Dirge for the Year Departed.....

The winds have wept a mournful dirge
The seas have moaned a madrigal
The pale moon and the stars converge
To join this tongue-less musical
The hill a quiet vigil keeps
As the last fading minute weeps……

And here we gather throng on throng
In solemn, pensive reverie
The trite expression of the tongue
Cannot beckon now to thee
Slipping through Time’s misty veil
Silent beauty; ethereal

So what of fiercest tears we’ve shed
What of the dew-drop or the rose
They are as laughter of the dead
Obscure in history’s repose
All that has been again will be
Such is this mortality

Then ash to ash and dust to dust
The fair and evil quickly pass
And all the mortal gains we trust
Are temporal as the terrene grass
On this veiled porch mankind must wait
And dream and search and contemplate……..

….the purpose of this fleeting hour
The deeper meaning of it all
Life; the picture of a flower
The seed, the bud, the bloom, the fall
As one more quick year softly slips
From the whisper of our lips

Some lift their glass to lesser gods
And praise the merits of their lust
Forgetting, ‘neath their feet the sod
Waits to reclaim their wealth of dust
But wiser men humbly resign
Their dividends to One divine…..

Though winds may weep a mournful dirge
Though seas may quote a madrigal
Time and eternity converge
Somewhere beyond this darkened veil
Life does not end beneath the sod
Time is our pathway up to God…………..

Janet~

Summer Song on a Winter Night

It trickles from the starry tresses
Falls like teardrops from the moon
And its tender note caresses
With a soft and winsome tune
Drifting from each haunt and hilltop
From the pine tree robed in white
Muffled by a snowy carpet
Soulful sonnet of the night

Plaintive strain of playful breezes
Rippling ‘cross a field of green
Warm the laughing wind that teases
Boughs where once the snow had been
Scent of pear and cherry blossom
Wafting o’er a pleasant sea
Skipping now on winter’s bosom
Summer’s gentle melody

Halt the chilling gale now dashing
Unconfined by leaf or flower
I can hear a sonnet splashing
From a warm and muted hour
Murmuring from over yonder
Where the purple twilight spawns
An orchestra of warmth and wonder
Melting on the violet lawns……

Here beside the glowing fire
Some may hear the cold wind moan
But beneath its calloused ire
I can hear a sweeter tone
Singing to me hymns of summer
‘Neath a low and lazy moon
From the frigid arms of winter
I can hear the song of June

Janet~

The In-mate.....

Silently, invisibly
He unsettles the
Otherwise calm and unruffled
Meditation
Brooding, yet innocently
Masterminding
Waves of
Tormenting vexation
In the dead of night
Or soft rose dawn
Haunting, extreme silences
With an inaudible moan
While others slumber
In midnight’s palm
Without a care
This inmate murmurs
Plaintive notes
Upon the quivering
Frosty air…………..
No small thing, he
Employing idle thought
As hope and human misery
Become entangled
In a helpless knot
Through bars of light
His shadow moves
Imprisoned not by guilt,
But by his love
He pays his dues
In vexing notes
The ever-present
Muse……….
Feeding a slow-burning fire
Of reverence and
Desire

Janet~

Passage-way......

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives
All others lie dormant beneath Time’s vast skies
Or sleep in the depths of phantom seas
Tangible only in memories
Today is the first day of our here evermore
Before it slumbers forever on Past’s hazy shore

Today is the bridge to our hopes and our dreams
The moments in which opportunity gleams
Soon they surrender to coffers of dust
Moments remembered, of rubies and rust
Today is the first day of what is yet to be
On our one way passage to eternity

Janet~

Happy New Year....

As we stand and look back today
Tell me; what do you see?
As the old year slips away
Into eternity
As echoes roll across our minds
And faces blur its screen
As this year now is left behind
In pastures ever-green
As we review with smiles and tears
Our moments one by one
And contemplate how quick the years
Seem to be here and gone
Is it with joy or sad regret
We bid this year farewell
One to remember or forget…
Come midnight’s silent knell
Who will we hold close to us?
Who will we keenly miss?
As we celebrate tonight
Will we remember this?
The One who holds in His control
Each breath and passing hour
Remains unchanged; He loves us still
And keeps us by His power…………

Janet~

Happy New Year and
May God be with you
And richly bless you in 2011~

The New Year Waits..........

It waits for us in shrouds of mist
Its bowers hid from view
The old year, sadly, fondly kissed
Now sleeps beyond the blue
And in its stead a new year gleams
On hope’s translucent spires
Upon its wings we sense new dreams
New visions and desires

The disappointed tears we’ve wept
Now sleep beneath the sod
Yesterday’s failures are swept
Into the arms of God
As lovingly He wipes away
Our folly; every trace
And gives to us a brand new day
A gift of love and grace

The old year rests in history
With myriads before
Ahead we see but mystery
A vague, yet open door
On its threshold now we stand
Between the old and new
One thing remains; God’s faithful hand
To gently guide us through

Janet Martin~

When Springtime Comes Again

The bud will soon break through the limb
Now clad in frosty white
The gray sky will be blue again
And warm, this cold stark night
The storm of words can't be retrieved
And truth can be a foe
When sweeter lies which we believed
Lie trampled in the snow.......

Spite and anger strip away
The bud, tender and pure
On the ground in sad array
Its valiant seeds endure
The echo of a softer song
Drifts to me on the breeze
But we are no longer young
How trite are memories

After winter comes the spring
The season of new life
Into its zephyr we will fling
The darkened veil of strife
A brand new bud now sleeps below
The cold and morbid grain
Waiting to bloom, beneath the snow
When springtime comes again

Janet~

Art Display.....open to public

If God should spread across the sky
For all man to behold
Each moment of our year gone by
In pictures bright and bold
And if we stood to gaze upon
This cosmic gallery
To witness all the things we’ve done
I wonder what we’d see…….

Janet~