Poetry and Creative Writing for All

The Top 5 Poems of the Month

May 2003

Our winning poet for May is Candice-Leigh Johnstone.
Read Candice-Leigh Johnstone's biography and more of her poems

Colours

Candice-Leigh Johnstone

Top

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

The Baglady's Shadow

Two brown carrier bags - that’s all she had!
One bore the remnants of yesterday’s dreams,
the other a store of today’s necessities.
I thought it sad, and watched awhile.
She turned and caught my eye.
Trapped! I tried to smile - to comprehend
what tortuous path had led her here?
Where were those who should be near
to ease her anguished years?
She shuffled towards me,
tattered trainers, bandage bound,
- grasped my hand in both of hers.
Instinctively I stiffened,
then unwound and listened,
captured by her words:
`Don’t grieve for what you think you see,
this is just a shadow of the girl I used to be.
Look into my eyes and see reflected there
a past that keeps me sane through days of care

Fred McIlmoyle

Top

The Other Side

In the deepest hour of the night
I hear you whispering my name,
You bid me come close to you
And you hug me for a thousand years.

A thousand years for all the seconds
We wasted later during life,
Loving before so deeply, so familiarly,
A bond I thought unbreakable despite all the strife.

I watched the tears drop from your eyes
Splashing so gently on my hand,
As I told you my most recent dream:
Dolphin Daddy, I on your back, battling currents upstream.

The fiercest river in which I could not move,
But you strove and struggled, determined to win…
Alas, you could not reach the other side:
The grand Cathedral radiant in sunshine.

Dolphin Daddy, I lost you then, though
For good, thank God I never knew,
And I took over in the river, like a crab,
Sideways, sobbing, on my own.

In the end I made it to the other side,
The Cathedral ever gleaming, yet empty –
Empty and silent, but for a candle: one
I lit for love, for my dolphin, who could not see the sun.

Pamela Bakker

Top

Incident At Horseshoe Bend

Wind shrieks, darkness looms,
rain lashes virulently.
Feet scramble, lead encased,
grimly ascending.
Scaling towards the apex.

Nature conspires, oppressive,
proclaiming impending doom.
Remorseless, unyielding,
incessantly pounding the senses.
Determined, to have its say.

Earth shudders, stomachs lurch,
hair bristles constantly.
Breath lingers, reluctant.
Sucking inwards.
Caution transforms to terror.

Elements pause, grudging,
regrouping for their climax.
Ominously biding their time.
Misfortune seeping freely,
from each vindictive aura.

Bodies scamper, relieved,
clambering to the summit.
Breathless, exhausted,
staggering gamely forward.
Reluctant, to look behind.

Paul Kelly

Top

The Colour of Anger

What colour is anger?
Red-hot, they say:
A coal of wrath, to be nursed on some inner furnace;
A fiery haze, through which we see
And act as if possessed;
A fuse which sparks,
Firing blood-red arrows through the heart of he who dared
To light the touch paper.
But anger can be white:
Cold, icy fury,
Turning words to frozen shafts of steel even as they leave my mouth;
Swirling like a snow-storm deep within;
Drifting from my heart to my head,
Where thoughts become like icicles,
Hanging there,
Piercing the cushions of love and joy.
What I need, then, is not fire, not ice,
But warm drops of rain to fall upon my secret self,
That rage may slowly melt,
That love and joy may billow out, filling my heart.
Then in the soft ground,
Seeds of real forgiveness can take root,
And as their healing leaves caress me,
I can be made whole.

Erica Wishart

Top

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.