Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts

Monday, November 6, 2023

(Love's) Better Poetry

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank)," 
replace the blank with a new word or phrase, 
make the new phrase the title of your poem, 
and then, write your poem.

This take on today's poem-prompt 
was inspired by yesterday's photo-session;
the aim being to get a few good ones
(aka everyone looking forward with eyes open!!) 
for a page in a family calendar for my parents for Christmas








You are the laugh-lines that I earn
And collect thankfully
As by the grace of God I learn
Love's Better Poetry

You overflow my cup of joy
Filling love's crooks and curves
With happiness, dear girl and boy
More than one heart deserves 

You are my gentlest lullaby
My tenderest of care
And each, the apple of my eye
And each, my humblest prayer

You are heaven-to-earth's caress 
You are my home-sweet-home
You are more holy thankfulness
Than pen can ever poem

© Janet Martin









Friday, November 27, 2020

A Picture Hides A Thousand Words





While I was arranging my advent center-piece
the dried black beans I soaked overnight boiled over. 


(every so often I soak a bunch, then cook and freeze them)
It doesn't seem to matter how big a pot I use they will boil over 
into a black mess on the stove!
It's just ridiculous how much foam they create!
So, as serene as the centerpiece appears, all by itself
it sits among the mess and hub-bub of life
and the smell of burnt bean-water in the burner😆

Reminded me of the drama of taking family-photos
which for us is not an annual event!
First there's the, 'what shall I WEAR?!!
To the 'you're not wearing That, are you?! 
to Mom, does this look okay?
 to 'how's my hair?'
 to, mom's hesitant query to the nonchalant one; are you...ready??? 
and the not-hesitant 'yup'!.

SO much more than meets the eye goes into The Family Photo!
But. It . Happened.
Thanks to a nice November Sunday
and super photographer Brittany Ruppert 
for all her amazing farm animal noises which kept
children and adults distracted/relaxed/laughing/smiling!
(the reason Victoria is just about dying of laughter on every photo)😂😂



A picture hides a thousand words 
Behind its tidy guiles 
Is so much more than seen or heard 
In polished, paper smiles 

A picture only snares a glimpse 
We siphon from the mess 
To capture from the chaos, glints 
Of arranged happiness 

Oh, Brant 'Johnny' dear, don’t cross your eyes 
Quick, click the shutter please 
Where, fingers crossed, we snare a prize 
Midst disharmonic ‘c-h-e-e-e-se’ 

A photo (do not be deceived) 
By that which visage meets/metes 
For meek, sweet stance is oft achieved 
Through threats or promised treats 

Now everybody, one-two-three 
Oh no! I laughed-blinked-sneezed 
And ho, he thinks I didn’t see 
What Mister Kissed-her squeezed 

I’m thankful for the memento 
Of precious photograph 
I’m thankful that they only show 
The quiet, composed half 

I’m thankful for the keepsakes of 
Seasons soon turned to Was 
While time steals days but never love 
In spite of all it does 

I’m thankful for the sweet half-lie 
In tidy, pretty pose 
Of so much more than meets the eye 
…unless you are a rose 

I'm thankful for moments that smiled
Midst life's rough-tumble ways 
As we capture for morrow's child
Snapshots of Good Old Days

© Janet Martin 

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Photograph


My fondest form of treasured torture is reliving through pictures...
Every year at Christmas, for the families whose children I cared for
I make a photo memento of some sort.
This involves going through all the photos and the feelings they inspire...
in one word; Bittersweet! 

I've had a lot of kiddos pass through my arms to that Forever-place in my heart!
 Photos are my tangible treasure of days gone by!

Warning; this video will induce love's best proof; tears!
But it is exactly how I feel as I go through a years worth of photos!



A photograph, I think is one of life’s most lovely things
It draws our thoughts toward a face or place held in the heart
A smiling piece of paper, yet, what happiness it brings
A bit of you still next to me when we are far apart

A photograph preserves the echo we would soon forget
It keeps one’s youth intact while Time insists upon its ‘say’
And long after The Way We Were has cast its silhouette
A photograph encapsulates fond frames of yesterday

A photograph can make us laugh or shed love’s tender tear
We press its page against the tugging ache of Having Held
And look a little closer at the glorious Now and Here
Before we feel the Winnowing where hug and hollow meld

A photograph keeps those who’ve gone The Way We Will nearby
Sentimental memento that is dearer than before
And though perhaps it rouses Sorrow’s tear within the eye
It reminds us to cherish what we hold a little more

Ah, photograph, sweet photograph, a card with double edge
You remind us of time’s fleet feet and soldered ties that bind
Yet, on the other hand you help us reaffirm the pledge
To savour the full flavour of what soon is left behind


© Janet Martin





Friday, October 5, 2018

A Long Poem of Pictures...



“It’s like falling through a poem” I said to myself
As we walked the cobblestone streets of Old Quebec...


…to the clippety-clop of horses hooves

 But this is not your average poem; 
it moves...
Adding places...

And people

 Colorful clapboard cottages

A church steeple

 Lighthouses

 Cruise ships

 Shops

 Harbours
 Piers

and homesteads...
 ....reminiscent 

 of yester-years


 Cloud capped coves...

 Beaches and bays

Farmland 
 Fishing boats

Flower fields


Quays
Villages, 
 Vistas with Vineyard and tree 
And ever the rolling, 
 riveting 

 rhythm

 Of the vast, blue sea

© Janet Martin

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

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~