Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.

Home

Community News

Neopoet Weekly 07/14/24 to 07/20/24 Winner

This week’s winner is Shelby Pryor with the following poem

Higher and Higher

I've been on my back lately
I haven't tried getting up
I've embraced the tears
But enough is enough

I won't just get up now
I'll rise like a Phoenix
Shaking the ashes off
The life that I'll fix

I will not be passive
It is time to ravage
The fear inside me
I'll attack like a savage

Wipe the blood from my lip
Dust the dirt off my hands
For victory belongs to the one
Who runs, not who stands

Fire comsumes my heart
Burning up all the pain
You might have crushed me
But it was not in vain

What destroys the others
Will not mar my skin
The scars are finally fading
My thread no longer thin

So watch my eyes ignite
Watch my steps shift
I'll treat my life not as
As a curse but a gift

I am done holding back
Living like a caged-up lion
I will keep getting up
When it feels like I'm dyin'

So give me back the pen
Only I can write my story
Every drop of blood spilled
Is another step towards glory

You can deliver a steep uppercut
But I'm a last round fighter
Even with you pushing me down
I keep flying Higher and Higher

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

2024 1st Half Of The Yearly Contest

The Winner of the 2024 1st Half of The Yearly Contest  is MermaidMaster  with the following poem

 

 

In Another Life I Live Bravely

Submitted by MermaidMaster

I want to live in the tallest apartment in New
York City, and peer my gaping eyes through
my window to see only dancing beetles below.

I will wear expensive feathers and furs, I’ll
dance with strangers, and I’ll party for a while
with headliners after sold-out shows.

I’ll walk the streets wearing only perfume and
watch men stand agape as I strut past, too awed
at my nakedness proud and aglow.

I’ll rebel and I’ll wail and I’ll cry out,
“Change will come! Justice will prevail!”
And I won’t shut up until Change comes and goes.

I’ll play poker with CEO’s, and kiss strange men in taxis,
and spin through the nights like a globe on its axis;
to live with honeyed hi’s! And never with lows.

I’ll do pilates and yoga, drink only red wine,
and I won’t dwell on the men who used to be mine.
I’ll live fast and so furiously young,
and I’ll die gentle, soft and divine.

 

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

Neopoet Weekly 07/7/24 to 07/13/24 Winner!

This week’s winner is hippiemoon with the following poem

 

Coal Mine Canary

Submitted by hippiemoon

Do you know about coal mine canaries?
They used to take caged birds down into the coal mines,
And when they would die the workers would know to leave too.

Let me be a canary in your chest.
Let me live inside your rib cage,
Feel your heart beat for me,
Watch your blood flow through your veins.

Keep me safe next to your heart
And I’ll keep you safe from all that’s bad.

Use me as your compass,
I’ll tell you to run when things get hard.

Let me be your coal mine canary.
Let me sacrifice myself to save you from the inevitable.

 

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

This week’s winner is Candlewitch with the following poem

 

                                                                                       Wood-smoke

Submitted by Candlewitch

We mellowed...
reclining by the camp fire
after a day of splashing,
swimming, and water games.

I shivered as
evening came in to surround us
with a cooling breeze.
Your fisherman knit sweater
you placed about my shoulders,
staved off a slight chill.

Your glittering orbs
held me intoxicated.
As I felt the last of
the sun's rays
leach out of the sand

Quietly exchanging daydreams,
I noticed, wood-smoke, was
the color of your smiling eyes!

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

The stream (all workshops)

This is the stream - you can see all poems on Neopoet, live, as they are created.

 

WHAT FLAWS ?

Since we met I have been blind.
Don't get me wrong, though, I don't mind
'cause I can see just plain as day
until I turn my eyes your way.

When I glance at you I see
that child bride so dear to me.
You're still the best thing in my life;
my safe port in times of strife.

Your skin is as soft in my hand
and in my arms you feel as grand.
The wrinkles of which you oft fret
well, I haven't seen them yet.

Angel Of The Night

Seeking refuge
In your gazing eyes
Your sweet lips
Keep a smile on
Sad faces

Angel that fled from heaven
To ease broken spirits
Stay with me till first light
For your presence
Brings spring flowers
On a winter day

Ah, how your smile echoes
In my darkest hours
Your smile defeats Hades
Your every word flows
Like Shakespearean sonnets

Going Home By Ferry

At the stern of the speeding ship
I met her where the railings swept
around the curve of rain-slick deck;
our arms slipped about each other,
and together, in growing warmth,
we fed the soaring gulls.

OPEN BOOK

I reside within a room, book
in hands eyes consumed
on the pages between the
lines forming pictures from
words entwined.

without interruption
I read it through impressions
of an author I never knew.

thought brought to a place
where it is witnessed by
the here and now, open to
endless possibility's
which are disciplined only by
the limitations set out by
ourselves and others around us.

Haiku trio (Autumn)

Hush! It is evening
Nature paints her landscapes
Colors goldenrod

Autumnal changes
Ecliptic intersections
Bringing natures' dance

The autumnal feast
From the horn of plenitude
Serves celebration

SWEET MAGNOLIA PROMISES

"Magnolia you sweet thing
you're driving me wild" *

you shame me with that phase
for i seek you out, but i am made afraid

i understand everything
and yet that changes nothing

for even as I speak
my words remain

hanging lifeless
on a dead frame

my psyche is human
but you have become inhumane

for i am the one
who is in exquisite pain

i am but a copy, a facsimile
of my own unravelled frame...

Bonitaj 11/23/10

*song by JJ Cale about New Orleans

MOMENT OF TRUTH

Prevaricate -
that’s what he called it,
but his mouth choked
on the dust
of so many lies;
not a sod of compassion
to hold a smile in place,
nor a flicker of remorse,
across that handsome face

Menacing clouds of distrust
boiled up in the sky
and rolled like moving mountains,
powerfully, swiftly into the storm’s eye.
When the fine layer of truth fell
it covered everything
like a thin veneer -
draped over a densely woven mat
of deceit and lies.

Mikey...

There once was a computer program
that was meant to rival man's smarts
What the program didn't know about
was the largess of our hearts

The gentleness of the soul of us
the ways we operate
Logic doesn't allow for that
but that's what makes us great

It tried to see where the problem was
why it couldn't grasp the sense
Why does man do the things he does
with no seeming recompense?

Looking out the kitchen window

`

my finger traces
a still barely
visible band
on my 4th finger

our ex-anniversary
is now my memory

a constant companion
to might have beens

yesterday had so much
prospect and promise
today I face a sink
full of dirty dishes

`

Warm Flesh

Warm flesh wrapped in a
State of grace and a white shirt --
Sombre room reflects light in
Her eyes -- rising from perusal of
Her book of dreams

Elegant scent of woman rises
From the open shirt, and
Fills the room with feminine
Mystery

Hair loosely tied -- how effortless
To undo her auburn tresses and let fall
Round her eyes, offering invitation

As the bed waits to be used.

Pages

(c) Neopoet.com. No copyright is claimed by Neopoet to original member content.