Poetry and Creative Writing for All

The Top 5 Poems of the Month

April 2003

Our winning poet for April is Luthien Lark.
Read the author profile and more poetry by Luthien Lark

The End and the Beginning of a Gentle Man

And you stand there with your steel back to the sun,
Jaded memories of people never to return.
Drinking from a broken cup,
Iridescent drops trickle gently, like small rivers from your soul,
For long days have come to pass and a strong man they surely stole.

For searching you have paid, for answers never to be said,
For dark secrets and enlightened thoughts, you have wondered far and wide.
Yet who can know the truth or the illusions they sneer behind?
For they are only fragmented dreams from a child's intrepid mind.

So, as you stand there at the well, here at your world's precarious end,
What is it you shall wait for? Which place shall you descend?
Beyond the dappled highway, strewn with cotton, lilac clouds,
Above the dusky skyline and ominous mountain range,
Into a world of sweet oblivion, a transparent silver, vaguely obscuring and silently strange.

For weary are you now, of that incongruous opaque land,
That your ripped and torn feet, feel they can, not stand.
And tiresome are all these words, the people use to cheat, lie and deceive,
In a world full of fakes, it's hard to know just what to believe.

So, drink from this well, to heal your deepest wounds,
So the cold, lonely nights, shall no longer exist,
Hear my voice as you slip safely into waking slumber,
Take my soft warm hands and I shall lead you through this mist.

For here at the world's end, is where all life must first begin,
So do not be afraid of what truly lies within.
For the beauty of a gentle man's soul, is clear for all to see, yet this gentle man must know, first how to accept and to be free.

Luthien Lark

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Here are the other four poems chosen by our imprint editors as winning poems for April. All other poems submitted for the Top 5 Poems of the Month for April are being considered for various anthologies.

Loving Eyes

The ache … 
in so many people's hearts
is for love ….
and your eyes are loving.

We are born with innocent trust.
Then the world throws at us
such beltings …
that love can seem miles away.

But your eyes 
give to the world
something that 
this world needs.

Love.

Mags Scorey

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Crystal Clear Night

A sphere of deep plush velvet,
highest widest vault of heaven,
soft and soothing to our eyes.
A deep sable-black pile,
in whose fabric infinity lies.

Still and silent dreamy night,
crescent moon, bright and clear
lightens nights inky blackness;
the dark part of diurnal cycle,
nothing… but absence of light.

Praise to Nox, daughter of Erebus,
in beautiful black velvet gown,
winged mysterious goddess of night
guides her chariot through space,
to spread… what is not there.

Followed by Khaos, mother of light,
she sprinkles just enough around
to chase away fears and demons,
throws diamonds into solar winds,
and our universe sparkles… diamante.

Gael Bage

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Kissing Cruelty

The handshake of a dirty man
and the laugh of one depressed soul
and all that smoke without fire

The promise of an habitual thief
and your safety within the broken net
and the killing cancer in the summer sun

The silent screams of the mentally abused
and the innocence in an adult's eyes
and our generations making no new mistakes

The children who curse and swear
and the complaints from the rich and beautiful
and the eternal struggle to find food

The riots and wars for a piece of land
and the starving girls who hold onto a dream
and the strong mind but with a body giving in!

Cameron McAulay

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Fear

Creeping slowly up my spine
Tingling pang of fear is nigh
Stealthy as a spider spinning
Trapping an unwary fly

Lurking in a darkened corner
What awaits I fear to look
Tremors running through my body
Crawling strands of webs unhook

Folding me in silken menace
Wrapping me within its hold
Gripping me with threads of panic
Terror leaping to enfold

Now I must face my fiercest foe
Hiding deep within his web
As spider waits to catch his prey
My fear lurks here inside my head

Joan M Jones

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To submit a poem to the online competition email
inbox@forwardpress.co.uk
Please include Top 5 Poems in the subject line of your email.