Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Autumn Aria






 The land is laced in silver mist
And traced with russet scrim
The blue winds vex with brooding hex
That culls the laden limb

The brittle corn stands stiff, forlorn
Its fledgling verdure drained
June’s virgin sheen of knee-deep green
Is bronze and crimson-stained

The goldenrod is weaned of laud
The milkweed pod of silk
The pumpkin lords over all gourds
His jack-o-lantern ilk

Beneath high noon of azure swoon
The molten woodlands blaze
Before day’s husk drifts on swift dusk
And snuffs it from our gaze

Those garden-hikes are ghost-town-like
Through hollow orchards too
Stilled fallow lies beneath chilled skies
In slumber’s umber hue

Soft vesper cries its lullabies
Where nature’s naked tress
Turns whispers to a haunting tune
Of loss and loneliness

The land is kissed then lost in mist
Rain-song raids autumn scrim
The blue winds vex with moody hex
The singer of its hymn

© Janet Martin

Is there any month
quite like October
that tugs the lover of it
with such warring tides
of joy and grief?

Morning Prayer





Lord, help me do the best I can
Each task you ask of me
Nor let me pine for things not mine,
Help me live thankfully
So when this little day is done
In spun eons to drift
I will not mourn these moments shorn
From morning’s newborn gift
Lord, grant me faith-hope-love, ah, love
Your peace within my soul
And remind me, whate’er may be
That You are in control
Make my thought more of others, Lord
So together we bear
The burdens of life’s laugh-weep-love
Secure within Your care

© Janet Martin



Dear Autumn, Be Gentle With Mothers







Others cannot see the colors
Where years have seared priceless art
Nor do they know of the autumn
Of a middle-aged mother’s heart

Beneath her skin seasons linger
Where children slipped from Her care
Caught between summer and winter
She learns new reasons for prayer

These are no common arrangements
Scattered like leaves on lost yards
Meekly she bears the estrangements
That comes with changing of Guards

Longing is a two-edged saber
Gratefulness cushions its thrust
Without it middle-aged mothers
Would not have wherewithal to trust

Dear autumn, be gentle with mothers
She senses a chill in your stare
Help her to shoulder the colors
Leading to snow-silvered hair

© Janet Martin



Tuesday, October 11, 2016

A World of Common Ways





'So Long Ago' and 'Right Now' share a world of common ways
Morning is grafted like an offshoot to Past’s weathered bough
Bud bursts, bears fruit; we brim with hymns of thanksgiving and praise
While tromping over shriveled remnants of hulled moment-snow



Even after these many years much appears to amaze
Ah, we are often stripped of speech as we stand still and gape
Across the sweep of Mercy’s Keep keened seasons spill their trays
Earth swallows up its crumbs where thrums of new summer take shape

The ways of grace are tattooed on earth’s minute spurt of dust
God keeps His word; and we are stirred to awe and Holy fear
The sun shines and the rain falls; all that we can do is trust
In spite of what we see and what They say… God is still here


Thus, Long Ago and Right Now are bound by what matters most
Not boast of stuff, but Love lavished as freely now as then
For God so loves the world today as He did at The First
…and thus He waits to seal Time’s gates with His final Amen

© Janet Martin

 A few shots from my rural, local Thanksgiving drive/bike.