The Joyous Bells of Poem-time

 

Well, what have we to lose, my dear

Save, a silver shimmer of time

To pause upon parchment veneer

And drink a bit of ink-spun rhyme

And then to find within the swell

Of consonant and vowel lease

Something akin to Yuletide’s bell

Ringing with hope and joy and peace

Well, what have we to gain, my friend

To tame time’s unrelenting zeal

Enough to feel the warp and wend

Of pirouettes in pink and teal

But a fine merge with ink and page

And a renewed awareness of

What matters most from age to age

As would-be longing turns to love

Well, what have we in common but

The constant Thus of live and learn

Where in this grin-and-groan gamut

Wisdom is a crown we must earn

And oft, amidst hard knocks and such

We turn to seek the soft reply

Where once a bard took time to touch

The page with ink wrung from a sigh

Well, what have we to do but look

And listen where lost worlds/words live on

Between the covers of a book

Waiting for us to hap upon

Then, what have we to lose my dear

Save minutes that clock towers chime

While we dance to the songs we hear

In joyous bells of Poem-time

© Janet Martin