Retrospect......

Lay down your timbrel, violin, flute
Blow out the candle tonight
There is no music when the spirit is mute
No flickering whispers of light

But here in a cradle of mournful desire
I savor a tear and a sigh
There is no warmth in a loveless fire
No dream in the down-cast eye

We yearn for the freedom and tenderness
Of love's unbridled laughter
But here in the cell of retrospect
Silence weeps from each rafter

Janet~

Irreplaceable You.....

Of all the hands which I have clasped
Of all the love’s that I embrace
Of all the moments I have grasped
There is none to take your place

Of all the love songs I have heard
And all the moments thought can trace
Never have I quite been stirred
As then; no one can take your place

As shadows sprawl across the eve
Blotting out your lovely face
Silently my heart will grieve
There is none to take your place

Janet~

Bookmarks......

I placed a bookmark there
Between the pages where
I knew
I would need to return to
Again and again…..

Echoes scrawled across the air….
I placed the bookmark there
On pages stained
With smile and tear
To contemplate
Not what we have lost
But what we have gained……..

I placed a bookmark there
Words, like whispers in the night air
Bind the pages of memory…
I placed a bookmark there,
You see……
For I return to remember
What I want
And want not to be……..

Janet~

Play It Again.....

Play me that song love, play it again
Take me back to the moment when
Love was a meadow, a daisy-strewn floor
No wolves howling at the door…..

Play me that song, love, over and over
I was a maiden and you the fair lover
We are not children anymore
And we have a love worth fighting for……

Play me that song love, a grave melody
Rising and falling like waves of the sea
Its cadence drifts across life’s sweeping shore
Oh, we have a love worth dying for………..

Play me that song love, play it again
Cradle my heart in its riveting strain
Over life’s ocean I hear it implore
Oh, we have a love worth living for

Janet~

Of Things She Loves......

She loves to be heard.....
not so much in the context of word
as in the eyes that simply say 'I know'

She loves to be held.......
not in arms seeking their own satisfaction
but in the silence of mutual understanding

She loves to be touched..........
not so much with lips or groping hands
as with profundity of written words

She stands at the shore
clinging to her satchel of faded fantasies
and dying dreams
gazing quietly across the streams
of perpetual longing...

Janet~

Second Thoughts.....

I should have fled
But then the red
Of twilights kiss captured my gaze
I should have run
The setting sun
Somehow set my mind a-blaze
I should have tip-toed out of sight
Beyond the clutches of the night
Before her fingers grasped my arm
And led me where the breeze was warm
Where winsome little shadows play
Unseen in bolder hours of day
I should have bolted but instead
Quite willingly I let you lead
Me far beyond the garden wall
Where sonnets of the midnight fall
In low and faint melancholy
Like the music of the sea
I should have torn my hand away
Before I followed in your sway
Yet, how can anyone decline
A stroll within a night so fine
I should have fled
Your lips so red
Softly turned to kiss me
I should have fled
But instead
I asked, Dear, did you miss me?

Janet~

There Will Be.....

As long as the moon in its longsuffering gaze
Melts across snow-laden fields
As long as the sun sets the earth a-blaze
As daylight to evening yields
As long as the river runs into the sea
And the wanderer sits on its shore
Humming its wild, tumbling melody
Returning to days of yore
As long as the groom still kisses the bride
And kindred and comrade cheer
And daddies and daughters stroll side by side
As long as the cloud weeps a tear
And the blue wind moans a lonesome tune
Beneath a star-strewn sky
As long as there is a day in June
Or a warm, deep night in July
As long as the ivy creeps over the wall
And the rose creeps out of its shell
As long the shadow casts its shawl
Across the wooded dell
As long as your hand fits snug into mine
Ah, surely then there will be
Music and laughter and sweet sunshine
And endless poetry

Janet~

Invisible Choir

It trickles from the willow limb
And whispers in the briar
The melody of winter's hymn
Sung by a faceless choir
An anthem tuned by sun and wind
In perfect harmony
While breakers add a distant blend
Of murmurs from the sea

It laughs upon the frozen girth
Of January’s palm
Played by instruments of earth
Yet without string or tongue
Its chorus spills in silver tones
Too grand for mortal choir
High, then low it lilts and moans
A holy, heavenly fire

Across the silent earth it spreads
In low and mournful lay
While reverently we bow our heads
As if to weep or pray
But then its tempo lifts and swells
In songs of victory
Sweeping up from haunts and dells
Across the frozen lea

Come; lay aside your tools of spoil
Admittance will be free
To he who pauses in his toil
To hear its melody
Timbre of immortal strain
Devoid of word or meter
Composed by He who rules the wind
And natures perfect choir

Janet~