Imagery

When morning spills a startling chill

From scarlet-satin skies

And we observe a keener verve

Within her restless eyes

When tree-tops blush beneath her brush

Teasing the verdant limb

We recognize the sure demise

Of summer growing dim

But we cannot dissuade or stop

An hour’s velocity

The hand that tugs the bashful bud

Will strip the leafy tree

And those who once dashed unabashed

By life’s rollicking rhyme

Begin to see Mortality

Within each tick of Time

As morning spills a startling chill

On summer’s memory

We recognize within her eyes

More than we plainly see

© Janet Martin

It is downright COLD these past few mornings!

I Want You

…like a baby nuzzling to its mother

And it is enough

Come to me now

Oh, my love

Do not fade away

Into the silver-gray dusk

For I need you

There is no other

Lover

That can warm me

Quite like you

But your waning gaze

Rouses concerns

You are growing distant

Even in your half-grin returns

I sense you

Pulling away

And all I can do is beg you to stay

To lay your head on my shoulder

Just one more hour

Perhaps,

When I am older

I will have the will-power to

Let you go

Already I know

 I will miss you so

Darling,

I will not ask for much

But oh please,

That I may languish ‘neath your touch

A little longer

Only until I am stronger

For I am so much colder

Without your kiss

Upon my shoulder

© Janet Martin

Yes, the sun is

waning a bit…

Suddenly We Remember...

It’s easy to forget

When the afternoon is a golden pool

Of moments unraveling from an azure spool

Into an hour of warm summer-love

As from the pine-spire the woo of a dove

Rides on the argent breeze

And moments become memories

Without a second glance

Because it’s so easy to forget

In the spicy-sweet trance

Of bronze-burnished bloom

How heaven’s lambent broom

Can sweep away

The remnants of a summer day

Without the slightest regard

For the echo of bare feet

Thrumming across the yard

Or the maple tree, weeping scarlet-red tears

Into the portent of silver-crowned years

Then, suddenly we remember
And we feel old

Even before life’s bittersweet
Cold

© Janet Martin

It only dawned on me today that we are three days away from 'officially-fall'! It's so easy to forget when

the afternoon is a golden pool...I'm going back out there.
 

Until We Are Weak

Until we are weak, we cannot be strong

Perfect strength is not reserved for the young

But through One whose promises agelessly speak

We cannot be strong until we are weak

His grace is enough for all mortal despair

Our infirmities never exceed His care

Nothing on this earth over-powers His love

For all mortal despair His grace is enough

The darkness is great, it cannot comprehend

A love that has known no beginning or end

Though the Light shines on it, darkness chooses hate

It cannot comprehend; the darkness is great

Love is so abused; often misunderstood

Thus, we are confused when we hear ‘God is good’

Love appeared weak; He answered not, though accused

Often misunderstood; Love is so abused

Love proved its power as the cross bore His blood

The Lion, a Lamb shedding redemption’s flood

From ancient Calvary to present hour

As the cross bore His blood Love proved its power

Until we are weak, what we cannot truly know

Is His perfected strength; He has promised it so

God, give us courage then, to surrender and seek

What we cannot truly know until we are weak

© Janet Martin

 Poetic Bloomings invites us to attempt a Swap Quatrain

The Swap Quatrain was created by Lorraine M. Kanter.

Within the Swap Quatrain each stanza in the poem must be a quatrain (four lines) where the first line is reversed in the fourth line. In addition, line 2 must rhyme with line 1, and line 3 must rhyme with line 4 and so on, BUT not repeat the same rhyming pattern on subsequent stanzas.

Rhyming pattern: AABB, CCDD, and so on.

Her Departure

(oops, I need to change the time on my camera ! no, I did not see tomorrow's sunset today:)

Beyond the trees she fell

A flaming crimson orb

Into the mystic swell

Of history's never-more

No farewell did she speak

But simply flung her shroud

Against the higher peak

And to the lower cloud

We watch in quiet awe

Her riveting descent

As night-shades softly draw

Across earth’s humble tent

© Janet Martin

Assurances

I’m glad we cannot see

What the unknown holds in its flask

For every answer revealed

Would spawn more questions to ask

I’m glad we do not know

What is concealed ahead

For every joy that life bestows

Is buoyed by its dread

I’m glad nobody dangles

A life-joy-sorrow-graph

Before our eyes, or else I fear

We would forget to laugh

I’m glad we cannot pry

The unknown from Time’s sand

For then we could not focus

On the moment in our hand

I’m glad for blessed assurance

To calm, soothe and console

For it is God who holds the flask

And He is in control

© Janet Martin

Resolute Rendering

Though we push against the current

And we fight against the flow

It insists on moving forward

That is just the way life goes

Somehow on a rainy night

The truth is amplified

And there is no denying it

This life is a short ride

Each tender-twinkled moment

Is a drop in time’s vast sea

We cannot afford to waste

One mite; but taste it gratefully

It’s a forward facing journey

We cannot return to dance

In the repeat of one moment

Yet each is a second chance

To push against Time’s current

Is foolish futility

Life is but a flow of moments

To experience… thankfully

© Janet Martin

Yes, even the tumultuous tides of the teen-years pass far too swiftly…

Completely

That’s how it is; all-consuming

And all fulfilling in the self-same breath

Because

Love is never

Half-the-way

It’s an all or nothing life or death

Can only half a flower bloom?

Has half-a-sun ever risen?

I cannot love

Only half of you

It’s just that way

My darling

Love is not a thing we hold then discard

In search of something better or new

Love simply ‘is’

For better and worse

Not something

We own or ‘do’

And should you ever have cause to wonder

When minor loves demand my care

I beg of you

To remember

My love for you

Is always there

To love you only half-the way

Is to settle for halves

In every day

I could never settle for

Half a kiss

Darling, that’s just the way love is

© Janet Martin

It's Just That Way...Alan Jackson