my heart from your hurtful words
Been frustrated for too long.
Bitterness builds like a vile crust.
Forgotten the whats and whys.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
As I am watering your withering white roses,
I wish I had separate simple tall glass vases
To share each and every white rose with family
Who loved you as their mother and our granny.
But really symbolically this glass vase is rather
As transparent as we are when we're together,
So I never want to see us separate nor shatter.
Times we shared are the stems of each flower.
Just as we come and go thru life and death,
I'll water these roses until their final "breath."
Though your suffering lasted until the winter,
News of your final night pierced like a splinter.
I'll water these roses and your cactus plant.
I'll think of you as I sing to songs like a chant.
I still love you, I wish I could know if you know
I have a lot of self-growth I am going to show.
At the dead of night
he came inside stealthily,
By daybreak he was gone.
He stole the essence of my flower,
left me with swaths of thorns in his wake,
a feeling of hollowness in my world.
~Contest: 1431 Any Form
~Sponsor: Brian Strand.
O breast, broke and bruised, hide your hollows
Tho tears will fall, the night will call...
Calling...calling from the shadows
Beam beckons, bent orb, O twisted smile
Ego chipped, firmly gripped, gripped denial...
Falling...falling far amongst the shadows
Woe, withered, worn, wind whimpers
Tragically torn, torn and twisted...
Wallowing...wallowing in the shadows
White light, a new day born, still, I'm sworn
Hiding, hiding from the light...
Swallowed...swallowed by the shadows
This was inspired by my first reading of Walt Whitman
verdant
covenants
w
i
t
h
e
r
i
n
g
on fruitless v i n e s ~
taste of ashen blight
Everything comes to an end
flowers wither and die
leaves wither from trees
falling to the ground
our bodies wither with age
and find their resting place
This river is full of bodies,
dead fish, dead fishermen.
This river crumbles its banks,
it invades in trickles,
sluggishly it engulfs.
Once it deeply flowed
then death withered the water.
The bodies,
the dead fish, the fishermen,
all float upon its turgid path.
Where it goes no one knows,
for its long journey is too slow,
too polluted to measure.
Only the dead now catch each other.
Don't want to be reductionist
obeying only secularized rules
Would prefer to grow more
sacred inductionist
rediscovering golden win/win tools
For imagining
and re-membering
why win/win ancient relationships,
like space and time,
humane and divine
here and there
circle and square
pole and hole
purpose and goal
Feel more sacred
than win/lose dueling competitions
seem routinely dissonant
Despite StraightWhite Paternalistically Capitalist
secular indoctrination
disrespecting ecofeminist experiences
of resonantly resilient
compassionate relationship
elationships
Guiding sacred inductive curiosity
to restore eternal health and safety
sacred communions
within each reiterative communication
string through holonic communities
of resonantly cooperative freedoms
uniting wealth resilient experience
Lavishly conserving
future regenerators' trauma-healing
romantic re-memories
sacredly dramatic
peak and peaceful co-elationships
Replacing immigration threats
by Other cold colonizers
Restoring shared emigrant memories
warmer strengths
with cooperative
co-invested
mutually infested
creolizers.
These falling petals
Continue to write my story
Each one, has its own fragrance
Some smell pretty, while other rot away
I'm slowly exposing myself
As these petals fall
Landing where they must
I'm trusting the process of withering
Soon I'll be naked and shivering
All these flowers lay on the floor
One day soon, I will have no more
I hope that you just still, like my naked self...
D irections of our lives seem futile and our hearts obstructed.
E very person, every woman, every child, every
M an has lost the freedom that was promised - now corrupted,
O bliterated by those whose rigid rules destroy our memories
C asting our will, our dreams, our freedom aside
R elinquishing our growth as a nation to thrive freely.
A fghanistan you lay like the wounded warrior that lied
C alling out “I can no longer fight, I must hide” for me to be.
Y ears have come and gone too long, as our history is no longer the prize.
G lory to god to protect our children as they live with tyrants,
O ligarchs and kings that take food from their mouths.
N othing under our sun will shine in this moment of violence
E xcept silver bullets shot with hate to scare our souls to bow
Sept. 2, 2021
Message in an Acrostic 2 Poetry Contest
Afghanistan Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Kai Michael Neumann
sponsored by Kim Rodriguez
Time…
Wilts away
Memories…
Fading moments of a better yesterday
Life…
Constrict in place for your freedom
Society…
Deterioration of its innocence
Leaders…
Decay the ability to make a difference
Friendship…
Shriveled from the distance
Earth…
Wasting away
My soul…
Disintegrate
withering
flowers dying
crumbling to pieces
melancholy, anguish, sadness, grief
decay
ruination
summer ending
trees shedding rainbow leaves
swirling, twirling, whirling, spinning
withering
__________________
July 22, 2021
Poetry/Double Cinquain/withering ruination
Copyright Protected, ID 07-1375-126-22
All Rights Reserved, 2021, Constance La France
Written for the Standard contest, A Brian Strand July 24
sponsor, Brian Strand
First Place
Possibly, today,
I pray you and I don’t fade
Mold me like your clay
Oh, maybe someday,
I’ll no longer be afraid
Bolden me up today
After my sins be paid...
I’m still withering away
Clouds fade where I laid
I feel so betrayed
My day turns to black and gray
We’re flawfully made
Say, if I let go,
Will you save me from being ill?
Be still, that is so —
Very thrilled to be here
You gave me cheer beyond
Life’s withering fear...
I want to grow on
Spiritually better now
I’m a dawn flower!
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