Ghost-towns

Before the world was chained

To the noise and toys of progress

Boys and girls would run

All day beneath the sun

Through the woods

Through the stream

Through the wild-flower bower

Shod with a dream

And the gleam of an hour

Taught by the bird 

And the green breath of trees

Where now woods ring hollow

Like a ghost-town

Of whispering leaves

© Janet Martin

On Summer Nights Like These...

Poetic Bloomings Pompt day Two: Today's feature, Smiles of a Summer Night

Sultry breeze spirals then settles at dusk

Hummingbird whirs where each bloom is a cup

Afternoon washes bare feet then recedes

Blue, like a tide on summer’s sky-wide sea

Sun-drenched day softens, horizons subside

Noon was a young man with dreams in his stride

Time slows its gait now, forgets its demands

Undresses wishes with whisper-like hands

Noise on the highway is muffled with dark

Boys and girls slumber, somewhere a dog barks

Moon is a skiff set a-drift all alone

Stars splay like broken glass caught in the sun

Jasmine and clover perfume heaven’s wand

Salt-flavored wind-skin-heart-sea-song are one

Temptation is a word too young for us

Darling, the night is blurred with dew and dust

Touch is a servant to thought’s hungry eyes

We’ve known each other too long for surprise

Summer breeze murmurs in raven-leafed trees

Earth is half-heaven on midnights like these

© Janet Martin

Summer Breeze Melodies

 With Poetic Bloomings Summer Breeze prompt 

 and Victoria playing As Time Goes By on the piano 

 and a sort of rain-ish, cool-ish Canada Day Holiday, today lends itself to poetry:)

Summer breeze teases the tree-tops with sighs

It has forgotten yesterday’s good-byes

Here is a new day unraveling bliss

Life is too short to miss moments like this

Summer breeze eases high-noon from the clock

Soon dusk-blue shadows will darken the walk

Time is a whisper yet weighs us with need

Fear is like poison; let faith intercede

Summer breeze murmurs in jasmine and rose

Shimmers in curtains where pale moonlight glows

Humble, the poet, that reaches to snare

Pictures of moments fading to thin air

Summer breeze teases the tree-tops with sighs

Life is a circle of hellos-goodbyes

Moment to moment to memory, oh

Love makes the holding worth the letting go

© Janet Martin

O, Canada

“But Mom, if the foundation of anything gets removed, what is built on it will fall”, our teen-age son voiced his concerns as we discussed the moral decline of both Canada and the United States of America.

 

One of my most cherished books is Mr. Jones, Meet the Master.

Below is a sermon Keepers of the Springs, preached in the 1940's by Peter Marshall, and all the more relevant today! (click on images to enlarge for easier reading)

(though preached to Americans its message is equally applicable to Canadians, as is the prayer on the last page!)

Oh, Canada, lest you become

A nation to God’s Presence numb

A nation without thought or prayer

To He who holds us in His care…

O Canada, lest you forget

The Foundation forefathers set

O pray, the God that led them here

Is He whom we choose to revere

O, Canada, still strong and free

How certain your downfall will be

If we reject the Cornerstone

That this country was founded on

O Canada, of cities grand

Fresh-water lakes and rich farmland

Your freedom beckons throngs to come

So they may call Canada ‘Home’

O, Canada, your future waits

Then pray the keepers of its gates

Before we are a land bereft

Will salvage what footing is left

© Janet Martin

We, the people, not the politicians, are the keepers of its gates/springs. 

Pray we accept this charge with holy awe!

Worth It All..To a Summer Day or a Poem

This is the first poem for Poetic Bloomings Poem-a-day Chapbook Prompt .

Prompt taken from the song Summer Breeze.

 Happy July 1st! And Happy Canada Day to those of us in this 'True North Strong and Free'.

For all the expectations that I have from you

You always surprise me with new ways to

Showcase the old

And I know I will never tire of being on the lookout

For fresh arrangements of

Blue-purple-green-gold

The world is filled with kindred spirits

But the trick and the joy

Is discovering them

As long as I live I will never grow weary

Of summer days

Preserved in poem

Darling, come, lets pulls our green-grass chairs

Out to the wide-open

Ink-well fell

And wait to see what old, new arrangements

Transpire.

We never can tell

The flower bouquets we have picked then strewn

To the floor of time’s summer-day

Banquet hall

Makes one glad to be alive where June

Has a way of making winter

Worth it all

© Janet Martin