To those north of the sunny south...

Kind Sir, you’re mistaken

We're not really taken

By your candid blue gaze and your brawny-bold stance

But if you insist

We will not resist

The lure of your passion and thoughts of romance

Oh, we’ll let you woo us

And pretend to love us

While we also pretend to fall for your smile

Your laughter entices

Fool-hardy sacrifices

Yet we are quite willing to allow you to beguile

us with your charm

as we lean on your arm

Ignoring the facts that quietly persist

Behind your glance

As we frolic and dance

Are the age-old truths that forever exist

You hold in your candor

And pleasing demeanor

The power to slip from illusions of spring

As smiles turns to scowls

Warm sighs to brute howls

And winter returns for one final fling

© Janet Martin

Yes, we are in shorts and flip-flops (Emily was tubing on the river for goodness sakes!!!)

But mittens and scarves are not packed away

We know that April can pack a mean punch

And we know this weather is NOT here to stay…

So get out and enjoy it while you can!!!

A Monday Morning Melody

The morning mist that softly kissed

Earth’s placid, slumb’ring brow

Has melted to the quiet blue

Beneath the mellow glow

Of daylight stretching, softly etching

Rugged timber-line

Against the sigh of heaven’s eye

And glorious sunshine

Duties command instructs the hand

But cannot steal the heart

As symphonies borne on the breeze

And springtime’s budding art

Renews our hope; broadens the scope

Of dreams that dormant lay

Mankind rejoices with the voices

Spilling from earth’s fray

The vigor of youth’s crazy love

Stirs rampant wanderlust

Its beckon from a hillside throne

And lanes of wakened dust

The morning mist that softly kissed

The tear from winter’s cheek

Opens the door; across earth’s shore

…begins another week

© Janet Martin

Unfolding Drama

A drama unfolds

outside my window

Unscripted scene

of inherent bliss

Its gestures are subtle,

its sources quite hidden

yet its delivery

is wild and intense

It rustles through hallways

where nobody follows

save for the breeze

dangling in mid-air

I reach out my hand

but the translucent actors

just keep on singing

without a care

Vaguely I recall

previous imitations

but never have I seen it

quite like this

I let it carry me

without hesitation

It drives my woes

to the sky’s emptiness

What is this ravaging, wonderful thing?

Ah yes, I’ve heard tell…

…they call it Spring

© Janet Martin~

The Sunday Whirl

Spring Sonnets

The cattail sheds its ragged over-coat

The pond, released from winter’s icy clutch

Lies mute, an amber gem on earth’s dull throat

As sepia landscapes ache for April’s touch

The sun frolics among the tumbled hills

Of cumulus and cirrus rivalry

And in the maple tree a robin trills

In carols of dissonant harmony

Ah spring, push back stark winter’s stricken shroud

And wash the earth with tears from heaven’s cloud

Renew love’s song upon our tepid lips

And stir within our hearts re-surging hope

As earth responds to verdant fingertips

We tune our ear to heaven’s calliope

For nature throbs with newness and with life

The old has passed away and it is done

Come; thrust aside the chains of harbored strife

Redemption sings in violet undertone

No merit dwells in trampled husks of loss

Come, leap for joy, as sorrow sheds its dross

As surely as when winter turns to spring

As surely as the bud inspiring bloom

As surely as faith’s quiet offering

So too, God’s grace dispels our cloak of doom

Come; cast aside your worry and despair

Tomorrow’s needs have never yet been met

Inhale the passion tinting fragrant air

The darling of life’s seasons lifts her head

With promises, not coin-tossed in the dark

She spreads her garments over hilltops stark

The thunder meditates in vaulted plains

It rolls in afterthought along its berth

Delivering the tune of sudden rains

To limbs up-lifted from the patient earth

And now the dormant still-life bursts with zest

As emerald kaleidoscopes of glory surge

An ocean rushing to the azure crest

Where land and sky in one grand hymn converge

Ah spring, the harbinger of sun-filled days

We lift with nature’s voice our songs of praise

© Janet Martin

The Most Beautiful Part

It slips away in misty gray

Over the hill so blue

No backward glance, no long last dance

…my happy day with you

In oceans aloft and ever so soft

With nothing but a whispered sigh

It pushes away, my beautiful day

Into the by and by

And now as I gaze to the sunset blaze

Silently, tenderly

I fold to my heart, its most beautiful part

A precious memory

Janet~

Replay from a year ago...Reasons

Moments…clamoring for my attention
Then dissolving before I can give them
Their just due
Duty……in every shape and dimension
Crowding around me, distracting me
From you

Blessing…imperceptible in its grandeur
Of minutest and invisible detail
Surrounds me
Life….. a passage of splendor
For I am slipping and sliding toward Your
Arms around me

Seasons…marked by changing faces
Evolving into a lifetime
Of yesterdays
Reasons…..silent, motionless traces
Outlining thoughts of You
In poignant praise

Janet~

Busy day...time for a re-play:)
It is how I feel...a constant slipping and sliding toward victory!

Rolling Pin Collection

 

Mary, thank-you for reminding me to do this...it is a long ever-due promise I made to Megan, at Lilacs and Lavender. They used to be in baskets...as you'll notice on the last few photos, I have moved some up on top of my cupboards where they don't need to be dusted quite as often:)See comments for further explanations on how this came to be...:)

Dream to the Stars...

 Picture source: http://vi.sualize.us/mohadese/face/

Dream to the stars and beyond, my dear child

Dream to the depths of the sea

Wanting and wishes are what spur you higher

To what God has planned you to be

So dream with the Keeper of stars in your eyes

Dream with your hand in His grip

For He holds the plan for each day of our lives

As moments to memory slip

Equip your dreams with the wisdom and might

That grounds us in eternal truth

Let His wonder fill your wee heart with delight

Remember Him now, in your youth

© Janet Martin

Remember your Creator
   in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
   and the years approach when you will say,
   “I find no pleasure in them”—Eccles. 12:1