From the Corner of my Eye

I cannot stare straightly ahead

To pluck the air for daily bread

Barricades cannot thwart a thought

 Ah, this must be a dreamer’s lot

From out the corner of my eye

Tid-bits of poetry drift by

And who can work where gold is strung

Throughout a cloud from heaven hung

What if, while I transfixed my gaze

Upon Duty’s relentless maze

I would then miss that giddy twist

Of blue-eyed sky and spiraled mist

If I would close my eyes perhaps

Then I could concentrate; but traps

Of zephyr-sigh and tick-tock vie

From out the corner of my eye

And  I cannot like cold stone cede

Those palms outstretched where poems plead

For what then would thought’s merit be

Shuttered and barred to poetry?

God's touch suffuses nature's tray
With free and beauteous buffet
So I cannot stare straight ahead
Past where His poetry is spread

If then, I cannot thus persuade

Thought to remain stark-stiffly staid

I will set its discourses free

To eat, laugh, drink, love poetry

© Janet Martin

On rare occasion the house is quiet and empty so I’m trying to get housework done but then from the corner of my eye a little poem goes drifting by…