Un-spilled

Unscripted oceans

Ebb and flow

Somewhere inside of me

A surging, swelling

Undertow

Of un-spilled poetry

Where is the key

To set it free?

What seals this aching flood?

The rising, falling

Agony

Of poet’s un-spilled blood

How do I trace

A formless face

Or spell what yet is not?

And how do I

Escape the cry

Of a poet’s un-spilled thought?

© Janet Martin

 It's true; we can run but we cannot hide...

Heart-dance

I always liked the way you fit into that special part

of me; curved just for you somewhere deep inside my heart

I never need to wonder if you’re there because I know

I can feel you trembling where love’s tender moments glow

I like the way you never leave, although the past expands

Never us; our symmetry is not the touch of hands

but a dance; as two are one in pure and perfect art

Of un-penned compositions in the dances of the heart

© Janet Martin~

Empty and Cold

Poetic Bloomings Prompt: Betrayed!

Tonight you are a cantankerous rapscallion

Elusively haunting the fringe of my thought

You seem to delight in playing the villain

Antagonizing me by your formless naught

Last night a soul-mate, tonight you betray me

Vexing, perplexing aloofness of thine

Come darling, come and lay down against me

Feed me the choicest delights from your vine

I must learn not to trust you; but I am your victim

Ever returning to gobble your crumbs

Always forgiving your mindless betrayal

I’ll drink the wine from your vine till I’m numb

Muse, oh Muse,  crass tormentor of poets

What is this lure, this endowment you hold?

Last night we danced, making beautiful poems

Tonight the dance-floor is empty and cold

© Janet Martin

And the Winner Is...

Battling now

Two innate desires

To close my eyes now

Or to stoke the fires

While slumber is pleasing

It cannot compete

With the tender-sweet teasing

As word and thought meet

The trickling of moments

The ticking of time

Are the musical meter

Of rhythm and rhyme

So here is the quandary

To sleep or not

But I feel my Muse curving

Against my thought

And I have never

Had the will to resist

The luring endeavor

In a word’s cunning kiss

© Janet Martin

Sullied Intention

I would stay up all night to love

You. I am eager for your charms

I have no objection as you delight

Me. Weaver of a thousand poems…

Your phantom lips breathe thought

I have never heard

as my expired dream is stirred

and resurrected by a jot

of crazy longing in my thought

for you have never sought my heart

without intent to tear apart

the wall of my guarded torment

you scale it; the resistance I attempt

insists on begging you to stay

for you are never far away

and yet you dangle in mid-air

somewhere beyond

my hemisphere

perhaps, perhaps I ought to sleep

I cannot write; you’ve cut too deep

J~

100% Crazy

The way you unzip my heart

with your half-grin words

the way you undo my will

in an almost perfect hurt

the way you touch me

from a thousand miles away

drives me 100% crazy

every day

the way you lure me

with vowels and consonants

holding me captive

without resistance

because the seduction of poetry

will have its way

and drive me 100 % crazy

every day

what perfect torment

of soul you have stirred

in the inexplicable haunting of

unwritten word

for Muse oft elusive

will have her way

and drive me 100% crazy

every day

J~

Poetics Aside Prompt: 100%....something

Dark Winter Night

Not one star ventures out tonight

To grace its black lapel

The silence is a mantle; white

Its breath a low, drawn knell

The moon retreats to chambers veiled

Or closes its lone eye

No silhouette of pine impaled

Against the heavy sky

Birch skeletons flaunt ivory arms
Boldly against the deep
But there are none to see her charms
The whole world lies asleep

Tonight the Muse has lost her spark

She has no words to say

Methinks perhaps it is too dark

And she has lost her way

Janet~

Still

Once upon a day you let me hear
The breakers crash upon the shore
But skies are gray, so gray my dear
And I can’t hear them crashing anymore
I trace the outline of your faultless innocence
Beg for oceans, raging deep inside
Where once you caused my eager heart to dance
Your pleasing satisfaction is denied

Tormentor of my secret, craving bliss
I cannot, oh I cannot love you now
Though, how I covet your designing kiss
Your whisper cools in silence on my brow
You lie there now, emotion drained and dead
Your reckless passion distant, cold and still
A coiffure filled with naught but ink-stained dread
I plead against your unresponsive will

Once upon another sweeter day
Perhaps you’ll stir in me so graciously
A long-forgotten, tender melody
And maybe then, oh love, then we will be
Inseparable in spirit, two as one
How, oh how I long for that again
But for now your lure and passion seem far gone…
…and you are just a cold and lifeless
Pen

Janet~

And Here We Dance...

She tilts her head

In delightful laughter

While words like Sicily and Rome

Roll off her lips

As if they were

Her summer homes

And so they have been

Held between fingertips

As she turns the pages

In a scene

Of people and marketplaces

Where she has stood on shaded terraces

To watch the sun set

Over rolling vineyards

He comes to her now

Against the cool blue

Mediterranean backdrop

But poetry is not enough

To bridge the ocean

Or the deserts

Between hunger and love

Though her throat is parched

With burning of necessity

She is sandwiched

Between tumbled Canadian sky

And golden bars of sunlight

Sprawled across umber fallow

In the encroaching eventide

They dance; Sinatra knows every word

To her thoughts

And eyes will always speak more openly

Than the ineptness of speech

As she feels his heartbeat

Against her chest

In mutual anguish

And tenderness

For imminent departure

Is surely love’s

Most passionate threshold

Nobody visits this lighthouse

It is too late and too cold

They have all night to dance

And say good-bye.

She closes the book...

The clock in the tower strikes nine

J~

Elusive Muse

Tonight she falls
Heavy and flat
Like rain
Striking my face
An inert pall
Spreading its mat
Of sodden leaves
Across the place
Where once we met
In love and ease
Before tight-lipped silence
Snatched her,
Smothering
Supple form and grace
She, as reluctant as I
To venture
Alone into this
Cold, dark abyss
Where just the night before
We danced recklessly
Beneath the candor
Of the harvest moon
Disregarding propriety
And things
For the simplicity of a kiss
In a midnight afternoon
But now,
The emptiness rings
With perpetual echoing
Of footsteps fading
Into the autumn mist


J~

Maybe in Time...

Maybe in time
I will loosen my grip
And not rebel
As moments slip
Twixt you and I...

Maybe in time
I will turn the page
Without reluctance
For life's next stage
Where shadows lie

Maybe in time
I will release you a bit
But for now, I confess
I'm not ready yet
To say good-bye

Maybe in time
I will understand
And no longer tally
The miles on the sand
Twixt you and I...

J~

Out with the Gold, in with the Blue

Darling, wrap me in your cloak of moody blue today
I hear the words you spoke pour from skies tumbled and gray
There’s an essence in cool blue that warm gold cannot acquire
Stirring in me, thoughts of you, and longing and desire…

Darling, some prefer the sky of sun and azure blue
Flawless, perhaps save for a straggling billowy cloud or two
But there’ something ‘bout your glowering scowl that stirs the want in me
As your sullen fury howls across the field and sea

Darling, hold me in your touch of blue and stormy passion
Don’t withhold your gaze from me, undo me with an ocean
Pouring from the lowered hem of gray and misty blue
Soon sun’s gold will flower again…and steal my want of you

Darling, there’s a kindred spirit pouring from the sky
Rushing through me as I hear it; a song, a moan, a sigh
Darling, I'm comfortable in your arms of moody blue today
Your tears are soft, your breath is warm, you are not far away…

Janet Martin

I can’t help it…
I love rainy days.

Storm-tossed

Today as someone spoke your name

I felt the blood rush through my veins

Like the wind, a ruthless fiend

Lashing out across the land

I retrieved the things I’ve kept

From you…and wept

The wind may tear and claw and scream

At grassy stair and woodland stream

It may rush, with stormy tear

Across this vulnerable hemisphere

But it cannot reach the hidden part

Of you…rainbow in my heart

Today as raindrops lash the soil

And bar me from life’s sweeter toil

I look upon the picture of

Laughter, smiles, tears, love

A threshold of a thousand skies

With you…I hate good-byes

J~

At The Mercy of Night's Beauty...

Tonight I’ll let it envelope me
With its pleasure and its pain
I’ll let its blue wash over me
Like a sudden summer rain
Tonight its arms may cradle me
I have never loved in vain…

Tonight I’ll beg the lonesome wind
To sing in low melancholy
Loosening all the ties that bind
Setting heart and spirit free
Leaving tiresome woes behind
In bitter-sweetest ecstasy

Tonight I’ll willingly succumb
To its keen and moody touch
Let it kiss my sorrows numb
Until they do not ache so much
Tonight I’ll feel kindly at home
In its wild and gentle clutch

Tonight I’ll let it whisper words
That I don’t seem to hear by day
Let it soothe the little hurts
In the arms of deep blue-gray
Tonight I’ll let it move the earth
Beneath me as it has its way

J~

The Way of Life

…like the child that still I see
Lingering on astringent air
Where once she wandered fancy-free
With no thought of woe or care
…you disappear

I had thought perhaps this time
It might have seemed that you would stay
Too reluctant yet to climb
Into the blue vault far away
…and disappear

I want not to covet it
The pleasure that you bring to me
But oh, I do, a little bit
Won’t you stay and sing to me
…before you disappear?

The garden shows the traces now
Of quickened step and purple sigh
The sun-flower and the wheat-fields bow
Beneath the murmur of the sky
…and then they disappear

Once I held you close to me
Kissed your soft and velvet cheek
But like the child of yesterday
Life has gardens yet to seek
…and so you disappear

The wave dissolves upon the sand
The shadow melts into the air
I reach out to touch your hand
And caress you with a prayer
...as you disappear


J~

Intertwined

I never need to summon you
You are always near
Leaning on my heart of hearts
Or whispering in my ear

It seems that I cannot control
When or where you’ll be
Do you torment or console
Me with your memory

The sparkle of light, the shadow of grief
Are deeply intertwined
And darling,there is no reprieve
From the shades of the heart or mind


J~

Oceans...

There are times we neglect
To feel the moments we are in
But tonight I feel them keenly
In the murmur of the wind
And waves that melt into dusk’s helm
A pink metallic sheet
Reaching to the distant realm
And over my bare feet

I feel a blend of gold and blue
Clutching the remains
Of an afternoon with you
Beneath time’s loosened chains
Fading into the molten deep
Where cloud caresses sea
And all that I have left to keep
Are bits of memory

Tonight, I feel a languid tune
Rushing out to clutch
Life’s brevity; a restless croon
With haunting, tender touch
The endlessness of vaulted skies
The vastness of the sea
Are enormities that are dwarfed tonight
By oceans inside of me…

J~

Encore, Please

Your voice flows through me like the blue of your eyes
I’m caught in a trance, not unlike paradise
The timbre of passion and longing and hope
Drifts over hillside and valley and slope

Seduction in whispers of purple and gold
Emerald and scarlet pour from your hold
As I hear time's agony bleed from your voice
You want to stay with me, but you have no choice

Sweet are the sonnets played on the soft wind
Of sunshine and laughter when living is kind
But purer by far, the haunting melody
Born in the heartache of love’s misery

Over the pattern of wheat field and brush
An ocean of music falls into the hush
Trembling, I spread its yearning 'cross my brow
As hunger and dread spawn the breezes that blow

Tomorrow your music will be dormant and still
I will reach for you to retrieve your thrill
But you will be gone to return nevermore
As dead as the wave that reaches the shore

Today I will let your voice soothe and torment
Perfect communion of love and lament
I plead for an encore as you drift to the sky
And August extinguishes the song of July

Janet~

July Quiet

The sliver of a moon dangles from the sky
The quiver of dusk deepens in its eye
The soft caress of a sultry breeze
Teases the dress of the willow trees

The edge of the world falls into the palm
Of darkness unfurled in a moody calm
Gallant the dreams of noon-day’s lust
Sleeping in streams of dew and dust

Weary the wind lying mellow and still
But never the mind; roaming at free will
It is not released from its deepest muse
Quietly thought claims its just dues

The night can never be truly dark
It cannot relinquish its final spark
Flickers of wondering in charcoal and blue
Whispers of loving and longing and you

A silent tempest sweeps the low mist
Desire and day-dreams glow, half-kissed
The sliver of a moon dangles from the sky
It is a quiet night in July…



J~

Love's Bliss

A calmness seeps into my mind
And washes over me
Yesterday is far behind
Tomorrow still to be
But in this moment I am in
No one can steal my bliss
It wraps me in Time's gentle grin
And cheers me with its kiss

Yesterday’s regret is past
Tomorrow; merely dreams
And moments slip away too fast
Caught up in phantom streams
Where soon it seal the smile and tear
As tenderly I languish
Within the ebb and flow, my dear
Of ecstasy and anguish

I have but one small moment now
Before it too is history
Melting like fragile April snow
As now unveils its mystery
What is to be must surely be…
I close my eyes a moment
And let time’s kiss wash over me
In tears of joy and torment

J~