Dang...Cute

Why d’ya have go and look so dang cute
I was going to scold you and tell you to be good
But your freckle nose and your blue eyes
Took me by a sweet surprise
Why d’ya have to go and steal away
Every little word I was going to say …
Like ‘look before you leap’ and ‘don’t forget to pray’
And ‘you’re gonna be a man someday….’

Why d’ya have to go and grow so tall
You’re not a little boy anymore at all
And I’m not quite sure what you feel like
As you race down the street on your old gray bike
Why d’ya have be in such a hurry then
To grow up fast so you can be a man
Why d’ya have to go and look so dang cute
When I just want to hold you and tell you to be good…

Why d’ya have to drive me a little mad
I guess you likely get that from your dad…
Why d’ya have to go and lose your baseball hat
We can’t afford another one like that
Why does it have to be so hard to put into words?
How I love you son, so much that it hurts
Why d’ya have to go and look so dang cute
Standing eye to eye with me while I say….be good

Janet~

Holding On...

This time I will hold on
A little longer
Absorb every detail
Until I am stronger
With painstaking attention
I trace every part
Pondering it deeply
In my heart
The low-flung cloud
In tumbled sky
Reflects within
My restless eye
The pastureland
Weary and wasted
Stripped of freedom
Tried and tasted
The sighing of
Melancholy
Moaning above
A rain-swept lea
The warmth of August
On the wind
The warmth of you
Against my skin
The ticking of an afternoon
Full of love
And gone too soon
Over the hill
And far away
Into the fields
Of yesterday
This time I hold on
But in vain
This moment is gone…
…and will not pass again

Janet~

Beautiful You...

On some days
The sadness of loving you
Overwhelms me
To the point of absolute stillness

Tell me, please
Why does loving you
Have to be
So excruciatingly beautiful?

J~

Gathering Season...

We gather into our arms the purples and gold
Knowing too soon their petals will fold
To dust the avenues of the past
Where autumn’s deeper blues are cast…

We gather into our hearts the music of laughter
Childish voices drift to dim-lit rafters
Where starlight pins to the close of a day
The knowing that soon this too slips away…

We gather into our tears life’s joy and its sorrow
As we hold loved ones near; they may be gone tomorrow
We gather moments of invaluable worth
These are the greatest treasures on earth…

J~

It's Inevitable...

It’s inevitable…
We all say good-byes we would rather not say
And if we live long enough our hair will turn gray
We all must suffer the pain of defeat
To know that victory truly is sweet

It’s inevitable
We all are creatures of mutual need
And harvest is proof of planted seed
Anything at all that our hand has wrought
Was born in a cradle known as thought

It’s inevitable
Life is a journey; death is not the end
There’s one choice we make with which we must contend
After our last breath; as we cross a sea
Into the inevitable…eternity

J~

Wrong...

Maybe, when you heard the edge in my voice
Then you ran out and slammed the door
Maybe you were thinking, dear
I don’t love you anymore…

Maybe because I didn’t reply
When your words seemed a little strong
Maybe you thought my love would die…
…and maybe you were wrong

Just because a flower dies
Does not mean hope is done
And just because I close my eyes
Does not mean love is gone

…and just because we’ve lost a dream
Does not mean we should quit
Or if our eye has lost its gleam
Does not mean this is it

Maybe, when you think I’m not the same
As I was when we were young
And you’re thinking somehow you’re to blame
Well, maybe you are wrong

Maybe life molds and refines
In hands we would not choose
And we don’t understand sometimes
The methods God will use…

Maybe you saw a tear and thought I was sad…
When I heard that song
Maybe you thought it was you, my dear
…maybe you were wrong

Janet~

Still...

Against my will, the midnight fades
So warm and still and heaven-made
Come my love, we have until
The morning comes…against my will

Against my will time separates
Seconds, minutes, hours then days…
Year folding over year until
Our youth is gone, against my will

Against my will, time steals from me
The moments shaping history
Come my love, time won’t stand still
It gives…then takes, against my will

To everything a season comes
Spring to spring…so swiftly done
Come my love, let’s dance until
The 'we' is gone…against my will

J~
For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: Eccles. 3:1

Taking Charge...

Sharp half-breath stops me in mid-step
I feel a slight trembling deep in the earth
Suddenly the air is a mixture of blue
And laughter and longing and you…

I’ve looked at this picture…how oft, I can’t tell
I know every curve, every line so well
Yet, still you can stop me as I’m passing by
Still I get caught in the spell of your eye…

You stare at me now from a twenty inch screen
But I am no girl of seventeen
And life has taught me a lesson or two
In spite of what pictures and memories can do…

Love does not envy, it does not keep score
And though I still love you like never before
The sea wipes away footprints as the hand does a tear...
A click of a key… and you disappear…

J~

Kiss...

Your skin is smooth and bronze and silk
Your sigh, is warm like honeyed milk
Your touch, is like the morning dew
And your eyes, like pools of blue
But your lips are sweetest bliss
And all I need is this…
Your kiss

Your smile, is like the morning light
As shadows fall into the night
I could sleep upon your arm
It is strong and kind and warm
But the best, I must confess
Is simply this…
Your kiss

I won’t forget your silhouette
Etched against the dusk
And how the air fell ‘round us there
Tinged with mist and musk
I’m not sure just why it is
But summer, how I love…
Your kiss

J~

The 'gathering season' has begun in earnest now...

Another Porch

Somewhere on another porch
In another town
You will sit and watch
The sun go down
You’ll play a song
On your guitar
Making a wish
On the first star

On someone-else’s porch
You’ll walk through the front door
Sit at someone-else’s table
As she asks ‘would you like some more?’
And you’ll smile
Like only you can do
And then she can’t help it
But smile a little too

Somewhere on another porch
Under an August moon
With the song from a weeping willow
Strumming a soulful tune
As a thousand, thousand candles
Flicker in a perfect sky
You will be saying ‘hello’
Instead of good-bye…

J~

Sleepless

Whisper of starlight falls from the sky
Oh, what a beautiful lullaby
We sit together, she and I
As the night falls low to the earth
Once I could hold her and rock her to sleep
Pray for the angels a close guard to keep
Now we simply watch the midnight grow deep
Spawning the new day’s birth

Dazzling splendor, pristine perfection
Silence renders the air of reflection
Daughter and mother share wordless affection
Contented smile on their lips
We lie on our backs to ponder the skies
The words we lack are expressed in soft sighs
Night bestows its own paradise
Complete with dill pickle chips…

Janet~

Tonight Melissa couldn’t sleep so I suggested she sit on the deck for a little while…
I couldn’t resist joining her…and she and I, being ‘cut from the same fabric’
Drank in the perfection of an August hush with very few words…all was quiet except for the crunch of dill pickle chips…(they are her favorite so I decided to surprise her with a midnight snack.)

Very Fine Company

Tonight…
…its song rises around me
As the sun slips from the brink of the sky
The air is heavy with turquoise and silver
And the rippling crescendo of a crickets lullaby

On some nights…
… the twilight falls from the tresses
Tinted with scarlet, amber and rust
Tonight I can almost touch it as it rises
In a throbbing cadence from the dew-laden dust

Tonight…
The blue shadows tremble with yearning
Succumbing, it seems, to the memories they bring
I know…to the past there is no returning
And sadness is not a terrible thing

Tonight…
Alone in the silent surrender
Where daylight folds into the moon-softened mist
Thoughts return…warm, raging and tender
Of moments once cradled and cherished and kissed

Tonight…
There is nothing to scatter the stillness
Save for the breezes that rise, just to die
I feel you closer in the deepening darkness
Almost I see the light in your eye

Tonight…
I wish you were right here beside me
Tonight I wish that you could not sleep
But thoughts of you always seem to find me
And thoughts of you are very fine company to keep

J~

Tonight I 'wrote' some of this in my head while I was running…
It was almost dark when I returned…and so quiet.
The road I run on is closed due to bridge construction
so there is no traffic, and a few times I could hear almost perfect silence…
…well, if you don’t count my heart beating, and huffing and puffing and footsteps and crickets…:))

Inseparable...

I could no more walk away from you
Than the meadow could walk from the kiss of the dew
Or the sun could escape the azure sky
Or the blue could fade from your tender eye

I could no more escape your trance
Than the willow its shadows that flicker and dance
Or the still of the midnight, its low, drawn-out breath
Or the dawn the light as it floods the earth

Oh my love, I could no more separate from you
Than the wave could diverge from the ocean so blue
Or the warmth from your skin or the sigh from your lips
Or the longing that bleeds from love’s finger-tips

I could no more walk away from you
Than the season can flee its predestined avenue
For somehow, my love, like an invisible sea
You seem to fill every niche in me

The ivy to the wall, the root to the tree
The rise to the fall, the river to the sea
The grass to the field, the eye to the tear
So it is with love, my dear

I could no more walk away from you
Than one day could be divided into two...
Inseparable components never to part
For you are in every beat of my heart

J~

Comfort

As we read His word
He takes our failure
Our despair
Our shame
Our care
Our wantonness
Our deceit
Our brokenness
Our defeat
Our misery
Our hatred
Our weariness
Our dread
Our longing
Our fear
Our blindness
Our tear
Our darkness
Our grief
Our doubts
Our unbelief
Our weakness
Our pride
Our foolishness
Our lies
Our loneliness
Our wretchedness
Our emptiness
Our hurt
Our hopelessness
Our anger
Our lust
Our thirst
Our unworthiness
Our indifference
Our anguish
Our pain
And transforms them to…
A Living Hope in Him

Janet~

Exonerated

The impact of failure slips its noose ‘round my neck…
Though with selfish argument I weakly object
Surely I must bear my well-deserved fate
I stare at the clock on the wall…and wait

Condemnation shrieks and justice demands
It tears at my weakness and clutches my hands
Demons of darkest contempt and despair
Sneer as they spit in my face, on my hair

Ah, well I should flounder in this wretched hole
Count all my miseries with naught to console
I, above all deserve to be cursed
With a noose ‘round my neck and my face in the dirt

But then, through the torment, the taunting and doom
I feel a Presence dispersing the gloom
As demons tremble, slinking into the night
Hope floods the darkness and fills it with light

With tender whispers and loving commands
With healing fingers and nail-scarred hands
He removes the noose in a tender embrace
And gentle reminders of His unfailing grace

Forgiveness and healing and unending love
Course deep within me from somewhere above
Promises of Him brush away my defeat
Shadows grow dim; His mercy is sweet

Oh, what manner of love can this be?
That God up above should love even me
…the weight of my failure grows soft ‘neath His touch
As I remember…He loves me so much

Janet~

Job 18

Encore, Please

Your voice flows through me like the blue of your eyes
I’m caught in a trance, not unlike paradise
The timbre of passion and longing and hope
Drifts over hillside and valley and slope

Seduction in whispers of purple and gold
Emerald and scarlet pour from your hold
As I hear time's agony bleed from your voice
You want to stay with me, but you have no choice

Sweet are the sonnets played on the soft wind
Of sunshine and laughter when living is kind
But purer by far, the haunting melody
Born in the heartache of love’s misery

Over the pattern of wheat field and brush
An ocean of music falls into the hush
Trembling, I spread its yearning 'cross my brow
As hunger and dread spawn the breezes that blow

Tomorrow your music will be dormant and still
I will reach for you to retrieve your thrill
But you will be gone to return nevermore
As dead as the wave that reaches the shore

Today I will let your voice soothe and torment
Perfect communion of love and lament
I plead for an encore as you drift to the sky
And August extinguishes the song of July

Janet~

Carefully

Very carefully and gently
On those nights, heavy with dew
And the air of late summer
And thoughts of you…

Very carefully and tenderly
When I miss you so much
And there’s not enough of you
Left for me to touch…

Very thankfully and carefully
I unwrap with quiet pleasure
The one thing that you left me
To torment me and to treasure…

Very slowly and so carefully
Without any regret
I unwrap within each heartbeat
All your words I can’t forget…

J~

Photograph...

Once upon another day
I held you close, so close to me
And looked into your eyes of baby blue
Those days are long-gone,yes, I know
But sometimes I miss them so
Oh, it’s crazy what a photograph can do

I trace every line and curve
Oh, and you still touch a nerve
Like no one in this world will ever do
Once you held me center stage
Now I pause, and turn the page
Oh, it’s crazy what a photograph can do

Just a little photograph
But I can hear you talk and laugh
Though your paper lips don’t whisper, move or smile
Your skin is soft and warm
I can feel it ‘gainst my arm
Think I’ll just sit here and hold you for a while…

Once upon another day
You were not so far away
But I know now those things I never knew
Time is a silent thief
Love is perfect grief
Oh, it's crazy what a photograph can do…

J~

Silence

Silence is a house once filled with laughter
Silence is you... not next to me
Silence is the lifetime after
Living; because, you see
Silence is everywhere, darling
That we used to be

Silence is the middle of the kitchen
In the middle of a memory
When suddenly without warning
You're right in the middle of me
Silence is a summer morning
Where we used to be

Silence is an echo calling
Out of the clear, blue skies
Silence is the teardrop falling
Silence is a broken heart's cries
Silence is everywhere, darling
When love dies...

J~

See the Sun...

See the sun
And how it bleeds
Its passion ‘cross the sky
See the land
And how it heeds
The whispers from on high
See the night
And how the light
Must solemnly surrender
See the field
Its harvest yield
In autumn’s fervent splendor

See the girl
With pretty curl
Grow up to be a woman
See the lad
Become a dad
A wise and caring human
See the brow
All weathered now
By life and what it’s given
See us climb
The hills of time
One road leads to Heaven

See the seasons
How they fold
Into the other’s bearing
See the youth
Once brash and bold
Grow kind beneath life’s caring
See how years
Of love and tears
Turn knowledge into wisdom
See this life
Of joy and strife
Lead to another Kingdom

Janet~

Last night while I was out for my run
The thoughts of the brevity of seasons…
and life struck me profoundly!
Already the ditches are full of chirping crickets and August.
Then….I met a young family out together
For an evening walk…
Part of me smiled inside from ear to ear…
The other part of me wanted to sit in the middle of the road and CRY!!!
M-O-O-O-O-O-OM-M-M-M-Y-Y-Y-!!!!
No, even Mommy can’t stop time…
I wanted to tell the family to cherish these short, golden years…
They would smile politely of course, and say, yes…
Just like I used to.

Anything at All...

You could never
Disappoint me
Or hurt me
Or grieve me
You could not touch me
With mere spoken word
You could not
Thrill me
Or tease me
Or move me
And when you leave, dear
It would not hurt
You could not
Insult me
Or fulfill
Or affect me
By anything at all
That you could do
I would not remember
Or care or feel
Anything at all
If I did not love you

J~

Heaven...

In a perfect world
We would always say
The things that we should say…

In a perfect world
Loved ones would not hurt us
Or ever go away

In a perfect world
It would rain…
But just enough

And in a perfect world
We would never
Yearn for love

In a perfect world
I would know
What you are feeling

And in a perfect world
Words would never
Leave us reeling

In a perfect world
We would not need
To be forgiven

…but this world is not perfect
If it were…
…it would be Heaven

Janet~

Late July

The sky drips a sultry haze
Of dusty blues and purple-grays
The land succumbs to its caress
With pregnant field and willow-tress

The garden spills forth rampant bloom
A tangled, blissful living room
A haven to which I can flee
When little conflicts torment me

Hands touch the soil and pluck the weed
Fingers brush the fruited seed
Lips part wide to taste its fare
The wealth of earth, so pure and rare

I will not heed the scolding tune
To guilt me of one afternoon
Beneath the sweltering, sensuous sky
And the murmur of July

August hovers in the swell
Of tasseled corn and muffled knell
Where tumbled summer days collide
On a hazy, crazy ride

A blanket folds across the sky
To pull a lid over July
Shafts of dusk and muted day
Brush the swaths of fresh-mown hay

The silver trilling of the eve
Stirs my soul, willing to grieve
The dissonance of summer’s sigh
In the fading of July

Janet~

Charade...

Someday…
I will shake your hand
And introduce myself

I will let you see
A little of
The other side of me

And hope you understand
When I invite you to meet
My family

And I will tell you just a bit
Of what I love
And where I’m from

I may even ask your name
And 'have you
Lived here long?'

I’ll pretend that I don’t know
The sorrows of your life
…or your desire

And you will be
So kindly polite
As you inquire

About my life
And you’ll pretend
You never knew...

...then I’ll reply
Playing the part of
‘Stranger’ too



J~

Ten

There you were…
All arms and legs and giggles
And fanciful

There you were…
Looking at the world
Through the eyes of beautiful

There you were…
Weaving a trail
Of sunshine on this rainy day

There you were…
Bare-feet… and pony-tail
In wild disarray

There you were…
Sweeter than the top
Of a blueberry muffin

There you were…
Sun-dress, flip-flops
Aren’t you somethin’?

There you were…
The most precious creature
In the whole, wild world

You are ten
And you’re so beautiful
…little girl

Janet!

Victoria had a friend sleep over last night…
They just padded through the kitchen…
…two leggy little squirts
of sunshine, giggles…and just awake hair:)

Thank-you, God.

When I See You #2

When I see you
Walking toward me
With your familiar stride

When I see the life-lines
On your face
Reality jolts inside

When I see the pensive gaze
Stare beyond me
To relinquished dreams

When I see your fingers
Softly graze
Time’s unrelenting streams

When I see you ponder
Your life
And the course thereof

…I can’t help but wonder
Are you happy?
And in love…


J~

Thoughts...

The spirit wilts beneath criticism…
Like flowers in the blazing sun

Love cannot thrive under cynicism
Words are not quickly undone...

Silence is stunning grief
…after the onslaught of wrath

…yet often there is no relief
In its sorrowful after-math

There are only two kinds of tears...
Yours and mine

Though the song of summer and years
Sounds like crying sometimes...

We return…each to our own gardens
Like the bird to its nest

It is not hard to imagine
You…with your head on my chest

Like a raindrop creasing a puddle
A splash; it disappears

…so it is with moments
And laughter…and years

J~

No Return...

They come…they pass
To deck the grass
Where once fore-fathers bled
A breath, a sigh
A tear-dimmed eye
A bowing of the head

A little toil
Handful of spoil
A little joy and strife
Before we face
The God of grace
And the measure of our life

No return
We cannot burn
A moment or a day
But we can cope
With one true Hope
That never fades away

How swift they pass
Our days as grass…
Soon lie in fields to burn
The path we tread
Leads not to the dead
But to a place of no return…

Janet~

When I See You

When I see You push the tresses
Of the deepened night awry
When the timid light caresses
The low border of the sky
When the sea of dazzling starlight
Fades into the azure blue
Oh, my Lord, I am reminded
There is none like You

When I see the gleaming wheat fields
Where the dormant sod had been
And I see the fruit that earth yields
From the orchard, bent and green
When I see the bud awaken
By the nudging of the sun
My faith in You remains unshaken
Oh Lord,like You there's none

Season folding over season
Tears and laughter deck this sod
And I cannot find one reason
To deserve the love of God
Though life’s disappointment tests me
Though the drought may parch the land
Still I see You, God of mercy
When I cannot understand

When I see the earth surrender
To the seasons You ordain
When I see Your love so tender
Wash away sin’s wretched stain
When I gaze up to the heavens
To its vault of ethereal blue
Then remember…I’m forgiven
I cry, Lord, there’s none like You

Janet~

Night Song...

Late night stillness, sing to me
Notes of dew upon thy sigh
Sweep life’s cares out to the sea
In your turquoise lullaby

In the fading of this day
Fold upon thy ruddy breast
Dappled shadows, clouds of gray
Ere we hasten to our rest

Let the fern beside the brook
And the green leaf on the tree
Shade the deep and darkened nook
While we pause and list to thee

Bold, bright flowers bow their heads
Timid blossoms shut their eyes
While the night its glory sheds
In softened, moon-dimmed lullabies

Late night quiet, quell the throes
Of forbidden dreams profound
As the tear of midnight flows
Mingling with the dew-kissed ground

Late night stillness, sing to me
A melody, of star-lit spire
Longing, love and poetry
Throbbing in thy midnight choir

Soothe the weary, aching limb
Kiss the sad and downcast eye
For thine is such a tender hymn
Falling softly from the sky

Late night stillness, sing to me
Songs no words or tongue can form
A drowsy, haunting melody
Angling through a silent storm…

J~

Complexities

It is one thing…
It is a million things…
It is the breaking of a heart
…and its healing
It is ecstasy…
…and agony
It is life's heaviest burden
…and its greatest blessing
It is desire…
…and fulfillment
We live for it…
…and for it we die
To receive it…
…we must give it
It may fill us…
…yet, we can never get enough
So complex...
...yet, astoundingly simple
…we call it…
Love

Janet~

A Prayer...

Thoughts of you, my love, link together
Until they become
An eternal, drawn-out sigh…

Thoughts of you, my love, help me to weather
Life’s smaller storms
Gathering as a tempest in my eye…

Thoughts of you, my love, collect
To sear a gaping hole
Across my heart…

Yet, thoughts of you, my love, form an ocean
In my soul
Drawing us together when we are apart

Thoughts of you, on some days, my love
Are too heavy
For one person to bear…

…so I gather them tenderly, my love
And lift them up
In a prayer…
…a prayer…
A prayer…

J~

Far, Far Away...

I love those I hold, in the comfort of arms
Touch is a priceless grace
I love to feel you against me, kind and warm
As I brush my lips ‘gainst your face
But oh, I have loved you, my darling today…
Powerful, painful and far, far away

I love the love of you next to me
As I touch you with my eyes
And trace every curve of you softly, slowly
But suddenly I realize
I’ve loved you keenly in thought, quiet; gray
When you are not near me but far, far away

…as I out-line your voice and the warmth of your smile
In thought, I caress you there
And I hold you closer for a little while
In the arms of a tear and a prayer
I love to love with the pleasure of touch
But far, far away, oh, I love you so much…

J~

Opportunity

Yesterday’s passion recedes into the mist
Tomorrow’s temptation is not hard to resist
Its failure or fortune lies far, far away
All that we hold in our hands is…today

Why do we fret or dare even to borrow
The care not yet seen in some phantom tomorrow
Why do we pine for past’s down-trodden fray?
While here in our palm lies the gift of today

Opportunity waits, not in vaults of the past
Nor in a day that has not yet been cast
Yet, we need not wait for it to begin…
Opportunity lives in the moment we’re in



Janet~

The Woman

At night
Lying in bed
Cradled in the womb of darkness
She tells herself
‘I am a woman’...
But if someone told her
‘No, you are a girl’
She would believe it…
For a moment
Before her senses
Honed by womanhood
Keenly remind her
In flesh and blood
Of the aching inside
And the relentless tide
Where time’s river flows
Through her heart
Tearing apart
The girl from the woman
And the light of a dream
From her eye…

J~

Never Alone...

Alone
In the still of the morning air
The thought of you
Brushes my heart
In the cadence of a prayer

Alone
But for a lingering thought or two
Touching my soul
Like sun etching a leaf
I out-line the memory of you

Alone
Oh bliss that will never be
It seems the thought
Of you remains
To keep me company…

J~

Straggler...

I left you standing at the end of the street
Told you why you could not come
But in every room it is you that I meet
Somehow you followed me home

I didn’t know I would see you again
Why is it wherever I roam
I seem to hear you laugh in the rain
Oh, somehow you followed me home

…with my morning coffee, when I go to sleep
Tell me where do you come from?
I feel the warmth of your skin on my cheek
Oh, somehow you followed me home

…somehow my heart was not in our good-bye
Somehow you don’t leave me alone
I cannot tell you the when or the why
But somehow you followed me home

J~

Now I Lay Me...

Now I lay me down in the arms of a prayer
Touching a compassionate hand
I place my sorrows into His care
With the things I do not understand

Now I lay me down in the light of His love
No matter where life’s path may go
He never leaves His throne up above
Or loses sight of me here below

Now I lay me down, on a mountain of dirt
And the anguish that living may bring
He whispers softly, oh be not afraid…
…as I sleep in the arms of a King

J~

Misguided...

She wasn't looking for greatness
Greatness is pointless and vain
She was simply looking to recover
Misguided steps in the rain...

She wasn't looking for anything
That she regarded as loss
In the end she realized she was looking
For a bridge she could never cross...

J~

Slow Dance in the Rain

The rain plays its own rhythm of music tonight
Teasing the darkness with fingers of light
Here ‘neath the canopy of teardrops and sighs
I see the simple truth caught in your eyes
Heartache is tearing a sea from the skies

I slip my fingers through the blue of the air
Midnight and memories are a ruthless pair
The kiss of you lingers in its darkened refrain
A sonnet of longing in every strain
Heartache is dancing alone in the rain

Rain-thickened heartbeat and tear-stricken sigh
Loneliness bleeding from heaven’s dark eye
Holding me closer in a dear memory
Of laughter and whispers and you here with me
Heartache is the music of what used to be

J~

In Common...

I’ve noticed we have something in common
I’ve noticed the language of missing you…
…and heart-break is universal
Spoken in one dialect…
Tears.

Deep breath,
Long sigh
The cradling of a thought
The sound of good-by
Are all expressed
By the tear in our eye…

J~

Interminable...

There’s an ache I cannot touch…
Profound, breath-taking
And its nature is such
That I can find no end…
…or beginning

It fills me, surrounds me
In bitter-sweet pleasure
It torments, confounds me
With its interminable measure

It’s an intangible longing
A silent lament
Indistinguishable groaning
A sad discontent

I would feel empty and dead
If it should disappear
Its rush and its dread
Are my comrades, I fear…

A keen sense of loss,
Acceptance, despair
Of what is and what was
Wrapped into a prayer

There’s an ache I cannot touch
Or find the source thereof
Its interminable essence is such
That I think it must be…
Love

J~

Gifts...

You gave to me a tiny fragment
Of your heart and soul
But the pieces that you gave me
Were enough to make me whole

You gave to me the shadow
Of your whisper and your sigh
In it I hear the echo
And the prelude to good-bye

You gave to me the timbre
And the aching of your voice
I try not to remember
But it seems I have no choice

You gave me just enough love
The darkened cloud to lift
How was I to know the truth?
They were your parting gift…

J~

Heart-beats...

There are no insignificant moments…
Each one melding to the next
As drops of vapor forming a sea
…and eternity

There are no insignificant moments
The smile, the sigh, joy and strife
Are the ticks of time
Which form a life

J~

Calm...

Calm, the waking of the day
And the mist below the hill
As the darkness seeps away
Disrobing shadows, dark and still

Calm, the streams of perfumed bloom
Hailing silently the morn
Calm, the pale fluorescent moon
And the field of verdant corn

Calm, the breeze stirring the air
And the limb of frothy green
Calm, the empty footprint where
Yesterday our tear had been

Calm, the light which strode before
The call of duty’s gentle toll
Calm the eye which sees the Lord
And all that yields to His control

Janet~

Calm...that was the word which seemed to best fit the dawn today...

What Would Jesus Do?

Your dark eyes
Took me by surprise
I thought I didn’t have the time
To stop till I heard
You utter the words
Ma’am, could you spare a dime?

The slump of your shoulder
Made you look older
Than, possibly sixteen years
I looked at your face…
I could see the trace
Of forgotten tears

You didn’t ask for much
Not a hug, no touch
Just a second of my time…
A hungry girl
Alone in the world
And all you asked for was a dime…

Janet~

Forgetting...

I keep losing track of the time...
In between moments
Without you...

Why is it that I can remember
Everything...
...you didn't say?

J~

Enough...

What is poetry?
It is the utterance of thoughts
We would never otherwise speak…
It is the whisper of a pen,
A tear on a sheet
It is longing and desire
Folded into word
It is sorrow and fire
A memory stirred
It is ‘I love you’
‘I forgive you’
‘I need you’…
And more…

...It is the waves
Pounding eternally
On a distant shore…
It is the sound
Of a closing door
And foot-steps dying away
In mid-July
Beneath a tearless summer sky
When one more afternoon
Of laughter and love
Would have been
One day closer to…
Almost enough

J~

End of the Pier...

We walked to the end of the pier
Each waiting for the other to speak...

...not even the wind shed a tear
the waves sprawled...listless and weak

We walked to the end of the pier
The silence continues to fall...

...and in the end,oh my dear
the silence has said it all

J~

Successes...

Somehow, oh my darling, at this time of day
You don’t seem to be quite so far away

Dusk throws its shadow across lawn and street
Slowing the scamper of running, bare feet

This is the sultry song of the sky
Wrapping my soul in the blue of July

The wind in the tree-top croons its melody
A rendition of tormented waves on a sea...

You toss your whispers into the still air
I feel your finger-tip almost brush my hair

Your sigh is tender; I seize its caress
Heart-break has rendered a breath-taking success

J~