Petal-Mettle

 

Mainly I keep this apple tree

to enjoy the delight of its 'petal-mettle'💗

Sometimes I like to linger where

Whisper of blossoms tease the air

To lie beneath its sigh and drink

The lullaby of petal pink

To marvel at the loyal flow

Of nature’s royal color-show

Cupped in each bud and seed until

God’s tug unfolds its miracle

Sometimes the pen is not equipped

To spell the swell of looms, pink-tipped

The lyrics of first bloom, breeze-stirred

Eloquent without woo of word

I sense, where blossoms gleam and nod

Love letters, handwritten by God

Where soon its flower-ink will be

Showers of petal confetti

Sometimes I sing and leap and laugh

At the joy of God’s autograph

For earth and its fulness thereof

Runs rife with signatures of love

© Janet Martin

Of Wizened Ways...and Innocence

 

"I love it!' squealed the Little One

as she delighted in our weedy, flowery lawn...

...where, pray we never get too 'wise'

To see the world through little eyes

Or ever get too old to reach

For lessons only children teach...

We rise and take our place once more

Where morning breaks and seasons pour

The ink of poetry and such

Before our eyes, beneath our touch

…to steal our breath and test faith’s ‘yes’

Of heartache riddled happiness

Where 'nothing new under the sun'

Vexes a new generation

…and stuns us with the wizened way

Of whispers weaving yesterday

Of cares and prayers oft intertwined

Of ultimatums, God-designed

…where, by the granting of His grace

In the crook of mercy’s embrace

We take our place to do our bit

To honor the Giver of it

…where morning breaks through darksome bars

And rends night’s noose dazzled with stars

The heavens like a bud that spills

A garden above fields and hills

…where innocence and Wizened Way

Compose a baffling interplay

Where roles of teacher-student switch

Until we don’t know which is which

...where, pray we never get too 'wise/wizened'

To see the world through little eyes

Or ever get too old to reach

For lessons only children teach  

© Janet Martin

a little like a bud that spills...

a garden above fields and hills...

Psalm 100:2-5

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his[a];

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Bitty Worship Ditty

 

How grand to stand and gaze firsthand upon a land washed clean

Lackluster lea and tree reclad in filigree of green

How lovely to drink in the view renewed by hues, God-spun

And worship He whose majesty will never be outdone

© Janet Martin

Revelation 4:11

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, 

to receive glory and honor and power, 

for you created all things, 

and by your will they existed and were created.”

Bitty ditty today because to-do list keeps growing...

May has the most time-sensitive task list of all the months, I think!

...and i didn't put 'snuggle new baby' on the list because that's not a task😍💖

Earth's Exhibition of Glimpses...

Hate, war, sickness, sorrow,

greed, pain, apathy,

hearts hardened against God,

could destroy all hope of  present joy

but for the hope of the home of the soul

and the greatness of He within we who believe

so much greater than he that is in the world!

We cherish each gift of present joy

(like a foreshadowing of eternal joy)

 to balance love's ever-present sorrow)

My daughter just sent me the above photo of big brother's

good morning kisses to baby brother.

(and I weep as I pray for the families afflicted by war)

Earth's beauty (be it babies, birds or blooms)

 without Heaven's hope is futile.

Birds continue to delight...today,

a very rare and special visitor, a bluebird/indigo bunting? 

...and goldfinch

...and our resident downy or hairy woodpecker (absent for a while)

we are still thrilling to see the orioles

(sometimes our place seems to just be a pitstop on their way)

and a mediocre shot of a rose-breasted grosbeak

who eats his supper each evening around the same time we do

Chipping sparrow...

Song Sparrow...

mourning doves...

We rejoice to receive a much-needed rain!

The beauty of the earth exhibits Heaven’s Majesty

The work and word of God is man’s Supreme Authority

Nothing exists but what His favor fashions and allows

Surely at the sheer thought of this our haughty boasting bows

…Faith looks toward a rich reward beyond kingdoms of dust

Bestowed by He who shed His crown and gave His life for us

And wove Redemption’s royal robes with love’s bloodstreams outpoured

Not from goats, rams and bullocks but from Jesus Christ our Lord

There is no common cure for hearts hardened against God’s grace

Against the loving kindness of Jesus who took our place

Though sinless, to become sin’s sacrifice once and for all

The King of kings shed His own blood; no common animal

Sweet consolation for life’s tribulation, who could find

Without the goodness of God who is faithful, just and kind

Without hearts softened as belief begets wonder and joy

Without His promises that no enemy can destroy

Each desperate heart-cry would be too much to bear, but for

Faith’s hope, after salvation opens eyes to so much more

Where earth’s beauty exhibits but a small glimpse of the whole

As we press on until we see the Saviour of the soul

...until we behold He who held us through the storm and strife

Until once and forevermore we pass through death to life

Until The One to whom we pray and pray and pray and pray

Unveils His face, where, by His grace, all tears are wiped away 

© Janet Martin

Heb.4:11-13

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, 

so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 

12For the word of God is living and active.

 Sharper than any double-edged sword,

 it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. 

It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; 

everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him 

to whom we must give account.…

Savior Redeemer of My Soul - 

Dallyn Bayles, Jenny Oaks Baker & Lyceum Philharmonic, #Hallelujah

O, Why Not Tonight

  

May Morning Masterpiece...

Earth throbs with God's poetry on this mint-tinted May morning...

A quiet color riot flaunts

May morning’s mint-kissed ambiance

A sacred glimpse of paradise

Unfolds its hints before our eyes

Where perfect pleasure has begun

To spill earth’s treasure, flower-spun

Where song sparrow lilts rippling lays

To He who grants spring’s glory day

Where frond of fresh foliage imparts

A pink pendant of bleeding hearts

Where green in multi-splendored swells

Immerses hills, trees, fields and dells

Where we are like surfers astride

The virgin wave of morning-tide

Where we should never take in vain

This day that will not pass again

But let the heart that we lift up

Be tender as a tulip-cup

And let love’s calls of duty brim

With joy for the beauty of Him

Who fills the barrenness of earth

With May morn’s masterpiece of birth

© Janet Martin

John 1:3 - 

All things were made by him; 

and without him was not any thing made that was made.

 

Where May Runs Footloose...

So much to inspire this little tribute to May

and childhood...

The first two lines of this poem were birthed here, yesterday

while on a little brook-bank picnic with Granddaughter and daughter...

While half-leaf tree limbs splashed a shawl of shadow-holes over us.

So little left wanting where brook-babble gleams

With nothing but nature to nurture daydreams

Listening to lyrics no pencil can trace

Sprawled on a shadow-shawl of first-leaf lace

Watching the mantle return to the wood

Gently relearning the joy of childhood

So little left needing where May-breezes strum

The pulses of earth where all birth burgeons from

...thrum of an orchestra's ballad imparts

Green-gilded gladness that streams through our hearts

Seed that soon spills into tassels of corn

Dapples the hills of a landscape reborn 

So little left slighted where May runs footloose 

 Each tree like a taper of gold and chartreuse 

Each dell like a marvelous medley of hymns

Where the bare branch blossoms and the bud brims

Annual Genesis, granting a glimpse

Of Eden's garden and love's innocence  

© Janet Martin

Annual Genesis, granting a glimpse

Of Eden's garden and love's innocence...

"M-m-m! I eat it" said two year old when I told her Janet

is planting Candy onions...

 So little left slighted where May runs footloose 

 Each tree like a taper of gold and chartreuse ...

On this weekend's to-do list-- dusting😐

Seeds that soon spill into tassels of corn

Dapples the hill of a landscape reborn ...

Beyond Compare...

We are delighted and grateful beyond words to celebrate the birth of

a new baby brother for Big Brother and Sister!

Thanking God for the safe arrival of another grandson

yesterday morning...tipping the scales at 9lbs. 10 oz.!!

Mother and Baby are doing fine!

 

Of all the lovely blessings that this life allots, I think

The kind that comes all soft and squirmy, sweet, precious and pink

With button nose and hands and toes so perfect and so small

Must be life’s most sacred and beautiful blessing of all

Of all the beauties to behold one cannot be outdone

The miracle of Baby is beyond comparison

Love overflows the heart in utter thankfulness and joy

For this gift only God can give; a baby girl or boy

The heart becomes a wellspring where sweet wonder overflows

Into our softest kisses and the gentlest hands earth knows

As arms turn into cradles and gratitude into prayer

Because a baby is a miracle beyond compare

© Janet Martin

Beaming with Big-brotherly joy.

I had the pleasure of telling them the news yesterday morning

as well as sharing their first glimpses of him last night...

which tripled the joy💖

First glimpses...

(I couldn't keep up with them as they leaped from the car

and bolted to the house leaving the front door wide open behind them

and this is how I found them)

Psalm 139:14

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

 Marvelous are Your works, 

And that my soul knows very well.