It Would Be Dark Tonight....

It would be

A deep dark tonight

Save for the mist

Of amber light

Spilling circles on the snow

Beneath the rain-drenched street lamp’s glow

It would be

So still tonight

Save for an intimate echo

To requite

The surging want of what is not

But for its image in my thought

It would be

Lonely tonight

And the chancellor of moments

Both black and white

Would steal the slumber from my eyes

Save for the wind-song lullabies

Yes, it would be

A heavy dark tonight

Save for the promise

Of morning light

And the warmth of hope’s caress

Whispering against the quietness

© Janet Martin

In March

In March the poplar trees are etched

Like stalwart plumes on waning day

Where every limb is keenly sketched

Against a palette of blue-gray

In March the heart begins to fill

With violet-emerald wanderlust

As gardeners and farmers thrill

To breathe the balm of new-born dust

In March we press against the ledge

Where winter’s will and spring entwine

And all along our daydream's edge

The buxom bud delights the vine

In March the gray and gold collide

Like love; a fire and ice vortex

Of duty, demand and desire

Where will and want please and perplex

In March the woman and the child

Grow restless for life’s kinder things

Like blooming sedges in the wild

Where drifters laugh like pampered kings

In March we feel the heart begin

To understand Time’s transient flow

Portraying tug-of-wars within

Of holding on while letting go

© Janet Martin

I Don't Want to Live...Remembering

I do not want to live

Remembering

How beautiful you were

I want to live

Seeing

How beautiful you are

I don’t want to live

Realizing

How wonderful it was

I want to live

Knowing

How wonderful it is

I don’t want to live

Looking back

Or ahead

I want to live

In the now

With each breath

© Janet Martin

Thursday Thoughts

 Image Source:

 On Gossiping...

She returns her pious dagger

To its sheath behind prim lips

Paying no attention

To heart-wounds she inflicts

***

 On Serving...

Someday the bells will toll for you or I

Will we with weary gladness leave this dirt

Laying our soiled and sullied tools aside

 Or will we leave with spotless, stiff-starched shirt

***

On Wisdom...

Choosing denial when wisdom shines clearer

Is like pulling in the belly to look in the mirror

***

 On Walking...

If we do not walk

Prayerfully and kindly

Then we simply stumble

Careless and blindly

***

 On Being a true disciple...

How do I shine my light for You

Dear, gracious Heavenly Father?

My child, if you would be faithful and true

Simply love one another

***

 On Temptation...

Warm and willing is the flesh

Cold and calloused is its curse

***

On Humility...

It is difficult

To overcome pride

If one’s thought-life

Begins with ‘I’

***

On Self-control...

It is pleasant

To indulge in a treat

And wise to remember

We are what we ‘eat’

© Janet Martin

Invisible Rain

You weave through my senses

Teasing my defenses

You swivel and swirl like a leaf on the breeze

You croon in my being

Where my mind’s eye is seeing

The aura of your possibilities

You plead from the tresses

Of whispered caresses

Dangling your charm twixt dull duty and dream

As my best intention

Offers no intervention

Where vowels and consonants glimmer and gleam

You press on thought-levee

Your presence grows heavy

And I cannot bear the duress of your want

Drenching my vision

Without inhibition

Merciless now, you torment, tease and taunt

You ache in raw passion  

You break through horizons

Where purpose and pleasure consummate fear’s pain

As thought spills in ink

You pour and I drink

Words water the air in invisible rain

You hold the power
To bring into flower
The bashful, the brazen, the broken and bent
As you weave your will
From thought into quill
Spilling into poetry; your want is content

© Janet Martin

What Sister's Say...

 

Image Source

They say

‘I understand’ with nothing

But a glance

Meeting above

Our daughters’ heads

They say

‘I know’ with nothing

But a slow smile

Shared behind

Our husbands’ backs

They say

‘I care’ with nothing

But a prayer

Breathed behind

A tender tear

© Janet Martin

Thank-you Lucy. (I know this is a week early but there are no guarantees from day to day so I spill as it hits the quill;))

My daily dozen, thanks be to God could be multiplied over and over daily!

Of Cups Over-flowing and Heart-strings

 (I wept(happily, sadly) through this whole scene!
My girls and I are now in the middle of watching season 3 on DVDs we borrowed from a friend)

Mom, will you be happy or sad when we get married? my son asked me this morning while the rest of the house was still asleep and he was getting ready for school…I will be...pause, both equally, I said, because…

There are two cups

In a mother’s heart

One for gladness

And one for grief

Even now they brim equally

Spilling and filling

In the same breath

And my dear boy,

A mother’s joy

Is such a strange, mysterious thing

We teach you to move forward

But there seems to be a string

That tugs within her heart of hearts

As the future becomes past

Because Time is a swift-winged creature

Always flying way too fast

And every now and then I miss

The way you once looked up to me

Where now you lean to place a kiss

Upon my tender reverie

Yet, I am learning to be glad

While cradling love’s mysterious pain

Of being so profoundly sad

At what will never pass again...

© Janet Martin

...because when one becomes a groom or bride

she must sever, at least in part

the strings entwined deep inside

the core of a mother's heart.

Power Struggle to Joy

My head and heart know the perfect order

Of how things ought to be done

But oh, it seems my hands and feet

Bear a stubborn will all their own

© Janet Martin

When I was a child we learned this jingle to the tune of Jingle Bells;

J-O-Y, J-O-Y

J-O-Y must be

Jesus first and yourself last

and others in between (repeat)

It's message still whispers to me...often.