Monday, April 16, 2012

When You Write Me a Letter...



Tell me nothing, darling, nothing
Of the shadows, stretched
And leaning on slopes where once we relined
And tell me not of the silhouettes etched
In perfect artistry on the horizon line
Or of the way the world is an ocean of peach
As the sun and the day slip beyond our reach
And tell me not of the daisy fields
Of the place were the sea and the skyline yield
To a flawless sweep of ethereal blue
Or of the starlit deep or of midnight’s hue
Oh, my darling, please tell me not
Of the ache in your soul and the void in your thought
Or of how seasons pass far too urgently
Don't whisper on paper the agony
Of longing and dreaming and hope's burning fire
My darling, tell me nothing to tease my desire
With out those few words I most need to hear
‘I love you, I need you, I miss you, my dear'

J~

I'm reading Washington's Lady by Nancy Moser
the story of George Washington's wife. She received many letters from him
and I wonder what they said....when he died she burned most of them to keep
just between the two of them what he told her.

Heaven-Scent~

Image Source: raincoast.com


Earth turns glad
As fields and hills
Relinquish dormancy
And springtime's splendid
Verdure spills
Its generosity
In bursting bloom
And perfumed plume
In wild, wind-tossed confusion
The deadened slope
Flaunts fragrant hope
In petal-pink profusion
As hearts embrace
The tender grace
Of floral inspiration
Each budded crease
A master-piece
Of heaven-breathed creation

© Janet Martin

A Wonderful Wonder



When you come to me
Suddenly
From that nowhere place
Of thought and memory
And long-lost embrace
I do not employ
Tears of futility
For what was, is the one thing
That no longer can be
Softly I caress 'now'
With a tender kiss
Living fully, I vow,
In the moment that is…
 
...for the moment that is
I shall cherish tonight
As I bask in the bliss
Of a dream taking flight
Hope is the angel
Bestowing its wings
The present, a threshold
To beautiful things
Each breath, a footfall
To the mystery
In the wonderful wonder
Of what is yet to be



J~

In the Path of Wrath and its Aftermath


 
 The Sky appears unruffled....


Word Wrath...

They spew from nowhere
In un-designated wrath
Leaving grief and destruction
In its aftermath

Words spoken in anger
Cruel and unkind
Are like needless devastation
Of violent wind

© Janet Martin


The gale rages mercilessly
Beneath an innocent sky
I can do nothing but wish it would quit
As I watch the shingles fly


We are in the middle of a violent wind storm…90 -100km/hr. I can’t believe our hydro is still on!
Many are out due to downed trees and hydro-lines!

The sky appears calm and unruffled in spite of the chaos below!

Our thoughts and prayers remain with those suffering in the devastation after violent tornadoes!


Guilty by Reason of Pride




Mere thought of you
Keens sharply
The dew
Reclining against the
sweep of the grass
Where yesterday we
Leaned heavily
On pride
fortifying a foolish impasse
because nothing is solved
by insults hurled
devilishly
against mid-day dark
where bright-eyed daisy
nods, hapless and lazy
its contrast subtle, yet vivid and stark
as now, thought of you
returns, subdued
in the echo of words
better left unspoken
while remorse and regret
weigh every word said
beneath the gavel suspended
above guilt’s token
As I weakly toy with
Thought of pleading the fifth
I scan its offering
Of futile glory
Then I bow my head
Uttering what I should have said
When it all began…
I’m sorry,
I’m sorry

© Janet Martin

What is It?



It quiets the taunting of wanting
The aching of taking
The rhyme of time
In its ebb and flow
It soothes the pain of the mundane
The tear in our fear
The hurt of the dirt
Which others throw

It comforts the longing of belonging
The strife of this life
The why in good-bye
When we do not understand
It gives and forgives
It proves and reproves
It prevails, never fails
And it makes no demand

It bestows hoping to vain groping
Relief to our grief
Beauty to duty
In life’s wearying race
It makes winners of sinners
And delivers believers
It IS...
God’s infinite love
and mercy
and grace

© Janet Martin
 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.1 John 3: 1-3

Moment-tides



NaPoWriMo picture prompt


Where yesterday’s zephyrs
Flirted on meadows
Teasing the clover and tender wheat
You crowd against veiled
Ephemeral shadows
Of dark and light; waking and sleep

No flagrant wrath
No indifference
Nor riveting contrails, no lambent glow
To mark the path
Of your intent
You come, breath-pause…and then you go

You blur images
Stored in my thought
A river of perpetual flow
Reminding me that
I am caught
In moment-tides of ‘come and go’

Perplexed

Poetics Aside: mixed up poem

the mumble and jumble
of emotion and thought
spar in my being...
to write: or not

misunderstanding
is a double-edged grief
forgiveness and mercy
offer relief

to the jumbling and mumbling
contorted descry
sucking the well
of inspiration dry

hind-sight with its clarity
and perfect vision
offers no sympathy
in my hour of decision

Janet~

Fly...



Poetics Aside Day 15 prompt:
For today’s prompt, use the following five words in your poem: slash, button, mask, strap, and balloon. Use them in any order.

There is no 'easy button' in life
The bog and slash of yester-strife is past
Don't cry

Mask your sorrow with a smile
Strap faith's balloon to hope's trial; cling fast
And fly

There is no ceiling in the sky

Janet~

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Doomsday?



Poetics Aside Prompt: Doomsday Poem

 
We acquire the art
To close our minds
To things we do not want to hear
But God has said
‘Every eye shall see’
In that moment when He will appear
‘Every knee shall bow
Every tongue confess
As stars rain upon the sod
That this is He
The great I AM
Behold; the one true God

***
They call it Doomsday
Ominous connotation
But for salvation

***

It must have felt like Doomsday…

*“God himself couldn’t
Sink the Titanic’ he said,
I guess he was wrong


*Walter Lord attributes it to a 'deck hand' at Southampton on April 10th 1912. He allegedly said it to Mrs Sylvia Caldwell, a second class passenger. See page 73 of the illustrated version of A Night to Remember.

***

Doomsday at last
Everyone relaxes...
...no more death
and no more taxes!


Janet~

Friday, April 13, 2012

The Smiles of Spring...


He sends me smiles
In daffodils
Lounging on forgotten hills
In dashing breeze
In sudden plea
Of thought beguiling poetry
In dipping sway
Of kited string
Drunk on the mellow lay of spring

He sends me smiles
In waning light
Of afternoon becoming night
And echoes dangling
On the air
Child-laughter unrestrained by care
The azure lilt
Of cloudless sky
Reflected in a true love’s eye

He sends me smiles
In robin-hymn,
In babbling brook, in willow-limb
In broadened shade
Of budding slope
In orchards fragrant with new hope
He sends me smiles
As nature sings
In one accord the songs of spring

© Janet Martin




Languorous Luxury


On some days
Thought ripples in silky

whispers from my tongue
Velvet vexation

On other days
It dances and leaps

Luring me on
in harmless temptation

On some days
It is a rising and falling sea

...a tempestuous menagerie
Of fragmented memory

But today
It is a languorous trickle

Of desire
and daring

Of honey
and lime

Dripping
and dallying

Taking its
precious, sweet time

From azure
And lemon infinity

Melting, pooling
In a golden ocean
Of hope
and possibility

J~


Almost Saturday

 Image Source: heartloveweddings.com

Dean Brody: The Kitchen Song

It's Friday...
another week of fumbling and stumbling
stroked from the
mighty calendar of existence
and the count-down
to the melody of
a Saturday morning slow-dance
is on... 

J~

Invisible Strength



This morning thought is heavy
And I don’t know what to say
So instead
I bow my head
And pray
And pray
And pray…

…and in this place of quiet
Where I don’t know what to say
I feel the whisper of One greater
Ease my heaviness away

© Janet Martin


Do you Believe...in luck?

She had to admit
this one had her stuck
she's not paraskevidekatriaphobic
she just doesn't believe in 'luck'

***

Finally she worked up the nerve to call...
Buying the biggest ficus tree she could find
she carried it up two flights of stairs
to your apartment.
The lady across the hall called 'hey'
Don't you know? He moved...
Yesterday.

***
Jack-pot...not

We all waited
Breath baited
This was the moment
It was all about!
The winner is...
Lights flicker and fizz...
and just like that
the power went out

***

There's no hope in a rabbit's foot
or in number sevens
and there's no such thing as luck...
I looked down as I spoke
Wishing I wasn't broke...
...hey, look, I found a buck!

***

Lucky for you
I have a bad memory

***

I remember too late
what I forget...
Now, I wish I could forget
What I hate to remember...

***

The money tree
in our back-yard
musta' got frost-bitten
and bitten hard

***

For better of worse
Be it blessed or cursed
For the rest of your life
I am your wife

If it weren't for bad luck
We'd have no luck, you say
Well babe, I plan to make you
the happiest unlucky man today

***

Janet~

Poetics Aside Prompt: unlucky...

Something about The Quiet



Something about the quiet
As tomorrow becomes today
Aches in the touch
Of thought and such
As moments slip away

…and in its ephemeral being
The warmth of you lingers near
As somewhere in my mind
Joy and sorrow align
In nothing but the hint of a tear

Something about the quiet
Of dark pouring to emptiness
Stirs in my thought
Things better forgot
But taunt now in sudden caress

…as today slips into history
And present disappears round its bend
I feel the embrace
Of a tear I can’t trace
The quiet tonight is my friend

© Janet Martin

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Something about that Box...




Something about that box
Of mortar and wood
…of lights beckoning
Warm
Makes me feel understood
And welcome
And though I quite delight
In the still of this night
And being wrapped in blue
I am drawn
To that box
Of mortar and wood
Because inside that box
Life is good
So as I come
And gaze for a moment
At its humble form
I thank the One
Who gives us glimpses
Of heaven
In boxes of mortar and wood
Called…
… Home

© Janet Martin

Poetics aside Prompt: Something...

Something...edited re-post




Something tells me not everything
Is quite as it appears
Something in me is whispering
From outer atmosphere
And I can feel something stirring the air
Intangible mystery
Something is always waiting somewhere
I wonder what it could be

Something is urging me to arise
As daylight creeps over the brink
Something brushes the star-dusted skies
With whispers of coral and pink
Something quivers deep in my soul
Surging as waves on the sea
Something over which I have no control
I wonder what it could be

Something inspires me to get up
and welcome another day
Something replenishes my empty cup
While night hours meter away
Something draws me from yesterday’s pain
To welcome this measure of sod
Something beckons me to do it again
Something…or Someone…maybe God?

© Janet Martin

Something Good from the Something not so Good...




Don’t count your mistakes…
…count your life-lessons

Don’t count your failures…
…count your stepping-stones

Don’t count your regrets…
…count your moments of grace

Don’t count your misgivings…
…count your opportunities to forgive

…and don’t count them as nothing…
…count them as jewels
In a crown of wisdom

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside prompt: Something...

Something...because of Faith




When we fold our hands
Close our eyes
Whispering thought to the still of the air
It would be nothing
But for faith
And faith turns our whispers into prayer…

© Janet Martin

Something about Gardening




There’s something about
Fresh garden-dirt between my toes
That stirs images of lush
Pristine and perfect rows

There’s something about
Fresh garden dirt between my toes
That washes the mind
Of former gardening woes

There’s something about
Fresh garden-dirt between my hands
That makes me feel
Like a dreamer of youth again

© Janet Martin

Something about the Silence




 Poetics Aside Prompt: Something...

Something about the silence
After you said goodbye
Expanded my perception
Of days gone by
And of appreciation

Something about waiting
For your return
Gives me the impression
I have a lot to learn
Of patience

Something about the emptiness
Where you used to be
Gives me a vague glimpse
Of eternity
And love

J~

Something about His Hands...



Poetics Aside Prompt: something-blank( you fill it in)


There’s something about the way
He tugs the sun to the day
Dissolving the barrier twixt twilight and dawn
And how each blade of grass
Gleams like frosted glass
A sea of diamonds on the front-yard lawn
And how the breath of God
As it warms the bud
Clothes the stark and barren lands
With vesture so fine
Beyond human mind
This makes me believe, we are in good hands

There’s something about seeds
The hope for man’s needs
Knowing when to stir while asleep in the earth
I marvel in thought
At how nature is taught
And yet, within man He placed greater worth
If we would obey
As easily as they
Life would be spared of many an ill
But He imbued in mankind
Something called a mind
And with it the blessed curse of free will

There’s something about spring
It makes the heart sing
As hope and renewal swell in emerald waves
There’s something about dawn
That urges us on
In spite of the dreams we relinquish to graves
There’s something about the way
Night is swallowed by day
Over and over and over again
That speaks of God’s love
And His mercy for us
And the assurance that we are in good Hands

© Janet Martin

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Time Marches On...

Time Marches On  
(I thought about this song while I was running:) it makes me feel OLD! If you click the center wheel on the mouse on the link it will open to the song...it suits the slide-show somehow, impressing on the heart, the passage of time...Live laugh, love, pray! That is my motto every day!

We wrote about seasons today on the Poetics Aside prompt....obviously that draws the mind to the swift passage of time...as I was out tonight it felt like last spring was only an arm's length behind me, not a year's length! I'm sharing the photos I took on my evening trek:)

How swift the little seasons pass
A sigh upon earth's plot of grass
How soon the daffodil will lie
Against the mulch of days done by
Back to the earth where life began
And every fickle day of man

How swift our little toil is done
A transient moment in the sun
How futile life would be; how vain
If it were merely mortal gain
Without a soul hope would be grass
Beneath a sky where seasons pass

Janet Martin~

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul.Gen.2:7

Strength of Endearment

Oceans of yearning
Can swallow the sky
Its lone hint of existence
A tear in the eye

Heartache can dwarf
Eternity
Yet is quietly shouldered
In humility

The strength of endearment
Is in love’s release
It is in relinquishment
That we can find peace

Butterfly moments
Flickers of gold
We ought not to squander
What we cannot hold

© Janet Martin

Watching the Sky Go By...



They swell; vast, billowed vessels
In twenty shades of gray
Suspended, low and lumbering
Adrift on heaven’s bay

Above them azure nothingness
Extends to heaven’s door
I watch from earthen thresholds,
Just a speck upon its floor

The sassy breezes tumble, stumble
Laugh and sob and weep
Confused as I beneath a sky
Of dizzy, drifting deep

© Janet Martin

Spring Poet




She pours her mirth
Upon the earth
In rainbow chivalry
The emerald hill
The daffodil
The blushing cherry tree
The crimson guile
Of tulip-smile
The azure of the sky
Mirrored upon
The rippling pond
And in the wee lad’s eye
In glee unfurled
She sweeps the world
 Her generosity
Leaving behind
For pensive mind
A world of poetry

© Janet Martin

April's Celestial Shepherdess



 

She laughs
herding her woolly flocks
to farther pasture's
with passionate
smile
Then she weeps,
her tears softening
earth-leather cusp
Her eyes beguile
the tightly clenched bud
She scowls
An icy stare
Conceals her mirth
hope turns to mud
as restless sheep
crowd about her...
trample her skirts,  but
then she smiles
...sheep scatter
as tulip rivers
color the earth

© Janet Martin

Seems we have a moody one going today!

Five Senses Poem


As I kiss
The salt on your skin
Inhale your scent
Caress your cheek
Absorb your warmth
You begin to undo
My best defense
I heed your
Unformed suggestions
The begging in your eyes
As I realize
I
Love
Baked potatoes

© Janet Martin

NaPoWriMo asks us to write using our five senses today!

Circle of Life...

From spring bud,
to
Summer flower
to
Autumn Relinquishment
to
Winter's silver hour


Janet~

Poetics Aside Prompt: Seasons

Season of Life

Poetics aside Prompt:  Seasonal Poem

Season of Trust

Since we are not heavenly creatures
but of dust
we go through times and seasons
where all we can do
...is trust

When you asked me the if's and why's and 'but's
I fell upon my knees
and cried out, God, oh help me trust
You; please, please, please

Janet~

***
 Season of Forgiveness

I can hold onto resentment and anger
refusing to forgive

or I can accept your apology,
and know what it is to live

Janet~

***
 Season of Hope

A new day dawns
Opportunity waits
The best to come
Pours from its gates

Janet~

Season of Patience

We cannot rush
the bud from its pod
The bloom would be mangled and marred
We cannot push
Beyond the will of God
But wait: even when it is hard

Janet~

Season of Love

It fills me with pleasure
But even greater pain
It drives me to hope
When hoping seems vain

Oh beautiful, tormenting
Mystery
My hollow, my fulness
Joy, misery

I strained to see Love
As I wept of its loss
God opened my eyes
And showed me a cross

Janet~

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Of Desire and Despair

I wandered, lonely as a cloud
Grappling desire and despair
Guilt raised its fist, ugly and proud
While mercy fanned the morning air
And on the palm of lithesome breeze
A song of tender memories

Continuous as the stars that shine
Transient moments tune the air
And you, oh little love of mine
Drive my desire and despair
Come now and lay awhile with me
We’ll count the stars on heaven’s sea

The waves of time sparkle and dance
As they roll onward to a sea
Oh, ride the bark of present-chance
Before it slips to history
I’ll trade desire and despair
For this; your breath against my hair

For oft, when on my couch I lie
And you are there and I am here
Despair and deep desire vie
For residence within my tear
But now, they slip unnoticed far
Time pauses 'neath the midnight star

© Janet Martin 

NaPoWriMo Prompt: Steal a line from a famous favorite...

For my second Theft I stole from another favorite... William Wordsworth and his poem

Daffodils



I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth :




Spring's Come-back



*Now that the winter’s gone
The earth renews its zest
Flaunting her floral gown
Of fragrant blossom-dress

The rigor of its chill
Softens on zephyr-tongue
As over wood and hill
Rolls April’s luring song

Come; fling aside your woe
And winter’s binding shroud
The violet rivers flow
Beneath spring’s little cloud

Come; lay aside your grief
The heart cannot resist
The tide of budding leaf
And daffodil, sun-kissed

Now that the winter’s o’er
We dare to dream anew
To plant and hope once more
On spring’s fresh avenue

© Janet Martin
Written for-
NaPoWriMo giving us permission today to steal a line from a favorite poem...
and for Poetic Bloomings: Prompt; Making a Comeback~

The Spring

 *Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful spring.
The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array
Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May.
Now all things smile; only my love doth lour;
Nor hath the scalding noonday sun the power
To melt that marble ice, which still doth hold
Her heart congeal'd, and makes her pity cold.
The ox, which lately did for shelter fly
Into the stall, doth now securely lie
In open fields; and love no more is made
By the fireside, but in the cooler shade
Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep
Under a sycamore, and all things keep
Time with the season; only she doth carry
June in her eyes, in her heart January. 

Thomas Carew




   


Tough Guys




Some ‘tough guys’ bench-press 400lbs
…and polish their biceps and six-packs
With baby oil

Some ‘tough guys’ rope bulls
Ride bucking broncos
While wearing large leather Stetson hats

Some ‘tough guys’ lie in trenches
Some dig them
And some fly F-22 Raptors over them

Some ‘tough guys’
Keep us safe
With a gun on their hip
And the law on their side

Some ‘tough guys’
Open people’s chests
And fix their hearts

…but the toughest of them all
Folds her fragile hands
over leather-bound Hope
and prays…
for her own child
and other mother's children
whoever and
wherever
they are

© Janet Martin

Confessions~




I run my fingers
Over your rugged lines
I am taken by your beauty
You grow more beautiful with time
Oh, I will not blush
For I am shamelessly in love with you
And in the sacred midnight hush
I know
You love me too

J~


Mr. Willow



I never told anyone
That I gave you a name
And you always reached for me
Whenever I came

As you read my thoughts
You would nod and sigh
At night in my bed
I heard your lullaby

You would listen patiently
When no one else would
And I never doubted
That you understood

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside Prompt: Trees/forest

The Parable of Trees



Poetics Aside Prompt: Tree or Forest

In winter you're a barren twig
In spring a new-born flower
In summer-time a cool retreat
And in the fall...a shower

Winter, a crown of pristine white
In spring, a floral cutie
Your summer-gown, chartreuse delight
But autumn; oh, ravishing beauty

I have fallen in love once
A thousand times each season
Oh mighty tree, for you ensconce
The whole of Nature's reason

There is a season for all life
The bud, the bloom; surrender
Yet, here we earn in living's strife
The crown of wisdom's splendor

Janet Martin

Subliminal...




Our understanding at best, O God
Is inadequate and trite
On our own each breath a fraud
And every moment, night

Our perception without Your Spirit
Is blinded ignorance
And Death, O death, how I would fear it
But for deliverance

Your mercy, hope and love fulfills
Your changeless eye of grace
The tempter wears ten-thousand ills
Deceiving human race

Our understanding will ever be
Only what God imbues
Therefore but by His grace go we
On earth-bound avenues

Beyond these briefest stance of Time
Our eyes will see anew
As we behold Love, pure, sublime
Oh God, as we see you

© Janet Martin

Behold the Lamb of God
which takes away the sins of the world. John 1:29

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose" -- Jim Elliot

Shadow-art~

Tonight
your shadow
lies twixt
quill
and parchment
where thought
cannot transfer
from ink
to
poetry
so tonight
I will settle
for you and me...
...un-penned
unspoken
unshared
simply shadow art
upon my heart~

J~