With A Gentle Hand
Contest //Sponsored by: Mystic Rose Rose
( 9th Place )
Written: September 7, 2025
With a gentle hand,
You balance the world while its feet are still untried…
little fingers twist like seashells
around the promise of tomorrow.
Love is gentle in this place;
it hides within a cradle song,
a steady thrum of trust
leaning into your heart.
Every touch becomes a promise
each embrace a refuge -
showing the fragile ones
that gentleness carries power.
When the lullabies grow silent
your hand remains
carrying tomorrow gently
like sunrise opening the sky.
The quiet between us settles into light,
a hush that weighs more than any word ever spoken
Your breath leans closer as if to speak my name.
Yet nothing breaks the air, no sound is heard.
A shaking pause:
time loosens its embrace,
the fading light leans in,
holding our hearts in place,
I feel a promise hover on my lips,
a secret tide that sways then slowly slips.
No language superior to this quiet vow,
no music sweeter than the moment now.
The silence bends then deepens into bliss.
The world reawakened within one tender kiss.
And in that silence even stars confess
love grows deepest, when it speaks no excess
See my love in the waves of the seas.
Hear my love in rustling leaves in the breeze.
Feel my love in my soft caressing touch.
Share with me a gentle light kiss, not too much.
Like the love shown by a cooing dove,
Through these fleeting moments, sense my love.
In the unspoken stanzas of glance,
A language of love is skillfully enhanced.
Flushed cheeks , shy eyes ,
Glimmering like starry night skies.
The melody of footsteps, a syncronized pace,
A duet of devotion in every gaze.
Fingers touch, cheeks glow red,
Whispered secrets in the heart's closest thread.
The eyes deep dialect, a secret code,
Conveys the heart's deepest abode.
The soft curves of a comforting embrace,
A harbor of solace, calm and safe.
In the gentle tilt of head , a sweet surprise,
In the curve of neck , an invitation lies.
Eyes unite, love's passion burns bright,
Smile glows warm, heart feels just right.
With eyes that lock and hearts that beat,
Our actions whisper secrets sweet.
In every gesture, love is key,
A language universal, for you and me.
~Muskaan
R-omantic
H-earts
E-mbrace
A-ll
A-ches,
N-aturally
G-rowing
U-ntil
L-ife
O-verflows
©bfa061725
Monocrostic (Birthday of Rhea Angulo)
Her skin drinks light like rivers take rain,
each dappled edge and sun-struck curve,
a landscape under my hands, soft yet severe,
where desire meets the edge of breath.
Fingers trace the small hollows of her hip,
catching sunlight in each soft valley,
dipping, trembling, as if they might slip
into some dark, endless tenderness.
She is a map of quiet fires,
a fever I can barely hold.
I find her pulse in the hush of thighs,
the places where words lose themselves.
My mouth opens to meet her skin,
each kiss a tender bruise of ache,
pressed and perfect, lush as wine
that fills, that floods, till reason splits.
We break where passion's blinding flares,
colliding in waves of sweet surrender,
so fierce the ache it stings like glass,
we drink of each other, ravenous, undone.
In the silence after, breath upon breath,
her skin still glows with sunlit trace,
and I am carved by the strength of her
in places I never knew could break.
Red roses in hand,
A lad gives on his way—
First flower blooms bright.
You tried to lead me
(surely)
by the hand
across the shallows
but we were both too drunk
and the stones too slick
so we slid stumbling and laughing,
falling toward each other
all the way across and upriver
(rocks bruising our feet)
until we were concealed by the night.
We held each other close
in the dark noisy water
that swirled lovingly over our skin
like a mother’s caress
as she bathes her child—
as though the river
were our mother bathing us,
our pretences floating downriver on her current
and making us new.
We seemed to melt and flow together
in the water
and seeing your lunar bodyglow
I ached to surrender to you.
Later you led me
(mischievously with playful eyes)
by the hand to your bed where we loved
and in offering myself
I discovered that virgin
is a state of mind.
“Where the Suburbs Meet the Sea”
I walked again where I began,
past fences worn, where gum trees ran—
but now the tide had kissed the land,
and waves rolled in like time unplanned.
The house was there, but changed in tone,
a quiet shell, yet not alone.
The breeze had salt, the air was still,
the sea had climbed the outer hill.
And there they were—my loyal kin,
tails low, eyes soft, worn thin within.
They didn’t bark, they didn’t run,
just looked at me, like “What’s begun?”
One limped with iron in her paw,
a bolt where nature used to draw.
Not cruel, just… wrong, as if the past
was patched too quick, too hard, too fast.
I knelt and cried—I didn’t speak.
The pain was old, the silence deep.
I whispered love into the air,
and felt the stillness start to care.
No fixing now, no need to mend—
just sit beside what doesn’t bend.
To hold the ache, to stroke the fear,
and say, “I see you. I am here.”
They faded then into the blue,
not lost, but freed—returned, renewed.
And in their place, a softer me,
stood where the suburbs met the sea.
Lev
"Even When You're Near"
I saw you yesterday.
You’re not far.
Maybe five minutes,
a handful of quiet streets.
But I miss you.
Not because you’re gone,
you’re not.
It’s just that the world feels softer
when you’re in it,
next to me,
not just in thought.
The couch feels bigger.
The air feels thinner.
I look at things I’d usually show you,
and they fall a little flat.
I don’t need distance
to feel the ache.
It’s not about space,
it’s about presence.
And yours?
Yours lingers in me
like light after sunset,
not quite gone,
but not quite enough.
So yeah…
even with you nearby,
I miss you.
Deeply.
Quietly.
Like my soul is holding its breath
until I see you again.
Lev
roar of lioness
placated with tenderness
taming of the shrew
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
warm heart bestowing
daily words of tenderness
roots in fertile soil
AP: 3rd place 2025
when we're together holding hands
and in a world completely of our own
the tenderness I feel for you
outshines the moon and sun
it's in the way you fill my heart
with caring warmth and goodness
i savour the virtue and integrity
of a soul that's sweepingly atoned
and that gentleness is all the sweeter
AP: 1st place 2025
I love you beyond the borders of language,
where words stumble,
faltering in the shadow of feeling.
No map charts the expanse of this tenderness,
no compass finds its edge.
I love you as the ocean loves the shore,
returning endlessly,
even when it is sent away.
I love you as the sky holds the stars,
cradling light in an infinite embrace,
never asking why they shine.
There is no scale for this,
no ledger to balance the weight of your smile
or the currency of your touch.
Only the quiet knowing
that you are,
and that is enough.
If love is the pulse of existence,
yours is the rhythm I echo.
If love is a storm,
I surrender to its rain.
There are no fences here,
no gates to shut you out or let you in,
only an open field,
a horizon that does not end.
And when the stars scatter
like seeds across the night,
my love will bloom
in every corner of forever,
without measure,
without end.
You fill my heart with love throughout the day
Our life's journey is a bundle of joy and happiness in every possible way
You mean more than anything you can foresee
Loving me for who I am allows me to run free
When I am not feeling myself you lift me off the ground
I can feel your warmth and tenderness surely a pleasure to be found
Your uncanny ability to bring me inner peace continues to excel
The humor you present excites me with the stories you tell
The beauty you exhibit starts within and radiates through
Having you to share my world as you create so many fun things to do
If you are so fortunate to have found the woman of your dreams
Let them know daily how much they mean to you and your life will be so serene
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