In labyrinthine longing,
where my weary spirit
roams,
I seek an effervescent
haven to call my home.
A luminescent refuge where
the anxious heart finds rest,
Where benediction
whisper and the soul is truly
blessed.
Amidst the cacophonous
clamor of this transient
world,
Your peace, oh Lord, is an
opalescent banner unfurled.
A paradisiacal sanctuary,
inviolable and true,
Where tribulations dissipate
in the cerulean blue.
So let me be transfigured in
this hallowed, holy place,
A resplendent
convalescence wrapped in,
Your abounding grace.
Why choose war
& recuse ourselves
from peace as a whole?
For this we die boldly
in pieces for
puzzling reasons
Tell me
who's responsible
for this
ungodly treason
The news
spread like wildfire
as fire rained
from the heavens
Is this a message
from The Most High
& spoken blessing?
I'm guessing you should
listen with ears
on your heart as to
avoid convalescence
Subliminal waves
roll in like high tides
crashing a beach party
We reach partly because
we're blind to
the darkness of
the abyss
Reminiscent of
darker times
that's why it's
so hard to reminisce
Our experience
is tied to an ocean
of deeper things
Fish for
the right answers
& take in what
the question brings
We're reeling
in real time
casting lines
with aspirations
Questionable acts
staged for reactions
but we block them
with affirmation
It's internal
demonstration
that rocks them
to the core
Bring forth
infernal flames
from within
shining light on what
earth is spinning for
Soul Healing
Breathe in.
This moment.
In stillness, find acceptance.
Life’s involution swirls,
yet flows toward convalescence,
in beauty,
In solace.
An eternal, calm canvas.
A silent symphony of souls.
Presence introduces you to mindfulness,
The other you, at rest.
In between days.
Moments.
Mind, body, connection as one.
Listen to the silence.
Give way to hope.
And birth in reflection.
A new hope.
Step away from the edge.
A wooden duck sits still.
Upon the lake.
While the world spins,
out of control, in a haze,
On golden violet.
Breathe deeply here.
Even the refrigerator hums a
Refreshing tone.
Listen! Listen.
As the wind holds its breath.
No breath.
We all need these moments. Now.
That the healing speaks.
You've tended to my wounds.
Every day I'm getting stronger with you.
I'm basking in positive energy.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
The Good was Taken out of the Summer
The good was taken out of the summer,
With her garden patch left abandoned,
Lettuce heads and scallions gone wild,
Her sweet summer plans all spoiled.
The good was taken out of the summer,
With green fly festering her roses,
Overwatered orchids on the sill
As her plastic bread bowl lay still.
The good was taken out of the summer,
With Hunter, her dog left in waiting
For her voice, her footsteps, her care
And the fridge in the kitchen left bare.
The good was taken out of the summer,
Put on pause til her homecoming came,
While in convalescence she lay
In a nursing home, day after day.
The good was put back into summer,
When she returned to where she belonged,
To her garden patch, Hunter and flowers,
To sit,
To be still,
To be ours.
It started off as a domestic
Nothing new in that
With one word borrowing another
The usual case of tit for tat
Men are not so well versed with verbals
While their better halves have words to burn
Yet her sharp and stinging words
No headway were making to take him down
Until she threw in the dynamite ,"You're driving me mad!"
An opportunity he should have done better to resist
Fool that he was ,he just could not let his flippant riposte
Be missed
And out it came, "It's just a short drive."
His convalescence is going well
I hold three magic rocks, in my hand.
Rolling them over and over and over.
Leaving reality behind, far behind.
once an eagle
with a clipped wing
attempting
without surrender to once again
command the infinite azure sky;
continually nosediving
whenever tossed in the air.
his convalescence
punishingly long;
now complete.
embarking on a mission
to quiet doubting Thomases
that sounded a death knell for him
and laughed him off as
a paper plane
incapable of flying
far beyond the horizon...
look at him today!
look at him soaring above
majestically;
his journey
from the depth of asperity
to the dizzying heights of majesty...
m a g i c a l:
almost miraculous.
he's withered
the slings and arrows of life
intact; he's in flight once again
a testament
to his strength and resilience.
Structures crumbling under the weight of
the decisions made in haste
Beneath the rubble lies all the reasons it was
all laid to waste
The signs were seen but disregarded as mere
means to an end
The golden mean would've sufficed but extremes
prevailed once again
Lack of faith in what is seen lead to harder lessons
learned
Some fight hard for their destruction so their path
is truly earned
You can preach until the cows come home but many
won't give a second listen
I guess the slaughter is more enticing to their
inhumane animalism
We're cannibalistic in a sense with the way we come
for each other
We've been deceived to come against & to fight
one another
Everyone loses at the end of days if we're overcome
by the night
We're in the midst of the battle of all battles with
those that wish to force a fight
They say that all is fair in love & war and that
purple hearts are a blessing
All I see are the wounds that decorate us while we
endure convalescence
Open your eyes unto the message before you take
further steps
I implore you to be righteous in your ways so that
you avoid oversteps
Similar to how
Platypi secrete
Poison from their
feet
the heels of your lips
rips my heart
apart
soul surrender
modern art
Poison guise
covert convalescence
from the claws
of your eyes
Laws of lies'
essence
intrude to conclude
an earnest feeling
dealing with the fact
that I love you
deeply
And much like Platypi
I am often confused
for something
that I'm not
but
in love
with you
this I'm as certain
as Platypi
are to amphibians
which they're not
Tangled branch of sacred knowledge,
These trees are the college.
Buried within cold expression,
there is an ever present lesson.
Consumed by the essence,
of a warm convalescence.
Universal intent,
for the love that was spent,
since the early event,
to besiege what was meant.
I choose to thrive.
I am alive.
I’m sinking in;
eternal spin.
I choose to grow,
the need to know.
To trust the written,
elder scroll.
Significance, magnificence, noncoincidence
elegance, eloquence, grandiloquence
effervescence, prepubescence, convalescence
quintessence, fluorescence, omnipresence
What makes these kind of groupings pleasing
It's not you, dear read, I am appeasing
Nor am I in any way illicit or licentious
~ As I take full advantage of poetic license
Today was a good day
Today he walked on legs unbent
And erect spine of a man intent
On stilling the cacaphony of monotony
And smoothing the callouses of convalescence
For today, we both forgot
The wasting rate this cancer's wrought
Today, he teased and squeezed and poked
Fun at his trademark old school jokes
Laughter's remembered warmth evoked
Today he drove his rattling truck
His feet sure on the pedal's pump
And carried boxes of tradebooks and tools
With hands that know weighted control
Today, without a splint or cane
He tamed steps of receding pain
Today, through a briefly calm sea
He is the man he used to be
So today, I can foresee
The luxury
When days like these
Are ordinary.
1/23/21
Antiques to ashes
Left with dusty faces
Love birds to broken hearts
Left in a thousand parts
Riches to rags
Left lonely like stags
Life still goes on
In cycles of seasons
Rainfall and snowfall
Reaching out to us on the floor
Our hard hearts softened by the torrent
From fragility we are hardened by the sun
Drop by drop a paddles starts to lift
Till it is a stream with a drift
Ray by ray our eyes overlook the pain
We are healed to live again
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “A woodland walk, a quest for river-grapes, a mocking thrush, a wild rose or rock-living columbine, salve my worst wounds.”
SUFFERING SEASON
broken…
the sediment — a deposition seed,
of what meaning, this scrawl?
splinters splayed, suffering season
comforted by a columbine.
pressed into the carnivorous cranny
of melancholic chords, phantom phenom
appears from sunless shadows,
felicitous with numb heartstrings.
pretense of petals pierced,
potent poison’d creative mind.
woman in white, welded to hatchery,
sings wisdom and solitude —
shy flower cranes its head to listen.
rebirth croons in crannied space,
cramps of convalescence released.
a lonely boy. . . the florid dove lands
on two fingers, he’s mesmerized —
the apparition strokes his hair.
2/21/2020
Flower in the Crannied Wall Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
Convalescence is possible with the renewal of faith.
Each resuscitation may be found in the power of healing.
I have found rehabilitation from a disease of the mind,
a malady that only existed because of my childhood abuse.
Good counsel and love can restore a wounded spirit.
Rehabilitation Contest
Julia Ward
May 31, 2018
Sub Categories
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