Season of Life

Poetics aside Prompt:  Seasonal Poem

Season of Trust

Since we are not heavenly creatures
but of dust
we go through times and seasons
where all we can do
...is trust

When you asked me the if's and why's and 'but's
I fell upon my knees
and cried out, God, oh help me trust
You; please, please, please

Janet~

***
 Season of Forgiveness

I can hold onto resentment and anger
refusing to forgive

or I can accept your apology,
and know what it is to live

Janet~

***
 Season of Hope

A new day dawns
Opportunity waits
The best to come
Pours from its gates

Janet~

Season of Patience

We cannot rush
the bud from its pod
The bloom would be mangled and marred
We cannot push
Beyond the will of God
But wait: even when it is hard

Janet~

Season of Love

It fills me with pleasure
But even greater pain
It drives me to hope
When hoping seems vain

Oh beautiful, tormenting
Mystery
My hollow, my fulness
Joy, misery

I strained to see Love
As I wept of its loss
God opened my eyes
And showed me a cross

Janet~

Of Desire and Despair

I wandered, lonely as a cloud

Grappling desire and despair

Guilt raised its fist, ugly and proud

While mercy fanned the morning air

And on the palm of lithesome breeze

A song of tender memories

Continuous as the stars that shine

Transient moments tune the air

And you, oh little love of mine

Drive my desire and despair

Come now and lay awhile with me

We’ll count the stars on heaven’s sea

The waves of time sparkle and dance

As they roll onward to a sea

Oh, ride the bark of present-chance

Before it slips to history

I’ll trade desire and despair

For this; your breath against my hair

For oft, when on my couch I lie

And you are there and I am here

Despair and deep desire vie

For residence within my tear

But now, they slip unnoticed far

Time pauses 'neath the midnight star

© Janet Martin 

NaPoWriMo Prompt: Steal a line from a famous favorite...

For my second Theft I stole from another favorite... William Wordsworth and his poem

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth :

Spring's Come-back

*Now that the winter’s gone

The earth renews its zest

Flaunting her floral gown

Of fragrant blossom-dress

The rigor of its chill

Softens on zephyr-tongue

As over wood and hill

Rolls April’s luring song

Come; fling aside your woe

And winter’s binding shroud

The violet rivers flow

Beneath spring’s little cloud

Come; lay aside your grief

The heart cannot resist

The tide of budding leaf

And daffodil, sun-kissed

Now that the winter’s o’er

We dare to dream anew

To plant and hope once more

On spring’s fresh avenue

© Janet Martin

Written for-

NaPoWriMo giving us permission today to steal a line from a favorite poem...
and for Poetic Bloomings: Prompt; Making a Comeback~

The Spring

 *Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful spring.
The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array
Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May.
Now all things smile; only my love doth lour;
Nor hath the scalding noonday sun the power
To melt that marble ice, which still doth hold
Her heart congeal'd, and makes her pity cold.
The ox, which lately did for shelter fly
Into the stall, doth now securely lie
In open fields; and love no more is made
By the fireside, but in the cooler shade
Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep
Under a sycamore, and all things keep
Time with the season; only she doth carry
June in her eyes, in her heart January. 

Thomas Carew

   

Tough Guys

Some ‘tough guys’ bench-press 400lbs

…and polish their biceps and six-packs

With baby oil

Some ‘tough guys’ rope bulls

Ride bucking broncos

While wearing large leather Stetson hats

Some ‘tough guys’ lie in trenches

Some dig them

And some fly F-22 Raptors over them

Some ‘tough guys’

Keep us safe

With a gun on their hip

And the law on their side

Some ‘tough guys’

Open people’s chests

And fix their hearts

…but the toughest of them all

Folds her fragile hands

over leather-bound Hope

and prays…

for her own child

and other mother's children

whoever and

wherever

they are

© Janet Martin

Confessions~

I run my fingers

Over your rugged lines

I am taken by your beauty

You grow more beautiful with time

Oh, I will not blush

For I am shamelessly in love with you

And in the sacred midnight hush

I know

You love me too

J~

Mr. Willow

I never told anyone

That I gave you a name

And you always reached for me

Whenever I came

As you read my thoughts

You would nod and sigh

At night in my bed

I heard your lullaby

You would listen patiently

When no one else would

And I never doubted

That you understood

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside Prompt: Trees/forest

The Parable of Trees

Poetics Aside Prompt: Tree or Forest

In winter you're a barren twig

In spring a new-born flower

In summer-time a cool retreat

And in the fall...a shower

Winter, a crown of pristine white

In spring, a floral cutie

Your summer-gown, chartreuse delight

But autumn; oh, ravishing beauty

I have fallen in love once

A thousand times each season

Oh mighty tree, for you ensconce

The whole of Nature's reason

There is a season for all life

The bud, the bloom; surrender

Yet, here we earn in living's strife

The crown of wisdom's splendor

Janet Martin

Subliminal...

Our understanding at best, O God

Is inadequate and trite

On our own each breath a fraud

And every moment, night

Our perception without Your Spirit

Is blinded ignorance

And Death, O death, how I would fear it

But for deliverance

Your mercy, hope and love fulfills

Your changeless eye of grace

The tempter wears ten-thousand ills

Deceiving human race

Our understanding will ever be

Only what God imbues

Therefore but by His grace go we

On earth-bound avenues

Beyond these briefest stance of Time

Our eyes will see anew

As we behold Love, pure, sublime

Oh God, as we see you

© Janet Martin

Behold the Lamb of God

which takes away the sins of the world. John 1:29

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose" -- Jim Elliot