My Dear Readers,
Congratulations to those who entered the poetry contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and Poetic Prose and won Honorable Mentions. I am most grateful for your contribution. The beauty of your poems filled me with joy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
The authors, their sites, and their poetry:
Honorable Mentions – Poetry Contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and Poetic Prose [in no particular order]
Joni Caggiano, inspired by The child to be,
You Were The Best of Us
Daylilies and lavender fall from a sky of bright eyes,
in the silhouette of a boat, under a quarter moon.
Born on the month of the ram
with your right fist on your pink cheek.
I was twenty, and you were my gift from God and my second love.
My milk came like a white river on the third day.
Red, your color, dwelling within the passion
where fire seared black, my white peasant dress.
Burning away the smell of gardenias and honeysuckle,
a miracle fashioned within our fervidness.
Meeting your father in an arid desert on foreign sand,
oh, how I was craving dreams, escape, and freedom.
He was to be my savior, but he was only a man.
Like the red coral of the sea, our child was the best of him and me.
Cindy Georgakas, Inspired by Self-Indulgence,
Chance Meeting
We sat at the coffee shop and chatted,
eyes riveted drinking in the rose hips of winter in February,
where children run in the snow.
We escape from hardships and cold.
Electricity between us like thunder of the night.
Steam escaping…
sent shivers up my spine.
Different silhouettes in denseness,
yin and yang.
worlds apart,
but one species.
We scan each other;
Small-town country to city slicker.
Voices echoed,
through the caravan of the room.
A chance meeting,
where tight spaces took distance away.
Mountains etched with grooves on either side,
sandwiched between the icicle cafe, where bodies collide.
Cupid piercing the heart.
Sweetness found wrapped In foil
like the chocolate waiting at our chairs.
We sigh, our coffee cold.
Country song on the radio singing
“Live like you were dying”
Jeff Flesch, inspired by and…love…
and… love… is seen.
and…
love….
is not the end
this story may commence
like petals on a flowers recompense
and…
as love breaks the moon in two
I’m reminded of you
tranquility among stormy seas
the key
you…
me….
and…
the dreams
cast far out into the wild
we idly stand by
regarding each other for a while
then…
what is distant can be seen
shapes and figures cut from trees
earthly figures caught in a blissful underwater scene
as
hope…
becomes something familiar
caressing the tree tops with delicate fingers
made from years of turmoiled laughter
transfigured into something adjoined to the hereafter
and…
love…
is seen.
Karima Hoisan, inspired by Sahara,
The Stars of Wadi Rum
After the devoured lamb
licking our fingers clean
2 million stars of Wadi Rum
pulling our eyes
up to the sky
You hooked my
little pinkie
with yours
as we lay in the sand
hearing the adolescent boy
playing the Oud
until he made us cry.
Purple mountains
pink sand,
fake feet fights
laughing undercover
we muffled our laughter
with your sleeve.
No-one has the right
to be this happy
All I need is you.
Your profile,
a Persian princess
framed in embers
from a dying fire….
My honored one,
I trace your nose
with my feather,
wrap the blanket tighter,
those gelid desert nights.
are swirling swirling.
“Tomorrow
I’ll buy the best gold
to adorn us.
You always laugh
when I am serious.
I’m really serious!”
Some masks
with silver tooling
and hanging coins,
We’ll tinkle
and impress
next time
we buy bread,
but tonight….
I just need you
alone.
Cling to me,
we are a shipwrecked
life raft for each other
on this rolling sea
of sand.
* * * * * *
“The caves are so beautiful
in morning light
“Come sleep
up above with us”
“You’ll miss it all”
“No thank you..
We’ll sleep below,
right here
by the fire…..”
“All I need is you.
and
the stars of Wadi Rum”
Carrie Yang, Inspired by Yellow,
Yellow
Beneath the golden wattle
We meet again to read poetry
The spring wind pays us a visit
I pick yellow out of your tawny locks
and brush them off your lips with a kiss
Your freckles bloom like pansies
Announcements
- The poems of all other finalists will be featured immediately after the New Year.
- Thank you once again for entering the poetry contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and Poetic Prose.
- A new literary initiative will be announced after Thanksgiving.
- Please do not forget to visit MasticadoesUsa.
Thank you.
@Gabriela Marie Milton
