Blessed Assurance

Sometimes the ebb and flow of come and go and low and high

Where nothing is quite like it used to be in days gone by

Can make us long for joy and song where wars of wrong and right

Make pitfalls out of fortune and stumbling blocks out of sight

Until we flee to He whose law and love are undeterred

Securing us with calmness to the anchor of His word

Sometimes the sapphire awning of mid-morning in July

Is not enough and even love can drain our laughter dry

When second miles are long and hard and smiles dissolve in tears

And worldly explanations blab but cannot assuage fears

Until with hunger groaning for more than babble absurd

He quiets us with wonder in the fullness of His word

Sometimes the cruelty of tongue can steal ones breath away

With such an utter sadness that we don’t know what to say

The brokenness of humankind would lead to gross despair

Without hope’s ageless promises greater than loss or care

As we, with earnest yearning find the grace that leaves us stirred

And overcome with gladness at the pureness of His word

Sometimes the heart breaks, smarts and aches and takes more than hug-kiss

To heal the sorrows of the soul that touch of skin can miss

For we will always need more than the pomp and pride of boast

To fill the howling void that gapes within our uttermost

Where nothing will appease with peace until our will is spurred

To seek soul-saving comfort in the sureness of His word

© Janet Martin

 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:17

Of Bedrocks, Beauty and Belief

We hone, with common skin and bone

Life-lessons we are taught

And sharpen on time’s silk and stone

The ilk that cradles thought

The beauty of the earth, it seems

Is immune to man’s quirks

But lays its best beneath our dreams

In nature’s faultless works

As we, mindful or not, of God

Glimpse hints of heaven-dust

And trample with feet mercy-shod

Its stomping ground of trust

What hope we hold in human hearts

If we are not deceived

For Hope is that which God imparts

To we who have believed

Lord, be the hope in us this day

The bedrock of each thought

Lest we be tricked by heathen sway

And live this life for naught

Temptation does not change its tone

In spite of changing views

Where we, with common skin and bone

Worship the God we choose

© Janet Martin

Minute-Metaphysics

Sometimes we feel the reel of it

In nothing but the ‘steal’ of it

Across the hill at dusk a bit

Or in the still of dawn

But often in the dream of it

We lose sight of its scheme a bit

While balancing the stream of it

With bridges we walk on

Sometimes we sense the slip of it

And try to drink the drip of it

While grappling with the grip of it

This Thing that disappears

But often in the thick of it

We overlook the quick of it

And how the steady tick of it

Turns moments into years

Sometimes we clutch the Much of it

And struggle with the Such of it

While learning ‘neath the touch of it

About both joy and strife

But often in the heat of it

We undermine the beat of it

And how the bittersweet of it

Turns years into a life

© Janet Martin

Meaning of Life

What, the meaning of this sorrow

Where tomorrow wears a veil

And the fantasies we borrow

Are distorted with travail

What, the meaning of the hour

That can drain youth’s lithesome stride

With naught but morn’s newborn flower

And its grave on eventide

What, the meaning of this hunger

That no treat can satisfy

While our looking back grows longer

As time dwindles its supply

What, the meaning of this flicker

Soon it fades in Farewell’s seal

In a sepulcher of echoes

That nobody can repeal

What the meaning, oh my darling

Of each kiss, each tear, each sigh

That, in the grand-scape of living

Always leads us to good-bye

What, the meaning of these seasons

Veneer on earth’s earthy scrim

Ah, the Giver grants the reason

It is our means back to Him

© Janet Martin

If we think life is not worth its strife and plod

We under-estimate Heaven, my love

And oh, we under-estimate God