Of Farewells and Recompense

Upon the buxom breeze we sense

In rising, falling swell

A subtle sigh of imminence

Skimming the open fell

It hovers low above the lake

In plumes of purple mist

As it bestows the keening ache

Of being almost kissed

Is loneliness perpetual want

Of what can never be

Perplexed by beauty’s moment-taunt

And heart’s inanity?

Or is it the flip-side of love

A tender winnowing

Intangible as skies above

Yet all-encompassing

Across the wild-bloom ravishing

Of precious Time’s expanse

We bear the raw relinquishing

Of have-and-holding’s dance

From passion-pores our longing pleads

Yet in synchronous mete  

We press its echo to our needs

In comfort bitter-sweet

Upon the dew-belle dawn we sense

The tug of letting go

We hunger for the recompense

Of Time’s incumbent woe

To have and hold is love’s brief bliss

How lingering the knell

Of tender-sweetest loneliness

Where love bleeds its farewell

© Janet Martin

June; where did you go? 

Oh,fairest maiden of them all

And why your eager hastening

Toward the scrim of fall?

With glad anticipation

You rushed into our reach

Melting in meek subjection

Like a wave upon the beach