Potent.....

The intensity of a memory
Is a potent and powerful thing
Like a wave on the sea
It rolls over me
Sudden and unsuspecting
Its misery and its ecstasy
Are a kind and cruel blend
Inducing a sigh and a tear in my eye
for a story without an end......

Janet~

Nothing New.....

So perhaps then you think this is something new
And no one has ever felt quite like you
You love him; he loves you, incomparable bliss
Surely no one has ever felt quite like this
Well my dear girl, though I’m quite happy for you
Let me just reassure you, this is nothing new

Young love, the sparkle of life in your eye
Young love, perhaps a mother’s envy
And yet there’s a gleam that can never replace
The sparkle that glows on a young love’s face
For the fervor of love that is tried and true
Is still dearer by far, also nothing new

A broken heart hurts the self-same way
As it did in the very most ancient of day
Betrayal, regret and the sound of good-bye
Did then and will still bring a tear to the eye
Be it joy or grief that comes to me or you
The truth of it is, it is nothing new

Ships sail, birds fly, youth dreams, and aged die
We wish, we pray and somehow life just slips away
We fail, we succeed, we hope, we need
And every now and then a dream comes true
Yet this as well is nothing new

Janet~

The thing that hath been,
It is that which shall be;
And that which is done
Is that which shall be done;
And there is no new thing under the sun. Eccles. 1:9

Something...........

My arms run over with sorrow,
My mind runs over with joy
I've seen the hope for tomorrow
In the eyes of a wee girl or boy
I cannot name all my blessings
Or the things that make me glad
But oh, why the sudden wrenching
Over the thing I never had...........

I cannot dare to hunger
As I draw my loved ones near
Their love makes me stronger
Then why the sudden tear?
Why, in a tender moment
Do I hear it, haunting and sad?
A melody of torment
Over that which I never had..........

It drifts on the horizon
Across a turquoise sea
Notes of grief and passion
In aching harmony
I've had much more than I deserve
In this I'm humbly glad
Heaven holds in grand reserve
The thing I never had


Janet~

If life were perfect....
who would desire heaven?

Off-guard......

You caught me a little off guard today

As I was walking by

I paused; for your gaze, over-powering and gray

Suddenly captured my eye

And the tear in your sad eyes seemed to say

Good-bye sweet summer, good-bye

You caught me a little off-guard today

The trembling in your sigh

Wove through the limbs, barren and gray

A sad soliloquy

As the landscape joined in the solemn lay

Goodbye, sweet summer, good-bye

You caught me a little off-guard today

I thought I was over you

There is a certain raw beauty in gray

That cannot be found in blue

You caught me a little off guard today

As you bid summer adieu

Janet~

Unwritten Tragedies.....

The newspapers don’t tell the story
No head-lines in bold display
No ten seconds of glory……….
As another love dies today
They won’t show the tear-stained faces
The heads bowed in dismay
Or all of the lives it displaces.
As another love dies today

No sound of shattered memories
No pictures of destruction
No humanitarian dignitaries
Or manual of instruction
Who can mend the heart that lies
In sad and tattered fray
Or wipe the tears from little eyes
As another love dies today

Guard it with your every breath
This treasure that you hold
The greatest gift upon this earth
Lies not in vaults of gold
But in the hearts of flesh and blood
In trusting, tender eyes
Cherish this great gift from God
Lest another love dies

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin


....now you can get a 'no fault' divorce.....

Helpless....

I can never give too much
And I can never get enough....
Love
I cannot tire of its touch
Keeps me fragile, makes me tough......
Love
I cannot hold on to it
But I cannot let it go
It's harder to love a little bit
To love but never let it show
I've learned a few things about
Love
It can hurt; it can be rough
But no one ever showed me how
To un-love
It's hard to love sometimes, I know
But it's harder to un-love
And let love go

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

A Tiny Relenting......

I fell in love today
The blue and gold afternoon
Swept me away
And little by little
I began to relent
To the shove of the wind
To the sweet-musky scent
As the leaves turned in circles
At my reluctant feet
And the chill in the purple
Shadows bid me retreat
Back to the puddle of sun on the grass
Where I lay like a child
And watched the low gray clouds pass……
I returned to the bed of fair summer bloom
Wilted and dead, void of fragrant perfume
And the sudden sorrow tugged
Like a tear in my eye
And the weight in my throat
Made me think I might cry
If I had not fallen in love today
When the blue and gold afternoon
Swept me away

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

In Every Life........or A Little Rain

In every life a little rain
A little pain must be
In every life a lonesome wind
But by and by the breeze
In every life the Milky Way
Is just a distant gleam
In every life, oh darling
There’s the power of the dream

In every life the curtain drops
So let’s not waste a day
For none knows when the music stops
So live, laugh, love and pray
In every life farewell tears flow
I guess this is the rain
But darling, oh I know you know
I’d do it all again

In every life a little cold
A little summer too
And darling, if I must grow old
May I do it with you?
In every life a little rain
But darling, aren’t you glad
That we shall not have lived in vain
Oh, what a dance we’ve had


All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin



....a rainy day and oldies!!!
A lethal combination:)

Us.....

These are the whispers that wash over me
Trickling in sonnets of sweet memory
Wait just a minute, ah, there you go
Soundless emission to time’s ceaseless flow
As laughter and teardrops and days in the sun
Pleasure and sorrow emerge as one
Handclasps and heartache and what will be….was
In each simple memory …..of us

These are the treasures I ponder and keep
Oh, how I chuckle and oh how I weep
Love, you are comrade yet sometimes a foe
While I’m holding on I am letting go
As sweetness and sorrow are vivid and keen
And the glow of tomorrow is yesterday’s sheen
Painful and precious and perfect because
It is the story……… of us

All Right 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 !!!!

Farewell Sonnet

The ivy on the garden gate
Gleams silver in the moons soft eye
While melodies I love and hate
In symphonies go drifting by
The red rose flaunts her raindrop pearls
Maduro in a lily bed
As summer taunts from other worlds
Somewhere deep inside my head

The throb of amatorial song
Like an ancient madrigal
Whispers on her lips, her tongue
Where soft and silent moonbeams fall
And where they fall the petals weep
In affirmation to my fear
They lie where summer blooms now sleep
To bud again another year

I will not begrudge the wind
In her tormenting lullaby
The ecstasy of love is kind
But there is another side
I’ll take the pleasure with the pain
In love there is no other way
To simply love without the rain
Would be to love in shades of gray

To simply love and never lose
Is then to not have loved at all
And if I had the chance to choose
I’d release summer to fall
To surrender life’s fair best
We must suffer bitter pain
But when flowerless fields have passed
We know that love will come again

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

Unbearable.....

Loving him

The most beautiful thing

She has ever done

Wild rivers run

Home-fires glow

Within her soul

At last she knows

She is whole

Dreams spawn

More dreams

To love and cherish

But it seems

These dreams

Will perish

Loving him

Wild rivers run

The most unbearable thing

She has ever done

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

Beautiful Thief

I love you, I hate you
Bittersweet pain
Raging wild fire
Cold driving rain
I love you, I hate you
What more can I say
Autumn, you steal my summer away

I love the burst of dusty blue
Passion on my tongue
It brings back memories of you
And being free and young
I love the flame that sweeps the hill
In orange and red and gold
I love the wind, I hate the chill
And thoughts of growing old

I love the rivers of purple and sage
Flowing in ditch and hollow
I pause on the ridge of middle age
Aware of what will follow
I love the sassy undertones
As branches toss and sway
I hate the thief of scarlet and bronze
Stealing my summer away

I love you, I hate you
Invisible duel
I laugh then I weep
Ah, fall is so cruel
I love you, I hate you
There is no other way
Your bewitching beauty
Steals summer away

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

Hey R~
Your comment got me to thinking.....
yes, I love Autumn too and I hate it!!!

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

Rest of the Dream

There are so many things I wanted to tell you
Like heaven is midnight in June
And flowers are the offering of a man to his true love
Not for a cold grave stone
At my feet lay the fragments of a shattered ending
I weep at time's swift-flowing stream
God, do you hear all the prayers that I’m sending?
Where is the rest of the dream?

I walk through the garden bursting in fragrance
But it holds no pleasure for me
Here ‘neath its arbor we danced our first dance
And tasted love's ecstasy
The garden is a desert without you
The fountain has lost its gleam
As I cry to the roses and think about you
Missing the rest of the dream

God in His wisdom has taken you too soon
His garden is fairer indeed
I stand here gazing at midnight’s full moon
There is nothing here that I need
All that I need is waiting up yonder
Past this life’s ruthless stream
Silently I weep and sadly I wonder
Where is the rest of the dream?

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin

Dedicated to Dave and his kids