Guilty by Reason of Pride

Mere thought of you

Keens sharply

The dew

Reclining against the

sweep of the grass

Where yesterday we

Leaned heavily

On pride

fortifying a foolish impasse

because nothing is solved

by insults hurled

devilishly

against mid-day dark

where bright-eyed daisy

nods, hapless and lazy

its contrast subtle, yet vivid and stark

as now, thought of you

returns, subdued

in the echo of words

better left unspoken

while remorse and regret

weigh every word said

beneath the gavel suspended

above guilt’s token

As I weakly toy with

Thought of pleading the fifth

I scan its offering

Of futile glory

Then I bow my head

Uttering what I should have said

When it all began…

I’m sorry,

I’m sorry

© Janet Martin

Poetic Bloomings....a 'senses' poem

What is It?

It quiets the taunting of wanting

The aching of taking

The rhyme of time

In its ebb and flow

It soothes the pain of the mundane

The tear in our fear

The hurt of the dirt

Which others throw

It comforts the longing of belonging

The strife of this life

The why in good-bye

When we do not understand

It gives and forgives

It proves and reproves

It prevails, never fails

And it makes no demand

It bestows hoping to vain groping

Relief to our grief

Beauty to duty

In life’s wearying race

It makes winners of sinners

And delivers believers

It IS...
God’s infinite love
and mercy
and grace

© Janet Martin
 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.1 John 3: 1-3

Moment-tides

NaPoWriMo picture prompt

Where yesterday’s zephyrs

Flirted on meadows

Teasing the clover and tender wheat

You crowd against veiled

Ephemeral shadows

Of dark and light; waking and sleep

No flagrant wrath

No indifference

Nor riveting contrails, no lambent glow

To mark the path

Of your intent

You come, breath-pause…and then you go

You blur images

Stored in my thought

A river of perpetual flow

Reminding me that

I am caught

In moment-tides of ‘come and go’

Perplexed

Poetics Aside: mixed up poem

the mumble and jumble
of emotion and thought
spar in my being...
to write: or not

misunderstanding
is a double-edged grief
forgiveness and mercy
offer relief

to the jumbling and mumbling
contorted descry
sucking the well
of inspiration dry

hind-sight with its clarity
and perfect vision
offers no sympathy
in my hour of decision

Janet~

Fly...

Poetics Aside Day 15 prompt:
For today’s prompt, use the following five words in your poem: slash, button, mask, strap, and balloon. Use them in any order.

There is no 'easy button' in life
The bog and slash of yester-strife is past
Don't cry

Mask your sorrow with a smile
Strap faith's balloon to hope's trial; cling fast
And fly

There is no ceiling in the sky

Janet~

Doomsday?

Poetics Aside Prompt: Doomsday Poem

 

We acquire the art

To close our minds

To things we do not want to hear

But God has said

‘Every eye shall see’

In that moment when He will appear

‘Every knee shall bow

Every tongue confess

As stars rain upon the sod

That this is He

The great I AM

Behold; the one true God

***

They call it Doomsday

Ominous connotation

But for salvation

***

It must have felt like Doomsday…

*“God himself couldn’t

Sink the Titanic’ he said,

I guess he was wrong

*Walter Lord attributes it to a 'deck hand' at Southampton on April 10th 1912. He allegedly said it to Mrs Sylvia Caldwell, a second class passenger. See page 73 of the illustrated version of A Night to Remember.

***

Doomsday at last

Everyone relaxes...

...no more death

and no more taxes!

Janet~

The Smiles of Spring...

He sends me smiles

In daffodils

Lounging on forgotten hills

In dashing breeze

In sudden plea

Of thought beguiling poetry

In dipping sway

Of kited string

Drunk on the mellow lay of spring

He sends me smiles

In waning light

Of afternoon becoming night

And echoes dangling

On the air

Child-laughter unrestrained by care

The azure lilt

Of cloudless sky

Reflected in a true love’s eye

He sends me smiles

In robin-hymn,

In babbling brook, in willow-limb

In broadened shade

Of budding slope

In orchards fragrant with new hope

He sends me smiles

As nature sings

In one accord the songs of spring

© Janet Martin

Languorous Luxury

On some days

Thought ripples in silky

whispers from my tongue
Velvet vexation

On other days

It dances and leaps

Luring me on

in harmless temptation

On some days
It is a rising and falling sea

...a tempestuous menagerie
Of fragmented memory

But today

It is a languorous trickle

Of desire
and daring

Of honey
and lime

Dripping
and dallying

Taking its
precious, sweet time

From azure

And lemon infinity

Melting, pooling

In a golden ocean

Of hope
and possibility

J~

Almost Saturday

 Image Source: heartloveweddings.com

Dean Brody: The Kitchen Song

It's Friday...
another week of fumbling and stumbling
stroked from the
mighty calendar of existence
and the count-down
to the melody of
a Saturday morning slow-dance
is on... 

J~

Invisible Strength

This morning thought is heavy

And I don’t know what to say

So instead

I bow my head

And pray

And pray

And pray…

…and in this place of quiet

Where I don’t know what to say

I feel the whisper of One greater

Ease my heaviness away

© Janet Martin

Do you Believe...in luck?

She had to admit
this one had her stuck
she's not paraskevidekatriaphobic
she just doesn't believe in 'luck'

***

Finally she worked up the nerve to call...
Buying the biggest ficus tree she could find
she carried it up two flights of stairs
to your apartment.
The lady across the hall called 'hey'
Don't you know? He moved...
Yesterday.

***
Jack-pot...not

We all waited
Breath baited
This was the moment
It was all about!
The winner is...
Lights flicker and fizz...
and just like that
the power went out

***

There's no hope in a rabbit's foot
or in number sevens
and there's no such thing as luck...
I looked down as I spoke
Wishing I wasn't broke...
...hey, look, I found a buck!

***

Lucky for you
I have a bad memory

***

I remember too late
what I forget...
Now, I wish I could forget
What I hate to remember...

***

The money tree
in our back-yard
musta' got frost-bitten
and bitten hard

***

For better of worse
Be it blessed or cursed
For the rest of your life
I am your wife

If it weren't for bad luck
We'd have no luck, you say
Well babe, I plan to make you
the happiest unlucky man today

***

Janet~

Poetics Aside Prompt: unlucky...