Of Absolutes

 The golden-rod is silver...

Time will take its course

The leaf must fall away

And by a moment’s force

The gold will turn to gray

Both seed and deed will bear

Its fruit; the law of such

Ascribes to Deity somewhere

That our hands cannot touch

Hope will not make ashamed

God’s Will will be done

And every knee will bow

When that last trump is blown

Love will conquer all

We are not doomed to strife

For all will hear His call

‘I AM the Truth and Life’

© Janet Martin

The News as We Hear It...

  

Image Source

Writer's Unite PAD challenge Day 2: For today’s prompt, write a “news of the day” poem.

After editting
and rhetoric
and politics,
After omissions
and Conditions
and many
ignored submissions
we have
Today's News

Janet Martin

November Appears

November came whooshing in, in torrential down-pours and 90k/hr winds!

Writer's Digest PAD; Day 1, For today’s prompt, write an appearing poem.

After the harvest is gathered

After the tree sheds its tear

After its leaf-song is scattered

Over a landscape dull; drear

November appears

After sweet dog-days are squandered

In lemonade afternoons

And after the poet has wandered

Over its sun-shadow tunes…

After the twilight is hastened

Early toward stilly-deep

After the kissing of children

And stories and prayers ere they sleep

After the Margarets and Johnnys

All have out-grown last year’s shoes

And after the bee has its honey

And asters have crooned farewell blues

…after the spilling of roses

Follows the path of its peers

While ‘neath our feet a door closes

Over a graveyard of years

November appears

© Janet Martin  

Before and After

My thought-life was divided in two for such a long time; ‘before the wedding’ and ‘after the wedding’. Thus, I find myself looking for new before’s and touching softly the long ‘ever-afters’

…and now I wonder; what hidden ‘before’

Lurks in the hours that fall

The ‘after you’ of many a love

Has no ending point at all

But the ‘before’ is a breath-by-breath race

To unknowns that we cannot tell

I have known pinnacles in love’s embrace

And loneliness akin to hell

Thus expectation divides my intent

‘befores’ are an intricate thing

It is the path leading to the advent

Of what ‘ever-after’ will bring

Synchronized free-fall of heart-ache and laughter

Caught in the middle of ‘Before’ and ‘After’

© Janet Martin

I chuckled the other day as I watched my daughter’s impatience; her eagerness to get everything in place, her dreams of ‘their place’ and I wanted to say, oh, my precious, you’re gonna miss this!’

so, I take a slow walk around the house and whisper, 'mom, you're gonna miss this'

  

  

October-mood

Though I tug upon your coat-tail and implore you to remain

You advance toward the exit in the color of the rain

Kindred spirits never sever though the hour may depart

You will be my love forever, sweet October of my heart

 

By the time these words are written you’ll be standing at the gates

Where the leaf is heavy-laden and your time-drawn carriage waits

And I know you will not see me, watching as you slip away

But I know that you will feel me in your wild and lonesome gray

You have spilled your umber palette where first gold and scarlet fell

And the ivy on the lintel weeps its tears in fond farewell

Do not hasten so my darling, grief has no expiry date

If I could I’d bolt Time’s door and softly beckon you to wait…

You have tuned my heart with laughter and with angst of letting go

You have strewn the final splendor of your robe like russet snow

And I cannot find the hem of midnight; darkness fills the air

It is still; I hear the tiptoe of November on the stair

© Janet Martin

Hallowe-en Hug

There are mommy and daddy hugs
And hugs from wee boys and girls
But I think fuzzy, green caterpillar hugs
Are the coziest hugs in the world!

I just got hugged by a fuzzy-wuzzy green caterpillar(aka Nathan;)

Even Now...

Even now while I miss

The sparkle of skylark-song

Tickling the ripple of rye-gold sea

Even now, outside my kitchen window

I delight in

The return of Red Poll and chick-a-Dee

Even now while I miss

Tangled bloom bouquets

Growing wild on the window-sill

Even now, every leaf

Lavishly garnishes

Hedge-row, hollow and hill

Even now, while I miss

The pool of morning-sun

Warming the waking earth

Even now, I am drawn to

The flicker of firelight

And family around home’s hearth

© Janet Martin

one more very personal stanza…

Even now, while I miss

My firstborn; her chatter

Spilling like a flower in full-bloom

Even now, I hear the laughter

Of her two younger sisters

Excited to each have their own bedroom

They quickly purged their room of the dresser which has been called many names (all unflattering). Suddenly my living-room is filled with over-flow;) Every mothering-instinct in me wants to go up and 'help', but they sound like they're having too much fun on their own so I'm making meat-loaf and scalloped potatoes for their supper...and as far as missing Emily goes. I have been at her house or she has been here or she has called every day since they're back:) I won't ask her, but I know she misses us a little...

Rainy Fall Rush-hour

   

Image Source

It is rush-hour

on a rainy afternoon,

the freeway

a hissing

silver-gray

serpent

bedazzled

with red

and gold

Travelers yearn for the bronze

of porch-light broach

gleaming on the lapel

of home

© Janet Martin

It seems the traffic is eager to be home tonight...I hear a continuous hissing as they rush by.