The Poet's Blessing/Curse

 Sometimes when fear almost gets the best of me

When it comes to posting poetry

I look at books of 'hearts pieces' bared

And I thank the poets who wrote them, then shared

The poet by a whisper stirred

Endures the stormy swell

Roused by a constant flow of word

And pictures they could spell

The poet hears a melody

It takes her heart by storm

Where ink and authorship must plea

Its essence into form

The poet carves from quiet air

The image of a place

That transports us from here to there

And only thought can trace

© Janet Martin

Anticipating Awe!

Yesterday I read the question, 

What Are You Looking Forward to...?

Isn't anticipation one of life's most fantastic joys?!
(plus, it helps to temper disappointment
and the weight of dread which inevitably at times, must be!)

I can't wait for…

  

The plush plip-plop of lush rain-drop

Studding green leaf with gems like glass

The soft slip-slap as bare feet dash

To splash through dust on garden paths

Where cotton clouds waft aloft, soft

Above the linen-laden line

Of trousers, shirts, towels, summer skirts

Hob-knobbing with warm, gold sunshine

The petal show of red, yellow

Purple, blue, pink and white, oh my,

God’s work of art can steal the heart

And admiration of the eye

And I can’t wait to see the gate

Embellished with jasmine run wild

And kiss the face of Queen Ann’s lace

As well as sun-bronzed summer’s child

The luxury of late day tea

While swallows dart and dip and dive

The brawny buzz of cicadas

The lazy hush (or crazy rush) of half-past five

And I can’t wait to fill my plate

With fresh-picked-from-the-garden hue

Or run my gaze across the trays

Where summer spills old thrills anew

© Janet Martin

Kick-in-the-Shin... or A Pat-on-the-Back Starter

For health or vanity or wealth

or need or greed or others or self?

What fuels your fire?

What kicks-starts your engine?

Who puts the bounce in your step…if you’re truly, brutally honest?

BTW, there is a robin outside my window singing in the dark before dawn!

Suddenly, the thought of spring sets panic pulses racing,
in spite of winter to-do lists still untouched unfinished...

However, instead of beating ourselves up for what we don’t accomplish, 

how about a pat on our backs for what we have done! 

We are so good at berating and belittling ourselves because, let’s face it;

we know exactly who we’re looking at in that mirror! 

Pretending is pointless!  

Let’s make the most of what we hold

In spite of what is not

The guerdon that pours moment gold

Is the best we have got

Before the door to nevermore

Swings shut on soundless hinge

Let’s make the most of Bygone’s host

At life’s buffet…let’s binge!

With humble, earnest honor, dear

Let’s not fall prey to fears

But make the most of now and here

Before it disappears

© Janet Martin

 Ecclesiastes 7:14
In the day of prosperity be happy, 

But in the day of adversity consider-- 

God has made the one as well as the other 

So that man will not discover anything that will be after him.

Estimable Entreaty...or, Of Growing Old

A simple sonnet for my sister Lucy's Birthday today...
Happy Birthday Lucy!
Wishing you God's gift of joy in the year (Lord willing years) ahead!

The nearest, dearest gift of growing old

Time weaves with threads we sometimes overlook

Life’s sacred spoil of love and toil unfold

Fond pages in a phantom picture book

A panoramic spread of scenes forsook

Bids us revere a year’s moment-ous lease

Where fingers through which sands of time are shook

Siphons from stars and scars, a masterpiece

…as daily death grants the subtle increase

Of seasons splayed before our shut-eye gaze

Its startling art of kind simplicities

Soft-weaves with common sheaves Life’s Best of Days

Where it seems that we learn and then relearn

The value of time’s treasured No-return

© Janet Martin

Last night while chopping colorful veggies for supper I was struck again

how life's simplest gifts are its sweetest marvels! 

The older we get the more we realize the Prize of The Moment!

Sisters are one of love's/life's greatest gifts!

I know I shared the photo below here, (on another sister get-together)

but its a precious shot on a simple summer's day long ago...of sisters

From left to right...

Marlene, Carolyn, Cheryl, Lucy, Janet

Slow erosion

Where an ocean

Of emotion

Sweeps a shore

Where a moment

Seals a moment

To moments

That are no more

Tender splendor

Steals the vendor

To a younger

You and me

Where sleek surges

Swell in dirges

For splurges

Washed out to sea

© Janet Martin