Tuesday, October 18, 2022

The Gift of Here and Now

 

How swift Here-and Now's moment-spheres
Augment the tent of yesteryears...

Yesterday I collected autumn colours for lunch (rainbow Swiss Chard)...

and air-fried beets with feta cheese (5-star meal!)

...and marigolds, dried for tea!
One large bowl of flowers when dried

fit into this jar!

What is can never stay; hello soon farewell kissed
The golden summer day soon drawn away on autumn mist
The garden green and young soon gleaned of harvest fare
The boldness of the silver tongue soon wizened by life’s care

To everything a time; this clime where seasons flow
A little like a pantomime of hold and letting go
A little like a page where ballerinas twirl
Like autumn leaves across a stage that steals the little girl

What is soon disappears, a joy and sorrow spree
Bittersweet fleet of smiles and tears that sparkle out to sea
Duty and beauty’s sands like treasures from a trove
That sparkle through our hearts and hands all for the sake of love

So then, because of how swift seasons rise and fall
Let’s use the gift of here and now to its full potential
To do the best we can to shoulder what we ought
For the welfare of fellowman and the glory of God

© Janet Martin


A last-minute invitation to Daughter and children made the meal ever-so-much-more memorable!
Granddaughter decided to bring alpha-getti when she heard what was on the menu😂
Baby just cooed and smiled (between gramma-cuddles, naturally!)


Dear Granddaughter...here's to a whole winter-long of tea-parties!
(And Grandsonny too, but he prefers stirring it to drinking it😍)



We've dubbed this blend (fresh mint, lavender and marigold)
 Azerbaijan Tea thanks to all the varieties showcased on Country Life Vlog


Phil.4:8
Finally, brothers and sisters, 
whatever is true, 
whatever is noble, 
whatever is right, 
whatever is pure, 
whatever is lovely, 
whatever is admirable—
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy
—think about such things.

Monday, October 17, 2022

Autumn Aria

 








Overhead and underneath
Autumn spreads wreath over wreath
Wraps the shiver of earth’s eaves
In an ambience of leaves

Where vermilion lamplight flicks
On gazillion woodland wicks
Where the poet cannot snare
The full essence of the flare

For ink cannot catch the sigh
Of Autumn’s Leaf-Lullaby
Or the dance of sun and rain
Across landscape's counterpane

Or the sweeping surge of seas
Hidden by a verge of trees
Or the orchestra that slipped
From a stage that windsong stripped


© Janet Martin





Fortune of Favour

Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of
More than Morning rolling over the skyline, isn't it?!

A burnished ambience swaddles the earth as the heavens seem torn between rain and sun!


...for now, sunshine seems to be triumphing! 


From the Giver to the taker rolls the toll of morning tide
Like a blushing river rushing over skylines far and wide
Universal, kind dispersal of God’s mercy; we embark
Hope and heartache humbly partake of the gift that rends the dark

From the Teacher to the reaching readiness of creature call
Altogether, born to weather whatsoever will befall
Where the earning of our learning often startles me and you
With the ruing and undoing of so much we thought we knew

From God’s love that will not falter to the altar of Today
Spills a flood of grace and goodness time’s epic ebb cannot sway
From His table we are able to partake of mercy’s feast
Gaze in wonder at hope’s grandeur from the greatest to the least

From the Giver to the taker mankind’s numbered days decline
Growing older as we shoulder ways that chasten and refine
Tender splendor, Healer, Mender of the brokenness we bear
From the Giver to the taker, spills our kind Creator's care

Oh, how hard would be the heartache, how melancholy each mile
Without Hope’s immortal portal to comfort and reconcile
As we press toward the mark where darkness and dread disappear
From the Giver to the taker brims love’s clarion hymn of cheer

From the Giver to the taker, what fortune of favor flows
From our Father up in Heaven what redemption He bestows
Oh, what depth and height and breadth, His riches none can comprehend
God, faith's author and perfector, God, man's protector and Friend

© Janet Martin

Rom.11:33-36
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
 how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? 
or who hath been his counsellor?
Or who hath first given to him, 
and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: 
to whom be glory forever. 
Amen.

A wonderful hymn of hope and worship to begin a new week!





Saturday, October 15, 2022

Already I Am Mourning...


'Oh!' I sighed/moaned, 'When am I going to get time to read all of these beautiful books
full of ever-so-fantastic writing?!'
'You won't' came my daughter Victoria's instant reply.
'That's the sad truth about owning a library! 
You will never read all of the books!'

...But they are still nice to have nearby, like comfortable, wise, old friends.



Already I am mourning all the ways we didn’t meet
I didn’t linger in the leaves you scattered at my feet
I never did discover what you made me think or say
Or needed to recover as your whisper slipped away
The solace that we found in one another’s company
The way you wound yourself around places inside of me
The way you would have kissed me if I’d given you a chance
The way I would have missed you after our parting dance
After the afternoon we didn’t spend, just you and I
With not a thing between us but perhaps a parchment sigh
The friends we could have been, darling, does it not break your heart
The way that we will never meet thus we will never part
A little like a flower bloomed unseen and gone to seed
Already I am mourning all the books I didn’t read

© Janet Martin

Lens Awareness



We view other people's lives through the lens of our own experiences.
One size does not fit all!!


If only we remembered that the window we peer through
Is not a universal, unobstructed point of view
Where, we all dream, hope, hurt and bear the cares of time and place
And no one is beyond the need of sympathetic grace 
While one is celebrating a victorious delight
Another is debating whether life is worth the fight

 The highs and lows of thorns and roses scatter in the wake
Of what becomes the lens through which we view life's give and take
Where soon a season disappears, turned into memories
Laughter and tears unrav'ling years like leaves unravel trees
While, weathering the wounds and wonders of gladness and gall
Of All-in-this-together but one lens does not fit all

Some sorrows flash like neon signs, some lodge deep in the heart
Not one of us can see behind the facade of the art
Where we are all God's workmanship, all simply fellowmen
Not one of us fully equipped to wield the Poet's Pen
Without thought of the welfare of each other first in mind
Because the lenses we look through are each one-of-a-kind

© Janet Martin

Phil.2:4
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests,
 but also for the interests of others.

Today-sums


After an incredibly productive, bittersweet, hectic week 
I am forcing myself to slow down a bit this morning,
something sometimes hard to do when so much to do seems always in the way!! 
So sometimes I need to consciously carve out little corners of refreshment 
lest Dear Duty blinds me to the Sheer Beauty of Today!



already Today has wowed!
this, the view through the window beside my writing desk.
Thank-you God!
(A view that faithful visitors are quite familiar with
because I love to share the delight of
 this view as it is transformed, morning to morning, season to season)



***
Last Saturday our son moved out for the foreseeable forever future!
As happy as I am for him, I am weathering the inevitable
mother-grief that comes with season-ends.
He has had brief stints of independence before,
but when I saw his books, basketball, fishing rod etc. 
on the heap of stuff piled at the door
I realized this move has a much more permanent flavor!



'Today' often dances across time's threshold so fleet-footedly
 we sometimes forget the cast Today-sums are creating!
So, lets fold hopes and hurts into prayer,
and place them in the hands of Today's Giver!
He is able!

This is what the Lord says—
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you what is best for you,
    who directs you in the way you should go.
Isa.48:14


The past is filled with all the things we always did ‘Today’
A cast instilled with echoes that sometimes come out to play
The loveliness of laughter in an afternoon beneath
The blue and balmy rafter that sweet summer days bequeath
Before the door we dashed through lowered a dusk-laden bar
On paint-trays that we splashed through on the way To Where We Are

The past, a vast collection of Love’s Once Upon a Time
Replays a frayed reflection of a muffled season-chime
Where once notes fell, keen and precise, in oft overlooked grace
Before the knell of Bygone’s bell enhanced the commonplace
As we are softly smitten by the sheerness of the flit
That scratches like a kitten with the sacredness of it

Look! Here a moment glimmers, ah, already it is spent
Past’s book of ages shimmers with pages once Present-bent/lent
How very velvet is the brush dipped into Time’s veiled tray
As its permanent ink arranges Tableaus of Today
And suddenly, how very rare Right Where We Are becomes
Aware of how a life is a Tally of Today-sums

The past is always hungry for the treasure in our hand
We cannot keep its measure from Yesterday’s shadowland
So, lest we are caught gazing at tincture on Bygone’s tray
Let’s keep a kind eye on the picture falling from Today
Because Love’s Once Upon a Time is always in full swing
A very virile season-chime of Today’s offering

…where God’s grace grants each new Today’s fresh opportunity
(Does it not bid us kneel and pray before we scale its lea?)
Lest boldly we set foot upon its very holy stage
Heedless of Who begets the dawn of Time’s unblemished page
And forget, what is spilled runs rife long after its foray
Because the past is always filled with life we lived Today

© Janet Martin

So, wherever in the world you are
Happy, holy Today!


Moments are a momentous gift!
'Today' sums up a life in no time flat!
Let's treasure the mementos moments make!



Thursday, October 13, 2022

The Grass Withers


The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”
Isa.40:8

This verse inspired today's poem,
started at 7:00 a.m.
Why is it not getting posted till after 6:00 p.m.?
Well, before I was quite finished with it tot # 1 arrived
and was delighted to help with some chores 
connected with yesterday's garden-purge!
First job. Prep Swiss chard for freezing.
I cut off the leaves and he put the stalks in a pail...


Then tot # 2 arrived excited to peel beets!
Tot #1 politely declined to help with this very purple task😅


Victoria is taking roasted veg to a supper potluck.

When I looked for the pan, I remembered it's in the oven with a batch of granola
I put in along with lunch prep! 😅😐
In the spring I was the happy recipient of an air fryer
won at a stag and doe!
Today I used it for the first time, to cook our lunch! 
fries and chicken fingers for tots then squash for my lunch!
and I am in the process
of trying to give it a permanent home on my already full countertop...


because the squash was PERFECT with 2 tsp. of olive oil
and seasoning and a drizzle of maple syrup!


Can't wait to try all the recipes in the book! Next? Cabbage steak!


...back to the potluck!
The girl who was going to bring pie for dessert isn't feeling well
so suddenly in the midst of veg-eruption...pie!



now the tots have gone home
after some baby grandson cuddles, of course!!
Potluck food is on its way.
(insert chamber music lol!)

This evening I will pickle the beets...

and chop and stir-fry the Swiss chard to freeze for soups etc.
make a quick batch of tomato soup with the last of the tomatoes

oh! Yes, there was a poem on the back burner!
Now, do you understand the delay?!

The grass, it withers
The flowers, they fade...


The wind, it winnows
The tree of its shade...

The grass, it withers
The flowers, they fade
The wind, it winnows
The tree of its shade
The garden is quiet
Its rush hour through
Where once a riot
Of seed splendor grew

The orchard’s glimmer
Of garnet and gold
Wanes before winter
Turns corridors cold
Before the hustle
Of gales sweeps its halls
Where footsteps rustle
Where leaf-lyric falls

Where children frolic
And chatter and play
Before time’s music
Draws childhood away
Before they weather
The surge of a sea
Light as a feather
Yet wild as can be

The golden luster
Of leaf ambience
Pales in the bluster
That blows out its lamps
Leaving the streets of
Autumn softly strewn
With remnant glints of
Summer’s afternoon

© Janet Martin








Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Winnowed World



Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, 
 that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Psalm 90:14

Without More to live for than This
life would be a leap of lack! 
But by the grace of God
we may sing for joy
and be glad all our days!

Time's season-circuit seems to spin faster and faster
as the years fly by...
I feel like I just planned and planted this year's gardens
and already we are gathering its final fare
and 'tucking' flower-haunts in for a nap!






Season-circuits sweep the surface
Of the earth and disappear
Before-after, sorrow-laughter
Meld in mementos of Here
Soft and subtle, brusque rebuttal
Grinds the gears of live-and-learn
Bitter-sweeter, dusk-defeater
Fuels flues of No Return

Buds and flowers, barren bowers
Season-circuit spins and spills
Giving, taking, sleeping, waking
Want and wonder taunts and thrills
One door opens while one closes
Rearranging points of view
Rush of roses soon exposes
Dust to dust’s inherent due

Tend to duty bent with beauty
Dazzling dreamlands laid to waste
Working, playing, hoping, praying
Lingering while hours haste
Sacred splendor, mean and tender
Keens the crux of have and hold
Kind and cruel binding duel
Weans Time’s tux of autumn-gold

Where the embers of September’s
Mellow, yellow flickers fade
Where the mettle of the petal
Falls like music-notes soft-played
Where the flurry of our hurry
Stirs a blur of Must-to-mist
Unfurled, winnowed world of windows
Full of faces farewell-kissed

© Janet Martin