Revel in a Bevel of Blue...

Revel in a bevel of blue

Roam through a Tome of thought

And dance upon the glance of dawn

Where what is soon is not

Embrace the grace of hasting day

Go slower, softer, mate

Revere the here with honor, dear

Before it is too late

Delight in the white noise of Now

Ignore the roar of clocks

Become a humble pioneer

Of trails that twilight locks

Proceed with heed to other’s need

Abhor greed’s boorish ranks

Ransack time’s one-way track, my love

But, above all, give thanks

© Janet Martin

Psalm 136

 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
² Give thanks to the God of gods,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

⁴ to him who alone does great wonders,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
⁵ to him who by understanding made the heavens,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
⁶ to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
⁷ to him who made the great lights,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
⁸ the sun to rule over the day,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
⁹ the moon and stars to rule over the night,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁰ to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹¹ and brought Israel out from among them,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹² with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹³ to him who divided the Red Sea in two,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹⁴ and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹⁵ but overthrew^[a] Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹⁶ to him who led his people through the wilderness,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁷ to him who struck down great kings,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹⁸ and killed mighty kings,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹⁹ Sihon, king of the Amorites,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
²⁰ and Og, king of Bashan,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
²¹ and gave their land as a heritage,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
²² a heritage to Israel his servant,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

²³ It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
²⁴ and rescued us from our foes,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
²⁵ he who gives food to all flesh,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

²⁶ Give thanks to the God of heaven,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

Poet's Cause

Excerpts from essay How Does a Poem Mean? by John Ciardi

In This Romance of Imminence

The art of hold-let-go

Becomes a dance twixt heart and hands

That leaves us winded, oh

The ballroom floor becomes a door

The door, a skiff of mist

Where legs and arms askew with charms

Are vexed with treks half-kissed

The ashes of fond yester-love

Lay mute in Bygone’s Urn

Time’s tinseled jar of Where We Are

Pours out More No Return

And we are glad for what we had

Yet hunger for the sky

Where Imminence, Deliverance

And Remembrance ally

Thus, Poet strives to preserve lives

And loves and days and years

With brush of pen to touch again

The When that disappears

© Janet Martin

Joy of Boy

Oh, what joy to be a boy

Carefree as the wind that sweeps

Through the woodland while he sleeps

Oh, what bliss sweet boyhood is

Laughter’s magnum opus rings

From sand-castle’s freckled kings

Oh, what worth fills boyish mirth

Treasure without greed or guile

Cheers the mother’s frazzled smile

Oh, what vim composes him

Ambling through blue dream-land’s lake

Leaving love-songs in his wake

World of lost socks, building blocks

Master Mischief's time-out sit

Makes us glad in spite of it

Oh, what joy is little boy

Grappling with life’s yes and no

Manhood’s predecessor, oh

© Janet Martin

Gift of Time

Are you ever dumb-founded as you stand amidst heaps of pretty paper pulled away

after we pried at the parcel that granted Today?!

With every breath we pull the tulle of moments from its gift

Heirs, as it were, to grace and mercy meting day-to-day

Where, if we see the value ere its seasoned seasons drift

Wonder would confound us with humble joy and we would pray

…and we would break our bread with head bowed, too awed to complain

Nor would we trample ribbons wrought with naught but simple joy

Then, wholly, holy we would tread this ephemeral main

Toward the Ultimate Undoing of what clocks deploy

Time’s quantum, untallied until its final gasp is spent

Arranges rigors too complex for mortal might alone

This test of quest and wrest of wonder-fashioned filament

Orders the footsteps of a man to bow before God’s throne

And beseech Gift of Time to teach him how to fully live

And reach to touch the Hand that shows him how to fully love

Lest he tears at time’s tissue to get, forgetting to give

For to whom much is given, much is also lent to prove

© Janet Martin

Impressions of Summer

How soulful, strong and swift the song that slips from sea to sea

Where Maestro, music and baton move in sync flawlessly

O’er misted main and drifts of grain, o’er plain and hill and dale

Alloys ten-thousand tones as one to tune joy’s common scale

It fills the reaches of the mind

With thrills soon stilled and left behind

Too well this shell of dust to dust can trip on lust and hurt

While swells of nature’s arista drip to earth’s graves of dirt

Where bud to bloom is like a schooner laden with farewell

O'er purple lea morn's melody soon tolls dusk’s citadel

It stirs the blur beneath our feet

With hunger’s harvest, bitter-sweet

This orchestral, imperial succession of demise

Scatters its stars from lilied jars to *wonder's tattered prize

Where Thought is prone to grovel in a hovel of dismay

If it forgets to touch the threads that eve-tide whisks away

Today, o’er Bygone’s disrepair

Tips a grail nothing can despair

The banter of love’s paling plumes consumes our eyes and ears

Heaven’s decanter pours through rooms that the wise one reveres

This disappearing act that seems stacked against us at times

(We, merchants of clock's tick-and-tock and poets primed with rhymes)

Composes as the roses fade

Summer’s symphonic serenade

© Janet Martin

(*yes, the photo says 'to wonder-tattered sighs,
then, when I was doing the final finesse, 'wonder's tattered prize' taunted and
now I can't make up my mind which holds the deepest impression...
then, there is also 'wonder's paradise'!
Is there any paradise sweeter than wonder?!
Ah, delightful dilemma;-))

Yesterday, my friend and I, while standing midst a veritable rainbow of bloom,

mourned the subtle folding of green to gold,

knowing all too well what these symptoms hold...