Poetry 2007

             
Winner - September/October Poetry Contest

Sally O’Quinn

October View

Smooth and silver as polished steel, the sky
arches above curling blades of grass, a crowd
of standing trees whose limbs molt brittle feathers
in wind dry as a cough.
This is my view on the morning after you’ve gone,
after your revelation tore my reality
like strips of muslin used
to bind a soldier’s wounds.
How can I be nonplussed
while my heart leaks like a cracked teacup
and your scent still permeates
my linens?
A gallery of blackbirds screech from the naked trees,
heads swiveling, beaks clattering as they joust
for a prized perch.
Acorns they scavenge will never make a tree,
will never shade
afternoon lovers as they woo.
They will be ground and digested
in a pariah’s gut, only coming to earth
as a cursed stain on
some derelict sidewalk.

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Honorable Mention - September/October Poetry Contest

Kandie Rosales

"Quaking In Fear"

Dreaming a serenade, clattered loud, soul awake!
Un-nerving to our senses, Oh no!  It's a quake!
Bounding in haste, and trembling  in fear,
rush for the children, save our loved ones dear.

Beams started crackling, and boughs they will break,
crashing all around us, there will be no escape.
Shrieks reach to high pitch, noble hearts sway
and total destruction, without any delay.

Wrestled my child, and snatched from my hold,
adrenalin pounds loudly,  blood rushed to my soul.
Fires igniting and flaming flashed aglow,
falling into abyss, blackened deep holes.

Gas main bursting, the eruptions of doom,
save by some grace, those still in the room!
Subsiding with trembles, light rolls to a wave,
knowing the rubble, plays host as a grave.

Smoked filled, the air dusted, no catching of breath,
with everything gone, nothing is left.
Birds naught in flight, how much had been doomed?
Hidden?  Quiet?  Dead I assume!

Knowing from fires the heat won't relent.
until it consumes, what has been spent.
Wounds, start counting, to many to broach.
Throbbing in pain, I'm obliged to approach.

How many prayers will be sent on this day?
Hunderds of millions, white doves will relay.
Fathoms of tears fill the basins up high.
Pain set aside, tell me please, why'd they die?

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Honorable Mention - September/October Poetry Contest

Chris Towle

 "There Was This Place"
 
There's a place I'd once known
That I left so far behind
I didn't know where I was goin'
Or why I just left so blind

I didn't move or speak
It's just a place in my mind
I just left there in seek
Of something I have yet to find

Oh, this place I felt to leave
Was of solitude and lonely
I'm falling back to it I believe
If you let me and if only

During its cold dusk of breeze
A dark street winds and bends
There was no warm to ease
The tragedy of how my heart ends

I beg you for one blanket
A warmth incomparable to yours
But it's just enough to make it
When I'm locked outside your doors
Please stop my tears from falling
And plug my ears, "I'm dying"
I can feel the maggots crawling
While I float in midair crying

That place was no good
And I begged for you from my knees
Before me you unknowingly stood
But it was all I needed for ease...
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Honorable Mention - September/October Poetry Contest

Kathryn Gabrielle

"Night of An August Moon"

It hung brilliantly like an eternal shrine,

Serene, majestic, liquid, divine.

Brighter than usual it shone,

Far away and alone.

There came inside of me a desperate longing,

For my heart's true maiden that is you.

I stared up at this ornament of Heaven

And was blue.

In my mind's eye I saw your angelic face:

Beautiful, a work of art, a god, a dream.

You stood in perfect poise of the sea.

And stared hauntingly o'er at me

As if I were a total stranger, a phantom.

I beckoned unto you with outstretched hands,

But you just smiled and laughed

And turned into a statue made of sand

That the waves came and washed away.

I jumped in after you and was swallowed up.

My heart and soul could not resist such a thirst

And your love has at last filled my cup.

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Honorable Mention - September/October Poetry Contest

Carol Dillin

Death’s Song

Remember all young warriors racked on the altar of war?

Their deathsong groans writ upon yon graven doors,

Myne sister, Sin, and I applaud our father’s success.

Remember hope lost in young virgins’ blight?

Here lies our fiend’s revenge; once more

Death’s fetid cry announce: Satan’s sheer delight.

Remember all the wanderers’ laments the scops so truly told?

Brave warriors and maidens’ monsters they had slain

But truth be told, twas in the plan of evil ancient.

Remember elegies ye have heard of bravery, sword, and myth?

The truth lies here interred in Hell,

But Satan’s tale ye missed.

Remember tempted liberty from tyranny and pain?

The battle steads snorted, and Heaven shook,

But God held all the reins.

Sweet canker festered in stormy clouds, and Satan shook his fist

Those days are done;if memory serves,

Death’s father groaned, then hissed.

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Winner - You Vote for the Winner Poetry Contest

Taylor Blue

"The Darkness"