Day after day the tally
good or bad ~ doing what we can
strike a balance for peace
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Win Win
Lose Lose
Win Lose
Lose Win
Can you find the balance in all of them?
balancing the inward and outward
marrying material and spiritual as an artform
showcasing the objective and subjective
conjuring both philosophical construct and aesthetic ideal
the aspiration a way of life
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
DELICATE DANCE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In nature’s exquisite ballet, a moment of perfect harmony unfolds before me. The hummingbird, a tiny, iridescent wonder, hovers with impossible grace over the trumpet flower. Their fleeting encounter, a delicate dance, speaks volumes of life’s fragile beauty and the miraculous interconnectedness of all things.
iridescent sheen
sunbeams dance upon her back
summer’s tiny queen
fragile, fierce, and free
hummingbird's bold, beating heart
wild and free she sings
invisible threads
connect her to flower’s heart
God’s subtle design
What is risk if not an invitation
to break through our existing stagnation.
We have given up our precious freedom
and invited in a life of boredom.
Could coincidences in life be clues?
Are they hints, the direction we should choose?
Should we unleash the habits of our past?
Should we break them like chains, take risks at last?
Our fear has imprisoned us in the known,
stealing from us rewards of the unknown.
The known is comfort and security.
Unknowns’ reward is creativity.
Go to where creativity exists.
There’s no reward without taking the risk.
Reconciling
life’s ledger
hoping
it’s in black
Every deed
and every need
accountable
in fact
Debits
fighting credits
to balance
in the end
The jist of life
through joy and strife
where numbers
— will portend
(Dreamsleep: July, 2025)
Can one lower expectations
yet not limit
aspirations of the heart
and all that is in it
Life is peaceful when you no longer resist.
Like nature quiet if you accept its creation,
Not trying to be fit and choose to be yourself.
Balanced yourself with plus and minus concept.
Remove prejudices and unnecessary things in life.
Burn pattern of habits that collapsed personality,
Open new horizon for relationship that led to progress.
Always be grateful for all the things that are good gifts
Give sincere love for those who are deserving for it.
Embrace good character for your entire life existence.
- Hearts are invisible and defenseless when one falls in love -
quote by poet
Lost in the charming melody of love
Got drenched in the magic of your twilight mist
Stole my heart and looting my soul
You drew me close to you as a magnet,
just because you could
In the vulnerability, the heart was darkened
Merciless in crimson selfishness
Your demons left me breathless
Striving to pursue love and affection
- don't let the intrinsic value remain veiled
A moon hanging low amidst the glitter of stars,
my heart's aflutter with dire anticipation.
Together we cast golden coins in a fountain,
the darkness of the night oozing with mystery.
My heart's aflutter with dire anticipation,
the unmistakable scent of love fills the air.
Always the thought of you occupying my mind
till I summon your familiar voice in the night.
Together we cast golden coins in a fountain.
What follows is a future completely unknown
fraught with questions and answers that put us on edge,
and beyond the horizon no news, not a glimpse.
The darkness of the night oozing with mystery,
wishing for the best we will not settle for less.
We hope and we pray as we offer our plans to
a moon hanging low amidst the glitter of stars.
(this form is called Retourne)
AP: 3rd place 2025, Honorable Mention 2025, Honorable Mention 2025
Some days I think we were born tilted,
a vertebra out of place in the spine of the world—
a child learning to walk by stepping on ants,
the smile never quite guiltless.
We touched the stars with one hand,
dropped bombs with the other.
We learned to name the parts of the heart
as we learned to break them.
My father could thread a belt through the air
like a needle through skin—
but he also cried at Bach.
I don’t know what that makes him.
Or me.
We are the animal that paints war
in murals, that kisses after cruelty.
The scale is not broken—
it was forged this way.
Surely, my son, you work to bless us
Off-the-cuff, like Dr. Watson, no ego, how so?
Needing no reason, you just enlighten.
sunfilled peacefulness
ever teetertottering
bouts of cloudiness
At the center of the storm you'll find the calm
In hell, in hell; there's heaven
Peace has been beside you all along
In hell, in hell; there's heaven
When the clouds part you'll hear birdsong
In hell, in hell; find heaven
Like currents pulsing through the veins of time/
A dance of opposites so grand, so prime/
Light and shadow, day and night,
One cannot live without the other's might/
Like a battery charged with two-fold grace/
Positive hums, negative keeps pace/
Push and pull, give and take/
A cosmic rhythm none can break/
In forces unseen, in whispers divine/
God's glow, the darkness aligns/
Not in war, but in perfect decree/
A balance ordained so life may be/
We stand at the fulcrum, swayed by tide/
Yet neither force may we deride/
For love needs loss, and joy knows pain/
Sunrise must follow night's refrain/
Electric souls, tethered tight/
Charged by struggle, bathed in light/
Each spark a lesson, each burn a brand/
Forged in contrast, we understand/
So, fear not the dark, nor curse the bright/
Both must exist to give us sight/
For without the push, without the strain/
Life stands still, a hollow plane/
Let the circuit hum, let the current fly/
Embrace the balance, question why/
In paradox we thrive, in conflict we grow/
Energy flows where wisdom knows/
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