Wednesday, September 23, 2020

More Than Moments Can Estrange


Just as the constant surge of water shapes the shore
so our words and deeds shape so much more...



Two years ago we were enjoying the stunning scenery of Canada's east coast.
They are now bracing themselves for (or weathering) Hurricane Teddy
Praying for safety and warm, dry places for all to have shelter!


Like waves that wash across the shore 
The impact of exchange 
Twixt man-to-man is always more 
Than moments can estrange 

The tender or the angry glance 
The cruel word, or kind 
Leaves impressions called influence 
Upon the heart and mind 

This wave that rushes and retracts 
By virtue, will impart 
And influence what it impacts 
...the shoreline of the heart 

Therefore, we at the mercy of 
The touch of fellowman 
Should heal, not wound, not hate but love 
By every means we can 

© Janet Martin

Mist-kissed


What is your life? 
You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James 4:14




This Thing that wears our patience thin with grace-lent grin and groan 
That hones the character within these skiffs of skin and bone 
That tests the measure of a man and adjusts attitude 
That vexes people’s precious plan with trouble’s interlude 
That breaks the hull of hearts and dreams for love’s incumbent Chief 
And makes us more the same, it seems, because love’s price is grief 
That proves the master of the mind by what we do and say 
Where consequence is never blind to what we sow today 

This Thing that makes us laugh and weep and keep score but to fail 
Where both the bitter and the sweet are poured from Mercy’s Grail 
This Thing fashioned with gifted days time garners into years 
Is but a breath of misted haze that softly disappears 
Until the Giver of its lease through farewell’s ordained Must 
Retrieves once more the Sacred Piece that outlives dust-to-dust 
And ends This Thing that we call life where what seems commonplace 
Will rend this wink of joy and strife to unveil Mercy’s Face 

© Janet Martin 

Declaration of Dependence

 






Without You Lord, no one can sustain absolutes of truth 
Hope is a life-boat low’red in vain if not anchored in You 
And what is joy without assurance of a Better Day 
I need You Lord; Your Word means more than all the world can say 

Your all-surpassing power is my utter confidence 
I carry in my body the hope of deliverance 
Though death may seem to have the final say, it is not true 
The mortal body will decay; the Soul returns to you 

I need you Lord lest fear would crush; perplexity despair 
The persecutor cannot grasp how futile is his dare 
For we who believe receive promises man cannot make 
Where we who are alive are called to die for Jesus’ sake 

How dark the future seems where demons labour to deceive 
Without You dreams are futile fortunes man seeks to achieve 
But through You Mercy hears the prayer that makes man’s hope come true 
Therefore, thankfully I declare my dependence on You 

© Janet Martin 

Much doom and gloom abounds these days but… 
Because we have God’s Word; The Truth 
No demon can devour 
This treasure cupped in jars of clay 
His all-surpassing pow’r 
Hallelujah, 

…for Thine is the kingdom, the power and glory forever and ever, 
Amen 

2 Cor.4:7-12
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

First Day of Fall Mosaic

 
 




Dewy dust drapes dusky sweeps 
Geese-vees perforate yon blue 
Sparser now the cricket cheeps 
Jarring senses with adieu 

Soybean fields unfold mauve mist 
Morning is a frost-kissed barge 
September’s perfect Artist 
Strews masterpieces; no charge 

Longing is a hunter, wild 
September is easy prey 
Vexing, taunting summer’s child 
Torn between ‘let’s roam, let’s stay’ 

Autumn’s advent chills and thrills 
Farewell trembles, bittersweet 
While a fount of petals spills 
Fragrant vagrants at our feet 

Orchard oboes mesmerize 
Apple-dappled rhapsodies 
Steal the sorrow from our sighs 
With annual ecstasies 

Golden rod and gentian 
Wild aster and Sweet Joe Pye 
Flow into roadside gardens 
Like a buffet for the eye 

Like a river none can see 
By a tide of wild wind borne 
Sea-song rushes obscurely 
Through channels of brittle corn 

Ginger-pumpkin-cinnamon 
Warms and seasons comfort foods 
Firesides regain aplomb 
Leaf-lanterns ignite the woods 

© Janet Martin




Sweet Slow-motion (Dis) Ensemble or Small Fall Request


Fall's soft-fluttering tempo before the crescendo
 trembles beneath boundless blue breadth.
But I have a small fall plea...



Don’t gratify us instantly 
But unfold nature’s law 
Of fall’s masterpiece poetry 
In sweet slow-motion awe 

Don’t undo woodlands all at once 
But as branches unfold 
Let breath-stealing wonder ensconce 
Our wants with red and gold 

Don’t rush the beauty of good-bye 
Like a wild pianist 
While overhead geese honk and fly 
And leaf-ballets untwist 

Don’t usher us, with brusque brush-strokes 
Across earth’s cluttered desk 
But tease us as your touch evokes 
Unraveled arabesque 

Don’t drain the beggar’s ballroom yet 
But let the music fade 
Fall's leaf and petal pirouette 
In sweet, slow promenade

© Janet Martin 





The Unforeseen Known by The Unseen One...



(for mobile devices click web version at the end of the post to see video)

Charles Stanley reminds us often in his messages to
hand the day over to God each morning before our feet touch the floor
in a prayer something like this,
 "Lord, you know what today holds. We don't.
We entrust all our plans, comings and goings to your care'.
What comfort to know when plans go awry 
someone far above you and I is in perfect control!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, no kiddos today...

Plans are always subject to change 
No matter how well laid 
Often, we need to rearrange 
The careful plans we made 

Life is an intermingling of 
Hopes and matters of fact 
Relinquishment, the test of love 
Leaves no heartstring intact 

But if we entrust by God’s grace 
Life’s highway to Love’s Chief 
Then no matter what we may face 
He fills us with His peace 

© Janet Martin 

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, 
spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? 
You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 
instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:13-15

Someday When Time Is Freer

 

On yesterday's post Summer Farewell I commented how 
'someday when time is freer' and
it sparked a train of thought...
On Sunday some of us lamented how work gets in the way
of soaking up an afternoon in a sauna of sunshine
(such as we were blissfully doing at that moment)
For me it was one of only a few times all summer-long😏
I was always going to but it seems the moment 
my keister hit the chair 
Duty rang 
or called 
or pleaded from the garden😘
Today's happiness includes hopes of tomato-preserving,
listening to little child's chatter and logic
 and fall decorating!
Happy First day of Fall!




Some day when time is freer and not in such high demand 
I’d like to think that I’ll recall what stirred my longing sigh 
But I have a strange sense the best of life is close at hand 
And not in some distant, idyllic, carefree by and by 

The best of life is Here and Now; for better or for worse 
The morrow waits with its buffet of brute reality 
Where all the wishing in the world is happiness’s curse 
Because we miss the moment we are in and its beauty 

Someday when time is freer will the thrill be quite as sweet 
As it is now, when we make time to take the time today 
Where we are all trapeze artists; our tight-rope is a street 
Filled with keen amateurs learning to balance work and play 

I want to make the most of thund’ring wonders close at hand 
Lest in some quiet aftermath silence cuts like a knife 
Because I cannot find The Thing that made freedom seem grand 
Because it is love’s busyness that makes a happy life 

© Janet Martin 


Psalm 39:4
"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. 
Let me know how fleeting my life is.






Monday, September 21, 2020

Farewell Summer


I'm working at cleaning out the garden
after a few September frosts 
finished off some of the foliage.
Farewell summer.
To everything there is a season but, oh, 
why does summer always seems shortest of all?!


 
(photo below from my sister Lucy's garden)
(Someday when time is freer I hope to do a photo-tour of her enchanting gardens and nooks)



Winsome whisper 
Flutter, flicker 
Glimmer, shimmer 
Butterfly 
High-five, blunder 
Starlight thunder 
Wide-eyed wonder 
My, oh my 

Finger waggle 
Barter, haggle 
Vim-bedraggled 
Yep and nope 
Lend and borrow, 
Joy and sorrow 
Hail the morrow’s 
Brighter hope 

Tears and laughter 
Days fly faster 
Before-after 
Empty-full 
Oops-a-daisy 
Drives us crazy 
Don’t be lazy 
Push and pull 

Pick a rosy 
Pretty posy 
Linger-mosey 
Dosey-doe 
Blue and yellow 
Friendly hello 
Hurried fellow 
Hold, let go 

Plant a garden 
Beg no pardon 
For chores undone 
Hoe and weed 
Sun-kissed pleasure 
Spills its measure 
Into treasure 
Born of seed 

Hustle-bustle 
Bowls and bushels 
Muster muscle 
Grin and groan 
Cricket-cadence 
Sedum radiance 
Winnows dreamlands 
To the bone 

Poplar-shiver 
Aspen-quiver 
Petal-river 
Poetry 
Pours the murmur 
Of sweet summer 
To become her 
Memory 

© Janet Martin