An Apology Strictly Between Friends (for tea-dates still waiting to be)

For all my friends on the 

'we'll get together soon' list;

you know who you are!

Thank-you for your kind understanding

Friend, I have not forgotten you

Moments are in such high demand

And have a way of slipping through

The grasping/gasping flue of heart and hand

Like sparkling mists of diamond-sand

Friend, this is more than clanging gong

Or tinkling cymbal, when I say

We'll get together before long

And share an hour or a day 

As if Time had not slipped away

Friend, I am grateful for your love

And thankful that you understand

The tug and pull and push and shove

Of moments, in constant demand

And days that do not go as planned 

Friend, I have not forgotten you

And you have not forgotten me

Time has a way of slipping through

A week without apology

For tea-dates still waiting to be

Janet Martin

This week, fall cleaning is taking priority

because last fall and winter it just didn't happen...

My homemaking, housekeeping joy 

is in need of some dedicated organizing and polishing

and I know you all, also being homemakers and housekeepers,

 understand! And I am thankful!

To everything there is a time and season! 💖🙏

September Bliss

 

Bliss, sweet bliss

A book and tea

With crickets and zinnias for company...

Bliss, sweet bliss

Nigh fair as June;

September Sunday afternoon

Bliss, sweet bliss

Time cannot touch

Life's simplest pleasures we love so much

Bliss, oh sweetest

Bliss of all

Summer's chair perched on the brink of fall

~Janet Martin~

above page from the book The Shape of a Year by Jean Hersey

Tea... Anyone?

 

Tea for two 

Who have been through 

some highs and lows 

we’d rather not 

Who are still in 

The thick and thin 

Of love lessons 

not fully taught 

© Janet Martin 

(this itty-bitty ditty 

I dare say applies to 

Anyone who 

Might care 

To share 

A cup of tea 

With me)

of course, this is a virtual-tea-party

due to the ongoing social restrictions😞

Come Over For Tea

PAD Challenge day 27: For today’s prompt, pick a direction, make that the title of your poem, 

and then, write your poem. There are so many directions: north, south, up, down, left, right, over, under, etc. But there are also more specific directions like “Across the Way,” “Through the Woods,” and “Beyond the Clearing.” 

Or give directions like “Clean Your Room,” “Tie Your Shoes,” or “Get Over Here.”

( today's outdoor tea unfortunately includes mittens and a wind warning!)

I’ll put the kettle on

With sweet treat on the side

And we will pull our chairs beneath

A wreath of blue sky-wide

Then as the hour flows

Through careworn taste and touch

We’ll chat about the way time goes

And love and life and such

For tea is less the tea

Or where we choose to sit

And more about the company

We keep while sipping it

And while we pour the brew

Of first, then second cup

We’ll pour a bit of heart out too

And cheer each other up

…where thrill and spill and ill

Will always have its way

Where hurt and hope fill and refill

Without a holiday

…where life, whatever bend

The up or down might be

Is all ways best shared with a friend

Over a cup of tea

© Janet Martin

 

After the Girl

After the laughter and clinking of spoons

After the stirring and sipping of tea

After a slow-steeped love-spun afternoon

We keep a beautiful memory

After the whirl, skip-and-twirl, little girl

After carefree fairy-tale fantasies

After they pass through that door to a world

Of almost-a-woman, what fond memories

© Janet Martin

I had the pleasure of serving tea at another Disney princess party
Present were Minnie Mouse, Alice in wonderland, Belle and Tinkerbell

 

When I asked them how long they plan on doing this they said. oh, for a l-o-o-o-g time, until we're married and everything':)

I wonder how long it will be until they taste the hurt that Emily of New moon described like this 'Outgrowing the things we love is never a pleasant process' 

I wish for them a bit of Disney-princess as long as they live!

Tea-time

There is nothing quite as lovely as a kettle when it sings

Ah, surely, surely tea-time is one of life’s kindest things

For in the hustle-bustle of life’s hasting human-race

It’s nice to stop and pour a cup of quiet tea-time grace

English, earl gray or peppermint, lemon or chamomile

Or any other flavor, tea is like a kettle’s smile

Or like a hug, it satisfies the middle afternoon

To sit a bit and pour a cup of happy-happy tune

It gathers friends together yet is lovely on its own

It warms us when the weather weeps in cold, gray monotone

It brings with it a book perhaps, or a moment to dream

With eyes half-shut, we hold a cup of aromatic steam

Life is too short to hurry-scurry without pause, you see

And what is so important that it cannot wait through tea?

Time’s bric-a-brac and tick-o-tock is noisy nothingness

If we deprive our little lives of tea-time happiness

Yes, there's nothing quite as lovely as a kettle when it sings

It puts on pause the fretting flaws that living surely brings 

So if you're feeling down and out, perhaps its time to quit

Just long enough to pour the love of tea and sit a bit

 

 

© Janet Martin

Practically Paradise

It’s not the big things I’ll miss

When you go, but the little things

These make a house a home

And tug on love’s heart-strings

And I smile now as you move

Slowly, rapt concentration

The titter of tea-cups and silver

Sing of evening celebration

Delivery complete; Tea-tray touch-down

On coffee-table landing strip

Scent of vanilla-rooibos

Teases the air as we sip

…And chat about little nothings

Which are really not nothings at all

But will tune the whisper of echoes

In mom’s memory-madrigal

© Janet Martin

It's not the big things, but the little things

that make a house a home! 

 

...this was re-iterated just now as I noticed the word POP (aka soda) on the corner of my grocery list. 

Hey, its always worth a try, at least that's what Matt would say:)

    

a few more 'little everythings'

2 days before Emily's wedding last fall my sister-in-law gave me a lily that she dug from her garden so I quickly plopped it in a planter...we've been enjoying calla lilies this winter-long...

...little guy I babysit LOVES apples!

 It's raining right now. This might bring an end to the after-supper cross-country skiing;( frown, ...oops, smile :)! In spiteof this longer winter there are things I'll miss...

A Cup of Tea with a Friend...

We may travel the wide world over

North, south, from end to end

But it cannot measure the pleasure

Of a cup of tea with a friend

Many are life’s vast achievements

And many kind hands it extends

But none can replace the contentment

Of a cup of tea with a friend

© Janet Martin

Music....

It’s a song that suggests at a moment
With my eyes closed
And sweet warmth teasing my lips
It’s a trickle of sparkling laughter
And a china rose
Between my fingertips
It’s the sound of a brief siesta
And I smile
As I absorb its melody
It’s a beautiful kind of music
Song of chamomile
As I pour a cup of tea

Janet~

Over a Cup of Tea.....

This is no ordinary event
When we share a cup of tea
This is the portrait entitled ‘content’
And moments that form history
For over a cup of our favourite blend
Be it chai or simple earl gray
Are the priceless moments shared with a friend
Over a cup of tea

Here we can share the moments of life
Between each comforting sip
We share our victories, our sorrow and strife
As some wee flowered chalice we grip
Moments flavored with lemon or mint
Chamomile or wild berry
Become rare memories heaven-sent
Over a cup of tea

Over a cup of tea we delve
Into matters of the soul
Sharing little pieces of ourselves
Yet, in it becoming whole
We speak of our children, our hopes and our fears
Dreams of what yet may be
Flavoring the moments with smiles and tears
Over a cup of tea

Over a cup of tea we restore
Our faith in fumbling mankind
Many like us have come before
And many will follow behind
Yet with every challenge that life may send
I pray there will always be
The moments we may share with a friend
Over a cup of tea

Janet~

Hi Lucy……
It was easier to rhyme ‘friend’ than sister…..
All I could come up with for ‘sister’
Was ‘mister’ and kissed her’…..
And THAT would have taken this poem on an entirely different course!!!!
And after all ……
A sister is most surely the dearest friend on earth!!
Love and prayers,
Thank-you for the tea last night,
It was special.