Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Ah, Tender-sweet December Eve





Ah, tender-sweet December eve
Blue, blue you let your curtain fall
In solstice-song and snowflake throng
And starlight-spangled Christmas carol

The gentle gleam of home-sweet-home
Beams circle-beacons to the street
Across the yard and boulevard
We hear the homeward haste of feet

…where mothers hold their children near
And suddenly the world is right
The wood-smoke curls in dolor swirls
Against the canvas of the night

We serve the soup and say our prayers
And count our blessings one by one
Ah, tender-sweet December eve
How soon another day is done



© Janet Martin

They are all home again:)

 



Of Muse and Madness





I did not ask you, darling
To love me; unborn jot
You vex me before I am up
And tease my every thought

I cannot bear your essence
Matrix of ice and fire
Yet, how I crave your presence
Provoking my desire

Did you happen upon me
Or is there something more?
You press against a levee where
Ten thousand whispers roar

Ah muse, what keens your spirit?
Are you a curse or gift?
For I can hardly bear it
...without you I’m a-drift

And you pursue me, madly
I laugh and weep and groan
But oh, if you would leave me
My pen would turn to stone

© Janet Martin


Ephemeral Exchanges






The wind that blows the storm to shore
Will bear it back to sea
The dearth that draws you from my door
Will bring you back to me

The stream that steals my now-to-then
Will carry on its tide
The virgin morn waiting its When
As night and day divide

The breath exhaling to the blue
Replenishes its space
Where missing you and wanting you
And loving interlace

The wave that rolls across the beach
Dissolving in a gasp
Is like that moment out of reach
Yet slipping through my grasp

© Janet Martin

Do you ever feel this? I did just now as my daughter left for work.



Winter Quietude





Gone, gone, the laughing leaf of auburn fall
Bronze timbrel tucked into white solitude
The crinkled creek, a placid, polished hall
Its melody of merry May subdued
The song-bird choir that heralded the morn
Is mute; its choristers far, far away
And fields, stripped of wild-bloom and rippling corn
Roll soundlessly to skylines dull and gray
Forgotten fronds shiver, bereft of smile
Betrayed, it seems by winter’s gilded guile

On street or field our muffled footsteps fade
Stillness of white blankets hushed countryside
Somewhere bare feet pause in kind, crooning shade
Where heaven’s eyes are blue and open wide
Here, where the zephyr teased bracken and bloom
Now winds wander earth’s stricken emptiness
Searching through nature’s whitewashed living-room
For something more than stiff, stoic witnesses
Beneath the spell of sequin-silver kiss
The world is wrapped in winter quietness

This is the hour of tranquility
Do not despise the door that leads to spring
The barren tree in meek humility
Trusts He who holds and molds each season-thing
Though stalk has rendered its bloom to the sod
Farewell is not its death, hope fills the seed
It slumbers where the faithfulness of God
Does not forget for He beholds each need
While now we wait; our wanting will subdued
In cathedrals of winter quietude

© Janet Martin

Because my mind is racing this morning I decided it would be good to focus on quietude! :) Merry Christmas all, and may your days leading up to His Birthday Celebration be peaceful and bright!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Soliloquy





I like the way you come to me
So far away and yet so near
You whisper soft against my ear
A winter-night soliloquy

I like the fire in your eye
The way you look, just standing there
Etched tender on the frost-keened air
You warm the dark with summer’s sigh

I like the way time cannot steal
The fellowship of memories
Where you and I like midnight’s breeze
Dance soft and slow on winter’s field

I like the way you touch me, dear
The silence would be crass and cold
But for the echoes that unfold
In white moonlight against my ear

© Janet~

I Love You Too



 

When you speak them to me
No other words will do
So I reply; those four best words
“I love you too”

Three words are wonderful
And forever new
But I tremble at four words;
“I love you too”

We cannot speak these four words
Out of the blue
But they fit perfectly after three;
‘I love you’
“I love you too”

© Janet Martin

Beyond Today...





Beyond today we cannot say
What will befall or if perchance
We might be drawn from moment-spawn
For living’s ephemeral dance
Does not foretell when Time’s farewell
Will place its kiss upon our brow
We cannot see beyond today
The only thing we have is Now
And none can wheedle or demand
One glimpse beyond today’s firm hand

Beyond today we cannot say
What colors fill The Artist’s tray
The gold and gray that slipped away
Is nothing now but yesterday
And we, the love-and-learning squad
March ever onward up to God
Beyond today; a curious thought
Of fantasy and faith unwrought
We tremble twixt the ‘what-has-been’
And the ‘beyond-Today’s-unseen’

Beyond today oh, none can say of wise-man,
Soothsayer or sage
What Life will spill of good and ill
Upon its far and phantom page
Paris in June? Love’s Brigadoon?
What will it be? Ah, none can know
Its filament is lent and spent
Within a gasp that we call Now
And we can never snatch the thread
From He who gives our daily bread

© Janet Martin

Of Green and Gold and God





Behind facades of gold and green,
Of fields bathed bronze in early light
Or season-tides that surge unseen
Disguised as morning, noon and night
Within life’s little tick-tock share
Of hurt and hunger, laughter, grief
We stretch our hands but cannot snare
The nuances which fill Time's sheaf
The clock strikes twelve; another year
Slips soft into the atmosphere

The canvas where we oft laid bare
Love’s stunning attributes of trust
Its ravishment of hope, despair
Its pinnacles of want and must
Is snuffed by nothing but the chime
Of midnight and while wise men sleep
The subtle dictation of Time
Claims one more year within its keep
Futile to clench or shake the fist
We cannot cling to moment-mist

Is life but extolment of prayer?
While dream-slayers and sages vie
We stumble, fly and soon stand where
Another year whispers good-bye
Spring’s bully-green is winter-white
And youth, ah youth is borne away
Upon this morning, noon and night
And vapor shaping yesterday
Blessing and burden coalesce
To teach us trust and happiness

Ah, see the sun rise from the trench
Of twilight on a beach somewhere
Mercy and love’s compassion drench
Morning; ‘tis more than scripted air
And we are more than young and old
Marching toward death’s ether clime
Where history is but the hold
Of tick-tock chant and moment-mime
This green and gold season-facade
Unfolds the road that leads to God

© Janet Martin