Wandering Among Words

I’ve been there

Those moments where

I just don’t quite belong

In the clatter and the chatter

Of the blithe and carefree throng

I’ve been where

Faces long and grim

Demand a somber glance

When all I really long to do

Is cheer and sing and dance

Words are not

Judgmental

They neither pick nor choose

But meld into our pondering

In a thousand nameless hues

I like it here

The atmosphere

Is charged with nothing more

Than perfect possibility

Of what a-waits in store

© Janet Martin

Back Where You Belong...

Just about the time of day

When everyone is fast asleep

And darkness to the window creeps

Obliterating blue and gray

…and all the world has been subdued

Then all the thoughts of you and I

Drip from the black and beam-less sky

A penetrating solitude

…and somewhere in this seamless space

Where I have put you far from me

A sudden soulful melody

Returns you to your rightful place

J~ 


Some Enchanted Evening...Frank Sinatra

Soon...

Soon

There

Somewhere

By the tree’s roots

We shall take our place

Soon

Moss

Will cover

The marker to prove

That once we lived

Soon

Everything

So important now

Will drift on the wind

Like scattered nothings

Soon

Life

Will be nothing

And death will be

Everything

Soon

© Janet Martin

In life earth’s roads sweep to the sky

And countless destinies

In death the road sweeps o'er the brink

To one Eternity

My friend repeated a quote to me yesterday that she heard recently. (I’m not sure who said it)

‘For the believer earth is as close to hell as they will ever experience.

For the unbeliever earth is as close to heaven as they will ever experience.’

Trying to Make Sense of It All...

 These flowers are blooming beside the road.

Jesus said: "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. Luke 12:27

The dandelion beams, quite unabashed

Beneath the sprawling arches of the oak

The spruce and pine retain their common sash

Midst the flamboyant flare of autumn’s cloak

Nature; canvas of quiet miracles

Expounds life lessons in meek, wordless truth

It illustrates in petal-parables

A message fitted for senior or youth

A paradigm of wisdom is revealed

As we consider lilies of the field

***

We cannot spin the unknown on a wheel

And weave its filament to our thought

The threads we hold pass through a Higher Will

Though we may pull and strain against the knot

The human nature; it resists, rebels

A covetous and restless, striving throng

Whilst on the eve the song of sparrow swells

In praise to He who fills its mouth with song

We ought to raise our gifted threads to Him

Content to let His finger shape and trim

***

The Artist paints; His master-piece appears

Gradually; not in one afternoon

The acorn sprouts; it does not count the years

Before it reaches to the low-flung moon

And we, well we seem prone to boast or fret

Not at all like the lily of the field

It simply blooms while quickly we forget

And turn again to folly’s temporal yield

Who can explain His reason or His rhyme?

The answer to so many things, is Time

© Janet Martin

I have one child who is certain God forgot to give him/her a ‘special gift/talent’. Our reassurances/reminders otherwise will not persuade, so I tried to remind this one that not all things/gifts are revealed to us immediately. Realizations and master-pieces take time…

Sometimes waiting is a great Refiner. Being content with who God created us to be; THAT in itself is a great gift!

...and sometimes one can't see the forest for the trees!:)

Repeated Resolutions

For now I will ignore it

Those subtle hints of leaving

The sun is high in yonder sky

The harbinger of grieving

Slinks to the woodlot and the hill

To tease the mangled tresses

So I will take this chance to dance

In her prolonged caresses

For now I will embrace it

Her burnished benediction

On muted shores the truth implores

But here the calm conviction

That this is not the end my friend

Resides in golden candor

The sun is warm and in her arms

I revel in glad splendor

For now I will deny it

Though truth remains unshaken

As I observe the waning verve

Of sunbeams on the bracken

I cannot weep; above me sheep

Roam in cerulean meadows

And on the lawn I tread upon

The imprint of their shadows

For now I will take pleasure

In nothing but the moment

And I will splurge within the urge

To sip the tender torment

Of purple-gray against the day

Of faded blooms and bowers

I will not dare to let despair

Tarnish September’s hours

© Janet Martin

I was out waiting for the bus with Victoria and a sweet sadness washed over me...
the whisper of good-by weighed in the mist and yet the moment itself was...PERFECT!
There is such beauty in the broken and tattered remains of a season...J~

Who We Are...

Who we are is not proven

By words, sweet and tender

But its truth is spoken

By what we surrender

Who we are is not stated

By wealth of great price

But its truth is meted

By what we sacrifice

Who we are is not shared

By prideful boast

But its truth is declared

By what we serve most

Who we are is distinguished

By One above

As truth bears witness

By what we most love

© Janet Martin

What we love most is formed by whom we love most…

Caress...The Rictameter

Rictameter is a scheme similar to Cinquain. Starting your first line with a two syllable word, you then consecutively increase the number of syllables per line by two. i.e. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and then down again, 8, 6, 4, 2 making the final line the same two syllable word you used to begin.

The Rictameter

Caress

Perfect measure

Of pleasure and torment

Where the converging, not of skin

But of kinship in the meeting of minds

Nurtures sanguine satisfaction

While spawning desire

For its mystic

Caress

© Janet Martin

Poetic Bloomings invites us to try the rictameter form.

September-Summer Haiku

Pure sunflower gold

Clarifying absolutes

Like the color blue

***

Morning glory spills

In gleaming translucent glaze

On living's highway

***

Fall leans on summer

Teasing her umber tendrils

Sedums blush coyly

Janet~