Light shimmered upon the lake
Reflections of Luna's golden glow
She reigned in midnight blue skies
Gloriously glimmering before my eyes
An emptiness, now do they
Sky-hearted convey.
Or blow cold, with high-pitched moans
When that for our ran-through tones
As rapt shimmered. Fey!
Dawn-breathed, hearts first warmed up in
A shook house, within
To hear: "refresh, in the free.
Where to spin as tops, friendly
I'll, too, be laughing!"
Written: July 6, 2026 for a contest sponsored by: Jami Patterson
The Tuesday Afternoon Toenail
The toenail lay upon the floor,
it shimmered like a gossamer boar.
Oh, keratin crescent of beige-ish hue,
I cherish you deeper than a canoe.
Your edges poke like a cactus stew,
my soul is trembling, woo-woo-woo-woo.
The clipper is missing, my courage is gone,
I will guard this toenail until the dawn.
The rain swept through
on a winter's day
leaving sky and land
well broomed.
Bluest blues were
heaven's hues
while grass and
trees gleamed green.
Sidewalks shimmered
as fallen leaves shivered,
the day the rain swept
through.
Not a single one of those days, so pleasant
Has been saved in its entirety
The fragmentary memory spares the present
From our salad days impropriety
I shimmered in every shade of green
Before blending into the dark
You’ve grown the roses I’ve never seen
In Kew and even in Regent’s Park
Was it a blessing I couldn’t notice
When I was young, time won’t tell
Has it flown away from both of us?
A sunray in the old wishing well
Reflects in the coin thrown ages ago
Your black shirts swing on the line
And the swifts cry flying fast and low
Bursts the wind and blows down the sky..
"No sight is more provocative of awe than is the night sky."
- Llewelyn Powys
Tonight it seems as if moonlight sings
and stars surround her in nocturnal musings.
Would that I were an angel with feathered wings,
I'd fly to bask within the golden light of her haloed rings
I stood in awe of her without askance
Mesmerized by the sight as if I was in a trance
Agasp of the night's celestial beauty with each glance
I imagined they were enjoying their cotillion with a dance
Suddenly a shooting star took the stage
in a solo ballet, it's swan song earned with age
Brilliantly it gleamed with flames as if it was in a rage
I was breathless watching it glow, then its death to assuage
From shadows, I quietly observed them tonight
watching the heavenly gems shining ever so bright
as the moon glimmered and stars shimmered their light
I was amazed by the magnificence of the breathtaking sight
S
Within the fragile frame of my fervent heart,
tinged with the tinsels of the amorous night,
my love shimmered with an enticing shine,
suffused with the sequins of your sparkling grace.
I tried to feel fulfilled the enthralling embrace
of the flair of your intangible mesmeric charisma,
but you glided away from my entranced sight
like the autumn cloud across the sky of my dream.
From the collapsed threshold of my craving reverie
your footprints disappeared, I didn’t know where.
With the turquoise thread of my lingering longing,
I weaved tapestry of fantasy with my dwindled dream.
From the ebony edge of the night of despair
storm clouds blew with thunders of shearing strife,
splintered my dream to disperse in the debris,
making me realize my heart didn’t desire enough.
So, you flew away to another sun-soaked sky to soar,
left me to suffer secluded in the sad winter of discontent.
As the squall of discord surged with the shattering rage,
my love crashed in the wreckage of my crumbling heart.
Not as that, sweet fountainy
Rainbow-shimmered
Sounding for whose own distress
A day's, rain-loud.
To be pitied, O, as much
The boy referred
Who strives to plug what aspects
A bursted cloud.
Written: May 6th, 2026, for contest sponsored by Sara Kendrick
1st place contest winner
*****************
Soft silver sky-foam shimmered as I strolled,
seeking a sly, star-stitched secret to behold.
A sprightly breeze sang stories through the trees,
its sibilant sighs designed to soothe and tease.
I met a saffron cat with a mischievous gaze,
She sashayed past with svelte, superior praise.
The sunset spilled its syrup on the well,
a molten gold incandescence cast a spell.
Somewhere a seraphic laugh began to swell,
so sweet, a spell only stars could tell.
The swales grew soft beneath my wandering feet,
each step a sacred syncopated beat.
And in that scarce scene of dusk’s caress,
I felt the world spinning into happiness."
Delectable daze
aligned aesthetic
shimmered swoon
of
bespoke ripples
svelte meander
induced isthmus
vapour vaulting
veracity stoic
conscious cognizant
bard assimilating
aureate archways
seismic
rendered relish
goading effervescent
literary lullaby
interwoven
opportune foramen
tinctured chasm
or otherworld
fractured frisson
bejewelled
template tempter
sonic madrigal
enticing
creative lunge
toward tiered
vanilla visuals
for
ethereal lyric
deft minstrel
of
fermented finesse.
lithe moulder
authorised pen
swimming
enigmatic estuaries
whilst
dance retinue
sunshine swathes
pivotal pirouette
spawning
erudite enjambment
satin weave
gossamer lens
whose
amaranthine fixed
focus eschews
bland doggerel
instead
chatoyant cynosure
replenished quill
lacquers
indigo imbued
bunting’s warble
inducing
hypnotic portrait
surreal verse
delirious
weave web
unravelled
dream denouement
of
epic entablatures
Barefoot Beneath the Twinkling Stars
Kevin Davis, 2024
Dusk slipped into darkness without a moon,
Children played on, though they’d be called in soon.
Hide-and-seek forgotten, feet flashed through the green,
Chasing fireflies and dandelions tucked in between.
Laughter rippled softly through the honeyed summer breeze
As stars blinked awake in the rustle of the trees.
Their giggles rose with secrets shared beneath the velvet sky,
Moments of magic as the night’s curtain drifted by.
Barefoot adventures—the night was their friend,
Wishing that twilight would never quite end.
In the glow of the streetlight, shadows shimmered and danced,
Each youngster wandering deep in a summertime trance.
The world felt so big, yet cozy and small,
Wrapped in the night’s gentle, comforting sprawl.
Memories born in that soft evening light
Would be treasured forever in the hush of the night.
Barefoot beneath the twinkling stars overhead,
Wonder still sparkled in each child as they fled.
No one was ready for the end of their play,
But their mother’s soft call drew the magic away.
“Time to come in,” she called, “and get ready for bed.”
Barefoot Beneath the Twinkling Stars
Kevin Davis, 2024
Dusk slipped into darkness without a moon,
Children played on, though they’d be called in soon.
Hide-and-seek forgotten, feet flashed through the green,
Chasing fireflies and dandelions tucked in between.
Laughter rippled softly through the honeyed summer breeze
As stars blinked awake in the rustle of the trees.
Their giggles rose with secrets shared beneath the velvet sky,
Moments of magic as the night’s curtain drifted by.
Barefoot adventures—the night was their friend,
Wishing that twilight would never quite end.
In the glow of the streetlight, shadows shimmered and danced,
Each youngster wandering deep in a summertime trance.
The world felt so big, yet cozy and small,
Wrapped in the night’s gentle, comforting sprawl.
Memories born in that soft evening light
Would be treasured forever in the hush of the night.
Barefoot beneath the twinkling stars overhead,
Wonder still sparkled in each child as they fled.
No one was ready for the end of their play,
But their mother’s soft call drew the magic away.
“Time to come in,” she called, “and get ready for bed.”
You thought the grass was greener on the other side..
So you walked away certain, with ego as guide.
No glance at the roots you had chosen to leave..
Just faith in illusion you wanted to believe.
From distance it shimmered, untouched and refined..
A promise of better you built in your mind.
But truth has a way of removing the gloss..
Of showing the weight of a self-chosen loss.
The ground there was hollow, the colour untrue..
No depth in the soil, nothing real to hold to.
What looked like abundance was surface at best..
A lesson disguised in the form of a test.
And now you return, not with words loud and wide..
But quieter steps… as you swallow your pride.
No victory speech, no defence left to frame..
Just silence that echoes the cost of that claim.
Because greener is often a trick of the view..
A story we tell when we’re chasing the new.
And sometimes the truth, when the illusion has died..
Is knowing what mattered… was right by your side.
I brought my hammer full of hope,
A pocket lined with careful plans,
Determined I would finally cope
With slipping dreams through restless hands.
I chose a spot upon the wall,
A place where things were meant to stay,
But what I held refused that call—
It wavered, trembled, slid away.
Each time I tried to pin it there,
It shivered loose, it would not bind,
Like fragile thoughts, like whispered air,
Like moments racing through the mind.
They told me, “Hold it, make it last,
Control the shape, don’t let it fall,”
But some things never can be fastened—
Like Jell O pressed against a wall.
And in that struggle, breath grew tight,
My hands grew tired, my heart unsure,
Was I too weak, or was I right
To chase a thing I can’t secure?
So I stepped back and let it be,
No hammer raised, no desperate fight,
And in that quiet, suddenly
It shimmered softly in the light.
Not everything is meant to stay,
Not every dream must be controlled,
Some truths will always slip away—
Uncaptured, fluid, uncontrolled.
And maybe peace is simply this:
To lose the need to make it all
Stand still beneath a forceful wish…
Like nailing Jell O to a wall.
The water shimmered on the bay.
The sailboats all went out to play.
Mary let down her hair
by the water there -
all on a summer's day.
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