Happiness and Garden/Flower Poemlets

 

Each time that we seek to impress

We rob ourselves of happiness

Better to praise the One who grants

The ways and means to sing and dance

***

Happiness is the heart’s applause

Though scarred with hard regrets

Hope balances its scale because

God forgives and forgets

***

How can one be an atheist

And be a gardener too

How can one watch a bud untwist

Yet deny you-know-Who

***

Don’t wait until it is too late

To sit where flowers nod

The mettle of petals soon fades

And garnishes the sod

This is the day the Lord has made

Don’t wait to give Him laud

The petals round our Soul soon fade

And return us to God

© Janet Martin

 

 

 If you are a garden and poem lover chances are you too 

have savored these inspired words by

 Dorothy Frances Gurney

(esp. the 2nd last stanza)

 

THE Lord God planted a garden

In the first white days of the world,

And He set there an angel warden

In a garment of light enfurled. 

So near to the peace of Heaven,

That the hawk might nest with the wren,

For there in the cool of the even

God walked with the first of men.

 

And I dream that these garden-closes

With their shade and their sun-flecked sod

And their lilies and bowers of roses,

Were laid by the hand of God.

 

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth,--

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth
.

For He broke it for us in a garden

Under the olive-trees

Where the angel of strength was the warden

And the soul of the world found ease.

 D.F.G.

A Little Like a Wave (that rolls across the land...)

Welcome! Day Three of Summer...

 The first day of summer was almost perfect...

I say 'almost' because it seems in life/love there is ALWAYS

a 'fly in the pudding', right?

Sisters💖

Melissa came home for her first visit this year (because of the pandemic)

then someone's truck broke down and Jim needed to work on Sunday, cutting our visit

a little short because we needed to drive her home on Sunday morning instead of later in the day..

Our whole family was together at last...except Matt; He was at his buddy's wedding...

so we learn to commit to treasuring the moments 

that slip through our fingers like sun-sparkles on water

A little like a wave that rolls across the land and leaves

Behind a wake of wonder spent on petal-wings and sheaves

And echo-sparkles, strewn like diamonds on a dusty path

Where wafts the mist of sun-kissed days in summer’s aftermath

A little like a dream come true but reality-warped

As avenues of green and blue turn bronze and heat-wave scorched

While we are humbly smitten by God’s mercies, new each morn

Where silver gleams the rippling surf of barley-fields and corn

A little like a front porch perch as we lean to behold

A panoramic surge of oceans, purple, pink and gold

Where hills, wild-flower frosted flare and fade and none can tame

The tide that spills across earth’s shoreline; summer is its name

A little like the blur of childhood after it is spent

A mosaic of moments molding bittersweet lament

Where what so long we hungered for is caught upon a swell

Of turquoise-tinted fervor always ending in farewell

Then dawdle in the dreamland that cold, winter nights compose

And give yourself permission to be beguiled by a rose

And loiter by the bank that brims with daisy-hymns and such

Before the hour, like the flower falls prey to time’s touch

Drink deep; the dewy dazzled dawn is like a fount of stars

Walk on the water of front lawns to flower-frothed sand-bars

And wade, waist-deep through afternoons that soon will not exist

Snare summer’s sunshine-wine in flasks for winter to untwist

Dare to be carefree, for a little even while we bear

(Because of love’s Thereof) its steady, sweaty weight of care

Do not wait for a Better Day to treasure now and here

Because with ev’ry cheep and chirp summer will disappear

A little like a pang piercing asunder heart and soul

A little like a bulging pocket with a little hole

A little like a rhapsody half-written and released

A little like a photograph, faded and fondly-creased

The Hand that gifts the sands of time and sifts its ebb and flow

Helps us to hold but not to cling, to love and then let go

So then, when Summer slips beyond the reach of glossy leaf

A hint of peach will linger to sweeten her loss and grief

© Janet Martin

Heart-changer

Only God can do that; It starts in the heart, you see

To put a Band-Aid on infection is foolish futility

So to try to remedy sin without heart yielded first

Is like trying to be washed clean while in sewage immersed

Without surrendered will the holy change that we pretend

Is like a coat of paint that always peels off in the end

...but when with humble heart we yield to He who loves us most

Then, only then can real change start, as grace becomes our boast

© Janet Martin

 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; 

but the sorrow of the world produces death.

2 Cor.7:10

Daddies Of Laddies and Little Girls....

  Is that one the bull, daddy?

This poem started 'percolating' yesterday morning
when I went to a neighboring farm for eggs.

 It appeared they were sold out when Farmer came out of the house
(with a little lad tightly at his heels)
offering to take my egg bowl and fill it from the barn...

...then I stopped by a local roadside stand to pick up some fresh baking

and another dad and his son were splitting wood together...

(the above roadside stand is open for the summer at 7123 Wellington Cty. Rd. 12

Friday and Sat. from 7:30a.m. till 8:00 p.m)

...then in the evening I caught of few precious shots of

Son-in-law explaining many 'why daddy'  things to his son 

such as 'the purpose of the bull is to make cows have baby calves'

how, daddy?...?...?

Happy Father's Day and thank-you to all dads

whatever stage of 'dadding' you are in ...

Oh, what a gift to have a dad who shows the kind of love

We tenderly envision from our Father up above

The dad of lad or little girl has quite a sacred role

Breadwinner for the body and the shepherd for the soul

Those small fellows that follow on the heels of daddies dear

Will soon reflect dear daddy by what laddies see and hear

God bless the dad who gives his all to try diligently

To be the kind of man he hopes his son turns out to be

…and be the kind of man he hopes in some sweet-dreaded ‘glim’

Will sweep his daughter of her feet because he is like him

God bless the dad of lad or little girl and gently guide

And grant them strength and wisdom for all that dads must provide

© Janet Martin