Cotton-candy Melodies

Wind woos through wooded hues with blues and blush-jazzy appeal

It seems to play upon a sense of loneliness I feel

I’d skip the ‘I miss you’ but then, what good are memories?

Sweet, sweet the tempo of time’s cotton-candy melodies

Don’t cry for me, for we are all in this together, oh,

And everything we hold the prelude to its letting go

The once-upon-a-time of youth melts on a begging breeze

And seals sweet summer in pink cotton candy melodies

O-o-o-oh, a-a-a-a-ah, the minstrels croon and snuff high-noon with lowered dusk

And we pretend that we have grown immune to its blue-brusque

-ness that tousles our dreams and flings them far out to sea

Where they return, requiem of cotton-candy melodies

© Janet Martin

 Summer is Time's cotton-candy; a sweet momentariness

A Tangled Mess

“I’m always sentimental this time of year”, I told Matt and Victoria yesterday while we husked corn, “Because the beginning of another school year marks the official end of summer, not the date of September 23^rd indicated on the calendar”.

 Laughter tangles

With sultry breeze

As present tangles

With memories

Hint of fall tangles

Summer's tress

My full life tangles

With emptiness

Heart strings tangle

With the Intangible

Tangling with Something

Words cannot spell

Kiss tangles with tears

…yes, I confess

My life and love

Are a sweet, tangled mess

© Janet Martin

Trying to Make Peace With The Ways of Time and A Blessing For the New School Year

...and just like that; another summer in the books! 

The fast-forward of summer days are spilled

Like sunbeams on a leaf they glance then flit

Into that far-off place where time is stilled

While hearts make room to wear the ache of it

Daunting Unknown waits behind ev’ry door

We are not brave, save by the grace of God

For He alone can hear the heart implore

While all the while seasons fall prey to sod

We make peace with the hand of change and then

Before we scarce have learned its foreign drill

The hand of change changes its ways again

To jar the heart and vex our human will

And we would be intimidated, oft

By the relentlessness of tick and tock

As it deceives with kisses hunger-soft

Then leaves its laughter on the leaf-strewn walk

The brunt of years startles us with good-byes

Its August afternoon, castles of sand

Caught in the quick of summer-skies and sighs

As waves erase its traces from Time’s hand

Loss would be our lonely boast, but oh

Upon the bittersweet of Bygone’s isle

A fresh-faced cast of memories ebb-flow

To tease the face of time into a smile

© Janet Martin

The bus came early, before any of us were expecting it so the first back-to-school-morning had no time for sentimentality or voiced first-day-of-grade-nine-anxiety-attacks. I heard Matt giving Victoria some do and don’t advice just before the frantic ‘oh no! the bus!!’ scene…so, needless to say, no pictures; except one I couldn't resist of the neighbors across the road waiting for their bus on this rainy morning.

A Blessing For the New School Year

Lord, bless and keep them as they go

Hold them within Your care

Let laughter make their faces glow

As You instill our prayer

And let their way be blessed with friends

Help them be a friend too

For past mistakes, Lord, make amends

And help them start brand-new

Be with each teacher; make words wise

And kind and valuable

To these so young, their ears and eyes

So impressionable

Give them minds of discernment, Lord

As they learn what they can

Then, bless with happiness, each child

And young woman and man

© Janet Martin

In Praise of Work...Happy Labor Day

 

Work makes us weary

Oh, but work makes us wise

And fits in the fingers

Of most any size

Work is a blessing

Though sometimes it feels

Like survival’s albatross

Biting our heels

Work is a wonder-full

Wonderful thing

Work makes time worthwhile

And work makes time sing

Work builds a nation

Out of wilderness-stubble

Work is the laughter

In life’s minor trouble

Work is the hub

Of earth’s wheel that God turns

Pity the one

Who its provision spurns

Work is a cure

Idleness, a curse

No matter its title

Work gives a man worth

Pray to God daily
That we do not shirk
The beautiful, beautiful
Blessing of work

© Janet Martin

Happy Labor Day 

If you have a job

Thank God for it! 

Have you ever asked a small child to help you? 

Have you noticed how happy and important it makes them feel? 

We are not so much different, are we?:)

My heart aches and breaks for the millions who would give anything and everything just to get up in the morning and go to work!

Work gives us something that a holiday never will!
A holiday is special, only if we have work to return to.

Crank this tune up to celebrate work!!