North-South-East-West Medley

The Nor'Easter Emptied his pockets before he reached us...not so where hubby is in standstill traffic in New Jersey...He is glad to be back to work but no driver chooses this weather

For a few days we enjoyed a southerly sonata... 

 ...now we have returned to a more seasonal northerly Br-r-r!

Bird-feeders blown bare and the birds unable to hang on...

...so they huddle in the bushes and settle for ground-feeding

The north unleashes gales that vex the earth

And bids us stoke the embers in the hearth

The east is like an arbor held at bay

Yet ushers in the ardor of new day

The south is like a maiden fair that sings

Of apple-trees in bloom and zephyr-wings

The west is like an orchestra that plays

As landscapes fondly fade from our gaze

Beautiful backdrops to toil’s humble quest

Awesome arrangements of north-south-east-west

© Janet Martin

Honorable Opportunist

 It's one of those mornings where everything felt a little heavier than I wished it did...

so I'm taking this as my verse for the day;

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, 

but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.

 Each of you should look not only to your own interests,  

but also to the interests of others.

Phil.2:3-4 

 Happy March 1st!!

Two years ago we were recovering from an ice-storm.

No matter what this day may hold

Lord, let me take its gray or gold

And turn each opportunity

Into love’s kind humility

…let me with honor recognize

The gift that in each moment lies

And always bear in mind this thought

To be faithful, whate'er my lot

…no matter what this day may bring

Soon comes dusk’s gentle severing

Then let me seek with humble heart

To kindly, meekly do my part

…to take this day, You, Lord, have lent

And make the most of each moment

To turn its gift of grace into

A hymn of thankful praise to You

…and always keep this goal in mind

To be generous, patient, kind

Not for the sake of vanity

But oh, my Lord, to honor Thee

Your death upon a cross for all
Makes worthy life's most common call
Then may Your love that sets man free
Be ever reflected through me

© Janet Martin

This morning seems mild as a lamb but there is rumblings of a lion waiting to roar...

After-effects Of Youth

...and just like that-- what ever 'That' might be

Is gathered up and one more month 

is simply history...

I stumble on a wisp of blue and peer through smoke-hued haze

To trace faces and places lost, save to my shut-eye gaze

Where abstract panoramas splay and echo’s shadow lies

Like tatters from a page splattered with tints of paradise

…where once upon the gentle spawn of dawn to dusk we sailed

Blind to the ocean of spent leaves beneath the tides we hailed

Wild with a thirst roused by the durst that fans the dreamer’s fire

And firsts we tasted then, blessed-cursed with notion and desire

…before the firsts that hurt a bit because we realize

The taste of haste is bittersweet and takes us by surprise

While we began becoming nothing like our fantasy

Seasons slipped past our windows like a stream slips to the sea

The berth of Bygone groans beneath the weightless weight of days

I fumble with the hue of blue pressed into yesterdays

Where I cannot impress upon the nonchalance of youth

How swift the green of seventeen is scorched with ageless truth

…or how time’s prow cuts through the Now that rolls across a shore

How looking back, is like a strange mirage of nevermore

How looking forward is an art; the heart soft-torn between

A place mired in memories and what has not yet been

© Janet Martin

A Gladsome Fact (especially when considering roads not taken yet)

My daily wish...to be as hungry for life as my little early-morning girl is for her breakfast; 

Almost every day her first words after removal of coat and boots are "I'm hungry!"

(I hate when my 'hunger' is overshadowed by apprehension instead of meek trust.)

"All gone!" she announces approx. two minutes later

Here, hidden within reach on roads we have not taken yet

We peer, with thought’s best guesses at perhaps-shaped silhouettes

For one sure fact, as time goes by, the trav’ler of it learns

That plan is interrupted oft, with unexpected turns

The range of here- to-there runs rife with life’s common foray

Yet, who can tell what waits to fill this shell of new today?

Where miles that wind and ties that bind are interwoven strings

As step by step unravels and unveils life’s hidden things

Ah, does your pulse thus quicken at the thought of what yet waits

Where mortal cups Immortal and but one breath separates

Does step-by-step and day-to-day don a more sacred grit

When we consider Time and the propensity of it

Here, on the threshold of what none of us beholds in full

We pray the Lord to guard and guide what twilight’s tide will lull

Where, hidden within in reach on roads soon only Thought can trace

We ought to trust the One that sets its stepping-stones in place

We speak a language learned by circumstance and consequence

Today is always history-in-waiting; we commence

On fringes of Imminence toward Today’s Vast Unknown

Oh, aren’t you glad of One Sure Fact; we never walk alone

© Janet Martin

Deut.31:8

 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."

A Wild-wind Wordle

 

it rattles the branches, maraca-style 
it scatters the birds that chatter and croon
it chases the girl with honey-sweet smile
across the edge of an afternoon
where crescendo of bared-teeth gale
shatters the silence that else would be
but for the blue-some winds that wail
as winter defies gravity
with ballads that electrify
the brooding poets blood-less sigh

Janet~

a little Wordle-fun on a wind-wild afternoon!

electrify farewell with kisses

Honey, time's blue-blooded flame

trembles with the bare essentials

of credentials without shame

where the crescendo of hours

shatters high noon's bird's-eye view 

as the dry bones of spent flowers

rattle down the avenue

until snagged in guttered edges

like a dream at middle-age

where teeth clench as twilight wedges

between Her and the next stage

Janet~