Why Do I Write?

Why do I write?

For the sheer love of it

For there is nothing quite

Like the thrill of the perfect fit

As mind slips over textures and curves

Inhaling oceans, spurred by tireless verve

Searching haunted tresses, exploring dimly-lit cells

For the intoxication of the perfectly-shaped syllable

And the wild exultation, the inexplicable pleasure

Of stumbling upon the most thrilling of treasures

Then, aligning so tenderly, word against word

With a gleam in the eye and passion stirred

As thought takes shape beneath a pen

And finally, as one breathes again

To find, in word pictures of art

The pieces of a poet’s heart

I cannot get enough of it

So I write for the

Love of it

Janet~

...and still to the Muse

…ravish me then

Do not make me beg

As I chew on my pen

For that elusive word

While you dangle

Before my weary eyes

That ‘shining spangle’

As you tantalize

Me with perfect prose

Just beyond my grasp

I’m on the tips of my toes

But alas, alas…

You find it a highly

Entertaining affair

To watch me claw wildly

At nothing…but air

Persistent Muse

You do not ask permission

As you slip in through the locks

I bolt the door and pull the shades

For all the good it does

Upon my shoulder you alight

And vow to keep me up tonight

I play my part to perfect fault

A wrinkled brow, a tight-lipped frown

You laugh and turn a somersault

Inside my mind scattered and blown

Taking full charge for you know well

Each curve inside this ivory cell

I fain would beg you to depart

Then miss you madly when you’re gone

You volley twixt my mind and heart

And seem to know when I’m alone

Are you a blessing or a curse

Tormenting me with rhyme and verse?

I cradle you between my lips

Then spit you out in wry disdain

You tease my restless fingertips

And taunt me from the wayward pen

Muse persists and Muse endures…

…take me, take me, I am yours

Janet Martin

Autumn Night

You drop your broad hem in a subtle mist

Wrapping the earth in your ample blue robe

As wand’ring hours melt into your kiss

Tranquility circles the half-moon globe

Too late to toil and too early to dream

You sweep the soil in a translucent stream

You snuff out the wink of noon’s golden pear

Tuck your dark edges o’er twilight’s pale fray

I hear a memory finger the air

Of sea-song and sunshine on shore’s far away

Why do you hasten with deep velvet plume

To brush out the roses and wild purple bloom?

Heart held in limbo beneath your cool gown

Bittersweet anguish exudes in a sigh

As futile as knowing that daylight has flown

Into the hollow of night’s lambent eye

Your crescent brooch gleams like an uncut stone

Inspiring dreams; I am not alone

Janet Martin

Kitchen Window

Through this framed square the seasons pass

Time's languid whispers on the grass

As parents with a tender eye

Watch its swift slideshow flicking by

They reach but they cannot restrain

The pictures passing through this frame

It frames the wak'ning of the earth

Of bud and spring, of hope and mirth

Of tiny, bumbling baby feet

Discovering nature, curious, sweet

Where Time for one brief moment halts

Before it cart-wheels, somersaults

On sapphire backdrop scenes unfold

In summer’s laughing hour of gold

A frame where dogs and children run

Toward the bar of setting sun

Their voices falling on the eve

Like drops of rain or drifting leaves

…and autumn paints its pictures too

Murals of amber, red and blue

Yet, as we struggle to recall

The fleeting essence of them all

We grasp, at best, upon our hearts

Impressionistic works of art

Through this stark frame a life unfolds

'Neath summer's sun and winter's cold

As restless moments leap and fly

In ethereal prisms to the sky

We let our tears fall without shame

For it is such a precious frame

Janet Martin

Get-away

It’s  like reading poetry,

 presumptuous feeling

 I drift surreal

on the arms of the autumn wind

with nothing to restrain my mind

relying fully

on a few gaudy synthetic bubbles

and poetry

to carry me over

a world of dwarfed troubles,

a canopy of roof-tops

of pasture and sea

sprawled in a patch-work quilt

far, far beneath me

It’s so quiet here….

Mo-o-o-o-m!

Where’s my hat?

Jolt!

Bump!

Reality!

Janet Martin

Get-away

It’s a little like reading poetry,

this presumptuous feeling

as I drift surreally

on the arms of the autumn wind

with nothing to restrain my mind

relying fully

on a few gaudy synthetic bubbles

and poetry

to carry me over

a world of dwarfed troubles,

a canopy of roof-tops

of pasture and sea

sprawled in a patch-work quilt

far, far beneath me

It’s so quiet here….

Mo-o-o-o-m!

Where’ my hat?

Jolt!

Bump!

Reality!

Janet Martin

Making Something...

We’re not just making supper or sweeping floors

Though it may seem like we’re just doing life’s chores

We read the newspaper, the Bible, a book

It appears like reading but take one more look

‘cause we’re making something…

We take out the garbage, and in endless miles

We hang out more laundry beneath autumn smiles

There’s scolding and holding, hello and good-by

We’re not really thinking as the swift minutes fly

That we’re making something

The van’s out of gas, fuel prices sky-rocket

The pantry needs filling, re-vamp the budget

For supper’s dessert there is apple strudel

Who left smelly socks on the coffee table?

Yes, we’re making something

Now finish your homework please, don’t look so sad

Kids, stop your arguing, listen to your dad

Tidy your bedrooms; that means make your beds too

If you help me I have a surprise for you

Oh, we’re making something

A house is a shell with a roof and a floor

Curtains at the window, a pretty front door

Through which messes and music and memories unfurl

‘cause we’re making the most beautiful thing in the world

We’re making a home

Janet Martin

I cleaned out the pantry and the little guys I baby-sit had fun building a Folger's Coffee Tin tower. (note: kids love playing with non-toys. Their imagination flies...) It turned out a little slanted and Michael said, 'Yeah' it's the Eiffel tower!' ( I think he was thinking of the leaning tower of Pisa, but it was so cute:)

Undeserving...

You held it to me in the gentlest of ways

I blushed in embarrassment beneath your kind gaze

As You pulled back the wraps of pink and pale blue

And whispered, ‘My dear, I have something for you’

It was so beautiful, perfect, unmarred

I looked at my old one, so battered and scarred

But You did not remind me of my tangled mess

As you gazed at me in profound tenderness

‘Don’t look at the old one’, I felt His embrace

As He brushed the tears of regret from my face

‘I love You, I am with you, I’ll show you the way’

And He placed into my arms a brand new day

Janet~