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Neopoet Weekly 10/13/24 to 10/19/24 Winner!

 

 

Congratulations to This week’s winner Trail

 

DRIFTING CLOUDS

 

The sun rises a little earlier each day
And each day is brighter than the last
On evenings I walk out to see the sunset
And I walk back with a rested soul

I've tried to be more sincere with myself
To hold my own hand
As I walk through the darkness
To sing to myself once in a while
So that I can hear a voice
Of someone who loves me

It hasn't been an easy ride
But the clouds are coming back from the south now
And with each wave I get a feeling
That it's all going to be alright

I'm waiting for the first rains of the season
Hoping that just maybe
The heavy part of my soul
Will be washed clean
And I can smile again
Even if it's just for a while

I carry a weight in my heart
But when the breeze blows, I look up
I am stunned by the majesty of the clouds
And of the moon, and the stars
This, I think
Is how I survived for so long
A.Swantalala

Neopoet Weekly 09/29/24 to 10/05/24 Winner!

This Week’s winner is  Twizzle48

 

WHISPERING WOODS

 

WHISPERING WOODS

Perhaps the rustling leaves are telling the tree’s tale
Whispering, such that only those listening may hear
Only when it is in tune, may the message be clear
Yet unless easily understood, it will be of little avail

The breeze is a medium, but other connections too
To share, an underground root network also serves
It’s communication via a kind of complex of nerves
No myths or stories, as all that’s shared will be true

Summer is a competition for sunlight, as if in a duel
In autumn it is time for the farewell to falling leaves
Yet the first snow of winter is as an axe that cleaves
But next spring, it’s the buzz of growth and renewal

The style of the telling is not random, but planned
Facts the trees near and far, eventually get to know
But its sending and receipt is effective, even if slow
Nature’s sagas few of us will ever get to understand

September 2024 Contest Winners!

September 2024 Contest Winners

 

Congratulations to all our contest winners

 

The Winner of the What is Life? Is Alex Tanner

 

Life Is What You Are

 

There's a time to go back to live life again,
Let the boy who was fearless be reborn just the same;
Command the old man who grumbles and moans
Of the aches and the pains that torment his old bones.

Ride his bike one more time, no brakes, hands free,
Skate winter's froze pond where he knows not to be,
Go down to the river for frogs, newts, dragonfly,
Climb gnarled oaks so tall they caress azure sky.

Boot footballs, play rugby in fields full of mud.
Wash knees in ice water to clean off the blood
From kicks and from falls but never no pain
Just laughter as into the fray once again.

No laptops, no mobiles perhaps no tv,
But they were not wanted this boy he was free.
Free from an age of want yet to come
To go where he pleases till hungry then home.

From dawn until dusk he was out all around,
With his numerous pals no trouble was found,
Nor was it sought, just laughter and fun
Or maybe some girls as adolescence begun.

The old man sits straight and a smile lights his face
He'll do what he can and if he seems a disgrace?
A silly old sod who ought to know better,
By God! life's for living, he'll show he's no quitter.

 

The winner of the 09/24 The Bully is Tawny023

 

Encroach and Invade

 

Mold is an inconspicuous bully
Decomposes reds, yellows, oranges
Blues, and even lime greens
Does not matter its outer shape
Covets the wetness deep inside
Feeds and declares dominance
Nest and festers, spreads
Like vermin and vectors
Permeates and inhibits
Its host hold on to structure
While degrading its bonds
In order to have its way with
Just about any old living thing
A temperamental nuisance
But it’s grotesque mold juice
caught the eye of Dr. Fleming
Its usefulness is no other
Than the holy grail
called Penicillin
Which fights viruses that would
Otherwise make human’s
procreation unviable and
Their deaths excruciating

 

The winner of the 09/24 Bon Fire is RoseBlack

 

Bon Fire

 

Moon high; middle of the night.
Drums thumping; bumping in hypnotic flight.
Cloaked hoods fall to the ground,
scattered chants mix with the eerie sound.

Candle wax burns at the fingertips;
Hecate's breath embraces swaying hips.
Shadows dance amongst the flames,
linking spirits to our world without shame.

'Tis our season, witches take hold,
The magic runs hot and bold.
Our veil is thinning, hear the roar of the thunder,
when the living and the dead are no longer asunder.

 

The winner of the 09/24 Under the boardwalk is  Lavender

 

Along The Windy Shore

 

I remember you
and your lit-up smile
under the salty boardwalk.
You were seventeen
with your tousled hair
along the windy shore.

Such a time we had
'neath the summer sun
under the salty boardwalk.
With our hands entwined
we would race the waves
along the windy shore.

We never made promises
we couldn't keep.
No promises were broken.

So in the silver moonlight
there on the beach,
few words were ever spoken.

I remember soon
summer days grew short
under the salty boardwalk.
I was seventeen
when we said goodbye
along the windy shore.

Do you remember me
with my deep brown eyes
under the salty boardwalk?
Part of me remains
racing with the waves
along the windy shore.

I'm there along the shore.

 

The Winner of the 09/24 Homecoming is Tawny023

 

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 cut, but the bond is never
Broken— our Mother’s DNA still holds our knowledge

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neopoet Weekly 09/22/24 to 09/28/24 Winner!

   This Week’s winner is Jokerface82

 

THE WRATHFUL SEA

 

Her salted bludgeoning maw
swallowed vessels and galleys
with its green saline gullet of
ulcers
barnacles, and a throat full of oily
spots of acne sticky limpets

Treasures guarded by a circle
of sharks in an ocean restaurant
pinching crabs,
and swaying seaweed keeping naval
secrets.

A wave of wrathfulness, tossing
clubbing, floating ships, drowning
them into the abyss.
stripping seamen Into
skeletons with silent screams.

Supported by a howling killer
of a storm . Ripping, blowing holes
into arthritis wooden decks into oblivion
into the coldest dark depths.

         

 

                                                                     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.

 

DUST TO DUST

DUST TO DUST

Where do I go from here,

I am not ashes or dust,

I am electricity electric blue

and I will continue

bursting through the stars

free from my mind

no longer bound by time.

Or am I Hope's fool.

I think and wonder

I suffer the pains of the flesh

and the fears of immortality

and I am crucified,

un named

I chase through the night, trying
to catch up with time
The evil taskmaster
that takes what is mine

With each step I take
the future becomes the past
I am not alone, I see others
all around me

Some I know and
have loved from my past
I see them weaken and stumble
before their time, and fall down in sleep

unable the pace to keep
Oh, but I know the sun will again rise
and though weary from my night of running
I open my eyes to mourn another day

CHRISTMAS BELLS

CHRISTMAS BELLS by Ian Thomson

From the towers of Corpus Christi
Beating flat the very air
Starlings flying fast to miss
The peals of bells imprisoned there.

In a new- built stone bell-tower
Clarions join in the fray.
Shoppers searching for the bargains,
Still have time to stand and stare.

Far away in lonely forests
Village kirks send bells to join
Ringing out the Christmas message
Mary has a Baby Boy.

Northern Infuriate

Run!
Flee the binding stifling hugs
that you toss aside
blithely
embracing your new northern namaste
with an insouciant shrug!

What does it matter that
your mother
crushed
life previously unravelling
with you as the leading player
dissolves like wet celluloid?

Her memories merge into
one huge sob
and yet
this irrigation will provide
a fecundity of new adventures.

She's just so infuriated with inactivity
her grief is sodden & bloated
begging to be drowned.

Chiaro-oscuro edit

CHIARO=OSCURO

The morning softly brings me to Day
and my Nighttime dreams begin to fade away..
In light's truth I see the years,have ravaged me..
On wings of fire I soon I will fly across a clear blue sky
and all my days of loneliness I will leave behind.

Castle of Dreams at War

The castle is quiet in my head
All talkers ready for bed
Feeling at peace my horse in the saddle
There're no night terrors for me to battle
Just the sleep in my eyes demanding rest.

A few reads of poetry tonight
And some loving critique, none so light
Is what I planned before lights out
Two bottle of antibiotics without a doubt
Can't do a thing for my infectious plight.

Castle of Dreams at War

The castle is quiet in my head
All talkers ready for bed
Feeling at peace my horse in the saddle
There're no night terrors for me to battle
Just the sleep in my eyes demanding rest.

A few reads of poetry tonight
And some loving critique, none so light
Is what I planned before lights out
Two bottle of antibiotics without a doubt
Can't do a thing for my infectious plight.

Broken Doll

On my own shelf,
So far back no one can see,
The doll with the torn dress
And the ripped seams.

Who bothers with a broken toy
When prettier ones abound?
And the child who used me sits
Newer friends in the round.

If you open my dress,
A small dark stitch you will see,
Where once a little red heart
Beating fast used to be.

I was thrown down, unwanted,
And so I walked away,
Back to my gray shelf,
And sat down in the shade.

you are but just one
amongst millions
who have their lives run

but you are one in a million
who has life's race
so meritoriously won

to cherish you now
mankind has its voyage begun

Paynim...

It's been said,
now...
time and peace
have graceful hands
of passover...

Peace...
Peace...
Peace
drizzles in pieces of dawn
Of ripped ribbons of night

As pensile moments
rip the paternoster
from my breast...
As the enduring face
of Evil affixed
his last patch...

I became the before
the Paynim of infinity...
sitting at the feet
of the Pedagogue
within in the mother...

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