Being a check out girl was not my ultimate dream.
But I learned to be polite and respectful in midstream.
My next job was as a teacher’s helper, not ideal at all.
But the lessons I learned there were certainly not small.
I had twenty-seven jobs before I got a college degree.
Learning how to be humble, kind, sincere, and free.
Each job helped me on my road to my career you see.
If you saw how well I do my day-to-day, you would agree.
Heart always tries
Hate always lies
Fear complies
Conundrum tears
fall midstream
Rationalization relents
Reason wins out
Confidence returns
Loss is gain
Less is more
Patterns lost
A better life ensues
Moments of abiding
Consciousness complete
Emptiness explained
Spiritual sailing
Means justify ends
Lie, Death we walk as one
We trip the Black hole together
~When "light upon yon window” tends to break
into my hollow head by early dawn,
such brilliant prose pours in as I awake
but by the time I stretch the words are gone.
And like two roads that ’verged in yellow wood,
some perfect metaphors have come my way,
but in a blink, they're merely gone for good,
and where they go, I simply cannot say.
”How do I love thee” surfaced in a dream
with similes of everlasting charm,
but in a flash, I lost the thread midstream
so, “let me count the ways” soon bought the farm.
Those brilliant words of art would just astound
if I was quick enough to write them down.
10-6-22
there is a peace
deep-rooted
that echoes through
as if by some enchantment
its gentle breeze rolls
tumbling in slow motion
toward the lands
barely disturbing
skies of azure blue
wispy clouds serene
quiet and disarming
suspended in mid air
midstream as if
to hold back time
barely a whisper
disturbing the enchantment
of a midsummer afternoon
AP: Honorable Mention 2022
Submitted on January 1, 2022 for contest A STRAND (1044) sponsored by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 1ST
Originally posted on December 29, 2021
Hey! The kindergarten student said. “See my great room!”
He showed all of us through it, for we were on Zoom.
He was proud of his nest full of action figures and books.
He showed us a glimpse of his closet, things were not on hooks.
His mother figured it out; the video was cut off in midstream.
I know he was proud, but she felt differently it seems.
He did not come back on line the rest of our day.
I imagine his mom said, “this is not the way”.
But we thought it was great; his pride was pleasant to see.
I feel he will be back online tomorrow, possibly more quietly.
I called his mother and said the kids loved his room.
Relieved the next day, she let him right back on Zoom.
Worriers Sink, Warriors Shine
- By Aare Tunde Dawood-Akerele
Let's exempt the death
Worry is for the living
Who has cases to win
Challenges to surmount
Fears to conquer
Aspirations to achieve
Failure to escape,
Success to record.
To worriers, life is hellish
Every issue seems unsurmountable
They easily manufacture excuses
Often soaked in sinking feelings
And anxious about nothingness
To warriors, life is fun
They call problems challenges
Often chase the winning formulas
Not fearful but focused
Warriors fight through the battlefield
Stand gallantly at other bank
Coast home winnings, loots, plunder
And tell the adventure tales of heroic exploit
Before the voyage
Worriers had sunk mentally
Physically in the midstream
Get consumed by anxiety.
Every worrier dies trophyless
Sparkling midstream waves
cuddling the body
of the slender boat
swaying in the swell
of gurgling water
Steam from the cups
of warm brown tea
wetting the lips
with fleshy glee
Sunlit roads
brush the toes
street children
Pen seeks
pink sheet
Love
-------------------------
A Diminished Hexaverse Contest Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Caren Krutsinger
17 January 2021
Our calendar marks but a line of days
to set with weeks and months to fill
the passage of time in most tidy ways.
Many might favour the month of May
when blossoms sweet the nose will thrill
our calendar marks but a line of days
Then there’s October, with leaves all ablaze
harvest’s rich bounty and meat on the grill
signing time’s passage in succulent ways.
Some swoon for June and wedding bouquets
and midsummer’s night on a dark forest hill
with calendar midstream in year’s line of days
But I choose December though skies are grey
when Yuletide’s warmth cuts through winter’s chill
and scripts yearend’s passage in most tidy ways.
Once round the circle, ahead new days lay
as together we travel on time’s treadmill
our calendar tracks passage in most tidy ways
till our time is over and so end our days.
7/7/2020
The mind is like a shell
It seed is beneath thick walls
It beauty is unknown
Its thoughts are known only by the ones under her spells
Speeches and handiwork are it examples
It makes millions suggestions but only few inspires
Smiles are her decisive messengers
Laughter is her colleagues
She is the secrets part of man
With diverse minds things works
Positive is her purest part
With millions of minds the world is round
She is the midstream of the diversity of life
Oh Mind: if thou were one how could our world look like?
Thou planes are in different direction
Thou agreement shows peace, war and beauty
Thou are the success and destroyer of life
You are your creator example, without understanding.
Sometimes I think, what might have been
Some choice I made, once way back when
A chance I took, to chase a star
Not caring then, how long, how far
Should I have stopped, went back to start
At least went back and got my heart
I've never been one. to stop midstream
I risked it all, to pursue my dream
I see what is and where I am
Now I don't have a tinker's damn
But in for a pound, in for a penny
Hindsight's always twenty twenty
Daniel Turner
A long hard look softens to the touch
life lines rivers that ebbed and flowed
the midstream upstream fight
has left its nicks and scars
but the brooks that babbled batting lashes
that sent splashes over laugh line rapids
and pooled in floods of pain
have all eventually
come to swirl
in the curled corners
of an ultimately unerodible smile
11.26.2019
The Metaphor of your Face Poetry Contest
Sponsored by John Lawless
the awareness
The awareness into that darkness crying
Is that esteem
You a charisma
Once upon a midnight pedigree
And so I screamed, 'Is that a esteem?'
While I pondered, happy and midstream
Free choice, you’re in free will
We (I’ve) all chosen sin
Reputation
In my reputation, I’ve been cleansed and forgiven
Reputation
Once upon a midnight pedigree
And so I screamed, 'Is that a esteem?'
While I pondered, happy and midstream
Reputation
Dirty and whole sleeping
I awoke and flung out seedy tradition
my spirit, I could not awaken
I am shorn of my repetition
Remembering many dishonorable, unfair inspirations
Demons dance, 'Mind adding mathematician!'
Somewhat louder than the composition
Screaming for forgiveness, more
in there stepped an enthusiastic echo
deep into darkness contrasting
The awareness
The awareness into that darkness crying
Is that esteem though, sinful now spirit freed I’m confessing
Now a blessing with a cleaned up …
Reputation
7/26/19
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr.
hush strawberry moon
hung midstream
~ lavender whispers
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
Submitted on June 7, 2019 for contest MAGICICADA 13 OR17 sponsored by MAUREEN McGREAVY
OCEAN BOTTOM VIEWED-
On that day my soul grew midstream, midstream;
I threw my Antarctic upon the floor;
They are perfumed from unseen sunken breams;
There Venusians underscored treasures;
Act all that’s from out my heart does measures;
Oceans surrounding submissive pleasures;
~
I heard domestic, marine oiling;
My smallmouth bass, I could not awaken;
Seas crave the endogenous, temps boiling;
Sharp tooth sharks swim for fish for the taken;
Darken shadowed waters covered stricken;
Sea starfish broke dead floating silken;
~
In their stepped a vibratory sea bass;
Shark bite, I crave the saturnine south seas;
An echo from ocean floor hollered back;
Above and below ocean mangrove trees;
Also threw my whiting on the shore of seas;
Was a standout, breakout stout watery breeze?
~
When thinking of underwater ocean
Acts seaweed in liquid torrent motion?
6/4/19
Your Choice, Any Form, Any Theme Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
On that day my soul grew midstream, midstream;
I threw my Antarctic upon the floor;
They are perfumed from unseen sunken breams;
There Venusian's underscored treasures;
Take all that’s from out my heart does measures;
Oceans surrounding submissive pleasures;
I heard a domestic, marine oiling;
My small mouth bass, I could not awaken;
Seas crave the endogenous, temps boiling;
Sharp tooth sharks swim for fish for the taken;
Darken shadowed waters covered stricken;
Sea starfish broken dead floating silken;
In their stepped a vibratory sea bass;
Shark bate, I crave the saturnine south seas;
An echo from ocean floor hollered back;
above and below ocean mangrove trees;
also threw my whiting on shore of seas;
Was standout, breakout stout watery breeze;
When thinking of underwater ocean
Think seaweed in liquid torrent motion ?
3/30/19
Urban Sonnet Poetry Contest
Sonnet poetry form only.
Sponsored by: Emile Pinet
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