Turned my chili, made from my
Homegrown heirloom tomatoes
Into Cincinnati 3-way chili with
Reggiano cheese, happened to
Look out my deck & captured the
Sundown reflecting off my
Red pine inches from my reach!
Understanding how grateful I am
For nature's beauty my eyes behold
Tho partially blind from my stroke
Straight ahead was not hampered!
Filling me with God's Grace!
i've come to meet the wolves
the ones who dream beneath the pines
not to beg or steal or borrow
but to seek peace of mind
to offer them this skin i'm in
the one i wear so thin
(i almost forget it's mine)
let them judge me by the tremble in my hands
not the stories i've sold
and if i be damned, then let me be damned
and not the mask i hold
A green who never falls asleep.
It does not self sabotage to survive.
It stays awake with needles sharp
Introducing itself as Pine.
A green who reeks of discipline.
It wants you to say it with your chest.
This green honors storms by touch.
Pine does not need your permission.
Pine is a green of strength and shelter.
Not to be confused with hardness in the winter.
This is a shade for staying alert.
Grow a backbone, there will be less hurt.
Even in silence, Pine is resilience.
This green is never afraid.
Remembering you are strong in the darkest of storms.
This green is where warriors are made.
The pine branch is white
with dawn frost, soon to vanish
forever again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I brought home a new pet named Petey Pine.
He was a beaver from way down the line.
In my backyard I had diggers build a lake.
They did it for my beaver’s sake.
He built a dam, with trees from the neighbor.
At first, he was irritated, but I did him a favor.
I let his children come over and play in the dam.
The beaver liked them a lot, they called him “Ham”.
Both Shone Bright
A lone pine
upon icy incline
wishing for its stardom to come true
but knowing that wish did not contain pure value
A silly wish but one never knows what thoughts do
A bright star, shining alone in night
saw pine and sparkled light
both shone bright
1418 NEW MONOKU
Contest Judged: 10/4/2025 8:35:00 AM
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
( 6th Place )
Written: October 4, 2025
sunlight through pine needles—shadows sway in silence
Woodsmoke
Sweet, resin pine
Rising, drifting, curling
Comforting warm chimney fragrance
Autumn.
I am a pine cone tree in the Evergreen state of Washington
My lower branches hang downward, that slap the unwary with pine needles, pine cones, and a hidden —squirrel
The mid branches stretch out for birds to congregate for their nesting
While the upper branches in its smaller gamut reach for the sun
We rally together in the face of windstorms
Albeit, we stand helpless as our forgiving aged remnants tend beneath our girth as the drying summer —heat threatens us
The beast's droppings enrich our soil
Rainwater nourishes us for the furtherance
We exalt in the sands' host of its endless pour through time
And revel in the promise of our pine cone familial forest, assuring our survival's worth
I am very tall and tower over others in the forest
My trunk is a tough, thick bark and my protective shield
My feet are my roots, and they work hard to keep me upright
I have many arms of branches and with many needles of fingers
I am fragrant and my woodsy citrusy scent wafts in the wind
Birds love to visit me and often make nests at my treetop
I am coniferous and flower pinecones to seed the forest
Some of my friends are cut down and then decorated in homes
Sometimes the forest becomes barren as we become timber
I can live hundreds of years until a severe windstorm may take me
palsy walsy was a pine
standing in the forest fine
one of a kind, one of a kind
I felt he had a brilliant mind
If only you could see
the forest for the trees
it would feel so good
for then as an evergreen
you'd be out of the woods
and if you cared for me
going out on a limb
tho' not on bended knee
I'd ask you to become
a branch of my family
so near and yet so far
you touched me to
the roots of my heart
and as one fir to another
I bough to you
with all it may impart
for yes I too am a conifer
and what's a tree to do
but stand here in the shade
patiently before I wilt away
while I pine for you
Blubber, don’t
Bloober.
Blibber, don’t
Blabber.
Nothing -- is Greater than
Blue — fake Green
and Its smell;
Sharp Needles --
forever, to,
Ever.
Held In their
long -- Immense
Arms,
full of Fake
Cones.
Adopted early after birth
Replanted back into the earth
From small to tall, a tiny root
Withstanding all and resolute
It whispered and it whistled
Every wind song that it knew
It's verdant needles bristled
Glistening in frost and dew
A friend to all both large and small
Seeking refuge in it's shade
To rest and recline, with the fresh smell of pine
And a songbird serenade
From green, to red, to rust, to brown
Giving all it had left, back to the ground
A pine that spent it's time worthwhile
Living life with grace and dying with style
It taught me how to dance in the wind
Whenever it howls, be willing to bend
It taught me how to whistle a song
While giving back, as life moves along
Like you and I, trees live and die
When death comes young we question "why?"
The answer is, it's all by design
Down to the death of a hardy young pine.
Daniel Turner
Never dying in the winter
Just like the ones I knew
But these ones are different
Because the sky's are more blue
They only make me think of you
Dark shade of green matches your T-shirt
And the brown matches your eyes
And the pines never die
Just like the thought of you in my mind
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