Monday, June 2, 2014

Sometimes Life's Soft Letting Go...





Sometimes life’s soft letting go
Will body-slam you into the boards
So hard you cannot catch your breath

This is the flip-side, I suppose
Of glimpsing or holding a little while
A shadow of heaven on earth

© J~

Because He Promised So...






But cannot shape in speech
He keeps vigil where demons plot
To lure us from His peace
Love, with a heart of tenderness
Not because we deserve it
But because He promised so

He forgives, erasing in full
As we cry out to Him
Or forsake us here below
Not because we deserve it
But because He promised so

He fills the fields with flowers
And the morning with His light
Though we doubt His power and might
He persuades with kind purpose
Not because we deserve it
But because He promised so

How often we are troubled
By the wearying of want
Inclined to turn our eyes to where
Vile lesser gods may flaunt
Abides still; this truth we know
Not because we deserve it
But because He promised so

© Janet Martin





Of Ruthless Realization



 Jim turned 50 yesterday! How often have we asked 'where does time go?'


Time will come…but to pass
And seal within its flow
Those things we cradled in our clasp
Before the letting go

Those things we vowed to keep
With resolute intent
Are stolen where Time’s moments weep
And ever circumvent

We cannot conquer years
This firm and forward flow
Consumes in obscure tick-tock spheres
The ever-present Now

And soon the filament
Of youth’s fanciful gown
Must fall beneath the averment
Of Time’s insistent crown

So, though we plead and groan
With earnest stubbornness
Time claims without apology
What we cannot possess

© Janet Martin

Colors of Thought





Thought runs its colors through the air
Kaleidoscope of faith and fear
Torrent of Past’s touch and taste
Of Will and Want and Worth and Waste

Echo apposes the Unknown
Dawn unfurls a new steppingstone
Swift the hour inhales, exhales
Still the jousting clock prevails

Grant us Lord, love’s fervent toil
Desire and Duty moil
In a constant war of will
Limping, leaping, standing still

Learning, loving, letting go
Training, teaching, testing, oh
…thought runs colors through the air
Kaleidoscope of hope and prayer

© Janet Martin

SO many thoughts rushed through me as I open my eyes this morning...almost, I forgot to fold them into prayer where worry, work and waking handed me its care

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Go There, My Dear







Go there my dear, for tomorrow who knows?
Earth may be heavy with yesterday’s rose
Go there and do not look back then to pine
For what once was, but fell soft from the vine

Drink deep from the chalice you hold in your clasp
For Past builds its palace from This Thing that we grasp
Over and over, though seasons repeat
Time never refunds an hour, my sweet

…so go there and lie where the blue of the sky
Winks between green sweep of tree-lullaby
Go without guilt to the laughter of sod
Lie there and listen to whispers of God


Go while the rivers of summer run wild
Time weeps with echoes of yesterday's child
Take nothing with you save perhaps a pen
For darling, this day will never pass by again

Go where the rush of this moment-tide schemes
Tugging our thought between memories and dreams
For soon this day will slip, like all before
Into the eon of Time’s nevermore

© Janet Martin