Very Fine Company

Tonight…
…its song rises around me
As the sun slips from the brink of the sky
The air is heavy with turquoise and silver
And the rippling crescendo of a crickets lullaby

On some nights…
… the twilight falls from the tresses
Tinted with scarlet, amber and rust
Tonight I can almost touch it as it rises
In a throbbing cadence from the dew-laden dust

Tonight…
The blue shadows tremble with yearning
Succumbing, it seems, to the memories they bring
I know…to the past there is no returning
And sadness is not a terrible thing

Tonight…
Alone in the silent surrender
Where daylight folds into the moon-softened mist
Thoughts return…warm, raging and tender
Of moments once cradled and cherished and kissed

Tonight…
There is nothing to scatter the stillness
Save for the breezes that rise, just to die
I feel you closer in the deepening darkness
Almost I see the light in your eye

Tonight…
I wish you were right here beside me
Tonight I wish that you could not sleep
But thoughts of you always seem to find me
And thoughts of you are very fine company to keep

J~

Tonight I 'wrote' some of this in my head while I was running…
It was almost dark when I returned…and so quiet.
The road I run on is closed due to bridge construction
so there is no traffic, and a few times I could hear almost perfect silence…
…well, if you don’t count my heart beating, and huffing and puffing and footsteps and crickets…:))

Inseparable...

I could no more walk away from you
Than the meadow could walk from the kiss of the dew
Or the sun could escape the azure sky
Or the blue could fade from your tender eye

I could no more escape your trance
Than the willow its shadows that flicker and dance
Or the still of the midnight, its low, drawn-out breath
Or the dawn the light as it floods the earth

Oh my love, I could no more separate from you
Than the wave could diverge from the ocean so blue
Or the warmth from your skin or the sigh from your lips
Or the longing that bleeds from love’s finger-tips

I could no more walk away from you
Than the season can flee its predestined avenue
For somehow, my love, like an invisible sea
You seem to fill every niche in me

The ivy to the wall, the root to the tree
The rise to the fall, the river to the sea
The grass to the field, the eye to the tear
So it is with love, my dear

I could no more walk away from you
Than one day could be divided into two...
Inseparable components never to part
For you are in every beat of my heart

J~

Comfort

As we read His word
He takes our failure
Our despair
Our shame
Our care
Our wantonness
Our deceit
Our brokenness
Our defeat
Our misery
Our hatred
Our weariness
Our dread
Our longing
Our fear
Our blindness
Our tear
Our darkness
Our grief
Our doubts
Our unbelief
Our weakness
Our pride
Our foolishness
Our lies
Our loneliness
Our wretchedness
Our emptiness
Our hurt
Our hopelessness
Our anger
Our lust
Our thirst
Our unworthiness
Our indifference
Our anguish
Our pain
And transforms them to…
A Living Hope in Him

Janet~

Exonerated

The impact of failure slips its noose ‘round my neck…
Though with selfish argument I weakly object
Surely I must bear my well-deserved fate
I stare at the clock on the wall…and wait

Condemnation shrieks and justice demands
It tears at my weakness and clutches my hands
Demons of darkest contempt and despair
Sneer as they spit in my face, on my hair

Ah, well I should flounder in this wretched hole
Count all my miseries with naught to console
I, above all deserve to be cursed
With a noose ‘round my neck and my face in the dirt

But then, through the torment, the taunting and doom
I feel a Presence dispersing the gloom
As demons tremble, slinking into the night
Hope floods the darkness and fills it with light

With tender whispers and loving commands
With healing fingers and nail-scarred hands
He removes the noose in a tender embrace
And gentle reminders of His unfailing grace

Forgiveness and healing and unending love
Course deep within me from somewhere above
Promises of Him brush away my defeat
Shadows grow dim; His mercy is sweet

Oh, what manner of love can this be?
That God up above should love even me
…the weight of my failure grows soft ‘neath His touch
As I remember…He loves me so much

Janet~

Job 18

Encore, Please

Your voice flows through me like the blue of your eyes
I’m caught in a trance, not unlike paradise
The timbre of passion and longing and hope
Drifts over hillside and valley and slope

Seduction in whispers of purple and gold
Emerald and scarlet pour from your hold
As I hear time's agony bleed from your voice
You want to stay with me, but you have no choice

Sweet are the sonnets played on the soft wind
Of sunshine and laughter when living is kind
But purer by far, the haunting melody
Born in the heartache of love’s misery

Over the pattern of wheat field and brush
An ocean of music falls into the hush
Trembling, I spread its yearning 'cross my brow
As hunger and dread spawn the breezes that blow

Tomorrow your music will be dormant and still
I will reach for you to retrieve your thrill
But you will be gone to return nevermore
As dead as the wave that reaches the shore

Today I will let your voice soothe and torment
Perfect communion of love and lament
I plead for an encore as you drift to the sky
And August extinguishes the song of July

Janet~

Carefully

Very carefully and gently
On those nights, heavy with dew
And the air of late summer
And thoughts of you…

Very carefully and tenderly
When I miss you so much
And there’s not enough of you
Left for me to touch…

Very thankfully and carefully
I unwrap with quiet pleasure
The one thing that you left me
To torment me and to treasure…

Very slowly and so carefully
Without any regret
I unwrap within each heartbeat
All your words I can’t forget…

J~

Photograph...

Once upon another day
I held you close, so close to me
And looked into your eyes of baby blue
Those days are long-gone,yes, I know
But sometimes I miss them so
Oh, it’s crazy what a photograph can do

I trace every line and curve
Oh, and you still touch a nerve
Like no one in this world will ever do
Once you held me center stage
Now I pause, and turn the page
Oh, it’s crazy what a photograph can do

Just a little photograph
But I can hear you talk and laugh
Though your paper lips don’t whisper, move or smile
Your skin is soft and warm
I can feel it ‘gainst my arm
Think I’ll just sit here and hold you for a while…

Once upon another day
You were not so far away
But I know now those things I never knew
Time is a silent thief
Love is perfect grief
Oh, it's crazy what a photograph can do…

J~

Silence

Silence is a house once filled with laughter
Silence is you... not next to me
Silence is the lifetime after
Living; because, you see
Silence is everywhere, darling
That we used to be

Silence is the middle of the kitchen
In the middle of a memory
When suddenly without warning
You're right in the middle of me
Silence is a summer morning
Where we used to be

Silence is an echo calling
Out of the clear, blue skies
Silence is the teardrop falling
Silence is a broken heart's cries
Silence is everywhere, darling
When love dies...

J~

See the Sun...

See the sun
And how it bleeds
Its passion ‘cross the sky
See the land
And how it heeds
The whispers from on high
See the night
And how the light
Must solemnly surrender
See the field
Its harvest yield
In autumn’s fervent splendor

See the girl
With pretty curl
Grow up to be a woman
See the lad
Become a dad
A wise and caring human
See the brow
All weathered now
By life and what it’s given
See us climb
The hills of time
One road leads to Heaven

See the seasons
How they fold
Into the other’s bearing
See the youth
Once brash and bold
Grow kind beneath life’s caring
See how years
Of love and tears
Turn knowledge into wisdom
See this life
Of joy and strife
Lead to another Kingdom

Janet~

Last night while I was out for my run
The thoughts of the brevity of seasons…
and life struck me profoundly!
Already the ditches are full of chirping crickets and August.
Then….I met a young family out together
For an evening walk…
Part of me smiled inside from ear to ear…
The other part of me wanted to sit in the middle of the road and CRY!!!
M-O-O-O-O-O-OM-M-M-M-Y-Y-Y-!!!!
No, even Mommy can’t stop time…
I wanted to tell the family to cherish these short, golden years…
They would smile politely of course, and say, yes…
Just like I used to.