Monday, September 26, 2016

I Wonder Where The Crickets Go



 Suddenly morning seems like a banquet-hall after the show is over and the crowds are gone...



I wonder, wonder where they go
Those minstrels in black tuxedos
Where morning, noon and through the night
They played their tune without respite
Until one day we realize
Their song has faded to wind-sighs
Earth like a banquet-hall bereft
Where all but fall of leaf has left


© Janet Martin

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Where The Bough Surrenders





It is universal; Grief
Where the bough that braves The Leaf
Succumbs to a Dauntless Chief
Suave, its laws of sorrow
Ah, the will and want of us
Cannot usurp It because
IS, is always hinged to was
…today to tomorrow

Panhandlers of tick and tock
We are beggars of a clock
Doling bowls of sky and rock
Bloom-strewn walks and stubble
Triumph is a short-lived fete
This world has no easy-street
Profit wars with loss, defeat,
Fortune wars with trouble

To the ways that laugh then mourn
That which offers no return
For swift season-splendors
Farewell finds new footholds, oh,
Holding turns to letting go
Leaves fall like gold-russet snow
Where the bough surrenders

© Janet Martin

Saturday, September 24, 2016

With What We Have...




 This little tootsie makes the world a better place just by showing up...
wouldn't it be nice if everyone could say the same for us?

If, we with what we have can learn to make the best of it
Then we, with what we have will make this world a better Here
For who of us does not have what it takes to smile a bit
Or in the face of disappointment offer words of cheer?

If we, with what we have try hard to make the most of it
Then what we have will never seem like it is not enough
For what we do will be for more than our own benefit
As we, with what we have, turn it into thank-you and love

In this tip-o’-time’s-hat, if we endeavor to commit
Each bit of grin and grit to our full ability
And if, with what we have we try to make the best of it
Then what a better place our corner of the world will be

© Janet Martin

Friday, September 23, 2016

Little Land-Lullaby



Because, in the bold-gold thick of it we are often too busy to think of it, we 
are constantly amazed at the quickfooted-ness of days.
Slow down, sweet September. 
We are not ready yet to simply remember 
you:)


Tumbling,
Leaping,
Sliding,
Slipping
Rushing,
Gushing,
Subtle-
Dripping
From the tree and from
The sky
September-summer
Goodbye

Flitting,
Flying,
Sobbing,
Sighing
Air soft-kissed
With dust 
and mist
Jaded,
Faded
Green-song traded
For September-
Amethyst

Laughing,
Lolling,
Limping,
Strolling
Keen cajoling
Of leaf-tears
Crooning,
Crying,
Soft-sweet dying
As
September
Disappears 

Splendor shifting,
Daydreams drifting
From the 
Hub of
Hill and dell
Tender teasing
Breeze-song 
Easing
Into 
Season-spun 
Farewell

© Janet Martin

Thursday, September 22, 2016

The Awesome Before



Happy, happy, happy first day of Fall! 

It's decor begins to find its way to trees...

and porches



I want to want the ache of you
Be torn between time’s old and new
Of green-gold-scarlet-umber-blue
As sweep of soul-song plumbs
The arcs and deeps of dark and dawn
The larks and leaps of here-then-gone
Darling, I want to want the song
That life and love becomes

How sacred is each step, each breath
How thin the skin twixt life and death
The swell of earth’s four-season heath
Is like a tolling bell
Each morning’s morning soon will slip
Into the blue of noon then dip
To dust-hushed, dusk-flushed fellowship
Ahoy, ahoy, farewell

I want to feel the keel of years
Hello, my love, good-bye, my dears
And be flummoxed by tick-tock’s spheres
That seal present to Past
I want to mourn the death of days
Yet hunger for the more that splays
Where morning sets Time’s hearth ablaze
With moments not yet cast

Then, at that final set of sun
When this life’s little ‘Let’ is done
I want to want what is to come
And whisper, thank-you Lord
For what we see is but a Door
To what will be; Forevermore
Where Now is the Awesome Before
The Ultimate Reward

© Janet Martin