Moonlight Madness

…and sometimes when the night is still

When doubt has pushed against my will

Drenching my spirit with winds ill

Until I fain would curse the quill

I hear you whisper quietly

And somewhere deep inside of me

I’m bolstered by an aching need

For oh, a poet I must be

…and sometimes when the full-moon smiles

Expanding Time’s insistent miles

And when the vaunt of thought beguiles

Spawning keen creature wants awhile

I wrestle with conflicting bliss

The agony of almost kissed

Where perfect words slip to the mist

Invisible and taunting twist

…and sometimes when the night is still

I slip your whisper to my quill

Tracing your tear against my will

While the moon sinks beneath the hill

Before I lay me down to sleep

Or stars fade to the azure deep

I laugh, I pray, I moan, I weep

A poet has a charge to keep

© Janet~

Sonnet of Time's Surging Sea...

Borne from an ether realm, tumultuous tide

Rippling and raging, half-breath ecstasy

Rushing, receding, dark and light collide

Where heaven reaches to embrace the sea

Darling, youth’s kiss fades cold upon the cheek

And where we danced barefoot upon its shore

The breakers crash; cold, foaming crest is bleak

Where summer’s silver sparkle soothed its roar

Yet, as its heaving, shifting billows roll

Hope buoys love’s deep longing in the soul

Subtle, the potent power of this surge

Rankling within the vessel of the heart

My dear, within your arms I sense the urge

Of change tuning the ethereal rampart

And all the darling moments we caress

Like waves, spilling across the sun-warmed beach

Cannot be captured, soon the emptiness

Of echoes fills our frantic, futile reach

Yet, like a pearl within the oysters shell

Time will reveal its treasure; all is well

Impressionistic skylines taunt and lure

We cannot touch its elusive plateau

Nor can our straining, groping grasp secure

Life’s rising, falling arrant ebb and flow

Darling, we tremble in the moment-splurge

Of salty tear startling love’s ling’ring kiss

Upon Time’s lilting lay a mournful dirge

Hovers beyond Spring’s brief, burgeoning bliss

Yet in the subtle surge from mystic deep

We find in its debris, treasures to keep

© Janet Martin

The combination of old music, memories and photos filled me with the sense of standing on last summer’s beach, battered by the surge of invisible waves.

J~

Life's Simple Things

I ask not for wealth

Or the riches of kings

But for a heart that treasures

Life’s simple things

I pray for contentment

In what each hour brings

And for the pure pleasure

Of life’s simple things

True happiness dwells

In bejeweled offerings

Of sweet moment-measure

In life’s simple things

© Janet Martin

Thursday Thoughts on the Transpiring and Expiring of Moments

 

To dredge the past in search of its measure

Is but to forfeit this moment-treasure

***

To pine for the wine in tomorrow’s vine

Is to waste the taste of this moment’s haste

***

Darling, the amazement and astonishment

Which grand architecture induces

Fills me with wild wonder and delight…

Yet, its wonderful wonderment

Pales in weak excuses

Against your heartbeat in the still of the night

***

Intangible trickle

Vast vaporous sea

Time is a twinkle

In eternity

***

Taste the moment on your lip

Oh, and do not let it slip

Into the blue, transpired in vain

For it will not return again

***

What is our calling

Brother to brother?

Why, it is but this

To love one another

***

Sometimes thought’s echo sparks within me

A longing for hours that used to be

But then I remember,

Today’s moment-splendor

Is shaping tomorrow’s memory

***

A sigh, a gasp

Is but the cast

Of moments melting

In the past

Take heed, my love

At what they teach

For soon they slip

Beyond our reach

***

Hold my hand, darling

Love is lonely alone

Each day is a pitfall

Or a stepping-stone

***

Life is a lover

The bliss of its kiss

Is rendered in caresses

Not of what was, but what is

***

Take a moment

To taste the moment

Dissolved

In a moment

***

When you hold me like this

Sweet moment-glance

I’m filled with the urge

To sing and dance

Because ours is such

A tempestuous romance

You offer, but once

Each moment-chance

© Janet Martin

Of Ripples and Rowing

Darkness dissolves soundlessly into time’s transient flow

The sun spills forth her golden glee in rivers on the snow

The sailor of this stormy strand is drawn into its stream

Row; row your boat toward The Land where hope’s promises gleam

Hark! Hear the muted moments roar as minutes slip away

Crashing upon a mystic shore in waves of yesterday

Treasure this tender, temporal tide; the ebb and flow of life

‘tis but the rising, falling ride of living’s joy and strife

For soon the diamond-dazzled sweep of morning’s gilded gleam

Will vanish to the midnight deep; a ripple on life’s stream

© Janet Martin

For Sure and For Certain

Life is a vale filled with sunshine and hurting

Of unknowns that we must trod

But one thing we know for sure and for certain

Its journey will lead us to God

We cannot see beyond today’s curtain

The mystery tuning earth’s sod

But one truth abides for sure and for certain

Someday we will stand before God

It’s hard to prepare for the unknowns of living

Or know all the whys of Love’s rod

But life is the hour to prepare for our dying

Where we know that we will meet God

Closing our eyes does not change our position

Souls do not sleep in the sod

Ignoring fact does not change what is certain

Someday we will bow before God

© Janet Martin

Winter Sonnet of the Summer-heart

Blow then, oh mistral of the barren deep

Torment the frozen landscape with your wrath

And seal the womb where summer lilies sleep

‘Neath echoes of a dusty, garden path

Splay on the earth your frigid spite and scorn

Well, well you know that you cannot allay

The overtures of spring-tides swelling morn

Where songbirds herald the dawning of the day

The quill cannot dispense a warmer breeze

Or paint the dainty danseuse on the snow

As you employ cold winter’s maladies

Where hellions of January blow

But we cling to the proof of centuries

Soon you must go where all your kindred go

***

Blow then, for numbered are your numbing brawls

The purple pansy and the daffodil

Will soon reply to Mother Nature’s calls

Brushing your grudges from the ridge and rill

For April, with a guiltless damsel’s smile

Will kiss the brooding bluster from your mouth

As you relinquish to her gentle guile

Your tempest for the zephyr of the south

The mellow-yellow noon of lustrous June

The emerald rhapsody of middle-May

The aura of April’s first ardent swoon

Gleams like a rainbow on your frosted fray

Before the lure of cerulean croon

Will melt your brusque and bully scowl away

***

Blow then, oh merchant of ice-gilded glee

Harassing ocher hills in hoary rage

Screaming in sleet-spiked mutinous melee

Shivering cold, across earth's glacial stage

For all your predecessors testify

That soon the hour of your squall is spent

And soon the frozen fury in your eye

Will soften, slowly soften and relent

To the fair maiden with the lingering glance

And when she reaches for your waning will

You rush toward her begging for a dance

The trellis, heavy with mid-winter chill

Will  bear green buds burgeoning with romance

Where honey-bees return to drink their fill

© Janet Martin

Unrestrained...

 Poet's United is contemplating Fences

It does no good

Whether steel or wood

Or entwined with summer’s most fragrant bloom

Whether passing through clover

Or holding would-be lover

Or soldered in turrets of wrought-iron gloom

It is no use

No chain-link ruse

Or rampart to the bluest blue

Can ever restrain

Or begin to contain

This rambling, roving thought of you…

J~

Don't Fence Me In...