Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Cause for Celebration




It should be Christmas morning
The excitement would compare
All the shrieking, giggling, laughing
Clapping, cheering fills the air
But it is still November
What could bring on this display
Of celebration? Ah, yes, buses cancelled
There will be no school today

J~

Yes, the freezing rain has gifted us with our first official ‘snow-day’ of the season.

Travel Poem-lets


http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/poetry-prompts/2011-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-23#comment-101990


Of all the places we chose to explore
Whether mountain or desert or sea
The most beautiful sight was a little front door
Where a wee girl stood waiting for me.


Discarding the distraction of things
The baggage of Time
The weight of grief
You gathered me in your arms
And we traveled to
Undisclosed destinations

With great anticipation
We make lists, pack,
Load up the van
Play the alphabet-letter game
Stop for fries
At the road-side stand
Arrive.
Vacation.
With great anticipation
We re-pack
Load up the van,
Play the alphabet game
Stop for fries at the road-side stand
And count the hours
Until we are home

The tail-lights strung an endless strand
Of ruby Christmas lights
As far as the eye could see
I guess if there’s beauty in a night traffic jam
This is what it would be…


Janet~

Vacation



They traveled...
and regaled us with tales
Of mountains and castles
and seas they've sailed
The inns were splendid,
the vistas grand
The ocean green
on silver sand

...we ate apples on a moon-bathed fell
it was almost heaven, but we didn't tell...



J~

Today's poem-a-day prompt: travel

My Dearest Love...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-4wUfZD6oc&feature=relatedhhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

If you double-click the wheel in the center of your mouse on the above link it will open a new tab to the music I wrote this poem to...
This is another attempt at Margo's prompt a week ago, combined with this weeks prompt:

http://margoroby.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/to-someone-tuesday-tryouts/

(It is Goya writing the letter)

My Dearest Love,

There’s so much your eyes don’t tell me
I guess that it has been too long
Since I’ve held you close or you held me
As we danced to our song
The pear tree in the orchard
You know, the old gnarly one
Where I first leaned to kiss you
It died last year; they’ve cut it down
I’m staring at your picture
Though I know each line by heart
You are such a lovely creature
God’s out-standing work of art
And tonight I miss you deeply
Maybe it’s the freezing rain
On this cold November evening
That intensifies my pain
But I wish that I could see you
And the past would melt away
And I could start all over
In an unmarred yesterday
But I hear that you are happy
And I will not interfere
Though I fear I’ll ruin your picture
By the kisses of my tears
Darling, if I could I’d tell you
All the things I should have said
Before lonely got the best of you
And drove you from our bed
Outside the wind is rising
I can feel its tempest seep
Into the words I’m writing
And the memories I keep
And oh, I will not ask you
If you’d love me once again
But just that you’d forgive me
I can learn to live in vain
Time is a river flowing
To a broad and ethereal sea
And such will be my mourning
Into vast eternity
For it seems I cannot leave you
Though you’ve taken every trace
Every stitch of your belongings
But the vision of your face
As you’d wait inside the window
With a kiss I chose to spurn
Now it has become my hunger
And the draught for which I yearn
Darling, the fire is dying
And the dark is creeping in
And so soon I will be lying
Where our passion once had been
Before I chose to leave you
For the wolf outside our door
And I did not believe you
When you said you needed more
That you needed love not money
To make our house a home
Oh, I sure do miss you, honey
It’s so quiet here alone
‘If I could do things over’
I’ve said this a thousand times
But you’re still as gone as ever
And the heartless hour chimes
To remind me of the lengthening
Of heartaches misery
And the hollowness of living
When the life is gone from me
Darling, I’m going to close now
The candlelight has died
Darling, I still love you
Goodnight, my love, good-night

Forever Yours

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Ode to the Apple


Apple cakes
Apple tarts,
Apple crumble
Apple crisp
Apple muffins
Apple salads
Apple fritter
Apples dipped
Apple jelly
Apple butter
Apple loaf
With apple tea
Apple grunts
And apple goodie
Fit enough
For royalty
Apple strudel
Apple Danish
Apple stuffing
Apple flan
Apple dumpling
Apple stewed
Apple sauce
Poured from a can
Apple wine
Apple cider
Apple roll-ups
Apple pies
Apple cheese-cake
Apple trifle
Apples for a snow-man’s eyes
Apple Brown-betty
Apple pan-dowdy
Apple torte
And apple pared
Apple cobbler
Candy-apple
Apples sliced, or dried
In squares
Apples baked
With cinnamon-sugar
Apples on a Christmas tree
Tell me is there any other
Fruit with such versatility?

Janet!

I’m sure I have missed some juicy dishes, but this is what I could come up with at the moment. The poem-a-day prompt is to write about a fruit or vegetable and since I am immersed in apples today it seemed insensitive to the dear apple not to sing its praises.
I am in the process of peeling and paring these apples for the freezer, then they are ready to use in any of the previously mentioned goodies.

A Little Thing called Time




There’s a tender sort of sacredness
As earth yields to the Sublime
Rousing in us a keen awareness
Of a little thing called Time
And a deeper sense of future
Stirs the heart to contemplate
Midst the slumbering of nature
What is truly good or great

There’s beauty in the somnolence
And barrenness of earth
As heaven wraps a silver scarf
Across its drowsy girth
And wisdom crowns with splendor now
Its head with hoary frost
The hardened heart is tender now
Relinquishing its boast

There’s a pleading sort of hunger
In the silent aftermath
Hints of toiling, heat and summer
Scattered on earth’s tangled path
As we bow in trite humility
Our footsteps tread the line
Where countless feet have walked before
On a little thing called Time

Janet Martin

I don't know why, but some mornings I wake with a keen awareness of Time
pressing against me. A few hours later, as I drove to a neighboring farm a few miles away for some eggs, its passage seemed to leap from the landscape...

Thanksgiving Praise


Come, let us join together
Our hands in solemn prayer
Autumn escapes its tether
As winter chills the air
The leaf is in its cradle
The harvest in its vault
Its time to come together
Our Maker to exalt

Granny is in her apron
Baby on Papa’s knee
The turkey’s in the oven
And foot-ball on TV
The Hand upon our shoulder
Provides for moment-needs
His love, in boundless portions
Resides in every seed

Come let us join together
In carols of fervent praise
The heartache of our labor
Is held within his gaze
Dinner is on the table
Snowflakes drift on the air
Come, let us join together
In humble, grateful prayer

Janet

In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in October
p-s-s-s-t, but our hearts return to it with our American friends in November.
This is our dinner in progress a month ago...one of the girls took a picture:)
I did not have the permission from my table full of visitors to post their faces, hence, the cropping:(

Carrots


http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/poetry-prompts/2011-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-22



I’ve been in love with them
Since Gilbert tormented Anne…

Wash, peel, chop, slice
Measure, feel, pour, dice
Soup or cake, its humble stance
Draws eyes and lips into its dance
Orange music, common sanity
Choreographed for you and me
Suiting large hands, or small
Color and harmony
Of the purest kind
A gentle ballet
For the eye and the mind
Carrots orange, joining turnips yellow
Savory, warm, this little fellow
Adds sparkle to a dish where
Potatoes, cabbage, peppers, beans
White, purple, reds, greens
Gather in a bowl
Nourishment for the body and soul
Supper time, rally the troops
M-m-m-m good, love served as vegetable soup

Janet

Today's prompt: a fruit or vegetable as the title...