Why Poets? Why Poems?

To cheer the dull dormer

To salute the former

To paint with a murmur

A picture of thought

To hail far-off fellow

To scale willow-cello

And touch time’s lost hello

With tittle of jot

To sail summer’s schooner

When winter comes sooner

Than we expected

In the prime of youth

To etch on plain paper

Child’s innocent caper

To press on page-patience

Age old words of truth

To probe faded flowers

And revisit hours

That day-night devours

Without heed or care

To love with ink-ardor

And revere the charter

Where words beg and barter

From arbors of air

To tickle our fancy

With fickle romance-y

To dance with a drifter

Of whisper and pen

To write then to wonder

What waits over yonder

If poet should plunder

‘Perhaps’ once again

To hold to the Holy

And traverse more slowly

The hill and the valley

Of days come to pass

To keen callous senses

To Ageless Immense-ness

Hinged to shimmered deftness

In life’s hour-glass

© Janet Martin

...As Everyone Is Asking Where Sweet, Sweet September Went

 Where oh, where did sweet September go???

 ...it dripped in a drop 

 and it slipped in a plop

of red apple laughter

 and yellow-leaf caught

soft on a silver and purple-plumed fell

 primed with a sonnet of summer farewell

The offspring of acquittal and rebuttal tunes a tide

That vexes and perplexes with irrevocable stride

It keeps proprietors of clock-stock ever on our toes

While pondering the age-old conundrum of where Time goes

Tis quite a subtle fling between first cry and final sleep

As mist of mystic Moment slips through grip’s ephem’ral keep

This here-today-and-gone-tomorrow beg-and-borrow ploy

Soils-cleans the cup, spoils-keens the sup of love’s sweet sorrow-joy

The wheel that packs the track where what we lack cheers what we hold

Is ethereal yet weaves an odyssey of gray and gold

As floors that roar with seasons spent spill solid solitude

Where everything that came and went is dust-to-dust subdued

Autumnal topiary eases us from summer’s swell

A sentimental poem pleads where none can thwart farewell

As offspring of daylight to dark vexes the eager stride

Of weathered pioneers aboard the bark of season-tide

© Janet Martin

This Again?!

I was not going to write this morning. 

It seemed everywhere I looked a non-exotic supply of 'this again' sought immediate attention!

Then, when Little Girl arrived her mom shared this 'chuckle'. 

It was just what this mom needed!

After all, it is life's chuckles that keep us from buckling beneath the weight of 'this agains'!

"Last night at her own home Little Girl I Babysit looked at the supper on her plate

( which looked suspiciously like a repeat from the previous night) 

and she asked  ‘Dad, what is this on my plate?!”

"It’s chicken", replied Her Dad. 

Dad and Mom watched her drop her head as she muttered, “oh no! not this again!”

Aren't we all guilty of saying this sometimes as we survey nondescript to-do-lists for the day?

Sometimes in living’s commonness of who-what-where-why-when

We overlook the beauty in Plain Duty’s ‘this again’

As, often without second thought we do the things we do

Forgetful of the godsends cloaked in scores of ‘nothing new’

The give and take of sleep and wake and off to work we go

Sometimes rewards us with a sudden outcry of ‘oh no’

Then, earnestly we wish for nothing more than That Kind When

…a plain and simple sample of life’s mundane ‘this again’

The ink that fills quixotic quills soon spills in routine script

The dreamer learns that not one jot returns from Yester’s crypt

So we should cherish and thank God for the kind rod of task

For ‘this again’ is a blessing for which we seldom ask

Like petals strewn where flowers swoon then soon fade from the vine

So too, the say and do that tunes the touch betrayed by time

Then do not fret when bud begets the bloom of ‘this again’

Beneath it all the freefall of God’s mercy IS again

For ‘this again’ is subject to the subtle wand of change

What seems like an eternity soon winds of Time estrange

The beck and call in rise and fall of dawn to dark makes plain

How fragile is the hour-flower bent with ‘this again’

© Janet Martin

 The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.  
They are new every morning; 
Great is Your faithfulness.  
"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,
"Therefore I have hope in Him."…
Lam.3:22-24

One of my favourite 'this-agains'
 is this...

...again!😀

...and one more chuckle added a few hours later

Hymn of Humble Praise

Lord, move from heart to mouth pure praise

For Goodness from Your Hand

Help us to trust love’s higher ways

When we don’t understand

Your mercy ushers from mere seed

Harvest; the farmer’s goal

It provides bread for body’s need

But for the sinner’s soul

…You sent Jesus, Your only Son

A pleading sacrifice

Nailed to the cross, for everyone

Perfection paid sin’s price

Then let the earth ring with love’s song

You died in our place

When we are weak; God, You are strong

You fill our need with grace

As far as east is from the west

God, you remove man’s sin

The fathom of your love so vast

Thought cannot take it in

With honor and obedience

You did Your holy part

Pray we with faith and reverence

Believe with wholly heart

Your gift of grace no one can earn

Thus with our gift of days

Let us, in all we do, return

Love’s hymn of humble praise

© Janet Martin

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth;

            Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Ps.98:4