Showing posts with label January Poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label January Poem. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

January Farewell Lyric

 A few final, farewell January mementos before February takes center stage


We had 3 sunrises in January; on the 4th, 21st & 22nd...













Though you are infamous because of temps that chill us to the bone
And gales that wail and howl and make us humbly glad for home-sweet-home
And though the farmer does not miss your tricks of frozen pipes and taps
You still spill much to love; your bliss of Jack Frost art, your pristine wraps

Your cooler pace than when we chase spring-summer-autumn’s urgent task
Your gratis shadow-show poured flawlessly on snow, from yonder flask
Your still-life ebb and flow of tundra; white and blue capped sense of seas
Your subdued quietude of muffled, snow-truffled brook-song and trees

Your feathered patron-jam at feeders filled with ceaseless flickering
Your yellow flash as sparrow-hawk crashes carefree bird-bickering
Your pure delight as white-on-white leaves speechless troubadours agape
Your happiness, that we confess is as simple as tea and cake

Your first-month-of-a-new-year-status, soon stripped of its pedestal
By a momentous apparatus that drains every season-full
Drains the outdoor rinks of pink-cheeked youngsters with star-sparkly eyes
Drains the eaves of ‘cicle-brickle, drains the bite from squall-rent skies

Drains winter’s hour of its power to hold gold and green at bay
Drains the bud to leafless lintel, drains bluster’s lackluster gray
Dear January, if we could I doubt that we would hit ‘repeat’
Yet in your wake you leave an ache for lyrics lost beneath Time's feet 

© Janet Martin


Your still-life ebb and flow of tundra; white and blue capped sense of seas



Jack Frost garage floor art!!









Monday, January 31, 2022

Let It Be...Winter!



And just like that, January 2022 is a memory!
Wow! Winter months really do seem to pass far
too swiftly to be fretted over!
(My truck-driver husband definitely begs to differ😅)

The distance between dawn and dusk 
dissolving ever-so swiftly...





We will soon be warmed with wonder
Where the orchard stark and still
Will burst with pale chiffon plunder
Of first blossom’s pastel frill
Where the creek, now sleek as satin
Will lure bare feet to its brink
And the children will laughin’
And the calf learnin’ to drink
And the mother will be singin’
In a world of blush and jade
And the garden will be ringin’
With the peal of hoe and spade
And the meadow will be gleamin’
With the aftermath of white
Where the whole world will be beamin’
With a poet’s sheer delight

Then, let winter be the willow
Bronze brush-stroked on brooding blue
Let it be a sequined pillow
The landscape of spartan hue
The midday third round of scrabble
While a vault of stars is spilled
While the birds twitter and squabble
Over feeders freshly filled
Let it be the woodstove’s glory
Days; the height of home-sweet-home
The vicarious life through story
-books; frost-fretwork of a poem
Let it be the bluff and bluster
Of Old Man Winter’s ‘hell-o-o-o ‘
Let it be the joy we muster
As he flusters plans with snow

Let it be the love of lamplight
Cup of tea and fireside chair
Knee-deep trek through rose-swept twilight
Autumn melted on the air
Let it be the wind berating
Dusk's unruffled shadow-piers
Poised between seasons in waiting
And the waft of yesteryears
Let it be the love of knowing
Every day is gone too soon
Reduced to a pale fringe glowing
Crisp dark singed with crescent moon
Let it be the rush of oceans
Tossed, white-glossed across the lea
Where Time’s salty spray is frozen
In a fray/frame of memory

© Janet Martin



Thursday, January 31, 2019

January and Juxtapositions





It's so cold
and so awesome!

Hard to hate a postcard heavy with the handiwork of God
Worship overcomes the burden; love makes worth each mile we trod
Beauty begets humble wonder while we bear The Ways of Life
Of Night always hinged to morning; of joy always hinged to strife
Of hope, always hinged to heartache, of delight hinged to dismay
Of desire hinged to blessing, of heaven hinged to today

© Janet Martin



For Old Man Winter's Shining Hour


 I found the above old book a few months ago, 
a chapter for each month written by a woman (after my own heart) in Connecticut...
but very relatable in Canada as well!
Weather certainly has come in capital letters this week!
Hubby is in Winnipeg with a brand new truck and frozen fuel!


Fellow, famous for your grit
For our love or hate of it
You don’t seem to mind a bit
Owning center stage
Seething in each crease and crook
Stirring love for tea and book
Making home the sweetest nook
While your tempers rage

While you tweak cheeks, nose and toes
While you shake Nature’s repose
While you make yourself at home
Right outside each door
Tumbling, rumbling, reeling g-r-r-r
Big, burly, breath-stealing b-r-r-r
Sparkling stillness, starred silver
Want and wonder war

Season of quilted desires
Frozen water-pipes, home-fires
Icicles like crystal spires
Fringe each rooftop’s edge
Where earth’s frozen floorboards creak
Where our hasty footsteps squeak
Where the birdie fills its beak
With God’s seeded pledge

Shovels, skates, skis and snow-shoes
Landscapes draped in hoary hues
Vantage filled with varied views
Of you, foe or friend
Old Man Winter, shine your hour
Flaunt your frigid super-pow’r
For with each day you devour
You hasten your end

While you leap with cold, bold stride
Fling your fortune far and wide
We smile at your foolish pride
Knowing one sure thing
With each flurry that you flail
With each fierce frost bitten gale
Slowly, surely you unveil
Earth’s rebirth, sweet spring

© Janet Martin




Saturday, January 12, 2019

Praise For Winter Days




The snow reminds me a little of the sea; so many shades and textures!


With white-laced frills
And ice-glazed chills
And landscapes silver-starred
With buildings tucked
In clouds soft-shucked
Just like an old postcard

With mug ‘o hot
And hug from tot
Swaddled in winter clothes
Where all our skin
Is bundled in
Save eyes, pink cheeks and nose

With crackling log
And sparkling bog
And plup-blup-porridge-poem
With luxury
Of family
All happy to be home

With polished brooks
And bookish nooks
And vistas, clean and grand
We raise our praise
For winter days
And winter’s wonderland

© Janet Martin


Thursday, January 10, 2019

January Majesty

Earth went from bleak and barren to sleek white satin in the last day and night!



The land is plush with starry swirls
The black brook’s babbles cease
The wind, with gusty brush unfurls
A white-world masterpiece

Night fades its shades of endless ink
And fills man’s eastward gaze
Where Morning is an opal, pink
With silver-frosted glaze

And hope wafts, feathery and soft
Then wild and wonder-thrilled
Extravagance empties its loft
Earth’s naked Want is filled

And ‘wish’ wears fuzzy socks and sighs
Like lilies in repose
Love looks at life through gentle eyes
Unrushed in thermal clothes

It finds within white solitude
Breathtaking Majesty
To cheer the heart that else might brood
And miss the poetry


© Janet Martin