A Wedding Blessing For Couples Getting Married During Covid-19

 Sometimes my oldest sister calls to ask if I have written or would/could consider writing a poem about a certain topic. This was such a time. She was looking for a poem to put in wedding cards where they are invited guests but are unable to attend due to social distancing. I am sharing it in hopes that it may bless and comfort the couples who do  not have the joy of a traditional wedding...

Love suffers long and it is kind; bears and believes all things

It endures and secures us in the troubles that life brings

Love never fails, the Great Sustain-er in times hard and strange

When cruel disappointment allows things we cannot change

Dear Lord, we know that You behold this lovely bride and groom

And how they miss what’s missing in the Ceremony Room

Then Lord, instill the absence of dear friends and family

With Your fulfilling Presence and love’s divine sympathy

Be near to we who are with them in thought if not in form

Grant us Thy perfect peace, (not as the world gives) in this storm

Satisfy pain with promises that nothing can replace

Surprise the bitter blow with joy possible by Your grace

Thou, Favoured Wedding Guest, fill emptiness with comfort sweet

Lord, bless this day with happiness and make their joy complete

Where, as from this day forward, they, no longer two but one

Have learned, from the beginning who Greater, to lean upon

And as they vow to love each other faithfully always

Lord, fill us with thanksgiving that will fill Your courts with praise

And Lord we pray that You will shelter them close to Your heart

With Your goodness and mercy to follow till death doth part

© Janet Martin

Surely Goodness and Mercy will follow me all the days of my life

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever

Psalm 23:6

To Live Well...

 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;

Romans 3:10

 The truth gives life purpose and purpose gives life meaning!

Be wise; the truth needs no disguise, integrity intact

Be courageous enough to accept plain matters of fact

Be humble lest pride goes before the fall from what is right

Rejoice and be glad in the Lord who fits us for the fight

Be kind one to another; and with tender heart, forgive

Be careful what you wish for; wishes shape the way we live

Let no one deceive you with empty words (for they are lies)

But always keep this fact in mind; the truth needs no disguise

Be of good cheer and do not fear what God has overthrown

Be not dismayed, for He is near; we are never alone

So be wise; not in your own eyes but trust the Lord instead

Sing hallelujah to the One through whom none are misled

© Janet Martin

Mingled Curse and Blessing (of what we forget and keep)

Take nothing for granted...hold then let go

and see what sticks!

That's becoming my middle-age mantra!

Sometimes the scenes I turn to touch and tenderly caress

Escape the reaches of thought’s fingers straining to retrieve

What once upon a time had thrilled the heart with happiness

Before it followed forerunners where each day takes its leave

To be tossed in a sieve that sifts both low blows and high fives

Where only fragments and frayed bits of Afterward survives

To compose much to our chagrin a sort of silhouette

Of mingled curse and blessing in the things that we forget

Sometimes the scenes that I would rather not recall at all

Seem so determined to take up permanent residence

Where I would rather tuck the fringes of a softer shawl

To edge away the lingering effects of consequence

But as wisdom deems fit, the blush and cringe of it persists

As a reminder to be kinder to those felled by fists

Where we are altogether tethered to the rise and fall

That mingles curse and blessing in the things that we recall

Sometimes the scenes that flit across the screen of Now and Here

Cause me to mull the caliber of Hull’s momentous pyre

Where push and pull is always full of what will disappear

Some lost and gone forever, some salvaged for thought’s memoir

To set within the frame of retrospect, a strange tableau

Of steppingstones, millstones and milestones, goodbye and hello

These empower the echoes that can make us laugh and weep

With mingled curse and blessing of what we forget and keep

© Janet Martin

Unfurling Right Before Our Eyes

 Ask rain from the LORD at the time of the spring rain-- 

The LORD who makes the storm clouds;

 And He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.

Zach.10:1 NASB

Someone must have asked the Lord for a lot of rain.

today we have a sunny one before forecast of three more days of rain!

Unfurling right before our eyes

A little glimpse of paradise

As earth is adorned once again

In shades spawned from a warm spring rain

Where we are privy to a sight

Untarnished by the heat and blight

That, since the curse at Adam’s fall

Sin’s bane irks and afflicts us all

Not one immune to misery

Or if we ask, God’s sympathy

Where we witness firsthand, a prize

Unfurling right before our eyes

Across earth’s undulating sod

Aha, we sense the hand of God

Unfurling right before our eyes

A little glimpse of paradise

A symbol of His faithfulness
He grants to every one of us
This treasure, mist and rain-drop pearled
Before our very eyes unfurled

© Janet Martin

The Earth in May...

this morning is rain-misty gray rather than the riveting intro of yesterday...
Happy Middle-May Day!

 Yesterday colour flurry at the feeders was delightfully distracting all day long!

Rain falls like mist, untwisting hills and halls of lustrous green

It piques the cheeky courage of plumes huddled in the bud

How lovely is earth’s vista after showers wash it clean

And flowers frill the furrows that had long been sporting mud

Nature’s cocoon pulses with butterflied and blossomed wings

Nothing can keep at bay what Great Creator God ordains

Where a Master Musician modulates each season’s strings

And none can compose melodies with richer, sweeter strains

The bower rings with birdsong hymns and perfect happiness

The earth in May births purest mirth as lace garb is unfurled

And hope renews its vows beneath the boughs of lilac-tress

Each new day like a picnic-basket open to the world

Methinks the earth in May is wonder always on the verge

Of being wowed anew by miracles as old as Time

Where we will never weary of watching the Maker splurge

In oriel of iris or the bloom-bell’s mystic chime

The woodland is a palace welcoming both rich and poor

To wander, wonder-smitten where beauty’s bud-geysers spill

To deck its halls with leaf mosaics and mossy velour

‘Come unto Me’ the Keeper beckons, ‘linger and be still’

The earth in May is like a canvas where the paint runs wild

It reminds us of life that teems beneath the seeming sod

Where what seemed dead and buried lilts like laughter of a child

And wakens us once more to the kind faithfulness of God

© Janet Martin

 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
    let your glory be over all the earth.

Psalm 57:5