For Old Man Winter's Shining Hour

 I found the above old book a few months ago, 

a chapter for each month written by a woman (after my own heart) in Connecticut...

but very relatable in Canada as well!

Weather certainly has come in capital letters this week!

Hubby is in Winnipeg with a brand new truck and frozen fuel!

Fellow, famous for your grit

For our love or hate of it

You don’t seem to mind a bit

Owning center stage

Seething in each crease and crook

Stirring love for tea and book

Making home the sweetest nook

While your tempers rage

While you tweak cheeks, nose and toes

While you shake Nature’s repose

While you make yourself at home

Right outside each door

Tumbling, rumbling, reeling g-r-r-r

Big, burly, breath-stealing b-r-r-r

Sparkling stillness, starred silver

Want and wonder war

Season of quilted desires

Frozen water-pipes, home-fires

Icicles like crystal spires

Fringe each rooftop’s edge

Where earth’s frozen floorboards creak

Where our hasty footsteps squeak

Where the birdie fills its beak

With God’s seeded pledge

Shovels, skates, skis and snow-shoes

Landscapes draped in hoary hues

Vantage filled with varied views

Of you, foe or friend

Old Man Winter, shine your hour

Flaunt your frigid super-pow’r

For with each day you devour

You hasten your end

While you leap with cold, bold stride

Fling your fortune far and wide

We smile at your foolish pride

Knowing one sure thing

With each flurry that you flail

With each fierce frost bitten gale

Slowly, surely you unveil

Earth’s rebirth, sweet spring

© Janet Martin

Like Quaint Quilt Patches

On Sunday a few friends and I marveled at the artistry

 in the quilts on display at a local restaurant (Crossroads:) 

A quilt is a one-of-a-kind-work-of-art!

A little like each of our lives; bits and pieces stitched together!

Today's moments would make quite the patch-work quilt,

 I thought as I 'arranged' some of its colors while others spilled, splashed and crumbled into place...

I love snowy kitchen-days and the tots didn't seem to mind either!

A few today-quilt-patches...

Good to be busy and thoughtful and thankful

Good to be glad in Time’s tête-à-tête verge

Good to be helpful and happy and humble

Making the most of mere moments that merge

Like quaint quilt-patches into the big picture

Drawing us oft to a soft, surreal cast

To marvel at the fine stitches and tincture

That turned from everyday life into Past

Good to be gentle while tuned to a spindle

Holding a wheel that unravels the thread

Weaving a fabric of freckle and brindle

Pink, periwinkle, gold, green, sapphire, red

Gold and gray shimmers of dirt-floor and rafter

Pastel and neon frays of hand and heart

Turning the colors of yearning and laughter

Into a one-of-a-kind-work-art

© Janet Martin

On the other side of the window B-R-R!!
On this side, COZY!
Thank-you, Lord

With Whisper and Heave-ho or On The Bright Side

Well, on the bright side, I said to myself, after some recent turn-of-events,

At this point I will never be tempted as in the parable of the rich fool, to say

"Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years;

take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry"

 Luke 12:13-21

 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,

 and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 

Are you not much more valuable than they? 

 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Matt.6:26-27

Time is a troubadour etching its verses

Into the fabric of wish-weathered strife

His hearty hunger never reimburses

That which becomes the sum of love and life

We choose the attitudes whereby we carry

Worship or worry into dawn’s domain

While with each whisper and heave-ho we bury

That which will never pass this way again

Change is a constant but so is God’s mercy

Trust is a prayer-warrior oft put to test

Hearts are both battle-grounds and humble havens

Cherishing comforts, accepting the rest

© Janet Martin

Break of Day

 This Time of year we have front-row seats to break of day!

We rouse to watch dawn draw away

Dark, vaulted, velvet hold of stars

To splay on earth’s east fringe, flushed bars

That ushers in the break of day

Through far-off floodgates pours God’s might

That none can dam, detain or thwart

Across shorelines of hope and hurt

Proceeds a tidal wave of Light

Through streets of snow the workers go

Where through much change much stays the same

In ups and downs, smiles, frowns, praise, blame

In more-we-learn-the-less-we-know

Til this; the kiss-and-tell of time

Takes everybody by surprise

While we marvel at death’s disguise

Rose-ribboned dust of rhythm and rhyme

…oft jolted by matters of fact

Borne in hands work-worn, eyes tear-starred

Where aftermath, toil-soiled, hurt-scarred

Still leaves God’s promises intact

© Janet Martin

Shameless Confession

p-s-s-s-t...here is a glimpse of 'him' and all before noon... on a Monday!!!

Mind you there were some messier, not photo-ed shots as well, like

'let's shake my sippy cup til its empty while Grandma's on the phone trying to solve some of the world's problems, then let's splash! 

and, let's see how many marbles fit in my mouth

(also while Grandma was on the phone, round two, dealing with round one 'reason'😐)

(yes, grandma should know better than giving a toddler marbles but we had great fun with them til I turned my back and he climbed up to where Grandma had set the jar, she thought, safely,

so a think-twice lesson for her/me!)

Still, I'm shamelessly in love with a 'guy' that does not let me down easy,

does not save me from my choices 

but grants lots of second-dances and new-day romances, 

mostly with messes without roses

so, you might be thinking this poem is going to be about my grandson, but it's not really...
he, along with everyone/everything else I love is part of this poem!

Oh, you win me over somewhat like a lover

Woos his beloved, the belle of his dreams

For I am a maiden easily betaken

With the love-language of meadows and streams

Oh, write me a river that winds ‘neath the shiver

Of poplar-quiver, silver in the sun

Play me an evening of long shadows leaning

Against the hill where the wild geldings run

Strum me a serenade better than Mozart played

Simple seduction of wind-tousled trees

Darling, I am betrothed to your melody clothed

In common threads of almost-memories

Oh, you win be over with pom-poms of clover

Tassels of goldenrod, star-veneered snow

Let’s take the long way home through the lines of a poem

Let’s linger longer and not hurry so

Oh, there is no Mundane Monday with you, honey

Money can't purchase what you and I have

You will be faithful and I will be grateful

You will be truthful and I will (try to) be brave

Amiable Romeo, my, but I love you, oh

Your touch tells me more than ‘much words’ can say

Father Time, what a fool I’d be to play it cool

I’ll fall in love with you every day

© Janet Martin