How Swift the Sparkling Day...

Wow, this day flew by...I was sure I was going to have some 'spare' time today,to get out and 'play' but the blue dusk fell too quickly.

How swift the day, the sparkling day

Has borne its rife ration away

And now the stars come out to play

In night’s ebony field

How soft the hour, the grappling hour

Returns to earth the dewy flow’r

And man can sense a potent pow’r

Within the clock concealed

The night, the stealthy night descends

And wraps the land in ether blends

Of blue on blue until it ends

In darkness, star-pinned black

A man, a man travels the span

Of dust to dust beneath the fan

Of dark to light to dark again

…there is no turning back

How soon, how soon the vanity

Of have and holding’s venery

Will still, like leaf beneath the tree

Or snowflake’s silent sleep

How swift the day and darkness fade

How quickly Time’s pittance is paid

The measure of its moments weighed

In that supernal deep

© Janet Martin

Of Half-things

'We are over half-way to Christmas!' announces Victoria as she counts down the days with beads...

Writer's Digest PAD Challenge 16

For today’s prompt, write a half-way poem. The poem might deal with a half-way point in time. Or perhaps, a place in the dead center of here and there–in a physical sense. Even a compromise on terms in a negotiation can work.

Who knows the home-stretch or that ether crux where
we can proclaim, we are half-way there?

Who can tell his half-number of days?
Or judge half a man simply by his age...

In half an hour we will be
closer to a finish-line we cannot see

Half-cups of coffee, half-smile, half-kiss
spawns desire to see what the other half is...

A half-poem crumpled on the floor
tells of an author looking for more...

Time is an intangible winnowing of air
Its half-breath whisper silvers the hair...

We must pursue life, not with half a heart
But taste every moment to its fullest part

Joy, sorrow, laughter, pain
The other half of sun is rain

Half-parted waters, half-answered prayer
Sometimes the waiting is a hard half to bear

Life is the door-way to eternity
where there is no 'half-accountability'...

Darling, let's be hungry for each other
like we can never get enough
because who is ever satisfied
with  'half-of-making-love'?

Janet~

an old proverb that I grew up on...

What your hand finds to do
Do with your might
Things done by halves
Are never done right

These are Night-thoughts...

 

Image Source

"These are night-thoughts; the daylight will wash them away".

 ~From Lark-rise to Candleford~

Charmed, I suppose by blue and rose

Of morning, noon and twilight brush

A cage of bone can hold its own

The heart a Brave in living’s rush

But then, oh then the midnight pen

Reveals what daylight washes far

When I am sage with age again

And never wondering where you are…

Spoiled, I guess, by love’s caress

I could ask for nothing more

The heart can hold both gray and gold

As daylight seals that private door

But oh, the night, when all is quiet

Unbars the gate of good intent

Before the day when soft I say

I never wonder where you went…

Yes, yes, I know, the ebb and flow

Of dawn to dusk to dawn must be

The thoughts that ride its moment-tide

Are at the mercy of its sea

And I am just a girl at heart

The night has no respect for years

Thought spills unhindered in the dark

That in the daylight disappears…

Janet~

What of this Vast Unknown?

Writer's Digest PAD Challenge, day 15; For today’s prompt, take the phrase “What (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

We balance on a fulcrum twixt

What is to come and what is past

This paper cup that we lift up

Will snare wee drops of unknown’s cast

And then we drink; Unknown to known

Our footsteps fraught with faith or fear

From mystery to memory

While still the Unknown hovers near

Perception’s possibilities

Inspires us to dream, explore

We paint the passion of our pleas

On castle wall or prison floor

Yet, we are never nearer to

Unknown’s elusive clarity

Confined it seems, to dream our dreams

On what is past and what will be

What of this vexing, vast Unknown?

Its fantasy perplexes thought

Yet, we are ever poised upon

What yet will be and what can not

Fear would persuade my dreams to die

Save for our God upon His throne

Therefore, by His blessed Grace go I

Into the vexing, vast Unknown

© Janet Martin

What is It?

PAD Challenge, day 15

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “What (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 might include: “What Luck,” “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas,” “Whatever You Say,” and so on.

What is this thing that drives us to

The tarmac of another day?

A desperation gentle, true

That drives us to our knees to pray

What is this force that rushes through

Our beings; violent, soft as dove

Compelling us to hold, let go…

Oh, I think it must be love

© Janet Martin

 

Ink-Allies

We share a bond

You and I

We know what it is

To wander the sky

In search of a perfect word

To jot

The taste, sound, touch

Of a thought

We share a kin-ship

Unlike any other

Knit together

Like sister or brother

Because we suffer

Unlike other men

Beneath the calling

Of the pen

With ink we bleed

While others sleep

We bear the need

To dredge the deep

Not for the loot

The miser hoards

But for the fruit

Of perfect words

© Janet Martin

Exploring...Love

 Writer's Digest PAD Challenge, day 14

For today’s prompt, write an exploration poem. Maybe you’re exploring a new land, the depths of quarks, outer space, the mind, the soul, etc. Your call. In fact, it could be said that most poems are an exploration of one sort or another. So get at it.

Sometimes it is not enough

To search your eyes behind closed doors

Sometimes I need to touch, taste, feel

The moment- melody that pours

Tossing in disarray the leaf

Or teasing tender grass with frost

And then my little unbelief

Repents; Belief returns full force...

The exploration of Your thought

Has no beginning and no end

Beneath dusk’s painted skies, my God

I know I’ll never comprehend

The fullness of Your wonderment

No one can claim Your highest praise

For who has ever touched the tent

Vaulting above man’s meager days

…and who has placed their wooded jot

Of tree against the evening air

Or spoken to fruition, thought

To explore You, God; who can dare

Then place their trust in lowly dust?

Ah, sometimes it is not enough

To search your eyes behind closed doors

Sometimes I need to touch Your Love…

© Janet Martin

“Look, oh look at the beauty of it” I begged her to take her eyes off of the gadget in her grasp. “Look at the way the light falls, outlining every tree in gold; look at the vivid shades of Creation! Who, on their own could dream such beauty? Oh, what an honor to be called to serve such a God as this.”

 Last night and this morning beneath the big sky the words of David whispered to me, 'when I consider the heavens....what is man that you visit him?

 

Thursday Thoughts

Life is a battle of choices

They break us or make us strong

But we should weigh well our responses

Because Eternity is long

***

Life is a glimmering twinkle

How sad to choose the wrong

To savor a pittance of moments

When eternity is so long

***

The gods of this world cannot save us

One true God saves everyone

Today is the day of grace and salvation

Tomorrow we could be gone

And Eternity is long…

***

No man can serve two masters

We choose who we serve, not with voice

Yet no one conceals their answer

For action reveals the heart’s choice

***

Sing a song of gladness

In the wilderness

Nothing lasts forever

Except God’s promises

***

Do not despair, fellow-traveler

Though perhaps we’ve done wrong

Even a stumble if we are humble

Can serve to make us strong

***

Guilt

Yesterday you yelled at me

And I yelled back; I hang my head

For all the perfect, pious words

Cannot erase those words I said

Redemption

Yesterday I wept to hear

Another Voice tenderly say

For You I died and with my blood

I washed your hopeless guilt away

***

This never-ending thought

Almost too much to bear

I realize in sudden peace

Is my deep heart-held prayer

***

We cannot control the actions

Of those who are angry and cuss

But oh, our reaction

Is entirely up to us

***

Do not despise life’s testing flame

Nor question God’s desire

Gold is refined, not on the crown

But only in the fire

***

Pity the one whose life is spent

Serving the man in the mirror

The god of self is never content

And ever joy’s sad superior

***

This is no ordinary thing

That rends the morning sky

This is the day the Lord has made

Then gave to you and I

 ***

We ought to pray

Yet, never shirk

The diocese

That we call

Work

***

Change is not some sweet future endeavor

Where dreamland waters flow

Change is the action of those who labor

Here in the very now

***

Tall grew the walls that he built to the skies

To protect him from life’s punch in the chin

Too late he looked up to realize

That somehow he had barred himself in

© Janet Martin