He sat alone as outcast.
Cut himself off all family and friends.
Dark thoughts circling above him.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 2nd place 2026
I laid down a heavy burden called yesterday,
another called tomorrow,
and finally one called today.
Afterward I felt an infinite lightness surround me
buoyed by the breezes embracing the eternal present
which never leaves and which we leave
at our own peril and to our own dismay:
There is not another
just the one that is us and our own self
resting in the embrace of timeless praise.
Christopher M. Swan 2008
A woman went walking
On the river trail
On a sunny day
Someone went rafting
Along a river
When she got closer
On the river trail
She noticed a raft
The raft was floating
No was on it
She thought it was strange
That no one was there
She looked all around
To see anyone
On the ground or hurt
There was no one there
She pondered a thought
Maybe someone drowned
Yet she thought
Maybe they got saved
she was nicknamed witch who faced down a warlock
she was fearless, confident, radically ready to roll and rock
the toughest being who lived on a Brooklyn block
don’t mess with her, my mother said, looking at the clock
witch who faced down a warlock was slated to walk
down the block, on her way to school, where she could shock
classmates who were terrified of her confident walk.
and her willingness to take on a werewolf and a warlock
Take a chill pill, Alfie.
You're wired and need to calm down.
Take a long deep breath.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
I’m about to ride into battle Lord,
Hoping victory will be mine, I
fight only as a last resort Lord,
But I think it’s justified this time,
If you agree my cause is just Lord
Will you please send me down a sign.
Quote By Poet: "Morning arrives when the brilliant sun first kisses the earth."
A new morning is now arriving
the brilliant sun first kisses the earth
over the hill.
The furry little bunny hops down nature's path
looking for breakfast.
Pretty butterflies have been awakened
they are magically dancing
on the pretty flowers with joy.
Down a path with nature
I will...
walk and talk.
Walk beneath the tall green trees
talking with my God.
Searching for answers
answers to the haunting questions
the ones that come with sleepless nights.
As the sun is now slipping behind the moon
the day is closing so the sun can go to sleep.
I must...
return home for I to need to try to sleep.
... a man Forrester Ortiz
He used to cut down trees
But the tree breaks
He made a mistake
He didn't appease the light breeze
7/12/21
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr © 2021
drop a carrot
Down the rabbit hole
just where does it go
leaving where how does it grow
drilling past the core
tunnel spiking wiggling like a worm
Coming and going Burns
turnpikes out of sight
channel and traveling so
Go rapid rabbit Go
11/1/20
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr ©
A Rondel for Donald Trump
As those Fake News polls keep coming 'round
And their predictions drag you down,
Just face the music like a Man
Deny it all, the best you can:
Try to deny that deepening frown.
There is, alas, an ever-growing sound
A quiet voice ever gaining ground
That makes you grasp at each more desperate plan
To salvage your sinking ship.
But there is no helpful, salvaging sound
Within the silence all around,
To spare you the darkness closing in
To spare the wages of your sin,
To stay the darkness that abounds
Through which you cannot hope to slip.
The authors
blink only when looked at,
they recall for you
a story, perhaps a tale half-read.
One book lifted,
pages fly between thoughts,
a few scrapes of knowledge
peck and preen again.
Phrases return
demanding still to be displayed
though rarely used.
There are mystic scriptures
that hover between
fiction and non-fiction.
I imagine temple beasts
still guarding them.
I overreach,
shake this collected tree of knowledge.
Books fall, some like stone,
some like fluttering birds.
I am ankle deep
in the printed word and its aftermath.
Some will go to the thrift shop,
some to the garage,
a few will stay between bookends
surviving these winds of change.
Today I have time to admire
the dance of sunlight on bare walls,
the transpiring poetry
of blameless space.
I fear if this piece of glass
Hanging on end wall
Shows who lies beneath my skin
Her outlets,words that drop from my curved lips
Or the words that she hides
Compressing them beneath tied tongue
Stares, through which she sees a world
In her own perspective
Keeps her contemplations beneath my fleshy layers
Some dying in flick of moment
And some expanding to the universe outside
I always walk the line
Of fear and false ego
If you see the bitter water
Maybe you'll hate standing
Besides my eclipsed stream
As it slowly engulfs
In shadowed mouth of it's darkness
Whoever close to her
The known alien who started staying from eons
The time unknown to me
I know,she cares not for anyone
Just I and myself
Every selfish emotion it hides
Beneath folds with tiniest pores
Struggling forever for it's freedom
I wish I could abandon it in the storm drain
When monsoon clouds decide to come down
Failing to bear it's own weight of tears
20/03/2019
The drizzle whips mildly like an omen
Along the ashen lane ; and I am troubled
While gazing through a drainage
Filled with mud and waylaid boughs,
As a quivered sigh trails below the cement
Until my knees bow down, wobbling.
I linger around almost numb
In the gradual dip of sunset’s orange hue;
While these eyes peep closer closer--
A moment too excruciating for me
For it lays still on debris … unmoved by any yell.
What I recall is a slip-sliding of our romp
Perhaps, a brief escape from my wet palm---
And now it is gone, my pet, my hamster
That I weep, unforgiving, upon rainfall…swollen.
3/18/2019
For Eve Roper: Down A Storm Drain Gone Forever
My heart was racing, for the boy
that I adored had handed me
a note he told me wait to read,
so home I ran excitedly!
I did not dare to read it yet,
for he was walking down the street
with friends of his. Oh, how I hoped
that he had written something sweet.
When almost home, I crossed the street
but tripped! That was not clever.
From my hand slipped Johnny’s note,
down a storm drain gone forever!
Too shy to ever tell the boy
I had gone and dropped his note,
I saw him next day; he just smiled.
Oh, to know what Johnny wrote!
Johnny must have been shy too.
What if all that he could say
was in the note that he had written
which had gone and slipped away?
Had Johnny wanted anwers from me?
His smiles then stopped! I will never
know his feelings, for now his note was
down a storm drain gone forever!
March 17, 2019
for Eve Roper's Down A Storm Drain Gone Forever Poetry Contest
Heading down a corruptive path
Will put you in a lot of trouble
Your life will sadly become a dead end
If you do not move on the double
Darkness will rear its ugly head
And the walls will come closing in
Quit hanging around bad company
Make better choices my friend
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