Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Sonnet of Sorrow and Summer Dusk




After the storm God sweeps the clouds awry
We stand without a word beneath it all
He spreads His miracle across the sky
Consoling earth with heaven’s madrigal
The aftermath of daylight cups our cares
In chalices of mist and moor and mead
Above, an ocean filled with people-prayers
Unveils a flawless floor where angels tread
And we, but beggars for God’s daily grace
Pause in this paradise of dusk’s embrace

Time’s fortune that perplexed our midday pain
Seems dull beneath this Brigadoon of bliss
Knowledge recoils; our noisy notions wane
What can we say beneath a sky like this?
And what is man, when we consider He
Who commandeers the spheres beneath His Feet?
We recognize our frail mortality
As dust settles where life and death compete
This grappling undertow of give and take
Is but the preface to our last heartache

Just as a river runs into the sea
And we cannot reverse its onward flow
Time flows forward yet into history
Its height and breadth and width we do not know
Nor can we prophecy tomorrow’s fare
We are not gods but merely mortal men
Darling, beneath this miracle of air
I cannot put mouth-babble in a pen
This little song-and-sorrow rigmarole
Is a riptide that we cannot control

© Janet Martin

Awe clashed with grief as we stood beneath dusk’s banner of beauty. Our school-community mourns the loss of a kindergarten student, who died suddenly this morning. 




2 comments:

  1. Oh no...so sorry to hear that loss. What happened?
    Last nights sky was something else!

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  2. He began limping on the week-end but the Dr. told them it should clear up soon. On Mon. night he was rushed to hospital with fever, but he died on Tues. morning!His twin-brothers are in Victoria's grade.

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