing my cheek
Darling, there are no words
Left to speak
Full moon reminding me
Of all that is not
And how much is missing
In all that I’ve got
And waiting is longer
Than than it used to be
But struggle makes us stronger
If love is the key
As hope fills the hollow
Of things that I miss
Oh, does it get any better than this?

Bare feet and blue jeans
Deep blue full moon night
Desire and duty
And dreaming take flight
My head on your shoulder
Your hand finding mine
Let’s slow dance, darling
I know we’ll be fine
For all that we have
Out-weighs what is not
Oh, what a beautiful
Love we have got
As you hold me closer
Dancing is bliss
Oh, does it get any better than this?

Janet~

To miss is to love...

Beneath the Same, White Moon

Beneath the dark umbrella of night
Silence is amplified
As sound becomes the keener sight
And thought a swift-winged ride

Beneath its wide seamless canopy
As present and past entwine
Thoughts of you keep me company
And oh, your company is fine

Beneath the backdrop of the dawn
Life's imminent history
I wonder where the years have gone
And what is yet to be

Beneath the pining of the dark
As whispers ache and bleed
My thought ignites a sudden spark
And longing becomes need

Beneath the same, still, silent sky
Beneath the same white moon
I wonder where you are tonight
And will you be home soon…


J~

I took the kids out for a final shopping trip last night..
It was special, fun.
The night was glorious and still after excitement was lulled to dreamland
and mother stood on the porch drinking in the night sky(and coffee)...
(there is a reason my blogs contain the word 'porch')
on its step I ponder, reflect, and for me thought bleeds in one medium...poetry;))
thus a short-lived resolve not to write for a while. If the break happens, it happens and if not then it was not meant to be
Blessings~

Christmas Poems

If the joy of Christmas

Were as brief as its date

I think it would be

A season to hate…

I love the delights

That Christmas imparts

But only because

Of His love in my heart

Jesus...

The celebration of hope in one Birth

Jesus…

Perfect gift of love sent to earth

Jesus…

A message time cannot restrain

To God

Be the glory forever, Amen

(first I had the word 'Christmas' instead of 'Jesus''

but Christmas is JESUS)

Cradle, cross and resurrection

This is my Christmas reflection…

Janet

Reason to Celebrate...

It’s not in the lights

The shortbread, fruitcake

It’s not in the special

Christmas cards that we make

Though each are their own gift

They would lose their delight

If God had not so loved us

On that first Christmas night

It’s not in the presents

Underneath the tree

Not in decorations

So lovely to see

The wonderful carols

Would not fill us with mirth

If God had not given

His Son to this earth

…and here IS the reason

We celebrate thus

God in His mercy

Gave His Son to us

So that all who believe

Will not perish in sin

But they will receive

Eternal life through Him

Janet

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

to those who are saying ...huh?:) I'm postponing my 'break'...a little;))

Merry Christmas!

I am taking a Christmas cyber-break!
But before I do I would like to take
A moment to wish you goodness and cheer
As we celebrate Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Janet Martin

God Bless you all
and may He be our reason
to celebrate this season!

I was planning on doing a live greeting but I can't figure out how to get it to work on here so this will have to do;)
Thank-you all, who visit, read and encourage.

Preparing for Christmas...(a note to self)

http://poeticbloomings2.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/be-prepared-prompt-33/

Poinsettia for the table

Bloom of festivity

Pretty little angel

To grace the Christmas tree

Lights and pretty candles

Lending their gentle glow

In tiny golden circles

Wee choirs in the snow

Cookies, cakes and puddings

In volumes quite obscene

Large and tiny presents

Wrapped in bright red and green

Songs extol the season

And malls the latest rave

Excuses become reason

As dollars become brave

Stress finds brand new victims

And cheer loses its mirth

All in the preparation

To celebrate His birth

Shopping lists extended

Beyond the budget’s creed

Holly, jolly merchants

Disguising greed as need

Christmas Eve descending

We brave the cold perhaps

To find within a chapel

A pew, where we collapse

My house sure looks amazing

The food, a work of art

Wouldn’t it be something

If this had been my heart?

Janet

Portions

Somehow, in spite of profusion of words

Silence remains stark; profound

We cannot dissuade unalterable truth

With the clang of syllabic sound

Somehow, though continents loom between

And geographically keep us apart

I hear the whisper of you deep within

And feel you against my heart

Somehow, by the rise and the setting of sun

We measure our portion of days

Darling, to love you I have only begun

Oh, let me count the ways

Somehow, life slips through the curtain of dusk

Its presence subtle and swift

Silence and distance and longing and love

Are portions of its tender gift

J~

Summation of Time

Time doles out the same amount

Of hours in a day to each of us

From generation to generation

It is not how much of it we have

But what we do with it

That will be our life’s summation

Twenty-four hours in a day

Three-hundred and sixty-five days per year

Save for that one in four

Why, in an age of modern conveniences

Do we seem to have less time

To spare, not more

Janet

Time

The moon climbs above the horizon

A stealthy, crimson eye

Pushing the remnants of evening

Into the dark, blue sky

I stand on earth’s silver palette

Night is frozen and vast

And it seems I can almost hear it

Present becoming past

The sky is a boundless portal

An ocean of infinite calm

Unfathomable to mortal

This speck in eternity’s palm

Here in the solace of midnight

Comfort and longing vie

To be the whisper of moonlight

Gleaming in my eye

Time is a thief of moments

Yet, time is a moment’s source

Hastening, ever hastening

Yet never a glimpse of its force

The moon climbs above the horizon

Translucent hand on Time’s clock

No man knows the day or the hour

When this cosmic time-piece will stop

Janet~

http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-our-inspiration-this-week-ive-taken.html

On Taking a Family Picture

When there is nothing very funny
Yet we find reason to snicker
If suddenly there seems to be
A sudden need to bicker
When insults freshly polished
Are muttered, hissed and hurled
As siblings are squeezed into
One square inch of the world
It must be family-picture-taking time

When father looks quite stern
And mother looks quite stressed
And we try to look quite proper
As we are quite primly dressed
When faces grow quite stiff
While smiles not quite freeze-dry
There really can only be
One valid reason why…
….family picture-taking-time

There are pinches, pokes and pushes
Then kicks and mother’s scolding
There are sighs and moans and groans
As our 'best smiles' we are holding
That turn out to be wasted
Because of an out-burst of laughter
Though we cannot remember
What was so funny after…
…family picture-taking time!

Okay, this is it,
Now every one POSE!
We all do our best…
One has their eyes closed!
One, two, three,
Let’s try again
‘a-w-w-w! I wasn’t ready
Sister’s being a pain!’
Oh, yes its family picture-taking-time

…so when father looks stern
And mother looks stressed
When we all try to look
Our very best
As we look at the camera
Smile and say ‘CHEESE!’
Tell me, this one is going to work
PL-E-E-E-A-SE!
Its family-picture-taking-time!

Take 70!

Janet…
Otherwise known as M-O-O-O-M!!!!

Yesterday I 'booked an appointment' with my family to be at home
so we can take a long over-due family picture...

p.s. I'm trying to pick one of the ump-teen photos to put into a card,
but one cannot edit eyes open,
or non-smiles into smiles or
add the rest of a person where it is cut off,
or un-cross eyes....the list goes on:)

My apologies to those of you who find photos hard to load...
This afternoon my internet is working but it is being very moody.

Once...

Because it is not in the measure

Of desire or despair

Or accumulation of

Fortune or faults

By which we are judged

When this clock halts…

And because I will never be able to reach

The point where I can

Justifiably throw stones

To hinder or hurt

Or forget that I too am

But a beggar clothed in dirt…

Or just because I cannot touch you

Does not mean that

I am unable to love you

Or meet you where

We can feel each other

In the arms of prayer…

Because this clock of life

Is wound but once

Never returning to yesterday

Or leaping to tomorrow

There is no need then

Either of its cares to borrow….

Because God will never

Discard me as hopeless

Or unworthy of His care

And because I need only to trust

From moment to moment

I can do what I must...

Because I cannot afford to squander

This gift wrapped in Time

I will choose only to love

You; for I have but a single chance

The clock of life

Is wound but once…

Janet~

http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-our-inspiration-this-week-ive-taken.html