Sweet Saturday

 Saturday is the only Linger-longer morning of the week  (if I so choose)

for Muse is always torn between the tug of out-doors and household chores

 Goot guplanned is holva Kshafft is lightly translated to A good plan is half work done 😉

Dear Saturday,

You roll your gritty carpet to the throne of thrift and thought

And I must choose whether to muse or grab a broom and mop

You toss a lure of second coffees past lists of to-do

And I must choose whether to linger longer or 'hop-to'

You tease the ease of moments with whispers half-blessed, half-cursed

For I must choose whether to work or write a poem first

© Janet Martin

Live With Nothing To Hide

Live so you can look

Your fellowman

Straight in the eye

Know what you believe

And greet each day

With ‘try’(not 'why')

Trust God,

Lest you shoulder

Worry’s heavy load

Forgive,

Lest you travel

Anger’s bitter road

Love,

Let compassion

And kindness plant seeds

Pray,

Lest you forget

Where this life leads

© Janet Martin

Only Through Jesus

 Without Truth, we are apt to believe anything!

 

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  

 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32

Green fields cannot save us

Nor Beauty’s applause

In flower gardens

Or mist-morning’s gauze

Or children’s laughter

Or silver-blue surf

As it rolls to the fringes

Of solid-ground turf

Good words cannot save us

Good deeds but a curse

Without perfect power

Of Jesus in us

Only through Him

Can we conquer the grave

Only His name

Is mighty to save

© Janet Martin

 God is not human, that he should lie, 

not a human being, that he should change his mind. 

Does he speak and then not act? 

Does he promise and not fulfill?

Numbers 32:19

With Nothing But Kind Thought...

Yesterday some of us traveled those dusty roads to the Past as we lived some Good Old Days of the Goldstone General Store. It reminded me of something my dad used to say not exactly like this but with the same meaning; the reason we have Good Old Days is because Time has a way of smoothing away sharp edges leaving only scenes of loveliness to fondly cherish.

It's like wishing for summer in winter...

we forget its extreme fatigue and unrelenting task-master 

as we wander its perfect flower fields

in perfect temperatures!

Beneath the frozen autographs of snow drifts and ice jams

A world of brooks and gardens waits to laugh and leap like lambs

This connoisseur of frosted lures and glitter-tulle knee-deep

Will soon indulge meadow and moor with buttercups and sheep

Desire digs its heels into the hub of skin and bones

Its appetite appeals to hunger’s ever-present thrones

Time’s ceremonial season-tide excites the dreamer’s thirst

Then washes to the other side of reach, echo-immersed

The steaming mugs we hug to gratify both taste and touch

Are like little vacations from Duty’s demands and such

One season to another lends both hunger and reprieve

As all that we hold dear becomes part truth, part make-believe

Beneath the lathe that smooths sharp edges and hard to-do list  

A precious wonderland evolves, swathed in soft purple mist

With pain of toes we stubbed and strain of loads we lugged forgot

As we recall fond days gone by with nothing but kind thought

© Janet Martin  

Rest In Peace, Lois

 Rest in Peace, Lois

and thank-you for the fond memories! 

In all the years I knew Lois two things never changed; her smile and her hair-colour!

 I took some photos of photos in an album from 1983, 

the year the Goldstone General Store closed its doors.

Oh, how I wish I would have one photo of the candy counter, our childhood paradise

and motivator of many a garden-fare picked and podded, husked etc!

A nickel for every cup of peas we podded, now, 

that was incentive to be careful not to spill your bowl or eat too many!

The patience of 'the store-keeper' has impressed all of us Martin-children as we recall our lengthy escapades at the candy-counter, while her kitchen-chores waited, a few steps away!

We, wide-eyed with a dime to spend

Would stand and debate without end

(it must have seemed to she who smiled)

…and waited as the Martins whiled

Her precious afternoon to end

Because we had a dime to spend

And tried to stretch each cent somehow

As far as candies would allow

Or bubble-gum, like graperoo

(With it you got a cartoon too)

And if the whole stick you dared to ‘waste’

You could blow bubbles as big as your face

Or, would blackballs be the best deal?

Two for a penny, that’s twenty! A steal

But then that would mean no candy hearts

Or licorice or delicious sweet-tarts

Or fun-dip, or sugar straws or lollipops

So much to choose from in candy shops

And the floor would squeak beneath our feet

As we gazed at a wonderland of sweets

Where there’s a lot of angles to contend

With when you have a dime to spend

Sometimes as we mulled over facts of money

Lois would slice a pound of baloney

And tend to another neighbour or two

Who hurried in and out with far more to do

Than stare through the stars in their eyes to decide

Which flavour would accompany tasks tonight

© Janet Martin