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~