November Is...

Long lies the shadow, ‘cross the globe

Snuffed soon by twilight’s chastening

Earth-scape has donned the deeper robe

Of Time’s insistent hastening

The breaker crashes on the cove

There are no stragglers on the beach

 Summer has fallen from the grove

Once heady with plum bloom and peach

November is a sparring poem

Of letting go and holding on

The separation of tick-tock

Shapes, first the present then the past

Time touts a subtle half-breath lock

Stealing, sealing its pulsing cast

November is a strange ghost-town

Of crumpled leaf and wand’ring wind

As we stroll streets, barren and brown

Seeking a song we cannot find

Yet here and there we glimpse a trace

Of moments spilled to Time’s embrace

Life’s mortal stakes are vanity

November is the solemn steward

Reminding us that what we see

Is but a temporal vineyard

And we, the servants of its spoil

Are at the mercy of tick-tock

Its proof pants in our weary toil

Or leaf-song snared against the rock

November is a broken road

Leading to spring and Heav’n-abode

© Janet Martin

Amendments...

PAD Challenge, day 18

For today’s prompt, write a “forget what I said earlier” poem. This poem could be a response to a poem you wrote earlier in the challenge (or just earlier in general). Or it could cover one of those moments–I have them all the time–when you say something that ends up proving wrong or that you wish you’d taken back.

Forget what I said about daylight
Washing those thoughts away
Where did you come from and how, love?
Here in the middle of day
Before the blue night-cloud diminished
Before the sun drank up the dew
I am compelled to admit it it...
Night-thoughts can be day-thoughts too...

J~

Life-gift or Hollow Token

 Writer's Digest PAD challenge: Day 17

For today’s prompt, write an element poem. Maybe an element from the periodic table (hydrogen, oxygen, etc.). Maybe an element of surprise?!? Or a missing element, which could refer to a person, tool, or poem. Run wild with it.


...yes, run wild with  it!
Tear the wrapping from this gift
Touch, taste, treasure its fine measure
Let its mercy-morsels sift
Through our bearing, reaching, sharing
Never daring to be slack
For this is a one-time wonder 
We can never have it back
 ...But remember, precious children
Without God we waste this dance
Empty as the hollow token
In a one-night stand romance

Janet~

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