Distraction......

What power lies within the gaze
Of azure summer sky
What purity, a warm blue blaze
To draw the longing eye
From soft green fields of budding chance
To footprints in the dust
You tease the dreamer’s roving glance
With restless wanderlust

What taunting urges you bequeath
What envy you evoke
What mysteries you hide beneath
Your ever-changing cloak
But duty binds me to the soil
Where hope and harvest sings
I am a glad slave to my toil…
Besides, I have no wings

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Janet Martin

Last night as I worked in my garden
the sky kept distracting me......
Truly an EVER-changing canvas!!!!!

When I consider the heavens, the work
of Thy fingers,......
What is man that you are mindful of him? Ps.8:3

Undeserving....

I don’t deserve the countless gifts
God showers down on me
Storehouses over flowing
With love abundantly
In tender smiles and soft warm hugs
In sleepy-sighed good-nights
In flowers, showers, lady-bugs
In whispered breaths of light

I don’t deserve the color blue
In endless azure sky
The earth that gleams in emerald hue
To please the longing eye
A-thousand, thousand shades of green
Splashed from a heavenly palette
And I am somewhere in-between
I stand in awe of You, Lord

No man can paint one leaf or flower
Or alter Your great plan
No man can touch Your awesome power
Or have the means to span
The distance between green and blue
And heaven up above
No man can ever replace You
Or Your redeeming love

I don’t deserve Your mercy, Lord
Or treasures of this earth
Nothing I do could once afford
What Your great love is worth
Humbly I bow before Your throne
To count my utter loss
And see the wonder of Your Son
Hanging on the cross

I don’t deserve amazing grace
A love that never dies
But there I see it in Your face
And shining from the skies
As love in all its countless forms
You shower on my way
I don’t deserve a single one
….You bless me anyway

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Janet Martin

Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to Thy loving kindness;
according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions........Ps. 51:1

Missing.....

A little piece of me is not where
It used to be
Is there a way for me to retrieve
It somehow
Is it drifting in the deep blue
Of your eyes
Or the skies
Is it buried in the cold confines
Of winter's snow
Or the ocean's flow
Or has it been washed away?
I was going to say
That it’s okay
I didn’t need it anyway
But the pain in my chest
Reminds me that a little piece
Of me is gone….
Is it for the best?
I don't really know
I could ask to have it back
But what good would that do?
It would simply remind me
Of you

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Janet Martin

I Love....Love

Why is it somehow easier to hate than it is too love?
Is the seed of sin from Eden planted too firm to remove?
Hate is like a flaming sword or a cold cruel knife
Hate is the bitter poison destroying love and life
I love….. love

Perhaps you think I’m going to say that love is sweet and nice
A bed of perfumed roses with a pleasant easy price
Well, it may have its moments of sunshine’s sky so blue
But if it really is true love it has its heartache too
But I love…..love

Love in spite of all our faults forgives and carries on
It holds our hand within the storm as in the tender dawn
Love is like a potion to soothe life’s little blows
Not just an emotion that fades like winter’s rose
And I love….love

Hate is selfish and unkind, no mercy and no smile
Love is gentle; love is blind and walks the second mile
Love bears the pain which hate inflicts, without retaliation
Love will build the broken bridge and love will build a nation
Oh, I love….love

Love will test the fabric of the human heart
It repairs the damage hatred will impart
It is heaven’s perfect gift bestowed from up above
It is simply God in us, for God is love
That’s why I love…love

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Janet Martin

God is love. 1 John 4:16

The Morning After

I have discovered
A wonderful truth
At last I have found it
The fountain of youth
Not in the nectar
Of a rain-forest mist
Nor in the potion
Of a rose heaven-kissed
Not in the dew
Of a night lullaby
Nor in the hue
Of a turquoise sky
Perhaps it is found
In the song of the rain
In it’s gentle sound
On the window-pane
Of the midnight hour
Or in the gray dawn
While the world is ours
And two become one
As I fall and I fall
Into oceans of blue
Over and over
Born anew
Where heart and soul
Are forever young
Becoming whole
In the lover’s song
Here is fullness
Here is bliss
Eternal youth
In loves soft kiss
Eternal youth
In perfect blue
In the morning
After you

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Janet Martin

You Comfort Me

Your Presence like a starry shawl wraps around my shoulder
As the twilight shadows fall across each field and boulder
You gently soothe the aching heart with whispers from the sky
A blessed comfort You impart in heavens lullaby

I don’t offer fancy words or flowery repetition
In this silence I am stirred to quiet contemplation
As you usher in the night with deeper shades of blue
Offering a brief respite from duty’s glaring hue

I have no words to bring to You, with weariness I’m fraught
Beneath the evenings gentle blue you behold each thought
And you behold each silent tear, each wordless confession
For the pleas I cannot bear You make intercession

As the twilight shadows fall across another day
I draw upon Your starry shawl to keep night’s chill away
And I can feel the gentle glow Your mystery imparts
I feel the comfort You bestow wrapped around my heart

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Janet Martin

Rock of ages cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee
Let the water and the blood
From Thy riven side which flowed
Be of sin the double cure
Save me Lord and make me pure

Should my tears forever flow
Should my zeal no languor know
These for sin could not atone
Thou canst save and Thou alone
in my hand no gift I bring
Simply to the cross I cling

When I draw this fleeting breath
When my eyes shall close in death
When I rise to worlds unknown
And behold Thee on Thy throne
( I 've forgotten the last two lines!!!!)
but the words to this beautiful hymn
just drifted across my memory:):)
When the last two lines come to me I'll fill them in.
Yes, I could go and look in a book but
what would be the challenge in that???:):)
God bless you and may He be your true comfort,
This blessed Rock of the ages!!!

When You Look at Me

When you look at me my good intentions
Melt like waves upon a shore
And I cannot remember why
I shouldn’t love you anymore
I only see the blue sky
And it carries me away
For I cannot remember why
I can’t love you today

When you look at me the rose-bud
Tenderly unfolds
As the sweetness of its perfume lingers
In love’s pleasant folds
Time is an illusion
As I look into your eyes
Stars fall into the ocean
As I melt into blue skies

When you look at me the shore-line
Becomes a little blurred
I am yours, you are mine
In emotions stirred
For when you look at me that way
There's nothing I can do
But melt into your azure gaze
And whisper, "I love you"

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Janet Martin

Blue Moon Lullaby

The blue wind moans in languid tones
Across the sleeping hills
Where once we danced and laughter glanced
Upon the wooded rills
The drooping flower which graced the hour
Before the lowering sky
Has shed its tear as we both hear
A blue moon lullaby

The feathered leaves of willow trees
Lay strewn like golden snow
And from the sky a distant sigh…
My dreams of long ago
The mournful song of old and young
Blend in the lone birds cry
For none can pass on yester’s grass
In a blue moon lullaby

The blue wind moans in languid tones
Its sonnet fills the air
It stirs the dust where soon I must
Relinquish every care
What is man, this briefest span
Of life before I die?
A bud that grows to a withered rose
In a blue moon lullaby

And thus the years like petal-tears
Lay scattered at my feet
Whilst distant gleams of faded dreams
Waft o’er my lone retreat
But then I hear a Voice so near
Breathe from the purple sky
I know tis He who speaks to me
In a blue moon lullaby

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Janet Martin

We had a ‘blue moon’ new Year’s Eve

Last Night.....

Last night, my dear you came to me
And things were like they used to be
There for a tender little while
Once again I saw your smile
As we walked in dewy bliss
Of dawn; where nothing was amiss
Or there to hinder the blue gaze
Of love in summer’s misty haze

We wandered in the garden fair
Where none but you and I were there
Upon its ivy wall we sat
As we’d recall our ‘this and that’
We basked beneath the willow tree
Content in silent reverie.....
Every dream may have its day
When I awoke you slipped away

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Janet Martin 01/12/09


Lord, you know each one of my friends
who have lost their soul-mate.....
Sustain them Lord, until they meet again.

Heaven's Threshold

As I gaze into the heavens
And the endless miles
Of perfect blue canopy
Untouched by human hands
And warmed by the smiles
Of sunshine’s company


I realize like never before
The ground where-on I stand
Must be the glorious threshold
That leads to Heavens door
But try as hard as I can
Its entrance I cannot behold

Janet Martin All rights reserved 2009

The heavens declare the glory of God.
The skies proclaim the work of His hands. Ps.19:1