Meek Obsessions

Oh God, awake in me today

A new and keen obsession

To serve you in the subtle sway

Of moments as they hasten

You seek, not glamorous success

Nor well-worded intention

But humble hearts of thankfulness

And meek, faithful submission

God, let my employment to you

Be more than long lip-measure

Teach me to seek the will of you

In love’s unfaltering treasure

The dust that shapes ephemeral skin

May form mortal assumption

But God, you know the heart within

Its passion and corruption

Oh God, awake in me today

A new and holy fire

To serve you in each smallest way

With reverent desire

© Janet Martin

Stirred by these words I read this morning...

Gentle Dancer

His approach is soft and tender

She succumbs without a fight

Her warm gold-flecked gaze surrenders

To the deep blue eyes of night

There is comfort in his bearing

And a coolness in his stride

As he steps across the clearing

In the burnished eventide

He does not dictate her answer

She is drawn to his caress

As the night, a gentle dancer

Wraps the day in tenderness

© Janet Martin

  

Someday, as the Night-sounds Fall

Some day as I sit on my porch to recall

Life, thus far and the haste of it all

I know I will hear, as the night-sounds fall

The tap-tap-tap of the basket-ball

When there is nothing else to do

Out he goes to shoot ‘a few’

An hour passes in no time at all

To the tap-tap-tap of the basket-ball

Oft, in the course of my hum-drum day

I hear him thrumming the hour away

As the likes of Carmelo Anthony enthrall

Him, in the tap-tap-tapping of the basket-ball
A childhood passes in no time at all
To the tap-tap-tap of the basket-ball

© Janet Martin

Matthew’s first word was ‘ba’ (ball)

At three years old he loved ‘dribbling’.

A Simple Exhortation

There is an exhortation

We should not take for-granted

To bloom with exaltation

Wherever we’re planted

© Janet Martin

A few years ago a friend gave me portulaca flowers.

Now, every year they re-seed and come up wherever the seeds fall,

blooming vibrantly when many other flowers have begun to fade…

Reveling in Life's Blissful Ordinaries

As long as there are

Laundry-line lullabies

Ever-green framed skies

Freshly-baked pies

And barefoot brothers

As long as

Soft pink remains

For girlies and geraniums

And the kettle softly hums

A tea-song for mothers

As long as sun-flowers beam

Where gardeners dream

Beneath mellow-gold gleam

Of August warm glee

Then this world, in spite of gloom

And its projected doom

Is not half as woebegone

As it could be

© Janet Martin

Sonnet of Hope

As surely as the night falls comes the dawn

And greater than the Darkness IS the Light

As surely as the Unknown IS the One

Whose Hand is mightier than our fight

Frail witnesses are we of His great love

And mortal tongue can never fully tell

The wonders of His hand beneath, above

Guarding the gates to Heaven and to hell

His grace does not extend this wretched scope

For our self-destruction, but for Hope

***

As surely as the autumn comes the spring

We cannot bargain with the Hand of Time

The orchestra of nature’s offering

Is ordered not by law, but the Sublime

As we repeat, footfall upon foot-fall

The agonies and ecstasies of man

Progress is simply history’s recall

Of moment-breaths since time and life began

How futile is the gasp of human race

If we ignore its only Hope; His grace

***

As surely as the night falls comes the Dawn

Twilight is but the swansong of an hour

The bud of youth unfolds; a fragrant yawn

Before it renders to the earth its flow’r

We chase the ambient discourse of our thought

To realize what each of us must learn

The only thing of value we have got

Is Now; we tread a path of no return

But still the Hand remains that formed this scope

Of day and night; of death and life and Hope

© Janet Martin

My thoughts and prayers are with a friend facing some heavy 'unknowns' .
Can you pray on her behalf ?
God fills in the blanks of what I am unable to share.

Love you, G.

Irrefutable Proof

Love speaks

A universal language

And though hugs and kisses are nice

It declares

Its truest passion

In one word;

Sacrifice

© Janet Martin

What we make and take time for proves where our loves lie…

Aren’t you glad He took time for us?

 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 

 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.

Isa. 53:10-11

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Walnut-leaf Harbingers

Premature stragglers

Scatter on green piazza

Prelude to gold rush

© Janet Martin

Our walnut trees are the last to leaf and the first to shed...

I can always count on those golden tears to mingle with my own 'heart-tears':)