Saturday, March 12, 2016

March is a Dreamer's World





This is a summer-dreamer’s world;
We scale its umber bars
To sit upon the soon-green slope
Where buttercups splash stars
And red-wing warblers trill from reeds
Still stiff and winter-stark
Where soon spring-peeper orchestras
Will serenade the dark
…and what so long we waited on
Will spill from east to west
In love-songs written where the dawn
Is soft and dew-caressed
And dusk is like a lusty bard
Holding a musky quill
And from it drips the evening star
The inkwell is a hill
And Time, ah, time is our friend
Its pockets spilling blooms
Where bare feet linger once again
In Nature’s living-rooms
And brooks will splash their silver sash
Where swallows dip and dart
And earth is like a gallery
Of almost-summer art

© Janet Martin

Victoria and I are dashing through chores so we can spend the afternoon
splashing through a June-like March day!
A great beginning to March-break in Canada!


Friday, March 11, 2016

Bonjour M. Mémoire, Je Te Déteste Mais Je T'aime (Hello, Mr. Memory,I Hate You But I Love You)





Sometimes you visit, surreal, yet explicit
Rushing through years that no longer exist
Sometimes you hover like a far-off lover
Leaving the sense of something I have missed

Sometimes you take me in your arms and wake me
To the awareness of what used to be
Sometimes you leave then oh, how you grieve me
That I should lose such a dear memory

Sometimes you hold me and sometimes you scold me
Sometimes I would set you free if I could
I cannot hate you, though oh, I berate you
As you afflict and caress; virile flood

Sometimes elation turns into vexation
Realization is a two-edged knife
Sometimes you find me simply to remind
How swift these memories become a life

© Janet Martin

Where? Here...



And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him,
Luke 23:33

Here mankind finds peace and pardon
Here forgiveness saves the soul
Here is healing and redemption
Here, though broken, we are whole

Here is sacred, sacred sorrow
Here is hope’s fullness of joy
Here the rich man and the beggar
Find true wealth none can destroy

Here we lay down our burden
And here we take up our cross
Here we trade in man-made treasure
Counting all but Heaven loss

Here we see grace unrequited
Here where sinners bend the knee
Mankind finds life through Love dying
Where? Ah, here at Calvary

© Janet Martin


In Return...





If I, upon some straying thought
Should chance to hap across your mind
Then I would like to think perhaps
Your thoughts of me are glad and kind

Then likewise, if and when, my dear
The thought of you stirs me to yearn
Oh, I would like to think I’d think
As kindly of you in return

© Janet Martin

For all the joy that still is, on some days I wildly miss
what is no more...
those days before womanhood drove dreamers close to us
toward farther-away doors,

...but, if asked to trade back this day for Then
I would say 'no',
Because I would rob them of the joy
that comes before the hard heart-tug of letting go...

(This thought-line caused me to ponder other friendships that came...to pass.
Spring-cleaning cupboards allows thinking-time;-))

Song Of a Mild Spring-wild March Day





Brook-song babbles and meanders through the brawny hinterland
Mirth of sun-warm zephyr chuckles where winter withdraws its band
Hill and hollow, chilled and fallow, hint at tints we nigh forgot
As the dreamer sighs and eyes the beaming slope and garden-plot

Barren vault exalts the laughter of the crow perched proud and bold
On the tree-top primed with pockets bursting with springtime’s first-gold
Now the moorland is a-glitter with the farmer’s passion stirred
And the morning is a-titter with the twittering of birds

Sun and shadow skims the meadow like a gray-gold patchwork quilt
Wafting over panoramic vistas bereft of leaf-lilt
Still, the thrill of ages surges through the onlooker once more
Where the ill of frigid splurges recedes to a far-off shore

Choristers of spring’s glad choir warm their voices, clear their throats
Long these song-soldiers have waited, shivering in threadbare coats
Nature’s Maestro draws His baton soft across the budded string
Holy, holy, hear the anthem of ten-thousand minstrels ring

© Janet Martin

Inspired on my way home this morning...