For First Fall...

Red sweeps away summer; kindles the hill

It seeps through passers who pause and stand still

Red runs restless fingers through coppice-tress

Undoing the buttons of summer’s dress

And where we raved at the green of its gown

Red raids the tree and turns it upside down

Red ravishes bushes, its brush burns, bold

And splatters gardens with tatters of gold

The silk haze of daisy days dissipates

It glazes webbed gossamer gilding gates

The birth of death’s season shrouded in red

Veils the breath standing twixt living and dead 

Red attracts dreamers; it seduces eyes

Charming spectators to summer’s demise

We gather, exclaim at the flame of farewell

That runs rampant, enchanting dune and dell

And we are betaken, bewitched it seems

Where death masquerades as a red bed of dreams

© Janet Martin

It's A Beautiful Life (being Mother and House-Wife)

 I'm sending lunch to my sister's farm today. (Hamburger Stew, bread and cheese)

Her place is all a-flutter with wedding preparations because they are hosting their son's wedding on Friday...

Their first fledgling to leave the nest so, bittersweet Beautiful Days in a mother's

Beautiful Life...

Here are bits and pieces of my last fifteen hours of a beautiful, busy life!

Happy First Day of Autumn!

It’s laundry and dishes

And half-come-true wishes

Its dinner-filled pots and pans

Broom-and mop-chores

It’s bake-a-cake, take-a-break

Plan what’s for supper

It’s school-lunches, bloom-bunches

And so much more

It’s weeding and hoeing

And coming and going

It’s garden-rows glowing

With offspring of seeds

Its pruning and picking

It's ‘slow-that-clock-ticking’

And dusting, and trusting

God for our needs

It's mending and tending

Homefires. It's sending

Prayers up to heaven 

While bending to earth

It's taking and giving

It's sweet, simple living

It's bitter and sweet

Mingling sorrow and mirth

It’s holding and scolding

It’s wiping and folding

And laughing and sighing

As years fondly flow

It's diligent duty

And domestic beauty

It’s teaching while learning

To hold and let go

It’s love spelled in places

Of daily God-graces

It’s familiar faces

When daylight is spent

It’s Mother and Wife,

What a beautiful life

It’s sing-to-God praises

For kind blessings lent

© Janet Martin

(and now, a quick hour to go get my daughter who suddenly decided to come home for a day. She is away at school and between work and study is finding life very busy as well)

Evaluation

...the rest of a poem that began last week:)

Perhaps what we most need

Our dollars cannot buy

A posy from God’s garden

And a stroll beneath His sky

A frolic with the breeze

A front-row seat of grass

To listen to leaf-symphonies

Teasing time’s moment-glass

Perhaps we do not need

The More we dream about

Perhaps less is the way to go

Less stress, less stuff to tout

Perhaps what we most need

When all is said and done

Are pieces of an afternoon

Scattered beneath the sun

© Janet Martin

For Those Who Have Been There...

Love disappoints sometimes,

But through its hurt we find

Its lessons teach us how to be

Compassionate and kind

For as the heart surrenders

What hand cannot constrain

We sympathize with others

Who bear this kindred pain

We wear a gentler bearing

We learn a deeper care

And truer understanding

For those who have been there

© Janet Martin

It's comforting to chat over coffee or tea with other mothers who are or have been 'There':)

To See The Sun Climb Trees...

Doesn't it give you a rush to see the sun climb trees,

Knowing beneath its flush wait fresh-made memories?!

The sun grins like a boy

It climbs porch-steps and trees

Its autograph laughs pure like joy

Carved sweet in memories

How bold and gold it beams

It dwarfs day dreams, but still

Day dreams in spite of time-tried schemes

Waiting on westward hill

Oh, we try to keep up

To offer more than stares

Into the summer of its cup

That spills in daily cares

So we scale sight and sound

Until we feel quite small

And life so large upon the ground

Is not so large at all

...where the grace of The Chase

Invites us to pursue

More, as the sun saunters through space

On its set avenue

For it excites anew

To see the sun jump gates

Then bluffs and trees to climb into

The blue of what awaits

© Janet Martin

 This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Ps.118:24

 

Off to make memories with friends at a last-day-of-summer/birthday tea:)