I saw you once,
and the thought of you refused to leave.
The day was fleeting,
yet I wished the same for the night,
just to let the echo of you stay with me a little longer
I wrote you poems,
scattered my heart across notes,
believing I had mastered the assignment.
But no.....
it was your love language
I was only beginning to learn.
This is different.
Unpolished, unborrowed
Its raw from the depths of my heart.
Oh, when I met your eyes,
heard your voice,
felt your touch,
I thought I had tasted life’s sweetest wonders.
Then you smiled
And the world itself seemed to pause.
Damn.
The world confessed,
This girl is out of this world.
Beauty beyond dispute,
grace beyond argument.
Love at first sight?
Perhaps.
But whatever it is,
it feels eternal,
& to me it feels just right.
My eyes open up like a wound
Every impossible day passes by
Loud heartbeats shadow good things
A single hold of someone could fix it all...
Oh Echo why, did she beguile.
Queen Hera with loquacity.
Thou mountain nymph whose winsome smile
Did mask Zeus from complicity
With sylvan nymphs, his sole desire.
Those dalliances once revealed
Set jealous Hera's heart on fire.
Echo was blamed, her fate now sealed
To never speak, till others spoke.
And only then, those last words said.
Then bite her tongue, or she would choke.
This punishments inside her head.
A woodland hiding place she found
In solitude and loneliness.
One day she heard a youthful sound.
His voice her lips, it did caress.
Then " do not hide " Echo replied.
This paragon of many charms,
Bemused he said " please do no hide "
When Echo ran towards his arms,
Narcissus cast her to the ground,
Extolling death, to her embrace
As from her lips, his words resound.
She disappeared without a trace.
To wander evermore alone.
Those mountain caves were her domain.
Soon blessed death, turned bones to stone.
Her voice was all that did remain.
8 / 16 / 2025
To me, she is a dream:
A faith, I pray, that never fades;
As a hymn, or symphony:
My amen, weighed in,
Tailor-made;
To love and life,
Should I let go,
Though my heart,
Regards an echo?
The glass once lucid
now deflects glow differently.
A chuckle clenched in the wind,
blanching and flaming.
Where were we?
Footprints echo, retreat, advance
sagging floor, missing nails.
Not long enough--
like a wheeze folding in and out,
a beam of light held in a still moment.
Sagging floor, nails missing,
steps forth, then retreat.
Where were we,
blanching and flaming,
a chuckle loosed in the wind—
now the glass, no longer lucid,
deflects the glow differently.
I watch
colors distort into
dots tiptoeing on the white wall
Black target expands—engulfs—
flitting between rear and front sight
Blood drums in my ears—
tides I ride with breath held
shallow. It hums, the shadow—
taunts with broken birdsongs
It knows.
All it takes is
a skipped heartbeat
for a sniper to fall
Countdown.
Lens focusing into center
breaths narrow into blade, inhale—
The world refined to
a single shot resting in the barrel—
Exhale.
A light tap on the trigger—
a sparrow’s footprint on fresh snow—
silent, sudden,
the sound catches up after
the recoil sends a shock to spinal cords
That’s when chirps falter into echo
Your call resonates like a lost echo among the shadows of dusk,
Deep within me, like spring water flowing towards distant lands.
My heart, boundless and mysterious, responds silently, naive and gentle,
As the sleepless twilight creeps again through the misted windows.
The lilac and currant bow their heads gracefully in the evening wind,
And my silent homeland whispers the call for me to return home.
Your call, my bittersweet sorrow, resonates in the echo of distance,
And I, wandering among shadows, seek my way on unseen paths.
I know our meeting will be fulfilled under the blue sky of night,
Our prolonged separation will find solace in the light of the hidden moon.
Distant bells remind me of the road I have traveled,
Raising the dust of dreams, searching for you among eternal memories and longings.
Your call at sunset, my melancholy will find its way to you,
And the promise of reunion will be sealed by the quiet of the night that envelops us.
In the flow of time, under the starry sky, I will keep my promise,
For my heart, once called, cannot remain far from you.
For Brian Strand's 1392 Poetry Contest
22 June 2025
_.-- ,.--. , ,
.' .' / She walks through silence,
| @ |'..---------------._
/ \._/ '.
/ .-.- \ memory carved into dust—
( / \ \
\\ '. | #
\\ \ -. /
:\ | )._____ .' \
" | / \ | \ ) time follows her path.
| |. /' :__ \ . - '
'--'
Contest Judged: 6/25/2025 2:34:00 PM
1st Place
Wounds once buried beneath soft steps,
now echo through me, stone by stone undone.
Contest: Crystalline Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Nette Onclaud
Date: June 14, 2025
New moon vanishes into a blush of russet
where humid air twirls along with clouds,
and stars burst…
flickering above hilltops
to cast my anguish across the sky:
How wanton gulls crisscross on a flight;
their shrill rattling an echo that my heart pales
from an image of first passion’s gaieties
outlined by his maze of treachery, of ruse :
Forgetting not my lesions from one August night,
tears split forth in torment
without measure:
Naïve at eighteen then, I drank yesteryear’s pain
hoping fate could heal me from such drilling spin...
then to wake up fed with grace
to echo new morn's canticle of beginnings
1st place.
The poetic image is not an echo of the past. On the contrary: through the brilliance of any image, the distant past resounds with echoes.
– Gaston Bachelard
If memories invade souls and minds,
and mirrors reflect perception,
it must follow that whispers
reach into our psyche,
replaying aural
collages that
echo of
distant
past.
- Echo ~ the witness who talked too much - quote by poet
a mournful echo
sounds swamped my pulsating heart -
do not repeat them
empty room - masonry wall
historic bells from gray peaks
AN ECHO OF YOU
Your whisper is somewhere in my mind
It’s as if you were still here, close to me
Your subtle scent lingers on this pillow
It takes me back to us both in Amarillo
But since you’ve gone, it just cannot be
Yet it’s a memory that I’ll seek and find
An image I see, offering a familiar view
Someone who I’ve loved, and now lost
I still feel a touch of your skin on mine
The taste of your lips is like sweet wine
And I could never let it go, at any cost
As for me, it is after all, an echo of you
In the ebonic afterglow, I hope for your return…
—by poet
Echo a Desperate Plea
Anxious calling across a mountain ravine.
Breathless in frigid heights, plummeting d
Callousness of the deaf-defying beast. e
Desperate to penetrate distance; pinpoint. g
Echo of eeriness returns to me thrice. r
e
e
s.
the first song I ever heard
was not listened to with ears
the rhythmic beat of your heart
was the melody I danced to…
…the whoosh of life blood, my lullaby
my heart learned the harmony
rejoicing in our sweet duet
I still hear the echo of that maternal music
the natural tempo has been bastardized
mutilated by machinery
the nerve splitting beeps that slowed
and then stopped
/\/\/\/\/\/\/ \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\______________________
my heart mourns and aches with the loss
the dance partner and teacher I love
now, stuttering and insecure, my heart
wants the confidence of your harmony
but you taught me to sing, and now
that I teach the beat to my child,
the echo of your heart song will never die.
________/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
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