Falling Star 

Janet Emma, June 24, 2021, Buckskin Pony Music, All Rights Reserved 

Imagining new love weightless & sweet 

That moment a kindred heart we meet 

No cliff too high no sea too deep 

We trust each other our hearts to keep 

Gamble not for the faint of heart 

To hitch our wagon to that falling star 

Flashing through the gloam to dark 

Forged beams together one seamless arc 

How is it then that when that Love goes gone 

When hope lays low & rest won’t come 

When the one you love might not come home 

it’s lonelier than just plain alone 

Compared to the blue of missing someone 

Lonesome is just a midnight ramble 

But the ache that comes with the setting sun 

Reminds me true Love is a longshot gamble 

Keep the faith & the candles burning 

Sun will rise & earth will keep turning 

When vision seems dim & the skyline blurry 

Trust the revelation as we journey 

Though we live for the smile of hello in Love’s eyes 

The risk is always heartbreak & goodbye 

But the mystery between them is where the gold lies 

If we’re brave in Love & don’t close our eyes

 

 

The Color Blue

(For my Hero, my Pop) 

Janet Emma, January 21, 2021

Buckskin Pony Music, All Rights Reserved

 

You say ‘go’ - go live my life 

You say it’s okay to leave 

Bend that faith, take that leap 

Do what is best for me 

I hear your words as you hold my hand 

As I swallow my heart & breathe 

I follow now in your footsteps 

As I strain with my heart to see 

 

Your question dawns “what’s best for me?” 

A Sundog after summer rain 

I’ve never really asked or known 

What such a thing might mean 

Safer to stay and hold the hearts 

That stave off invisibility 

Than to risk there being nothing more 

Souls like mine were invented for 

 

I learned the hard way most everything 

Like I learned to grieve before I could sing 

The hour is late yet the journey is new 

Anything is possible - save for leaving you 

They haven’t invented the color blue 

Of my heart so far away from you

 

You paint the dories green, blue & red 

Never meant to sit the river out 

But always meant to sail instead 

And risk the rocks & rapids 

A life well lived not on the shore 

But a currach afloat no matter the storm 

Aware of red skies by night or by morn 

You stalked the yonder horizon

 

May the stars light our way by land and sea 

Through the waters of life and the crossing 

May your eyes be the sextant by which I set sail 

No matter the squalls or the tossing 

I watched you map the stars in the sky 

And now I ask your keen blessing 

As snowmelt in spring is as sure as your heart 

Watch over your daughter’s traversing

 

 

The Mending

Janet Emma, April 26th 2020  

Buckskin Pony Music, All Rights Reserved

 

Take all the air you need 

Go into the woods & breathe 

Breathe until there’s nothing left 

But a forest that sighs with you, bereft 

 

Night birdsong & the sun goes to sleep 

Inside the walls the furniture grieves 

The air in your barely living room 

Stands stock still as a startled thief 

 

And you like it that way 

And you don’t want help 

When the pain is all 

Of her you’ve got left 

 

Sunrise interrupts your strategy 

To disappear for a month or three 

As hard as you try you can’t ignore 

The bluebird’s call outside your door 

 

So you put one foot toward the coffee pot 

And you let your feet move whether or not 

Your heart’s onboard with this obvious plot 

To coerce you to give the morning a shot 

 

But that move you make is the reckoning 

When you feel Life’s living beckoning 

Hearts broken reveals hearts’ blessings 

To have Loved at all is the mending

 

 

True North 

Janet Emma, March 1, 2020 

Buckskin Pony Music, All Rights Reserved. 

 

My beloved True North, your secrets unfurl 

Still lost more than found as I’ve traveled this world 

But when you come 'round with your red compass heart 

I feel less afraid of the fall or how far 

 

Always believed I’d the wings of a bird 

But the heights that I’ve dreamed often seem plain absurd 

In slumber I easily fly through the wires 

Then morning light finds me earthbound in the mire 

 

I hear banjos & hill songs way up on the ridge 

I make my way toward them, I stumble and trudge 

The lights in the valley all shining like diamonds 

Still they don’t light the darkness like you by the moonlight 

 

There are hearts that will promise then roll in the storm 

They’ll not shine in our eyes or protect us from harm 

They don’t wonder or worry if we’ve settled or roam 

They’re the red sky at night as we hunker till morn 

 

Some say it’s only each by our own light 

That we see a way forward by day or the night 

I’ll watch till dead weary for what sure be the course 

For your red heart, my compass, my only True North