But Ah, Ink

Sometimes after a particularly draining day

 I need a good poem-purge before I tackle the tail-end of tasks 😊

You walk through rooms that talk cannot quite enter, but ah, ink

Can drown out frowning skeptics and the fear that of what They think

You put your arm around my sigh and draw me to that place

Where chaos and commitment and clemency interlace

You do not bid me hurry for the clock is running out

But like a patient teacher you encourage when I doubt

You listen while I pour out fondest joy and deepest woe

And never tell me halfway through, ‘excuse me, I must go’

You probe beneath the surface, go where none have gone before

And urge the poet onward till the surge rushes the shore

You bid her brave the waters that her voice would never dare

Until your ink-splurge fathers something akin to a prayer

© Janet Martin

Dear September...(on behalf of summer-lovers)

Then fill the afternoon with staccato of cricket trill

Lead us into temptation just to linger and be still

To revel where the bevel of blue sky is growing pale

As we sense nature revving up for autumn’s wild exhale

Then saturate the waning days of summer with warm gold

The wander-lands that you command are lovely to behold

Where flower-borders seem to burst with colour’s numbered days

Ere first frost extinguishes fronds like candles snuffed of blaze

Then forgive us if we decide to take the slow way home

And marvel at the countryside unfolding John Keats’ poem

Where something in our heart of hearts seems tied to Time’s intent

And feels the tug of orchards, fields and gardens, harvest bent

Then wend your way to What Must Be but do not hasten so

Grant us permission to be sentimental as you go

To watch the tumbling bee bumble from bloom to bloom to bloom

To laugh while summer’s farewell autograph runs out of room

Then let us soak in saunas made of moments steeped in mist

And let us lie beneath the sighing arc of leaves, sun-kissed

And let us lavish with fond gaze, the days we dearly love

Because, it seems like summer is never quite long enough

© Janet Martin

Sacred, Sacred Stakes

Why hearts are held in constant prayer

Why we love, labour and prepare

And care for more than daily bread

Or what before our gaze is spread

Why what we choose with conscience chaste

Runs deeper than mere touch and taste

While dreams we dream and plans we make

Cannot forget what is at stake

Why we work with Harvest in mind

Why Truth is something we must find

And why we cannot turn blind eyes

To those who scorn that which we prize

And why we shudder to the core

At what some would dare to ignore

So this is why we pray and pray

For people who have lost their way

…and why we oh, so deeply grieve

For those who choose not to believe

And why we lie awake at night

On their behalf, to fight the fight

Against dark princes of the air

And plead that God their life would spare

Until their heart and will would break

Awed by the life that is at stake

…why therefore we cannot afford

To cease to lay before the Lord

The agony of sorrow stirred

In utter groans too deep for word

And why the whisper of the clock

Bids one and all to take full stock

Of dreams we dream and plans we make

For these are deathless souls at stake

© Janet Martin

 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: 

and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Eccles.12:7

 
John 3:18
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him."

Love...or the Lack Thereof

 And above all things have fervent love for one another,...

1 Pet.4: 8

 Let's love like a flower in full bloom and make the world beautiful right where we are!

Lack of love brings

Lack of joy

Lack of joy brings

Lack of praise

Lack of praise brings

Lack of thanks

To He who grants us

All our days

© Janet Martin

Sacred Spending Spree

Happy Spending Spree on this glorious September Day!

May all that we 'purchase' be to give away...for the Giver's Glory!

All that we have the Good Lord gave

Though sometimes we forget

And think somehow we earned the ‘wow’

That butters our bread

Time’s teeny wink of say and think

Links to eternity

The gifts God grants a one-life chance

To use them carefully

Who, but Great God can claim the laud

Of health or wealth we boast/host

Ah, how one spends what His grace lends

Proves who we love the most

So then we ought with prayerful thought

To invest in far more

Than This small gust of dust-to-dust

And money’s futile score

For all we have the Good Lord gave

Thus no one can defend

Entitlement to one red cent

Of what He gave to spend

© Janet Martin

 Then He told them a parable: 

“The ground of a certain rich man produced an abundance.

So he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?’

Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, 

and there I will store up all my grain and my goods.

Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. 

Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. 

Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

This is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God.”