On this day we often think,
Why we were taken to life’s brink,
Unable to say our final goodbye,
Our souls ache, as we question why.
Though in memories we find solace and peace,
The gaps that remain will never cease.
Though we couldn’t see you in action one last time,
Your being lingers on – ever so sublime!
The presence of your absence - it oft cuts deep,
Your quirky ways, into our lives does creep -
So very often, and in every place,
Our trend of thought - such memories displace!
Cherishing in our dreams where time dissolves,
Your presence, and spirit forever evolves.
And as we travel around and journey afar,
Every word unspoken becomes a shooting star!
In the canvas of memories colours blend –
A symphony of emotions without an end,
In the depths of the unknown we find true solace –
A bond unbreakable, etched in God’s abiding grace.
Copyright © 2022 by Crystal David John
11.12.2022
wrote this poem after losing my husband suddenly in 2019
I HAVE ENDURED THE SUDDEN PROFILE
AN EMPTY WAY TO LIVE AWAY FROM THE NILE
AS YOU WATCH THE JEWELS BE CROWNED AWAY
FROM THE SILENT GRADUATE AT THE TOP OF
HER CLASS AS SHE PASS AWAY HER DREAMS
FOR A TIME RIPE ENOUGH AS THE GRANNY SMITH
DEMANDS THE ATTENTION OVER ALL THE APPLES
PICKED IN THIS DAY AND IN THIS TIME FAR AND
WIDE WHY MUST THE STYLE HINDER THIS PROFILE
THIS DREAMER OF THE FREE NEW WORLD AN YET
AFTER LEAVING IN THE TRAIL THE BALIFF NODDS YES
YOU ARE SAFE AND FREE TO MOVE ABOUT THESE
HALLS AS THE CASE OF YOUR FATE BE TRIED
WITHOUT YOU BUT BE A WEAVING A NEW NEST FOR
YOU AND YOUR CROWS TO DINE ON PEKING DUCK
OR PERHAPS A TOUGH GOOSE AS I WILL LOOSEN
THE NOOSE WHEN A TIME COME FOR US TO LISTEN
TO YOU SPEAK IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND SWEETIE
ENLIGHTEN US ON THIS AWAY FROM THE BUREAU
PROFILE YOU HAVE STORED FOR A LATER USE
WRITTEN BY MRS. YOLANDA NICHOLSEN 5-25-2004
2610 PROVIDENCE STREET FORT MYERS FLORIDA
playtime's over... it's already bedtime
AP: 3rd place 2026
The silky satin of sudden sin
defeats the desire to stay prim,
and burns beneath the bowers
with unrequited urgent powers,
waiting, wilting wasting time
teasing and trying to make it rhyme!
Pink the sunset which filtered through the leaves
to burnish your skin on one afternoon,
when fireflies glittered like radiant weaves,
Vanishing in the grass. We knew that soon
those ebony clouds gathering would force
us to flee the glade through a birdsong’s tune:
Enticed then to stay, stay madly on course,
dare the oncoming rainfall ...and a smile
enlivened your face with such insolent force.
Till lightning crackled as we wait a while,
you gasped, and oh we fondled everywhere;
while a conniving star reeled to beguile.
A wildcat rushed out and paused low to stare,
While we huddled tightly ... too close to care!
First Place
fall sky littered with leaves red
few young greens kiss empty nest
worn winds heave sighs of lost hope
bidding adieu - laid to rest.
Bright laugh set free
Light over me
A moment blooming
Wild as the sea
A dead boar, a terrible Ram Rajya, a crippled grasshopper—
A toothache-stricken sky—you, I,
The frustrated Jampui and Bhuban Bru.
My twenty-first lover—Bhuban Bru,
He had two hands, a brain, and a dozen or so bidis.
He knew how to cook well, and he could eat too.
One day, he made a broth with a wild boar and my blood—
Eating it, I felt like sacrificing my entire body to the cooking.
I even told him so; he didn't agree and sat down to write a poem,
The poem was titled Soil—
'Soil is nothing but the saliva of a spider
Soil means some deaths, soil is just the spider's own spit...'
Those memories come floating, sinking and rising in the Manu River,
I keep staring...,
Then someone comes and covers both my eyes and says—
'Tell me, who has come! '
A sudden gift upon a dusty road,
I hesitated, thought it might explode,
Or was it just another episode
Of my life’s unexpected puzzle mode?
How many minutes have I borrowed,
How many favor’s have I winnowed,
Dams installed and still the big river flowed?
My life rolled on by some mysterious code,
Until a sudden gift to me was bestowed.
I just "can't" anymore,
I feel so... "Sore".
It hurts so much,
Forever heartache...
What's the point of "therefore"?
To push forward,
Feels, pointless...
Empty...
My heart aches,
For love,
For worth...
To know, can I be more?
One more cut...
Just a lil deeper,
Just one more...
Now I shall sleep,
Forevermore...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
first came the thump—a physics hiccup—
then gut-drop through cumulus like wet paper.
no parachute—just October sky’s blue yawn
and the sudden, intimate smell of stratosphere.
the sky inverted, gravity dissolved—
the sudden plunge through amber, ochre, rust.
brittle bones of oaks, surrendered, disintegrated
into this yielding riot, joy where autumn lingers.
All sudden, all sudden
Last sitting behind the tree
like a fresh flower
dropped down from the tree.
I wonder where it gone,
there was a cup of tea...
All sudden where it gone -
the cup of tea and
a fresh flower dropped
down from the tree.
There were some sort of dreams -
some are seen and other are unseen.
The flowers were all filled up.
The scary and sweet
both are with me.
The flowers were all filled
with breeze,
and sweetest air both with me.
All sudden, where it gone?
Now I am watching the tree.
Short sharp shocks.
8 / 26 / 2025.
Life changes come in little increments
along a fated journey fraught with twists and turns.
But once in a while
changes come on sudden and dramatic
like the day you passed away.
A fatal blow ~
the instant when I became unwhole
a widow
a casualty of love.
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
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