So Real, Yet So Surreal

 ...and just like that June has almost flashed by!!

Windows frame a panoramic Masterpiece where green and gold

‘Neath blue heavens sets the stage for cast of colour to unfold

Moments like mist-kissed ellipses melt and meld present to Past

What yet waits always eclipses whispers we are holding fast

Morning pours from doors up yonder to earth’s berth; we, passers through

Often overcome with wonder in a world of ‘nothing new’

Summer, like a silver sparkle slipping from a sumptuous vine

Enchants us with pink and purple snows of rose and columbine

We, all somewhat bound together by the weather and A Wheel

Find, in Farewell's seasoned tether, common ground and grind, surreal

Wanting nothing now but the momentous Moment, all we plead

We feel falling through our fingers like a slideshow gath’ring speed

© Janet Martin

Once Upon a Time and Place (that always steals the child away)

 Victoria ready for Prom

Once we were the ones who danced on heartstrings without second thought

Too young to stand still too long, where strong the tug-for-more besought

Once we wore the wings that fluttered far too fast to who-knew-where

Didn’t know that daddy’s heart was like a big, fat teddy bear

Once we were the son or daughter who turned mom’s heart inside out

Eager to test deeper waters in a world we heard about

Once we catered to the lion roaring behind rib-caged bars

Didn’t know her heart was like a dart-board bearing sacred scars/stars

Once upon a time and place that always steals the child away

We were heedless as the wind, of that which turns the dark tress gray

Once while mom and dad stood by we tried the tender ties that bind

Didn’t know how soon we would step into shoes they left behind

© Janet Martin

So thankful to the host of Victoria's pre-prom celebration...

She picked me up (as I was car-less today and not exactly living next door!)

 so I could enjoy the moment/memories

Ode to June (or a beginning of summer celebration song)

 I've been looking for a bit of time to write an ode 

to one of my favorite months that always flashes by!

 I didn't get a chance to write a First Day of Summer Poem this year

so I guess this is in place of...

Lane-ways lined with lily-looms

Bare feet planted in the dirt

Sky-wide outdoor living-rooms

Garden salad…for dessert

Flower-bower brogue beguiles

Who can resist summer’s sigh?

Sort of like a lover smiles

To his true love passing by

Green and silver concerto

Ripples across grassy bars

Where June’s flute and piano

Plays a tune of petal-stars

Breezes banter, trees reply

Composition, blue and jade

Beckons bee, bird, butterfly

To lush lilts of dappled shade

Now nature holds nothing back

Free-for-all long longed for show

Scatters beauty’s bric-a-brac

Anywhere that it can grow

Winds it round the weathered gate

Binds the wounds of earth with bloom

Nothing can quite compensate

For the tender touch of June

Climb dusk’s blue ladders of sod

Soft on lofty hillside laid

Reach and touch the hand of God

From the temple He has made

Wade with minnows in the brook

Linger longer, smell the rose

Live the pictures in a book

That soon June will gently close

© Janet Martin

Once More The Break of Day

Where like a bloom sheds bud’s dark brace, once more the break of day

Unfolds the flower of God’s grace to cheer us on our way

Once more the break of day extols God’s mercies, ever new

And sets beneath feet bearing souls, Time’s beaming avenue

Where hope hoists up its sail upon frail vessels made of dust

As we, like blind men trace the braille of humble faith and trust

Ahoy, ahoy, where sorrow-sacred joy buoys the heart

Where winds of change oft rearrange the courses that we chart

Where like a bloom sheds bud’s dark brace, once more the break of day

Unfolds the flower of God’s grace to cheer us on our way

Our Captain, like a father delights in giving good gifts

So we cling to His lifeline lest our sight-prone vessel drifts

And misses, at the end of days, the goal of Heaven’s shore

As we step out of vessels into Soul’s Forevermore

© Janet Martin

Because Not Everything That Glitters Is Gold

Desire without knowledge is not good—

 how much more will hasty feet miss the way!

Prov.19:2

I got this cute little box filled with sweets from a friend for my birthday...I agree, 

Life is a beautiful 'ride' but certainly not without hills, spills, bumps and bruises!
...and oh, those hasty leaps that we have a long time after to recover/learn from😐
Where would we be without a patient and merciful Father?!

Desire without knowledge is disaster’s recipe

This life is like a college, for students of vast degree

To leap without first looking is a sad way to crash-land

We should learn how to study with a shovel in our hand

The broken road we traverse is stream-lined with white-flagged graves

The surface of the Present does not showcase battles braved

Or how surrender, after stubborn will tenders its strife

Hoists up a tear-stained trophy, scarred with Want’s hard knocks of life

The fortune of our follies, love, can cause us to despair

But Mercy is a patient Father; none else can compare

And though the leap we took without first looking yields its fruit

God helps us (if we trust) to work it out for our good

….where we learn, after leaping that reaping is bittersweet

And anything worth keeping is not found on Easy Street

That the harvest of haste does not taste at all like we planned

…the sparkles of Desire like a big, mouthful of sand

© Janet Martin

Hard-fought Victory

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. 

If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, 

how great is that darkness!

Matt.6:23

Sometimes Mondays feel like its 'back to the boxing ring', right?!

Punch, jab, kick, goes life... 

hard to be eager for what a new week holds if ill-equipped!

Life/love is full of hard-aches, some beyond our control and some Self-inflicted😒🙃

Hard to see the beauty if the charge of Duty blinds

Hard to feel Hope’s gladness if the weight of worry binds

Hard to hear the music over noise of greed or fear

Hard to smell the roses if we never pause, my dear

Hard, hard to be happy if we serve the lord of self

Hard to know the truth if God’s word sits upon a shelf

Hard to taste life’s sweetness yet harbor a bitter grudge

Hard to love our neighbour if first we decide to judge

Hard to walk in Light where Guilt looks for the dark to hide

Hard to truly love if heart of hearts is filled with pride

Hard to help the needy with hands full of miser’s blood

Hard to find peace in this wicked, old world without God

© Janet Martin