poetryfest

Poetry Reading: ME, by Jim Durkey

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the winning poet:

What is the theme of your poem?

— Honor the song in your heart.

What motivated you to write this poem?

— My granddaughter had a learning disability and was shunned by her classmates.

How long have you been writing poetry?

— Since high school.

If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

— My mother.

What influenced you to submit to have your poetry performed by a professional actor?

— Perhaps someone listening to the poem may know of a young person who could benefit from reading it.

Do you write other works? scripts? Short Stories? Etc..?

— Screenplays and short stories.

What is your passion in life?

— To be able to spend more time writing.

Poetry: Blue Crystal Kaleidoscope by Marilyn Kandus

Genre: Life, Rhyme

blue crystal kaleidoscope
deeply cut reds

silk adorns tapered neck

light source

ceramic smiles

lighten
heart

dolls
open eyes

to memories

of childhood

m.kandus 5/2017

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Poetry: Crooked Smile by MS WARD

Genre: Life

I smile through my hardships and pray through my pain It’s hard seeing the sunshine when your heart is full of rain I laugh through the turmoil and seek refuge through the anguish I can’t feel happy when everything in my life is damaged.

My smile hides so much that I bury within but you will never see my tears I will never give in My laughter masks a hurt that’s buried deep inside I will never unleash the pain I’m too scared to cry.

I carry the load of so much that it weighs heavy on me I don’t have a true partner someone who is there for me Sometimes being strong can be such a heavy burden to bear There are times when I need someone to be there.

I want rid myself of all of these sorrowful thoughts that are in my mind I just want a break to be happy for some time It’s been so long since my soul has smiled I just want a little peace at least for a while.

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Poetry: OLD ORDER by Rajnish Mishra

Genre: Dark, Death, Fear, Friendship, Life, Love, Painful, Personality, Philosophical, Relationships, Sad, Society, Old and new.

All old order is subject to decay,

they say and when fate summons,

old ways free fall. Heart-held loves,

friends, hatreds, foes, all, yes, all

give way to mighty time’s sway.

Indestructible, invincible,

grand youthful years, with each
passing year suffer wisdom’s

sedimentation, while marching on way,

time fills in fears, foreboding of future:

quite an accumulation! That knowledge

and fear lose all their power,
For lost is that fear –

a servant attentive.
For lost is that fear –

above head always hovering.
So, lost is the fear –

of not ever returning
As roots are cut now,

or withered; ineffective
pain.

Heart,

now hardened

is drained of that terror.

Short Bio:

Rajnish Mishra is a poet, writer, blogger and thinker. He has published seven books, six co-edited anthologies, twenty scholarly papers and poems in various journals, books and magazines. Few of his poems can be read at the following sites: https://www.poemhunter.com/, https://allpoetry.com, https://www.instagram.com/rajnishmishravns/, http://stanzaicstylings.blogspot.in,

His love for his city and his awareness of its effects on his psycho-social development led him to starting his own blog: rajnishmishravns.wordpress.com in 2011. The blog features both his academic writing and his writing on his city: the City of Light, Varanasi. Then, as he is a poet, and loves reading and talking about other people’s poems too, he started another blog: https://poetrypoeticspleasure.wordpress.com/. He runs an ezine: PPP Ezine to promote poetry and poets.

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Poetry: United by PoxyMadMagpie

Genre: Love, Inspirational, Life.

we are creatures
made out of flesh
and spirit that
never surrenders.

we defy fate.
we defy the end.

for our hearts
beat beyond the body.
they are bound
together.

booming through millenniums.
laughing at pain.

showering hatred with love.
with every strike
we grow bigger.
stronger.

never surrendering to evil.
we rather fall… united.

in love.

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Poetry: Original poem By Heather Harrison

Genre: Pressure

Image-
I can’t eat when I’m stressed,
I can’t eat out of fear.
One day that food, will appear in the mirror.
On my stomach, legs, thighs and face.
Every bite that I take, leaving it’s trace.
You don’t think I want to give in?
But you can’t eat food and still stay thin.
You don’t see the things I do.
You don’t see, what I put my body through.
Anyone can gain or lose weight. It’s the maintaining it, that I’ve grown to hate.

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Poetry: GIVING UP by Jaspreet Kaur

Genre: Life

whenever I find myself struggling,
most of the times my hardships are not resulting,

I thought of giving up..

The day I find myself depressed,
My mind is tired of being stressed,

I thought of giving up..

When everyone was against me,
nobody was ready to stand with me,

I thought of giving up…

But..

Giving Up is not always the solution,
for this you have to make resolution,

And never think of giving up..

All you need is to work hard,
Accept defeats and learn to move forward,

And never think of giving up,

One day you will realise,
situations are not always how you analyse,

And never think of giving up,

Giving Up is mare a distraction,
you just stay focussed and take action,

and never think of giving up..

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Poetry: THE FALLEN SOLDIER by Patricia Krull

Genre: Rhyme, Life

Don’t weep for me

O Land of the free

When it was my time to fall

Twas for my country’s call

Twas for the land that I loved

That I gave my all

And for the land that I loved

I did freely give

And in her freedom

And her courage

I’ll continue to live.

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Poetry: Addict by Himanshu Pandit

Genre:- Dark, Demons

I now know the thrills…

I now know the meaning..

Of a weak will..

But the resistance has lost..

The weak will subdued by a farce..

A promise that was made..

No its not good,

It was fake..

I see myself in the mirror everytime..

Little by little getting lost…

In this self inflicted crime..

But where is the salvation, that i seek..

Where is the preacher,

That preached the promised land..

15 min. Of heaven and than..

Another day..

Of getting tormented in hell..

When this cycle will stop, You ask..

I don’t know..

But till then I hope to live..

So I can slit this demon throat..

While holding him by his wrist..

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Poetry: BEAUTY by ILIAS FOUKIS

Genre: Life, Society

At that moment when Aphrodite
conquered the fourth Sky as well
the highest circles of Society
decided that she could now be
proclaimed Illustrious Woman.

That is the great
moment had come for the Advertisement
her body to be stuck to the background
of Omnipotence
or for the passions of Nature to violently
trampled on
if she were
to conquer even the Ninth Heaven.

Or simply to be a contributor
to the Sun’s circling from Dawn to Sunset
to be executed not only

without any intervention of night
but also during the time period
when the Giants of money had a taste for it.

And without yet returning to her Man
Aphrodite observed that
the seas had begun to bury the blue in the earth
and the first dust had begun to fall
on the laurel wreath of victory
as the island of Cyprus
filled up with reporters and managers
and with the vilest people in the World.

The moment Hephaestus learned of all that
he locked himself in his house
because he too would be losing
his beautiful wife
now she had appeared before
the eyes of the World…

Translation by PHILIP RAMP

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