Middle-Stage Woman

 So far middle-age is much better than I thought it would be...

when I was young!

I wonder how soon I'll read this poem...

and wish I would have kept my tongue?!😁

...using the word 'tea' as a good get-together reason for catching up with each other's busy lives

  my sisters, sisters-in-laws and mom got together at Lucy's house on Monday afternoon.

We are all approaching, discovering or well into 'middle-stage' (yes, even mom...she's not 80 yet:)

thus, finding in spite of many differences, much common ground!

(A few tea-cup pics from Victoria's collection)

Caught between flattery of youth

And wisdom of the sage

We covet both; small-talk and truth

A woman, middle-stage

A bit of whimsy, never spent

As moments take their toll

To leave us, modestly content

In weathered skin of soul

A girl disguised by wear and tear

Of day-to-week to years

That we know will always be there

Though her face disappears

…and leaves what may seem at first glance

A book, quite nondescript

Where chapters of love-loss-romance

‘neath seasoned Cover slipped

Those well-intended promises

We made when we were young

And Time won’t let her keep, I guess

Will keep her going strong

...just a tree, missing a few leaves

Bloom with some petals lost

Just a girl trading first fancies

For Things That Matter Most

…determined, with humility

To embrace turn of page

Graced with ancient discovery

Of women, middle-stage

© Janet Martin

Portait of a Middle-aged Mother

PAD Challenge day 2: For today’s prompt, write a portrait poem.

"Don't wait for me" said their mother

to daughters oblivious of heart-shores where 

waves of spent wars crash...

Pastoral splay the days and years

Where hope and heartache war

Life's storm of seasons disappears

Like waves that dash the shore

She stands to gaze across the maze

That drew Her from her youth

Where gossamer of yesterdays

Exhales Time's timeless truth

...as hallowed halls of Nothing New

Carve from hallmarks of dirt

An echo-lavished avenue

Of happiness and hurt

Which dream was granted or withheld

Right now she can't recall

The thorn and rose of loving meld

Like shadows on a wall 

Janet~

Divine Consolation

Remember when the adrenaline of youth ran like molten music in our veins?!

(art credit: Melissa from her high-school collection)
 Sometimes, when I'm super-tired I miss my younger, more energetic person;-)

Remember when we thought 'impossible' That which haste of years brings

 and others (whose shoes we now fill) warned us about...?!(like grunting when we get up?!) lol

Ah! with each step-breath-twilight nears the threshold of life's sunset years...

How smooth the hand that turns each page then shuts the book on middle-age...

As winter, like a strange postcard echoes of summer, caught off guard!

As we age, aren't you thankful for a Divine Console-er that never ages or fails as our bodies do?!

God, Author of time’s temp’ral scale

And Arbitrator of what is

What Divine Consolation, this

To know His law will never fail

His law is Love; ah, sometimes we

Misunderstands God’s Higher Thought

When we try to decipher what

No mortal mind is made to see

No man has seen God; thus fools scorn

For knowledge trusts in what it sees

But faith accepts God’s mysteries

Consoled by He who metes each morn

How pitiful is brainwashed dust

So lust inclined and vision blind

Divinity consoles mankind

When heart and mind resigns to trust

Alpha, Omega, First and Last

God’s Ordinances no one thwarts

While Divinity’s mercy courts

Mortality’s rebellious cast

Where soon youth’s burst of speed declines

On landscapes deftly rearranged

And what we clasp is soon estranged

As change insists on fresh designs

 And writes laugh-lines of poetry

Across the brow once smooth and young

 ‘No-ways’ that boldly braved the tongue

Concede vulnerability

…and slowly we begin the crave

What once we thought so little of

God’s Divine Consolation; love

To escort us beyond the grave

© Janet Martin

 For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

This saying is trustworthy. And I want you to emphasize these things, so that those who have believed God will take care to devote themselves to good deeds. 

These things are excellent and profitable for the people.

Titus 3:3-8

Summer-spent

Now bowed and faded, wow-bereft

Her stance, once tall is bent

Will any spy some beauty left

Though fullest bloom is spent?

  

Now one among the many, she

Mostly because she must

Submits with brave humility

To ordinance of Dust

 Now passerbys no longer pause

Mid-stride to stop and stare

And take a moment more because

They think that she is fair

Now nothing stirs a second-look

Save those with keener ear

Who recognize just what it took

To get from there to here

Now dashing chivalry and grin

Dons meeker filament

Will any see the beauty in

A flower, summer-spent

© Janet Martin

Bygone Restored

 PAD challenge day 7; For today’s prompt, write a discovery poem.

The sound tips we ignored

From lips of sage insight

Roars like bygone restored

In ‘aha, you were right’

With tamed belligerence

We follow where They went

A voice of vigilance

For youth’s impulsive bent

Once we thought life was like

A bike ride to the moon

Rather than summer’s hike

That disappears too soon

© Janet Martin