Of Summer's Songs

 Summer-song spikes leaf-canopies, laughing mischievously...

Summer-song spills from earthen gills

And minstrels from the sky

It spawns the bloom from nature’s tomb

And strums the willow-sigh

Summer-song seeps from shadow-deeps

Where we do not trespass

The deep dark wood, its solitude

Laced with mosquito-sass

Summer-song drifts in moment-gifts

Of hazy, honeyed sun

Where tumbling-bee drinks languidly

From spigots heaven-spun

Summer-song flows between corn rows

It presses on our backs

With tawny grin kissing our skin

And scorching muddy tracks

Summer-song sighs in butterflies

In ripples on the street

It fills night’s noon with misty moon

And tickles our bare feet

Summer-song drips from slow cloud-ships

Crooning on sea and sod

A serenade, sweet, heaven-made

Its Maestro is God

© Janet Martin

Of Tomorrow's, Today's and...Eternity(there's no plural in Eternity)

When we wake, what was tomorrow

Now has become our today

Moments of ‘past-present’ drifting

An intangible foray

Now eyes open and tomorrow

Spawns a fresh and mystic page

While yesterday’s tomorrow gleams

Beneath our feet; an open stage

...where life’s unknowns spill in moments

Moment-mysteries unfold

Writing memories and memoirs

In its ink of gray and gold

And soon again eyes close in slumber

…tomorrow becomes today

Kaleidoscope of pain and pleasure

Slipping into yesterday

When we wake, what was tomorrow

Is today; so it will be

Until we waken in the morning

Of God’s vast eternity

© Janet Martin

Life is that thread between yesterday and eternity .

As I was drifting off to sleep last night I remember thinking ‘when I wake up it will be tomorrow’…and in my semi-wake state a picture flashed through my thought of what it might possibly be like when we open our eyes one last time…Forever.

One Race

We run this race together

The color of our skin

Does not define the person

No, this comes from within

Love does not choose or differ

But pours from heart and soul

And God creates the color

In which to wrap this whole

The color of the body

Is flesh; we all will pass

Like flowers in the garden

To dust beneath the grass

God did not choose one color

To offer Saving Grace

His love extends to one and all

Within the human race

Love does not see skin color

To hate is but to prove

Our ignorance and squalor

And utter need for Love

© Janet Martin

God has created only one race; it's called human. Dr. Alan Snyder

Jesus Loves the Little Children

Song of July

 Here are a few stanzas that captured my senses today...

Field of Queen Ann’s Lace and brook without babble

Garnet of half-moon, woodland lullaby

And over the morning the soft sweet adorning

Of dew on the garden and blue on the sky

Green in the valley and gold on the hillside

Holly-hock halos and musky-dusk sigh

Wild-flower wonder in innocent splendor

Hay in the meadow and dust in my eye

Sleepy bird sonnet and sunset surrender

Silver birch glimmer, bronze oceans of rye

Front porch reunion in twilight communion

This is the beautiful song of July

© Janet Martin

...and this last slurpiest one just a minute ago...

Hereafter...

 Mom, are you making lunch or am I? Emily asks. Oh, I will in a minute, I reply, but I just saw the word Hereafter and it sparked something!...(they have ceased to wonder why:) or ask any questions.

Hereafter

I know I will return

In reverie to gently yearn

To touch again this lovely day

Slipping away, away, away

Hereafter

I shall smile a bit

As by the fireside I sit

To tenderly recall this hour

Falling, falling, a faded flower

Hereafter

I shall know that I

Lingered because it is July

And far too soon it disappears

Drifting, drifting in yester-years

© Janet Martin 

 Victoria and Emily toss pea-pods to the neighbors cows. Sisters chuckle as cows chomp:)

Gardening can be so discouraging! We got a few large bowl fulls of peas but I hoped for a lot more. It's been too wet and as the plants began to bloom they just sort of died.

Heat-wave (Revamped repost)

 Iced Tea, anyone?

Whispered breeze faints in mute, midday heat

Ceasing to strum flaxen spires of wheat

Dubious zephyr slips under the vines

Hazy hush silvers dim,distant skylines

We gather beneath the tall walnut tree

Where leaf-lace heights pool, cool, languidly

The flag droops, dormant like wilted dreams

The heat rolls, steady in rippling streams

As ditches spill over, not of sudden shower

But rain-bow river of wandering wild-flower

Too soon howling gales will shiver our cot
Too soon July pales kissing tender-sweet thought

Too soon its flush fades; a glimmering sigh

In faint whiff of sage and burnished good-bye

Stiff orderlies of Old Man Winter a-wait

Beyond green pond and pale-blue cloud gate

While now children dash in bare-foot revelry

Soon they will splash through childhood memory

Simmering sky-lines spawn thirst for relief

Shimmering corn-rows expand gleaming sheaf

The sun seeks its throne in the azure of noon

Cicada-choirs drone a listless, low tune

Where Dog lays flat in stunted north-side shade

As does the cat; we sip iced-lemonade

Absorbing flavors heady with summer-lust

Salty sea-song medley, ambiance of dust

Mellow malted nectar of middle-July
Cadence of summer slipping up to the sky
For too soon Time turns its shimmering page
Melting its murmur from summer-sweet stage

Janet~

A year ago the weather was much the same. It is July, after all:) I'm off to pick the peas before it gets too hot!

Half-moon Heaven

Half-moon wafts

Where the half-sun drips

A pink haze fading on footprints of Time

Dusk-song is soft

As it silently slips

Over the edge of its ethereal clime

Dew-dirge descends

With cooling caress

Where zephyr-song surges and heat waves recede

This new day ends

Just like all the rest

A medley of moments we cannot retrieve

Twilight to midnight

Is mid-summer heaven

Sultry surrender of harsh noon-day noise

Beneath half-moon light

We lay down our burdens

Touching the shimmer of summer-night joys

© Janet Martin

I kept looking back to watch the sun slip out of sight, as I returned from a bike ride in the gentler cool of the evening. It was HOT today. Tonight is tranquil.

(I wanted to write 'where cricket-song surges, but the crickets have not begun their prelude to Autumn...and that's okay!;)

Sea-song Serenade

You always find the perfect song

To soothe life’s discontent

We come to you again, again

To hear your sentiment

You seem to know the perfect words

To sweep us off our feet

Your ebb and flow eases life’s hurts

In cadence silver-sweet

You trace the white-washed sands of Time

With faithful rise and fall

And when we are so far away

We hear your echo call

…and we return again, again

To wash in the refrain

Sweeping across the sandy shore

Making us glad again

© Janet Martin

This is the best place in the whole world, says Victoria,

and I smile. M-m-m-m-h-m-m-m!

We are blessed to live near some of the best fresh-water beaches in the world.