For the Members of Time's Choir...

Morning rain-drops 

tap-dance a tittle-tune 

on  wide-eyed windows ...

These tiny dancers 

have left their glass-galoshes at home, 

unlike a few days before!!

Mercy of new morning graces

Time’s waysides of toil and test

We, from our perspective places

Turn our faces to the west

Break thy bit of bread from Heaven

From these crumbs of give and take

Comes a testament of living

Ere we lie where none will wake

From the doorway of man’s longing

Hope, like a scepter of fire

Lights the sheet-music of morning

For the members of time’s choir

Warriors of faith and duty

We take up love’s tools of trade

Walk the way of wraithlike beauty

In this day the Lord has made

Life and death, ah, half-breath barrier

Poised upon time's skiff of sod

Where this dust sails to the hour

That unveils the face of God

© Janet Martin

'look at all these buds', cried Victoria, 'that will never bloom!'

...and a little later she remarked thoughtfully, 'there are a lot of metaphors for life here...'

Reason to Sing

 Yesterday as the choir assembled for the last practice before today's performance the fellow who opened our meeting prayed and thanked God for always giving us reason to sing!

 (We are trying to recover from another ice storm. Glad our electricity is back! Soon after the previous post we joined those who were out of power...hydro-power, that is;-) The electricity is back but not the trees! many lost trees! We, at our house are mourning the loss of our red maple and a big piece of our Manitoba Maple!)

In spite of the sudden way life changes gears

And thus reminds us of all time endears

In spite of how smiles can end in love’s tears

God gives us reason to sing

In spite of all that we once held then lost

As we learn how to love what matters most

Counting with new, humble rev’rence, its cost

God gives us reason to sing

In spite of all that is waiting to be

Poured between future and soon-history

Where its fulfillment nobody can see

God gives us reason to sing

Sing for the love that will never forsake

Sing for the hope that tunes every day break

Sing for the mercy and grace we partake

From God who gives reason to sing

© Janet Martin

It's been a hectic and wearing few days but today was spent with family and friends, counting blessings and remembering the reason we have to sing...

"Why do you seek the living One among the dead? "He is not here, but He has risen!

Luke 24:5-6

Hope is the joy we celebrate not only on Easter Day but Every Day!

Hallelujah!

Hope to share more photos on the morrow!

March Casanova

Hush, hush, my love, he murmurs in a summer-tone of dreams

Soon, soon you will be lolling by time’s turquoise-tinted streams

There, there, don’t fret; soon you’ll forget this flurry-flustered fray

For history has never failed us; spring will have Her way

And she will spill her daisies, she will thrill yon hill with bloom

And fill the rill with laughter, plant pansies on winter’s tomb

And tickle trees with fine-spun breeze and tease the roving gaze

With green in every shade and sheen foreign to painter-trays

Hush, hush, my love, soon the dull grove will wade knee-deep in flow’rs

Soon, soon, the promises of June will tune time’s tight-lipped bow’rs

There, there, don’t fret, for never yet has Time forgotten Her

Hush, hush, methinks I hear a song of pinks and purples stir

© Janet Martin

Winter-tantrum

 

No, no, the patriarch of winter brutishly declares

I will not saunter quietly into the placid past

For I am not quite ready to relinquish the affairs

 Of all things white and boreal to a forgotten cast

And so he balls his fist and pummels Nature’s readied stance

He tromps across the boulevards bedecked in Wakening

With rancor, like an enraged bull he buffets the romance

Of Countryside all starry-eyed at suggestions of spring

The numbering of days is not in his favor, he knows

And lashes at the windows barred and shuttered to his wail

No sympathetic door swings wide to usher in his throes

So he unleashes woes in marble epitaphs of hail

He overstays his welcome like a guest without a room

A noisy mutineer, he blusters with threats bold and vile

Attempting to fluster the maiden with arms full of bloom

…he seems to sense to disarm him all she will do is smile

© Janet Martin

Already many power-outages in this storm…another ice-storm!

All schools near and far are CLOSED!

So, the silver lining under the silver coating is a longer long week-end which might be spent cleaning up tree branches and downed power-lines!

This hourly forecast is cause for concern! According to this, freezing rain will continue until 3:00 p.m!

 ...and still, in spite of it all, finches flock to the flailing feeders!

Not Forsaken!

To the utter depths of darkness

Beams the steadfast light of Love

Into every hurt and heartache

Pours its passion like a dove

God, have mercy on our sorrow

God, let your Presence be known

Thou who didst bear every horror

Hears our pleading, needing groan

We are tried but not forsaken

Perplexed, but not in despair

For we know someday we’ll waken

Far and free from this world’s care

Though we stumble, God upholds us

Though we crumble, still we stand

For, to utter depths of darkness

Streams the love from Nail-scarred Hands

© Janet Martin

We remember the hurting in Brussels and include in those prayers a plea for those the whole world over where headlines of hurt and suffering could fill fathoms. God is faithful...

... we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; 

perplexed, but not despairing;  

persecuted, but not forsaken; 

struck down, but not destroyed;  

always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, 

so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.…

2 Cor 4:8-10