Monday, May 28, 2012

Spring's Goddess


 

 

Sunday Wordle #58: blur, cocoon, tongue, brittle, burnished, flinty, scrape, rough, barnacles, austere, drenched, chalk

The flinty glare of winter recedes to a blur
The rough, brittle limb and austere, burnished fields
Are drenched in the ravishing textures of Her
As in countless shades Her abundance she yields

The cocoon-bud breaks open in Her verdant embrace
Barnacles bloom beneath Her florid brush
She is a tongue of emerald grace
Scraping winter’s chalk-lines from hills fair and lush

Earth is a ball-room of aureate bliss
Softly we touch the robe of this queen
For beauty and blossom unfurls in her kiss
She is spring’s goddess and her name is Green

© Janet Martin


Scarlet-echoed Breath



Image Source: freedom.portwallpaper.com


Oh, have we savored it today?
Inhaled its glorious air
Or have we paused a bit to pray
And thank God for His care?
Perhaps we’ve thought of those who fell
To look against the sky
With fading breath; the cannon’s knell
Their victory lullaby

Have we, as through our lungs it pours
In scarlet-echoed breath
Have we remembered blood-bathed shores
Of horror, pain and death
And are we filled with gratitude
To stand among the free
Inhaling this most priceless gift
The air of liberty

...and have we bowed in earnest prayer
to plead with God above
that we do not hold lightly here
this freedom that we have

© Janet Martin

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Love's Sacred Knot




The tie that binds
Oh, sacred thread
Woven by Holy God
As vows unite
Two hearts to one
And ties love’s hallowed knot

The tie that binds
No hand or pen
Its tenure can annul
Oh, precious cord
Secured by He
Who gives the knot its pull

The tie that binds
Love’s cherished bond
Of truth and faithfulness
A shackle
Not of cumbrous weight
But trust and tenderness

The tie that binds
Its filament
No human hand can sever
The tie that binds
Husband and wife
As God joins them together




Non-optional Juxtaposition




We are teachers;
We are students
Someone is watching
when we least expect
Action is speech
It tests our fluent
creation derived
of alphabet


Action is merely
a thought’s reflection
Thought is formed
by what we absorb
We teach while we learn
A juxtaposition
of far-reaching impact
we cannot ignore

We are teachers;
and we are students
No one escapes
this practical truth
We are never too old
to cease our learning
yet we become teachers
in tender youth

…for there is always
somebody following
observing the choices
we thoughtlessly make
Action speaks volumes
Love and compassion
are beautiful legacies
we cannot fake

Action is merely
a thought’s reflection
The wise man endeavors
to keep this in mind
for when we don’t expect it
somebody is watching
and thought is the medium
in which character is defined

We entertain
either angels or demons
in thought’s mystic cell
where only God can see
But sooner or later
as thought becomes action
Truth is revealed
In clarity


© Janet Martin


Mary's comment bears repeating!

...So true, Janet. We probably teach many in our lives when we don't even realize we are teaching! And many who are our teachers don't realize their role for us either. And then, of course, there is the Great Teacher who teaches the greatest lessons of all.



Settlements~


 Image Source; Clark Little

We settled back against the night
Drinking in the luxury
Poured from the flask of half-moon light
The wine of blue tranquility

We did not speak but understood
Instinctively the others thought
Oh, I would hold you if I could
But I am here and you are not

J~

Life's Sweetest Luxury



I have known life's sweetest luxury
Child's hand in mine
Asking for nothing more

I have known life's greatest entrustment
Child's hand in mine
Asking for nothing more

Janet

Of Gray or Golden


We cannot beg the little day
To add another hour
We cannot plead the bloom to stay
When it has ceased to flower

We cannot urge back to the stem
The petal that has fallen
Or taste youth's fair springtime again
To dodge the grip of autumn

We cannot un-speak uttered things
When it has once been spoken
Nor undo yester’s offerings
Of moments bent and broken

We cannot return to the past
To touch the gray or golden
But we can give our utter-best
To moments we are holding

© Janet Martin

Friday, May 25, 2012

Timeless Madrigal



No instrument, minstrel or crooner
Can imitate, or compete
The low, melancholy languor
Of this melody, tender-sweet
Into deep-hushed charcoal hollow
Over moon-gilded plateau
It rises and falls at my window
Now restless, now moody, now slow

No violin quickens the pulses
Like its haunting madrigal
A ballad of longing and losses
Wanders earth’s somnolent hall
It curves quickened notes in an ocean
Clutching love’s bitter-sweet thought
A solo of dissonant emotion
Soothing, yet searing the heart


There is no other song equal
In lyric, in measure or rhyme
No composition to rival
This hymn since dawning of time
Over the graceful willow
And earth's silver-blue diadem
Over the tear on my pillow
Croons the wind-song of one a.m.

J~