But Then I got To Thinking...

...written in response to previous post

But then I got to thinking

How nothing would really be

Quite as it is; the brook, a brook

And tea would just be tea

And happy girls and boys, but noise

Daybreak and dusk, but time

The lilt of lark would lose its spark

The rain, its runnel-rhyme

And winter would be dull and grim

The whole world would be old

No poetry on stripped tree-limb

Etched stark against the cold

The sky would not be breathless blue

But just a lid above

Existence; if we wandered through

A lifetime without love

© Janet Martin

Sometimes When I Look At You...

Sometimes when I look at you

Or the sky spread full azure-blue

Or winter, laid wide

Like the gown of a bride

Or a bud, beaming with ‘brand-new’

…sometimes, when I pause to gaze

At stark winter-tree-limb maze,

Etched upon gold

As a new day grows bold

On Time’s old, soldered ways

…sometimes, in the clink of a cup

Or the song, as I hold it up

And you fill it with tea

Then we sit; you and me

Where twilight hours sup

…sometimes, when the green of June

And the swoon of an afternoon

Mingles with noise

Of happy girls and boys

Or the brooks soft-splashing tune

…or, the lilt of the morning lark,

Or the crackle of firelight after dark

Or the runnels of rain

On the window-pane

Leaving lover’s a-laugh in the park

…or, the sun on the wave-washed sand

Or the fun of my hand in your hand,

Or the tick of the clock

Where its pulses unlock

Both nevermore and dreamland

…sometimes, then I pause a bit

Invite its full force; every whit

To soak through my skin

Drench me outside-in

Because oh, I simply…love it

© Janet Martin

Let's Run Away and Remember...Love

Let's run away and remember...Kara Tippetts

Let's run away and remember

Not how we may have failed

But how we re-learned laughter

Where love loved and prevailed

After perhaps, we stumbled

Hard-humbled by regret

When love lavished with kisses

To heal and then forget

Let's run away and remember

How, before December was

June blushed lush green with nuances

Love's sweet, fleet camoflouge

Where we, love-struck believers

Began to learn its truth

In ways stunning and foreign

To dreamers wearing youth

Let's run away and remember

Counting backwards, one by one

The April-to-September

Rendezvous through rain and sun

And let's remember just enough

Of what love should not be

To help us to remember

To love with humility

Let's run away and remember

Love; old, middle-aged, brand-new

Because, though time brings change

Love never fails; sometimes we do

Then, because love is gentle

And patient, good and kind

We forget just enough to keep

Love tender-hearted, blind

Janet~

 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, 

forgiving one another, 

even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

 Eph.4:32

Love's 'Try Again'

(three separate sonnets or one whole; you choose:)

Love’s best intentions, darling, often fail

And where intent faltered then fell awry

Time’s intervention tips hope’s sacred grail

As melodies of pardon fill the sky

A brand new ‘try again’ ignites the deep

‘For better and for worse’ is not a ruse

Ah darling, we have promises to keep

We cannot quit; love offers no excuse

But lays upon the ways of human heart

The workmanship of time’s untarnished art

***

What lies beneath your sighs, your touch, your kiss?

Ah, help me hear beyond the sound of noise

Darling, your eyes tell words the ear can miss

Love’s language speaks in strange and unnamed joys

It stirs a fervor bound to persevere

Where ‘no’ is not an answer; ‘yes, yes, yes’

This is the language of lovers, my dear

And primes time’s way to heaven-happiness

Love is such kind companionship; it wakes

Us to a world that gives more than it takes

***

 My mouthed endearments cannot satisfy

Save if and when the heart adjusts its stance

To recognize the hunger in your eye

Reciprocation is a brave romance

Then, let me be shameless in ways of love

Let my feet thin within its second miles

And though skeptics may not fully approve

I’ll take my pay in laughter-laden smiles

For I am glad for records love won’t keep

Its virgin ‘try again’ ignites the deep

© Janet Martin

Every morning God smiles and fills the skies with 'try again' grace...

Love keeps no record of wrong...1 Cor. 13:5

For the Love of Writing...

Sometimes thought is gale-grim and harsh

Brooding like winter where the marsh

Reed-studded, stiff and brittle-cold

Waits for kisses, gilt-green and gold

Sometimes thought torments, lonely-blue

Its Want a freight-train roaring through

Flesh and blood waste-land; stone-faced snake

Heaving where onyx oceans ache

Sometimes thought has no words to speak

Its utterance a tear-traced cheek

Laughter and love and longing meld

In groans of poetry withheld

But oh, sometimes thought is a pen

Warm and word-willing minstrel, then

The heart forgives those mind-respites

And holds the hand that writes and writes

 

© Janet Martin

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, the ‘write’ words are withheld…

Sometimes to write the right words is war waged within.

 Writing requires talent and discipline and unyielding relentlessness, but it requires courage most of all.  Bill Coffey

Blessed By the Beauty of Love

Have you met her?

She loves without trying

In second miles

In helping hands

And genuine smiles

She loves without effort

A listening ear,

Hugs from the heart,

A sympathetic tear

She loves with a wave

And a friendly hello

She loves from her knees

When life's cares bend her low

She loves without counting

Its moments or price

Blessed by the beauty

Of sacrifice

© Janet Martin