I braced my heart
The moment I found you
Too risky, perhaps
But what’s riskier still
Than never daring at all?
To change desired end result
input first needs to be somewhat different
risks calculated for better odds
- Wordku: 5-7-5 words
INVESTED
slow
a
n
d
sure
overnight
~ divestiture
Weighed the risks of indecision
Not choosing one way or the another
~ yet somehow getting nowhere fast
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Everyone can be a critic.
Few can take criticism.
I’ve seen the results of youthful play
The paths half-buried of sandy ethics
The holes and pitfalls of reliance
Mounds of dirt clods and chocolate chips
Success tastes so fine –
Like a drink of ice cold water
On the last lap of decision
‘Cause we are all infinite genius
We know what we know –
Because we intended to be ominous
We have all the answers –
For our same redundant questions
So don’t point your finger at me
Waiting for a solution
To your petty-proud, little-lot life
My knowledge will pierce your pupils
Blister your lips
Bruise your belly
Crush your pride
I am a steel-toed construction boot
You are an insect
Don’t play checkers on my chess board
It’s a risk taken with a master madman
With a proven method of interpreting your ideas
Full intentions of beating you
At your own game
In your own home
Give me a reason to frown upside down.
If you reach, you may fall
If you fall you may lose it all
I could prevail
Or I could be put out in the hail
I could be like them
like the heroes
I will reach for the stars
And I may very well fall
But destiny calls
What is risk if not an invitation
to break through our existing stagnation.
We have given up our precious freedom
and invited in a life of boredom.
Could coincidences in life be clues?
Are they hints, the direction we should choose?
Should we unleash the habits of our past?
Should we break them like chains, take risks at last?
Our fear has imprisoned us in the known,
stealing from us rewards of the unknown.
The known is comfort and security.
Unknowns’ reward is creativity.
Go to where creativity exists.
There’s no reward without taking the risk.
They knelt behind a photo booth humming
hymnals to a tooth-
decayed brand of gen X truth—
old gods' wants reclaim the youth.
On Friday nights we’d sneak into
the railyard and wait
in the shadows
between the floodlights for a train
slow enough for us to hop,
our hands already tingling
with the promise of flight.
We trotted beside the train,
waiting for the right moment
to grab a boxcar’s ladder
and climb to the roof like outlaws—
aware of the danger
and thrilled by it—
as the train gathered speed.
We jumped as it rounded the curve—
boots hitting gravel, hearts pounding—
but a voice barked out of the dark,
and then a dog, all teeth and fury,
came tearing toward us.
We bolted for the fence
without looking back.
We hit the chain-link fence at speed,
scrambled like fugitives—
I braced for asthma to take me
but my lungs opened wide,
no tightness, no fire, just breath
pure and clean, lifting me over
like I was born to run.
I landed laughing—
heart hammering, lungs still free—
and something in me shifted.
I had outrun fear, leapt past
the story that said I couldn’t—
and for the first time,
I believed it.
Take that chance every chance you get,
fall on your face and then forget,
live your life without regret,
take that chance every chance you get.
More risk by far to never make the run,
and lose your dreams one by one,
and forgetting each until you’re done.
Rather rise and embrace each day,
another step on your chosen way,
there’s no better time than today,
so, rise up and embrace each day.
Take the risk to live your dreams,
life’s too short for less it seems,
make your plans and live your schemes,
and take the risk to live your dreams.
It’s easier to take a risk
When youth will thus allow
A bounce-back sensibility
Which now I’d disavow.
For when you’re young, you never think
Of all that can go wrong.
You live your life and merrily
(Or not), you roll along.
Yet age gives your perspective
Quite an unexpected jolt.
It may be building slowly
Or strike like a lightning bolt.
No matter how, you’ll realize that
It isn’t paranoid
To assess a risk you’d once indulge
But now you will avoid.
In life, there is no guarantee
For safety or for ease
And older folk have learned that risk
Can bring you to your knees.
we've built this house of cards
now that could tumble any moment
should you unilaterally decide
to change the game
AP: 1st place 2025
Love is at risk on other days.
When expectation
flags to stale bread.
When hearts
steal a glance
before eyes are read.
For love seeks no script, no stage, no cue,
It's better ad-libbing than being spoon-fed.
For the dullness of routine settles as dust.
when tomorrow ups,
and leaves the room,
hoping for better
times ahead,
on other days.
How many times have I sat down to write
When I worry over whether I might
Not touch base with my fickle muse
Without whose inspiration I will lose
Whatever poetic conceits come to mind
At which point I would feel totally resigned
To leaving my pages unscribbled and blank
As I felt my energy ebb and my spirit sank
Then did faint stirrings tickle my brain
As I hoped I could begin again
To venture to concoct my story
Every new poem being a step towards glory
Though doubts about my efforts remain
How long can budding poets ever be sane?
The torture of trying to find the right word
Forever renders such a struggle totally absurd
On the morrow ships will sail
To roam beyond the hidden veil
And brave the stormy seas to see
If ships holds carry destiny
Yet here we will to seaward keep
The watch that holds our wandering feet
From paths and fields and trees and thought
Believing in the lies we've bought
Waiting here on well worn quays
To count the line of endless days
We lie and wait and lie some more
That hope awaits on distant shores
And wind borne sails in misty skies
Will answer all to that which lies
Slumbering within our breast
Awaiting lifes first step to test
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