The Reason I Write Poetry

a glimpse of this poem's persuasion...

as I gazed out where the sun and wind had whipped the yard
into blue and white still-life masterpiece the delight was more than mere body could contain!

 Wood-pecker patiently waiting his turn...

We've enjoyed a non-stop feather-flurry at the feeders today!

above and below, finches, junco, chick-a-dee

 

above, nuthatch, below, mourning dove

above, lunch-rainbow, below, winter-picnic

for love of white canvas soft-feathered with blue

for sparkle of laughter, for friendship of you

for joy of day breaking and waking within

the love a lifetime of ways to begin

for gladness and sadness captured tenderly

this is the reason I write poetry

for love of a flower, a bower, a bird

for Beauty too rare to be wrested by word

for fancy and fact and matters in between

for nature's kaleidoscopic bronze-gold-green

for all that has been and all that waits to be

for right here, right now, I write poetry

for love of the picture that hides in a pen

for trying to find it again and again

for ballads still silent in ink-fettered bars

for landscapes a-dazzle with diamonds and stars

for moments too grand to let lapse back to sea

this is the reason I write poetry

to honor the shadow that climbs twilight's hill

to dally in meadows to feel freedom's thrill

to spread out a picnic in spite of the snow

beside home-sweet fires beneath a lamp's glow

to wrangle with whispers and then set them free

this is the reason I write poetry

to rhumba, to tango, slow-dance, waltz, foxtrot 

to fly to the moon on a pontoon of thought

to touch you though miles make you seem out of reach

to wander in winter a warm wave-washed beach

to treasure the pleasure of fond memory

 this is the reason I write poetry 

faint semblance of summer though stiff north gales blow

dandelion constellation-studded snow

half-shut-eye half-havens of dusk's dewy mist

dumb-struck elation of creation frost-kissed

reveling in endless possibility

this is the reason I write poetry

Janet Martin

Happy January 25th!
a month past Christmas!