Time is Precious

Because we know life’s moments flow too swiftly to a sea

And all that will be left of them are bits of memory

Because we know we cannot keep their ethereal appeal

Or clasp too tightly everything we touch and taste and feel

Time is precious

Because we know that seasons blow like chaff upon a breeze

And what is left of highs and lows are simply memories

Tonight the dark of cricket-song and autumn imminence

Presses against the markers of moment-deliverance

…and Time is precious

Because we know that all we hold must be released at last

And every drop of moment-gold will soon be memory-cast

How subtly the Painter paints; His masterpiece reveals

A quiet truth that even youth feels nipping at their heels

Time is precious

Because we know we cannot go to retrieve once again

The hour that has vanished like a whisper on the wind

We touch with reverence the gifted moment in our grip

Because we know how soft and silently they seem to slip

…so Time is precious  

© Janet Martin

The country-side swells with summer's end. 

As I use the word country-side I'm thinking of a lady at a customer-service desk where, as she checked my I.D. she smiled at my address and commented wistfully that 'oh, you live in the country-side' and I replied, 'yes, we do!' It must be so beautiful, she added and I said , yes, it is; and the frustration I was dealing with lost its edge because after we were finished I could go home....to the country-side!

Of Moment-gold

Sunflower song

Wee baby’s cry

Sweet summer morn

Leaf-lullaby

Flicker of youth

Care-free daydream

Dew-diamond dawn

Midnight requiem

Sink full of suds

Line full of love

Heart full of hope

Through God above

Day full of toil

Night full of sleep

Cup full of promise

Where new moments steep

Sunset, sun-rise

Too soon we are old

This is life’s path

Of moment-gold

© Janet Martin

Slipping Through Our Fingers...

We cannot hold for long

An hour,

A flower,

A child upon the knee

Summer of sun-gold moment-song

A midnight melody

But, as they trickle through our touch

Ephemeral breath-bliss

We come to realize that such

Is life; its whisper-kiss

A brief, beautiful holding

Of bests that life imparts

Slipping through our fingers

To that place within our hearts

© Janet Martin

Another Day #2

 

Another day dispels the night

And we embark upon its flight

Where its road leads, we cannot know

But by the grace of God we go

Another day ignites the dawn

A bugle-call of mercy spawns

Another portion of the past

Where soon its filament is cast

Another day embosses hills

As from the deep its morning spills

To offer us another chance

To love and learn, to dream and dance

Another day; sun-shadow trace

Manifestation of God’s grace

In humble hope we pause to pray

And thank Him for another day

© Janet Martin

I realized this morning, that without thought the first thing I often do when I get up is scan the eastern sky-line as my subconscious whispers ‘another day’…

But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. Ps. 59:16

Of Glimmers and God's Love

Can ever a song be written?

Or ever a poem penned?

Can ever our vision capture

The fullness of love without end?

Even the ocean-cradle

Or star-spangled galaxy

Are infinitesimal glimmers

Of God’s love for you and me

Can ever thought imagine

Or begin to comprehend

The height, depth and circumference

Of God’s love without end?

Since that cry “it is finished”

Lost, sin-cursed human race

Can freely claim the pardon

Of His forgiving grace

Can ever we understand it?

How I AM left His throne

Putting on flesh God became Lamb

Our sin-debt to atone

Can ever we cease to tell it?

No never, no never enough!

The wonderful, incomprehensible

Eternal Savior’s love

© Janet Martin

Another Day...

The glory of new morning swells

In burnished gold to field and dell

Where clenched fist of night’s darkest clutch

Softens, uncurls beneath dawn’s touch

As mercy of the Lord bestows

Another day of want and woes

The Light is greater than the dark

Its power cradled in a spark

And now the shadow melts beneath

The gilded tide of heaven’s wreath

As somber shades of night recoil

To lend another day of toil

Already virgin moments run

Their minute course beneath the sun

While we, proprietors of them

Employ the surge of gifted gem

As God grants from His kind embrace

Another day of hope and grace

© Janet Martin

Those Other Mothers...

 

  

 
Image Source; google images of refugees from Syria

We tuck our babes to bed

And pray the Lord to keep

Those others mothers bowing heads

Afraid to go to sleep

We wave and blow a kiss

As the school buses come

Those other mothers have nowhere

To call their home sweet home

We plan our evening meal

With perhaps a nice treat

Those others mothers hope somehow

They have enough to eat

A mother loves her child

Full and completely

All around the whole wide world

Wherever we may be

We tuck our babes to bed

And pray the Lord to keep

Those other mothers as they lie

On dirt and try to sleep

© Janet Martin

Oh Mom, said Victoria, as she saw my tears and I stopped in the middle of praying for those who have no bed to climb into and go to sleep...and I told her that I'm thinking about every mother who loves their little girl or boy as much as I love her and they have nowhere to call home.

Oh, Hand of Time

Before this twilight slips aloft

I beg of thee, oh, touch me soft

The harder knocks of life must be

To teach me true humility

As myriad of moments test

And prove the God I love the best

Oh, hand of Time, the law you teach

Oft keeps Wants’ laurels out of reach

And so before you test again

Oh, touch me softly now and then

Where I can learn love’s meeker truth

Reserved for those who slip from youth

For though I know that I must bear

Like others do life’s weary share

Of burdens only love can know

Oh, hand from whence Time’s moments flow

Before this twilight slips aloft

I beg of thee, oh, touch me soft

© Janet Martin

 Because it was going to be dark if I did dishes first, I went out first. Now I must do dishes.