The Sweetest of Tears

Yesterday Melissa met us (my friend with her little boys I baby-sit and Victoria and I) in Toronto. We visited Ripley’s Aquarium. It was a great day, with so much I never did get time to say…

Oft, how I struggle and battle

With that which I have

And that which I lack

Weighed in the delicate balance, child,

Of nudging you forward

And pulling you back

Oft I am torn twixt the stretching

Of holding you close

And letting you go

Love is a bitter-sweet wrenching, child

That only a mother

Will ever full-know

Oft, oh how the grip of it stuns me

Wanting and Must

Juxtaposed in my ears

Futile to fumble with words, child

Motherhood suffers

The sweetest of tears

© Janet Martin

…suddenly the train was coming and all we had time for was a quick hug and see you soon. While we ran tears dimmed the doorway of Union Station. Spending time together reminds us (Victoria and I) how much we miss her…
...the same tug I felt the day before when I hugged Rob and Emily good-bye as they left for the airport.

 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19

The 'The's' of Life

The grace of second chances

Flowers upon the air

The love of God romances

Our spirits from despair

The hope of heaven glimmers

In faith’s determined eye

Though oft earth’s sorrow shimmers

Where loss and longing cry

The pantomime of moments

Ripples; its rampant course

Fills far and phantom oceans

Of eons without force

The ebb and flow of leaf-song

Embellishes the sod

We ride the tide of seasons

Ever nearer to God

© Janet Martin

 

As in The Days of Old...

 

Just as in the days of old
Things are much the same today
God is in control and we
are called to trust Him and obey

Just as in the days of old
We can not full understand
Thoughts of God, but this we know
We are under His command

Then, fear not what man may do
They can never touch the Whole
God is love; He sees into 
Depths where flesh harbors the soul

so, just as in the days of old
Things are much the same today
God is in control and we
are called to trust Him and obey

Janet~

We were talking about what happened yesterday
and what may lie in the days ahead.
We came to the conclusion of Blessed Assurance.
Just as Noah didn't fully understand why he needed to build an ark,
Or how old childless Abraham didn't understand how his seed would number more than the stars (and SO many more accounts  of faith) Heb. 11
... all they did was trust God and obey, so it is today.

Seeing Rob and Emily off today as the fly to Nova Scotia for a visit with Rob's family!
See you later!

Five-o-clock Fall

 (this poem began stirring as I picked up my son at work last eve, but I couldn't commit to shaping it)

Autumn drinks daylight, its pale light soon stinted

Blue tumbled wind-song unravels in poem

Ribbon of wood-smoke climbs five-o-clock ladders

Lamp-light warms windows with home sweet, sweet home

Lush landscape mellows, chartreuse and bronzed yellows

Petrifies pastures where laughter of plume

Scattered through summer in murmurs of purple

…now every tree is a flow’r in full bloom

Dusk is a shepherd soft ushering shadows

Into a fold where Time’s gathered flocks sleep

Rivers of umber and russet rush softly

Beneath the fever of five-o-clock feet

Supper-aroma keens crisp chill with hunger

Dark-brooding dirge of farewell is unfurled

In tick-tock tempo, daylight is dismantled

Falling like leaves in a five-o-clock world

© Janet Martin

 I was drinking in the muted colors of dusk as we drove when Matt said "I'm pumped!" 

when I asked him why he grinned and replied,

"supper!!"

Remember those days when cool autumn sparked wild appetite?!

I loved coming in from the crisp outdoors to the smells of supper. 

Here and there houses were dark but for the most part lights warmed home windows and seemed to murmur supper-time.

In the Unwrapping of It...

 Gold gift wrapping is such a treat after wet gray!

It sweeps from brinks of death, soft pink

And nudges yesterday

With its cravat of this and that

To frontiers far away

From ether plains God’s grace sustains

The twinkle in His eye

It fills the earth; mercy and mirth

Paint laugh-lines on the sky

Now gently He unveils the lea

And draws across the hill

New testaments of Providence

Where hope and heartache spill

This is the day the Lord has made

A gift to you and me

May we with prayer and utter care

Unwrap it reverently

© Janet Martin

 He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate.

 Ps.111:4

Intangible Winnowing...

Sometimes I feel its blue pour through

The cracks that let the sunlight in

And all along the corridor of middle day

The rain drops grin

Sometimes the mosaic of moments

Bleeds and blurs; fall, winter, spring

And summer like a kaleidoscope of color, swirls

And twirls and spins

Sometimes the emptiness of want

Is filled with the intangible

Awareness that nothing stays long, save

Consequence infallible

Sometimes, it is enough to reel

Beneath the surreal winnowing

Of sand within the hour-glass; we pass but once

This way of things

© Janet Martin