THANKS to all who voted for my poems!!

Here are the entries! Check 'em out and cast your vote!

NIGHT ON THE SEA

Moonlight bright enough to write by
Sheds its shimmering sparkle on the sea
Showing where we have been as we pass
Into the tranquil darkness, from today until tomorrow
Peaceful and soporific, the boat, a cradle rocking
At a not quite rhythmic pace
Eases the mind into a meditative mood
The moonlight and stars clearly show another path to follow
From the distance to somewhere else
Controlling the soul in the quietude of the night
Sleepless, the wake vanishes into the vastness of the sea
As the trail of word and deeds of a lifetime are left behind
As we are delivered from one wave to another and another
So, are we carried into the unknown future
In retrospect, as the past, as the foam
Disappears before our eyes
And becomes part of the eternity of always
Droplets that can never be seen or counted
Whisper their good-byes, never to be heard
They are the infinite voices on the infinite sea
Under the infinite sky in the infinite time of forever
Cares of the day slip away and worries vanish
Into obscure memories
Ethereally we slip into a mist of a different time
Where dots and jots of human existence
Are still invisible under the most powerful magnification
Nothing of substance matters beneath the stars
On the sea equality is the rule
We are equally nothing and equally everything

---

AVATAR

Avatar, the sole of force.
I command the Spirit and the Wind to rise.
Let the Fullness come.
And wiegh its Evil.
On the Rain of men.
the end of heros.
The comming of the meet
It violets thee.
I the Fullness.
Was the wind.
the cosmos.
the force of the sun.
I come to take what is mine.
What is mine!

---

THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM!

The lady I love, will she be here soon or is sheon line with her heart in her hands too. I reach mine out waiting for her to take it as the heart beat as one. Will she realize the love that I can give her when she is near? Will she know it is up to her to reach out to the love she is looking for. I wait and I watch, hoping beyound hope that she will realize I am here, waiting to show her the love she is missing. I dream, the impossible dream!

---

What Was Never Mine

Losing what I never had
I grieve for a figment of my mind
Am I mourning the imaginings of love
That eluded my reality?
It crushes my heart with pain so sharp
My breath catches in great sobs
How can a fantasy so sweet
End with such a hollow place?
If love was never mine to share
Then times gone by were really, always empty
I refused to see; I closed my mind
Wishing it could be mine
Never made it so!
To open my eyes is torture for my soul
But keeping them shut keeps me in the dark
I need the light; I need the truth

I need the peace of God

Holding me, showing me that hurt is NOT love
Love is letting go of all that’s ugly in my self
Shedding the resentment, no longer needed
A vessel full of self pity has no room for goodness
Pouring out the poisons, making a place
For joy to take root
My soul must heal, my self must change
For serenity to find me, I must accept the loss of
What was never mine.

What Was Never Mine

Losing what I never had
I grieve for a figment of my mind
Am I mourning the imaginings of love
That eluded my reality?
It crushes my heart with pain so sharp
My breath catches in great sobs
How can a fantasy so sweet
End with such a hollow place?
If love was never mine to share
Then times gone by were really, always empty
I refused to see; I closed my mind
Wishing it could be mine
Never made it so!
To open my eyes is torture for my soul
But keeping them shut keeps me in the dark
I need the light; I need the truth

I need the peace of God

Holding me, showing me that hurt is NOT love
Love is letting go of all that’s ugly in my self
Shedding the resentment, no longer needed
A vessel full of self pity has no room for goodness
Pouring out the poisons, making a place
For joy to take root
My soul must heal, my self must change
For serenity to find me, I must accept the loss of
What was never mine.

Thank you, that was very touching and honest. And it's true, when one is at peace with his God then he/she is a better person and more ready for that happiness when it does come

thank YOU!

                 THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM!

The lady I love, will she be here soon or is sheon line with her heart in her hands too. I reach mine out waiting for her to take it as the heart beat as one. Will she realize the love that I can give her when she is near? Will she know it is up to her to reach out to the love she is looking for. I wait and I watch, hoping beyound hope that she will realize I am here, waiting to show her the love she is missing. I dream, the impossible dream!

Very nice....

This is another poem that was chosen.
A Sci-Fi Prose.
You had have show some intensity, in fewer verses.


Avatar, the sole of force.
I command the Spirit and the Wind to rise.
Let the Fullness come.
And wiegh its Evil.
On the Rain of men.
the end of heros.
The comming of the meet
It violets thee.
I the Fullness.
Was the wind.
the cosmos.
the force of the sun.
I come to take what is mine.
What is mine!

I like the the way this poem conveys its message to the reader. However, for me, the spelling mistakes ruin the flow.

Poetry Contest was not a spelling bee.

It was to see if you understood prose;
can you condense stanzas.
A beginning, a middle and an end.
It had to project an intense mood(feeling conveyed to the reader).
spelling was not judged however.
In that way, people from around the world could enter, if they wanted too.

I understand that, but when a misspelled word means something different than intended, the reader has to stop and substitute the correct word. For me, that interrupted the flow and made the poem a little less enjoyable.

I'm just offering a little bit of constructive criticism. I didn't mean to offend.

NIGHT ON THE SEA

Moonlight bright enough to write by
Sheds its shimmering sparkle on the sea
Showing where we have been as we pass
Into the tranquil darkness, from today until tomorrow
Peaceful and soporific, the boat, a cradle rocking
At a not quite rhythmic pace
Eases the mind into a meditative mood
The moonlight and stars clearly show another path to follow
From the distance to somewhere else
Controlling the soul in the quietude of the night
Sleepless, the wake vanishes into the vastness of the sea
As the trail of word and deeds of a lifetime are left behind
As we are delivered from one wave to another and another
So, are we carried into the unknown future
In retrospect, as the past, as the foam
Disappears before our eyes
And becomes part of the eternity of always
Droplets that can never be seen or counted
Whisper their good-byes, never to be heard
They are the infinite voices on the infinite sea
Under the infinite sky in the infinite time of forever
Cares of the day slip away and worries vanish
Into obscure memories
Ethereally we slip into a mist of a different time
Where dots and jots of human existence
Are still invisible under the most powerful magnification
Nothing of substance matters beneath the stars
On the sea equality is the rule
We are equally nothing and equally everything

This work speaks to depths of one's soul ~ most profound...

thannks!!

Very philosophical and somewhat comforting. A lullaby of a poem...

thanks, I lived aboard a 42'sailboat from '94 to 2000 and LOVED it!!!

this is another poem that was accepted for publication.

                                     See your legs,  
                                     They are not your own.  
                                       
                                       See your arms.  
                                       You recieved them on loan.  
                                        
                                        In your head.           
                                         It's not your brain.  
                                           
                                          Because you know,     
                                          there is too much pain.  

                                           And your thoughts are not your own.  

                                            I can't believe this.  
                                            I'm a Clone.                              

                                                                              Knight Jarlynn   (C).
                                    

Very tight. I love it!

ONE FRIDAY

I am an evil man
I am a vile man
I am a thief
I am a robber
I am a murder

Today I will be punished
I shall pay for my crimes
The price I pay is high
I will feel pain
And I shall die

Years I have prayed upon the weak
I took what I wanted
I cared not that I have caused suffering
For my might made it right
I believe this is as it should be

Today they nail me to a tree
Long spikes they drive into my limbs
I scream in pain
Today it is I who am weak
I am treated without mercy

My partner and I are lifted up
People look upon our suffering
They can see where our paths shall led
They see our pain
And mock our suffering

Three of us are lifted up
Three of us die here today
Three of us are bled
Three of us are mocked
Three of us this is our last day

My partner looks at the man in the middle
For his is the place of dishonor
You are so great
He cries out
You claim to be a savor

Save us
Save yourself
Stop our suffering
Take us from this place
Let us rule over the weak

Are you mad I cry out
For us death is our reward
For us we have earned our place here
We are guilty of our sins
But this man is without sin

I look upon this beaten man
I beheld his pain
Once I had laugh at his words
I saw I was unworthy
To die by his side

Lord, I cried out
I am an unworthy creature
I shall be soon forgotten
Today you go to your Father
Can you but for a moment think of me

His head rise up
He looks at me
He does not say I have my own pain
He does not say I have my own problems
He tells me I shall sit with him at his Father's table today

He has taken my evil
He has taken my sins
Upon himself
He begs for forgiveness
For we low creatures can not yet understand

Today I die
I am now a good man
I am not evil
I am without sin
For I have been cleaned with the blood of the lamb

by Mark Sumner c 2010 & c 2011

Mark you have always had a very different way of looking at things yet you can get your point across.

THE UNINVITED BUM

The first Sunday of the month and the Church was almost packed
Everyone was dressed in their finest
People were thinking of the up coming feast
For each first Sunday there was a pot luck dinner

People had spent all day
Working on their best dish
Everyone would sample it
And they would be judge on how good it was

The preacher took the podium
He looked out at the crowd
He felt pride that they were there for him
In the beginning this was not so

He had come to a dead Church
And with his well he built it up
From a few old timers
He now packed the pews

Mrs Tandy had started coming here as a child
Once she sit in the front pew
But as the new people came
They pushed her to the back

Now she sit alone
Her husband was long gone
Her kids were grown
They left her to be on their own

The choir finished their song
It was a song of the Glory of the Lord
They were in the best of voices
For they were the best in the state

The preacher step up
But before he could welcome them today
The doors open up
All turn to see who had come in so late

In he walk, a dirty bum
His clothes hung on him
His hair and beard was unwashed
Surely he must smell as well

The preacher wondered why he had come
He should be at one of the missions
That fed the down trotted
For they cared for the worthless ones

That is the reason
He was here today
He had come for a free meal
That and nothing more

The preacher looked at his sermon
He mouthed the words
But he omitted news of the feast
For this one was out of place

The people knew why news of the feast were not said
They agreed with their preacher
They did not want bums in their Church
He should see he was unwelcome

Mrs Tandy looked at the poor man as he sit in her pew
She saw he listen to the preacher
She saw he did not see the looks the people gave him
She stood and left, she cared not what the others thought

At the end of the service, the preacher stood at the door
He greeted all that had come
He asked they come back again
But for the bum, he said not a thing

The poor bum walked away
He shook his head sadly
He had come for a reason
But he walked away empty handed

"Please wait," a elderly voice called out
Mrs Tandy knew what was in the people hearts
She has slipped out
To make a plate of the choice cuts of food

"Here sir," she said
"This is for you
Bliss you for coming today
She told the bum"

The man looked at the dish that she had handed him
He smiled
For he had what he had come for
"No, sister for you are the one Blissed today"

A sudden wind blew
His hair untangled
His beard straighten out
The soil from his clothes dropped to the ground

"I came for a reason today
But I thought I would not fine it here
You heard my words spoken so long ago
For I would be the least among you"

Mrs Tandy felt the wrinkles on her face smooth out
She felt the ages fall from her frame
She cared not, she was not vain
She thrilled as her eyes cleared

Now she saw him clearly
Her eyes were forever upon her King
Her old heart beat strong
And love filled her soul

Now was the time foretold
He had come to take his bride
He now gathered the world over
For these would not see the evil days

The people gathered near their preacher
For they did not understand what had happen
He had not taught them this lesson
He nor did they understand how truly lost they were

by Mark Sumner c 2010 & c 2011

Mark there is so much truth in this. Thank you for sharing.

    years ago this was accepted for publication(copyright).                   
                   
                   Pretty Angel in the air.  
                   Do you love me.  
                   Do you care.   

                    Are you here for reason good.  
                    Will my life be understood.  
                  
                     OH! "Pretty Angel up above".  
                     Will I find romance,  
                     Will my heart find love.  

                     Now I say, "Good Bye".
                     "Be True".   
                      Oh Pretty Angel...  
                      "I Love You"!            

               to my friends "Trist", andm "Badger".   

                     Knight Jarlynn...<><>               

Beautiful

              "thank you" PattyMac.    

Twisted emotions thwart the heart
Racking the brain like a cast iron cart
Flooding the blood with impotent rage
Crimson corpuscles in rampant cortège

Languishing in my oubliette
The outside world i'll soon forget
Protected from light by the darkness within
Consumed by the canker of ancient sin

Pounding the floor in a vain attempt
To purge the memory of sweet contempt
Relinquishing bliss for a handful of dust
Breaking my teeth on life's stale crust

The door creaks open, a shadow appears
"Its time," he says in a voice close to tears
As i walk slowly to the hanging tree
I realise my executioner is me.

Taking the easy way costs more
And I can't afford it, now
Now that the mind whirls with imagination,
That heady stuff that keeps
me turning, forgetting
What direction I was walking in.

One thought, and I'm
Sideways, again but I love it,
Exult in it, that hot
Pressure to fill that hole
And pain at losing the one thing
I cannot live without.
Not as if I have a reason
To keep my eyes open

Wide, looking for a sign
A clue
A cloud floating by to let in
A glint of sunlight
Reflecting on that one thing
Right in front of me

Weaving
blue-colored glasses
make it hard to see you standing there-
Blending with your own mood.

That's blue I said to my boy
and thought yeah it is
a blue of sorts-out of sorts-
As I was searching for one
But finding four,
Only to catch them looking
For the door.
The blue in your eyes
I've seen before
I scratch my head
And wonder why
It takes so little
For the blues to come by
To get you so blue
to give me what I need
my man in blue
loves me too
But he won't do
What you do.

Shuddering through to beyondness
The cigarette stained streets
No longer beguile my senses
Like a cat whose ninth life
Embodies the ghosts of the
Other eight
I wait dangling carrots of
Uncertainty before the gods
In mock supplication

Brushed nylon brains do battle
For supremacy in the harsh headscape
Proxy dream weavers forbidding
Entry to peyote tourists
Directing them instead to the
Pseudo Welsh model village
Grovelling in the hovel and gloom

Bleak burnt black cobblestones
Echo the footfalls of drunken gypsy
Gamblers wandering through warthog soup
Inspired ecstasies untouched by
The graceless finger pointing of a
Colourful old ragamuffin
Dancing like Dick Turpin in bouncing
Yo-yo rhythms on the end
Of a rope.

Way up in the crumblenode
Squire Fragglepaunch was contemplating lunch
As he gazed out over the milk-white
Snowscape
Junkyard visionaries trampling last
Year's vintage with rolls royce feet
Jump to attention
Achtung! Mine heir is falling out.
Charles Dewbin is galapagossiping
With a barrel load of monkeys trying
In vain to find his long lost cousin
Whilst playing a bio-degradable violin
Serve Aunties wanders about in a
Quixotic dream fending off a shower
Of pig feathers with a mushroom pizza
Baffled I enter shouting
Who draped this Dalian clockface over my shoulders?

It's smooth as sandpaper
The voice that comes through my head
Hours of cigarettes, one burning
As I'm caught up in thought
Images flying by the eyes, not
Wanting to miss anything
So that it's the acrid burning
Of the filter that catches the attention
Finally jerking the head to look,
And it's out.

And another is lit,
Absently setting the lighter aside
Eyes already keen on some detail
And why not?
This time is silk
And tomorrow it will not be;
Each moment one or another
Of the senses tickled
And the lights like Vegas
Make me squint, laughing at one thing or another
Stretching legs out
Reaching for the phone a little late.
The ringing stops.

And someone like Bogie and Lou Costello
Rolled into one is making me laugh,
Reaching for the pack and the mouse with one hand,
Remembering I'm hungry
The sun shooting lines across the wall
Calling me to go play outside.
Tomorrow.
Today I am Updike, creating my firstborn
Distracted, but not completely
Pulled away
It changes the brainchild
Into something from another world
And I laugh, the red marks familiar,
An old friend
And these lines exist entirely
Because of that one line
That made me turn my head.

In moments of pleasure
And moments of pain
We seek the treasure
Of God's sweet grain
To fill our hearts
With joy unbound
Lifting our souls
To higher ground

In moments of sorrow
And moments of peace
We yearn for tomorrow
To grant us release
Our minds see clearly
The road ahead
With ancient footprints
Our ancestors left

In moments of darkness
And moments of light
Our earthly harness
Is cast into the night
Our spirits rise
To take their place
Amongst the blessed
Eternal grace

In moments of clarity
And moments of fear
The pulse of the city
Beats strong and clear
Shining a light
Upon what is real
Benign devotion
To the sacred wheel

In moments of union
And moments apart
We feel the communion
Of each other's heart
The silken texture
Of life's tapestry
Enfolds us all
In one family

pure awesomeness

thank you..

Every day
I drag myself through the motions
Hoping for relief
And even when
The day's not so bleak
I realize what I've been missing
The joy I could have
If I'd find it
Nestled in your arms
The contentment
of a heart to heart
Chest to chest contact
The skin and the sweat
The warmth
All lost to me now
But God knows
You know
My heart, my smile
You know
I do have a strength
And even with you gone
I feel it, hope it
Believe it
God
Always, ever present
In me
And praise be to God
For all hope is gone
When the heart gives up.

With joyous heart and tranquil mind
I walk through life's orchard its sweet fruit to find
Unfettered by feelings of what lay beyond
Just trusting to virtue the path i am on

With sinking heart and troubled mind
I walk through the debris that life leaves behind
Obsolete passions unloved by God's law
The detritus of history litters the floor

With fearful heart and paranoid mind
I walk through life's jungle where to beauty i'm blind
Where cruelty lingers like a taste on the tongue
Where happy turns ugly 'neath a darkening sun

With greedy heart and grasping mind
I walk through life's treasury to plunder its kind
I seek only riches i seek only gain
Love sacrificed on the altar of profit and pain

With an empty heart and an empty mind
I walk through life's void its spirit to find
In this vacuous limbo i've naught to defend
As i smile with contentment at my journey's end.

This is not enough
But thirteen years have gone by
And it's time to tell you how I feel.
How I would have taken your pain
On myself
Had that been possible
And had I known
How it would hurt to see you
To see us watching you
I would have danced,
Sang, anything to change the day
Make it sparkle
Had I known-had I been told
How it would be, but now
Life comes and drags you into
What have you, and there you are
Being stronger than you ever thought
You'd ever have to be.

When you left us
I know you wouldn't have chosen it.
It's comforting
Knowing it
That having to choose
You would choose life.
And now we mourn your going
And as you pass
We cry
And as we cry
We pray.

You were here in our lives
In our arms, our home.
Mom, this is not enough
But enough it will have to be
Except to say thank you
For all the what have you's I was thrown
That you were there during.
And now, I will honor
If not cherish your memory
Knowing all the flowers in the world
Will not change this day
But I will smell the roses.
As I pass.

I once met a man
Who was pickling peas
In a river of vinegar
Up to his knees
A fly tickled his nose
Until he sneezed
And now he sells salads
To the sultans of sleeze

I once met an elephant
Painting a fence
In colours so bright
They made me feel dense
So i pondered upon it
Until it made sense
But nothing i knew
Was of consequence

I once met a man
Who said i was he
I asked him politely
How can this be
He bid me look
And i would see
His face in the mirror
Looking back at me

In the rush of the day
Feeling the sway,
I find a time alone
And kick off the rain;
Not caring who listens, not
Sharing, who with?
There is a silent part of each of us
That nobody gets.

We struggle, we strive
I come out alive,
Not nearly unscathed
My burned fingers testify;
Yet I am not dead
And the bones are not broke,
It's not as if I must admit
The angry words I spoke;

Claiming as mine
This moment in time,
My nearly perfect solitude
At a quarter past nine.

strong imagery. very bleak.

Lambent eyed the intellectual fascist sits
Clad in the smoky garments of thuggery
Vipers of paranoia coiled about the filaments
Of his tungsten heart

"Brave new world" he cries. I am your saviour!
I shall deliver you from benighted superstition
Into the sweet felicity of mechanical intelligence.

Abjure your foul heresies O neophytes of love
Says he and get you shod in jackboots
For the goosestep dance is nigh

God? Who needs god when microchip mentality
Can banish banality and make real the virtual
Heaven of man's artifice

You rapscallion! You confectioner of folly!
Why seek you to darken the luminosity
Of true ambition with an imposed condition
Of bogus hope

Trespass no more on my good nature armed with such
Venom coated barbs as these. Forsooth you are the tongue and tooth
Of an ill mannered curmudgeon come here to bludgeon
To death the burgeoning truth

Pouting petulance, dribbling sibilant sarcasm through
A quivering dewlap, unwrap your soul and to her sweet vision
No more demur

His death came, a creeping sinuous snake insinuating
Its slippery dicta into the half writ injuction
Of his own false advocacy

A beacon blazes far aloft
Atop a hill where sheep once grazed
Among the crags a shepherd's croft
In mournful ruins time has razed

Sweet meadow grass, untouched for years
Grows to heights before unseen
A whispering breeze echoes fears
Impressed upon the mantle green

Dry stone walls in mock revolt
Despatch their crumbling boundaries
The stable door won't stop the bolt
Of nature's feral equerries

An old man sits with pint in hand
Weather-beaten features gaze
Recalling days before his land
Was polluted by a chemical haze

He shuffles away with awkward gait
Towards his cottage on the green
No money can ever compensate
For all the suffering he has seen

I dreamed...
I was a fly
With all-round vision
Seeing the world
From different positions
To you my life's short
But to me its long
Toiling all day
In the insect throng

I dreamed...
I was a skylark
Hovering aloft
Melodious sounds
From my beak i'd cough
To you my life's short
But to me its long
Just singing all day
How can i go wrong?

I dreamed...
I was a cat
Curled up by the fire
In this feline heaven
No more i desire
To you i'm lazy
But to me i'm content
Without all the problems
That get your head bent

I dreamed...
I was a mustang
Galloping free
Across the savannah
Across the prairie
To you i'm a challenge
To be caught and trained
But my noble spirit
Can never be tamed

I dreamed...
I was a man
Old and quite frail
Peering beyond
The gossamer veil
To a fly i'm a giant
But to heaven i'm small
In a timeless communion
God's children stand tall.

I sent my young son off to school
In smart new shoes he looked so cool
But the teacher said these break our rules
The goalposts have been moved

My son asked why with a voice so meek
This design was fine at the start of the week
But his teacher said boy just listen don't speak
The goalposts have been moved

The staff-room gossip was growing quite heated
Said one our power must not be depleted
If we cave into logic we'll all be defeated
The goalposts have been moved

So I wrote to the head these changes amaze me
Just seeking to clarify that which was hazy
The reply I got said we rule by ukase
The goalposts have been moved

I once attended a football game
Where all of the players had the same name
When a goal was scored the crowd would complain
These goalposts have been moved

A fine pink dust pervades the air
Teasing the nostrils to open and flair
Fragrance wafting like a scented breeze
Powdered wigged footmen suppressing a sneeze

Inside the ballroom with cultured disdain
The pinch-faced ladies all prissy and vain
Survey the arrival of each lady and lord
With glowering contempt as their only reward

The rustle of silk and the swishing of fans
Porcelain fingers on bone china hands
Fragile ornaments removed from the shelf
To glory their mistress as symbols of wealth

Lovely and descriptive...it tickled my fancy