Let's Talk About Love # 5 Pennsylvania-Dutch Style;) a re-run

one Sunday on my way to picking up my son I happened upon this couple walking home from 'Sunday-visiting'...

Vos is des ding as mich so fershtroyed

Uns macht mich so liecht-kebich

My gedanka sin fatsuttled; net oof dei orbiet

Un auft bin ich dobich un lobich

Von du neagsht fabigh mich laffsht

Udda von du tighte navich mich schlaffsht

Ich fraug fa nix mehna fuun dich

Yischt es du mich net falausht

Bis de Gott im Himmel ruft

un Err cummt fa dich uttah mich

Gealt kon net kauffa vos liebe em gebbt

Un meah sin net orm binannah

Shtoft is yischt shtoft; es harcht em net aub

Un es glebbet vee so alte kannah

Liebe hault em froh un frei

Gott hault uns naegsht debigh

Meah sin bessah oub vee de reichah

Von meah net fagessah

Fah Gott bedanka

Un anannah yischt immah gliechah

Translation…

What is this thing that scatters me so

And makes me so light-headed

My thoughts are scrambled; not on my work

And often I am clumsy and crazy

When you closely walk by me

Or sleep tightly beside me

I ask for nothing more from you

Just that you will not leave me

Until God in Heaven calls

And He comes for you or me

Money cannot buy what love gives

And we are not poor together

Stuff is just stuff; it will not listen

And it clatters like old tin cans

Love keeps us glad and free

God keeps us close to Him

We are better off than rich folk

If we do not forget

To give God thanks

And always just love each other

© Janet Martin

Let's Talk About Love #4 Perfect Storm

When I’m with you the might of moment stills

And we are not victims of its cold clock

Rebels are we to its relentless tock

A storm is brewing past these charted hills

Tremor of urgency excites the pine

What is its fantasy? even the breeze

That thrives upon the vexing of the trees

Pauses beyond this midnight-mute incline

Darkness is but a nocturnal disguise

Where longing escalates; visceral flame

Of guiltless passion and want without shame

Smolders virile, like comets in our eyes

And now the wind leaps from its hiding-place

Moaning madrigal of Need’s grand despair

The rise and fall of oceans fills the air

Or is it just your voice against my face?

Tear down the clouds that vex the moody deep

Leave prouder cares to daylight's disarray

Then let this raving craving have its way

Darling, this storm is much too wild to sleep

The trespassers of love’s most sacred part

Will never touch their feet upon this shore

Where breakers crash; euphoric eons pour

In heaven-measure through body and heart

Ah, perfect storm of love’s intrinsic bliss

When I’m with you I cannot count the years

Lest while I’m counting this storm disappears

…Is that a lightning bolt or just a kiss?

© Janet Martin

Let's Talk About Love #3 Love's Poetry

Perplexing pleasure of minstrel and men

Teasing forever ineptness of pen

Kissing the crooner where willow-winds sigh

Vexing the lover in midnight’s good-bye

Pressing the poet to words wafting wild

Rousing the villain and cheering the child

Maddening mystery, mouthful of mirth

Gladness and sadness wrestles in its girth

Century folds over century, still

Love is the hunger only love can fulfill

© Janet Martin  

Let's Talk About Love...post #2

Love is a whisper-soft wonder

Yet, I cannot pull from this quill

The words to render the splendor

Of  its tender-sweet test of will

For love is a ruthless scalpel

Oh, how it mutates the heart

Ever since Eve took the apple

We struggle and stumble and smart

Love is a song, smooth and taunting

Or is it a searing slow-burn?

For we must release our own wanting

To find its greatest return

Ah love, sustain-er, tormenter

Vexing both beggar and king

Pleasure and pain’s epicenter

Strength on a half-breath string

Love is a grace-spangled flying

Love is a second-mile crawl

Love is a daily dying

To touch its pinnacle

Love is a heaven-lent splendor

Double-edged; sword and shield

How can a pen spell the wonder

In four humble letters concealed?

© Janet Martin

Let's Talk about Love...edited re-run #1 Touch Me

 

 

From now until Friday the focus is Love Poetry...both re-runs and new ones:)

 (this poem focuses on a mature, married love;)

Touch me

Touch me with your eyes

The gap twixt you and I

Trembles with the fullness

Of love’s hard truths realized

Experience; years in learning

Kindles a keener spark

For love is more than reckless

Stolen kisses in the dark

Touch me

Touch me with your thought

Past warmth of pulsing skin

To the person, not of flesh

That I am from within

For time, a patient teacher

Wields love’s refining tool

And we are struggling students

Testing, breaking every rule

Touch me

Oh, touch me with your hands

There is no restriction

No restraint or reprimand

In love’s pure invitation

Of passion’s purposed honor

Reserved implicitly

For one unto the other

Shared only twixt me and thee

Touch me

Darling, touch me with your lips

And whisper word for word

The hunger in your finger-tips

And longing’s oceans stirred

Then kiss me, kiss me slowly

Where inhibitions hide

Kiss away the willfulness

Protecting foolish pride

Touch me

Touch me with your smile

I know it understands

The beauty of love’s chapters

Etched into enduring hands

Committed to its promise

That once joined us heart to heart

'to love each other faithfully

until death do us part'

© Janet Martin

Of Light and Love

Light breathes into the dark

The darkness has no might

For even just a tiny spark

Within its void is light

How great this dark would be

Without Hope from above

How futile this mortality

Without the Light of love

Ah, cheerless magnitude

Opaque upon opaque

But Light bursts from Love’s sacred womb

Crying, awake, awake

Then oh, the Morning comes

Dark demons of the night

Cannot prevail against the One

Who proclaims, ‘I am Light’

© Janet Martin

Thinking on love this week...

Reading Ephesians 5…

it begins with these beautiful words;
 

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love...

Our Champions

Dara Howell wins gold! I love watching the Olympics...and hearing the stories that come with the athletes. As I listened to them asking Dara's mother how she felt through it all I realized every parent feels the same emotions as they watch their kids strive, stumble, succeed! Congratulations and all the best to each athlete in Sochi! 

Whether it’s the next triple flip, slalom,

Word, step or sum

We are there for them

Cheering them on

Weeping their disappointments,

Laughing with joy

At each new accomplishment

For every girl and boy

Is reaching for a pinnacle,

A goal, a prize

And they are all champions

In their parent's eyes

© Janet Martin

Ink-rush

   

Image Source

Today’s YDP is another reason I so love the old poets.

I love the rush of old ink and such

Timeless, the passion of thought as we touch

Triumph and agony, hope and despair

Ageless, its melody spun from thin air

Longing and loving and loss intertwine

I love the warmth of fermented word-wine

Pour me a piece of old poetry then

Imbibe my heart with a drink from its pen

Time is but tick-tock of hour to year

Change cannot change that which shapes smile and tear

Rush of old ink; How you satisfy me

Preserved forever in old poetry

© Janet Martin