Of Imminent Departure

Press the curves of your ethereal body
closely to me; there is urgency
trembling beneath the sultry serenity
of imminent departure as we
put on our best brave faces
to preserve moments sealed in our hearts.

Climb over me, align the fire
in your tortured gaze with my heartbeat,
Quite suddenly your lips
blazing with passion and desire
suffocates the dreamer’s bliss
in the quiver of imminent departure

I must inhale the scent of you
in our last dance; heady musk
filling my veins; eyes of bachelor-button blue,
Your neck is warm, your breath sun-sweet intoxication
highlighting the agony of waiting
in the gathering dusk of imminent departure

A ball of crumpled wishes
lodges achingly in my throat
barring all the perfect words
that I would tell, before you go
across the pale blue hill; and so we stand
as I beg you to press closer

Seal your promise of return within my hand,
Not with summer's roses, for shortly
they too deck the sand in bleak shadow-breaths; oh, come closer
so I may hear; not the foot-fall of imminent departure
but the landing of your tear
upon my cheek, in this farewell hour 

J~

Dear Summer,

Farewells are not forever, love

and if the grace of God above

extends Time's sands another year

then we shall meet again, my dear

Come darling, the sun-drenched ballroom floor is ours...

For some reason I feel like summer ends at the end of the kid's summer vacation instead of at the end of September.

Life-plea

The previous train of thought sparked another

God, let me not squander the vapor-present

In pining or regret for the past, over, done

Nor dwell in futile fear for the Future

As it becomes present,

…then it is gone

© Janet Martin

 

Moments fall like the rain outside my window,

the tangible present slips to reflection…

but, as I walk toward the reflection

it disappears.

Time-scape

Behind us slumbers our Past,

A mind-scape only we can see

Before us gleams the Future, vast

A vale of trembling mystery

Beneath us slips the Present, brief

A smooth and subtle under-tow

Above us, from infinity

Is He who ordains Mercy’s flow

© Janet Martin

Oh Gentle Hand (A Sonnet)

Oh gentle hand that snuffs the summer bloom

Tarry awhile upon far yonder hill

For I must languish in the crickets trill

And wander through earth’s muted living-room

Let me persuade you to withdraw your clasp

And linger in a moment far away

The swell of seasons claims another day

Oh gentle hand, restrain your eager grasp

Why must you haste to glean the florid yield

Of purple loose-strife, aster, golden rod?

Cling to the solemn recompense concealed

Where drifting leaf wanders earth’s vapid sod

Oh gentle hand, pause over summer’s field

And revel in the handiwork of God

***

Oh gentle hand of subtle thievery

Nature responds beneath your tender touch

Relinquishing its verdure to your clutch

Be-taken by your ardent chivalry

But when your soft seduction is complete

And you have stripped fair summer of her gown

Disguising her demise with flaming crown

Before it falls to gutter, hedge-row, street

Oh gentle hand, resist a little more

The urge to spill its crimson aftermath

Oh gentle hand, I beg, plead and implore

Extend the silver sand and blue sky path

For I can sense the creaking of a door

And the foreboding of a chill-wind wrath

© Janet Martin

Storms Never Last Waylon Jennings

Of Pinnacles and Passion

Are you disappointed?

He gazed tenderly

Into her eyes

Where first they met

Last night

In a dream

Are you disappointed?

He thought she had not heard

So her arms wrapped

Around his neck

And she replied

Without a word

J~

Worship

Not a ‘Sunday-morning-pew-thing’

Not an hour, two or three

But may each day I am living

Be my worship unto Thee

Not a portion of recitals

Nor vain scripts of piety

But in spirit true and humble

May my daily worship be

© Janet Martin

Amazing Grace by Celtic Thunder

My Perfect Boast

Oh, let me boast of nothing else

But Jesus and His glory

For there is nothing in myself

Of worth, but His love’s story

Nothing of merit can I bring

To offer of my service

But what is granted by a King

Through love and mercy gracious

Oh, let me boast of nothing else

But Jesus and His glory

Who sacrificed His life for us

In love’s astounding story

© Janet Martin

Intangible Obsessions

The intangible obsessions of the mind

Grasp at the tenure of time’s thinning air

There is nothing in its filament we find

To soothe our anguish, longing or despair

To want is but to waste our granted lot

A trampling of life’s bloom into the dust

How bitter is the gall of selfish thought

As we consume the draught of tainted lust

To pant and chase the fathoms of the wind

Is but to clutch the fabric of a sigh

The intangible obsessions of the mind

Are boundless as the reaches of the sky

To open wide the eye within our thought

To see what grace and love and life have lent

Will stir us to desire what we’ve got

And fill the void of futile discontent

© Janet Martin