The Picnic Will Not Care...

If we did not, did not lie there

To sip the blue breeze-seasoned air

Nor popped its cork at noisy noon

Or paused at work to taste its swoon

The picnic will not care

If we did not sprawl half-reclined

Beneath tracery leaf-song lined

To contemplate nothing all

Save crumbs of cake and nibs of fall

The picnic will not mind

If we did not count soft sky-sheep

Or spread a quilt against a sweep

Of clover-leaf or green-grass sea

To revel in God’s poetry

The picnic will not weep

If we did not, did not lie there

Without intention but to share

A dream or two with he or she

Beneath the reaching reading-tree

The picnic will not care

© Janet Martin

Yesterday, after reading Brenda's post

and after a day of

laundry...

 

Pruning,

chopping trees (or at least trying;)

Doing a bit of fall decorating

I lamented the fact that, though I love picnics it had been a while since the last one...

So I laid out a blanket, a basket, some books...

...and just as I was about to enjoy!! a lady dropped by wondering if she could trade a few of her perennials for a few of mine, so we did, then Emily dropped in, then I needed to take Matt to work,

then 'my li'l guys'I babysit came and we played...

 

...and had supper, then the boys left and Victoria and I went to 'meet the teacher' at school, then we came home, quickly cleaned up supper, went to Matt's hockey game...

...and the picnic didn't care.

it was still there when I returned to put it away for another day...

today?

Who knows?

Another Go-round

 (Three separates poem-lets or one full poem...you choose:)

That Big Alarm Clock in the air rouses the morning light

The Hour is at hand with unrelenting appetite

For seasons have no snooze buttons and even as men sleep

The harbinger of winter-summer taps his restless feet

***

This thread man treads is like a tightrope hinged beyond the skies  

Time lays its dead beneath the spreading realms of yester-sighs

Prayer grasps at skeins of Hope and pleads for courage to proceed

For day is heavy with the dew of fear and want and need

***

Each tick-tock breaks a lock; and Future spills into the Now

Soon thought salutes the troops that fall into its afterglow

While that Alarm Clock in the air pulses with fresh appeal

And wakes the takers for another go-round on Time’s Wheel

© Janet Martin

  

From Sack-cloth and Ashes...

Image source

Oh that vanity would be purged from me like vomit

Oh, that pride and envy would follow suit

And oh, that what would come from it were love

Flourishing and bearing fruit

Oh, that Self would be less and others more

Second only to God

And oh, that He would have dominion and be Lord

To more than second thought

Then oh, that I would be guilty

Of nothing but a thirst

To put me in my rightful place

Of God and others first

Oh, that Satan would buffet me

Only to find alas,

That ONE far, far greater than he

No longer lets him laugh

…and oh, that when I lay me down

To sleep where eons pour

That I have prayed the Lord to keep

My soul and nothing more

© Janet Martin

I think its reading through Job right now that sort of roused a personal lament/longing in me…

 what will I do when God confronts me?
    What will I answer when called to account?
Job 31:14

Especially Life

...why we take pictures...

If it were simply sun or summer

…rain, or tea, or you and me

If it were merely toes a-tickled

By the pulling, lulling sea

If Delight were not soft-shaken

on our bitty wakefulness

if existence were all taking

without second-thoughtfulness

…if we didn’t know the difference

between beginning and the end

we would never drink so deeply

from the fount of life, my friend

…for 'tis in the solemn knowing

be it summer, you and I

be it rainbows scrawled in ether

promise on the weeping sky

…be it dipping doughnuts, dashing

where the leaves of autumn spill

be it wondering at petals

or the kettle-song when chill…

…comes creeping up the hollow

to betray our summer feet

that we begin to swallow

that which makes this life so sweet

…not in the having, having

of whatever Life will send

but rather, in the knowing

that its every Thing will end

…that’s what makes it special

© Janet Martin

Yesterday, while doing round two of a long appointment at the dentist I had ample opportunity to see many commercials on their overhead TV screen. One commercial boasted an 'endless vacation'! It got me thinking how unsatisfying such a vacation would be and it dawned on me that no matter what we enjoy-seasons, books, treats, you name it, it's in the knowing that it will end that makes it special...especially Life.

Motto for More than Goose-bumps

Lord, may my worship ever be

Not moved by mere emotion

But by thankful humility

Of sincere devotion

Lord, may my happiness be pure

And independent of

Life’s gray and gold exterior

But rooted in this; Love

© Janet Martin

It's so easy to be moved by goose-bumps

of emotion

'Study to show thyself approved'

In day-by-day devotion