Sage's Promise... Two-for-two Tues.

Every year PAD'S two-for-two Tues. includes this prompt: 
write a love poem. write an anti-love poem

Maybe in time her heart will not lurch

At the mention of you

Where the color blue

And thought of you merge

Maybe, in time she will find

Who she was before your ‘love’

Fell, lifeless as the glove

A straggler left behind

Maybe in time, Time's ripple effect

Will ripple beyond her reach

...the waves that wash across the beach

Not charged with echoes they resurrect

And, maybe, maybe after a while

Time will, as sage's promise, 'heal’

And then maybe she will feel

The laughter that wears her smile

© Janet Martin

Pictures...

Pictures; they just sit and stare
And they never say a word
Frozen in an image where
Hearts and memories are stirred

I pause to wipe a tender tear

Oh, it’s almost like you’re here

The night wind moans, a melody
Where arabesque thought-whispers fall
I can feel you here with me
It’s like you never left at all
I reach to touch your smiling face
No one will ever take your place

Pictures, they just sit and stare
Silver-soft echoes from the past
It's almost  more than I can bear

Yet, still I reach to hold you fast
For there are no words left to speak
My tear falls on your paper cheek

Janet~

Taking Chances

A heart, a heart

Such a fragile thing

A risk to give away

And yet we share

It bit by bit

In pieces,

Every day

A heart, a heart

Such a tender thing

Once broken,

Never quite the same

But we cannot love

And keep hearts intact

So we love

And love again

A heart, a heart

Such a treasure-chest

And oh,

What riches it holds

The memory of whispers

And smiles; a kiss

More priceless

Than rivers of gold

A heart, a heart

It comes apart

But oh,

Time heals again

So live and laugh

And love

…and lose

We never love in vain

J~

Invisible Masterpiece

As silent and stunningly spectacular
As lightning in the sky
Soundless, it’s surrender
As a falling butter-fly
Or the silver kiss of midnight dew
Crowning each blade of grass
Rib-caged, a wild and phantom spew
Erupts, like scarlet glass
But no one takes a picture
Of this priceless work of art
Or beholds in riveting horror
The carnage of a heart

J~

Healing

Memories bleed in profuse silence
From the wound within her chest
Love has shattered her resilience
This is heartache at its best

Tears are but a tiny hemorrhage
Of the gulf tearing within
What can bind a wretched heartache?
But to forgive and love again



J~

Spectacular Silence

Little did you know as you walked by
You tore her heart from her chest
With the blink of an eye

You touched it for a moment; a trite distraction
Ignoring the aftermath
Wrought by rejection


You did not hear the deafening sound
Of hope erupting
In spectacular heartbreak, to the ground


J~

Of Things Temporal

Soon, my dear all of this will be nothing more than a memory

Both joy and sorrow are pebbles which rouse a ripple upon life’s sea

The hunger of longing; the sigh of contentment, both are a temporal lot

And only last a little moment before they are soon forgot

Darling, the wanting and missing of you will pass as the sigh of the wind

Even the holding and kissing of you can't satisfy the void in my mind

Mankind will never be able to fill the places intended for God

We cannot have true fulfillment until we sleep beneath the sod

The wind may rouse the waves on the sea but the deeps remain untouched

You may ignite a fire in me, but you will never be enough

Hope and fire and water and wind are earth’s greatest forces that be

Yet simply a brief foreshadowing of the things of eternity

Heaven and hell leave little glimpses upon this broken sod

But we know full well that all things immortal rest in the hands of God

Both joy and sorrow on this earth are fleeting; where one is the other waits

How sweet to know perfection is waiting for His own beyond Heaven’s gates

Janet~

Progress?

Of all the progress of the age
And wonders of technology
Yet there is naught that can assuage
A broken-hearted memory

They may send man up into space
And view the earth from outer spheres
But there is naught that can erase
The pain bled out in silent tears

For though the centuries may roll
And man invents the latest ‘new’
Still there is naught to bring to whole
A heart that lies broken in two

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

Hole in my Heart.....

There’s a hole in my heart, dear
Where you used to be
I’ve tried to fill it with somebody else
But it’s just not that easy you see
It’s tearing me apart, dear
No matter how hard I try
The great big hole in my heart, dear
It’s filled with the sound of good-bye

Keep your arms full of roses
I’ve never yet seen a one
Which does not drop all its petals
And all of the beauty is gone
As soon as the door softly closes
There’s just one thing that I see
So keep your arms full of roses
They’ll never replace you and me

Sugar and spice are for tea, dear
Diamonds for grand royalty
They may be lovely for someone to wear
But it will never be me
There’s a hole in my heart dear
And there’s not a thing I can do
For there’s no one in whole wide world
That will ever be me and you

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

Watching/listening to the movie Till the Clouds Roll By
(the life story of song writer Jerome Kerns) made me want to write
An old ‘black and white movie’ sad song…..the rain provokes
a desire to write sad songs too…and boy, do we have that !!!!

Truth.....

He told her that he loved her
And he tried real hard
He brought her flowers
And he mowed the yard
He whispered ‘sweetheart’
When the night was still
But he could not forget….
…against his will

He did not weep
At least not by day
But when she was asleep
Memories would prey
Silent and secret
The tears he shed
She could never be the one
That he could not forget

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

Holding On....

She holds on to the pain
A bitter curse
Yet living without it
Would be worse
Unshed tears can burn for years
She knows it’s true
But it’s all that she has left
To hold on to

She holds on to the pain
Sweet agony
There’s comfort in the wind
And misery
She wears her chosen sorrows
Like a cloak
Clinging to the fragments
Of her hope

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

Incapable....

I am capable of seeing the flaming maple tree
Or the brilliant sun-rise or clear blue skies
Without being taunted by your memory
Your laughter in my ‘here ever-after’

I am capable of smelling a dew-laden rose
Or hearing the refrain of a summer rain
Without feeling the soft midnight mist enclose
The tender hour where love was a budding flower

I can walk through a carpet of leaves, wind-blown
Where each step we took is now a closed book
And I am capable of breathing on my own
But I know it’s true; I’m incapable of forgetting you

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

White Lies

I tell myself it doesn’t matter
There is nothing you could say
Even when the dust is settled
That could change things anyway
And so I simply keep repeating
In the end it’s for the best
I just wish I could believe it
As it robs me of my rest

It doesn’t matter if you’d rather
Never meet me on the street
Or if there should be another
Whispering words endearing, sweet
It doesn’t matter if you’re smiling
With her lips upon your ear
And the secret she is telling
Really doesn’t matter, dear

I tell myself it doesn’t matter
You were never quite my style
As I tear each of your letters
Up into a tear-stained pile
No, it really doesn’t matter
I am better without you
Actually I can’t remember…….
Ah, yes……they were blue

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

No John Wayne

You know we both hate all the fighting
Cruel words and slamming doors
The grievances we keep inciting
Never seems to even scores
But more than words angry or hateful
Or the bitter scars we store
I find something far more dreadful
Oh, I hate the silence more

Where do you go when we’re together?
You’re a million miles away
Gripping an invisible tether
Riding ‘cross hills cold and gray
But there’s no John Wayne come a-riding
To rescue this dame in distress
Only a long and doleful chiming
To break midnight’s quietness

We both hate the walls we're building
Yet seem unsure what to do
Before you ride into the sunset
Won’t you just try breaking through?
I strain to hear the pounding hoof-beats
Ringing out across the plain
But all I'm hearing is your heart-beat
In a silent movie with no John Wayne

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

okay, okay, I confess.....
I did write this so I could use
one of my REALLY COOL John Wayne pictures:)

Heartbreak

As silent and stunningly splendid
As lightning in the sky
Soundless, it’s surrender
As a falling butter-fly
Or the silent breath of midnight dew
Which crowns each blade of grass
Reflected in a ruby hue
It shatters, like phantom glass
But no one takes a picture
Or stands in wordless awe
To behold in riveting horror
The carnage of a heart in love

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin