In the palm of a silent city,
Mother Earth's body seems torn by all anger
with sins never read
by a child's prayer in the corner of an old chapel.
Old roots seem isolated in ancestral lands
the smoke of incense and joss sticks wanders without a spell
then all the stiff leaves
move in search of sharp rocks
as a home to sow all the life that brings life.
Mother's tales seem to die in the embrace of time
which no longer reads the light of the sky
unable to count
how many conversations evaporate with the breeze
to surrender to see a truth?
Oh God, my blood bride
how much longer?
my silent city will no longer die before the sun.
Atambua-NTT, Indonesia, December 2, 2025
Footsteps frozen in time:
Your last words.
Your final memory
Embroidered on my soul
In the garden,
Where you used to play.
You made pawprints on my heart
The day I met you
That never faded away
But soon the rain will come
And your footsteps,
Engraved in the winter ground,
Will turn to mud and
Disappear.
barefoot I left my mark
temporary as it was in the sand
the sun my solemn witness
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
(“Something From Nothing”, 2024, original encaustic)
My Carbon Footprint
As the rest of the world hurls into the future
Some of us are just left behind.
This year, this season, this month, this very day
Marks the point of no return
When AI has surpassed human control
And the world that we knew is no more.
I ask my wife if she thinks we’ll be the ones who adapt
And comply and accept a life in the pod,
And she says no,
We won’t survive.
“We are the carbon
That needs to be reduced.”
(3/4/25)
Picking imprints from everywhere,
Let all the woods your footprint bear,
Take off, nag at no rutted tract,
What if some rickety ways stare.
Throw to winds every needless care,
Let no head wind unduly dare,
Let the worse worsen, worst to get,
Let all the woods your footprint bear.
Mind not eastward you go or west,
If north, let not south ever jest,
Let no alien thought you attract,
Let all the woods your footprint bear.
Root out doubts as you’d thorny weeds,
Walk, brave only to their hearts heeds,
Let eastern nor west wind distract,
Let all the woods your footprint bear.
Letting no stumbling blocks scare,
Sparing none any endeavour,
Pricks of no space-time interject,
Let all the woods your footprint bear.
_________________________
Quatrain |14.11.2024|traveller
every step erased
incoming tide mystery -
the gordian knot
on the
hour glass track
within time I did stroll
for long while on the sea
shore alone along beach calm
lapped by the waves that rush
from the domain cobalt these crush
with pearls of foam string spreading on the
glistening sands of time that engraves my
footprints I have left walking the present
embedded now in the realm of the past
where they can no longer walk back
but can only watch them being
washed away by the tides of
time into the deep depth
of oblivion while I make
new frail footprints on
the hazy track fading
as I am walking the
remaining stretch
of the last mile
unattached
What are you doing today
I haven't seeing you in a while
where are you leaving ur footprints
which waters you dive
life can get so busy
trying to remain alive
trying to find a way to exist
without loosing our minds.
Jessica
I did a show in this tiny town called Longyearbyen. We went snowmobiling around Svalbard and saw Arctic foxes, snow bunting, polar bear footprints and almost got lost in a blizzard.
Bill Bailey
Footprint
Nonchalantly, the broach of a bear’s footprint.
Not any bear…a polar bear; and blizzard…
a blizzard to cover one’s tracks. Indeed, lost -
bobbing along on a snowmobile venture.
The twist and turn of fact and myth dangles
at the edge of a bluff. Still, I can see it -
a wild fox in a white fur coat, with its bushy tail,
and a snow bunting, in flight, with black-tipped wings.
A footprint is a funny thing…I am there,
transported to a frozen oddity. My eyeballs
ogling the path, digging deep, down into the tundra.
What more will I discover on the polar beat?
Will the bear follow me as I retreat?
2/18/2023
Writing Challenge -F
Constance La France
Footprint
A spiritual canvas written from the heavens the painting of an empath the poetry and verse , the narrative , the reality of a child caught up in conflict, the view from her beautiful eyes, a war given birth , conquer and division, opposition and politicians.
We hoped to see a glimmer of hope The love , the realisation , an awakening Lost souls cheer with bravo , raisng a grape and fine wine, flashing its flag and pride upon my bones Above my soul my name on the headstone I am a child and saw the Sun Here I am in the arms of Christ looking down Upon my home I see Lost souls cheer with bravo, raising a grape and fine wine Flashing its flag and pride upon my bones Above my soul my name on the headstone..
By Daisy Reilly
With words that we utter we wind through the day
Mortal matter we mutter as mind mules decay
Exports of odd thoughts to extremes across seas
The relief of belief spreading memes like disease
By parchment, by paper or carved into stone
By improbable chance or by one glance alone
By smoke, sound or signal, or flashing like light
Streaking into the heavens and into the night
Speeding softly unsealed and scattered for years
Seeding stellar strewn fields of celestial spheres
Leaking into the fabric that permeates space
The one tiny echo of one human race
Eden’s Footprint
Eden leaves a dainty footprint
In the soul of morning’s garden -
Pensive song whispers in wind chimes.
Eden leaves a dainty footprint -
Dreams of perfect mystery rhymes
Perfection’s haunting perfume lingers
Eden leaves a dainty footprint
In the soul of morning’s gardens.
5-23-21
Contest: Triolet
Sponsor: Kim Merryman
It is a gorgeous still, silent night in Austria.
Not like the song, but quieter and meditative.
Reverence is here, there is a hush the animals can feel
The mountains are settling in to listen to the silence.
The crescent winter moon has left her footprint on the snow
in the form of a spotlight; barely leaving shadows
She is in great form tonight, bringing reverence and awe
Not in a show-off way, but in a gentle way.
The world must be sleeping; there are no prints in the white blanket.
The angels begin to relax, settling down on their clouds.
All seems right in this part of the world.
The moon has this.
"That's one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind!"
Neil Armstrong's immortal words will e'er be etched in our mind!
With that he left a footprint for all eternity that time will ne'er erase,
On our neighbor The Moon in humankind's conquest of space!
For a moment in time this brave astronaut held the world in awe;
All peoples were united in brotherhood at the wonderment they saw!
Neil and his fellow astronauts worked tirelessly to see the mission complete.
Brave pioneers who paved the way for future intergalactic challenges to meet!
Entry for Carolyn Devonshire's "Footprints" poetry contest
Note: Research indicates that "That's one small step for (a) man" was what Armstrong said and he insisted that is what he said, but NASA edited his statement slightly to eliminate the (a) and we generally have accepted the NASA version.
''O' this moment I have now. Being touched by water's edge --savoring time spent, footprinting the day.''
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