Poetry competition CLOSED 21st May 2023 7:58pm
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Betty
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Mother’s Day Tributes

ClovenTongue34
Nathaniel Peter
Thought Provoker
United States 8awards
Joined 20th Mar 2023
Forum Posts: 143

Poetry Contest

Write a Mother’s Day poem about all kinds of mothers…

This competition is relatively straight forward but with some other options as far as mothers go as well. Now I know not everyone has fond memories of their mothers but mine was truly special to me and she passed away of brain cancer in 2020. You can write about your mom, living or dead, or even about someone you see as a mother figure personally or someone you admire from afar as a mother, someone who miscarried, or even a dog mom, I don’t even mind the concept of motherhood in symbolic terms to some degree, or even adoption. In essence it’s just about honoring mothers. 2 weeks, 2 poems max, 50 lines or less.

dejure
vick
Dangerous Mind
29awards
Joined 17th Aug 2015
Forum Posts: 2880

for mother...

between the pillars of joy    
her tears flowed, nourishing    
the memories in the banks    
once she left behind  
when she sailed across    
the ocean beyond the horizon    
   
the working class is a curse    
to those who dream beyond    
but she chased to bring back
a promised dream
   
   
   
but who could    
peel off the    
petals of a    
rosebud,    
so delicately    
and patiently    
and reshape it
into a flower?  
   
no one...!  
   
but they bloomed    
against the natural order    
into dysfunctional minds
   
   
   
   
science is logical and    
coherent, built on facts    
the spiritual realm is absurd    
to the rational knowledge    
   
   
   
after three decades,    
the dysfunction started to    
function in the spirit    
joyous laughs sprouted    
from the buried roots    
broken hearts healed    
through prayers    
trust built on will and faith      
her dreams changed    
new promises were given    
she is smiling again    
passing few regrets    
   
he is not here now    
but we are here    
   
for her...    
Written by dejure (vick)
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poet Anonymous

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Betty
Tyrant of Words
United States 27awards
Joined 8th May 2012
Forum Posts: 511

Litany of a snail

   
I was fresh from the shower,      
in sweats, a t-shirt, no bra, sodden hair,      
getting ready for mass,      
when the deputy knocked on the door,      
and solemnly brought to his lips a name    
with which I’d not let pass my own      
in years.        
     
It’s a sin to speak ill of the dead.      
I remembered her      
bright-red hair...      
     
I remembered when I was nine,      
and we lived in an efficiency      
with her ‘former’ dealer,    
in a city far away from my home.    
I slept on the couch,      
my belongings in a small      
box in the closet.      
It was the first time I’d been more      
than minutes from the      
safe-haven of my grandparents.      
     
It was a time of childish,      
desperate hope;    
a time in which      
I sought miracles in      
bits of glitter on the      
school-art projects that      
weren’t allowed on his fridge,      
     
and sometimes found them.      
     
We took a walk by the river one day,      
she was sober, working,      
and had a quality moment      
for me.      
     
I was very quiet,      
very creepy as a child,      
the watchful stillness of      
chronic prey    
etched in my being;      
naught but a shadow passing      
through a streetlight on a dark sidewalk.    
     
Yet that day,      
I ran free in the sun,    
sucking in the tang of the      
brackish water,      
picking at barnacles on the broken pylons      
as the light struck her hair and      
dazzled me with her beauty.      
     
I found a snail      
crawling along a slime-covered rock      
with a long spiral shell      
that begged for shellac.      
She had a fast-food cup in her hands,      
     
and for once      
(for once)      
I asked for something,      
I begged,      
let me have it    
please      
please      
please
     
     
From the soggy paper cup      
to a clean mayonnaise jar,      
refreshed with new river water      
every week;      
it was my best friend.      
     
Strange little girl with the too-old eyes,      
whispering secrets to a murky glass jar    
on the days when the watchful      
wall of fear crumbled      
against loneliness.    
     
I lost track of the snail maybe a half a year,      
and three different couches later,      
in the dead of night when we fled to the      
Salvation Army homeless shelter      
hoping to find a cot,      
a place on the floor,      
anywhere where the      
night didn’t explode      
in furniture shrapnel.      
     
Tonight, Christmas Eve      
was the first time I’d thought of      
the snail in decades,      
how much I actually cared for it,      
and how for a day      
she took time    
and granted me      
a boon I couldn’t actually afford,      
even at the age  —      
     
a moment of escape.      
     
Her name passed my lips tonight,      
as the deacon read the litany for the dead,      
and I dabbed my left eye with the sleeve of my      
sweater in a disallowed moment      
of grief for them both.      
     
For that strange little girl      
with the flame-haired woman,      
who so hopelessly wanted      
to walk by the river      
on more than one      
clean day.      
     
It’s a sin to speak ill of the dead.      
     
When I went to the locker,      
a child in an adult world,      
and touched her cold hand,      
it was knowing they were both to be buried,    
— the girl, and the woman —    
     
and I will speak of them no more.      
     
I prayed then for peace,      
and was answered      
with the echoes      
of footsteps      
by the river.  
Written by Betty
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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

A Mother's Hug Goodnight

Frigid calm front
hides in northern winds,
vast sky of my bedroom dims.  
 
Stream in winter
iced over; mother's embrace  
letting go at bedtime.  
 
Still rainfall,
sky's dark pillow,
eyelids become anchors; smothering.

The cold front  
blanketing this damp landscape,
peacefully covers the coming storm.
Written by gothicsurrealism (Daniel Long)
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neves
Twisted Dreamer
3awards
Joined 13th Mar 2023
Forum Posts: 34

Endless, aimless

 


I learnt you
in the form
of another

hidden away
inside some
loving relative
kind of way,

I felt it

when you
would come
to babysit
my young
bones

as you would
pretend villian
chasing me all
around a bare
faced table,

I felt it in
every giggle
trying hard
to escape
each one
of your
tickles

soon as
you caught
me in your
endless
arms,

I still think
about how
much those
arms have
missed

how my arms
were simply
made from
yours

gathering
each story
to bring it
all back
to you,

in hope you
recognise a
familiarity
in my face

in a throat
that sings
each tune

in a calling
only we
know.





Written by neves
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Jordan
D.O.C.
Twisted Dreamer
United States 13awards
Joined 4th May 2022
Forum Posts: 245

Jordan
D.O.C.
Twisted Dreamer
United States 13awards
Joined 4th May 2022
Forum Posts: 245

ClovenTongue34
Nathaniel Peter
Thought Provoker
United States 8awards
Joined 20th Mar 2023
Forum Posts: 143

ClovenTongue34
Nathaniel Peter
Thought Provoker
United States 8awards
Joined 20th Mar 2023
Forum Posts: 143

da_poetic-edifier
Damon
Dangerous Mind
United States 14awards
Joined 11th Aug 2016
Forum Posts: 262

Mother's Majesty

Your wombs provided us with shelter
As y'all prepared to become mothers
Cultivators of seeds implanted by man
Lifetime suppliers of helping hands

Demands upon you must weigh a ton
Doesn't matter if daughter or son
You're one in a million and we love you so
To whom much is given; you know how the saying goes

You take life's blows as you raise us up
When feeling empty, you pour from another cup
Your sup serves up sustenance for the soul
To exalt your magnificence is today's goal

Tolls can be hefty on the roads of motherhood
Pot holes make roads bumpy and that's understood
We would like to thank you for your sacrifice
Mere words could never elegantly suffice
Written by da_poetic-edifier (Damon)
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da_poetic-edifier
Damon
Dangerous Mind
United States 14awards
Joined 11th Aug 2016
Forum Posts: 262

Beat 2 Beat

The loss of a mother
Like many other pains
Can pull ye asunder
Below planes of sane

Disdain may still linger
Anger torments souls
Discovering a reliever
Is the ultimate goal

Tolls of the issues
Issues unresolved
No amount of tissue
Helps them get solved

Dissolved in psyches
Most unlikely feats
Varied forms of therapy
Sustain hearts beat to beat
Written by da_poetic-edifier (Damon)
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nightbirdblue
Dangerous Mind
United States 9awards
Joined 24th Sep 2017
Forum Posts: 171

Mother’s Day

 
You laid a path for me to follow  
Though sometimes life can be hard to swallow  
But you were there to hold my hand  
And encourage me to step off the beaten path  
 
You painted a world alive and green  
And helped open my blue eyes to see  
On this day now I recognize  
Your caring influence in my life  
 
Now I walk fast while you walk slow  
But by this you still teach me how to grow  
And with your age you will see  
There’s still a child holding your hand…  
     …that’s me 🥰  
 
 
Written by nightbirdblue
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cabcool
Guardian of Shadows
Jamaica 14awards
Joined 27th Feb 2014
Forum Posts: 783

apronsongs4 (a mothers day tribute)

wonder
if you remember
my father
kissing new life
into you
blessing
your womb
with the swell
of its eighth
regeneration
of God’s sixth
creation
beyond the walls
of eden days

can you recall
the rise
of your own
magnificat
like elizabeth's
exultation
commingling
with mary's
song of joy
at another little
baby child preborn
to the cabcool clan

did dew water man
sing like simeon
his noble nunc dimittis
not ready yet
to close his eyes
for half a century
and did my babe
leap in your womb
conceived post-samuel
to bring you
affirmation
that more sons
would swell your
future dreams

but you have tarried
long enough
to see the ripeness
of your progeny
fruiting
your life
and times
to its fourth and fifth
generations

for still you weave your
apronsongs
same story
different script
of stamen and blooms
gone before you
tiller of countless lives
distiller
of endless visions

all your generations call you blessed
for you have magnified the Lord
and fed the hungry
and lifted up the lowly
in your humble estate
you have seen royalty dethroned
and beggars elevated
the proud blown away as dust
and the seed of your womb
the life of God’s creation
multiply as the dust of the earth

wonder
if you remember
diaper days
with stark emotions
of dark, cold nights
when your trembling lips distilled
the unction of your comfort
to those who clung to you
confident that you could
scare the night away

an unwithering maternal tree
whose branches spread wide
whose roots dug deep
though the whole world whirled
assuring yourself
and comforting your children
with your tireless
apronsongs…

© Copyright 2014 May 09
Written by cabcool
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