2025 Poetry Marathon Mile 11 Contest //Sponsored by: Mark Toney
( 2nd Place )
Written: August 27, 2025
No trumpet greets the weary stride,
only gravel grinding underfoot,
the breath that rasps against the bone.
I have shouldered storm inside my chest,
their weight pressing like half-done prayers.
The world does not wait for heartbreaks
yet still I walk through its indifference.
The road is merciless with distance,
a ribbon extended beyond all sight
but its distance carves the truth of what I carry.
Every scar is a mile-marker wherein
every fall a lesson written in dust.
Hope is not the flag at the end-
it is the breath that urges: once more, once more.
I walk with shadows
and with the ghosts of those who stumble.
Yet I walk alight with the strength of survivors.
At last, I see it;
not a gate and not a crown
but a quiet clearing where the tired wind rests.
There, I set down my burden
not defeated
but strengthened!
The finish line was never drawn on the ground.
It has always remained inside the soul
waiting to be crossed.
While I was at work my yards were busy
a nameless, white flower plucked
from my front garden
lay on the brick shelf by the gate
wrapped in cream silk
its stem inserted
into a (dry) plastic flower tube
A gift set down in forgetfulness
or just discarded
While out the back a soft touch indoor football
orange against the fake grass
lost and over wall booted
“I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn't, So I jumped in and sank.” ? Langston Hughes
She ambled down the perfumed garden
as the moon rose high in the darkening sky,
Stygian night was falling rapidly,
Dark clouds rushed up high, hiding the moon.
A fine drizzle of rain began. She cared not.
Fragrant was the night so full of blooms,
but she went to the cool stream that ran nigh.
She undressed and jumped though she could not swim,
hoping that her soul would die in the rippling flow,
Perhaps she could rid herself of the heat in her head?
Was it not the fault of that the miscreant, betraying cheat?
Placed 1
In this city where LEDs set down the glows,
Every heartbeat adds up to what nobody knows
You said it, and I felt our friendship; gather a spark,
"One four three," you whispered and lit up the dark
Digits we carry through laughter and tears,
Cipher to our moments that decode all the years
It's all in the numbers, can you not see?
One heart beatin' for you and yours for me
Four chambers compress where it flows strong,
Three cheers for all moments where we both belong!
And when we're lost in a tangled mess,
I’ll hold your hand through every day stress
We’ll turn these figures into magical dreams—
Life’s more than numbers; ours bursts at the seams!
It's all in the numbers, can’t you see?
One heart beatin' for you and me
Four walls crumbling, but our love stays strong,
Three cheers for a life where we both belong!
Here’s to forever—a promise so true:
Count on my love; it adds up to “you.”
Through every equation of joy and strife—
It’s "143"—the sum of our life!
In every life, now and after, I would choose you, and look for your laughter, even if we will never be together, I’d still choose you, always and forever, if I had nine lives, I’d spend all nine with you, and I’d give you one if you needed me too,
words still can’t describe what you mean to me, but if I had to say one, I’d start with destiny, and I’d finish it with the term, meant to be,
I believe that’s what we are, a telescope always admires the moon from afar,
and if I can’t be close, a mountain is where I’ll go, I’d set down my telescope, and I would watch everything you do, because a telescope means nothing without the moon,
Nobody came to the party
The lights were set down low
Nobody came to the party
It was like they didn’t know
The music touched your soul
Crept inside, never letting go
The spirits passed through
Glancing around
Like they knew
Something didn’t ring true
They waited for a time
As the night stayed on hold
Nobody would say the words
They just knew
Nobody was coming to the party
Not now, not ever
They closed the door
Wanting to get away
Trying not to speak
Begin another day
The spirits waited
Like they knew too
Nobody came to the party
They were all just passing through
the blank paper waits
anticipating the pen...
what will be set down?
imagination hovers
ready to burst on the page
Hope-filled, look closely through faith’s eye
To behold God’s glory and grace
Magnificent as you draw nigh
Pursuing as champ in life’s race.
Focusing on eternal bliss
Hope-filled, look closely through faith’s eye
So that what’s vital you won’t miss---
Claiming divine prize, soaring high.
Break free from deceit, don’t deny
While illumined with truth so clear…
Hope-filled, look closely through faith’s eye
Precious virtues sublime, hold dear.
Midst triumph for reaching-out flight
Thankful with prayer-driven sigh
Keep on serving by mercy’s light…
Hope-filled, look* closely through faith’s eye.
Hebrews 12:2*Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
May 19, 2024
Honorable Mention, "Pick-A-Title, Vol 44" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh; judged on 6/23/2024
To set down our phones,
constant companions,
and gaze up at the tree
to watch the robins feed their chicks —
such an exotic request.
In olden days, without TV
Or phone or laptop or PC,
I might have joined a quilting bee
To while away the time.
I’d sit with friends and we would sew,
Discussing all there was to know
And all our handiwork would show
We had no need for Prime.
And after we would laugh and chat,
The pure delight of chewing fat,
We’d stash our projects, knowing that
Our day had been sublime.
But even then, I’m pretty sure
As soon as I got home once more,
I’d sit and do what I adore,
Set down my daily rhyme.
She was five when she was set down for a talk. Don't walk alone in the dark, keys between your knuckles, don't let them take you to a second location, scream and fight. That is what her mom said, a frown on her face. She was five when her dad said cover your body, boys will be boys. Only wear baggy clothes, a women can't defend herself from a man. Trust no man. The rules of a women.
Now she is all grown up, searching for escape routes in every room. She only wears misleading clothes, took self-defense, and always carries a taser. Her whole life has been a war against herself. The life of a women.
She only keeps one headphone in, wears sweatpants even at the gym, and when she walks alone her keys are between her knuckles. But they just laughed when they corned her in that back-alley. How could a girl beat three men? The misfortune of a women.
It isn't all men but it is all women. Being a women isn't simple, everyday is a fight.
Sucked up and up, of this thought
Which cyclonic blows.
I'll admit, irrefutably
As irretrievably!
More wondrous than the wildest
Imaginative ride.
For what, in truth is set down
On life's other side.
These words set down upon the page
I struggle with most every day
Sometimes light as feathers flown
The breeze picks up and moves along
Other times like heavy stones
I roll with heavy heart alone
To only have them roll back down
This heavy hill my pen has found –
What Sisyphus of mythic lore
Would know about, and know of more
Enough for him to have a say
Upon my labors here today
I’d like to think he’d understand
The way of words with modern man
To recognize the boulder, not the verse
Still remains the lesser curse
I dreamed last night of elephants
Gaily dancing around
In a vision of the night these pachyderms and
thoughts began to resound
In one scene a card came in the mail
an elephant in party hat
Inside in beautiful scrolling script it said
I,ve written to tell you that
You see I am starting to drink to
In hopes to make you think
Then a happy song began to play
As music to his ears
That flapped like bed sheets in the wind
The moment it appears
I hear you've carried a grudge he sang
In vibrato let it go
the life giving music of God's love
Strike the band let it Once more flow
For it cannot reside in this place
How apropos an elephant known
to never forget
brightly placed on a true vision board
a new track my mind to beset
I forgive you,I release you
I have set you free
You carry now with you no cumbersome
baggage from me
Nor I from you we two are free
With unscaled eyes clearly to see
What days new dawning will trace
That we will set down in indelible ink
It truly boils down to intention I think
With this I wish you the best
*** This Painting I Do ***
(A Devotion Poem for Jim)
It is my heart
Painting your portrait
Out over this paper
After I caught your profile,
When you weren’t looking,
Casting your attention
In another direction,
While I blended in
The colors of your chin,
And you hadn’t known that
I’d peeked over
Your well-kept
Walls of mystery, which
Usually…no, always even I
Do not cross…But
Today the artist, I,
Let my sight spy
To set down the contour lines
Of your portrait, which
I promise when completed
To then hide this artwork
From the view of anyone else:
Beneath a cross-hatched weave
Of a thousand tiny strokes
Of glittering beams of gold,
And shining rays of silver,
Stippled stars overall to consume
You — silhouetted by all the light
Of God’s gracing and
My loving heart’s way
Of seeing you.
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(C) sally young eslinger 12/10/2022
Thanks be to God…
———————————————————————————————
(C) sally young eslinger 12/10/2022
Thanks be to God…
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