With Love And All Its Gladness Lent...

With love and all its gladness lent

Like gardens bent with flow’r

Where laughter’s sparkling element

Delights the common hour

...where summer is a state of mind

In spite of season's toll

Unraveling the ties that bind

The hunger of the soul

…where wonderment too rare for words

To phrase love's ways in full

Is coupled with life’s deepest hurts

And sorrow’s sacred pull

For with love’s fond and splendid bliss

Flows grief’s fine-mingled art

Dear, love is not a carefree kiss

Or for the faint of heart

Love is a holy happiness

For in its cup of cheer

Shimmers the bittersweet caress

Of its most tender tear

© Janet Martin