August's To-do List

 Ah-h-August!

...to oblige August’s smallest matters of must

Like soaking in saunas of sunbeam and dust

Like lying beneath boundless heath of blue skies

Listening to the flutter of leaf-butterflies

Or drinking the ink of pink clover or rose

Or tracing the lace of Queen Ann’s scattered clothes

To waste not a flicker of quickening reach

To taste wonder dripping like juice from a peach

To not be too hurried to take a tea-break

Complete with a slice of  Southern Lemon Cake 

To stand face to face with a handsome sunflow'r

And count only kisses, not the day or hour

To watch from grass-bleachers dusk’s nightly showdown

To wade through wildflowers, waist-deep and wind-blown

To walk in slow-motion floors stubbly with gold

Aware of an ocean no shoreline can hold

To ponder while sitting too long on creek-banks

Ten-thousand sound reasons for giving God thanks

(For of the four seasons we treasure and toast

I think in August I love summer most)

To touch time for what it is; His grace unbound

To take off our shoes as we tread holy ground

To gather the goodness of garden and field

Heedful of the harvest that Last Breath will yield 

© Janet Martin

Mid-August Memento

 With a tender twinge I wish you all a Happy mid-August!

Wind woos in woodland, across August’s main

Sun starts its trek to the west once again

Dream-lands of summer are starting to shrink

Fact scrawls its matter in memory-ink

Causing the mother and poet to pause

Beneath arbors of vibrant leaf-applause

Knowing that nothing can revert the path

That always leads to summer’s aftermath

Quickening pulses with a stirring sense

Of bloom-bowers bending with recompense

Where Beauty, brimming with barley and rye

Soon splays stilled sashes beneath brooding sky
Bidding, nay begging, our bustle to slow
Before our footfalls are muffled by snow

© Janet Martin

Secret to Joy

  I prayed for strength... 

He gave me joy

The joy of the Lord is my strength. 

Neh.8:10

There’s a sacred joy in living when we learn to find kind worth

In each day that we are given by God of Heaven and earth

When we start to serve the Master with a more determined quest

Then the heart is filled with honour and the urge to give our best

…and the task that may seem common to the seeker of ‘success’

Is not the defining factor when it comes to happiness

…and the stumbles and the tumbles and the messes that man makes

Do not seem quite as defeating as we learn from our mistakes

…as we hear the Higher Calling in whatever lot we bear

Then we start to learn the secret of a joy beyond compare

As we prize the priceless treasure of God’s grace whereby man goes

We begin to taste the measure of joy only He bestows

© Janet Martin

The Heart Is Tender In Its Youth...

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,

 before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say,

 "I find no pleasure in them"--

Eccles.12:1 

 Our church-family is blessed with many young families and LOTS

of tender hearts so it is no small wonder that one dear mother got emotional as she extended an invitation for volunteers to help with these precious not-for-long-littles!

(Of course, then I got choked up too because it reminded me why I do what I do...

sometimes on exhausting days it's easy to forget!)

Smile!! I say to grand-sonny, and this is what I got😊😂

The heart is tender in its youth

Like mist-kissed earth in early morn

How easy to believe the truth

Before the way of want is worn

And torn between belief and doubt

As logic from the liar’s snare

Begins to tamper with the sprout

That took root in youth’s perfect prayer

The heart is wicked at its best

Soon, soon the nest must yield its brood

Soon innocence falls prey to test

And clarity is misconstrued

As virtue and vice vex the place

That in the green of life was sure

Before the enemy of grace

Attempted to invade and lure

The heart is always soft at first

But soon its nature is portrayed

Through seed whereby mankind is cursed

Since Eve and Adam disobeyed

But Jesus paid sin’s debt we owed

Since Eden’s grief; At Calvary

Where only a Perfect Lamb’s blood

Was fit to set the captive free

The heart is tender in its youth

Then pray we take the time to fill

Its precious chalice with the truth

That soon the world will try to kill

But pray by then Truth’s roots run deep

So when the Tempter tugs and tries

With wolves that masquerade as sheep

The heart will know God’s truth from lies

© Janet Martin

Prelude to Farewell

It melts like summer snow

The opulence of green

Begins to fade in preludes played

By hands sensed but unseen

Sky-tide of blue and rose

Primes a persuasive pull

It fills a cup then tips it up-

Side down and drops the hull

A velvet vortex whirls

And wakes a tug that wars

With hugs and waves where mother braves

A world of swinging doors

She draws around her heart

The present like a prayer

Because she knows how ebbs and flows

Dissolve into thin air

To melt like summer snow

The flower-frosted fell

Where all that is sweetens the kiss

That leads toward farewell

…and sheaf of season spent

As winnowing of husk

Spirals aloft where echoes waft

On autumn’s early dusk

© Janet Martin

'It gets light quite early', suggested a well-meaning friend
when we were discussing trying to get my fill of biking this summer...
 but, I like to see my son before he leaves for work at 7
 (I'll always cherish the memory of his acknowledgement-grunt
 to my good morning salutations, usually something like
 'Have a good day' or 'have a safe day' or 'Don't forget to shine today' etc. 😁)
then soon after he leaves childcare day begins.
So I just go biking whenever it works in because earth is telling us summer is fading fast!