The Dance of Circumstance

If it was up to us most Ontarians would not choose this color tonight but

circumstance dances to the beat of its own drum...

The dance of circumstance trains us to be lithe on our toes

To bend and bow where here and now dictates its dosey-does

Where melodies that moments spill, insist we twist and twirl

Sometimes a beautiful quadrille, sometimes a tilt-a-whirl 

 

The dance of circumstance may perplex us with sudden spins

A vertigo of unexpected dips and vexing grins

Of waltzes unrehearsed before they sweep us off our feet

Into a rushing repertoire of both bitter and sweet

The dance of circumstance does not cater to wish and whim

But teaches us to tango to the tempo of the hymn

Where instruments we cannot tune requires you and me

To make the best of what will soon become a memory

© Janet Martin

...on that note, here's to the memory you are making

to the music that is playing💖💝

Fledermaus Quadrille – André Rieu

We, The Up and Comers (to the Sunset Years)

PAD challenge day 18-For today's prompt, write a We Blank poem.

Heb.2:1

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,

lest at any time we should let them slip...

This poem is written from a middle of middle age vantage point...

Gorgeous sunset the other evening but no freedom to wax poetic just then...

We tend to feel a bit like trees

Weathered and buffeted and tossed...

We tend to find as time goes by

And insolence of youth relents/repents

That the voice of choice will reply

Without a doubt, with consequence

We tend to learn as years accrue

Beneath the sparkle of the splash

The vault of ‘What I Thought I Knew’

Is quite depleted of its stash

We tend to feel a bit like trees

Weathered and buffeted and tossed

By winds of wild epiphanies

And olden ways to progress lost 

Then we tend to muzzle bold boasts

Attuned to time’s fading applause

We tend to raise much meeker toasts

To wisdom’s blunder-riddled cause

We tend to taste its grain of salt

In stumble-humbled middle-age

With empathy, rather than fault

Those struggling on a hard-knock page

Beneath the tutelage of Time

We tend to learn as we advance

There is so much more to life’s climb

Than can be appraised at a glance

…and how too oft we disregard

The common ground beneath our feet

How everyone’s ‘uphill’ is hard

And love lives, not on Easy Street

We of a more middle-age class

Chastened and jarred by season-swirls

Sense a Baton we soon must pass

To up and coming boys and girls

Beneath the sovereignty of clocks

We tend to be startled to find

How swift the classroom door unlocks

To students, never far behind

Thus, we should attend above all

What we tend often to forget

The aftermath of the footfall

Weaves someone’s path not travelled yet

© Janet Martin

The Morning (that changed everything) Has Broken

Happy, Glorious Easter to one and all!

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.

Come and see the place where he lay.

Matt.28:6

The morning that changed night to day has broken; praise His Name

Come, see! the grave where Jesus lay has been robbed of its claim

The wrath of God is satisfied; salvation’s plan fulfilled

And many will be justified through the blood God's Son spilled

The morning that turns tears of grief to leaps of joy prevails

Arise; let doubt turn to belief where God’s word never fails

Where from the darkness of the grave a new Light is unfurled

For He who is mighty to save has overcome the world

The morning that secures hope’s faith has broken; lift your head

This is the day we celebrate Christ risen from the dead

Death cannot dominate what Jesus’ Resurrection won

The verdict of the sinner’s fate rewritten by God’s Son

The morning that changed everything has broken; shout and sing

The cross of sorrow’s suffering leads to the risen King

Jesus, the one we crucified will pardon and forgive

For as in Adam we all died, in Christ we all will live

The morning of God’s glory has broken; let worship pour

Love’s everlasting story reigns through Christ forevermore

Grace suffered once for all; redemption’s darkest hour borne

Calvary’s gall has broken into Resurrection’s Morn

© Janet Martin

1 Cor.15:19-22

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have [b]fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive

Looking On Him Who I Pierced...

Red Mountain Church - At the Cross (Alas, And Did My Savior Bleed)

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 

6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it [b]robbery to be equal with God, 

7 but [c]made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,

 and coming in the likeness of men. 

8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself 

and became obedient to the point of death, 

even the death of the cross.

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him 

and given Him the name which is above every name, 

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 

of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 

to the glory of God the Father.

Phil.2:5-8

Rise, Ye Children of Salvation

Where our failures fuel woe

Restitutions rivers flow

Grace, through glory’s dreaded feat

Crowns faith’s cross with joy complete

See His Hands, nail-scar engraved

Love declares the sinner saved

All who repent and believe

Will salvation’s gift receive

Not by works so none can boast

Not by wealth of worldly toast

This salvation we applaud

Is redemption’s gift from God

Let love’s tears of sorrow spill

Down Golgotha’s bloodstained hill

Kiss and wash His nail-pierced feet

With love’s perfume bittersweet

Stricken, sight esteemed Him dead

While He crushed the serpent’s head

While for our ransom He

Hung till death upon that tree

Wound on wound, the King of kings

Did not rue His sufferings

Did not curse the bitter fruit

Of the tree from Jesse’s root

But with love’s humility

Jesus paid sin’s penalty

Hate, in its most crucial fling

Pierced grace and mercy’s wellspring

‘It is finished’ won the fight

Pierced the darkness with True Light

Rent the veil that hung between

What Now IS and what had been

Where this world runs rife with woe

Redemption's rivers still flow

Grace, through glory’s misery

Crowns life's race with victory

© Janet Martin

“They will look on the one they have pierced.”

John 19:37

So When Death's Solemn Shadows Fall

PAD challenge day 14: For today's prompt, write a scary poem.

Heb.10:26-31

The Just Live by Faith...

26For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth,

 there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

  27but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, 

and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

  28Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law 

dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 

29Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy 

who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, 

counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, 

and insulted the Spirit of grace? 

30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” [g]says the Lord.

 And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 

31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Psalm 16:11

You will show me the path of life; 

In Your presence is fullness of joy; 

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Jesus Paid It All/Old Rugged Cross Medley by Anthem Lights

How holy swells the wellspring where Time’s finite fathoms toll

Each breath subtly unraveling the mantle ‘round the soul

How fragile is the fleeting glove of man’s mortality

Where He who wove us with His love instilled eternity

…so when this little life is through, if we believe in Him

Death will be but the doorway to the place where pleasures brim

As all our tears are wiped away forevermore by He

Who stepped from Heaven’s throne to pay sin’s debt in agony

So when Death’s solemn shadows fall no terror fills its wave

Unless, still we refuse to call on He, mighty to save

Unless because of unbelief, pride scorned the blood grace spilled

And wakes to the eternal grief of rejection fulfilled

To all He pleads, come unto Me, sin's sentence to atone  

Salvation for humanity is found in Christ alone

Where, Holy God's mercy unfolds another day of grace 

Until faith's fulfillment beholds the glory of His face 

How holy swells the spring where Love's infinite fathoms roll 

Each breath softly unraveling the glove that veils the goal  

Pray, when Death's solemn shadows fall beneath the Reaper's knife

Tis but the the Saviour's tender call to everlasting life

© Janet Martin

Isa.53:4-5

Surely He has borne our [g]griefs
And carried our [h]sorrows;
Yet we [i]esteemed Him stricken,
[j]Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5But He was wounded[k] for our transgressions,
He was [l]bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes[m] we are healed.

How To Know What Love Is...

Pad(poem-a-day) Challenge day 13:For today's prompt, write a How to blank poem

1 John 3:16-20

This is how we know what love is: 

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

 And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 

17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need

 but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 

18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth 

and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 

20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, 

and he knows everything.

My Savior's Love- How Marvelous, How Wonderful

(version 1)

I Will Sing the Wondrous Story

When through ancient age/page we travel

When our hearts are wholly gripped

As we trace and humbly marvel

And embrace redemption’s script

As the grace that wrought salvation

Stuns us with love’s magnitude

Mercy’s divine transformation

Turns despair to gratitude

Draws the heart, no longer hardened

(Though this world with horrors groans)

To the cross where sin is pardoned

To the One whose death atones

All who come without excuses

All who repent and believe

Not one sinner, He refuses

His forgiveness to receive

Look! Behold Hope’s holy horror

At Love’s body, bathed in blood

At the Healer’s Hands, nail-burrowed

From Him spews redemption’s flood

Hark! He cries, by all forsaken

Behold! Now He bows His head

Look! He dies, the skies are shaken

As the graves give up their dead

But Death was a fated rival

I AM no grave could constrain

Jesus Christ arose triumphal

Over sin and death; amen

This is how we know what love is

Jesus Christ laid down his life

Love does not forget its promise

Wrought through Heaven's sacrifice

This is joy; to be forgiven

Love's broken body, life’s bread

Where, still through all earth from Heaven

Runs redemption’s scarlet thread

This is hope’s unflinching anchor

Though time’s troubled tempests roll

Hallelujah what a Savior

This is faith that makes us whole

Hallelujah, what a Savior

Jesus, Savior of the soul

© Janet Martin

But By The Grace of God (til death doth part)

Poem-a-day challenge day 12:write a counting poem and/or not counting poem.

Not counting all the times, we didn’t see quite eye to eye

When your druthers and mine were like December meets July

When opposites that once seemed so attractive start to irk

As we reevaluate what it takes to make ‘us’ work

Not counting all the days when love's 'tone' was misunderstood

And we did not respond in ways like two grown adults should

When we behaved like rivals rather than husband and wife

I’d say we are exceptional at rocking married life

Not counting all the rules that unschooled mid-life love ignores

Until our tempers cool, no longer fooled by lion-roars/'winning' scores

I’d say in spite of all the times we bite instead of kiss

That you and I are prime examples of sweet, wedded bliss

I hope that life becomes a 'losing track of years' because

Of moment-thrum's momentous sums; the love-story of 'us'

Where, in spite of those times we blush some sad excuse to fend

We'll look back on a life of 'us'; love, faithful to the end

© Janet Martin

April Aria

Poem-a-day challenge day 12:write a counting poem and/or not counting poem.

Thy fronds that spill in daffodil...

Last year the daffodils were in full bloom...

this year's much cooler April has mustered a few brave shoots

thy ponds, a turquoise jewel

Ah, let me count the ways I love thee, April afternoon

Thy undulating clouds above me, earth's bestirring boon...

(Sunday afternoon showcased a strange ring around the sun)

Ah, let me count the ways I love thee, April afternoon

Thy undulating clouds above me, earth's bestirring boon

Where bulb and bud and muddy garden fuel flower-dreams

With autographs of winter's pardon bursting at thy seams

Goldfinch, a dapper fellow in his new yellow physique 

Thy warmer windsong tuning willow-cellos by the creek

And laughter, glorious laughter after winter wends away 

Ripples to heaven's rafter with a happy hip-hooray

Thy blue and bronze, thy timid green, thy moody ebb and flow

Like love, when it is torn between holding and letting go 

Like life, where though sunshine is sweet a little rain must fall

Like ten-thousand tap-dancer's feet at earth's coming-out ball 

Thy newborn lamb, thy cooing dove, thy wooing wink and grin 

Ah, let me count the ways I love the way you kiss my skin

And let me leave my sweater on the chair beside my book

While you and I together wander by the winding brook 

...to look for mint and marigold emerging in the silt 

To watch Mother Nature unfold earth's blanket like a quilt

To listen to the swishing of her brisk and busy broom

Teasing the people fishing beneath thy leaf-threaded loom

Ah, let me count the ways that thrill; thy temp'ramental duel  

Thy fronds that spill in daffodil, thy ponds, a turquoise jewel

Thy orchestras that trill and fill dawn's dark with joy renewed

The way you stay the course until winter's chill is subdued

 

Thy sense of baited breath before the curtain-rise; the cheers

That thunder where we waited; from death's guise life reappears 

Thy mission undeterred by Old Man Winter's farewell flings

I love the way the heart is stirred; hope sings and sings and sings 

   © Janet Martin