Thursday, April 19, 2012

Not Found in Coffee-shops




To sit quietly,
not in noisy coffee-shops
but on nature’s window-ledge
And then, drink deeply of thought
Pleasures me much
For as I sit quietly
Sipping my coffee, black
On the sill of a new day’s edge
Drinking deeply of thought
I feel your touch

Janet


Echo


Poetics Aside Prompt:

For today’s prompt, write a life event poem. By life event poem, I mean a poem that takes place at or describes a life event, such as a wedding, birth, death, graduation, etc. There are so many possibilities.

 
We buried her today
Beneath skies dull and gray
But dirt can never seal away
The echo of her laughter

Dirt holds her lifeless shell
For she has bid farewell
But it can never quell
The echo of her laughter

Oft in the tears I weep
I smile in spite of grief
For I will ever keep
The echo of her laughter

© Janet Martin

Don't you find that? 
whether Time or Death has stolen away a loved one...
isn't that what lingers?
the echo of their laughter...
J~



I Love the Way...



I love the way You breathe upon
The skyline in the dark
And gently soften heaven’s gown
To fade out heaven’s spark
You veil with mist the mountain crest
The valley, field and sea
The moon, a wafer in the west
Slips to obscurity

I love the way the sunlight pools
In yellow on the slope
As Time unravels from its spools
Translucent threads of hope
And we commence, with lightened step
Upon the road un-taken
With humble whisper on our lips
For seeds of faith unshaken

I love the way the dew and rain
Pearls on the musky flower
The scent of morning on the lane
After a midnight shower
I love the mercy You portray 
To mankind’s fumbling story
As you unveil another day
In all its pristine glory

© Janet Martin 






Unforsaken...



I’ll wait, my dear
The time, the tear
Are temporal in their torment
The purpose sought
Within my thought
Is worth each drawn-out moment
Love has no clock
No tick or tock
And all who’ve held its measure
Have come to know
The ebb and flow
Of both its pain and pleasure
For love is not
For faint of thought
Its bulwark is not shaken
With dark despair
Love hopes, with prayer
Its promise un-forsaken

© J~

Completely...



When we stood on the shore
Looking out to sea
Were we thinking ahead?
Or to what used to be?
Or did we simply exist 
In the moment; completely?

There is no pleasure
Greater than this
Than to be fulfilled 
Within life's soft kiss
As we exist completely
In the moment that is

Janet~

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Time's Grand Door


The dawn unfolds with buoyant tune
But now its trill reposes
With vesture of late afternoon
Upon a door that closes
Across what never more will be
Nor threatens its returning
Of this days joy or misery
Its pleasure or its yearning

A wisp of thought expands, a sea
Retreating to the reaches
Of mystery and history
Of love and what it teaches
Of how our moments in the sun
Or perhaps in the shadow
Must be relinquished; one by one
To past’s vespertine meadows

The clock upon Time’s fated wall
Someday will cease its order
And every man, both great and small
Must cross earth’s transient border
But on life’s little avenue
And for a little season
We bear our little grief or two
And do not ask God’s reason

The Dawn awaits, its buoyant tune
With ballad unrecorded
Whispers beyond the sallow moon
In versicle un-worded
With humble plea and gratitude
We gather thorns and roses
For years are swift and hours few
Before Time’s grand Door closes

© Janet Martin



A Tri-fall for my friend, Viv...Word Vertigo



Poetic Bloomings asks us to write a Tri-fall.

The Tri-fall, created by Jan Turner, consists of three 6-line stanzas, for a total of 18 lines.  The rhyme scheme per stanza is a,b,c,a,b,c.  The syllable count for each stanza is 6/3/8/6/3/8.    This form has no specific meter, requires little-to-no punctuation,  and may be written on any subject matter.

 
I have my best money
on the bet
that you will return soon because
words have a way, honey
they won't let
us rest without justified cause

What seems vapid tonight
or too dull
may regain charm beneath fresh eyes
wait until morning light
when wakeful
thought rages, rampant with surprise

Such is the poet’s curse
Or blessing
Victims are we of vexing Muse
Keened to sudden whispers
Caressing
The silence where we wept the blues

Janet~

Hope you are feeling better, Viv.

Gardening Haiku



Digging and dreaming,
Peas, beans, squash, greens, tomatoes
Perfect spring garden

Weeding and hoeing
Pruning, staking, gathering
Summer sweat-drops pour

Rustling after-math
Trial and error complete
Autumn’s garden sighs

Pure, pristine canvas
Buried dreams begin to nudge
Winter’s garden sleeps

Digging and dreaming,
Peas, beans, squash, greens, tomatoes
Perfect spring garden…

© Janet Martin~

Yes, that’s pretty much it!
Yet, it is the best therapy I know!

Favourite Foods Haiku



Poetics Aside Prompt: For today’s prompt, think of a favorite regional cuisine, make that the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. For instance, you may title your poem something like “Brunswick Stew,” “Deep Dish Pizza,” or “Jambalaya,” though the poem doesn’t exactly have to be about food.

 Favorite Foods Haiku

Oatmeal and wheat germ
Add ground flax and honey
Favorite breakfast

***

Fresh greens, red onion
Kidney beans and sharp cheddar
Simple salad bliss

Janet~

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A Little Thinkin'...

What a gift is
This weariness
Not merely oppressing
Dreariness
But simply the effect
Of toil and duty
A tired Mother
Love’s hard-earned beauty

***

To have much to do
Is God’s gift of love
I bow humbly in thanks
To the Giver above

***

There are many words
Whispering; oh, how they beseech
Detained on a fringe; lingering
Just beyond my reach

***

If the flip-side of joy is sorrow
Come what may…
Is the flip-side of today, tomorrow
Or yesterday?

***

Leave your worry and care
and do not despair
at the unknown that murmurs dark warning
My mother always said
Just go to bed
Things will look brighter in the morning

(I find myself repeating those words to my kids…and I have lived to see they are true!)

Janet~

Dreamland Unbarred

( I commented to the kids tonight how tired and ragged that pine tree appears after yesterday's tempest)

When April’s smile
Has nestled awhile
On this blue puddle
Referred to as Earth
When she has spun
From threads of sun
A garment of green-leaf
To warm its girth
When the slighted stance
Of winter’s romance
Melts in defeat
Beneath her caress
When skeletal limbs
Are feathered with grins
And every tree
Is a graceful princess
When robin-lay
And break of day
Unite to greet
The morning star
The gardener sings
As the Gate-keeper swings
The door to digging
And dreamland ajar


© Janet Martin
I think the gardener and the farmer sing...
(I'm watching the dust fly in neighboring fields as a few of the farmers are seeding)
...as they enter a new season of dreams aka. Hope:)




Fantasy Poem



Poetics Aside Prompt: Write a science fiction or fantasy poem


It seems entirely
Out-of-character
For this logical
And practical mother
To don glass slippers
And an evening gown
As her pumpkin chariot
Draws her to town

It does not seem
Like her at all
To attend
a midnight ball
With the rest of her kind
Parental royalty
Dressed up like they were
Twenty-three

We had forgotten
Until given a chance
That we were weightless air
As we danced and danced
Until the tolling clock
In the old church tower
Reminded us primly
Of the waning night-hour

We tipped the door-man
Or was it a lion?
Climbing onto the bare back
Of a prancing white stallion
With a flourish we departed
Sailing over the trees
Oh Pegasus, tell me kindly
What they put in the punch…please?

© Janet Martin

National Haiku Day

Prayer transports man's hope
on lucid wings of wee faith
to God's loving care

***

Buds soften in rain
Petals push against dark odds
Coloring our world

***

The absence of you
Bittersweet moment of bliss
Waiting for your kiss

***

A Moment on Moments...



Flickers of joy
Shadows of sorrow
Live in today
And not in tomorrow
Why tarnish the present
With uncertainty?
Worry is the employer
Of futility
A thief of moments
Forever lost
For tomorrows bridges
Have never been crossed
And tomorrow’s battles
Have never been won
So live in the moment
Before it is gone

© Janet Martin

 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34

If You Had Asked Me...




If you had asked me
I would most likely have said
Keep them…
Keep all of them
And then I would have covered
With my hand the one I thought most beautiful
But God,  You know better than I
The unfolding of time takes moments even in the giving
So you take them
All of them
As You give them,
All of them
And cover my hand
With Yours
Making each moment
The most beautiful
Moment of all

© Janet Martin

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