Best-Of-All Blessings

This poem was inspired by the flood of loving grad photos on social-media

from proud moms and dads...

One photo esp. inspired this poem as I stared at the tall, handsome, young man,

 that spent many hours at our house

and seems, was the size of the tots in the photos below not so long ago.

Reminds us to cherish the Here and Now,

the 'noisy joys of girls and boys' 💗

which filled the morning at Janet's/Grandma's house

They start so small;

life's best-of-all-blessings...

The momentum of to...

...and from, is subtle in its tugs

They start so small

Life’s ‘best-of-all-

Blessing' fills arms and hearts

The noisy joys

Of girls and boys

One of love’s sweetest parts

…while sparkling streams

Of hopes and dreams

Become the tender tide

Of smiles and tears

And days and years

That draw them from our side

The momentum

Of to-and-from

Is subtle in its tugs

As moments meld

To seasons felled

Beneath kisses and hugs

Time’s stellar flight

Of morn to night

Turns little people tall

While ‘I love you’

Fashions the flue

Through which youth's contrails fall

And keens us to

An avenue

Trampled, but not with feet

Where blessings of

Life’s best part; love

Makes thankfulness complete

 

© Janet Martin

Eph.5:2

And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us...

 

On Going Through The Change...

They don't call it The Change for nothing, my sister and I conceded as we

lamented some of the maladies of middle-age😓

As I pondered this it made me think of a few other changes

that we should, by God's grace, go through

(and some that eventually we will) by God's promise, 

go through...

***

Some changes are anticipated eagerly,,

like the change a new baby brings

or winter warming to spring

Others we would dodge if we could,

But changeless God, if we allow Him

works change for our good!

***

Always day changes to night

then night to day...

Change challenges and teaches us

It vexes and delights

It startles and beseeches us

With ruthless appetites

Oh, nothing stays the same for long

In life’s foray of days

The hand of change is sure and strong

Insisting on its ways

Both good and ill do not stand still

As surge of seasons roll

Change wistfully winnows until

All that remains is Soul

Change tempers us and teases us

The wrinkles it bestows

For all the ways it squeezes us

The least of our woes

Change changes us, estranges us

From who we used to be

A slow and steady genesis

To immortality

© Janet Martin

Behold, I tell you a [m]mystery: 

 shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 

52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 

at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, 

and the dead will be raised incorruptible, 

and we shall be changed.

1 Cor.15:51-52

Eph.4:17-24

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, 

that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 

18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God 

because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

  19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality 

so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

20That, however, is not the way of life you learned

  21when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, 

to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 

23to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

  24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3:9-10

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 

and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge 

according to the image of the One who created him—

Faithful One-Robin Mark

June Is Like a Poem

 

Some sweet June-stanzas already savoured today...💗💗😊

June is like a poem waiting to be reined

Earth a-throb with lyrics spilling unrestrained

Woodland, field and garden sparkle, pulse and brim

Filling hills and hearts and dells with nature’s hymn

June is like a poem written without ink

Filling loose-leaf pages with gold-orange-pink

From sunup to sundown stanzas dance and drip

Land and welkin burgeon with God’s penmanship

June is like a poem, summer-warm and sweet

Spilling like a love-song to earth’s music-sheet

From daisy-decanter, through leaf-canopies

Snared in barefoot banter, sighing on the breeze

June is like a poem waiting to be read

Wonderfully woven with botanic thread

Luring us with lyrics’ gleaming, teeming sheen

From the lily-lantern and fields silver-green

June is like a poem people cannot write

Lesser poets grapple with its pure delight

Delving into inkwells, dew and raindrop pearled

June is like a poem from God to the world

© Janet Martin

From the lily-lantern

and fields silver-green...

The Farewell We Are In...

Whenever I see the peonies begin to wilt and wither

I'm filled with a sense of loss...

Loss tends to make us bend a little closer to the bloom

To revel in the fragrant folds falling from summer’s loom

How subtle whirs the shuttle taming tendrils of the vine

Into a paisley fretwork of echo-woven design

Loss tends to make us kinder where we had been blind before

To how swift petals fade and fall to bloom for-nevermore

Whether the loss we suffer is a friend or season-flit

We find our hearts grow softer in the aftermath of it

Loss tends to make us more aware and thankful for Today

That ever- fleeting chariot that draws the years away

Filled with a holy hunger we can never quite appease

While petals fall from flowers like hours to memories

Loss tends to make us mindful of a deeper sense of Now

Its sorrow seems to kindle sweeter happiness somehow

As we learn to live slower and take time to take time in

Because Loss tends to tune us to the Farewell we are in

© Janet Martin

But as I mourn the end of another peony season I turn to

see that once again, the lily-lanterns are lit...

Loss tends to make us bend a little closer to the bloom...

The grass withers, the flower fades, 

But the word of our God stands forever.”

Isa.40:8

Always and All For God

 

The fruit of our labour is sometimes strawberries.

The fruit of our faith, ah, who can fathom?!

This poem was inspired first by a glorious wave of morning-tide

rolling over the rain-washed countryside...

...before heading out for a berry delightful morning

 at a nearby pick-your-own strawberry patch!

Always, and all for God who gives, may our motive be

Each moment-metered life one lives leads to eternity

All that we have, by time is tried; a sacred sea that pours

In waves of morn-to-eventide, awash twixt Eon’s shores

In waves of morn to eventide awash twixt Eon’s shores

Across still gaping graves, time flies, in season-repertoires

While we must choose who we will serve and thus the Soul’s reward

Some never look beyond Self-worth, some live to please the Lord

Some never look beyond Self-worth, some live to please the Lord

Some set their sights upon this earth as if they can afford

To ignore what some cling to like a lifeline sure and keen;

The substance of things hoped for and its evidence unseen

The substance of things hoped for and its evidence unseen

Instills with awesome purpose what would oft seem harsh and mean

Aware while moments dance and race we owe their no return

Always and all for God who grants the grace that none can earn

Always and all for God who grants the grace that none can earn

Where mercy meets us face to face as surely as the morn

Where wealth accrued cannot provide that which will save the soul

When waves of morn to eventide no longer swell and roll

© Janet Martin

And whatever you do, do it heartily, 

as to the Lord and not to men,

Col.3:23

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, 

the evidence of things not seen.

Heb.11:1

Wedding Veil/Vale

 

Sometimes when I look at these precious tots I mourn for them,

and the world they are growing up in...

but they will have the same Enduring and Faithful God over all...

(Your faithfulness endures to all generations... Psalm 119:90)

and just like generations before them,

they will need to learn to lean and listen, 

trust and obey.

Trust and Obey

Dear Lord, we come to Thee in meek, earnest and grateful prayer

Entrusting all we cannot see into your faithful care

Before Your throne of grace, we place our heap of humble pleas

And thank you for your faithful Keep throughout the centuries

This veil/vale of day-to-day runs through a darksome hourglass

Where none of us can see the way before it comes to pass

Lord, help us not to yield to fear, save You, reverently

For time is but the sheer veneer that veils eternity

Forgive us Lord, when we neglect to praise your Worthy name

Blindly intent on what we see instead of why You came

To bear sin’s vast and ghastly cost for each and everyone

So that our souls will not be lost when life on earth is done

Dear Lord, for health and strength, or when health and strength start to fail

We thank You for your promises that nothing can derail

For you will never leave or forsake, come whatever may

You comfort sorrow’s heartache and you hear us when we pray

...and You reply, sometimes with yes so very plain to see

Sometimes it seems you finesse faith with Mercy's mystery

But you are faithful even when we cannot understand

Thy All-wise acumen moving Giver and Taker's Hand

Dear Lord, then let love’s hymn resound, abound in word and deed

The Rock of Ages is the solid ground that we all need

The gates of hell cannot against Your Will and Word prevail

Your church oh, Lord is founded on a Rock that cannot fail

Lord, let us live as if we are The Eager Bride that waits

Devoted to the Groom, as She dearly anticipates

Love’s final covenant, proclaimed, acclaimed like none before

When this dark Veil/vale of Days is rent/raised and time will be no more

Amen

© Janet Martin

On Christ, The Solid Rock I Stand

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.

John 15:18
If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.

My Dad

Happy Father's Day!

Dad in his woodworking-shop...

His love for God and family and fellowman shines through

His unspoken humility and reverent point of view

His sense of humour quick yet kind, not off-colour or mean

Where God’s Word feeds and fills his mind to keep his conscience keen

Father of ten and yet again, it seems like so much more

Blessed by beloved grand-children and great-grandchildren galore

Hard-working and hard-praying, his hallmark of workworn hands

Committed to obeying His Father in Heav’ns commands

His words worth listening to because his speech is not idle

But in sincerity and truth he draws from wisdom’s well

With honour to the One who makes his love and laughter glad

Each one of his ten children are so proud to call him Dad

The older that he gets the older turns his darling brood

And we begin to cherish him with deeper gratitude

For his faithful example; so we work hard and we pray

For our dear dad (and mom), God's keeping, each and every day

For generations yet to come, with shepherd's staff and rod

He seeks first the kingdom that leads to, not from Holy God

He teaches us to keep in mind the footsteps that we spawn

Where precious souls follow behind long after we are gone

 

© Janet Martin

Numbers 6:24-26

The Lord bless you and keep you;

25 The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

26 The Lord [a]lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.” ’

Psalms 127:3-5 - 

Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.

 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth.

 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. 

They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

A June Jingle

A glimpse at bits of inspiration for today's poem

As she sees in each petaled star the way time disappears...

June flutters by like a butterfly on wings of gossamer/go-summer

A dashing smile of chamomile and pink peony blur

It tinges views with silver blue of distant mist-kissed green

And tests the thrill of what yet is with will of what has been

This month of months blushes with blooms, the belle at nature’s ball

Enticing us to linger where its limber shadows fall

Where longing and surrender spar like Woman wearing years

As she sees in each petaled star the way time disappears

June sweeps through morning, noon and night as spring becomes summer

And it seems that we never quite get quite enough of her

Where she climbs trellis, fences, gates; delightful, verdant vine

Oblivious to ever-zealous appetites of Time

June slips between the sheen of green glory of woodland tress

Her laughter spills and rolls down hills in daisy-happiness

She strums the breeze with melodies we never weary of

While, for a while we all grow younger and all fall in love

June sparkles in rain-dazzled rose, and in strawberry pie

It glimmers where the cornfield grows and flows out to the sky

It dances through the garden where both plants and children thrive

And makes even the hardened grumbler glad to be alive

June is a gift-table brimming with beauty of the earth

Where we are all invited to partake of wonder’s worth

The hollyhock is cobbled with buds primed with perfect pink

Methinks June is a fountainpen suffused with flower-ink

Then let’s bury our faces in its perfect poetry

And marvel at the perfumed pages of bloom-balladry

Let’s let its lyrics tickle tips of noses, lips and chins

Before summer’s slow, subtle, certain unrav’ling begins

© Janet Martin