Blue day

Virgin white, a gentle snow drifts lazily onto Main Street, hazy highlight against sky cast purple-orange in the lamplight of this tiny city

New and falling snow brighten the day prematurely
An extra-stellar luminance that lifts the spirit an hour before sunrise

It is a magical time of day as the sky lightens
As muted walls of shadow become a tree line
Dark against slightly less dark

All is naught but shades of blue
Azure, ceil, cerulean
Denim, iceberg, indigo
Iris, palatinate, periwinkle
Persian, powder, prussian, royal
Sapphire, teal and aquamarine

Road to Keeseville

Crystal-draped ledges loom over Route 9
The sun does not rise this winter morn
Blue-grey light diffuses slowly across the sky

A year winds down, grey and damp
A day brightening minute by minute
The North Country awakens to a new day

Deep in a valley swamp,
A mother moose lifts her dripping muzzle
And glances around to check on her young twins

Raven sits on a high branch and leans into a call
Brother crow wings across the wooded ledge
And dips it's black wings in recognition

Down to earth, deep in snow
A meadow vole shuffles it's well-worn path
And seeks new greens for nibbling

In a neighboring valley
Wood smoke curls from a fresh-stoked fire
Sweetly scenting the air with cherry wood

At last the sun does rise
Golden-yellow on granite and ice
As songbirds cheerfully greeting the new day

Curse of the Gemini

I am cursed with thinking
Grey matter. Synapses firing
Trying to assemble the meaning of being.
Life random
The things gathered in our lifetime
Days and nights filled
Not so much why am I here
As it is why are you

By extrapolation
Each of us
A circle of influence in others' livers
Are we not, therefore,
All the more valuable to one another?

Family is given, an act of birth
Friends and lovers, on the other hand,
Are somehow chosen
From the pool of humanity in which we swim
Even years apart can not shred the warmth of familiarity
When old friends meet.

A good life is filled
With a cast of characters
Psychic links vibrating the spirit
Like a fly shakes the spider's web
The mind springing to alertness in the dark of night
Or resting pensive and still as arctic noon air

Your pain, I feel,
Across unmeasured units of time and space
The joy, not so much.
Sending prayers and
Warm waves of healing
In lieu of my touch

Winter Eve

Snow squeaking underfoot
Laden pine boughs droop low
Sickle moon brightly shining
Through bare branches maples sleeping
Orion draws his bow
Against the silent gloss black sky

Dusk

Pines stand on the hill
Grey-green in the gathering dusk
Snow-covered branches dimly aglow
Winter sky a leaden backdrop of
Purple black clouds heavy with snow

A Message for the Season: Love Fulfills God's Requirements

Romans 13:8, 10 (NLTse)
Love Fulfills God's Requirements

[8] Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law.
. . .
[10] Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God's law.

Romans 13:8, 10-14 (MSG)
Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along.
. . .
You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Martin Thanksgiving Dinner

Turkey, red cabbage cole slaw (from garden), mashes potatoes, pearl onions in cream sauce, sweet potatoes and prunes in homemade maple syrup, sausage stuffing, Grands buttermilk biscuits, homemade creamed corn. Not in picture: Michael's homemade blueberry pie, Huber Winery spiced apple wine.

Enjoyed by just us four. It was wonderful watching Em & M interact as young adults - a lot of sibling ribbing and levity.

Orion, String of Lights

Orion, string of lights,
Stretched across the Southeastern horizon.
Arctic beauty:
Strong, protective, graceful.
Piercing the night
In a cold, black, pre-winter sky.

Marcy Field - new TUNE

I am working on a new tune, entitled "Marcy Field" after the location where  it was composed. I composed this tune along the banks of the East Branch Ausable River across from Marcy Field, in the Adirondack Mountains. Marcy Field is a grass runway airport located halfway between Keene and Keene Valley.

You can listen to the tune with the music player below.





Marcy Field - copyright © 2010 Michael R. Martin - Adirondack resident and singer/songwriter.
(yeah, it's a little bit Muzak)


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Mid-September: Elevation 1750'

The last raspberry was shriveled but sweet
Enjoyed while last clippings of lawn clung to my feet
In overcast so solid from sky to ground
That a mist enveloped everything, swallowing sound.

First blush of color on the maple, cabin's corner
A bit as I imagine the thumb of Jack Horner,
Cheeks of young maidens fawning before knights,
And the breast of a Kingfisher winging in flight.

It is time to look close and appreciate the dew
When the glorious horizon is hidden from view
As it's best to remember the woodshed is full
When sunshine is naught and close feels the snow

Banks of Lake Colby

Laying on a bank by Lake Colby
Dappled in sunlight filtered through a white birch
Surrounded by sound:
Wind in the leaves
Waves gently lapping the shore
Birds and insects singing
Cars passing slowly beyond the top of the bank.

Sleepy sounds of summer fading
Warmth and sunlight reflected off the water
Green grass and yellow flowers waving in the breeze

If I could only preserve today like the
Fresh maple syrup stores up mason jars
Fresh fruit frozen, or preserved as jams and jellies

Late afternoon worth capturing forever
To take out and enjoy when the icy grip of deep winter
Takes hold of your soul, and
Your frozen bones ache for thawing warmth

A crow calls
Breaking my reverie
I glance around once more
At sun and water
Green grass and yellow flowers
And I am up and off
To ride the warm afternoon wind
Forever summer
If but for a day

Stormy weather

Stormy weather
What I see is how I feel
And nothing you can say
Calms the wind or stills the seas
Over such distances
Against such odds