Shadows

I really can’t believe it
You’re growing up too fast
It seems each year that passes
Is quicker than the last

The limb outside my window
Exudes with burgeoning bud
Yet it seems but a breath ago
Its leaf fell to the mud

I guess it bears to reason
Why life flows swiftly by
Season over season
Like the twinkling of an eye

Your cheek once soft and silky
Now wears the ruddy blush
Of youth, vibrant and healthy
Where my soft kiss used to brush

The hand curled round my finger
Now grips a steering wheel
As I suddenly remember
How your wee grasp used to feel

I really can’t believe it
Those little years are past
But I can hear their heart-beat
In the shadows that they cast

Janet~

Last night I watched as a young mother covered her
baby's soft cheek with kisses.
"How do you know she likes it?"
someone asked her.
"I don't know if she likes it, but I do" was the mother's quick reply.

EXACTLY! Those years are gone so fast!

Short, Sweet Ride

Some people say it’s a long road
This journey they are on
They look with drooping shoulders
Into the great beyond
But darling, let me tell you
What I feel deep inside
Knowing you and loving you
Has been a short, sweet ride

I hear folk say that life is hard
They call it living hell
But I’ve been close to heaven
When the night is soft and still
In your arms I’ve tasted
Life’s warm and kinder side
And darling, somehow you make
This life a short, sweet ride

I could not bear this journey
It would be long and hard
If you did not love me
Then soon I would be tired
I could not bear this journey
Without you at me side
But darling, if you love me
It will be a short, sweet ride

Janet~

All I Know

I can’t turn water into wine
Sometimes I wish I could
Clouds don’t turn into sunshine
Just because I wish they would

I don’t think wrinkles are a sin
And I make no apologies
I’ve earned the skin that I am in
Worth is not defined by these

I don’t know what the future holds
But we get older every day
As minutes and hours unfold
It sweeps the glow of youth away

I don’t know what I will face
As the years dissolve like snow
All I really know is this
Love is ageless and I love you so

True love, they say is like fine wine
Growing better year by year
You could be no love of mine
If with age love would disappear

I don’t know if we’ll survive
Darling, all I really know
Is every day that I’m alive
I’ll do my best to love you so

Janet~

Jim just told me he wishes someone would have prepared him for this ‘getting older’ thing and that he is not impressed.
I told him I don’t think anyone can prepare us even if they would want to.
To each one of us it is our own personal journey

Some Days

On some days the hands that I hold are enough
I’m grateful through and through
Complete, complete in a moment of love…
…but on some days I wish it was you

On some days love is lithesome and fair
The sky is perfect blue
On some days I become keenly aware…
…that on some days I wish it was you


J~

Tool

I write and I write and I write
An insatiable appetite
Everywhere, it seems to me
A poem hovers, waiting to be

Can I grasp with humble line
The thought I seek to define?
Twenty-six letters, my tool
A pen-stroke away from the fool

Wisdom and filth are aligned
In the tip of a quill and the mind
What a privilege to hold in my hand
This powerful tool; a pen

Janet~

As Naturally as Breathing

No more have I the power to force love
Than I am able to draw the flower from a bud
If I could force love then I know that I
Could coax from the cocoon, a butterfly

I cannot insist that you love me
Love is the eternal mystery
Beyond reason and beyond measure
It is the foundation of life’s richest treasure

My dear, if I could then I would tell you
Why I love you the way I do
But I cannot; I know only this
Loving you is my bitter-sweet bliss

Loving you comes as naturally as breathing
I don’t contemplate its rhyme or reason
And if you should in return love me
I would humbly reply, my dear, I thank thee

J~

Those Thoughts of You

Those thoughts of you…

Sometimes they waft like a song in the air
Or prey on my mind like an unspoken prayer

Sometimes they march in an orderly line
And sometimes they trickle in drops down my spine

Sometimes those thoughts of you simply hover
Above and around me; an intangible cover

Sometimes they’re the face I am calmly tracing
And sometimes they set my pulses racing

Sometimes it’s thoughts of you that keep
Me awake; sometimes they lull me to sleep

A quiver, a shiver, cascading then calm
Closer than ever, your heart in my palm

Love me, love me not; it’s the game they play
But they will not, oh just will not stay away

Janet~

Dreamer

Once, not so very long ago
T’was I who would sit here, you know
Bare-feet dangling in the air
Best friends came in teddy bears
How was I, pray tell, to know
Just how fast the years would flow?

Once when I was just like you
I could be a dreamer too
But time can be a ruthless stream
Tearing from the heart, a dream
I smile to see you sitting there
Once I was you, without a care

Janet~