Out There...

Out there where summer fell like autumn’s harvest-ready fruit

And twilight tolls, lonesome bell-tone rolling through stricken wood

Thought is a tower window overlooking year-swept plains

The air soul-sweet and heavy wrapped in purple autumn rains

Out there where we too once inhaled the scent of darling dreams

And hours were steel stumbling blocks impeding moment-streams

We leaped carefree, oblivious to chiseled undertows

Intent upon the stepping-stones strung where tomorrow glows

Out there where we marveled at seasons spilling in full bloom

We stooped to collect fragments free-falling from heaven’s loom

Then, suddenly we paused, startled by serenades of yore  

Discovery is double-edged and slices to the core

Out there where once we stumbled in love’s ever- learning shroud

When we became acquainted with the ‘nevers’ we avowed

Now a new generation disembarks on virgin fell

Out there where summer falls and calls new dreamers to its swell   

© Janet Martin

Full-smitten

He is old-fashioned;

Crème Brulee charmer

Seducing hearts

While he robs us of summer

Dipping each spire

In fire and bronze

While we romanticize

He covers lawns

With swindled whispers

And dwindling of dreams

We collect pictures

Of leaf-laden streams

Tasting all things apple

And pumpkin and spice

… he steals away summer

While we murmur 'nice'

Intoxicated by

Wood-smoke on dusk-dark

Or pungent, pressed leaves

As we walk through the park

Trying to ignore

That inner tugging roar

Where summer-sighs barter

And autumn-bards war

And nature turns drowsy

As Apollo broods

An old-fashioned charmer

Dismantling the woods

Etching gaunt outlines

Against haunting knell

As we wade full-smitten

Through a sea of farewell

© Janet Martin

That's how it felt yesterday while I was out walking...fully, so fully in love with a charming, old-fashioned swindler drowning daylight in dusk, sauntering away with another 'gone forever' tucked neatly in his pocket.

Live Well...or, Of Moment-deft Unbuttoning...

Live well and do not rush too fast past miracles of life

The handiwork of Deity unfolds and earth is rife

With sundry season splendor and with sundry season need

Live well; for who of us can tell how far time’s path will lead?

This gold and gray of come-what-may is but a gilded thread

While we of Adam’s seed labor and plead for bites of bread

We plant a little garden and we pray a little prayer

God grants to us His mercy where His footfalls fill the air

Live well and do not waste with haste, the taste of moment-gifts

For soon the tune of afternoon is like the leaf that drifts

Beneath the limbs that rang with hymns of summer’s sanguine hour

Before the winnowing of whispers softly stole its flow’r

This draught that swells from wells of grace is not an endless quaff

Its gossamer effusion bathes the fingertips that doff

With moment-deft unbuttoning the garb that clothes the shell

Of this one life we have, my love; we ought to live it well

© Janet Martin

A Common Bond

We share a common dividend

On this sojourn of sod

For every path of living ends

Before the throne of God

This yawning rue of gold and blue

Of rich or poor the same

Will leave us penniless at death

As whence from birth we came

…and no one can this passage flee

Nor flippancy afford

For this appointed day when we

Will stand before the Lord

Then we ought all the more to live

As though today we die

For every one of us must give

A full report on high

The God who sent His Son to save

Us from the curse of sin

Will never disregard the faith

Of all who call on Him

This flesh and blood mortality

Sustains a common bond

For every path of living leads

Into The Great Beyond

© Janet Martin

It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.'" Romans 14:11

Yesterday my hubby attended the wake of a departed truck-driver friend who passed away suddenly at age 52. As he and other friends reminisced about this man's love of life,  trucks etc. the Great Unspoken hovered; someday each one of them would take their turn not beside the coffin, but in it.

Universal Peace and Joy

Faithful Father, the world over

Hearts of worship unify

Pausing weight of want and labor

To adore thee, God most high

Love, oh tie that binds with gladness

Hearts of strangers through Thy Word

Where life’s sin and sorrow sadness

Draws us to Thy feet, oh Lord

Faithful as the sun that rises

Is Thy mercy and Thy care

With Thee there are no surprises

God, for Thou art everywhere

Faithful Father, the world over

Believers gather to praise

He who saved us, hallelujah

Universal joy and peace

© Janet Martin