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Autumn Arrival Image Prompt Contest Winner!

 

The Winner of the Autumn Arrival Image Prompt Contest is  scribbler

 

AUTUMN'S CUSP

 

 

Mid October a cool day
with a northern cooling breeze.
All hints of summer gone away.
The few green leaves are just a tease.

Tomorrow will bring the first frost
so this day finds me 'neath the trees
absorbing warmth before its lost
and limbering up titanium knees.

For I'm not what I once was.
Time has seen that I am not,
So I sit on a stump to take a pause
and breathe autumn's scent which I'd forgot.

Then turn my face up to the sky
as cool front winds begin to blow.
I watch the clouds as they race by.
They leave like friends I used to know.

My eyes water from sun's glare
so I drop my head down to my chest
letting my chin settle there
while I count the ways that I am blessed.

I'm blessed with our cabin in the trees
I'm blessed with seeing one more fall.
I'm blessed with grandchildren to tease.
I'm blessed with being here at all.

I watch a squirrel climb to its nest
for now the sun is getting low
so ere' it reaches ridge's crest
I arise then turn and go.

 

                         To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

Neopoet Weekly 09/8/24 to 09/14/24 Winner!

This Week’s Winner is  Edward nigma

 

 Cage of cards

 

 Chaotically clustered
cage of
cards covering
all
cynically silent
sides of life
plainly plastered
before my
persistently passing
presence of
the present day.
Thoughtlessly thrashing
out the leisurely
overlapping lanes
of possibilities
prancing through
the pressuring palms
of probability.
With a single stern stomp
taking back the cross
mask of control.
There steadily
stumbled down
the obliquely built
walls of ambiguity
freely falling at
my frivolously
fleeting feet.
Vigorously revealing
the vaguely vapid
valley of victorious
vultures who
persistently preys
upon the weak
minded ones
who decisively numb
themselves within naivety .
But still
I walk forth
ahead through
the foreboding facade
of fear
lying before me.

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

Neopoet Weekly 09/01/24 to 09/07/24

This Week’s Winner is Trail

 

Echoes

 

Once there was a man
Who wrote beautiful music
He wrote the music because he was sad
He was sad because he was all alone

But he was noticed for his music
He ended up being loved for it
And in being loved
He lost his sadness
And his music soon after

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

August 2024 Contest Winners

The Winner of the Peace Versus War is Lavender  with the following poem

To Those Who Walked, Peace Versus War

 

I hope you have a quiet day,
a kissing breeze,
sweet hours at ease
planting flowers, if you please,
and nothing there to rip it all away.
I hope you have that day.

I pray you have a gentle night,
under stars so deep
they soothe and keep
your soft breath flowing as you sleep
beneath the crescent moon and her earthlight.
I pray you have that night.

And may your memories be amended
to blissful skies and green earth, so splendid
that they embrace you when you close your eyes.
May this be the rich life you come to realize.

To those who walked through the blood of yesternight,
I hope for you this day. I pray for you this night.

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

The Winner of the 08/24 Too Good to be True  is Punkyfrewster with the following poem

Too Good to be True

 

In my mind, it was bliss
day in and day out
until the day it ended.

In the rearview mirror,
I saw signs:
far-off gazes to nowhere
as we ate dinner
and stalled conversations
about your day.

All the bliss aside,
our love was just
too good to be true.

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

The Winner of the 08/24 I Lost The Instructions is Candlewitch   with the following poem

 

I Lost The Instructions (to being a woman)

 

I Lost The Instructions
(to being a woman)

You beat "Her" out of me
leaving my soul tattered.
In the beginning you were kind
warm and jovial, it mattered.

Gradually you began to change
taking me away from all I knew,
from Minnesota to the east coast
an easy ride we drove straight through.

I discovered your evil temper
on our trip, it left me in fear,
knocking me down, kicking me
you bellowed, shouting, making it clear.

You were the boss, and me your slave
seeing the cruel glint in your eye
was an omen of what was soon to come
you would test me in ways to make me cry...

Each new day was a promise of terror
you invented head-games to play.
In fear, I trembled trying to hide
tried not to anticipate the rue of the day.

nights were bad too, I cowered under covers
You brutalized me sexually to hear me scream
threatening to blow my head off my shoulders
losing connection with my idea of a woman's dream!

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

The Winner of the 08/24 Broken Air Condition is Kristen H. with the following poem

Broken Air Condition

 

We never had much more than each other
in the summer of 2016

Adventures on Saturday nights
Two wheels
Two helmets
Two hearts

Lazy Sunday mornings
Two cups of coffee
Two cigarettes burned
Two hands together

There wasn’t much to it
Just you and I,
and our broken air conditioner

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

The Winner of the 08/24 Beach Day is  paleoray with the following poem

 

Shore Watch

 

Splashing, crashing sound the waves
On the surf and then retrieve;
As the foam spreads on the sand,
While the pipers dash and weave.

High above the seagulls glide,
Circling 'round a sea of teal;
Others swooping close to pier,
Looking for an easy meal.

In the distance dolphins dive,
With their synchronizing breaks;
Dorsal fins shine at each peak,
Then they submerge in their wakes.

Sand crabs scurry back and forth,
Seeking food along the shore;
After catching fish with claws,
Quick they vanish as they bore.

Soon the sun sets in the west,
As the moon brings mirrored light;
Ocean tides smooth out the sand,
While the waves gleam through the night.

 

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

The Winner of the Neopoet Weekly 08/25/24 to 08/31/24 is Twizzle48 with the following poem

 

WINTER COMETH

 

Do you hear winter, I hear it coming
That distant growl, there in the wind
Stronger now, than an autumn breeze
With the merest hint of an early freeze
And with no sweet taste like tamarind
But a biting cold that can be numbing

For some, it is a season for celebration
But its hidden scowl suggests otherwise
Hearing threats under its frozen breath
Of ice and snow, laying so still in death
Pretty snowflakes offering cute disguise
As so much of Nature is in hibernation

At least this is true in Northern climes
Just bleak with not much give and take
And still, some try to understand why
As the end of the calendar year is nigh
But there is hope following in its wake
Anticipating the Spring’s warmer times

To leave an additional comment on the contest page click here

 

 

 

 

 

Neopoet Weekly 08/18/24 to 08/24/24 Winner!

This Week’s Winner is  Sen99

 

Venus Tree

Standing here for decades
On one wooden leg
A native English species,
An old grey oak.
Its naked bark bleached,
Ashen white like alabaster.

A nameless uncarved block
Unyielding and proud,
Exposed to the elements.
Wind and weather beaten
An organic body of life
Its beauty gaunt and raw.

Striking to an admirer’s eye,
Picture perfect from a distance
A resilient stone sculpture,
Its arms cut down to stumps.

Like some replica of a classical statue
From some ancient age,
Nature’s beauty,
A timeless art.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Boardwalk

His wooden legs soaked it's feet into the sloshing
salty water it's body lifting up a board to walk
on. Sheets of purple lights drowned the sea
with their glow and a theatre of sea air mixed
with thalassic crabs and briny seafaring lobsters
filled are nostrils.

At the Bottom

It curls into my head
like cigarette smoke
above a whiskey glass,
Settle on ice;
you cannot stay
so cold forever.
You have to look down
from the ledge
to see how far
you’d fall,
to see how small
of a step it is
to think twice.

Bootstrap Escape (finally home)

no longer my home
the family I once knew
seat of betrayal
this place where I grew

shame and denial
covered up deeds
of lust and hatred
that killed tender seeds

fear of exposure
created cover-up lies
shattered the spirit
until innocence dies

I left them behind
no memories to save
regrets aplenty
for all that I gave

as much as an orphan
sets off on her own
spurred by abuses
unable to condone

Septembers denial!

Flying flippant, flailing
wild fouling.
My son tried out foot ball
a week or two.

I knew it went wrong
when he came home crying.
He gave up that summer
in some ways me too.

Next summer was hot
so he tried out for baseball.
He wanted to pitch,
but I had to work to do.

I saw a few games,
but again he was crying.
Trying to pitch
was a thing for a few.

Our family was beaten down
soon my boys chose new schools.
I tried to console
there was naught I could do

written September 19th, 2018, and following words still ring (more true) today – exactly six years later.

The then forty fifth prez
of United States of America
best get sent packing
to Lake woebegone
forced to coexist amidst University
of Pennsylvania Dutch
men in breeches
(May Apple lie)
swampy netherlands awash
with bipedal hominid

Dinner time

Metal spoons ping
The thud of a pot drops in the sink
I hear chopping and stirring
The oven door is closing
I know these sounds
My Mom is making dinner
And soon I’ll be called down from my room

I notice I’m hungry -
Right on time
As the smells move up, and up
Until I drop my pencil
And go see what she’s making
I hope it’s that Roast
I asked for
When she asked me what sounded good

Did you know?

Golden Shovel after Victoria Chang’s, ‘Homecoming”

Pieces of us still exist from as far back
As diapers and Similac, even before bedtime stories.
Our DNA hangs around in their
Bloodstream like butterfly wings,
As if the contractions remember
Something of us swimming in nothing,
But a secret tunnel and we were and are
Umbilical cord joined until it’s cut, but the bond is never
Broken— our Mother’s DNA still holds our knowledge

INVADED BY ROCKETS

Exploding bottle rockets, sirens
detonating the blue blanket
starless night
a fusion of bursting brightness

of a Multichromatic flamboyant sky
and beaming jazzy clouds

Enrapturing kids holding white
hot glaring sticks making shapes,
wrapped up safe guarding mothers
Gazing up filling their eyes with
pyrotechic bursting missiles.

Dust Blue Daisies

I never did find
the great wide open
where the city skyline dissipates
into watercolour hues.
I stood out on the edge,
wooden arrows tried to
dictate my direction,
but the words were all wrong.

And the dust blue daisies
grew around me
when I lost my mind.
I let the world pass me by
so I could break
where no one could see.

Like Fish in the Reef

Something hidden,
something blue,
something I don’t
care to admit.
Years are behind
many are still ahead.
Many to contemplate
the love that I keep
hidden from view
like tiny fish
in the Great Reef.

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