Because You Can't Have One Without the Other

(I apologize to you who read, sometimes before I've found 

some editing flaws I missed previously...

These poems generally get penned and posted amidst 

MUCH more than merely writing)

Wow! going from 23C yesterday to 6C this morning gets one's attention!

There's no denying it: another garden-year is drawing to a close!

But the flowers are not going to fade without a fight!

They've shrugged off a few frosty kisses already!

Maple trees toss their fiery tresses, as if daring Father Time!

He just smiles because he knows who always wins in the end.

October's to-do list is bittersweet!

-cut back or pull out spent glory.

-Harvest final fare

-Dig out flower bulbs that can't withstand winter-brr!

-plant flower bulbs for spring tulips etc.

-Collect seeds for gardens not planted yet

-Tuck leaf-duvets over slumbering flowerbeds

-Plan for next year's growing season/gardens

The folding always follows the holding💞

Sometimes I tend to rue the shadows of longing’s despair

Forgetting that it is the sun that puts the shadows there

How quick the readiness of thorns beneath love’s lovely rose

Can prick the headiness of holding with soft curtain close

The hellos that fill hugs/mugs with happiness ignites the knell

That trembles in the offing that assembles fond farewell

The wind that woos the lover to the darling of his heart

Is the same wind that hovers, to dearly draw them apart

Oh look! The baby smiles and coos and sits, walks, runs, then flies

Time’s book full of spent centuries still takes love by surprise

Thus, I cannot afford to stand too long with mournful stare

To gaze upon a world that fell to pirates of the air

Where waves that roll across the shore and thrill children at play

Are followed by the waves that wash their sandcastles away

And the breath-taking beauty of life’s garden in full wreath

The prelude to the duty of the grave that lies beneath

Sometimes, I tend to rue the letting go of seasons felled

Until I look back, humbly glad for all I had and held

Sometimes, I tend to rue the rending ache for seasons spent

Until, with awe I thank God for the loveliness He lent

© Janet Martin

Sometimes, I tend to rue the letting go of seasons felled

Until, with awe I thank God for the loveliness I held...

Ode to October Almost Over

 

From morning's frost-gilt, mist-kissed filigree

To dusk's brusque, rusk-crisp tableau in what feels like no time at all!

Summer’s sanguine sparkle slumbers beneath autumn’s umber lull

Earth is steeped in muted murmurs siphoned from October’s hull

Hearts are always gently humbled when the world is full of fall

As the height of bloom is tumbled from its garden-pedestal

Jack Frost tweaks cheeks, ears and noses sparking poem-wanderlust

Canvas of daybreak exposes vistas etched in diamond-dust

Where a carousel of hours twirls the morning round and round

Like a sky full of leaf-flowers, moments flutter to the ground

While Duty tries to amaze us by granting backdrops of fall

And beauty drives us half-crazy by the wonder of it all

Camera lens never quite captures the majestic magnitude

Or the aura that enraptures as autumn dusk is subdued

Where, framed by the fading tincture on a page of history

We try to preserve its picture to relive in poetry

© Janet Martin

Ode to A Sunny October Day

After Monday and Tuesday's tempestuous weather

Wednesday was a dream!

The sky is like a sapphire bowl

 Tipped way up, upside down

The maple, like a parasol

Or queen with golden crown

The zinnia, like a lucent brooch

On azure collar pinned

The afternoon, a gleaming coach

Drawn by a sassy wind

The shadows like a tattered quilt

As holes begin to show

Where overhead autumnal gilt

Drifts earthward like leaf-snow

Where just to be alive is like

A gift twilight soon steals

The hour like a shiny bike

About to lose its wheels

The orchard filled with trees picked bare

Like ghost-towns lost to time

Save for a ladder here and there

Left for dreamers to climb

© Janet Martin

(this photo not taken yesterday

hence the gray backdrop)

this morning looks like another gem in autumn's crown!

This is the day the Lord hath made. 

We will rejoice and be glad in it!

Psalm 118:24

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Isa.55:12

October (and a foodie finish!)

 Blushing hydrangea where autumn frosts flirt...

Shiny red apple for dinner dessert...

Blushing hydrangea where autumn frosts flirt

Shiny red apple for dinner dessert

Sassy wind sashaying through grand ballrooms

Scattered with tatters from lofty-tree looms

Landscapes, rain-glossy run slightly awry

With watercolors unfurled from the sky

Summer’s orange embers twixt plowed furrows glow

Warming our spirits on hearths primed for snow

One day soft kitten-like purrs kiss our cheeks

The next day mittens where b-r-r-risker breeze tweaks

Bronze burnished ambience startled with white

Maple-tree halos soft-doffed overnight

Hunger is teased and appeased thoroughly

Fresh from the oven or garden or tree

Gathered with humble and thankful hurrah

For autumn’s opulent cornucopia

Cooks in a quandary of pure delight

At endless options for dinner tonight

Cattails like sentry in russet wool coats

Puddles like miniature lakes full of boats

Wishes like milkweed-silk bursting from seams

Flashes of silver on backdrop of dreams

South-facing backyards like sudden sun-spas

Woodlands like grandstands of fading applause

October blazes with glory of fall

Capturing gazes where vistas enthrall

Making hearts ever so happy and sad

World full of wonder driving poets mad

Reasoning ruffled by fading veneers

Leaf-song turned into a trickle of tears

October offers a bount’ous buffet

So much to sample from its ample tray

So much to savour with eyes-ears-nose-mouth

Flavors and colors, east, west, north and south

October shimmers and glimmers until

Each candle is snuffed on Autumn's windowsill

© Janet Martin

Cooks in a quandary of pure delight

At endless options for dinner tonight...

I love this kind of quandary!😊 

I was torn between homemade pizza to use some of the last

of fresh garden peppers, onions etc.

I am also craving cabbage rolls

and squash apple bake, but as I rooted through the fridge

to make sure there wasn't some forgotten vittles, sure enough,

I found some pulled pork which needed to be used

so I made a

Pulled Pork Calzone.

The dough was a wad I had frozen from a previous pizza dough batch 

so ended up being not quite as puffy as fresh dough would be.

Spread dough on baking stone or pan

Layer filling down the center;

pulled pork, chopped onion, peppers, parsley and shredded mozz. cheese.

bring ends together in the middle and pinch

then flip over so seam is on the bottom 

Score top if desired

Bake at 375 or 400 for approx. 30 min.

Let cool slightly and serve.

Perfect with a side of coleslaw!😋

This coleslaw consisted of chopped green cabbage, red onion,

chopped green peppers, toasted flax and sunflower seeds with soy dressing

Soy Dressing

shake soy sauce, your choice of vinegar, (white, apple-cider, balsamic etc.)

black pepper, desired amount of sweetness

in honey or white sugar, after well blended add oil. 

Shake, shake, shake, pour YUM!

all amounts eye-balled😐

Dessert if needed will be an apple!

no room right now😛

Autumn Awe-frames

 

autumn keeps swiveling our heads

and slowing our feet

and snuffing want-lists 'neath the tread

of beauty, bittersweet

autumn mellows landscapes and pleas

as woodland bows/boughs untwist

a color-burst of symphonies

that melt like morning mist

autumn is like a painter's gift

each tree a pedestal

showcasing works of art that drift

down petal by petal

autumn enhances ways we trod

with backdrops blue and gold

*where duty serves its honoured squad

with wonders to behold

autumn unravels foliage-fronds

and from its lisle weaves

with tatters from a loom of wands

a counterpane of leaves

© Janet Martin

* my brother and his wife must leave the joys of farming and home-making duties

to other hands as they spend all the time they can with their daughter who is hospitalized

after being injured in an accident last weekend.

She is progressing well but healing simply takes time/patience!

We are excited to see what this week brings in this journey.

but it makes we who are blessed to be able to perform our duties feel

like part of an honoured squad, does it not?!!

With a morning like this my head feels like its on a swivel,

photo-opps everywhere!

Portrait of October

(still waiting for weather and freedom to work together amiably,

 for a colorful woodland wander/wonder trek.)

These shots were taken on a hike on Monday

 but the trees had not reached their peaks in colours yet

October’s trees are knitted scarves unraveled leaf by leaf

In rivers ruddy fleets embark to ports unmarked, unknown

The aftermath of flowers reminds us that life is brief

Its path of hours more than roulette wheels of dust and stone

October’s artist brushes fleeting frescoes, russet- gold

Where one day the world blushes and the next its colors thin

A sentimental charmer and a body growing old

A Beulah Land for farmer as harvest is gathered in

October’s wind chills to the bone and thrills through heart and soul

It riles the woodland’s dappled domes until they disappear

A Romeo, a scavenger, a tide that takes its toll

From glory to surrender, leaf by leaf and tear by tear

October’s days run wild with ways to spark wonder and praise

Earth’s hills and valleys set ablaze; awe unstoppers its flask

Outpoured where autumn’s Magnum Opus astonishes gaze

While we shoulder the onus of each season’s tender task

October’s umber halls are decked in melodies undone

Where summer’s ballads spilled unchecked through night, morning and noon

But now the bow as it is drawn across strings, season-spun

Begins to slow the tempo on a cello out of tune

© Janet Martin

October is the Time of Year/Leaf...

 October Mementos...

NOTHING excites neighbor's pup like a good game of Catch Me If You Can!!

First she finds a stick and taunts me,

...then, round 

...and round

And round we go!

until I say, NAY, pant-pant-pant 'you win!'

(winner was panting pretty hard too😅)

The Prize is!!!! Two puppy pals courtesy of Little Girl

October is the time of year

When we are torn twixt smile and tear

Where paths of summer left behind

Are tucked in, as treetops unwind

Where leaf by leaf and note by note

From splurge to dirge fall-lyrics float

A medley of gladness and gloom

Bends earth with aftermath of bloom

October is the time of year

When Beauty spills its bright veneer

To deck death’s cold and sullen Must

And fleck with gold, its dust to dust

To evoke, in awe’s uttermost

The strange awareness of a ghost

That wafts in curlicues of smoke

In clouds that drape the gaping oak

October is the time of year

When longing duels with good cheer

When gleaming tress is haunted by

Strains of a leafless lullaby

And in the middle of the show

The sense of splendor letting go

Seems to beseechingly endear

Us to the woodland’s falling tear

Where laws of give and take ignite

Grave-stippled grounds with sheer delight

As October’s vistas unfold

A masterpiece of red and gold

And, in the middle of applause

A little teardrop slips because

October is the time of leaf

That bears the brunt of joy and grief

© Janet Martin