This Was Before...

 I bet you think this is a tree;-)

While trying to come up with activities for the boys the other day and remembering what we used to play I told Victoria 'the thing is, we had Imagination and it took us anywhere and offered endless ideas'...(then came the sad,sad day when 'what we used to play' didn't feel as fun as it did and mother told me, 'it's because you're growing up'...

‘Neath maple-willow banners happy Martin-children grew

And What or Where or Who they were nobody ever knew

Aboard Imagination and a picnic-table ship

They traveled holding on with all their might lest wild waves tip

And toss them to the green grass sea; Ker-plunk. Save me, the cry

Stirred sibling-hearted bravery. We’ll save you! they reply

And with their arms a-flailing to battle the boisterous wave

They drew their drowning ship-mate from a hard and grassy grave

Then, harbored near the hay-mow Alps they paid a visit where

Heidi and her Grandfather lived; offering a hay-bale chair

For each guest and invited them to share their bread and cheese

And, if it is no trouble could we see the goats too, please?

...or, where the towels were flapping on the clothes-line we would sit

And welcome all those sad strangers to join our fun a bit

The maple-tree branch broncos and the playhouse ‘general-store’

 Where shelves brimmed with things salvaged from the trash; this was Before

Reduce-reuse-recycle; 'waste not, want not' our way

Of life because ten Martin children learned to live like that each day

The storehouse of imagination gave what coin could not afford

And often on a summer afternoon they could be heard

And What or Who or Where they were nobody could full-tell

Imagination at it its best is Unpredictable…

© Janet Martin

Sailing Aboard a Flower-field...

Victoria asked me if it's cold today, as she got out of bed and I told her, 'not as cold as it was in the dream I was dreaming when the alarm went off'! In my dream we had a big snowfall and I was marveling and saying I can't remember ever having snow like this in July!(it is cool here but not THAT cold;-) Last night when I was biking I saw a field that looked like snowfall...it was gorgeous! the farmer is a bee-keeper and he plants flower fields filled with clover, flea-bane and other wild-blooms. I've never seen a field actually planted with it! (I took a few photos but was under such severe mosquito attack I could not linger even a moment)

Lush frigate anchors in a sweep of summer-gentle sea

Its cargo of wild-bloom knee-deep spills rampant on its berth

Where we, the passengers that loll upon its decks of earth

Are fully spoiled to keep such fair and flawless company

This sea-breeze smells of jasmine, clover; dust and dew nuance

The fare costs ‘but an hour’; save for less-stressed tourists, three

As arm in arm, we stroll and sip freedom like fine sweet tea

And reacquaint ourselves with a long-forgotten romance

We do not carry clocks aboard this ferry; Fancy-free

The dinner-bell is pink and smells of honey; lunch is served

Wherever we can toss a quilt; its roofless awning curved

In far-off blue to earth’s edges of sedge and fantasy

Come, all aboard, the captain, namely Summer Dusk, soft-hails

And folds the banner of a sun-gold sky across a barge

Of daisy, lazy maybe-dreams; then, at no extra charge

After daylight has settled He pours stars into its sails

© Janet Martin

A Tender Gentleness

With all the rain we've been having the creek-beds are lush bird and bloom sanctuaries!

When daylight softly fading fills the sky and frames the hills

With colors none can imitate by He who holds the sills

Over which every day no matter how gladsome or sad

Surrenders to Forever Faraway the All it had

When overtures and undertows and throughways coalesce

Into deep velvet blue of vesper-song and star caress

When what is, is what was and what was increases its store

As twilight takes this day into the Land of Nevermore

When creek-beds brushed with bloom are tucked beneath blankets of dew

And sleepy little girls are goodnight-kissed, and laddies too

It stirs within my heart of hearts a tender gentleness

Where daylight softly fades and fills my thought with thankfulness

© Janet Martin

Time Well Tasted

I’d like to say when daylight fades

And all its moments hasted

That it, like sweetness on the tongue

Was Time well tasted

I’d like to think as dusk beams pink

Where dark will soon erase it

That I with mouth, thought, hands and eyes

Held Time well tasted

I’d like to savor mercy’s favor

…not greed-emaciated

But vow to feed my daily need

With Time well tasted

I’d like to share what I can spare

And not unduly borrow

Lest dull, I wipe my bulging jowls

On my neighbor's sorrow

I’d like to smile at my last mile

To know life was not wasted

But it will be a legacy

Of Time well tasted

© Janet Martin

Off to do some tasting…

h-m-m-m, I think I taste laundry soap!

Wishing for all of us a fully tasted day!