Somehow A Heart...

 Cleaning out vegetable and flower gardens

is always bittersweet...

and part of my heart always seems to go with it.

 ...but I'm not pulling out all the veggies yet, until the threat of killer-frost

 so we can keep on enjoying fresh-from the garden rainbow-suppers!

oops, I was so excited to eat it when it was cooked I forgot to take a picture...

so picture a plate with chicken and veggie stir-fry, 

red tomato slices, green and red lettuce, 

white feta cheese and bits of wholewheat wrap.

Yum!

Somehow a heart repairs its wounds

And makes the bearer of it smile

When bud has borne its parting blooms

We mourn its plumes a little while

Then bind the season that we had

With brand new reasons to be glad

Somehow a heart restores its loss

With more of what first made it sing

For sorrow is love’s albatross

But love runs rife with life’s fresh fling

Where hearts hold threads that interlace

Both launching pad and resting place

Somehow a heart resists farewell

Where moments like links in a chain

Hinge to a fringe that tolls a bell

That tugs somewhere hard to explain

And yet, we cannot be too sad

Because of the good times we had

Somehow a heart resigns its ache

To burst with both bitter and sweet

Where the mercies of give and take

Will sometimes make it skip a beat

And wonder as its pieces fall

That there is a heart left at all

 (repeat first stanza at the end, optional)

Somehow a heart repairs its wounds

And makes the bearer of it smile

When bud has borne its parting blooms

We mourn its plumes a little while

Then bind the season that we had

With brand new reasons to be glad

© Janet Martin

oh!  you're still feeling a little peckish?
 how about one of the Apple-oatmeal muffins that Victoria made!

Summer's Embers...

“Have you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place, 
 that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it? 
 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
    its features stand out like those of a garment.
Job 38:12-14 

Above us banks of clouds

Glow like a dying fire

Below the misty morn enshrouds

The stage of cricket-choir

A symphony of sound

From summer’s embers swell

Its rush of flower-hours bound

Like sheaves upon the fell

 

A tempest, still at bay

Rouses the heart to sense

Beyond the cricket’s rippling lay

The fireside’s recompense

Where now the gourd yet beams

Like lanterns from yon slope

Where now the faithful farmer gleans

The aftermath of hope

And trees toss glossy manes

And clap their leafy limbs

Before the stilling autumn rains

Strip woodlot of its hymns

And leaves life’s music strewn

Like little mementos

Of once upon an afternoon

And summer’s beaming rose

© Janet Martin

For The Summer That Was...Happy First Day of Fall

Instead of ice-cream with a cherry on top it's

sun-showers with a rainbow on top!

After the sun-sweet sweep of flower-hours fades and falls

Prey to time’s ways that treat our gaze to seasoned beck-and-calls

After warm lithesome laughter melts like waves upon the sand

Summer becomes an echo wafting soft across the land

The exodus of such a love should have a grand parade

To show appreciation for the memories we made

But somehow summer always seems to slip into thin air

While we are busy looking, running over here and there

Did she just drift up, up like thistle-seed and disappear

Or did she slip from earth’s cheek like a tiny, shiny tear

She is so much like family we wish that she would stay

But I guess her successor always brushes her away

Let’s give her, just for old time’s sake one more round of applause

Let’s blow a kiss and thank her for the fine summer that was

Then let’s be brave and buck up for what we know waits to be

All good things must come …oh! Look at that gorgeous autumn tree

© Janet Martin

There is no denying it...Autumn is making it's presence known in short order.

Colorful trees begin to catch our oohs and a-ahs off-guard
and captivate our reluctant pleasure...

tonight wears a chill as it tucks fall's first day beneath a wet wing.

We enjoyed a few rousing rounds of rainbows as well on this first fine fall day!

Would We Could...

It's  been a week of kiddos, corn, peaches and flowers...So fun!

(and sinus infection.😏) No fun!

Would, we could relive your hours

Linger longer in your flow’rs

Pause your page of cricket-hymns

Stay the stage where summer dims

Would we could retrace your days

Lusty, musky, dusty haze

Heaven-shimmers from a flask

Pouring more than we could ask

Would we could, but none can stall

Rush or save time’s free-for-all

No one can return a bit

To redo one flit of it

Would we could turn summer’s chime

Back to one ‘o clock in time

But time tarries for no one

It is always here and gone

Would we then, with thankful heart

Seize the mist of moment-art

Give the best that we can give

To that which none can relive

© Janet Martin