Thursday, October 13, 2011

He and I


You drink Red Bull
I love coffee or tea
You watch Sport’s Center
I read poetry
You tell me a joke
And laugh til you cry
And all I can muster
Is ‘oh my’
I gasp at the sunset
You say, it's like many before
You wink at a nice ****
And I kick yours;)
I love to run
You prefer sitting
You like playing golf
I prefer knitting (and I hate knitting)
You love people and crowds
I, a tree-lined nook
You turn the TV up loud
I grab a book
You love to talk
I’m kind of an introvert
I start clearing the table
You ask, where’s dessert?
You drive your Peterbilt, shift those gears
All over the continent; I haven’t traveled in years
You thought I'd never change
And I thought you would
But at the end of the day
Things are still pretty good
Because when we turn on the stereo
Oh, baby, you and I both know
We love the same music, you and me
Oh, we’ve got a good thing going, don’t we?
Alan Jackson, George Strait, Josh Turner, George Jones
Tim McGraw, Celine Dion, Don Williams, Brooks and Dunn
Jim Reeves, Charlie Pride and Alison Krauss
Merle Haggard, and Porter, Conway, Mel Tillis
Daniel ‘O Donnell and Lady Antebellum
Rascal Flatts, Michael Johnson, Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakum
Dean Brody, George Canyon, Paul Brandt, and much more
Let’s close the windows and lock the door
Turn up the music hon, it’s just you and me
We’ve got a good thing going, don’t we?

Janet Martin

Yes, this is the humorous truth about 'he and I'.
But one thing we enjoy together is music.

What spawned this poem after 23 years of marriage?
He called this morning to tell me a joke, and while he was
wheezing with laughter I was waiting for the punch-line
then realized there was no more...he had said it!

The Heavens Declare...


The heavens declare your eternal glory

Infinite wonder and power and love

Symbol of mercy in every morning

As the deep awning of night you remove

Grand is the sky of a moon-caressed midnight

Grander the glory of dawn’s ruby sun

Vision of rapture, the cover of twilight

Foretaste of beauty surrounding Your throne


Who can foretell the vast shades of your choosing?

Who can declare how night’s glory will rise?

Who can define the palette you are using

Or brush out the gray of November’s low skies?

There is no artist, oh God, you have gifted

That outshines the grandeur or work of Your Eye

When the dark curtain of night has been lifted

Who can arrange one square inch of the sky?


The sun, moon and stars in celestial clockwork

Cannot be altered by one mortal hand

Who, as we gaze at the canvas above us

Doth the intent of the Lord understand?

Infinite mystery, unfathomed wonder

Floor of the vault where His holy feet tread

Mouth spewing lightning and violent thunder

Sea of serenity when its wrath has been shed


Beneath it we marvel, beneath it we tremble

Beneath it we gaze at the eye of the One

Who spoke into Being all things universal

His glory exceeds the moon, stars and the sun

The heavens declare and no man can deny it

Lord, there is none who escapes Your vast Eye

The heavens declare and all man will believe it

When You re-appear on the clouds of the sky

Janet Martin~


The other night I went for my run as twilight deepened to moonlight.

The sky, an awesome and absolute declaration of His glory and might!


The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalms 19:1

“Dominion and awe belong to God;
he establishes order in the heights of heaven. Job 25:2

He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars of the heavens quake,
aghast at his rebuke.
By his power he churned up the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.
By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the gliding serpent.
And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” Job 26:7-14


“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. Matthew 24:30


But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 2 Peter 3:10

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Summer's Repose



When summer drops her azure gaze

It seems the whole earth knows

The scope of her allotted days

Is drawing to a close

As violet waves and golden streams

Don somber cloaks of rust

And petals drop forsaken dreams

To sepulchers of dust


Now stillness threads limbs, bare and stark

Where just a glance before

Bird-song and breezes tuned the park

And laughed on summer’s shore

The timbre of June's lilting mirth

Has lulled into a moan

As unseen fingers strip the earth

Of summer’s flowered throne


The flaming sumac steals the show

Her bold disdain is brief

Soon her bright, crimson tears will flow

With summer’s trampled leaf

Into a sea of seasons past

To tune the harps that play

Where every little leaf is cast

On shores of yesterday


Janet Martin

My 'Love-prayer'


May love never grow sable

Nor the song in the heart

Sitting at the same table

Yet oceans apart


May warmth never vanish

From our fingertips

May gentleness garnish

A smile on our lips


May whispers of passion

Laughter and desire

Kindle a faithful

And perpetual fire


May we touch each other

Without and within

Not existing together

Like cold mannequins


Lord, teach us to love

From the depths of our hearts

Lest we sit at the same table

Yet oceans apart


Janet Martin


Choices




http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2011/10/midnight-snack-006.html

Snack #2...

Beneath ivory exterior

She knows she's still there

Lies spill from the mirror

In a petulant stare


In youth’s out-stretched verdure

It is easy to dance

Earth’s ballroom a meadow

Of infinite chance


She hears the austerity

Of fall ‘neath her feet

The fruit of maturity

Is bittersweet


Girl becomes woman

At least in her skin

Will she be the dancer

Or grief’s mannequin?


Janet Martin

A Question of 'Impotence...'


http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2011/10/midnight-snack-006.html

The stiffness of your moves, my dear

Compels me to inquire

Have you lost your agility

Or simply the desire?

Janet~

Realizations





We cannot

Return

Re-visit

Re-do

Recapture

Replace

Recreate

Renew

Redeem

Refuse

Restore

Re-design

Reject

Repair

Rearrange

Refine

Reconstruct

Reshape

Remove

Re-live

Retrace

Rewrite

Replenish

Retrieve

Reclaim

Reinstate

Revise

Re-cast

One solitary moment

Of our past

We can simply

Remember


Janet Martin


The most valuable gift we ever will hold is the present…

Let us not waste it...


The previous poem turned me to considering the 're-s' in our life...

and most of them connect to the past...remember, recall,recount, recollect, reminisce, review, regret...


'See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15-16

Not so in Life



Steps can be re-traced
And we can return once more
To re-visit nostalgia's hilltop
Or stand on a favored shore
But, not so in life

We cannot re-live one moment
Its prisms slip into the sky
Miles or footsteps can be retraced
To re-capture the seed of a sigh
Not so in life

Life has one clear direction
Time does not flow back
Though we pause in retrospection
To review its weathered track
…we can only keep moving forward
As moments keep slipping by
Places can be returned to again
…not so in life

Janet Martin

“Mom, just remember” cautions Victoria without turning her head,
“as far as we go this way, we have to go back!”
I was going to take a picture of her walking when up pops her hand with a reminder for that mom who might forget things like hours and distance in the great out-doors of autumn…and then I thought ‘yes, on a trail we get to come back, re-trace our steps-not so in life’. I'm so thankful, not only on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of my life, that we serve a loving God of grace and mercy.