Slow your breath to calm
pause stop relax to still your mind
conjure your dream vacation place
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Shh...
close your eyes to find your peace
listen to the wind and its mystic secrets
The universe the clouds the sun the moon
have their own cosmic language
and who better to translate than the wind
Shh...
close your eyes and stand very still
give it time to harmonize mind heart and soul
waiting for calm.
I am waiting for calm, but I cannot just wait.
trying for calm.
I am trying for calm the world says no.
wanting for calm.
I am wanting for calm slowly running out of time to be calm.
begging for calm.
I am begging for calm to relax and RECHARGE
needing for calm
I am needing for calm to relax and recharge I need to I have more to do but no energy to do it with I need to do it but I don't have it in me I am needing for calm.
I waited I tried I wanted I begged I needed... I BROKE.
you're laying back and toking
is that a funny cigarette you're smoking?
~ looking suspiciously calm and mellow
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 3rd place 2025
the hearth flickers 'neath a pot
water swirls and tumbles round
dried leaves bloom within the clay
misty cup of calm
when we allow time to stop, a glimpse of eternity will appear.
When the mind stops, blank without thought,
It goes to a place of sanity sought.
For sanity is to chaos’ distain,
That place where silence and calm are gain.
It’s from this place of quiet and calm,
That peace can bring a healing balm.
As soothing as a soft cool breeze,
This time of peace will surely please.
It’s here when lavished in such pleasure,
One gets a grasp of life’s measure.
This may not be the only way,
But it is available most any day.
Here a new direction the mind will seek,
A way to live well and be unique.
I am Blue
I am the blue of a clean sky
Where every bird yearns to fly high,
The azure hue of a calm sea
Where every fish loves to be free;
I`m the blue of a mountain peak
That imparts peace to minds that seek,
The sapphire gem eyed in the air
That instills solace with a flair;
I am the blue of worthy trust
One can rely on without fuss.
standing still ~
a one-legged flamingo
thinks he's a rose
Illusku : Illustrated Haiku Challenge
Contest //Sponsored by: JCB Brul
( Honorable Mention )
Written: August 14, 2025
spiderweb shimmers,
each dew bead holds morning light--
world wakes soft and still.
""
""""""
""""'"""""""""
under your banner
my love loses all manner
...............of restraint...............
""
""
""
""
"" ""
""
||
"""
"""""
""""""""""""""""it's like riding"""""""""""""""
"""""a boat in rough sailing"""""
""through a calm sea"""
::::::: °•°----""""""""""""""""""----°•°::::::
::::::°•°:°•°----"":"""""":°•""::::::°•°:::::°
~°~~~°~~~°"~""~"°~~°~~~~~°~
I found a blade beside the rose,
its silver kissed by morning’s close;
It caught the sun as if to keep
the fire warm while earth still sleeps.
It did not stir when I drew near,
nor tremble with a hint of fear;
It seemed to watch, in patient grace,
the wind that touched its polished face.
A vine had curled around its hilt,
like memory round the things we’ve built;
And rain had carved, in tiny streams,
the stories only metal dreams.
I reached to lift it from the ground,
and heard a low, unshaken sound—
The whisper steel will sometimes say:
“My edge was honed for more than play.”
Yet still it let my fingers hold,
its weight both steady, warm, and cold;
And in that moment, I could see
the storm it was, the calm it’d be.
all I n
e
e
d
is a °l•°o°•v•°e°
w
i
t
h
o
u
t
f`a`u`l`t ~
that c~~o~~m~~e~~s
p e r f e c t
then I'll have r~~e~~s~~t
for your °l•°o•°v•°e° b
r
i
ngs peace of mind ~
that c°°a°°l°°m°°s my n~e~r~v~e~s
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder Poetry Contest //Sponsored by: Crystol Woods
( 1st Place )
Written: August 07, 2025
They say stillness is absence, an empty space between worth noting,
but I have heard its melodies in the pre-dawn chapel where stillness reigned
and still the walls exhaled calm.
I have found stillness and not loneliness---
but in two hands clutching without speaking,
the heart knowing inside out
language would only raze.
Silence is like sunlight before it shines,
the tranquility after I sleep and
the reluctance before "I forgive you",
It grips what chaos cannot express--admiration, agony, dread.
Even when grieving and when at a loss for words,
calmness is at hand and says it all.
So let the world fill with echoes.
With clamor and vivid proclamations.
I will still turn up beauty.
In the lull between storms,
In the hush between instinct and doubt
In the sacred calmness, that hark,
Not to respond, but to understand.
dark clouds are forming
a smell of rain in the air
calm before the storm
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