Dusk Is Heavens At Hightide

 

Winter Dusk often seems to tug at the poet's brush

begging, 'paint me a poem'!

Dusk is a beaut, as daylight melts into apricot glaze 

And melds moments we held into a veldt of yesterdays 

It tugs at harbours deep within where echo-floats are moored 

Yon fell is like a violin beneath night’s chin secured 

Dusk is heavens at hightide rolling in across the lea 

Earth’s shoreline disappears beneath a deep blue soundless sea 

To wash away work-a-day worlds with whispers, winter-plush 

Like a velvet banner unfurled across the noise and rush 

Dusk is the perfect way to end each day, don’t you agree 

Twilight plays out its shadows until earth is ebony 

Where we like little sailors on its onyx crest embark 

On voyages of slumber until morning melts the dark 

© Janet Martin 

Slightly pre-dusk

the lowering sun tossed the white fields 

with blue-capped waves

Let's Leave Allowances (for a miracle!)

Due to the explanation here (Poem Tango) I am extending (Love willing)

  the lease on love poetry,

because after all is said and done/won

Love is poetry clamouring to be written!💗😊

This poem applies to marriage or

Love's Common Carriage called 'us'

"Let's keep in mind, storms never stay

the sun will shine again..."

Last week's sunshine-soak-spot😀

(side note; looks like our snow dugout in the background needs digging out!)

Weather is one way of reminding us how swiftly life's landscape can change,

and the only abiding Anchor is Love!

Let’s leave allowances, my love, for fumbles, slips and such 

And smooth out shouted wrinkles with a kinder kind of touch 

Let’s be good friends and not give up where cups of grace ran dry 

Let’s weather life together and give love another try 

Let’s be to one another what we wish others to be 

The golden rule is not a rubric of antiquity 

But is a foolproof principle for people, young and old 

And able to work wonders in a badly broken mold/world 

Let's keep in mind storms never stay, the sun will shine again

Let's not get so caught in the moment we forget the 'Then'

As much as we are able let's soften often harsh tones

And prove that we are grateful by not hurling verbal stones

Let’s forgive one another and release the bitter grudge 

Let love be of sound judgment, then, not quite so quick to judge 

What good is pointing fingers when we all bear part of blame 

Let’s remember Life’s Author and the love from whence we came 

…and leave allowances because we are all learning still 

Then let’s love one another on life’s road, often uphill 

Instead of clenching angry fists let’s join our hands until 

The love of God has worked in us His greatest miracle 

© Janet Martin 

Heb.13:1 NKJV

Let brotherly love continue

or NIV

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters..

What Wonder Fulfilled

Inspired in part by this morning's Ann Voskamp's FB daily devotionals,

after a night of finding MUCH to worry pray about!

1 Pet.5:7

...casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Psalm 23:4

'Thou art with me'

Sometimes these verses above slip our mind

as we flounder in the gutter of

Worry/concern!

Today's prayer;

Dear Lord, Help us to cling to You

With faith's tenacity 

But if faith's grip should slip, to see

It is You holding we

Amen~

You Never Let Go

What joy to know, no matter what 

We are not all alone 

The One who made us never does 

Forsake His very own 

What comfort sweet to cast our care 

On Him, who sees and knows 

Then find the faith to leave it where 

No foe can interpose 

What peace to release to His keep 

The way that we must go 

Where, though the valley seems so deep 

What confidence to know 

That with us IS a Counselor, 

A Comforter and Friend 

One who equips His follower 

His edicts to defend 

What love, that He does not cast out 

We, prone to doubt and fear 

But hears us; we don’t need to shout 

He understands a tear 

What love that He should pay the price 

And that His law would be 

Mercy, rather than sacrifice 

To honour His decree 

© Janet Martin

Poem-Tango

This beginning of February, due to a lot of sorrow 

a lot of friends are suffering I just wasn't in the heart-space 

for the annual splurge of 

pre-Valentine's Day love-poetry 

although I have been thinking a lot about love lately 

and will continue to ponder it in poetry 

as The Poem-Provider persuades.

Will you join me in praying for healing and restoration 

for the sorrowing and broken!

It's so hard to know how to be there during covid-restrictions 

when you just want to give someone a hug!

Thank-you to all of you who stop by this page-stage

and grant me the privilege of a poem-dance.

I love you, dear friends, near or far💕

What luxury to lavish you with lines of poetry 

To move your heart in sync with mine, across thought’s ballroom floor 

Or kiss you with the lyrics of romantic chivalry 

Where we are at the mercy of love’s Timeless Troubadour 

What privilege to orchestrate iambic cadency 

And sashay to the tempo of instinctive twist and bend 

To glide with you as one across a page of poetry 

And find within ink-intimacy, the love of a friend 

What honour to be asked to dance with somebody like you 

Forgive me when I stumble or forget to pirouette 

Sometimes without fair warning the rhythms of love run blue 

And all I can remember is a heart-shaped silhouette 

© Janet Martin 

1 Thess.3:12

May the Lord make your love increase and 

overflow for each other and for everyone else,... 

Remembering What's Important

I've come to the conclusion

that happiness

 seldom fits like a glove

That clutter 

is the tinsel of

Live, 

Laugh, 

Love

💗

Some tinsel-tatters of the weekend...

(Victoria's hand-painted valentines)

 

Melissa's  sketch-table

Furniture rearranged for comfort, not style!

traces of Grand-daughter's visist

Sunday was a wonderful day for a winter walk...

...and sometimes instead of the futility of scolding about pet peeves we just 

let. it. be...😍

Today in Ontario, Canada we are celebrating Family Day!

Cherish.

Jim and many others do not have a holiday today.

Thank-you snowplow-drivers, truck-drivers, healthcare workers etc.!

Here's to remembering what matters and letting go of what doesn't!

Who knows what a day may bring?!

Rememb’ring what’s important 

Hand to hold, a hug 

Thinking more of others 

As we learn to love 

Remembering what matters 

(put that phone away) 

While the young child chatters 

While he wants to play 

Remembering to let go 

Of the bitter grudge 

Lest its malice poisons 

All we taste and touch 

Remembering the merit 

Of love’s chast’ning rod 

Knowing we can bear it 

If we yield to God 

Remembering to cherish 

What we have and hold 

Soon yon echo-chariots 

Refine gray to gold

Rememb'ring to be reckless

With kind word and kiss

Priming time's momentous

Metamorphosis

Remembering the treadle

 Making memories

From the common mettle

Of moments like these

 

Remembering what matters 

Never mind the mess 

With its homespun tatters 

We weave happiness 

© Janet Martin 

A few more mementos

And on the golf-front

Jordan Spieth and Spieth-fans hopes soared

and fell with the ball!

Better, but not Best.

Best goes to Daniel Berger!

What an impressive eagle putt on the 18th for the well-deserved win!

Dear family, church-family, friends, neighbours, and blog-visitors...

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, 

remembering you in my prayers.

Eph.1:16

Let Love Be...

 

Happy One of 365 Days in a year to celebrate love!

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,

  36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

37Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God 

with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

  38This is the first and great commandment. 

39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

  40On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Love of God-Mercy Me

Let love be our compass, it’s steering is true 

Let love be the drive in all we say and do 

Let love be our Master; then we will endure 

Let love be the servant of Duty so pure 

Let love be a flower that blooms all year long 

Let love be the author of our heart’s song 

Let love be our anchor, in duels of desire 

Let love be the tinder that fuels its fire 

Let love be the wish that turns into command 

Let love be the force that no foe can withstand 

Let love be the Beauty time cannot annul 

Let love be the joy that keeps our hope-full 

Let love be God’s whisper that He will provide 

Lot love be our Mainstay, whatever betide 

Let love be the answer to every why 

Let love be a wellspring that never runs dry 

Let love be the Greatest Command we revere

Let love be devotion's ocean of glad cheer

Let love's first-hand grace, scarred with Hard Agony

Help us find our third place with humility

Let love be the wonder that wakens the soul 

Let love be our comfort when doubt’s dark waves roll 

Let love be the picker-upper when we fall 

Let love be our Greatest Achievement of all 

© Janet Martin 

Let's Not Keep Love A Secret

The worst secret to keep

is our struggles in love!

'Because love is the fight of all fights, all right'!!

And its success depends on you and me

Yesterday's Post, Betrayal, The Chief of Grief

 has hit closer to home in the past year than ever before

Making me wonder perhaps if we should be better acquainted

with Love Himself!

Photo below taken a year ago when life was still 'normal'

(this would be our annual getaway weekend)

I will be the first to admit I/Jim and I could plaster a massive wall with mistakes made,

and mementos of 'failure' BUT we commit to never quit forgiving each other

to keep our marriage vows and remain faithful to the finish!

Maybe all women should be asking this poem of our Lifelong-Love-to-be

Love flows like fire in a pen 

It tugs heartstrings with mute amen 

Where farewell often steals the show 

And love must learn how to let go 

While ever honing the fine art 

Of keeping motive pure in heart 

Love is more than ‘my happiness’ 

Or a costume worn to impress 

Love suffers much and bears in mind 

That to be strong love must be kind 

It does not harbour for itself 

Some idol on a secret shelf 

Love is a weapon and a shield 

A mountain and an open field 

It weathers, tethers and equips 

With iron will, and gentle lips 

And in its sacred ties that bind 

We leave words like ‘my, me’ behind 

Love intertwines with its cohort 

For love is not a solo-sport 

But cleaves to its betrothed ally 

To keep vigil with watchful eye 

For when love lets its guard grow lax 

It invites enemy attacks 

Love seems to be the favoured prey 

Of dreams and lies and cunning sway 

Then our greatest goal should be 

To protect it ferociously 

And defend love’s holy ought 

Lest we fail it, for love does not 

Love is far more than meets the gaze 

Of those who wonder at its ways 

Love is a front-line, prayer-immersed 

The aftermath of ‘others first’ 

It does not covet, does not steal 

It does not trust the dust of ‘feel’ 

Love is a God-begotten tryst 

Without Him, love does not exist 

For God is love, in Him we trust 

All else is hate’s accomplice; lust 

And whether we believe or not 

All who have loved have witnessed God 

Love never fails; lust desecrates 

What havoc Selfish Yes creates 

When it is seduced by the lies 

That masquerade as love’s disguise 

Behooving us to reassess 

Who and what brings True Happiness 

Darling, let’s commit to the fight 

For This is what love is, all right 

White knuckled grit to hold on so 

While we submit to letting go

Of all that does not benefit 

Love’s long and short and whole of it 

Love has no trophy wall or shelf 

It never succeeds by itself 

But exceeds all else, above all 

Though its accolades may seem small 

When weighed with the success Fame hails 

Where love commits, love never fails 

Love, let it be our sole/soul intent 

Let it be the humble cement 

That binds the mason-work of days 

With devoted, trustworthy ways 

So that when death our last breath drains 

The legacy of love remains 

© Janet Martin 

In this community, recently Death has drained so many, suddenly

of Last Breath, leaving behind Love/life's permanent legacy

which is why, in these very troubled times

 I am choosing this simple song by Don Williams to remind us

of what really matters!

We Should Only Have Time For Love

Betrayal; The Chief of Grief

This week-end many will celebrate love on Valentine's Day.

I am so thankful for all the faithful love in my life

but this year I feel an unutterable sorrow for so much brokenness!💔

And while the word Betrayal renews reverence for the word Faithful 

it also leaves us grief-stricken with a sometimes-feels-helpless heartache, 

to witness the ruins of shattered lives!

Is there any hurt more bitter and brutal than betrayal; When trust is broken?! 

When spouses, friends, preachers, teachers, apologists, priests 

betray those who trusted their love, 

their counsel, their ‘wisdom’, their vows, their office. 

One of Jesus’ twelve disciples betrayed Him, (with a kiss!) 

Surely there is a sorrow more bitter than death! 

That of betrayal! 

When trust is shattered, love besot, 

When what we thought was so, is not 

When lie and liar are unveiled 

When it seems, alas, love has failed 

God, who, still trustworthy and true 

(With Whom we all will have to do) 

Abides, resides, provides; He knows 

The pain of thorns that pierced the Rose 

He wept, while his beloved slept 

Betrayed by a friend’s kiss, no less

He reaches down with hands nail-scarred

He understands; his brow thorn-marred

Who plumbed the depths of pain and grief 

In suffering, ah, He is Chief 

So then, whatever bitter lot 

We can trust Him, no matter what 

© Janet Martin 

Heb.4:13

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. 

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes 

of him to whom we must give account.

So we pray and pray for the broken, the betrayed, 

and the betrayer, just as Jesus, Son of God though He was, did. 

Heb.5:7-9

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions 

with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, 

and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

 8Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered

 9and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation 

for all who obey him...