Where Death Defies Lament

In Nature’s hand death defies grief

Its beauty undeterred

As lofty limb is weaned of leaf

And shadow-scrim is shirred

Where, though the lilt of summer green

Quilts earth with bronze and rust

It strikes a sacred chord between

The Dreamer and the Dust

…for Beauty does not bow her head

Or break beneath the toll

That drives the leaf-song to a bed

That harbours all but soul

As font of farewell fills the rill

With taunt of season spent

It draws the eye toward the hill

Where death defies lament

© Janet Martin

Cut Down To Size

Love lives given. 

Ann Voskamp (on this post) full of wow-moments

Sometimes it is supper waiting

Because someone had to work late

Sometimes it is nothing more than

Fresh baked cookies on a plate

It might look quite dull and common;

Laundry after dark so you

Have clean 'undies' in the morning

And a sock (if you’re lucky, two)

It might be a poem, oh but,

You think that’s a waste of paper?!

Well, then it might be as simple

As getting back up to set the coffee-maker

Or a dash to grab the phone be

-fore the answering machine comes on

…even though you miss the part when

I try to tell you where I ran from

Oft it travels incognito

Many a kitchen-mile, oh my

While it tidies, scrubs, wipes, whispers

Prayers into soup, muffins, pie

While it learns to learn a lesson

That it thought was taught before

While it sleeps with one ear open

Until it has heard the door

While it works for nothing more than

Hearing full-fledged laughter ring

As they sit a little longer

Before heading out again

While it makes the most of moments

Lest in haste it wastes pure gold

It is quite a thing to reckon

With echoes felled from its hold

It is second cups of ‘listening’

Even when to-do lists bark

It is voiced in humble taking

Out the garbage after dark

It might look like mundane nothing

In a lot of people’s eyes

But I hope you know it, darling

It is love cut down to size

© Janet Martin

To The Mister That Kissed Her With Years

Poetics Aside poem-a-day prompt 2:

For today’s prompt, write a disguise poem.

 

 

The hardest part of you is me

Grappling with awareness

Of what will never be

Again

The gladdest part of me is you

Whispering the kindness

Of dreams not come true

Yet

© Janet Martin

Author Incognito

Poetics Aside poem-a-day prompt 2:

For today’s prompt, write a disguise poem.

You’re a willow-whisper

A cut to the quick

Soft as a feather

And hard as brick

You stun us with wonder

Though you never change

The methodic manner

Of all you estrange

You are a padlock

And a door ajar

The ethereal bedrock

Of right where we are

You trick us with kisses

And kick us with love

Where your rite dismisses

The flight you approve

With your formless fathoms

You press and relieve

For, from you, my darling

There is no reprieve

You take while you’re giving

And grant, breath by breath

A gift to the living

Its warranty, death

You are fancy’s fodder

Of poem and rhyme

Yet author all order

You are Father Time

© Janet Martin

Of New Throughway

November PAD Challenge begins! For today’s prompt, write a new day poem.

okay, I wrote the above line yesterday but
 its New joined to age-old throngs, before I could get to the prompt!

So, a day later a new, New Today offers up its page of grace, 

 ...for some it will be a stage for celebration

(Congratulations to the Houston Astros for winning their first World Series Champion title!)

...for others a page bearing tears of disappointment

(no words needed)

Ah, laid beneath delinquent feet

Yon sweep of star-deep pales until

Redemption’s carpet gilds the street

And tints colorless field and hill

We, bonded to the old turn to

The New Today that time deploys

Where time insists upon its due

And runs it through with sorrow-joys

Earth’s boulevard, starred with the tears

Of grief and laughter’s testament

Hinges to scads of yester-years

A sphere of unmarred filament

Ah, here and now offers a dance

On tides where heavens ebb and flow

And dark relents to grant new chance

To prove the gratitude we owe

© Janet Martin

Thursday Thoughts on A Wednesday

Thursday Thoughts (little verses)

 started when I had Thursdays off...

Now they happen more or less where ever they land:)

The ladies were teasing me that my mind is likely composing a poem

as we conversed etc. this morning but it just does not work like that...

I often sit down, not planning on the words that come!

They often take a direction all their own

even when the hunger was for a poem of an entirely other nature.

All said, it was a fun, far too fast few hours!

In time we begin to appreciate Appreciation

Valuing the simple celebration

Of what is

***

As the years go by we learn to re-learn

How, what we thought we knew

Was a stepping-stone

To what we think we know

For now

***

It is not enough

To spout love-poems

Love is a second-mile language

Often in plain, sometimes painful

Syllables

***

To know when to speak

And when to be quiet

Now, there is a woman!

***

It all goes by so fast

We should remember

Not to forget

To remember this

***

The will to be willing

Is a battle half-won

But the battle to be willing

Is never quite done

***

 We should give today all we can

No more

But no less

***

Let’s admit it

We should quit it

All this keeping score

*If we have each other

We have so much

To be thankful for

© Janet Martin

*This community is mourning the sudden loss of my niece's class-mate

whose dad is my nephew's gym teacher. 

A few hours away a community also mourns the loss of a youth

with family-ties to this community!

Let's commit to cherishing each other with gentle kindness while we may!