Poetry competition CLOSED 10th June 2019 5:05am
WINNER
Jade-Pandora (jade tiger)
View Profile Poems by Jade-Pandora
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RUNNER-UP: buddydog

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Memories Fade and Stir

gothicsurrealism
Daniel Long
Thought Provoker
United States 10awards
Joined 26th Nov 2018
Forum Posts: 192

Poetry Contest

Show a memory that you still grip to hold onto, a special memory that's fading.
This is a memory poem. Show and confide in DUP members here about a memory you hold onto that you fear you're losing. Losing the image of it or, even the smell of it? An early life memory is ideal so, we're talking years ago! However long ago, the point is that memories fade! Writing about it can make it clear again, thus stirring the memory.

New submissions encouraged. Old pieces need to fit well with this competition.

Any style.
Any length.
Three entries max.
PM me for questions.
Two weeks!

gothicsurrealism
Daniel Long
Thought Provoker
United States 10awards
Joined 26th Nov 2018
Forum Posts: 192

Mother's Hushed Eyes

Passages of my childhood arise within my mother’s death gaze,  
bringing reminiscences of olden days.  
   
When in sadness in childhood we would speak in silent gaze.  
No mother left to envision me now, now within those quiet eyes.  
   
Mother, you have gone away;  
oh, dear mother let the memories rest beneath your eyelids.  
   
But never close your eyes!  
The imageries still dance in them as if you’re still alive!    
   
 While vibrancy in your quiet eyes remains, I'll save  
this voiceless reflection I saw from a mother's hushed eyes.  
   
Mere images from when I was a child,  
and often when I'll be sorrow-hearted, these reflections will then give me joy;  
   
so, while life does remain in cycle, the memories she has protected;  
those reflections I saw from a mother's hushed eyes.    
   
Oh, I remember the life of my mother's glossy eyes,  
my reception of joy to her when I returned home,  
   
always gently did her eyelids come to a rest  
as she used to sit and wait for me to speak,  
   
but now are not closed, and silent;  
though they have left me for the cold of death,  
   
but while mute voices do persist, in those images I'll remember  
this vivid reflection I saw from a mother's hushed eyes.
Written by gothicsurrealism (Daniel Long)
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gothicsurrealism
Daniel Long
Thought Provoker
United States 10awards
Joined 26th Nov 2018
Forum Posts: 192

Above is a non-entry poem by the author of the competition.

Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 9th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 5134

Autumn House

   
They rattle through this house of olde,
The echoed calls through arteries.
The lab’rinth leading from its bowels,
The iron heating in the core
Where beats its heart now long gone cold.
 
But as the autumn and the rain
Is rolling through and sinking in
To claim the rafters and the walls,
Was how the rattle came to be,
The autumn whis’ling down the halls.
 
But what of all the guests now gone
When holidays would welcome them
To sample of its luxuries?
The strolls through gardens manicured,
The games played on the emerald lawn.
 
Then came the evenings' dining fare
Of duck and quall and Guinea fowl,
The roasts of beef with tarragon.
The pastries afterwards with fruit,
And coffee served with crème Brule.
 
The old house in its heyday then,
It seems forever and a day
With no one left that lived here when
Who told their families and their friends
To come and visit them to stay.
 
And so they did, they flocked to see
The regal house that seemed to have
What everybody longed to know,
The way a proper place could be
To everyone from everywhere.
 
But now the parties' faded charms;
The clink of crystal stemware toasts,
The lilting laugh of meeting one      
Whose visit was their first time here,
Whose host would take them in their arms.
 
And so it was back in the day.
The swirling couples danced till dawn
As music took them by the hand
To guide them up the golden stairs
While others stayed out on the lawn.
 
The locals speak of times like these
And wonder where they all had gone.
Those lovers in their tux and gowns,
The lilies gilded with such care
With stickpin pearls' glint in their hair.
 
I too myself do often miss
When I was lulled in my first tryst.
Right there, he met me by the newel,
And found I was too young for him,
Too young for me yet to be kissed.
 
It comes to me in saddened veil
The reason why I came and stayed.
For suitors and their challenges
Took down the boy I stayed chaste for,
Who died but watches over me.
 
In stocking feet, the rooms I roam.
There's no one else who knows I'm here,
Or knows as I do where they are;
The bones that rattle from the halls,
Where we have called this house our home.    
 
 
Written by Jade-Pandora (jade tiger)
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gothicsurrealism
Daniel Long
Thought Provoker
United States 10awards
Joined 26th Nov 2018
Forum Posts: 192

Again, another masterful piece by you tigress! Bravo!  

buddydog
Thought Provoker
United States 6awards
Joined 5th May 2015
Forum Posts: 93

L. A. (just a memory)

Somewhere between the Ocmulgee and Tallapoosa
My mind slips away back beyond yesterday
A dew with some jack
A tee top chevy a Skynyrd eight track
Play it pretty for Atlanta always takes me back
 
I still feel the sun shining on your face
Making memories that time can't erase
We drove that chevy into the night
Passing through jukin city  
like on an airplane flight
 
Still drink my dew with some jack
With every sip it takes me back
Time drifted us apart  
now my grandkids fill my heart  
So many years have passed by
but you still fall from my eye
You lost my last name  
a bird I couldn't change
free bird you'll always be....... to me
 
Playing tracks 2 and 3 over and over  
for what seemed like an eternity
Your simple man was all I ever wanted to be
Time gave me a life without you  
it been simple and true but somehow I always knew
Like with the wind Tuesday gone  
all that left is a memory and this song.  
 
Still drink my dew with some jack
With every sip it takes me back
Time drifted us apart  
now my grandkids fill my heart  
So many years have passed  
by but you still fall from my eye
You lost my last name  
a bird I couldn't change
free bird you'll always be....... to me 
 
Free bird you'll always be
Written by buddydog
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buddydog
Thought Provoker
United States 6awards
Joined 5th May 2015
Forum Posts: 93

Forever and Someday

I can still remember way back when    
How we started out as just friends  
It wasn’t very long before we found love    
But somehow we slowly drifted apart    
   
I hear the wind through the Georgia pines    
I feel the warmth of the Alabama sun    
These memories made us who we are    
Not what we become, did we take this to far    
   
After all these years I still call you home    
Time is like mountain river flowing all alone    
You can’t touch the same rushing water twice    
So I’ll wait at the falls with forever and someday    
   
(Instrumental)    
   
I sit here under this old magnolia tree    
I sit wonder if you still think of me    
I wonder if you would answer if I call    
We didn’t know it then but we had it all    
   
After all these years I still call you home    
Time is like mountain river flowing all alone    
You can’t touch the same rushing water twice
So I’ll wait at the falls with forever and someday  
   
(Instrumental)    
   
Listen to me...    
If you find your soulmate with true love    
Make no mistake this is from up above    
You can take the boy out of your love, lawd    
But you’ll never take that love from the boy    
   
After all these years I still call you home    
Time is like mountain river flowing all alone    
You can’t touch the same rushing water twice  
So I’ll wait at the falls with forever and someday  
 
You can’t touch the same rushing water twice  
So I’ll wait at the falls with forever and someday  
Written by buddydog
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snugglebuck
Dangerous Mind
United States 77awards
Joined 3rd Feb 2014
Forum Posts: 1873

PSITHURISM

(Inspired by my memories as a boy exploring the Boundary Waters of the Superior National Forest.)  

Little man  
Curious child  
Don’t leave yet  
Stay awhile  
Listen to the pines  
Murmuring in the zephyr  
“Please don’t leave”  
“Stay little brother”  
Even the whitetail’s  
Bones of long ago  
Begs you to stay  
“Please don’t go”  
Beneath the stones  
Wait the beetle bugs  
In the decaying loam  
Hide wiggly grubs  
“Come find us”  
They deplore  
There is so much more  
For you to explore  
Don’t pass through that door  
Of cynical maturity  
Where life is measured  
In insatiable greed  
Stay here in the forest  
With your spirits kindred  
Like Muir, Walden, Irwin  
And Mary Oliver  
Look see, Audubon’s spirit feather  
It floats on the breeze  
Follow it young child  
To more wonders and discoveries  
“He’s leaving”  
“He’s fading”  
“He’s gone”  
The forest began grieving  
But whispering optimism  
Sings the psithurism  
“Maybe someday he’ll return”  
“With his own children”
Written by snugglebuck
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Bluefall44
Kera Daniels
Strange Creature
United States
Joined 20th May 2019
Forum Posts: 6

Toxic

You were toxic
and I lost it.
I wanted to scream
I didn't want to be on your team.
But I always came back.
I would always act,
as if there was no pain
that you caused in your "game".
But I wasn't going to play anymore,
I didn't want to be tore.
I knew you would hurt me just like before.
Now your gone,
and it's been so long,
and honestly
I've moved on
from the time you did me wrong.
Written by Bluefall44 (Kera Daniels)
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delanee
Thought Provoker
Belgium 2awards
Joined 13th May 2019
Forum Posts: 27

Picture of a Perfect Goodbye

our last goodbye resembled
that movie scene that draws a painful tear from your eyes
or that song that sends a sting through your heart
 
it was everything i never wanted to imagine
it could be
soft and sweet
with an awfully bitter aftertaste

i could have stayed in that final embrace forever
if only i had realized there would be
no other
i think i might have done just that
Written by delanee
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inechoingsilence
Thought Provoker
United States 4awards
Joined 17th Apr 2019
Forum Posts: 327

Culinary School Lessons for Life

Sweet Sixteen in 1994, what a cosmic joke
I was a girl in worlds that hated my existence
Especially two white-pride boys, top of school society
We all went to school together, then vo-tech
I was far more intelligent, strike one for me
A girl who didn’t fall for their charm, strike two
Semitic in a world of Aryans, strike three
The first two strikes were easily evaded
But the last one nearly cost me my life twice
 
Sixteen and studying to be a chef
Girl in a man’s world, already despised
Bad enough I saw them in academics
We shared bus rides and a long hall-walk
Taunting me as I walked ahead, unable to run
My pride and school rules forbade it.
 
“Jew, Jew, look at you, dirty Jew
One day we are going to do to you
What Hilter didn’t get a chance to.”  
Troy Sigfried and Steve Bauer followed me
Every day, five days a week, except for holidays
Off the bus, down the long hall, straight to my class
 
They in Metallica tees, shades and ripped jeans
Combat boots, bandanas and Dixie flags
Blond hair, black hair, blue eyes filled with hate
Strolling not a care in the word behind me
I was dressed in chef’s black’n whites
Dark curls hidden under a baker’s hat
Boots on my feet, no make up, stoic
With these two Neo-Nazis so close
My chef instructor at the door, hearing every word.  
 
Three weeks I suffered, Monday thru Friday
21 days my chef, the one I was supposed to trust
Listened and scolded but did nothing more
“Goldstein, I hear them, but my hands are tied.”
In 1994 this was not considered a hate crime
Boys just being boys, just ignore the little shits
 
 
On the 22nd day, a Monday, they got too close
That Monday, I could feel their breath on my neck
“Dirty Jew, watch out we’re coming for you..
You BITCH, stupid Jewish whore-bitch, you broke my nose!”
 
I was barely four inches over five feet barefoot
But I always punched above my weight
Steve got too close, so my fist smashed into his face
As I got ready to swing again, my chef yelled
“Goldstein, you’re suspended! Bauer, to the nurse!”  
 
I looked up at my chef, this man I’d been taught to trust
He was to be my chef for three years, day in and out
My heart dropped, chills ran down my spine as I realized
He was tall, he had blue eyes, he was German, too.  
 
I got suspended for a week, Bauer had to apologize  
The minute it was over, he glared at me, smirking
“Jew, you’ve only made it worse for yourself.”  
How true his words were, my life nightmarish
Pennies thrown at me daily to start Jewish parades
They tried to push me off moving school buses
Jews weren’t allowed on the bus, they all said
Swastikas in my driveway, mailbox run over
Demonstrating they could do whatever they liked
Every school day they followed me the rest of the year
Their words in cadence with my defiant footsteps
 
I fought them violently every chance I could get
But never in front of my chef, I needed to impress him
He was my ticket to my dream of becoming a chef
I had to prove women were men’s equal in the kitchen
Three years he taught me, never spoke about that day  
 
In the end, I graduated, working for a high class chef
Only three students had such coveted positions
I was also accepted to culinary school, to start in fall
“Goldstein,you did good. I’m proud of you and I’m sorry.”  
Two years too late, my trust never quite as complete
 
In cooking school, I learned two important lessons
Beyond how to measure, saute, braise and stew
One: I had to fight twice as hard for a solitary chance
Two: no one would ever take care of me..except me.
Written by inechoingsilence
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bimbammit
Lost Thinker
United States
Joined 18th May 2019
Forum Posts: 9

Return Lucid Memory

In the nape of my neck
You take cover behind my ears
You rest on the tip of my tongue
You hide in the furrow of my brow
Oh sweet age of three
Birthdays and hidden presents
Party games rigged to win
Plastic toys with moving parts
And record disks on 45
Oh sweet age of three
Return Lucid Memory to me
You smell like cotton candy
You taste like lemon tandy
You feel like long grass
Built ‘round me like a fort
My best friend was a wide trunk tree
Mother never looked for me
Find me fleeting glimpse
The long ride home at last
A tiny yellow bus
I had no idea where I lived
Oh sweet age of five
Return that world to me
Kindergarten make-believe
Stories come to life
First grade number lines
Film reels back in time
Second grade teachers
Meaner than a monster
Third grade Library
Book reports non-stop
Favorite topic, Cats
Oh sweet ages past
Return that world to me
Written by bimbammit
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purpleautomonkey
Janessa
Strange Creature
Canada
Joined 5th June 2019
Forum Posts: 2

Dried Roses

Dried roses, decayed roses, broken roses
These roses covering the room
Petals are everywhere, like snowflakes on the ground
Shades of creams, pinks, and reds fill my vision
I pick one up, and the slowly door opens  
Black and white petals tumble though the door
Suddenly, everything is in black and white
Color no longer exists  

 
The door swings shut and locks its self
I am drowning in petals; I can’t breathe
I am slowly suffocating, in this colorless world
The petal is still in my hand, I drop it  
As it slowly lingers to the floor,  
I can see color, I still can’t breathe
What is happening?  
The petals around me are turning to dust
The air is now thick, a window slowly becoming uncovered  
with sunlight drifting though
I go to move towards it, but I’m moving like I’m walking though water with bricks

 
 
Finally, I am at the window, and I look out
I see people, nature, buildings, things  
I see life happening  
Out this window there is something I want
I try to break the window, but I can’t
I look around me as I spin in a slow circle
Roses, dust and sunlight surround me
I am trapped, I pick up a piece of broken rose
I am then seeing a piece of my life before I was here
I pick up more and more scraps of petals
 

 

 
Friends and family, memories of happiness, of the past flood in my mind  
The reminds of the dried roses vanish as I touch each one
The window is still locked, but the door is unlocked now
I think I will stay here for a little while
Dried roses, Dried roses
Dried roses use to cover this room
Until I vanquished them but hung onto the memories
 

 

 

 
 
Written by purpleautomonkey (Janessa)
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yourdarkboi
kersionix
Lost Thinker
Joined 31st Oct 2018
Forum Posts: 25

i did it for you

 I did it for you
You always said i’m fine, myself
But i know it to be untrue
Because you are gone now
And i just miss you

So now, i must change
To be shaped to something new
My friends are worried,
But i just miss you

So now i paint my face,
To scare them all off too
I wear less clothes now
I just miss you

My musics changed,
I feel a fool
Because i,
Just miss you

I'm getting there, i'm losing weight
Will i be good enough soon?
Im just to the point where i,
Miss you

I said i shaped myself, but that's a lie
And without you, i may cry
I'm all gone now
Was it enough?
I don't know, i'm not that tough
And now, i'm different
And it's all cool
I speak, look and act different,but all i think is
You

Are you happy now?
I said i changed
But im just gone
And now im damaged

But you all want me to smile, to play the part
And that’s just what i’ll do
But do believe me,
I’ll never show the hurt you gave,
At least not to
you
Written by yourdarkboi (kersionix)
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wallyroo92
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 11th July 2012
Forum Posts: 1874

Yellow Jumpsuit

I was born in a country that was being torn by civil war,
But I also have fond memories that are slowly fading away,
Because those times feel so ancient and distant now,
It seems like dreams that once beamed are now old and grey.

But my earliest childhood memory to me now it seems was
Watching my mother comb her beautiful jet black long hair,
As it cascaded down her shoulders over a yellow jumpsuit,
’79 I believe, but now the recollection is going elsewhere.

I don’t recall the exact details of that particular morning,
But I remember being five watching her from the doorway,
She was so young but at the same time she seemed a bit blue,
I don’t remember if that was the day she was going away.

I remember her reflection in the mirror with a tender smile,
But I also remember feeling sad or something to that effect,
And a couple of years later I discovered my newborn picture,
She held me in that yellow jumpsuit by the cathedral steps.

Nowadays when we reflect and reminisce about those days,
I cherish that old photograph of us every once and again,
It been forty years now and I hope to have forty more with her,
Because the memory stirs and moves me for the child within.

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