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1st Place
My Peaceful Valley
When will I ever find my Peaceful Valley
And how shall I know that it is mine?
Is it a wraith of my imagination:
A phantom dream that flits and flirts with time?
Or is it just that every mind that’s active
Needs such a place to stop in time of stress?
Needs such an image blotting out the tensions.
A refuge where the mind can pause to rest.
I see my Peaceful Valley backed by mountains,
Tranquil in a sun that is never still.
Or shrouded in the misty black of night time,
And broken by the call of whippoorwill.
I see my Peaceful Valley bathed in moonbeams,
Each seeking for the glow of noonday sun.
My mother mares are nickering a warning;
But starlight colts are frisking while they’re young.
And tall, straight fences march around my acres
Like soldiers ordered out for combat drill.
They climb and turn and stop where I command them.
Their fate is mine because they have no will.
The buildings, painted white, are built for duty ~
Each shed and barn. And each unlike the other
To store alfalfa from the lower pasture
Or house a newborn foal and anxious mother.
The house alone holds no great fascination.
It must not tie me to it day by day.
Complete repose with nature’s great creation
Is what I’m seeking as I pass this way.
How shall I know I’ve found my Peaceful Valley?
Will I look up and see it some glad day?
Or must I search for it each living moment
And take it, bit by bit, along life’s way?
- Marie Beesley |
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2nd Place
Invitation
Daydream with me for a
Moment
As I sit on the bridge
In the
Sunshine, water tickling
My toes
With our dreams we can quilt
A poem,
We can fall into love,
We can
Accept the way we dream
We can
Live a happy moment,
Hearing
The sound of our thinking
Rushing
Like the water around
Our feet
Let us start in today,
Begin
On shaping forever,
Close our
Eyes, and dreams of young love,
Dancing
With angels all gracefully
Vibrant
Finding something to love
With all
Our hearts let life exude
From us,
Touch and catch fire in
Others
- Jodi Swihart |
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The Dancing Angel
The Big Boss looked through the Pearly Gates
Somewhere Beyond the Sky
His Brow was plainly clouded
And His Angels wondered why
Then He called for his Dancin’ Angel
The one He loved the best
And said to her, “I’m sendin’ you
To a place they call the West
I can’t bear to be without you
So you can’t stay very long
And the reason that I’ve chosen you
Is to sing the world a song
Oh, I know they will not see at first
Why you had to leave so soon
No more than they can figger out
Just why I hung the Moon
The answers to those Questions
Are for Me alone to know
But every now and then they need some light
In that world of Mine below
And when they get to thinkin’
I’m sure they’ll see the Light
Like the Comets I send Blazin’
Through the Darkness of the Night
I just want them to understand
This Gift of Life I’ve given
Ain’t about the Dyin’ part
It’s all about the Livin’
So with you I’ll send this Message
That I want them all to know
Now hurry on and pack your things
And prepare yourself to go”
Well it made the little Angel kinda sad
For she knew she was God’s Own
And she really didn’t want to leave
Her place beside His Throne
“Now don’t cry,” the Big Boss told her
‘Cause I’ve got things all arranged
And I’ve picked a Special Family
Out on a Western Range
In a place they call Montana
Where my Beauty Reigns Supreme
Where the Rivers all are Endless
And my Mountaintops all Gleam
Oh, I made it look like Heaven
So you won’t be troubled there
And the couple that I’ve picked for you
Are shore a Dandy Pair
And so you won’t be lonesome
You’ll have a Brother too
Who’ll help, console and counsel
As he watches over you
He won’t be just a Brother
He’ll be your Life’s Best Friend
So he’ll be the first to understand
This Message that I send
But I’m gonna let him stay behind
To Help his Fellow Man
He’s gonna be a Healer
In my Grand and Master Plan
These are Kind and Gentle People
With Hearts of Solid Gold
And I kinda hate to bruise those Hearts
But this Story must be told
For if I did not think they had the strength
To realize and see
Well I’d never send you there at all
I’d keep you here with Me
‘Cause you’re my Special Angel
I made to dance around My Throne
And it’s hard for Me to let you go
And leave Me here alone”
So he sent His Favorite Angel
To His Favorite place on Earth
To the Handpicked loving Parents
That He chose to give her birth
And with her came His Message
Of Divinely Inspired Hope
To ease all those who suffer
And to help them learn to cope
To set a pure example
All the days of her short life
And help others learn to live
When faced with Greatest Strife
“You see sometimes, We never know,”
I’ve heard my Mother say,
“When a shore ‘nuff Angel
Sent by God will chance to pass Our Way”
So if you’re Blessed in this Wondrous Way
I just Hope you Realize
That some who walk Among Us
Are really Angels In Disguise
- Dan Hess |
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Frozen
A bridge reaches over the darkened ice
The river below is a lifeline
It feeds this vast plain of solitude
The day’s early calm-a cold sky view
The air is stinging frost, biting and jolting the body
Waves of winter leave me solemn
Harsh breezes of loneliness sift through me
I walk feeling weary, sinking, and older than young
Torn pages of time have turned to be observed
The lines of now fly down all around and hit me
This life’s aching storm
I am chilled from it without sound
Icicles in my eyes like a prism for light
A silver beam finding a flash of white
Breaths of steam meet the frigid wind
Branches of evergreens bend, buried green
Nothing could survive this whiteout taunting
Exhausting and disorienting drifts
Collapsed avalanche scene
The night’s coming dream
Blanket wraps the child
Hay is dropped for livestock feeding
Heavy loads needed, fur and moisture
Life is dying
Cracked hands are bleeding
Here in the open, a fragile one pleading
For a shelter of warm fire
The day is receding into the dawn
The world has grown tired
My eyes watch the pyre on that eastern horizon
The cracks in me are sewn and have grown cold
Maybe it is that I have become numb
As living becomes old, dreams you hold
The surface is a stable mask of freeze
Hiding all disease and kind deeds alike
The dice of this type to roll, people extol
The virtues and the sins of desire
They want you not to ask why or say
Like the snow that covers you
Thoughts are buried that way
People live in the storm and say it is calm
They are turned away and accept condescension
Their silence in this dimension of witness
And losing the freedom to speak
War and how it strips us
Of our humanity that is love
To kill other people not like us
And sacrifice our young to the evil war breeds
When what we want is freed
From this pain and lies
This ugly deed
Is this the path we have chosen?
Have we grown cold in our hearts?
Frozen?
- Scott Lee |
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Man among Men
Darkness....Light...Spank! WAAAA!
A new life is begun, my life, and I am born, ready to become a man.
Just as all men are born...ready to become men.
But what makes a man; I’m too young to know
Not just then but now, unsure of what a “Man” is.
I am babe, crawling like there’s no tomorrow.
My dad picks me up, my dad is a Man
The best one I know, I watch him, study him
But still it eludes me.
Growing up fast, kindergarten...I have a crush
I want to be “Her Man”,
Although at the time...I really had no clue what that meant.
Sixth grade, I have the internet, my friends come over,
I am their first window to Playboy online,
To them, I am “The Man”
Continue growing learning life’s lessons after the fact,
High school, first love, my introduction to a “WoMan”
It is fleeting, I grasp at nothing, it passes me by,
Two years, my first girlfriend, she makes me feel like,
“The Man I want to be”
My mistake, not hers, I leave her behind.
More mistakes are made.
But the more I make, the more I realize:
To err is “HuMan”
I am, human, I’ve tasted the Man I want to be.
I know what it takes,
Fast forward.
Bells ringing, mother crying, father cheering,
I’m almost a Man, halfway there!
Love is shared, felt and cared.
In the hospital, she’s smaller than a bread box,
Cuter than one too,
Mother’s smile, Father’s eyes,
Little hand grabs my finger...
I am finally “A Man”
In that instant, I am “My Father” I am also
“The Man, Her Man of the Woman, The Man I’ve always wanted to be”
But all this time, I am still “HuMan”
On a bed, friends close, family closer.
Smiles hide tears, some tears, just don’t hide.
I see the two smiles that matter most.
My angel on earth, her beau, and their little smilers.
My angel in heave, who has been waiting for me,
Time is drawn, “Last words?”
Yes, there are more words than there is time for,
Choose carefully.
I can already hear the preacher,
He only left these words,
“Tell them, I made it...I was a Man”
Light...Darkness...and a smile to greet me.
- Devin Konkel |
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The Women's Rock
Imagining I discovered this ancient granite outcrop,
I survey and claim it.
At its base, I find potshards,
simple and plain.
Smiling, I recognize another era’s Tupperware.
Crawling over its gentle slope,
I seek the grinding rock’s story.
Like a blind woman,
my fingers trace depression,
hollowed by forgotten women,
pounding acorns to gritty flour,
women who sat here
where I kneel,
Women, yearning and triumphant.
While my fingertips read their storied,
I catch snatches of ghost voices,
rustling leaves of ancient oaks.
We are kin—these women and I.
Here we have mourned and celebrated.
- Karen Birdsong Madorin |
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The Reel Thing
Bursts of sound assaulting my ears-
Flickering light becoming images-
Buildings-people-colors-trees
Adrenaline pumping through my brain.
I thrill at the sights and sounds.
Eyes wide open, I stare ahead.
Listening-looking-myself dissolving
All attention on the screen.
Previews of coming attractions-
How they pull me in!
Comedies-tragedies-romances-wars-
I want to see each one!
And then the show begins.
A life reels out before me.
Laughing-weeping-I disappear.
The one who entered, is no longer.
I see, not actors, just people-
Living their lives, being themselves.
Telling me their stories-
Showing me how it really was!
And then, too soon, it’s over.
Around me, the theater goes dark.
What was a whole world-nothing.
Tell me-was it smoke and mirrors?
For a while, I escaped from myself.
I was someone I didn’t know.
Now me again I leave-
Walk out in the gathering dusk.
It’s the same day-
I’m the same me-but
Inside my head are memories-
They belong to someone else.
- Wanda Mai |
