Ice Princess

When my neighbor said there would be more 'beauty' in the morning we had no idea it would come at a price...no hydro. Our electricity is back after 3 days; for many it is not! Oh what bliss to be able to wash my face with warm water!

...and she screamed her arrival
no poise or grace
did she attempt
this ice-princess
tapping her nails
in noisy descent
sealing the landscape
in a glass tent


Janet

Evening, Come Gently

 As I took these pictures a few minutes ago I told the neighbor I'm trying to find the beauty in this! He replied that there's going to be a lot more 'beauty' come morning:))Alas, the evening is not so gentle now; it sounds like someone is flinging pebbles at the window.

Evening, come gently and soften the gale

Binding the landscape in icy travail

Subdue the mistral of howling lament

Whisper your kisses against its torment

Remind Old Man Winter his time has expired

Then evening, come gently, the trees are so tired

Evening, come softly and gentle away

The pelting of ice tears and land-seas of gray

Cradle the country-side ensconced in glass

Smooth back the ocean of winter’s last blast

The half-budded limb has grown heavy with grief

Pausing the vim of a newly born leaf

Evening, come tender, with motherly love

Hush the snow splendor that weeps from above

Comfort the wee bird hunkered in its nest

While over, around him the wind-demons jest

Evening come gently with sweet lullaby

Soothe the wild tempest screaming from the sky

© Janet Martin

Waiting for Spring

Flirtatious breeze, where hast thou fled

And when wilt thou return?

Thy touch for which we keenly yearn

Is clutched in gales of lead

Ah wooly wind, when wilt thou don

Once more thy winsome way

To tease the bleating lambs that play

On verdant meadow yon?

Sweet zephyr, voice of willow-song

Must thou so bashful be?

The night without thy melody

Is deep and dark and long

Dear vesper, crooning daylight’s dirge

Wilt thou be ever still?

Thy duet with the whip-poor-will

Thrills retrospect’s soft surge

Flirtatious breeze, the somber spire

Hungers for spring’s caress

When wilt thy kiss unfurl the tress

Of wood-land’s gladsome choir?

© Janet Martin

  

In Case of Cabin Fever

In case of cabin fever when the gate is barred

To sun-splashed trails or dappled yard

I cherish the comfort of the common quill

Where footprints of fantasy roam at free will

…and there, in the clutch of tardy spring’s ice-fist

I have been rampantly, recklessly kissed

With laughter of lilac and twinkling mischief

Caught in a dew-drop on thought’s summer leaf

I’ve touched with mien of scribbled ink

The faint horizon-lines mute brink

And defied laws of gravity

To fly where feet can never be

I’ve held you close; suffered the bliss

Of farewell’s wild and pleading kiss

And in the thrill where ink-drops bleed

Its foot-prints spill in poetry

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside Prompt: In case of ...add the ending.

In case of Discontentment

April PAD Challenge: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “In Case of (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Possible titles could include “In Case of Emergency,” “In Case of Oversleeping,” “In Case of Snoring,” or something else.

In case of discontentment

I keep a mental list

Of sweet and simple blessings

For I am heaven-kissed

Beneath the crumbs of living

Beneath its muddy tracks

The peace of simple blessing

Atones for what life lacks

© Janet Martin

 

Beyond our Control

We can fuss and kick and scream

And shake our fists up at the sky

We can beg, wheedle and scheme

Or sit upon the floor and cry

We can plan, predict and pray

Plead and ponder and cajole

In the end the truth remains

The weather, we cannot control

© Janet Martin

We can plan many events but never the weather to go with it.

The school kids are happy today. Buses cancelled, schools closed. 

I can't remember this ever happening this late in April!

Perfect Strength

Poetics Aside prompt; write a suffering poem

I've seen it...that  Perfect Strength

When his mother (of a large family) spoke of being 'carried'
after losing everything in a house-fire,
after losing a son in Afghanistan,
after losing her husband suddenly a few years later...

I've seen it as my cousin tells me
he wouldn't go back to the 'before' if he had a choice
if it would mean giving up what has been given in place
of the leg he lost in a farming accident last fall...being carried

I saw it it today as I hugged her, me choked up
and she calmly  saying those words
...words like chemotherapy, second treatment today,
radiation, hair falling out and I knew
she was being carried in the arms
of Perfect Strength

Janet~

1Cor. 12:9

I Will Sing of Your Strength

But I will sing of your strength, 

in the morning I will sing of your love; 

for you are my fortress, 

my refuge in times of trouble .Ps. 59:16

I will sing of your strength in the morning

Oh Lord, I will sing of your faithful love

See how Your mercy rolls back the dark awning

Of midnight in shades flung from heaven above

I will sing of your strength in the noonday

While toil and temptation trouble and test

Surely your goodness and mercy will succor

Until the eventide bids us to its rest

I will sing of Your strength in the evening

When shadows fold over life’s weary way

You are my fortress, my refuge in trouble

God of the golden and God of the gray

Lord, I will sing of Your strength at midnight

Lest in the silence of darkness and space

Fear should persuade be to doubt in the kindness

Of Your everlasting goodness and grace

© Janet Martin