For Joy In Spite of Sorrow (a Thankfulness poem)

Many from our church community are mourning the passing of a beloved man (Doug Barnes) today

gone from the pain of cancer to the Gain of Meeting his Master!

Therefore we do not mourn as those who have no hope...

Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, 

so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.

 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 

we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.…

1 Thess.4:13-14

Thank-you gracious Heavenly Father,

...for grace that first makes possible the faith to which we cling

And bids us bear with humble prayer life’s burr-and-nettle sting

For hope that helps us through hard times that hone faith’s sightless eyes

For Word infallible lest truth be twisted into lies

For Goodness to refuel love exactly where we are

For mercy’s kind renewal where dawn dims the morning star

For Beauty’s kind surprises none can claim the credit for

But marvel at He who grants glimpses of a distant shore

For seed instilled with yield enough to feed five-thousand plus

For Wisdom when knowledge is not enough to answer us

For One who never changes in an ever-changing world

But sets His Cornerstone beneath Time’s groaning days unfurled

For purpose so much purer than the gain and pride of lust

For peace past understanding though we suffer what we must

And when we reach the Parting that approaches day by day

What joy to know a Greeting/Meeting waits to wipe all tears away

© Janet Martin 

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