A New Beautiful

Yes, the week has succeeded in almost stripping this tree...It's next robe will be white:) The air has a 'white' feel to it this morning.

Do not weep

Though what we had

Has softly slipped away

We cannot keep

Within our hand

One jot of yesterday

But, oh my love

Within our hearts

We hold its echo fast

For sorrow’s joy

That day imparts

Is soon a shadow cast

But just as beauty

Fades away

And summer becomes fall

So, my love

Is this new day

A whole new ‘beautiful’

The canvas on

Which time is breathed

Is graciously imbued

With glorious dawn

And gentle eve

In twilight’s solitude

And though its eager

Fingers clench

Time’s ever-hastening hour

We smile

For it can never quench

The bud that holds the flower

Though it cannot

Revive the bloom

Of summer’s bountiful

It spreads across

Earth’s living-room

A whole new beautiful

© Janet Martin

Masterpiece

The other day I bicycled off the beaten track through a trail in a farmer’s field. It was so tranquil; the silence like a hymn, the atmosphere a paradox of hunger and satisfaction.

The rush of you embracing me

Is autumn’s keen

Reality

The beautiful and bittersweet

Fall like gold leaves

At my feet

Behind me tender echoes flow

Before me hope

And hunger glow

The whisper of your lips is kind

Soft fingertips

Against my mind

The rolling landscape of the past

Shapes memories;

I hold them fast

Love paints its precious, priceless art

To fill the walls

Within the heart

The rush of you embracing me

Blends agony

And ecstasy…

…where life demands tender release

Ah, this is love’s true

Masterpiece

© Janet Martin

My daughter told me last night when she looks out at all the autumn beauty, she is so totally happy and so completely sad…yes, me too.

Caledonia   the landscape 'felt' like the music in this song...
J~    

When all the World is Red and Gold

When all the world is red and gold

Against a gray-blue slate

When bounty gleams where buds unfold

To fill earth’s burnished plate

When lilting zephyrs start to moan

Adrift on autumn’s sway

We sense the solemn undertone

Of Time slipping away

The aster sheds its purple tear

The milkweed spills its pod

As remnants of another year

Adorns the umber sod

And from the tumbled garden; wild

With summer’s aftermath

We hear the echo of a child

Upon its trampled path

The harbinger of winter’s cold

Is such a dashing fellow

When all the world is red and gold

With scarves of orange and yellow

But as the woodland sheds its tear

In each little leaf-flower

We sense the closing of a year

Beyond this gilded hour

The daylight wanes; the eager dusk

Consumes its moody fringes

In bitter-sweetness; soft then brusque

A gate on soundless hinges

Closes; the darkness has no sound

Save for the vesper crying

In leaf-notes as they deck the ground

…another year is dying

© Janet Martin

Morning-tide

We stand upon the shoreline of a vast mysterious sea

Gazing upon the rippling mien of what is yet to be

A gold leaf hovers on the air then drops into time’s ocean

In petal-grief of summer fair and love’s tangled emotion

As daylight eases o’er the deep and morning warms its tresses

We cast aside the shroud of sleep beneath virgin caresses

Upon the cusp of centuries we reach for Love’s kind favor

A cup to fill with memories; of moment-drops to savor

…before it slips into the vault of vast never-returning

 We take hope’s cup and lift it up to living, loving; learning

© Janet Martin

I wrote this poem this morning but my cup started filling with the days moments before I had a chance to post it;))

Tell Me Again

Tell me again,

Who formed the earth and heaven?

Tell me again

Who parted the Red Sea?

Tell me again, why is it I’m forgiven

When my birthright

Is my iniquity?

Tell me again,

Who left His throne in Heaven?

A perfect Lamb

To be sin’s sacrifice

Tell me again, why is it I’m forgiven

When it is I

So guilty of its price?

Tell me again

A thousand times I’ve heard it

The debt I owed

No riches could afford

Yet, I am free, not because I earned it

But through the blood

Of Jesus Christ the Lord

Tell me again

May I never grow weary

Of this great joy

Of this, a sinner’s boast

Creator, Lord, Redeemer, God of mercy

Left Heaven’s throne

Because He loves us most

 Cho. Tell me again,

Who formed the earth and heaven?

Tell me again

Who parted the Red Sea?

Tell me again, why is it I’m forgiven

When my birthright

Is my iniquity?

Tell me again

May I never grow weary

Of this great joy

Of this, a sinner’s boast

Creator, Lord, Redeemer, God of mercy

Paid sin’s great debt

Because He loves us most

© Janet Martin

Caught Off Guard

Another Minnesang  

You come to me a bit like that

A deluge pelting my reserve

You trickle in beneath my hat

To claim what you think you deserve

I cannot resist you so I allow you to slip

Like raindrops on a window over my lips

Who taught you to be a reckless thief?

Your boldness startles demure poise

And you will surely be my mother’s grief

She warned me, ‘daughter, watch out for those boys’

For you are not a placid, gentle-noon’s rainfall

You are a ‘let’s jump from a plane and free-fall’

You came to me a bit like that

I grew accustomed to your style

So I pick out my favorite hat

And wait for you; it’s been a while

The sun grows hot; and I begin to doubt

Nobody taught me what to do in case of drought

 Janet Martin

Life-gems

 A minnesang 

(my internet was down all day so I took revenge...and wrote:) It was fun.

I hope you come to me

Completely un-rushed

For I need you next to me

But not hurried or pushed

How do we love each other; let’s count the ways

Time is a priceless commodity these days

I hope you stop long enough

Oh, I hope you stay

Until we have run out of

All we need to say

And even then, you would find no reason to leave

As we listen to the night slipping over the eve

Moments are life-gems

We cannot count or number

Or know how many of them

Fill time’s vault ‘til we slumber

True sorrow is looking back to yesterday

Regretting the life-gems we threw away

© Janet Martin

Te Amo, Te Quiero (another Minnesang)

Another Minnesang

You discard each rampart that I secure

You breathe; I melt, acquiescent in your gaze

Your presence is more than I can endure

Yet, like a moth to flame I seek its blaze

Drawn to you, I thirst; love’s gall is bittersweet

For you remain oblivious; I wallow at your feet

“O senor, Te amo, O, Te quiero

Me Encantas,’ ach, what is the use

You hang your fedora over my heart’s window

Completely untaken by my Spanish ruse

I watch from behind you but you don’t turn around

So I must follow; an invisible shadow on the ground

Would one tiny glance be too noble a favor?

Is there any chance; or am I doomed unseen?

Must I remain at your mercy forever

To die in the hollow of what might have been?

I have one ploy left; ah, leave it to me

Senor, I will attempt to seduce you with poetry

© Janet Martin