Quest of the Poet

Last week as I walked through a parking lot this leaf landed at my feet.so, I picked it up... It inspired the first stanza of this poem. To pick up fallen leaves and press them into summertimeTo woo from echo-sheaves, a few mementos, into rhymeTo enrich Ordinary with the wealthiness of lessWhere lyrics of God’s glory author hope and happiness To siphon from life’s ups and downs, keepsakes of common groundTo mend and dazzle heart shaped cups with treasures that confoundTo showcase living’s simple joys with meek and thankful aweTo marvel at the patient poise of nature’s steadfast law To thwart the sting and blight of biting words with beauty’s kissLife is too short to slight the sweep of so much we might missTo cheer the wage of weariness with wonder to beholdTendered to page through tears and tests of longing etched with gold To leave unpenned the vile and vulgar, the boorish and baseBut rather, weave a sense of smiles and friendship in its placeTo hoist with holy feeling, love’s banners unfurled in fontAnd be a voice of healing in a broken world of want To meet each other, heart to heart, through art of ink-finesseThough ever face to face apart, together nonethelessTo find a diamond in the ruffled feathers of a thoughtTo bind the weathered wounds of love with blue forget-me-not To will the jot and tittle of Becoming into bloomAnd spill a little sunshine to a shadow-darkened roomTo cast a glim of gladness into sadness that must beAnd melt away brute madness with the torch of poetry To lavish parchment pallor with the splendor of mid-JuneAnd whisper to full color gray November’s afternoonTo coax a spark from embers of a dying place in timeAnd turn what one remembers into legacies of rhyme © Janet Martin Yesterday we woke to winter's wonderland!Today the sun is doing its best to make it disappear ...before the next forecasted flurry!