February 12, 2026

Winners

JupiterUndenied by your hollow surface, / deceiving intentions disguised as the Sun. / Dancing in your storm amounted to nothing.

#1

37

PaintedYou told me stories / But never lies / You painted the tapestry

@MrsTimetable18

#2

36

holding the helmeveryone has their place, / their role. / i can’t shine brighter than you.

@girlinflames29

#3

35

Other poems

What I sawI’ve seen many tears shed for the ones who died, / And far too few smiles given to the living. / I’ve seen countless companions walk beside me,

@LaylaMariamShafiq4

32

Forget You, I Miss MeSometimes I sneak past it / Like the light through the crack in the basement door / I hear it in the wind

@anthony-andronaco36

32

You Wrote of LoveYou wrote of love as if it were skybound, / melting into cloud, fading with the breeze. / But I wonder if it ever truly landed for you.

@ParadoxicalPenguin30

28

Greedy little thingMaslow said we need food, safety, love / But he never mentioned / how easily hunger becomes sin

24

“So Tenderly Put”~for Lori Jones McCaffery who wrote me of: / “Her hands lay gently joined” / “***So tenderly put***”

@nat-lipstadt32

22

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy EveningWhose woods these are I think I know. / His house is in the village, though; / He will not see me stopping here

19

Retiring from loveLove, can be an essence of life / Or the heart’s knife / An opportunity to find someone better

16

lexiI will take you / To the moon, sun, stars / I will take you

13

Irrevocably YoursYou say my name like you’re checking a mic, / not to sing, just to see if it works. / We sit across from each other.

@MidnightVerse62

13

KrakenHell is slowly slipping over me / Like an inky black presence / Behest at the dark corners of my mind

@blackcatpoetry14

12

Tu ausenciaTu ausencia / es el retrato / de la melancolía.

12

The Dawn RedwoodI sing the Dawn Redwood, / and I sing Amherst that shelters it, / and the long patience of the earth that forgot,

12

For LJM: "That was beautiful and I lived it with you."~for the inestimable and yet, / so oft underestimated, / Lori Jones McCaffery ~

7

Face the Winds UnbowedDrop grains onto the mandala, like bricks on castle walls. / Form your words into a poem, turn that poem into song. / But Entropy remains the tune who's sound becomes each now.

7

His Angel"Have you not heard, little girl? / Hunters often appear in the form of prey," / he whispered the cautionary line

4

Bill One February Afternoon 2025.Late afternoon; / the sky a mixture / of purple and blue.

@TerryCollett43

1

ended

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