Of All There Is to Learn

In all the ways of growing old

That we must learn to learn

In spite of what we have been told

As soft the seasons turn

We are not spared and cannot keep

The forward flow of days from sleep

In all the ways that days allow

Of laughter, love and loss

It seems we are surprised somehow

By life’s swift albatross

And how its charge is intertwined

With mercy- gardens, lily-lined

In all the ways of have and hold

A stunning undertow

Roars rampant as the skies unfold

Time’s timeless letting go

The dark consumes the little day

The flower blooms then falls away

In all the changeless laws of dust

That we inherit here

It seems we need to learn to trust

Or suffer, cursed with fear

As we learn all there is to learn

In this Through-way of No Return

© Janet Martin

 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. 

The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

1 Pet.1:24

I know summer flies by, yet, every summer I'm stunned at the haste of it!

Last night I stood, mesmerized as hallowed good-byes

washed ripened harvest with sighs...