Of Blind Pursuit...

How vain the blind pursuit of man

How feeble is its cheer

How pithy the desires that span

This transient hemisphere

Of dust and lust, of sin and sod

If our trust is not in God

A little joy, a little grief

A little youthful glance

Each season of existence brief

We laugh, we weep and dance

But oh, what futile scope we plod

If our hope is not in God

Disappointment and delight

A gasp upon the air

A gathering of day and night

Of dreaming and despair

But oh, what purpose fills our thought

If we have put our faith in God

© Janet Martin

 He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet

 no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end;

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

Eccles. 3:11-12 

I Know...

I do not know…

before the sun

cajoles the western sky

what will befall,

but this I know

the Lord keeps you and I

I do not know 

what waits beyond

the dark and distant hill

but this I know

before me goes

a Father's perfect will

and this I know

the unknown waits

and I, a shell of dust

can simply place

my hand in His

and in His wisdom trust

© Janet Martin

Wordless Truths

 

You moved me with your pretty speech

It left me somewhat stirred

For there is much allurement

In the sentiment of word

But I am getting older

And the truth; I’m learning well

There is much more told in action

That word can never tell

© Janet Martin

Torrents from Above...

We offer you our mangled blooms

Of bent and broken stem

The remnant of vague promises

So common unto men

We lift, in blushing guilt and shame

Our stammered salutation

As we seek hope within the Name

Of mercy and compassion

We repeat our confessions

At the alter of His grace

Unworthy of the miracle

That flows to human race

For in return He gives to us

In torrents from above

For our debt His pardon

His forgiveness and His love

© Janet Martin

Of Mystery and Mornings...

The quiet leans in closely

As the early light expands

And navy yields to the caress

Of morning’s gentle hands

Angels in silken garments

Brush the line twixt dark and day

With effervescent whispers

They ease deeper shades away

Mystery treads the stillness

Of the unknown like a bloom

Starting to press the barriers

Of its darkened waiting room

We step onto the shoreline

Of a mighty river’s flow

As He who holds this day’s design

And gives the sun its glow…

…assures us in the solitude

Of grace that will not flea

And He knows every petal

That drifts into Time’s vast sea

The quiet leans in closely

As this hushed and sacred hour

Nudges from the bud unfolding

A new and perfect flower

© Janet Martin

Wait on the Lord and keep His way

And He shall exalt thee to inherit the land.

When the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it. Ps. 37:34

When Trying to Appease Wanderlust remember...

Way out there

On the other side

Of where earth and heaven meet

Is someone's

Ordinary day

On an ordinary street

Way out there

On that ethereal line

Where the sea touches the sky

Is another gulf

Of open space

Stretching to the by and by

Way out there

Where the timber-line

Bars the dreamers view

Another piece

Of land and sky

Exists- same green, same blue

© Janet Martin

Cherished Moments~

We know too well

What must be will be

So cherish each moment

Then set it free

Waste not and want not

Fulfillment is this

To cherish each moment

Of fleeting ‘what is’

We cannot reach

What was or will be

So cherish the moment

That rests on your knee

A life well-lived

Is done, not in years

But in cherishing moments

Before they disappear

Softly and tenderly

See how they slip

Sweet, cherished moment

From life’s fingertips

The thought of forever

I cannot grasp

So I’ll cherish each moment

Of you, in my clasp

© J~

A week ago the dandelion fields were a sea of gold...this week silver.

Spring-song

Speak to me in floral sonnets

Sing, oh joyous feathered throng

Nurture me with rippling oceans

Where the pasture leaps with song

Brush your lips across my temple

Zephyr who has known no care

Warm me, sun-beam, with your candor

Stir in me a summer-prayer

Wrap me in your emerald whisper

Cradle me in your embrace

Dance with me on God’s fresh garden

Metaphor of hope and grace

Pleasure me, jasmine and primrose

Starlight gleaming in the dirt

Kiss me, tender sanguine noon-tide

Banish from my thought life’s hurt

Soothe me, periwinkle twilight

Breathe your vesper on hushed sod

Springtime, nature’s quadrille-darling

Spring, a testament of God

© Janet Martin