Winter Wind (or something like it)

He moans about the chimney-flue

And stokes a sudden flame within

They leap like shadows thin and blue

Like ballads from a violin

Where farewell feels like next of kin

And whispers keel and tug and woo

Upon the wave of dusky hue

That plays upon earth’s pallid skin

His kiss is cold and she is old

-er than she was, she knows full well

And no one told her of the smould-

-er that can fill dusk’s raven swell

With hugs that hurt too hard to spell

And all the words that would unfold

Get lost somewhere out in the cold

Like stars that sparked the dark and fell

© Janet Martin

On Cherishing the Beauty of Duty

No time at all to 'wax poetic', ever, these days,

I commented to Victoria on a full-of-Duty's-Beauty-and-interruption-Saturday,

(not as a complaint but merely as a conscious choice to remember

to treasure the measure of Now!)

...before the house turns quiet save for the tiptoe of echoes!

One of the moment-gold nuggets is 'summer-goodness' mid-winter!

These are not the days

When moments run

Like jazz through veins

Or Time is plush

Soft, like a brush

Of unrushed summer rains

These are days

Of Duty’s Beauty

Full of giving’s common call

Authoring the

Precious echoes

Of love’s finest days of all

These are the days

Of have and hold

And moment-gold's copious heaps

Before the quiet

Aftermath

Where busy-mess of living sleeps

© Janet Martin

Of War-Lords and Score-Boards

No one knows

But God

The bergs and floes

Of wars within

The woes and foes

We battle with

Beneath these

Common

Clothes of skin

Or how the Poet

And the Person

Are often at

Utter odds

Between the verses

His love authors

And the curses

Lust applauds

And how to unlearn

Selfish pity

or keep score

where urges  brim

With forces that

conflict with 

"less for me

and

all for Him"

© Janet Martin

 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, 

do it all for the glory of God.

1 Cor.10:31

A Long Series Of Efforts...

"His poetry, regarded as a whole is a long series of efforts to achieve this end."

From James Cappon’s commentary on Bliss Carmen’s personal quest regarding the poetry he wrote.

 the phrase 'a long series of efforts' kinda gathered up 

some dangling frays/phrases in my head and heart today!

Write what you know ‘they’ say, so I

Ponder what I have learned and such

To realize, as time goes by

My boast of knowledge isn’t much

But still, in all that I’ve been through

I guess I’ve learned a thing or two

…beauty is easy to believe

A heart of love, hard to achieve

Until, we see with humble bent

How e’very breath is Mercy lent

And everything we strive toward

Is but a blessing from the Lord  

Contentment none can hold in hands

The heart must mine its golden sands

To find, with kind humility

The tender joy of you and me

Where gloating gods of selfish pride

Are never fully satisfied

...and life is always, in the end

A long series of efforts, friend

Then it befits us to be kind

For we’re all first-timers, half-blind

And no one gets a trial run

Before the real race is begun

The Showcase of sunrise and set

Will ever sighs of awe beget

And no artist’s brush can surpass

The perfection of heaven’s class

But earth-bound students look and learn

From He who owns the praise we earn

...and for what holds our high esteems

We always find the time, it seems

No matter how hard we pretend

Our true colors show in the end

Because choice is the voice that tells

The truth we veil in crafty shells

All that we know, save Word of God

Is subject to Time’s outstretched rod

Where change insists upon its law

But cannot shake The Truth, aha

 The Ultimate that we all crave

Does not lead to, but through the grave

Harsh words will hurt at any age

And books are more than ink on page

Then those who write should recognize

The extent of their smitten sighs

And hold accountable the jot

That has the power to sway thought

…and thought is the author of touch

And touch becomes the act and such

…oh, such is life, act hinged to act

A binge of fantasy and fact

Where life is always in the end

A long series of efforts, friend

…and who/Who we do it for will be

Our god/God for all eternity

© Janet Martin

 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, 

whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; 

all things have been created through him and for him. 

 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Col.1:15-17 


 

Basking in the Beauty (of love's gift)

Worship's invitation-card Designer went all out this morning; Hope scrawled on golden parchment!
Stunning.

Bask in the beauty of love's gift

That fills the fading air

A token of redemption lifts

The veil that jailed our stare

Sight scales the sweeps of paling stars

Light stirs the countryside

As gold-gilt gateways swing ajar

No access is denied

But beckons to both most and least

To taste, from trays that brim

With trust-in-God’s replenished feast

The gift that comes from Him

© Janet Martin