Friday, June 16, 2017

Of Age-old New



 This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Ps.118:24



This is the day the Lord has made’
A gift to humankind
How much more dear its promenade
If we keep this in mind

From formless deeps its goodness seeps
Through fathoms none can scale
The faithful light of morning keeps
His words that will not fail

Dawn dances on dew-dappled girth
It haloes petal-plume
It pours Time’s newness from a berth
Beyond earth’s living room

Then praise the Lord for all things new  
The old never replayed
Then we should raise a new song too
For this day He has made

© Janet Martin

Thursday, June 15, 2017

It's Almost Summer



It dawned on me at dusk...we are halfway through June.
How can that be?! Slow down, sweet June night-morning-afternoon...
 I babysit for a few teachers and the school-year end is a highly stressful time. Tonight as I said 'hang in there, it's almost summer' it struck me....how those three words are surely one of the best combinations in the world! It's almost summer, not yet started meaning it's not quite close to being over yet! What do you love best about summer? For me it's everything!
(next day; okay, so I thought of one thing that I might not fully love about summer...
never-ending window-cleaning!:)



It’s almost summer
The land of fence lines
Laced with flowers wild
The place of high-noon holiday
And happy-go-lucky child
Of garden green
And shadows lean
On twilight’s golden slope
Of raindrop rivers overflowing
Wilted hearts with hope
Of flower-friends
And paths that bend
Up to the sky-wide blue
Of busyness and happiness
Of summer-life to-do
Of shores that splay
The waves that lay
Their songs upon the sand
Where bare feet loll
And lover’s stroll
The boardwalk hand in hand
Where morning pours
From honeyed jars
And youth is not an age
Where chicory
Bewitches ditches
Where brooks are fringed with sage
And gardens brim
With veggie-vim
And harvest hymn prelude
Where we drink in
The mauve-pink grin
Of platinum sun subdued
Of flip-flop feet
And iced tea, sweet
And pools of shaded deep
Of locust drone
Of lawns, fresh-mown
Where we lounge, half-asleep
Of work and play
And stay up late
And listen to the stars
And trespass where
The darkened air
Runs paler on dawn’s bars
Where pantomime
Of silk-spun Time
Is drenched with dust and dew
Where worlds are washed
With wonder of
Winter-long dreams come true
It’s almost summer
Land of roses
Sun-kissed, freckled grin
For, where the door of
Fair Spring closes
Summer rushes in

© Janet Martin

When It Rains...



 
When it rains kitchens become havens of slower, simpler joys
Tea and cookie celebrations; mom with little girls and boys
Supper salad veggie-ventures; rainbow-splashes in a dish
Upsy-daisy little fellow, eat as much joy as you wish



Pitter-patter, chitter-chatter, look, a hummingbird, that’s cool
Diamonds dripping, dancing slipping to a green-leaf garden pool
Afternoon is like a tune out of an old-time picture-show



When the sky unchains a strain of plush percussion, low then high
Kitchens like a midday beacon beckon loved ones to stop by
Humble home-sweet-home oasis graces lips with laughter’s vim
While outside a crooner traces twig and sprig with nature’s hymn



Silver sliver of a river quivers on each frond and flow’r
Wakens wilted wisps with heaven’s life-anointed mercy-show’r
Kitchen windows, doors swing open to welcome songs from the sky
Earth is like an Eden jeweled with glass rhinestone run awry

© Janet Martin

Very little equals the joy of listening to the music of a much-needed rain...
while dabbling in culinary arts!




Short and Sweet



What's filling your short sweetness these days... Below is a glimpse of mine;-)

This Dust of trust and lust and Must
Of fear and tear and kisses dear
Ordains intrinsic heart of us
With hope and faith and humble cheer

For what we have and hold soon folds
From here to there where far or near
The echo of love’s grays and golds
Drift back from Bygone’s belvedere

So then the yen of when-how-why
Does not let thought admit defeat
Because life's ken of try-try-try
We come to see, is short and sweet

© Janet Martin

This little gal is the epitome of short and sweet!

Of 'What Yet Waits To Be'





Gold beauty of ‘begin again’
Breaks through blue-bastioned lea  
It draws our feet to duty’s main
And what yet waits to be

The frame of what yet waits to be
That step by step endows
Is not some fate-contingent spree
But that which God allows

Then, though our hands and feet oft err
…students ‘neath Mercy’s wing
We, by the grace of God can bear
What ‘waits to be’ will bring

© Janet Martin

 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you;
he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
Deut.31:8