Winnowed World

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, 

 that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Psalm 90:14

Without More to live for than This

life would be a leap of lack! 

But by the grace of God

we may sing for joy

and be glad all our days!

Time's season-circuit seems to spin faster and faster

as the years fly by...

I feel like I just planned and planted this year's gardens

and already we are gathering its final fare

and 'tucking' flower-haunts in for a nap!

Season-circuits sweep the surface

Of the earth and disappear

Before-after, sorrow-laughter

Meld in mementos of Here

Soft and subtle, brusque rebuttal

Grinds the gears of live-and-learn

Bitter-sweeter, dusk-defeater

Fuels flues of No Return

Buds and flowers, barren bowers

Season-circuit spins and spills

Giving, taking, sleeping, waking

Want and wonder taunts and thrills

One door opens while one closes

Rearranging points of view

Rush of roses soon exposes

Dust to dust’s inherent due

Tend to duty bent with beauty

Dazzling dreamlands laid to waste

Working, playing, hoping, praying

Lingering while hours haste

Sacred splendor, mean and tender

Keens the crux of have and hold

Kind and cruel binding duel

Weans Time’s tux of autumn-gold

Where the embers of September’s

Mellow, yellow flickers fade

Where the mettle of the petal

Falls like music-notes soft-played

Where the flurry of our hurry

Stirs a blur of Must-to-mist

Unfurled, winnowed world of windows

Full of faces farewell-kissed

© Janet Martin