Monday, November 3, 2014

Logic of Love (easier said than done)



 

To reach beyond our ‘rathers’ with a heart of willingness
Takes more than strength requires; love puts others first thus we
Attempt to shun propriety of ‘simply doing good’
For Love in action is the proof of true humility

The quiet ache of give and take is not so very hard
If we focus on others and resist our want to have
What greater happiness can be, than bearing witness to
The happiness of someone else because of what love gave?

Forgive us Lord, when we drag our feet instead of dance
When Duty is forerunner to the Need while men applaud
…to reap a goodly harvest we must labor with hearts bent
In meekness to the call of secret second-miles for God

Oh, who among us is the greatest?  We will never know
Those most noteworthy deeds accomplished where nobody sees
Until God shouts from rooftops what is never told below
Of humble deeds of love rendered from servants on their knees

© Janet Martin

Victoria is attempting to memorize 1 Cor. 13. Hearing her recite the true meaning of love challenges my wish of how I wish I would love and not simply because I should

Ode to the Early Dark





It rolls across the land; a tide exhaled
Of soulful blue, hue feeds on deeper hue
Until the fond familiar is veiled

Where folk-at-home windows, pale and wide-eyed
Stare to a world of supper-hour dark
A bivouac of muffled countryside

The scuttle of a brittle leaf is stirred
And chased across the street by phantom feet
Somewhere the barking of a dog is heard

As hooded strangers brace against the chill
With zippers zipped and buttons buttoned tight
Hastening to home’s peace-on-earth good-will

Where day is done before our chores, it seems
And images of easy chairs and books
Become the heroes of our twilight dreams

The heaven shakes its timbrel, spilling stars
Like sparkling eighth-notes gone wildly awry
Deflected from the freeway lined with cars

…and all along the corridor of trees
Bereft of vesper-song the dark reclines
And drips from limbs pining for giggling leaves

The bantering of breezes drops; how still
And smooth the hour slips from day to night
Tucking from sight the near and friendly hill

Now autumn has begun its swan-song trek
Toward that quiet place of white on white
We watch her walking backwards, a mere speck

Yet valiant, she musters a gallant fight
…before his huff and puff snuffs her from sight

© Janet Martin

Until last night I would watch the evening climb the hill out back
now it is dark at suppertime; the window clothed in black

I guess I'll crank up some music while I do supper-dishes 'cause there's nothing to stare at in the window except...me! yikes;-(

No Game-over in Love



PAD challenge day 1; write a game over poem

Slip over me, the company
Of memories is bittersweet
I liked it when that Yester-then
Was more than echoes on the street
Before the air growled like a bear
and you are there and I am here
Slip over me, the company
of you is like a game, my dear

For while I vow to let you go
the heart endeavors to hold on
This tug-of-warring ebb and flow
of yes and no and dusk-to-dawn
places its pawns in manners such
that I am easy to persuade
to play another round; taste-touch
and thus new memories are made

Slip over me, ah, the romance
of you is bittersweet, for oh
love is no game, rather a dance
of holding close while letting go
There is no game-over in love
for hearts out-played there is no grave
Darling, you win, slip over me
and play the strings I let you have

Janet~

In the Relinquishing I Know



PAD challenge day 2:For today’s prompt, write a together again poem.

I let you go,
leaf by leaf, 
slow
as late-day
sweeping, 
bluer blue
across the green
that turned to gold
...a halo on
earth's avenue
and though I know
love must let go
I could not bear
its brute-air pain
Save for the bliss
of Parting's kiss
of scalding tears
on autumn rain
where history 
has proved itself
I know 
we will be
together again

Janet~
 


...from Itty-bitty Now, the Then





It matters more than we may think
Those things we think and do and say
Are never ‘nothings’; everything
Becomes a bit of yesterday

…and yesterday, though ever gone
Is never gone in full, its hull
Emptied of seed will suffer long
its consequences ; Time will cull

…from itty-bitty Now, the Then
Where what we think and do and say
Will bear the fruit we planted when
We tossed it thoughtlessly away

© Janet Martin

Heart-lessons





Sometimes the heart spills inside out
With love and hurt and hope and doubt
We ache to turn its outside in
But cannot reach to deeps within

And what we thought we knew was true
Is more true than we ever knew
Before the tide of morn to night
Spilled oceans of grief and delight

And that heart-cup beneath our bones
Is all filled up; it moans and groans
As expectations are reversed
And joy’s elation moment-cursed

The ebb and flow of come and go
Perplexes everything we know
The heart must be an acrobat
A punching bag, an alley cat

…a howling gale, a teddy-bear
A fort, a ship, a sailor where
Life is a sea and a tight-rope
We cling to faith’s guard-rails of hope

…for oft the heart pours inside out
With love and laughter, fear and doubt
But with each sucker-punching thrust
The heart is learning what it must
…the heart is learning how to trust

© Janet Martin

Because We Cannot Be in Two Places at Once...



Because we cannot be
In two places at once
The part of me
That used to be
With you misses
You, hon

Because we cannot be
In two places at once
We fill the air
Twixt us with prayer
And leave the rest
To God

Because we cannot be
In two places the same
The blanket of
Memories, love
Warms every
Picture frame


© Janet Martin

PAD Challenge day 3: write a blanket poem

Our daughter and son-in-law just returned home after visiting his family in Nova Scotia. Good-byes are hard at both ends because one simply cannot be in two places at once!

Hope-blanket




 Last night the moon was up before the sun was down and now the moon has gone down and the sun is up!

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Pet.3:9


PAD Challenge day 3:For today’s prompt, write a blanket poem.

Hope does not bow its head
to slip like seasons do
into the blue; it smiles instead
across Time's ever new

The blanket of the sky
in sundry shades; sun, rain
throws back the colors of the night
then draws them up again

...and tucks beneath earth's chin
with faithful loving care
the hope of Time's begin-again
for hope does not despair

But lifts its yearning eye
The comfort of God's scope
blankets the morning-noon-night sky
with everlasting hope

Janet~

Here He is again, pulling back the night with pink and gold delight...