Here in the Crook 'o Morning

PAD Challenge day 23: write a location poem

Here in the crook o’ morning

We cannot tell what lies

Begging at our doorsteps

Within time’s hungry eyes

The troubadour of sorrow

Or minstrel of our song

Aligns; yesterday’s morrow

Refurbishes the dawn

We touch our heart to heaven

…our feet to living’s dirt

Where have and holding renders

Love’s ever-sacred hurt

…and here in morning’s cradle

Of virgin imminence

We beseech Mercy’s favor

For gracious providence

© Janet Martin

 

Ah, Great Lonesome...

 I know I posted this song not so long ago here but listening to this tune evokes a Great Lonesome until...

Ah, Great Lonesome, you would kill me

Spread like cancer through my soul

Not for lack of smiles and kisses

But for That which makes me Whole

Tell me, cold and nameless Hunger

What is it you covet so?

Tormenting both old and younger

With a hollow, weeping throe

Ah, Great Lonesome, fearless hunter

Stalking wonder for its prize

Taking prisoners without pity

Lodging in Want’s thankless sighs

Tell me, sad and silent stranger

What is it you strive to seek?

Without pardon or permission

You trace teardrops on my cheek

Ah Great Lonesome, haunting fetter

But for tender triumph where

I can flee; a pining beggar

At the mercy of a prayer

Here, upon Love’s lavish promise

Though you taunt and weep and wail

I am safe within the comfort

Of One Love that cannot fail

© Janet Martin

All Grace

Regret is a bully with heavy shoes

Self-confidence a fraud

Accomplishment is a sad ruse

Without the love of God

Despair blinds us to what is good

Blame crushes precious hope

Courage cannot do what it should

Without God’s hand to hold

Anger; the scythe that slaughters joy

Fear dictates where faith fails

Belief is but a misplaced buoy

Lest God’s sure truth prevails

Guilt cannot abdicate at will

Nor can remorse forgive

Life without God is death until

At last by grace we live

© Janet Martin

Faith-factor

PAD Challenge day 22: write a pessimist poem. Write an optimist poem

Like children

We press our faces to hope’s window

In eager expectation

But darkness

Fills the air with raindrops

And no explanation

One by one

The faces in the window disappear

Save where

They linger

Knowing hope remains as long

As there are children

...and prayer

© Janet Martin

Ink Tug 'o War

PAD challenge day 22: write a pessimist poem. write an optimist poem

…and I would fling this pen aside

The taunt of word that keens the air

Wrangles twixt yearning and despair

To spill their will in verbose tide

The blood of thought runs wild and blue

A recompense of cloven ink

As what I taste and touch and think

Desecrates a page or two

What merit is this? Bliss and bane

Rival on throbbing battlefields

…its aftermath of groaning yields

The offspring of a poet’s pain

And yet the unwritten implores

Within the pen; miniscule rod

To tender to meek parchment, God-

Whispers of Home and heart-shaped doors

…and I would fling this pen aside

Save for a graven thought or two

This life is not a rendezvous

With fate; nor Time a dead-end tide

 

© Janet Martin

Two-for-two Tuesday...Picking Pussy-willows

Twirl, little girl, Dance, darling one...the bubble breaks and you are grown

PAD Challenge day 22:Write an optimist poem. Write a pessimist poem.

We pick pussy-willows

Thirteen and I

And marvel at how blue the sky

Sweeps past those plumes we cannot reach

Her chatter blooms, and I beseech

The mock of clock; its tick and tock

Stealing what I can never hold

And all the while

With seasoned smile

It knows that I am getting old

And cannot keep

The tearless weeping

Of an hour from the air

Or evade heaven’s wand

That graces youth

With laugh-line kisses where

Love, loss and longing keen a sigh

Striking Time’s timbrel; lullaby

And mornings meld

Escape withheld

Where she and I

For one brief spark

Pick pussy-willows

Ere the dark

Consumes the sky

The silver sheaf

Of pussy-willows

Turned to leaf

© Janet Martin

 

When Daylight Wakes in Honeyed Sighs...

 Day began beneath breath-taking beauty...

When daylight wakes in honeyed sighs

To ease the drape from sleeping skies

We pause, twixt leap and kneeling torn

Beneath the beauty of the morn

Before we seize the hem of grace

To face the tide of human race

Against the backdrop of its breadth

We tread our little path of earth

Of dream and dance, of moan and groan

Of disappointment’s stepping-stone

Where carnal clay and Divine meet

As fainting fear and faith compete

Dusk blushes, hushed, gentle and still

Familiar with every hill

It touches soft each croft and crest

All earth becomes a cradled nest

Blanketed blue and here we are

Held by the Keeper of each star

© Janet Martin

...before blushing away to gray and blue.

 

Retrospect...

 

Retrospect drives truth-pangs through the heart

Today we love; tomorrow we may part

First’s are life-hallmarks; charted and prized

‘Lasts’ slip by, easily unrecognized

Retrospect strums soul-strings tenderly

Calling to moments tossed, lost to time’s sea

‘Now’ fills my palm urging me from my thought

Lest I miss ‘the something’ this morsel besought

Retrospect trembles in visions aloft

Double-edged grace; inexorable waft

Startling the drifter to reality

How quickly an hour fades to history

© Janet Martin

Salome passed away early on Saturday morning.(for the past year she was in a long-term care facility due to increased care needs) Everyone's favorite aunt is finally with Jesus. Death brings retrospect...She will be laid to rest tomorrow morning.No more Down's Syndrome, no more Alzheimer, and all Jesus and her momma and papa!