How Lovely Flow The Hours of a Lakeside Afternoon

 

How lovely flow the hours of a lakeside afternoon

While bobbing on the tempo of an ebb and flowing tune

While bearing the awareness of a tugboat chugging where

A lovely lakeside afternoon soon dissolves to thin air

How utter run the moments that compose days into years

As smooth as butter, bittersweet each sparkle disappears

While granting an enchanting awe, because lo and behold

A day no one has ever seen breaks midnight’s darksome mold

How softly seep the seasons starred and scarred with joy and strife

While we learn who to lean on through the calm and storms of life

While wearing the un-baring, sacred-subtle, of the soul

That steals away the seasons until God reveals the whole

© Janet Martin

After-Holiday Happiness

 

I scribbled this one on the way home today as I realized our comments

breaking little stretches of silence 

were either retrospect or looking ahead...

A toss-up between retrospect

And wondering what will be

A tug twixt heart-string dialect

And half-penned poetry

A futile fight, of holding tight

And gently letting go

Reeling from the brunt of delight

In drifts of echo-snow

…and sensing Time's searing caress

No bargain can defeat

After-holiday happiness

Is always bittersweet

© Janet Martin

Summer Siesta

 

A bit of sun and sand and sea

And being lulled by lap of lake

And chilling out with family

A bit of memories to make

In the kind company of love

And laughter’s sweet and sanguine wage

And losing count of places lived

Vicariously in turn of page

And coffees sipped unhurriedly

And vines designed by scrabble-tiles

And walks without a destiny

Along the beach, through wooded isles

A bit of gently losing touch

A ‘sit’ at the end of the dock

A lot of BBQ and such

And never looking at a clock

And ever being mindful of

The changes that each year imparts

And cherishing life’s gifts of love

And thanking God with humble hearts

 

© Janet Martin

Sea you in a week or two😎😊! 

Book of Qualms/Psalms

It's been a week where I have shed tears of deep disappointment and sweet joy!

A week of weariness mingled with heart-melting meek wonder!

Do you think the reason we love the book of Psalms so much is because

it is an outpouring from highest highs and lowest lows?

A book of agony and assurance!

confession and courage!

wonder and worship!

heartache and hope!

A book so relevant to today's qualms as we

compose our own psalms of anguish and awe!

Cries of anguish, hope and awe

Tears and prayers of joy and grief

Conscriptions of grace and law

Where the Word of God is chief

Groaning on damnation’s brink

When temptation stakes its claim

Wonder too profound for ink

As creation shouts His name

Clashes where doubt’s demons war

Confession, again, again

Worship without wanting more

Than God’s promises, amen

Fear and faith at constant odds

Fight or turn the other cheek

‘Thou shalt have no others gods’

Spirit willing, flesh so weak

Highest highs and lowest lows

Composing heart’s humble cry

On my knees or tippy-toes

‘By the grace of God go I’

© Janet Martin

A few go to fav-chapters...

too many to list all!

Psalm 8

Psalm 19

Psalm 23

Psalm 24

Psalm 27

Psalm 46

Psalm 56

Psalm 61 

Psalm 89

Psalm 103

Psalm 139

Psalm 145

One Day/Step At A Time

This poem kinda progressed as the morning unfolded

stunning me afresh with the need to

Only Trust Him

We would wear ourselves weary with worry, 

but for what good?!

Oh Lord God, rich in mercy, help us trust You 

like we should

Help us to look longer at the lily's attire 

Until fear and pride turn into worship's pure fire

My little 'longer look' at lilies this morning

while pouring out my heart to their Creator/Clothier 

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 

and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory 

was not arrayed like one of these.

Luke 12:27

Life grants us one day at a time

Then leave to God tomorrow’s dread

For on this ever-present climb

We cannot leap back or ahead

Futile to fret the ‘Yet’ none sees

Where fear and faith ever compete

Better to get down on our knees

And pour our cares at Mercy’s feet

For as we yield, we learn to trust

And as we trust we learn to yield

The love of God is not unjust

He clothes the lilies of the field

God grants us one day at a time

A step-by-gifted-step ascent

He holds the ladder as we climb

Where all we have and hold is lent

Then as we soften our grip

And cling to nothing but His Word

We start to taste the fellowship

That waits in heaven, undeterred

God ministers in 'breath-by-breath'

His purposes, oft unrevealed

While he finetunes the strings of faith 

He clothes the lilies of the field

How flippant is our finest boast

And all that mortal may applaud

How foolish to propose a toast

Blind to the faithfulness of God

Grace grants us one day at a time

Oh, pray that our goal will be

To give God glory as we climb

From time into eternity

© Janet Martin

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The [b]help of my countenance and my God.

Psalm 43:5

The World tells us to reach within ourselves!

The Word tells us to reach out to God and trust...

in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God 

and the Word was God.

John 1:1

Of Summer's Day

Duty's marching orders can be quite relentless,

but hopefully not so much so that we forget

to 'sail away on summer's Day', now and then

Summer serves up its splash of sheaves

On silver platters made of leaves

A bloom-extravagant buffet

On counterpanes of Summer's Day...

Let’s put on smiles and sail away

Through glorious isles of Summer’s day

On seas of green and gold beneath

The gleam of heaven’s cobalt heath

Let's kick off shoes and wade through hues

Of wild-flower and welkin blues

Or we might miss the best there is

Of this old world, with much amiss  

Let’s pause without apology

Because of nature's Majesty

So many wonders to behold

Before the wings of summer fold

Before the songs of summer fade

Like youth, marching in a parade

That steals the vigor from their form

Like winter takes the world by storm

And we cannot return to climb

The hills of Once upon a Time

So, while the world is summer-young

And dew-drop-pearled and grandly flung

Like Creation’s magnum opus

From God to every one of us

Let’s linger where the landscape gleams

With lavender and lily-streams

With golden tides of rippling grain

With blush and rush of sun and rain

Where goldfinch flits and swallow skims

And lyrics lilt from leaf-lush limbs

And gardens burgeon with delight

That kindles healthy appetite

And makes our labor worth its toil

As seed begins to spill its spoil

To we, humbled to do our part

To glean earth’s gifts with thankful heart

Awed by His grace, aware of He

Who still creates with ‘let there be’

And sweetens creature-care with hymns

Where beauty’s ballad broods and brims

From founts of hollyhock and rose

Creation’s color-cadence flows

Through glorious isles of Summer’s Day

So, let’s don smiles and sail away

On seas of green and gold before

This sweep of summer is no more

Summer serves up its splash of sheaves

On silver platters made of leaves

A bloom-extravagant buffet

On counterpanes of Summer's Day

© Janet Martin

Rev.15:3

 “Great and marvelous are Your works, 

Lord God Almighty!

 Just and true are Your ways, 

O King of the saints!

Look At Me!

Look at me! Look at me! they call, countless times a day, eager to impress their care-giver!

Oh, imagine if we did that to our Caregiver who is always watching over us

even though we cannot see Him!

(We/ I tend to plead the opposite, embarrassed/ guilty at our/my often less-than-eager efforts)

Imagine if we lived for our Creator with this mindset...

Look at me! look at me

Did you see? did you see?

How I gave willingly, without bound

How I put others first

Rather than, self-immersed

Paid no heed to the need all around

Look at me! Look at me

Did you see? did you see?

How, without jealousy I rejoiced

In the great happiness

Of another's success 

Leaving my disappointments unvoiced

Look at me! look at me!

Did you see? Did you see?

How I walked second miles for the weak

How, in the face of spite

I did not choose to smite

My opponent, but turned the other cheek

How, not stubborn and proud

I submissively bowed

 Beneath Mercy's Higher Command

Trusting Your promises

Rather than fuss and stress

Over ways I do not understand

Look at me! look at me!

I'm a sinner set freed

From the debt that I owed but You paid

Now all I want to do

Is love and honour You

In this beautiful day you have made

Oh, imagine if we

With true humility

Loved each other, how happy our cries,

'Look at me, look at me

Did you see? did you see

It is You that my life glorifies'

Janet Martin

 Let your light so shine before men, 

that they may see your good works 

and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matt.5:16

This constant contest of trying to 'shine the brightest'

reminds me how we are all created differently

with unique gifts and strengths

to allow all of us to shine the brightest

with the light God has instilled.

Let's try to twist ourselves inside out

with goodness for God's glory!

Because all goodness is but a reflection of You, oh God!

 

Season-sparks

this poem was sparked by the soundless spiral of a petal...

We've gone from This...

...to This

...to This! in a matter of weeks! (4, I think)

How swift a season sets a match to moments tinder dry

No one can find a net to catch the sparks that upward fly

How soon the garden-patch showcases a seed’s wondrous ways

While barefoot laughter races through life’s care-unhindered days

Oblivious and chivalrous to time’s unbridled flight

While morning sheds its blush cocoon, and noon morphs into night

The flower flares ere petal ash settles its beaming score

Come, let’s not wait until too late to take the time to pore

Over a gate or arbor laden with bud’s maiden boon

Over the pretty pages of a summer afternoon

Over the landscape changing right before our very eyes

Where none can find a way to bind the seams through which time flies

The way to where we were is always barred by where we are

Then let’s not linger, looking back or wishing on a star

But rather, run our fingers through the fabric of today

Before its gold turns misty blue then fades into the fray

Of yesterdays, gossamer-gray and always out of reach

For none can stay the waves of dusk that wash across yon breach

We’re all in this together, getting older by the hour

All learning how to weather where we’ve never been before

Coming to terms with what time gives and takes, momentous must

As lessons of relinquishment compel us to adjust

Our points of view where vantage points are altered or estranged

Where no one can persuade time’s hand to leave the sheave unchanged

Let’s never take for granted, morning’s easy come and go

For soon the seeds we’ve planted turn to reaping what we sow

While Now-to-Then beneath a swaying sickle soon is felled

Where none can stem the trickle filling seasons, briefly held

Like brushstrokes on a canvas that keeps changing its façade

Each season softly dances to the music played by God

© Janet Martin

Eccles.3:1

To everything there is a season, 

A time for every purpose under heaven:

Psalm 103:15-18

As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16For the wind passes over it, and it is [b]gone,
And its place remembers it no more.
17But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
On those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
18To such as keep His covenant,
And to those who remember His commandments to do them.