Of Renewed Aspiration

We touch our feet once more

To Time’s familiar way

Of ticking clocks and charted walks

And living’s scattered fray

The mist of life’s unknowns

May veil the hour’s will

But God beholds its ether folds

The pleasant and the ill

We touch our feet upon

Hope’s path of trampled dirt

For God abides where fear resides

In living’s lonesome hurt

Before the purple dusk

Enshrouds this little day

I pray that we live thankfully

And trust God for its way

© Janet Martin

Unnamed Elements

In onyx oceans of night you impress

Soft on my pillow and deep in my heart

Whispers of something I cannot caress

Murmur of yearning’s intangible art

Spring rends the air with desire and dreaming

Summer exhales to the garden its bloom

Autumn dons tresses of bronze-gilded gleaming

Darling, is winter heaven’s waiting room?

I cannot name this unspoken design

Where having and holding and hoping align

Time is a troubadour, ruthless and keen

Ageless, yet in its allotment of years

It unravels hours from gossamer skein

Kissing our faces with laughter and tears

We cannot see its outstretched fingers clasp

The delicate thread of mortality

Fading to naught; an ephemeral gasp

Before we step into eternity

But deeper than utterance in the heart’s crypt

Love pens its longing in thought’s shadow-script

Darkness cannot veil haunting heart-hunger

Arms cannot hold midnight moments of mist

We chased the wind too, when we were younger

For unnamed tidings that do not exist

Now, though our will in finest apparel

Touts golden wisdom, humbly we concede

Having and holding is the shallow temporal

Before heaven satisfies our last need

Darling, I love you and there is no shame

In bearing love’s longings that we cannot name

© Janet Martin

I am unable to upload photos right now due to technical problems.

Unrivaled Element

Love gives in gentle grace

What things cannot possess

For things are cold and commonplace

Against love’s kind caress

Its armistice endures

Unrivaled element

Of motive, perfect, patient, pure

And self-irrelevant

Love does not lose its nerve

Nor clings to greedy gain

Love gives and shares without reserve

From selfless founts within

Oh Lord, how great You are

Lord, there is none like you

You see the intent of our hearts

Yet love us through and through

© Janet Martin

Life's Bittersweet

So it goes, the river flows

In ripples to the sea

And moments course in half-breath force

Into eternity

Spring’s darling sheen of virgin green

Is nothing but the bud

Of autumn-rust to dormant dust

And leaf-song to the mud

…so it goes; Time will compose

And tenderly descry

With soundless beat Life’s Bittersweet

Of hello and good-bye

© Janet Martin

Perplexing Parallels

  

Image Source

New and Old align

The ‘perhaps’ with the done

And all things new are but the vine

With which the old is spun

The Old precedes the New

The new for its fine boast

Cannot replace the tried and true

Of things that matter most

From fancy’s faceless air

Deception weaves its trance

The newness of its untried fare

Entices us to dance

The staidness of the Old

Though lack-luster and bent

Has borne the test where New unfolds

Its shimmering content

Perplexing parallel

Experience and Youth

Yet New with footloose unfledged will

Cannot mutate Old Truth

© Janet Martin

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Eccl. 1:9

Harbinger of May

April rushes in with her mop and broom

Splashing the landscape of starched umber-gray

Washing the bleak world of winter’s foray

Smiling then scolding, she sweeps through each room

Billowy breezes, refurbishing rain

Rinsing and fluffing, industrious mirth

Flinging wide sashes and shutters of earth

Troubadour armed with May’s flower-refrain

April, oh maiden of moody melee

Vexing the tulip with winter’s recoil

Testing, perplexing the planter of soil

Singing and laughing and weeping with glee

April, fair maiden of dexterous touch

Harbinger of lilacs, daisies and such

© Janet Martin

Today we are finally getting a taste of April's warmer side!

The Pleasantness of You Against my Thought

 

The pleasantness of you against my thought

Makes sweet the hours that otherwise are not

Winter’s despair is gentled by the show’r

Bathing the bud and nudging it to flow’r

We could collect life’s failure and its woe

But darling, tell me, what good would it do?

I choose the pleasure of the touch of you

The past is done; none can its threads undo

The future, with its muted mystery

Does not adhere to the heart’s fantasy

The pleasantness of you against my thought

Redeems the sullen void of what is not

Worry and woe align their hopeless schemes

Attempting to dismantle the heart’s dreams

The raw and useless curse of sad regret

Employs its demons, ah, lest I forget

But then, like mercy’s misty morning dew

I reach to touch the gentle thought of you

The imminence of all that yet is not

Cannot compete with you against my thought

© Janet Martin

Everyone Needs to do their Part

 

Image Source

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Everyone (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Everyone Thinks I’m Crazy,” “Everyone Knows the World Is Round,” “Everyone Needs to Leave Me Alone,” or whatever it is that everyone is doing (or not doing).

We should not leave for others to do
What can be done by me and you
What a lovely world this world would be
If we all did our part willingly

If we all gave a little more
Instead of stiffly keeping score
If love was our motive freely unfurled
Oh, this would be a wonderful world

Everyone needs to do their part
We are the painters; love is the art
If each of us would do our best
This world would laugh with loveliness

Janet Martin