I Love Your Hands

Your hands……
Spreading butter on your toast
Taking a cup of coffee from my hand
Your hands….
One of the things I cherish most
I study them
As you hold the morning paper
Sip your java
I absorb you…..
Your down-cast eyes
The strong chin and neck
Then I realize
In the end
I return
To your hands
For which I yearn
When you are near
Or far away
Your hands……
Holding the pen
While writing
Words
Touching me
Like no spoken sentiment ever can…
For so much more is heard
From script of pen
Held in your hand
Turning the ordinary
Into extra-ordinary again….
And again
Darling I love your hands
With them you
Love…
Me
Satisfying with mournful sweetness
My solitary anguish......
Life and love
A matter of hands
I love to study your hands
Over breakfast
Intertwined with mine

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Janet Martin

Disguise

Pardon me when you’re not looking
I still turn a somersault in my back yard
For the sake of my children I try to act my age
But sometimes it is just too hard
What’s a girl to do, tell me?
For I have tried in vain
Why am I over forty
But sometimes I feel just like a kid again

The rippling fields of amber
Taunt me as I pass and call my name
If I should decide to run or hide in them
I don’t think I really am to blame
I try hard to be a lady
If I don’t I know society would frown
But I will never tell you
What I do when no one is around

Pardon me, when you’re not looking
I don’t really need to act my age
And after all, age is a number
Just a couple random digits on a page
Being old and sedentary
Is a thought that simply tears me apart
Oh I try to be a lady
But the truth is sometimes.....
I'm still a kid at heart

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Janet Martin

Dilemma......

If I were not a poet.....
...I would weep
But if I were not a poet
I COULD SLEEP:):)

~Janet~

At 1 A.M.

It’s 1 a.m.
My today is really yesterday…
And my tomorrow is today
In this hour
The best hour of all
When shadows fall
Unbroken
Save for the flicker
Of the green willow limb
Waving lazily in the moonlight dim
At 1 a.m.
When the earth slumbers
And the heavens reveal
In dazzling silence
Gems of countless number
Which none can steal
But man can only wonder
What lies beyond?
The great unknown
Between earth
And the great white throne
At 1 a.m.
Where solitude is unhindered
By yesterdays left-over’s
Or tomorrows mysteries
An hour for vagabonds
And lovers
And poets….
Disregarding the steady ticking
Of minutes plunging into history
At 1 a.m.
Let the silver cloud
Then drift across the full moon
It enhances the beauty
Of midnight’s noon
For this hour is
A glorious gem
On a bed of navy blue
With soft charcoal hem
Glistening with dew
At 1 a.m.

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Janet Martin

July Bliss

I’m not smiling or laughing………..
Yet I am blissfully content
It is July, the heaven of summer
‘Simply being’ each moment is spent

Have you felt the quivering ripple?
Of her soft alluring kiss
Radiating every heart-beat
In pure extravagant bliss

Suddenly there is no ordinary
As you open up your eyes
To seize her rampant passion
Flowing from the skies

I dare not breathe too deeply
Yet still I must inhale
The purple of her slumber
Enhanced by moonlight pale

It manifests within me
A visceral sensation
Of joy sublime, unearthly
Pinnacle of elation

So drink in each moment of pleasure
Oh, how sweet it is
As summer’s sigh unravels
In July, the hour of bliss

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Janet Martin

Summer-time......

Turn down the window, turn off the air
Come on let the wind blow through your hair
Crank up a good old summer-time tune
‘Cause you and I both know summer’s gone too soon

Summer-time, ah, summer-time
It’s all good in the summer-time
I like the sun, oh and I like the rain
If I could when it’s over I’d hit re-play again….
I’m just a woman and you’re just a man
Let’s make the most of it while we can
In the summer-time, ah, good old summer-time

I smell the fever of fresh mown hay
I’m a believer in no work today
The sweet fields of honey will soon be gone
Ah, we can make money when the summer is done

Summer-time, ah, summer-time
It’s all good in the summer-time
Blue surf and white sand
Green turf and brown tan
Flip-flops and tank tops
Lemonade and cool shade
Good days and better nights
Dancing in the warm moon-light
Fire-flies and starry skies
We’ll stay up until sun-rise
I’m just a woman, you’re just a man
Making the most of each minute we can
In the summer-time, ah, good old summer-time

Oh, and did I mention bare-feet in the water?
How the sun gets your attention as the day gets hotter
Mid-night flower gardens sweet, sweet paradise
Oh, I beg your pardon, is that hunger in your eyes?
Did I mention bird and cricket in a summer symphony?
The soft and yellow sighing of the big old willow tree
In the summer-time, ah the good old summer-time


Tick-tock, the old clock eats up another day
That greedy miser is stealing my summer away……

Summer-time, ah, summer-time
It’s all good in the summer-time

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Janet Martin

Tonight Is Beautiful

I do not know
What my life has in store
But tonight is beautiful
I need nothing more
The cricket sings
The soft breeze sighs
Beneath the sheen
Of starlit skies
The air is smooth
As summer wine
No whisper moves
The stalwart pine
And now the cricket
Choirs cease
Enthralled perhaps
By perfect peace
I do not know
What comes tomorrow
But tonight is beautiful
I will not borrow
The shadow of
The great unknown
Tonight is beautiful
God on His throne

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Janet Martin

Those Buried Dreams....

They call for me
Those buried dreams
With muffled sigh
Across the sea
Today it seems
I hear their cry

Their memory spills
In misty dew
Upon the grass
The distant hills
Serene and blue
Whisper as I pass….

They call for me
With disregard
To my binding duty
I am not free
The dream is marred
It has lost its beauty

The colors swirl
Muted and vague
A powerless mist
For the girl
Of yesterday
Does not exist


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Janet Martin

Now.....

I see it now….
The ebb and flow
Of life and love
And now I know
As I walk past
The youthful tide
This life is but
A short sweet ride
A nameless sorrow
Fills my soul
As I see
The swift years roll
Though I know
I have been blessed
To clasp within
My arms life’s best
I will not cling
To wanton tears
Too little the day
To short the years
Oh how fickle
Is youths distraction
For now I see
A fair attraction
In the murmur
Of the breeze
Blowing o’er
Time’s shifting seas
Mirroring here
And there a glance
Of a brief
And fairer dance
Love cannot
Contain the power
To retain
One precious hour
As it softly
Slips away
To deep graves where
Its comrades lay
I see it now
This river of life
Will ever flow
With joy and strife
With human thirst
And endless dreams
That soon lay buried
In its streams
The fire coursing
Through youths breast
Too soon confronts
Life’s futile quest
For none can carry
‘Cross death’s sea
Any thing
To eternity
I see it now
Life is in vain
There is nothing
Man can attain
But to know
One precious truth
A Living Hope
For old or youth
Life is a chasing
After the wind
A futile course
Of blind leading blind
Until we lift
Our eyes to see
The glorious gift
For you and me
The only hope
Beyond this sod
Eternal life
Through the Son of God

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Janet Martin


It’s raining……….
A soft, comforting summer rain….
But it makes me insanely sentimental.
OR….I have been reading in
Ecclesiastes too much in these last few days!!!
WHAT A BOOK!!!

Summer's Tears

What comfort I find in summer’s tears
Falling from a window of countless years
I love her sunshine but now and again
I need the kiss of a warm summer rain

The wind-tossed maples laugh, as I
Reaching for the weeping sky
What sweet music to my ear
In the rhythm of summer’s tear

Tempo soft, now more intense
Pouring from her vast expanse
In dotted eighth notes,effortlessly
Passing through every barrier in me

And then…..a hallowed solitude
The tears have passed, earth lies subdued
As I hear the great Director say
Tears will come, and then pass away

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Janet Martin



Her face turned from tears to laughter in mere minutes......