From Darkness to Light

The lawn sports a shawl of fresh dew-diamond dazzle

Flower and fallow unfolds to our gaze

As bird-song and sunshine and zephyr-sigh mingle

Filling our cup with His promise and praise

Where is the darkness that covered the midnight?

Where is the shroud that swathed this tumbled girth?

Its veil is torn by breath-whispers of morning

Up from the skyline Light swaddles the earth

See how the darkness recedes like an ocean

See how its tide slips from shadow to Light?

Such is a heart when our self-will is broken

Like summer’s fair morning after winter’s night

Hope wears the color of gold on the garden

We bear the wonder of Love breathed on dust

See; His compassion is new every morning

Light of the world and in Him we trust

© Janet Martin

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2: 9

The Light

No one can turn on the dark on a whim

Darkness evolves as light grows dim

Light overcomes darkness as dawn fades the night

And darkness can never extinguish the Light

Take heart fellow pilgrim, this journey through life

Will take us through valleys of turmoil and strife

While doom-criers wail ‘it is dark’, we fight

For darkness will never extinguish the Light

© Janet Martin

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Gen1:1-3

The Word of God begins with Light!

Twilight Rhapsody

 

Beneath his moody murmur and caress

Softly she comes surrendering her lilt

Of azure glance and golden sun-flecked dress

To lie where cobalt shadow-song is spilt

All day he waited as her overture

Wove mystery to history; but now

He drapes his crushing longing over her

And smooths life’s ruthless laugh-lines from her brow

Out past the fields where tree-tops touch the sky

The vesper croons its burnished lullaby

The wheel from which her gossamer is spun

Replenishes its thread with somber hues

The filament of moments in the sun

Deepens to shrouds of midnight-tinted blues

Yet, he does not excuse his solemn trance

But softly wraps her in his muted hush

He gathers her into a gentle dance

Kissing her wantonness; horizons blush

As on the fringe of yesterday and dawn

A molten glow erupts; then it is gone

Beneath the vault where love and life unfold

She lays aside her tattered, tear-stained gown

Relinquishing her being to his hold

How tenderly he watches her lie down

The hour of her gallantries subside

Within the candor of his raw embrace

Somewhere the fringe of earth and sky collide

But darkness spills its sigh across her face

And now against his brawny chest she sleeps

He strums the air as star-song fills the deeps

© Janet Martin

The True Light

The darkness is not greater than the Light

One tiny spark will pierce the shroud of night

We are not doomed to blindness and despair

See how the morning melts night’s onyx air

Time’s Shepherd tends the hours while we sleep

His Light exceeds the gloom of midnight’s deep

From Dark to light; hope’s gate is open wide

We are the sheep for which this Shepherd died

Darkness cannot remain; the Light has come

Into this world; a Babe in Bethlehem

Shepherd became a Lamb; Lamb is the Light

I AM prevails beyond the transient night

He shines into the dark; Grace and truth rend

The veil that darkness cannot comprehend

© Janet Martin

John 1:1-15

November's Farewell Song

What is that song you play tonight?

It rolls across the cobalt eve

Where finger-tips of silver-white

Strum branches aching for their leaves

What is that melody we hear?

Of still and starless diadem

Tolling the waning of a year

In farewell notes of snowflake gem

Who plays this moody minuet

A sudden, surging solitude

Where daylight rests her weary head

As rushing winds are calm, subdued

Where is the Maestro that instructs

This tender, tortured euphony?

It trembles in the midnight arch

And drifts across the frozen lea

What is that song; a humble hymn

Autumn’s postlude, a lullaby

That trickles from the silent scrim

Of deep November-night good-bye

© Janet Martin

Scary Poem

 Poetics Aside Prompt; Write a Scary Poem

I feel your body next to mine

It is cold

I reach to turn on a lamp

But there is no light

I strike a match

It will not flare

The darkness closes in

A suffocating wall

I press my face to your cheek

But I cannot feel you

Or see you

We are cold

I hear my children crying

Somewhere

Out there

In the darkest dark

Alone

They tell us there will never be

Another morning

And the sun

Has died…

© Janet Martin

Don't you love

warmth

and light?

Last night I turned out all of the lights, and as I walked to my room with my arms stretched out in front of me the darkness felt like a wall closing in...