Gentleman........

Today you are a gentleman
I watch with love and pride
A pride that every mother feels
A solace deep inside
For in your rough and tumble ways
A gentler side exists
Glimpse of a man inside the boy
A boy that I will miss

Today you are a gentleman
Do not leave him behind
If you should love a girl someday
Will you be good and kind?
Will you treat her with respect
So she can respect you?
Will you be a gentleman
When you are twenty-two?

Today you are a gentleman
Though you are still a boy
Too soon you’re slipping from my hand
Life calls ahoy, ahoy
I must slowly let you go
Be patient, my dear son
Life happens soon enough, you know
Tomorrow you’ll be grown

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Janet Martin

Supper Table Humor

Well, kids, I’m trying to think of
The perfect word to describe today………
Could you help me out; wasn’t it grand?
Is there a perfect word that comes to your mind?
Nine-year-old said ‘autumn!’ I smiled
‘Wonderful!’ quipped my twelve-year-old child
‘What’s the point’? …..the voice of sixteen
I said ‘EXHILARATING!!!”
Mom, what does THAT mean?


Beatitudes…..

I thought we all knew the Beatitudes by heart….
But we didn’t…. so we are memorizing them over supper…..
Last night I gave them the first part and
They would fill in the rest….
I said….Blessed are they which hunger and thirst
After righteousness for they shall……
“Eat!!!” shouted my nine-year old

~Janet~

Being Eighteen

She stands facing the rain
No one can see her tears or her pain
Struggling to understand life and love
Not yet too sure of what she is sure of
Oh it was great…I wouldn’t do it again
It is called…being eighteen

Wiser in theory than wisdom of years
Laughing to forget the fear of fears
Victim of longing but not sure what for
This little girl-woman heading out the door
With eager impatience for life and her dream
It is called….being eighteen

I wish I had all the answers, my dear
Life has more questions than answers, I fear
But on the bright side I firmly believe
God will give us the answers we need
Live, laugh, love, pray and dream
For it is called….being eighteen

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Janet Martin

Postlude......

The cold rain tolls the ending of a day
I stand alone within its weeping knell
On landscape dark in moods of silver-gray
Beneath the chiming of the lonesome bell

The absence of the lusty cricket choir
Magnifies the silence and the gloom
And in the gardens shady summer bower
No more the fragrance of its fragile bloom

Now fades the sky-line in the gathering night
Now the dark and daylight intertwine
Until the dark prevails; the only light
A glimmer on the vast horizon line

No sound at all to break this solitude
Save for the stubborn leaf with muted breath
Still clinging to the arm of somber wood
Before it yields to its imminent death

The cold rain tolls the ending of the day
Profluent melody in minor key
Within its knell the twilight slips away
In tones of comfort and sweet misery

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Janet Martin

Fact of Life

Night follows day…
Or does day follow night
I’ve never understood it quite
But if the truth were really told
It’s simply the process to getting old!!!

~Janet~

Soulmate......

There’s something ‘bout a writhing wind
Across a cool, blue day
Sweeping o’er a tempered plain
From lips, sullen and gray
There’s something ‘bout its sad, sad song
Its far and lonesome sound
Moaning through the rustling throng
Of cornstalks, crisp and brown
There’s something ‘bout the color
Of the stark and listless sky
That says it’s late September
How I wish it was July

There’s something ‘bout September
Always makes me think of you
Do you miss me, are you happy?
Are your eyes still summer-blue?
I hear the call of an eagle
Lone hunter in the sky
It chills me just a little
And it makes me want to cry
September, you’re a soul-mate
Won’t you sing your saddest tune?
How about ‘We’re all the way’
How I wish it still was June

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Janet Martin

Whispers....................

When on time’s faded lily fields
The frosts of autumn lie
When traces of her summer shield
No longer tease the eye
When the bright blooms of yesterday
Their trembling petals weep
And haunts of rambling hearts turn gray
Will there be aught to keep?

As we live ‘neath Time’s sovereignty
Its raging rivers run
To drain into eternity
Beyond the rising sun
And as we stand with common men
To view the wearied past
The shroud of withered dreams again
And shadows that they cast………

…will we with softened passions turn
And clasp the day at hand
Or with the weeping petal yearn
For whispers on the sand
The sand where Time’s vast river flows
Into an endless sea
And beauty is the faded rose
Of love’s sad memory

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Janet Martin

Victim.....

You beckon me to take your hand
Unwilling, I complied
You softly kiss with restless wind
Each farewell tear I cried
Then you draw my down-cast eye
Up to the wooded hill
Where ripples of your artistry
Arouse a sudden thrill
With second tenderness you brush
Your scent upon the dusk
And in this pleasant evening hush
I’m drawn in to your brusque
And yet persuasive, splendid arms
I’m not sure what to do
A victim of your cunning charms
Autumn, I love you too

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Janet Martin