Showing posts with label childhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label childhood. Show all posts

Saturday, November 4, 2023

Or, So It Seemed to the Dreamer...

 PAD Challenge, day 2: For today’s prompt, write a childhood object poem. 


up and away

undefined 

by time and place

brushing perimeters of space

or so it seemed 

to the dreamer, 

then

with honey-colored braids

and an insatiable

 yen

that turned out to be

the cocoon that cradled

 Poetry...


On that rope swing

 she would try

to touch the sky

...the monotony of

an endless July 

afternoon

no match for the butterfly

inside the

 cocoon...


Janet~

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Of Arms and Hearts (or, They Grow So Fast)

 It feels like we just did this but we did it again...celebrate granddaughter's birthday!!




They grow so fast we sigh, as seasons fly through arms and hearts
Where none can tame the twinkle in time’s eye or change its ways
The child soon tries its wings, tugging on strings that love imparts
While teaching us to treasure the fleet measure of Todays
For time is never idle; none can tame or bridle clocks
Childhood’s tower of make-believe soon tumbled by hard knocks

They grow so fast we cry, while milestones make us laugh and weep
Robbing us of ready reply when we try to explain
Love’s gladness that runs rife with sorrow for what none can keep
Where each wee babe soon tests the play of love’s parental rein
The brief heaven of innocence soon startled by a Voice
As the gavel of consequence falls on the heels of Choice

They grow so fast we say, and pray the Lord their souls to guard
With angel armies, for this world is full of deadly snares
Where soon our arms are lowered and the garden gate unbarred
And off they go; but never out of reach of tender prayers
Or the eternal cradle-dear, that no child can outgrow
The heart that keeps them near no matter where their feet may go

© Janet Martin 


Grand-daughter's 'prince' freeing the princess...


Found the sweet poem above in this book!








Thursday, March 9, 2023

They Talk About Mermaid Tattoos


Ending an era with this little gal today; 
she is soon to be a proud Big Sister
(She doesn't know that she is the latest owner of a piece of Janet's heartπŸ’–)


But oh, what a perfectly-precious farewell day
with two of my favorite little gal-palsπŸ’•


It doesn't look like it here but oh, the conversation...πŸ˜…πŸ’—πŸ’—πŸ’—








They talk about Mermaid tattoos
And Minions Bubble-bath and things
Like, how when thoap getth in your eyeth/soap gets in your eyes
It ‘really-really-very-thtingth’ /stings
And nothing is impossible
In a world not yet four years old
Still oblivious to the pull
Of Bygone’s oceanic hold

Their dollies board yoga-mat ships
Where giggling captains shout ahoy
And take the silliest of trips
To snack-time’s high-five, five-star joy
While we find life a gladder charge
In the delightful company
Of Darling Innocence at large
And pure and precious as can be

How unaware-ly they arrange
A gallery of mementos
Where nothing in the world can change
The pictures that these halls enclose
While heartstrings twang and tangle, oh
Where hold-and-letting-go soft-spars
With laughter-spangles lilting glow
And a sweet blur of salty stars

They stir a thankful melody
For pink-frock perfect happiness
For little girls, still fancy-free
Where childhood is earth’s heaven-ness
Before the slick wink of an eye
That turns us into hoarder’s of
Artwork that money cannot buy
Masterpieces entitled 'Love'

© Janet Martin

This sunny-deck tea-party was not just to say farewell
but to honor a birthday girl as well!

Happy 22nd Birthday, Victoria!

The little girls watched as I wrapped Victoria's birthday gift!
Granddaughter was SO excited!!
I reminded them that it's a secret so don't tell her!!
and they gave me their solemn word
...until, over come with excitement for her auntie's birthday
Grand daughter blurted out
'you have a gift and it's your two favorite-est books!πŸ˜‚πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’



Wednesday, August 24, 2022

This Masterpiece of Joy

 Wearying? Yes!


Wonderful? Oh. Yes.πŸ’–


It rhymes with miss and kiss; this, masterpiece of joy
That can wear patience paper thin as we train girl and boy
This grin of have and hold always love’s primed prelude
To letting go, as seasons flow through prayers of gratitude

This visioning ahead soon turned to looking back
Time’s hand unraveling a thread that no hand can retract
This thrumming of bare feet and laughter-tickled soul
As innocence tries childhood’s skies until it finds a hole

This best of busyness; this test of push and pull
Of messy Mostly Happiness and Weary Wonderful
This yearning to preserve, from precious girl and boy
A remnant of the days that wove This Masterpiece of Joy

© Janet Martin





 

 

Thursday, August 18, 2022

The Book of This or Why Do You Have to Hurry So?

 




Why do you have to run and dance where green of youth is fleet
And dare the dust of innocence with eager, restless feet
Why do you rush my dear, beyond brushstrokes of Now and Here
Through sun sparkles on summer’s pond, you leap from childhood’s pier

Why do you have to tug at strings attached to hearts of They
More attuned to fine-feathered wings straining to fly away
Quite near enough, my lovely child, are morrow’s misted swells
Driving starry-eyed darlings wild with dreamland’s dinner bells

Why do you have to hurry so from worlds of girls and boys
You poise upon the ebb and flow of childhood’s carefree joys
Without a second thought of what will soon be borne away
While you are busy straining at a Big World held at bay

A feast of tears and laughter scatters while you grow and grow
A heaven-ness of happy chatter smiles, but you don’t know
That you are splashing through the brook of life’s most buoyant bliss
Why do you have to hurry so to close The Book of This?

...a cartwheel made of stardust and love's countless hugs and prayers
A petal-vault of wanderlust soon turned to creature cares
A gift we cannot treasure to the full of its extent
Until its outpoured measure makes us wonder where it went

© Janet Martin

Inspired in part by a girl who remarked yesterday
that she is not going to be a child forever!πŸ’–πŸ˜˜
 



 





Monday, July 25, 2022

A Ride (literally) Down Memory Lane


My third-youngest brother (Lewis) treated us to wagon-ride down Memory lane
(back our sideroad and local backroads)
on Saturday at our annual summer Martin family reunion...
Lots of laughter-filled reminiscingπŸ’–
(because most of us sister's childhood memories of wagon rides was to or from stone-picking,
 one of my sister's said 'yes! she would love a wagon ride!
 as long as there are no stones waiting to be pickedπŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚)
 

(Dad and Mom, treasuring the flashbacks)


Young people getting a ride to the baseball field 
before we had our turn...
(to respect privacy faces have been blurred)



Where wild flowers still bloom and dust of youth still (almost) flies
Where fields gleam with bent barley-plumes beneath still cloud-strewn skies...


A few of my siblings teased me about a poem percolating as we trundled down dirt roads
and memory-lanes...while in the moment I couldn't imagine what was to come of it,
it was too special an occasion not to at least try to capture!
I tried to reel it in but it turned out longer than (Hubby, ahem,) 
quick readers would likely prefer...πŸ˜…

We peer with distant gaze back to a long-forsaken world
Where out of Bygone’s haze an echo-mirage is unfurled
As scenes of common stomping grounds revive in hearts and eyes
And resurrect from misted Bounds, dear childhood’s paradise

Of dusty lanes and creeks and strains of weeping willow’s sigh
The thrill of racing to watch or chase freight trains rumbling by
Of dad and mom much younger then, although we didn’t know
Caught in the quick of hunger and molding what soon would show/grow

…while never going hungry, though a dozen mouths to feed
While learning about boundaries and how fruit follows seed/deed
While always loved no matter what we did or didn’t do
(…as we acknowledge the college, we drew dear parents through)

As we revisit places wakened by Past's sudden swell
As we dare to share secrets; laughing, brave enough to tell
As we retrace bare footsteps tripped through pastures; cow-pie rich
Or point to ‘there A Hay Load Tipped’, ‘there Fast Car Found the Ditch’

Where wild flowers still bloom and dust of youth still (almost) flies
Where fields gleam with bent barley-plumes beneath still cloud-strewn skies
Where little trees are big trees now, where yester-children learned
How swift the hand put to the plow will find time’s tables turned

Where correction we would not choose is worth its weight in gold
Where now we walk in well-worn shoes of swiftly growing old
Where mom and dad (still with us) hold a very precious part
In every single (ten of us’s) thankful-prayerful heart

So humbly blessed, we marvel at the patient, loving care
That surely must have tested their most earnest, pleading prayer
Of accidents (but life was spared) of mischief-foolish pranks
Of innocence guarded, work shared, of humble giving thanks

Memories mete a melody where music-shadows wend
As time perfects the harmony of notes that didn’t blend
As treasure-laden vessels, bent, broken, warped, chipped, and scarred
Embrace each tender token composing childhood’s postcard

Where weathering youth’s recompense makes us meeker of mind
Truth’s tethering of consequence and circumstance entwined
With what our precious dad and mom instilled, example-shod
The cornerstone of home-sweet-home; of love and faith in God

© Janet Martin


Friday, May 27, 2022

Sacred, Fleeting Season

Suddenly, as I worked on this post, I couldn't stop weeping
for all the precious children of the world!
(How often it is the innocent who suffer
where innocence untaught 
grows up not knowing 
what they know not)

How sacred is the virgin soil
Of childhood's innocence ...


It is no mere coincidence that a child loves to hear about Jesus!
Every child in my childcare has shown me unbridled delight as we pause
before lunch to thank God for our food with this little prayer

God is great, God is good
Let us thank Him for our food
By His hands we all are fed
Thank-you Lord, for daily bread
Amen

From wide-eyed curiosity of a one-year old to eventually joining in,
 their faces beam with pure joy from pure hearts
as we thank God!
(and oh, the glorious conversations this little prayer sparksπŸ’—πŸ™)

On the inside cover of  a vintage version of The Pilgrim's Progress


 is this certificate of acknowledgement to honor the recipient of the reward.


Imagine if we still handed out such noble literature in our public schools
 as rewards to students!

Today students in this system,  
as tender as 5 years old 
(if the teacher chooses to comply)
are taught/groomed to dispute the indisputable...
He created them male and female, 
and blessed them 
and called them Mankind 
in the day they were created. 
Gen.5:2

Jesus answered, "Have you not read that from the beginning 
the Creator 'made them male and female,'

However, from the beginning of creation,
 'God made them male and female.'

...and we wonder at the chaos and confusion of this age?!!
where by and large, the world has turned its back on God?!!
and ignores His everlasting Word?!!
Where defiled hearts defile innocence?!!

Evil as surely as good 
recognizes the sacred, fleeting season of childhood!

How sacred is the virgin soil
Of childhood's innocence  
How terribly accountable
Each one who tills and plants

Where evil as surely as Good
Recognizes this truth;
The fleeting season of childhood 
Soon sheds its tender youth

How then, we ought to sift the seeds 
That fall, so they will sprout 
A goodly crop, to choke the weeds
Of heresy and doubt 

Before planting time, brief and fair
Slips from the supple limb   
Remember the Creator, ere
They find no joy in Him

Janet Martin

"H-m-m! He's got one too!"
exclaimed Innocent Granddaughter at her observation
during little boy's diaper-change.
"Just like my baby brother!"

'Yes' I replied.
'that means he's a boy! 
If you 'got one' you're a boy!
If you don't, you are a girl!
God made it that simple and easy to figure out
and don't ever let anyone tell you any different!'

(Believe it or not, these unthinkable conversations are important today!!)

Eccles. 12 NASB
Remember God in Your Youth

12 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, 
before the evil days come and the years approach 
when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”
; 2 before the sun and the light,
 the moon and the stars are darkened, 
and clouds return after the rain; 
3 on the day that the watchmen of the house tremble, 
and strong men are bent over, 
the grinders stop working because they are few, 
and those who look through [a]windows grow [b]dim; 
4 and the doors on the street are shut 
as the sound of the grinding mill is low, 
and one will arise at the sound of the bird, 
and all the daughters of song will [c]sing softly. 
5 Furthermore, people are afraid of a high place 
and of terrors on the road; 
the almond tree blossoms, 
the grasshopper drags itself along, 
and the caper berry is ineffective. 
For man goes to his eternal home 
while the mourners move around in the street. 
6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is [d]broken 
and the golden bowl is crushed, 
the pitcher by the spring is shattered 
and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; 
7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, 
and the [e]spirit will return to God who gave it. 
8 “Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher, “all is futility!”

9 In addition to being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge;
 and he pondered, searched out, and arranged many proverbs.
 10 The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.

11 The words of the wise are like [f]goads, 
and masters of these collections are like driven nails; 
they are given by one Shepherd. 
12 But beyond this, my son, be warned: 
the [g]writing of many books is endless, 
and excessive study is [h]wearying to the body.

13 The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: 
fear God and keep His commandments, 
because this applies to every person. 
14 For God will bring every act to judgment, 
everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.





Monday, March 7, 2022

The Heart of a Child


Yesterday I was so touched and astounded
by the eager astuteness of our Sunday School kids age Gr.1-3,
as they answered the questions they were challenged with!
God bless you, diligent moms and dads aware
of the sacred blip before the heart of a child
becomes the heart of a young man or woman!

Eccles.12:1
Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, 
Before the difficult days come, 
And the years draw near when you say,
 “I have no pleasure in them”:



The heart of a child is like a pure, precious plot of sod
Pray, there we start to plant the seeds of faith and love of God
For when the soil is tender seeds of goodness gently root
And even in the green of life begins to bear good fruit

The heart of a child is such sweet and sacred innocence
Pray, there with utmost care, we are aware of Influence
To guard its supple yard with caution’s kind integrity
And to remember seeds are strewn by what they hear and see

The heart of a child is not soft and tender very long
How swift the gift of childhood turns into yesterday’s song
Then pray, we nurture well the plot where seeds we scatter grow
For the heart of a child is the most sacred soil we sow

© Janet Martin

Friday, January 14, 2022

Of Glint and Fray


It is impossible 
to return
to undo 
or redo
what we would do
differently 
if given the chance

All we can do
is the best 
we can do
with what we hold
today...


ThisπŸ’–πŸ’–πŸ’– (do you remember those dream-sweet play-days?)πŸ’˜




Lots of little flash-back moments as the tots of today
dust off the toys of yesterday
and fill them with starry-eyed pleasures once again,
as the little hands that used to play with them are now 
juggling the demands and responsibilities
of growing up

Timeless thrills...


The beginning...
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; 
and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
Eccles.1:14

The conclusion...
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
 Fear God and keep his commandments, 
for this is the duty of all mankind.
Eccles.12:13


Ah, life the way it used to be
Gleams like a summer, sun-kissed sea
Cupped in a sigh, a memory
A vault of yesterdays
Whilst look, the dark above us dims
Like brook-song, morning’s skyline brims
A canticle of hopes-whims-hymns
Shimmers on untouched trays

…with friendship waiting to be made
With Duty’s common promenade
With Poetry’s awed escapade
With high five and low blow
With mercy and sufficient grace
With smile upon a loved one’s face
With hand to hold and dream to chase
With wonderment and woe

…with turning older, tick by tock
Yet, learning not to watch the clock
But rather where and how we walk
While Time is on our side
To try to taste full flavors of
The subtle nuances of love
And to never get quite enough
Of moments not yet tried

While dust to dust and ash to ash
Waits to reduce its starry splash
And slow the feet that dance and dash
Through childhood’s greenest green
Until they too gaze at a sea
Cupped in a sigh, a memory
Of life the way it used to be
Before the years between

Ah, life the way it used to be
Is juxtaposed with you and me
And present opportunity
To tint the glint and fray
That tunes the tide that ebbs and flows
With echo-molded mementos
That wash in pictures we compose
With what we hold today 

© Janet Martin


Wednesday, January 5, 2022

The Lily-Garb of Innocence...


Last night we celebrated Grand-sonny's 5th birthday!
We have been blessed with five swift years of cute,
curly-headed curiosity and sweetness,
and once again as I marvel at the way
moments meld into years before we know it,
it sure makes me want to make the most of here and now!




Eager little sister, watching on the sidelines, suddenly leaned in with a hefty 
(greatly unappreciated) huff to snuff the final stubborn candles
 (you can imagine the response from Big Brother)
while we adults heartily assured him that his huff got there before hers. πŸ˜…


Checking out the next Lego project
(the ice-cream truck)
 Reminiscent of sweet summer days



Childhood’s pure garb of precious, carefree innocence is brief
Soon human nature starts to test sweet darlings with its grief
As moments mete the tide that ebbs and flows, composing Time
Across four-season shorelines rolls the rhythm of its rhyme

Ahoy, the joy of boyhood bliss must soon become a man
We who shower their cheeks with kisses should do all we can
To train and equip hearts and hands for childhood’s aftermath
As morn imparts momentous sands pouring to life’s footpath

To make the most of here and now is all that we can do
To waken senses to the ‘wow’ of Today, always new
To take our thankful place in the embrace of common task
And trust God for the grace that He will give us if we ask

The lily garb of innocence we all wore in our youth
Is handed down to those who trust us to teach them the truth
Then pray we look to He who is the Way, the Truth and Life
Before the Child must leave sweet play to face time’s tides of strife

© Janet Martin

Deut.11:18-20
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; 
tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
20Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,…

Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, 
bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.


Deuteronomy 4:9
Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, 
so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen,
 and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live.
 Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

Deuteronomy 6:7
And you shall teach them diligently to your children
and speak of them when you sit at home 
and when you walk along the road, 
when you lie down and when you get up.

Psalm 78:4
We will not hide them from their children, 
but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD 
and His might, and the wonders He has performed.

Psalm 78:6
that the coming generation would know them--
even children yet to be born--
to arise and tell their own children
Train up a child in the way he should go, 
and when he is old he will not depart from it