Melissa's Art...and Victoria

Megan, the bottom portrait is Melissa's work in progress.
The top one is her Grade 11 final piece.
She said she would welcome any suggestions you might have...
I'm sorry that it seemed to blur when I cropped it. It makes it hard to see clearly...

November's Madrigal

The clouds are shaggy-gray tonight
A shroud across the moon
But I can hear a song in spite
Of Autumn’s barren room
The purple-blue of twilight’s brow
Its stealthy fingertips
Speak silently of things like snow
As dark and seamless lips
Swallow the far and fading sigh
Of daylight waning in the sky

The regimental symmetry
Of maple, stripped and bare
Arouses still-life imag’ry
Of sorrow ‘gainst the air
But it is not a hopeless grief
That grips the quiet heart
As testaments of ragged leaf
Sustain in works of art
A Surety of unseen things
Beyond the Death which autumn brings

The sentimental memories
The ache of days gone by
The provenance of melodies
The tear-note in the eye
Are love’s impressions on a wall
Of whispered seasons past
The paintings in a hallowed hall
Where not one slight is cast
As we behold the offerings
Of summer, autumn, winter, spring

Janet Martin

If Life Hands You Lemons...or Limes

Accolades and words of boast

are not testimonies sub-lime

to prove the things we love the most;

but how we spend our time

I thought of you the other day

And how you used to kiss me

Before you turned and walked away

Limes always do this to me

If life hands you its lemons

Then make some lemonade

If it hands you limes instead

Drizzle it on bean-salad

(it really is delicious on bean salad)

Do not keep score of failures

It is a waste of time

Sometimes life is the gravy

And sometimes salt and lime

Janet~

http://margoroby.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/a-lime-is-a-lime-or-is-it-tuesday-tryouts/

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/poetry-prompts/2011-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-2

The Proof

Accolades and sleek words of boast

are not testimonies sublime

to prove the things we love the most;

It's how we spend our time

Janet~

Love One Another

Let me begin at the heart of you

Lest in my selfish haste

I sadly should miss the part of you

That forms love’s ever-best

Is there to love a beginning or end?

I have not found it so

Love cannot choose its course, my friend

Or where its tides may flow

I thought a kiss was love’s signature

But as I held you near

The rush of the past, present and future

Brushed my cheek in your tear

Affection is tender and beautiful

Love, a double-edged ache

All of life’s goodness, pleasure and grief

Tremble within its wake

Love is not glamorous, easy or grand

Nor a thing given in part

It is not something we hold in our hand

But something we are from the heart

Janet Martin

http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com/2011/10/carry-on-tuesday-129.html

Tomorrow...

http://www.writersdigest.com/


Tomorrow I will tackle
Those jobs around the yard
Load up the old wheel-barrow
With leaves, tattered and tired
I’ll rinse off all the shovels
The shears, edger and hoes
Stack the tomato cages
In neat and tidy rows

Tomorrow I'll clean windows
And fix the broken door
I'll tidy up the kitchen
And scrub my dirty floor
I'll bake the way I used to
Before life's craziness
I'll split the wood for kindling
And clean up every mess

Tomorrow I will wander
Beneath skies, cold and blue
And wish that I could squander
Another hour with you
The cold seems so much colder
And summer far behind
And I feel so much older
Without you on my mind

Tomorrow I will listen
To autumns parting hymn
A madrigal of wisdom
Left upon the limb
Tomorrow I’ll be willing
To fight the good old fight
But time is swift and fleeting
That’s why today I write

Janet Martin

Actually, I feel this is a little rough shod, but it all I could muster
After an exceptionally crazy day!

Prompt; Procrastination...that was easy. I took my mental 'to-do' list:)

Written for November's poem a day challenge.

Authors

We all have one
An original
Mystery and suspense
Romance, non-fiction
It doesn’t require
Pencil or pen
Simply moments
Cast in Time
I wonder
As you walk by
What’s being written
In the story of your life?

Janet~

The Veil

Today the sky’s a purple wall
Heavy with thoughts of rain
I cannot see too far at all
Into its ethereal plain
Yesterday it wore the soft hue
Of warmth and golden sun
Melting across the endless blue
Where cherubs play and run

Today we stand perhaps to gaze
Upon its mystery
Marveling at the dazzling haze
Of midnight’s starry sea
A canvas where the morning dawns
Or sunset tints the lea
A curtain twixt Time’s little yawn
And God’s infinity

Some day the elements will shake
And every eye behold
As through the veil a throng shall break
On chariots of gold
Today we see a skies facade
And heaven is concealed
Someday we’ll see the face of God
And Holiness revealed

Janet~

The other night I dreamed that I was staring at the sky
at a strange white speck which began to expand, and suddenly in
the space of a breath it burst across the sky; God and legions of angels
so bright I could not see! All I remember was being dumb-founded and saying 'this is it! this is The Day! it's over, it's over...and then I woke...

'I thought of this passage of scripture in Acts 1...


6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

and this verse in Matthew 24:

30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.