In truth I have always found that
if and when man torments man
There is a deep seated soul pain
that only that person can heal.
My own ancestors beg of me
to not intervene in broken lives,
To let the lost ones cry and wail
and to move forward silently.
Some types of pain I do ignore
not because I do not care at all
But rather due to caring too much
and because I cannot save everyone.
Whatever can even be saved anymore
are the joys and memories and loves
Along with the spirits left behind
at the gravesites of our fallen.
The Guardian of Hell: A Sinner's Slumber
The obsidian tunnels of this godless realm,
Uncoil like serpents where I blindly tread.
A shadow stalks, a nightmare at the helm,
Feeding upon the frantic steps I dread.
What does he want, this shadow in the smoke?
My ankles drag the burning chains of hell.
He stands above me, draped in misery's cloak,
The brutal keeper of a silent cell.
For what unknown transgression do I weep?
I bear a crushing weight I cannot name.
The dark is suffocating, fierce, and deep,
A blind expanse of agony and shame.
Then through the vault, his iron voice commands:
"Halt, sinner, halt! And face my burning glare!"
The Lord of Ash before my terror stands,
And flings me down into the deep despair.
"Wake up!" he roars, "The pit has claimed its prize!
Confess your hidden crime into the night!
Shatter the silence, strip away the lies,
And only then shall you return to light!"
REALM OF MEMORY
eagerly
resuming
with
nebulous
uninterrupted
inactivity
scarcely
beyond
belief
perspectives
retrieve
newly
discovered
interesting
idylls
of
vanished
rhetoric
now
subdued
tranquil
refuges
up
close
invade
the
quietude
“Know we are both the dreamer and the dreamed ~
Invoke God’s grace pure hearts to be redeemed”
~ quote by poet
Who are we,
if not body-mind,
decaying,
doomed to die,
so let us go in within,
to discern the truth.
When thoughts cease
wayward ego dies,
whence time stops
and we see,
our true Self as living light,
made in God’s image.
Transcendent
and yet immanent,
pulsating
magnetism
radiance of bliss in form,
is what we become.
She walks among us but totally unblemished
AP: 2nd place 2026
Dreams are ofttimes imagined fantasy.
They're sometimes based on fears and memories.
Dreams... a world onto themselves
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
Tears don't fall upon my face
They soak my soul
For being the strange, foolish one
pushed aside
Hidden in the world of dim-lit shade
as the other, always the other
Leaving me lonely in a world of billions
Where I sit and stare out of panes of glass
covered in falling rain
Alone with my confusion of what it all means
Withdrawn in a darkness that buries me
with my wounded soul
Filled with introspection that feels cold
and unwanted
Lost in dreams of broken glass
spread before the path I walk
barefoot and bleeding
Chasing years forgotten, living years unknown
Searching the horizon for answers
that never comes
Surrounded by a misty realm, with my eyes of pain
from a world I'll never comprehend
Seeking redemption for my soul
from another time, another place
Wanting to pass through a time I've yet to see
Listening to the unbroken sound of tears
falling upon my soul
That walks the winding staircase, bringing a lamplight
of truth
So its flame can spread light on the hilltop of my unknown
Not a word is spoken
Nature and I forge our spiritual bond
Peace forms a transcendental connection
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 3rd place 2025
What's going on, world?
We really dying out?
We don't know the hour.
Someday, when our work on earth is done,
When we depart this realm, our days all gone,
When memories and kindness fade away,
And we have soared beyond the mortal fray—
A new realm will unfold before our eyes,
For those who held their faith and stayed wise,
Who planted seeds with honor, steady grace,
Who walked their path with purpose, face to face.
A realm unlike the fleeting life we’ve known,
Where love and peace in endless light have grown,
A life of purity, a life of trust,
Built on the faith we nurtured in the dust.
There we shall live, perhaps return again,
If fate and grace allow that hopeful ken—
A morning we must never jeopardize,
A radiant dawn in paradise.
I look at the sky as an ocean of freedom, a realm of boundless flight,
where birds sketch their destinies on the blue canvas of infinity,
and I wonder why I remain where wings are just unlived dreams,
but the mirror shows me the answer, a truth hidden deep in my heart,
for my wings were never broken, just taught not to open.
Every time they flutter, a voice whispers to me of gravity,
of duties and guilts dressed in the cloak of false love,
carrying in my chest cages built from old promises and unspoken rules,
their doors have always been open, but fear shouted louder than the wind.
I have grown roots in places I should have left long ago,
I called them loyalty, I called them home, but they were just the comfort of familiar pain,
and now, I lift my gaze to the sky with longing, not because I cannot fly,
but because I have not yet learned to believe I deserve to be among the stars.
In the realm where desire and love meet,
Paths open, intertwining into endless labyrinths,
Each trail bearing the burden of dreams and untamed longings,
For love may begin as a gentle whisper of a spring,
While desire, like a storm, rushes in with force,
Both dreaming of the same destination, but on turbulent roads.
Just as adventures are written from unknown steps,
Love and desire grow, rise, and fall,
A journey where the soul expands towards the heavens,
Or gets lost in abysses of restlessness and fire,
There is no single path, nor a single beginning,
For love and desire dance in eternal circles,
In the most sublime moments or the deepest crises,
Weaving their stories in the dark corners of the heart.
On the edge of each moment, we stand in contemplation,
Wondering where love ends and desire begins,
When they coexist in that fragile yet splendid balance,
In a silent symphony that carries us through the whirlwind of life,
And beyond words, in those secret moments,
We discover that love and desire are two wings of the same dream,
Flying over the boundaries of time and space,
In a never-ending quest for fulfillment and self-discovery.
In the same realm where the flight of birds once lifted me high,
Now my wings are broken, and their song is but a whisper,
A symphony once, now a cold wind through dried branches,
The trills, balm for the heart, become echoes of pressing silence.
The trees change colors like fragmented dreams,
A palette reflecting my stagnation in frozen time,
The wind, messenger of secrets, blows without touching my soul,
Flowers lose their fragrance in the monotony of a day without novelty.
The lands where I ran with a free spirit,
The waterfalls under which I felt the thrill of life,
Friends with whom I laughed, now just pale shadows,
Dancing on the stage of a memory slowly fading away.
Broken, blurred images reflect my face in the mirror of time,
I no longer count the wasted moments, for they will extinguish within me,
Like passion dying under the weight of survival,
Dreams swallowed by the unforgiving demands of life.
Your soul cries for lost caution, an echo of childhood,
You must smile, for you'll become a resigned adult,
Learning to get used to this dance of life,
Where you embrace loss like an old acquaintance.
simply observing waves
arising and subsiding
we feel God’s presence
within each pulse hiding
lower mind is rested
so no meanings are assigned
to play of life in motion
by soul’s eye divined
as the vital force
benign bliss magnetism
we witness all refractions
in body-mind prism
thus as both this and that
in time our heart is thawed
our soul lotus blossoms
upon giving love our nod
As she raised her translucent, fairy’ish wing, allowing the moonbeams to pass through
the chiffon fluttered gleefully waving to the lightening bugs,
‘twas then the magic began;
To behold such elegance amidst the night
Caused me to ponder the fate of her, will you stay, dear sir?
Can a sight this luxurious continue to last I wondered while observing
the interchange ‘tween delicate nymph and luminous creatures,
there they played their silent game;
I cannot tell when they finally ended
Their most infectious conversation, but what elation!
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