Of Deathly Silences

If we flung down our pens

Would anyone care

If beckoning whispers

Remained a-drift on the air?

Would it be missed

Those words never penned?

Would the wind be content

To be nothing but wind?

No low-flung melody,

Or cantankerous tone

No moody company

When we are alone

And all of the music

Which poets have sought

Would simply remain

In a casket of thought

If we flung down our pens

Would anyone care?

As agony drifts

On the tear-spangled air
And all of our want
And all of our need
Would endlessly taunt
And never would bleed
From hearts to fingers-tips
And from finger to page
From page to soft lips
on a distant stage
But the air would remain
A tightly-sealed hold
Of deathly silences
Hungry and cold

© Janet Martin

I just finished reading mike's interview on Poetic Bloomings,

and Laurie's interview on Poet's United,

 and it struck me how poet's and poetry

 are so vastly different yet hold a kindred distinction!

Poem-lets on The Unknown...

Image source:  longpauses.com

We cannot see the Unknown

It looms, dark and large

But we are not alone

And God is in charge

 ***

What lies ahead?

We cannot tell

But with God at the lead

It will be well

***

The unknown persists

An unyielding sky

But mankind exists

Beneath God's watchful eye

***

My faith is scarce

Half a mustard seed

But God knows and cares

For every need

***

The Unknown presides

But one thing I know

God’s Presence abides

Wherever I go

© Janet Martin

Psalms 139

4 Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain...

 ²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

Time's Minuet

 Image Source: minuetcompany.org

Boccherini - Minuet

 Click on above link with wheel of your mouse)

 The hemlock and pine strum the sky as a lyre

On darkness encroaching dusk’s vulnerable air

Over the land dips a somnolent brush

Another day slips from earth’s slate in night’s hush

As skylines dissolve in the mouth of the sky

And wind-songs evolve to a slow lullaby

Whilst over Time’s silvery edges I hear

The whisper of moments as they disappear

Midnight’s troubadour moans, on transient bend

In amalgamation of beginning and end

As tomorrow becomes what yesterday was

And present succumbs to past’s deepening pause

While oceans of living and loving and lust

Pour into eons of ashes and dust

And still ever hastening days become years

As moment on moment a life disappears

Where is the piper; the sound of the flute?

Strike now the timbrel, ere laughing turns mute

Dance as the violin’s quivering lay

Pines on the moments yet slipping away

See how the Maestro directs this grand choir?

Of moments and memories, dreams and desire

Fleet foot of passion and prayer pirouette

Over the garden to Time’s minuet

© Janet Martin

Happy Birthday Lucy...may you enjoy life's dance!

Earth's Treasure-chest

The pearl of noon’s raindrop bedazzling the grass

The diamond of dew on frothed meadows of glass

A halo of gold in dawn’s warm, gleaming crown

Soft amethyst fold in still evening’s night-gown

The silver of mist as it drapes on earth’s slope

The sapphire bliss of July’s calliope

The jade and the onyx of fir tree and pine

The ruby that spills from the bud on the vine

The garnet of lips, kissing and smiling

The moonstone of cloud-ships and lilies beguiling

The opal of rainbow, the topaz of your gaze

The emerald flow of  fresh, summer-sweet days...

...I may be a beggar, yet rich as a king

As I behold treasures of nature's fair things

© Janet Martin

Compromises

There will be…

A sharp, dry 'sense'

Lodged in my throat

and eyes...

...Nothing new

Yet still intense

Love’s pleading compromise

 And there will be

Soft whispered prayers

As I reach to the moon

Amidst the flow

Of thought and tears

And parting

Way too soon

…and there will be

Forevermore

The ‘what if’s’ and the ‘why’s

Within my soul

The ocean’s roar

Within my ear

Your sighs

Oh, there will be

Until we meet

A cruel and kind delight

To know love’s memory

Bittersweet

Sleeps with me every night

J~

 

Shadows on a Wall...attempt #2

Poetic Bloomings Picture Prompt

Darling,
It isn't so much
 the 'not dancing'
that hurts,
but the parting of ways

Darling,
it isn't the silence
that drives me mad
It's the echo
of lost yesterdays

J~

While They Debate...

Impatience tells me I can’t wait

And Patience says I must

So while they argue and debate

…all I can do is trust

J~

Sonnet of Wonderment

When I consider the work of Thy hands

The planets in flawless precision laid

The order of seasons startling earth's sands

The force of oceans at shorelines contained…

When I consider the scope of Thy plan

How Thought void of Time placed existence therein

And how it encompassed the falling of man

With One all-supreme sacrifice for sin

I cease my babble; for I cannot grasp

Even a shadow of fullness so vast

When I consider the gift of Thy Son

The crown of vile thorns on Love’s sacred brow

How rivers of mercy and redemption run

As cries of doom ‘neath deliverance bow

To speak my amazement, I am at loss

As I contemplate my pardon, blood-bought

For when I consider man’s hope at the cross

Only grateful tears can utter my thought

What is man, this sinful creature of dust?

That Heaven’s perfect Lamb should die for us?

When I think of boundless eternity

How time-yoked minds cannot fathom its breadth

And then I compare infinity

To God’s grace and compassion beyond height or depth

I cry, oh my God, where can I begin

To comprehend a perfect Love so deep?

I hear a Voice whispering from within

Do you love me? Then will you feed my sheep?

I think of how one drop of His blood sets us free

And cry, yes my Lord be it unto me'

© Janet Martin

 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” 

With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.John 19:30