Friday, October 14, 2011
October's Song
Yellow leaves dive onto the windowsill
Like drunken finches pitching to their rest
They fold in pungent layers ‘gainst the mill
Where rusty patches quilt a sodden nest
Two seasons worth the chill-wind starves and fasts
Its vigor now is urgent; desperate; harsh
It tugs in bullish rage at pristine mast
And lines with gold, the lily-crested marsh
The cattail shivers in its iron wrath
The milk-weed spills to sea, a silky path
Silence threads begging limbs, exposed and bare
Betrayed by tresses, tattered and wind-blown
If glory to the woman is her hair
Then beauty to the tree must be its gown
The lowered sky offers no modest shroud
But rather it enhances her distress
A backdrop dark with tumbled glow’ring cloud
Triumphant in its frigid, blue caress
It paints against the cold horizon-line
A petrified, yet delicate design
The field accepts a shrug of verdant green
The folly of a lush, transient disguise
Short-lived, the comfort of deception’s sheen
Too soon beneath a frozen sheet it lies
Yellow leaves tumble to earth's greedy tomb
Swift, phantom fingers pluck valiant remains
None shall escape its purple-knuckled plume
None can withstand ruthless November rains
As they succumb to death's dark calliope
Waiting for Spring in womb's of quiet hope
Janet Martin
Missing You
Today it is not enough
To know the same rain
Creases our worlds
I long for warm fingers on my back
Sunshine,
The mouth of the sea
Teasing your toes
And mine
I want you more today
In the rain
Its patter amplifying
The pain
Of emptiness where
You used to be
All around me
Before trees swept scarlet tears
Into pictures of
By-gone years
And faded love
The sodden leaves
Losing their chatter,
Dead beneath my feet
It is the end of another summer
Time turns the corner
At the end of the street
It does not see me
Begin to wave good-bye
Stark chimney-flutes
Like giant corn-pipes
Slice the moping sky
J~
Heart Lessons
In youth we desire
To hold and touch
The things so dear to us
But life takes as it gives
Teaching us in its Passing
How to hold in our hearts
What we can no longer hold
In our arms
Teaching us
That we own nothing
And what life gives
Briefly at best
It will re-claim
That love comes in moments
Not a lifetime
That joy is something we choose
Not something that arrives on our doorstep
Like a parcel, special-delivery
A heart is surely stronger than arms
And larger
There is always room
For one more
Janet
There is a sense of loss in the sudden silence
As morning clamor fades gradually,
moving to the end of the driveway
then carried away on a big yellow bus.
Realization leaps from the clutter left behind
and we wash dishes thankfully.
We hold in our hearts those who would have stayed
And those who choose to leave…
Note: Emily, our oldest daughter, drives to school.
Above is the 'clamour' (aka arguing, teasing, debating,)
that moves to the end of the driveway before being carried off on the bus:)
Melissa 17,
Matt 13,
Victoria 10
Good Times!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
He and I
You drink Red Bull
I love coffee or tea
You watch Sport’s Center
I read poetry
You tell me a joke
And laugh til you cry
And all I can muster
Is ‘oh my’
I gasp at the sunset
You say, it's like many before
You wink at a nice ****
And I kick yours;)
I love to run
You prefer sitting
You like playing golf
I prefer knitting (and I hate knitting)
You love people and crowds
I, a tree-lined nook
You turn the TV up loud
I grab a book
You love to talk
I’m kind of an introvert
I start clearing the table
You ask, where’s dessert?
You drive your Peterbilt, shift those gears
All over the continent; I haven’t traveled in years
You thought I'd never change
And I thought you would
But at the end of the day
Things are still pretty good
Because when we turn on the stereo
Oh, baby, you and I both know
We love the same music, you and me
Oh, we’ve got a good thing going, don’t we?
Alan Jackson, George Strait, Josh Turner, George Jones
Tim McGraw, Celine Dion, Don Williams, Brooks and Dunn
Jim Reeves, Charlie Pride and Alison Krauss
Merle Haggard, and Porter, Conway, Mel Tillis
Daniel ‘O Donnell and Lady Antebellum
Rascal Flatts, Michael Johnson, Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakum
Dean Brody, George Canyon, Paul Brandt, and much more
Let’s close the windows and lock the door
Turn up the music hon, it’s just you and me
We’ve got a good thing going, don’t we?
Janet Martin
Yes, this is the humorous truth about 'he and I'.
But one thing we enjoy together is music.
What spawned this poem after 23 years of marriage?
He called this morning to tell me a joke, and while he was
wheezing with laughter I was waiting for the punch-line
then realized there was no more...he had said it!
The Heavens Declare...
The heavens declare your eternal glory
Infinite wonder and power and love
Symbol of mercy in every morning
As the deep awning of night you remove
Grand is the sky of a moon-caressed midnight
Grander the glory of dawn’s ruby sun
Vision of rapture, the cover of twilight
Foretaste of beauty surrounding Your throne
Who can foretell the vast shades of your choosing?
Who can declare how night’s glory will rise?
Who can define the palette you are using
Or brush out the gray of November’s low skies?
There is no artist, oh God, you have gifted
That outshines the grandeur or work of Your Eye
When the dark curtain of night has been lifted
Who can arrange one square inch of the sky?
The sun, moon and stars in celestial clockwork
Cannot be altered by one mortal hand
Who, as we gaze at the canvas above us
Doth the intent of the Lord understand?
Infinite mystery, unfathomed wonder
Floor of the vault where His holy feet tread
Mouth spewing lightning and violent thunder
Sea of serenity when its wrath has been shed
Beneath it we marvel, beneath it we tremble
Beneath it we gaze at the eye of the One
Who spoke into Being all things universal
His glory exceeds the moon, stars and the sun
The heavens declare and no man can deny it
Lord, there is none who escapes Your vast Eye
The heavens declare and all man will believe it
When You re-appear on the clouds of the sky
Janet Martin~
The other night I went for my run as twilight deepened to moonlight.
The sky, an awesome and absolute declaration of His glory and might!
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalms 19:1
“Dominion and awe belong to God;
he establishes order in the heights of heaven. Job 25:2
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars of the heavens quake,
aghast at his rebuke.
By his power he churned up the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.
By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the gliding serpent.
And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” Job 26:7-14
“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. Matthew 24:30
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Summer's Repose
When summer drops her azure gaze
It seems the whole earth knows
The scope of her allotted days
Is drawing to a close
As violet waves and golden streams
Don somber cloaks of rust
And petals drop forsaken dreams
To sepulchers of dust
Now stillness threads limbs, bare and stark
Where just a glance before
Bird-song and breezes tuned the park
And laughed on summer’s shore
The timbre of June's lilting mirth
Has lulled into a moan
As unseen fingers strip the earth
Of summer’s flowered throne
The flaming sumac steals the show
Her bold disdain is brief
Soon her bright, crimson tears will flow
With summer’s trampled leaf
Into a sea of seasons past
To tune the harps that play
Where every little leaf is cast
On shores of yesterday
Janet Martin
My 'Love-prayer'
May love never grow sable
Nor the song in the heart
Sitting at the same table
Yet oceans apart
May warmth never vanish
From our fingertips
May gentleness garnish
A smile on our lips
May whispers of passion
Laughter and desire
Kindle a faithful
And perpetual fire
May we touch each other
Without and within
Not existing together
Like cold mannequins
Lord, teach us to love
From the depths of our hearts
Lest we sit at the same table
Yet oceans apart
Janet Martin
Choices
http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2011/10/midnight-snack-006.html
Snack #2...
Beneath ivory exterior
She knows she's still there
Lies spill from the mirror
In a petulant stare
In youth’s out-stretched verdure
It is easy to dance
Earth’s ballroom a meadow
Of infinite chance
She hears the austerity
Of fall ‘neath her feet
The fruit of maturity
Is bittersweet
Girl becomes woman
At least in her skin
Will she be the dancer
Or grief’s mannequin?
Janet Martin