Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Taking Charge...


Sharp half-breath stops me in mid-step
I feel a slight trembling deep in the earth
Suddenly the air is a mixture of blue
And laughter and longing and you…

I’ve looked at this picture…how oft, I can’t tell
I know every curve, every line so well
Yet, still you can stop me as I’m passing by
Still I get caught in the spell of your eye…

You stare at me now from a twenty inch screen
But I am no girl of seventeen
And life has taught me a lesson or two
In spite of what pictures and memories can do…

Love does not envy, it does not keep score
And though I still love you like never before
The sea wipes away footprints as the hand does a tear...
A click of a key… and you disappear…

J~

Kiss...



Your skin is smooth and bronze and silk
Your sigh, is warm like honeyed milk
Your touch, is like the morning dew
And your eyes, like pools of blue
But your lips are sweetest bliss
And all I need is this…
Your kiss

Your smile, is like the morning light
As shadows fall into the night
I could sleep upon your arm
It is strong and kind and warm
But the best, I must confess
Is simply this…
Your kiss

I won’t forget your silhouette
Etched against the dusk
And how the air fell ‘round us there
Tinged with mist and musk
I’m not sure just why it is
But summer, how I love…
Your kiss

J~

The 'gathering season' has begun in earnest now...

Another Porch


Somewhere on another porch
In another town
You will sit and watch
The sun go down
You’ll play a song
On your guitar
Making a wish
On the first star

On someone-else’s porch
You’ll walk through the front door
Sit at someone-else’s table
As she asks ‘would you like some more?’
And you’ll smile
Like only you can do
And then she can’t help it
But smile a little too

Somewhere on another porch
Under an August moon
With the song from a weeping willow
Strumming a soulful tune
As a thousand, thousand candles
Flicker in a perfect sky
You will be saying ‘hello’
Instead of good-bye…

J~

Sleepless


Whisper of starlight falls from the sky
Oh, what a beautiful lullaby
We sit together, she and I
As the night falls low to the earth
Once I could hold her and rock her to sleep
Pray for the angels a close guard to keep
Now we simply watch the midnight grow deep
Spawning the new day’s birth

Dazzling splendor, pristine perfection
Silence renders the air of reflection
Daughter and mother share wordless affection
Contented smile on their lips
We lie on our backs to ponder the skies
The words we lack are expressed in soft sighs
Night bestows its own paradise
Complete with dill pickle chips…

Janet~

Tonight Melissa couldn’t sleep so I suggested she sit on the deck for a little while…
I couldn’t resist joining her…and she and I, being ‘cut from the same fabric’
Drank in the perfection of an August hush with very few words…all was quiet except for the crunch of dill pickle chips…(they are her favorite so I decided to surprise her with a midnight snack.)

Monday, August 1, 2011

Very Fine Company


Tonight…
…its song rises around me
As the sun slips from the brink of the sky
The air is heavy with turquoise and silver
And the rippling crescendo of a crickets lullaby

On some nights…
… the twilight falls from the tresses
Tinted with scarlet, amber and rust
Tonight I can almost touch it as it rises
In a throbbing cadence from the dew-laden dust

Tonight…
The blue shadows tremble with yearning
Succumbing, it seems, to the memories they bring
I know…to the past there is no returning
And sadness is not a terrible thing

Tonight…
Alone in the silent surrender
Where daylight folds into the moon-softened mist
Thoughts return…warm, raging and tender
Of moments once cradled and cherished and kissed

Tonight…
There is nothing to scatter the stillness
Save for the breezes that rise, just to die
I feel you closer in the deepening darkness
Almost I see the light in your eye

Tonight…
I wish you were right here beside me
Tonight I wish that you could not sleep
But thoughts of you always seem to find me
And thoughts of you are very fine company to keep

J~

Tonight I 'wrote' some of this in my head while I was running…
It was almost dark when I returned…and so quiet.
The road I run on is closed due to bridge construction
so there is no traffic, and a few times I could hear almost perfect silence…
…well, if you don’t count my heart beating, and huffing and puffing and footsteps and crickets…:))

Inseparable...






I could no more walk away from you
Than the meadow could walk from the kiss of the dew
Or the sun could escape the azure sky
Or the blue could fade from your tender eye

I could no more escape your trance
Than the willow its shadows that flicker and dance
Or the still of the midnight, its low, drawn-out breath
Or the dawn the light as it floods the earth

Oh my love, I could no more separate from you
Than the wave could diverge from the ocean so blue
Or the warmth from your skin or the sigh from your lips
Or the longing that bleeds from love’s finger-tips

I could no more walk away from you
Than the season can flee its predestined avenue
For somehow, my love, like an invisible sea
You seem to fill every niche in me

The ivy to the wall, the root to the tree
The rise to the fall, the river to the sea
The grass to the field, the eye to the tear
So it is with love, my dear

I could no more walk away from you
Than one day could be divided into two...
Inseparable components never to part
For you are in every beat of my heart

J~

Comfort


As we read His word
He takes our failure
Our despair
Our shame
Our care
Our wantonness
Our deceit
Our brokenness
Our defeat
Our misery
Our hatred
Our weariness
Our dread
Our longing
Our fear
Our blindness
Our tear
Our darkness
Our grief
Our doubts
Our unbelief
Our weakness
Our pride
Our foolishness
Our lies
Our loneliness
Our wretchedness
Our emptiness
Our hurt
Our hopelessness
Our anger
Our lust
Our thirst
Our unworthiness
Our indifference
Our anguish
Our pain
And transforms them to…
A Living Hope in Him

Janet~

Exonerated


The impact of failure slips its noose ‘round my neck…
Though with selfish argument I weakly object
Surely I must bear my well-deserved fate
I stare at the clock on the wall…and wait

Condemnation shrieks and justice demands
It tears at my weakness and clutches my hands
Demons of darkest contempt and despair
Sneer as they spit in my face, on my hair

Ah, well I should flounder in this wretched hole
Count all my miseries with naught to console
I, above all deserve to be cursed
With a noose ‘round my neck and my face in the dirt

But then, through the torment, the taunting and doom
I feel a Presence dispersing the gloom
As demons tremble, slinking into the night
Hope floods the darkness and fills it with light

With tender whispers and loving commands
With healing fingers and nail-scarred hands
He removes the noose in a tender embrace
And gentle reminders of His unfailing grace

Forgiveness and healing and unending love
Course deep within me from somewhere above
Promises of Him brush away my defeat
Shadows grow dim; His mercy is sweet

Oh, what manner of love can this be?
That God up above should love even me
…the weight of my failure grows soft ‘neath His touch
As I remember…He loves me so much

Janet~

Job 18