Wednesday, October 6, 2010

October's Symphony.....


Each shrub is veiled in misty lace
On ocher-colored fields a trace
Of summer’s emerald garment lies
Beneath the cobalt-colored skies

The Painter threads with ribbon rare
The crest of hill and woodland fair
While waves of orange, red and gold
Sweep the vespers silent fold

October’s floodgates open wide
With a rich and glorious tide
Ravishing the stoical land
In a transformation grand

His master-piece decks every tree
For rich and poor alike to see
The manifold wonder of Him
Caressing every leaf and limb

Before November’s maudlin gale
Seeps into each haunt and vale
Heaven breathes on land and sea
In October’s symphony

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Janet Martin

Monday, October 4, 2010

October's Citadel......


I have come to realize
I can know no sweeter prize
Than to find in every hour
The fragrance of the hidden flow’r
Today I lingered in the fell
Of October’s citadel
No release to summer past
Yet secure from winter’s blast
The pastureland, a silent shroud
Of the bounty she endowed
Azure sky, a vista grand
Shifting ‘neath a higher Hand
While October’s breezes dance
‘Cross the fields of Time and Chance
Here the summer heart resigns
To the purple of the vines
To the scarlet of the hill
Painted woodland, haunt and rill
Reluctantly she must concede
October is a gem indeed

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Janet Martin

After cleaning out the garden I lay atop the
Corn pile and reveled in October glory!

Dirt????


So this is it
After the waiting, the tilling the seeding
After the hoeing and weeding….and weeding
After the harvest…and the EATING!!!!
This is it………
At the end of the day
At the end of our life
At the end of our play
Our labor and strife
At the end of our pleasure
At the end of our hurt
Will our gathered treasure
Be more than dirt?

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Janet Martin

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth......
...but store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven....
...for where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also. Matt.6:19-20

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Heaven-made.......


The night was dark save for the spark
That pierced the jet-black sky
The night was still save for the chill
In the long breezes sigh
The night was bare but in the air
There breathed a hint of snow
The night was fine, the night was mine
With miles of love to go

Upon the porch I paused to watch
The minutes trickling by
I felt the thrill of autumn’s chill
The darkness of the sky
The whisper of the stars above
Celestial serenade
The night was fine, the night was mine
The night was heaven-made

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Janet Martin


Even the glow of city lights
on the horizon-line
cannot push through the blackness tonight!
It is a spectacular night tonight!!

Impressions of Fall


In vain the bloom clings to her dream
Futile the sedums rosy gleam
Tis but a journey to the stream
Lined with May’s asphodel
In vain the mother clasps the hours
Where she can hold her precious flowers
Before she stands in autumn’s bowers
Where summers shadows fell

The fragrance of the eucharis
The bloom of youth’s temporal kiss
The ecstasy of love’s caress
Are whispers in the air
She lingers in the setting sun
Embraces each bloom one by one
Autumn waits alas for none
And soon her arms are bare

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Janet Martin

Friday, October 1, 2010

Autumn's Childhood Eve........



I stood there as the night came down
In soft magenta tones
And suddenly I heard a sound
Upon the cobblestones
An echo of a distant day
Came flooding over me
The sound of boys and girls at play
In autumn’s childhood eve

Shouts and ripples of laughter
From the hill that I called home
I gaze at the emerald pasture
Where once I loved to roam
I could go and walk there now
It wouldn’t be the same
But I’ll stand here as memories flow
Of childhoods evening

Carpet on carpet of red, orange and gold
The tonic of crisp, country air
Reveling in the autumnal cold
In a bliss that comes without care
The scent of a wood-fire tingeing the wind
The wind tingeing each rosy cheek
In autumn’s childhood evening
Ah, suddenly I cannot speak

Autumns childhood evening
Surely life’s briefest dance
We answered youth’s fair beckoning
Without a second glance
But now I pause a little while
And hear its tender song
It washes over me; I smile
I hear children laughing; I go home

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Janet Martin

This little valley used to be home.
Now home is just above this little valley.

Things I Have Observed


It’s not in the consuming
But the hunger
That keeps us alive
It’s not in failure
But in admitting defeat
That we lose our drive
It’s not in arriving
But in the quest
That brings delight
It’s not in perfection
But simply giving our best
That brings sleep at night

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Janet Martin

Autumn Serenade


The lilies are sleeping
The breeze bears a chill
The branches are weeping
On river and rill
September has faded
Into the night sky
The passion of summer
A tear in my eye

Sing me a sonnet
Of crimson and gold
For now is the moment
Of beauty untold
It sweeps up the hillside
Creeps into the vale
Here is the hour
Of nature’s regale

Gossamer whispers
And dew laden threads
As autumnal splendors
Arouse from their beds
Yielding to the Hand
That wields heavens brush
Splashing the land
In a reverent hush

In coral-hued dawning
And purple fringed noon
In midnights blue awning
Beneath misty moon
In carpets of memory
And wood-land and dell
The echoes of summer
Wave a grand farewell

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Janet Martin

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Ps. 19:1