God-granted Gift...

 A crisp morning startles the countryside as Time extends its gift beneath that diamond in the sky...

 ...and when we lay us down to sleep and pray the Lord, may we not be ashamed of how we claimed God's gift to you and me...

Ah, little moments interlocked

And gently set adrift

You create for each of us

A wonder-woven gift

With shimmering of air you shape

A thing of weighted worth

And all that we can do is take

This gift from heav’n to earth

Then, with this rendering of grace

Oh, may we learn to live

In such a way as not to waste

What God saw fit to give

© Janet Martin

John 9:4...  I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day:

Intangible Transit

It fades fluent before our eyes

Intangible, tangible dies

Where leaf-lorn crooners eulogize

Its passing beneath solemn skies

…Today

This transaction of here-to-there

Is an illusion, gossamer

A metamorphosis of air

Disguised as evening to snare

...Today

A tear against my face yet far

You dissipate through gates ajar

Shepherded by the evening star

To lands where your ancestors are

...Today

That wide, slow place of yesterday

Fits one more foundling to its fray

Where we, imbibed with gold and gray

Will wake to find upon Time’s tray

...Today

© Janet Martin

Ageless Innocence

 How is it after all this time simplicity still amazes us most?!

This bedrock of centuries where dawn is hung

Boasting no newness beneath its old sun

Unfurls new morning on hinges of grace

Teasing our touch to its guiltless embrace

Come, for the hour is rife with Time’s kiss

And all we know but a glimpse of what is

Discov’ry lures and draws us from our tents

We are all children in its innocence

Fully amazed by Time’s dauntless demise

Like ancient trail-blazers we, no more wise

Struggle and stumble to learn what they knew

Drinking like foundlings the dawn and its dew

Ah, ageless innocence; simplicity

Stuns us to silence where babble would be

But then the laughter of nature and child

Rouses a chuckle in us as God smiled

Knowing regardless of our blatant boast

Man cannot fathom mercy’s uttermost

How can it be after all our fuss

There is still friendliness in this old dust?

There is still innocence; how can it be

After desecration of centuries

Over and over our visage is awed

And all we can murmur is, thank-you God

© Janet Martin

September Dusk

 One night last week it seemed like the very ground was charged with cricket-song...this week dusk steals in on much-too-early feet and the cricket-choir has thinned to a sporadic 'chirp'...

It is dusk; the noise of life muffled beneath a quilt

Of crickets in the thicket where another summer spilt

The green tree etched on azure noon is raven, solemn-stark

We gather behind windows lit like beacons to the dark

It is dusk; mulled musky 'musts' feather the fraying field
Its dust harbors a postlude where September wills its yield

The froth of full-leaf lullaby is amplified, it seems

By the impending solitude of stricken wood requiems  

It is dusk; the brusque breeze lolls where daylight duties stop

We rearrange to-do lists like a merchant closing shop

Where twilight’s tent is softly rent with burnished pink and gold

As pastures disappear into night’s vast, black velvet hold

It is dusk; the four corners of east, west, north and south

Dissolve into blue nothingness like candy in time’s mouth

Our sense of touch is charged by the relinquishing of sight

As dusk surrenders to the tender troubadour of night

© Janet Martin

"Observe", said Da Vinci, "observe at twilight, when the day is cloudy the loveliness and tenderness spread on the faces of men and women"

p.s. It feels good to be sitting in an upright position after a day in bed! there is a nasty flu-bug making its rounds...

... to-do lists were abruptly 'rearranged'!

To Marvel...Twice

We marvel at flowers

Because they are nice

But to turn them over

Is to marvel twice

A smile is a marvelous marvel of life,

We know that this is true

But it is twice the marvel when

Someone smiles back at you

How marvelous the sunrise

Of God-painted terrain

But then in spite of us at night

He paints the sky again

Peaches and cinnamon

Fresh eggs, oh my!

Put them together

For marvelous pie

Thank-you God,

for filling life

 with opportunities to marvel

...twice

 

 

  Janet Martin~