CASTLE IN THE SAND
Once upon a time,
we held our dreams on the beautiful shore and
started sculpting a castle in the sand.
However, crashing waves came and gently washed the castle away.
Beneath the restless waves, our dreams
and words will never drift and will forever stay.
My vow of promises will stand, whatever may befall.
And the love I’ve bestowed on you will outlast them all.
Rosey 04/09/2026
Lavender drifts along the castle road,
its scent rising over the castle keep.
Far off, the sun spills gold
across the armor of a passing knight,
A horn sounds from the watchtower,
rolling through the valley like a slow-moving tide.
Hooves answer the rhythmic trot of a rider
returning home after drinking too many tankards of mead.
And the whole kingdom exhales,
wrapped in lavender air and fading gold.
Written 5th Aug 2026 for weekly poetry competition. August 3rd 2026 to August 9th 2026
I am a tall American Sweetgum Tree
Star- shaped leaves colours of purple yellow and red
Graceful ~ loved by all
Robins land on my branches
Sweetly serenade me
Songs of joy sharing nature’s love
Children skip round me giggling
I am head tree guarding the Magical Forest
Unicorns, fairy’s ~ even goblins love me
People come hug me and tell me they love me
Majestic mountains bow to me
Magical kingdom is place to be
Castle glistens in the sunshine
At night owls hoot to me
Lights surround me showing my beauty
I love all seasons especially winter
Snow dazzles and sparkles on me
People from all over world photograph me
They built him where the cliffs outlived the storms,
stone stitched to stone by hands that feared surrender.
His windows faced the horizon,
yet none were made to open.
The gulls called every morning.
He answered only with echoes.
Winters polished his walls into silver,
summers baked silence into every crack.
Travelers praised his strength,
never noticing the ivy growing inward.
One autumn, the tide stopped asking permission.
It climbed the rocks
not with rage,
but patience—
a language granite never learned.
Night after night
the sea rehearsed the same sentence
until the cliffs began repeating it
in their sleep.
No tower collapsed.
No banner fell.
Yet somewhere beneath the oldest stone,
where no map had ever reached,
a single drop of saltwater
remembered
it had once belonged
to an ocean.
And that was enough.
For years afterward,
the castle remained exactly as it had always seemed—
except that every sunrise,
those who listened carefully
could no longer tell
whether the wind
was leaving,
or something inside
had finally begun
to breathe.
Up in a castle, castle far waste, fields full of snow droft, skies black,fog,gray.
Time frozen ice, where no one can stay,day top of day, a life's faded cake.
Cake frosting layed, on top layers stay, a day's magic flake, for sunsets on lakes.
Moon lit night, shade of light, pale like skies, on rooms up high.
Golden gates, inside blue lakes, of snow form flakes, a light shine fades.
Sunset moon, ice cold blue, stars shine too, in loft snow loon.
Empty jewels, in lands of fools, in diamond rooms, and frosty tombs.
Eyes of blue, ocean moon, time too soon, in castle ruins.
Standing strong and sturdy like plated armor.
He wiped his tears to banish the somber.
As a knight he bent down on his knees.
Too young a boy for fights like these.
His mother lays frail too weak to speak.
This sad story seems way to meek.
Her life slipping day by day.
To something so mundane.
No dragons or seiges will befall their castle.
For nothing is left but an empty hassle.
What a cruel fate it had in store.
Could only shake you to its core.
Rumple Stein lit a single
flickering candle, casting
long, spooky shadows across
the cold stone walls.
"High upon the jagged cliffs
stands the forgotten castle of
Blackwood," he told the
shivering children.
"Inside its drafty halls roams
Grimtooth, an evil ghoul with
glowing green eyes and
razor- sharp claws."
The wind roared outside,
rattling the windows as if
Grimtooth himself were
trying to break inside.
He glides through the castle
dungeons, searching for
intruders who dare to touch
his cursed silver."
Suddenly, a low, scraping
sound echoed from the
fireplace, making the children
jump in terror.
"If he catches you, Rumple
Stein whispered, leaning
close, "he freezes you into a
solid stone statue!"
He mimicked a frozen face,
his arms locked stiffly in the
air, making the kids gasp
loudly.
"Only the bravest souls can
outsmart his traps and
escape the castle before the
morning sun."
With a sudden POOF, Rumple
Stein blew out the candle and
laughed, "Sleep tight, little statues!"
3
Stunning architecture of red brick,
with arched windows, turrets and towers
a castle-like building now abandoned.
It is an impressive weathered structure
historical, and intriguing to imagine
what ghosts left footprints.
No need to despair,
no need for fear
when the bourgeois world
outside you rings false, turns false
yet again: instead, turn to the truth
living inside you. Resolve to protect it,
to cultivate it; it's the most precious blossom,
it's the truest star in the heavens
shining on w/in you, inside your
mind and inside your heart.
I wondered when you'd return.
How could you just leave me behind?
I thought you loved me.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
Honorable Mention 2026
This dark, and what of it skied
A bad thing portends
More dramatic is these structures o'er.
Whose black past with blends.
In Germany's dusk, the fourteenth century fell
Disorder in the shadows, and village anger will swell
Where towns blossomed once, now chaos reigned
All rights tangled, privileges weren’t gained
Classes divided, old alliances torn
Princes and estates where conflict was born
Fields and workshops, commerce and trade
All swept up in strife that no one could evade
Country folk suffered, their fortunes declined
Feuds and famine ominously combined
Villages vanished only names remain
Echoes of lives lost to hunger and pain
Unrest and lawlessness, violence and fear
Only the strong could persevere
No ruler to unify, no guiding hand
Germany's turmoil swept across the land
So peaked the chaos the harbingers said
The way of order whimpered and fled
They would not do the same in The Western Land
They learned from how Germany had mistakenly band
In Castle Ravenloft he waits, a shadow crowned in mourning,
a king forged not by mercy, but by the cold precision of fate.
The moon hangs low at his command, pale as a forgotten vow,
and every star retreats, afraid to witness what he has become.
Once a man of valor, his heartbeat carried songs of triumph;
now it echoes like a hollow drum, remembering battles long dead.
Love, the wound he could not heal, carved deeper than any blade,
and in the silence, even his immortality trembles with regret.
Barovia kneels beneath his will, though none dare call it loyalty
fear is the soil in which he plants his eternal dominion.
Yet in rare moments, when the torches flicker and curtains sigh,
he touches the ghost of who he was… and grieves in secret.
For the curse that grants him endless night demands a greater price:
to hunger for what he once protected, to destroy what he once adored.
He is both sovereign and prisoner, ruler and ruin,
Count Strahd von Zarovich the immortal tragedy carved from midnight.
Andromedan castles
moat has little blue boats
servers are maidens joyed
white iris gardens
deep canyons
radars aimed
soft cadence
magnet minds
love balanced
Orion forts marbled
shining with platinum bands
armoured Galactics cruel
stone and steel makes head reel
bold barons
orlon vests
high pylons
canon shots
warring sons
______________________________
They haunt the castle halls
Lost souls of ghosts of bygone years
Adrift inexplicably in limbo circumambulate
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 1st place 2025
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