Unfettered

The world outside the windowpane is white with new-born snow

Where off-spring of time’s womb stirs in the cradle of the east

Mercy’s kind benediction spreads yesterday’s afterglow

Like oceans of compassion in a new and untried feast

We cannot see beyond the veil that drapes perception’s guess

Or tug it from the tresses where Now blesses us with Time

The beauty of love’s duty lays its yoke of brokenness

Across the air; hope and despair align in its design

We borrow from the Giver of time’s river ‘bless and keep’

And within this request upon love’s lane-ways we proceed

Assurance of endurance lies, not in our blind-eyed leap

But in the One who leads and satisfies each moment-need

The world outside the windowpane is white with new-born snow

Time’s off-spring beckons and behooves; come, savor every bite

Mercy’s kind benediction springs from whence all blessings flow

Where oceans of compassion rush unfettered, snowy-white

© Janet Martin


 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isa. 41:10

Fulltime Employment

 Click on image to enlarge...

Not in some fancied faraway

Where’ ifs’ and ‘buts’ bestow

Excuses; God wants us today

Right here, right now

Not in some more convenient ‘then’

Or pretty ‘when-isphere’

God desires our best for Him

Right now, right here

© Janet Martin

 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.James 4:13-14

When The Gift Is Wrapped In Silence...called Writer's Block

The will of want can be a taunting whisper that distracts

And tugs us from the purpose of The Call

The will of God invites us to trust Him when fear attacks

Then make His purpose our all in all

Sometimes thought is reluctant to deploy, its joy exiled

The head hollow where heart is heavy-weighed

And we wish words would spill like laughter of a little child

Instead, silence erects a barricade

But, if we have believed that He is able, by His might

We pray, then, humbly wait upon the Lord

Until He grants permission; it is by His grace we write

From Him, for Him, to Him, the gift of word

© Janet Martin  

Hour-power... a Sonnet

How swift you lay your head on twilight’s stair

The courtship of your pleasantry a-waft

Where hillsides splay blue friendships, shadow-soft

Upon a barricade twixt Here and There

Darling, the chimera of touching you

Provokes ineptness, still, I know I must

Embrace the air that vexes dust-to-dust

Before the color-fall of your adieu

Tell me then how to love you; how can I

Be all that I can be before good-bye?

Tie ribbons, azure-noon, into my hair

Tease me with more than toil’s rigid demand

And teach me how to trust wanderlust’s hand

Lest I forfeit her freeing gait for care

And oh, may I do more than tolerate

Your steady dispensation; let me thrive

And prove with gladness that I am alive

Even as we approach yon Parting Gate

Then show me, ere the tolling of the bell

To be all that we can, before farewell

You are the kiss that breaks the bud-green seal

And when the bloom has borne its utter best

You are the fingers that lay it to rest

Where seed and husk to life and death appeal

The minute-hands upon wall-clocks dictate

Your rise and fall; a rolling, soulful surf

Where twilight rushes blue across the turf

That cradles seasons; longing’s surrogate

Darling, then love me tender, heart to heart

So I may learn to dance before we part

© Janet Martin

Dreamer's Doggerel

That full-bodied awareness

Of you slipping through me

‘Rouses within, a hurricane

Of soul-sweet agony

I know I cannot hold you

Nor ever let you go

This vexing paradox unlocks

A lover’s dance, soft-slow

My dear, I beg your pardon

But would you pause for me?

For I am not quite ready yet

To taste your memory

Then oh, sing to me sweet-heart
With half-shut starry eyes
Soft kiss me where the greedy air
Is hungry for good-byes

© Janet Martin

~No man can tame the

tick-tock

of a

 clock~