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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Sonnet of Farewell




The aching twist of ‘knowing’ hovers low
Against the languid mellow yellow day
Over the hill a breath of moments flow
Stealing another gasp of life away
Bloom by falling bloom the moments pass
One lonely cricket serenades the hour
As August surges swiftly through its glass
Laden with tears of summer’s faded flow’r
I shed my own; Time’s unrelenting pace
Plucks summer’s thinning shroud from my embrace

***

The solo cricket-lay is amplified
Into the hush its chirping cantos swell   
Filling the shadow-lengthened countryside
With affirmation of summer’s farewell
Where latent hints of gold and scarlet brood
Beneath the placid flush of sighing green
Too soon the gale will howl through rustling wood
Stripping the petal-garb from nature’s queen
I too feel stripped: Time is a brute uncouth
It snatches up the remnant of my youth

***

Breath by breath and tick by ticking tock
The fullest hour shrinks and disappears
The rigid order of Time’s austere clock
Expands its swift demise to days and years
The goldenrod replaces daffodil
But soon it drops its gaudy, burnished plume
Surrendering to autumn’s painted chill
Thus seasons file across earth’s living-room
I too surrender; pleading with Time is vain
And if it wills, summer will come again

© Janet Martin

Thoughts and sounds of the day and evening...

2 comments:

  1. I stumbled here from Poets United, enchanted by the titled, then, as always, drawn in and captured by your words ... a beautiful, wistful poem Janet. Truly,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank-you:) I hope to see you all over at PB again someday.

    ReplyDelete

I hope you enjoyed your pause on this porch and thank-you for your visit!