José! Your mind of lofty, lucid flow,
Reputed justly for its logic strong;
In every case, the course correct to know;
But then that day, your plan, it was quite wrong.
Full well you knew an idle pawn is vain;
You knew, and surely others must have told,
A knight in distant corner keeps no gain;
But knowing that, the fatal plan took hold.
Too wandering way, too puttering on the path;
Too little eye toward the gathering storm;
Too little care to cold and crushing math;
And so a spirit sank to Soviet form.
An hour or two upon that game you spent,
By which a light on all of life was lent.
Cat and mouse play games.
Run and chase till dawn is done.
Checkmate ~ you're my daily catch.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
Chess is a game of wit and grace;
Takes several moves to advance while protecting your space.
As you know, it's a game for two so you'll need to open up;
It's all in the gameplan, the timing and the setup.
The challenge pays off when you meet face-to-face.
AP: 3rd place 2026, Honorable Mention 2026
It's sobering as Don gets madder and madder
While functioning under duress
That while we created "Shoots And Ladders"
The Persians created Chess
*Persia renamed Iran in 1939
Falling in love, in today’s generation is a game of chess
A two-player board game
The rules are simple;
Each player takes turns to make a move with the pieces of another’s heart
Each kind and caring gesture is a pawn move
You see falling in love now is a competition to see who yells CHECKMATE! First
when I play
against myself
and we both win.
I am writing words
in columns
while sitting on
a trampoline
and the train
is going by
three miles south
of me (I’m guessing).
I scared away
a morning dove
that was pecking
at the ground
below an empty feeder
that I’m too tired to
to fill tonight.
I will try
to teach tomorrow.
The Carolina wrens
are more persistent,
and braver when it comes
to picking seeds
at the feeder.
I have to be outdoors
once a day
to feel completely
alive and part of something
bigger and better
than me.
There isn’t room
in life
for redundancy.
I listened to
a white-throated sparrow,
a northern flicker,
and a northern cardinal.
A house finch joined
the chorus.
I am in North Carolina,
which is only north
depending on where
you are.
I’m cornered and out of moves
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Each gamepiece knows its role
Back and forth and so it goes
~ eventually the board goes stale
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
This problem in humans always seems to vary
Like a game of chess the movements are scary
Calla lilies given to a queen of hearts to mend
Bishops followed by knights pictures the men
Players like to steal hearts with a crooked smile
For a queen to know hes a joker may take a while
Unless it's obvious he has no money in the bank
Skeleton keys with no home he takes back rank
Relationships like board games are complicated
Almost every person we know have tried to play it
Ones who play and win "I Do" is what they say
With a pilot fountain pen signing their life away
I like to play chess, but, when I play, I play touche move that how it goes
If life were a game of chess,
I would not be holding the chess pieces.
I wish to become a chessboard,
So I could see the wonders of life and be free
Or I may in another way I can explain
A plain tea that reflects the story of life,
The chess pieces will show your past life
How life battle is won through tactical warfare
The 64 squares is like arena of prizefighter,
Where you live life everyday like gladiator
Notwithstanding the hardship I face
Only at the end I won life with honor
Nevertheless the worn out skill of wisdom,
Made it all for me to victory and reward.
Life feels like a giant chess game
you wake up already in motion
making choices you didn’t plan
on a board you didn’t build.
What kind of piece are you, are you the King
central, important, yet unsure
needing protection
and fearing the next move?
Or the Queen
bold, limitless, always thinking
but tired of carrying too much
without showing the weight?
Maybe you're the Pawn
quiet, underestimated
but dreaming of becoming more
moving forward no matter what.
Or maybe, just maybe
you’re not any piece at all
but the player behind the silence
trying to find your way through the noise.
It’s utterly broken, all of it,
and I am left with so many of the pieces
(weighing them about)
and for the first time in my life I say,
let it fall as it will.
I am not the glue.
Let the King draw back to his corner,
the rook stand by,
the knight be lost in turns,
the queen lie in wait..
the pawns have retired,
and my little bit upon the board?
She has found repose in the farthest corner
in what one would hope is hope,
but a striker stands by and has no other move…
so she waits for her end
because it comes in every dream.
No, she whispers.
Black And White
We are given all the pieces
to play and indulge in life’s great feast
outrageous fortunes be dammed!
Given full reign to Ego’s unfettered beast
and the moves we make shall
establish our legacy
Why are we here?
We can either dazzle with brilliance
or baffle with bulls*it
Shameless are unleashings of doubt
only makes a lesser us grow
inhibits our muses
disables our abilities to sprout
I’m no longer vulnerable
to slings and arrows
validity with magnanimity instead of
sentiments design to disparage
are a marriage of lucidity
Opt for words that heal, and clarity!
Phrases that reveal
a simple way of life,
carpe diem, austerity
too much comfort makes a lazy lone
what a poet shall write
shall be etched in stone
in B
l
a
c k
and
W
h
i
t
e ,)
Chess Ahoy!
Upon an ivory-blue
ocean, oil pastel paints
the canvas
aboard the deck floats, buoyed
surfing foamy shores
a blurred realism
hoarding its cargo—
cobalt sea glass
squares in place,
chiseled chess pieces
ride the tide
ebbing and flowing
Sent are your gallant knights
lowly pawns
the King decrees—
God save the Queen!
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