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Autumn Arrival Image Prompt Contest

 

 

 

Read the finalists for the Autumn Arrival Image Prompt Contest and vote for your favorite poem. Voting will end September 19th, 2024. Best of luck to our finalists

 

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Autumn Rain

By Punkyfrewster

Drops pelt the
fallen leaves
bringing to mind
tears falling
over beauty
and lost love.

Rain bounces
off the
confetti on the
ground like
the damaged end
of a party.

 

 

Autumn's Cusp

By scribbler

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.

 

                                                                                               Vote 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

 

Autumn Arrival Image Prompt Contest

Try out our newest image prompt contest

Autumn Arrival Image Prompt Contest

Best of luck to all that enter 

The stream (all workshops)

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

 

We must keep on trying

confront your image
don't hide behind a mirror
in fool's paradise

when we close our eyes
we may be blind to the world
not our conscience

spare for your own sake
a moment in solitude
for self appraisal

may good deeds prevail
over evils of the bygone
at each dawning day

smile at your image
feel good to be alive
which is a blessing

E L L I P S E

crush
the history
of powder shadow
you streak
with treacle
mischief

discern me with
your mirror lull
the soft green
world
lush and deep

where now you
haunt me
dream and sleep

The Cottage Tap

Out from the broken lattice,
Below the white clapped cottage side,
Water from the sand point well,
Through the one turn tap,
And through wiggling toes,
Splashes beach sand on the flag stone path,
Away from which,
Dripping foot slapped pool shadows,
Track toe and heel,
To the front screen door that springs and slams,
Beyond the damp traces left behind,
From shore side joyful playing paused,
Drying in the smiling sun,
And the kissing pine scent breeze,
Carefree days’ passage kept,

Temptation

Temptation

"Kill Me Softly"

Wrap me in your plastic,
suffocate my past.
Drown me in your sorrows,
kill me so it lasts.

Slit my throat so gently,
slice into my veins.
Kill me oh so softly,
seek my promised name.

Rip my flesh from bone,
pull my fingernails.
Leave me laying, rotting,
hammer me with nails.

Choking on the inside,
sulfur steals my breath.
Fire burns my eyelids,
I wish to suffer death.

Take my offspring from me,
cutting off my hands.
Lead me from this angel,
to the darkest lands.

My Own Worst Enemy

From the windows of my soul
Don’t expect to be mesmerized

My soul whispers save me
So far no search and rescue team
Only me paddling across streams of lava

No gardens filled with roses and orchids
Over here we have dying flowers and thirsty lands
Cursed by some merciless creature

This picture I paint will erase smiles
As hearts freeze in the cold of my truth
Agony like medusa showed her ugly face
And now I await the gods to breathe life into me

Hello International Guy

Hello International Guy

Sometimes when you are not
On poetic stream,
I somehow miss you,
You should send a message,
As it gives me life,
To try and write poetry like you do.

But then you are abstract,
What can I do?
Except await a word
Of praise from you
Hope you are doing
What I’ve told you to
And
The result you would share
With me would you?

Unadulterated Ego...

Your unassailable intellect led you to believe
that you were my savior.
You wouldn't sail the route across my charts
and so weighed anchor in death's harbour.

By believing in your own divinity
You failed to uphold your oath.
You did harm...

Your Gordian knot undone
by the dull sword of my ineptitude.
I secured freedom
and found my way home.

Disguised as an uneducated wretch
I passed through your kingdom.

Blinded by the facts...
You didn't see me leave.

In Contempt

There are people rising now,
millions fighting back
against decades of poverty
and contemptuous oppression.

There are men and women rising
fighting for the futures
of their children,
marching into muzzles
of aimed and loaded guns.

There are ordinary citizens rising,
flooding into battered cities
braving snipers and beatings
to gain what we enjoy.

There are people praying
amid this monumental struggle,
thanking God for life
as others seek their death,

Poppet

Maliciousness falls in a toxic seasoning
upon fragile head of little poppet whose
untainted effigy freshly picked simmers
in a stew of negligence.

Violence delivered upon her pallid flesh
harshly decreed by the loathsome giants,
whose barbaric stride crush her body
beneath putrid ocher feet.

The reek of long festering decay drops ominously
 from these ogres' damaged brains. Eyes blank,
jaws clenching teeth, and fists balled in unwelcome
approach, the nightmarish realities lurch forward ...

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