Thursday Thoughts~

It is not up to us to know

The workings of Love’s Higher Plan

But it is up to us to do

With each moment, the best we can

***

Not by works, lest we should boast

Is the salvation of the soul

But by the blood of Jesus Christ

The broken sinner is made whole

***

To indulge a wish

Even an idle little one

Can be an all-consuming ill

If we give it a throne

***

To deny ourselves

For the sake of pride

Is like wandering the world

With no place to hide

To deny ourselves

For the sake of fear

Is like trading laughter

To covet a tear

To deny ourselves

For the sake of love

Is like opening windows

To Heaven above

***

’Tis easy to justify

With thought

Those things we do

That we ought not

***

Those things we do

Though small they seem

Are not mere moments

In life’s stream

But in the end

Will prove to be

The corner-stone

Of our legacy

***

Consider carefully

What you say and do

For somewhere Someone

Is watching you…

***

Take heed of the guests

You allow in your brain

For we become thoughts

That we entertain

***

Save the tree

Save the water

Save the air

Save the world…

Pity the one

When it’s all said and done

Who neglected

To save his soul

***

Beauty is not something we can buy or wear

It is not body or make-up or hair

The outward is skin; it covers that part

Of true Beauty; a meek and humble heart

***

Different faces, different bodies,

Different races, jobs and roles

Different strengths, different weaknesses

And different dreams and goals

But

We are all alike

We all are flesh and blood

To a common appointment

Eternity and God

Janet~

Hope you have a thought-full, wonder-full, thank-full Thursday!

Waiting...

  

‘I’m waiting’, she explains.

‘We are all waiting’, he replies, ‘but what comes is usually not what we are waiting for…’

From Larkrise to Candleford~

Yes, we are all waiting,

For something, it seems,

This is the way

of hopes and dreams...

Love,

Death,

Healing,

Home,

and in the meantime

we must accept what comes…

Janet~

Of Wondering and Waiting

When I was your age, dearest girl at my side

I used to wonder what my life would hold

Would I be happy; would I be a bride?

Would my love love me until I am old?

Now I look at you, dear girl at my side

And now I wonder what your life will hold

Will you be a happy; a mother, a bride?

Will your dreams come true; will you grow old?

What ever happens, my dear little girl

To God be true and by His grace we go

Then whatever this life will unfold

We won’t be hobbled by what we don’t know…

© Janet Martin

Always the Morning Returns

Writer's Digest PAD Challenge, day 20
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Always (blank),” replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

Always, in spite of its darkest of dark

Or loneliest lonely as night fills each space

Always, from outer regions morning comes

An ether epiphany of love’s kind grace

Always, in spite of our fumbling foray

As ‘neath the scepter of duty we grope

Always the dawn washes midnight away

Awesome allotment of mercy and hope

Always, in spite of our pitiful proof

That we are nothing but man, prone to sin  

Always the darkness is drawn from night’s roof

Always the morning returns once again

© Janet Martin

Filling Want's Pockets

Now, let’s be done with the vain mongering

Of fear and doubt, of greed and despair

Time, like a river that falls through the air

To our outstretched arms, stirs a hungering

For its gentler beauties that cannot be owned

Or stolen by those who are thirsty for things

We all would feel like the richest of kings

Fear, doubt, despair would be softly dethroned

If in-between toil’s quotidian rod

We would determine to follow our feet

Into dusk's lane-way or mid-meadow street

Eager for nothing but cadence of sod

Time is so eager to shuck harvest's sheaf

Tucking to nothing each bud-let and leaf

Now, let’s be done with oppression of guilt

Once and for all our dear Savior died

Knowing that we were sinful, cursed with pride

Over Time’s eons Love’s redemption spilt

And we should have time now, for nothing but Love

Oh, who can say, I have no need of it?

And Time never pauses so we must, to sit

Beneath the awning of heaven above

Tilting our faces, up, up, feel the kiss

Of autumnal farewell, bold, bully-blue

Life’s best of things are not uncommon, new

But ageless and free as lost Eden’s first bliss

Earth’s Gilead suffers long ‘neath our haste

We should slow down and remember to taste

Oh, taste and see that the Lord God is good

Pity the one who despises the truth

Lavishing venom of lust; vile, uncouth

Over a void of Love misunderstood

Now, let’s be done with our anger and hate

Render them, down on an altar of grass

Kneel where the whisper of season-songs pass

Beneath atonement from heavenly gate

Soon Time will solve our quibble and quarrel

Life is too short to be hobbled by things

We should be awed by nature’s offerings

Silver of dew-gem on jade petal-pearl 

Wealth spilling from every seed, bud and limb

Filling want’s pockets with wonders of Him

© Janet Martin

Making Love...with nothing but the touching...

• Write a love poem. Romantic or more general types of love. Or…
• Write an anti-love poem. Some folks just don’t like love poems of any type, so have at it.

At the kitchen table

Scattered with newspaper

And homework

Or breakfast remains

Where the sun pools

Gold in summer

Or daylight falls

Gray in November

Across the chatter

Of little ones

Above life’s spilled milk

Between ‘don’t talk with your mouth full’

And ‘stay sitting until you are finished’

We have made love

With nothing

But the touching

Of eyes

© Janet Martin

Two-for-two- Tues

•  
•  
• PAD challenge, day 19
• Write a love poem. Romantic or more general types of love. Or…
• Write an anti-love poem. Some folks just don’t like love poems of any type, so have at it. 

they were not naked
in each other's eyes
but lust stole the fruit
and they lost
Paradise

Janet Martin

The Excitement of Hope

Dawn excites the morning sky

As gold excites the blue

And hope excites the mortal mind

Like nothing else can do

Desire excites dreams of youth

And want excites the fight

But hope excites immortal truth

As dreams of youth take flight

A bride excites her waiting Groom

A bow excites the string

And hope excites a heart of gloom

Like bud excites the spring

Yes, dawn excites the morning span

As mercy’s gilds its main

But hope excites the heart of man

To rise and try again

© Janet Martin