Awards on Vote for Poetry

fireworks by Patricia Kantrowitz

I hear
the dull thunder
of fireworks far away
jealous fireflies
float by my window
silent
on the cool night air

willing my whispering heart
to travel the miles to you
surely asleep and dreaming

when you stir
and awaken in the dark
know it is me
who wakes you

look out the window
in the blackness
green fire flashes
hurry up
live
come with me
we'll float away
unnoticed
into the night
free

I Earned this Peace by Anton Elohan Byers

I can’t hold on
to this lie
I have been told to believe
and I tried

but it never worked out
I never connected
I never found
what I believed and expected

wanting to be heard
to be understood
to figure it out
to do good

Obvious things
it seemed
and yet
it seemed
they were only dreams

I am letting go
out of choices
jumping from a window
of the captive voiceless

I land in my heart
I find a part
of the whole beseeching
incandescence
without reaching

I learn
when I jump
when I release
I earn
the nameless
the peace

I earned this peace
by releasing

Unknown shelter by michelle lachut

what I have
of what I ought
Nought I believe
unto compare
that I conceive
that I would dare
say soul prayer pleas
in sole warn shoes
on tattered knees
to who so ever
answers, please
not who you like
or what you choose
Oh, cast aside
what I'll use
what I Love
Is what you lose
Had a great day
I'm under the weather
I'll make a blanket
of your tail feather
sleep in the hay
eat your scraps all day
be so much better
because we're together
of why I don't
but what I know
You are my shelter
I need you so

A Beggar's Requiem by Lian Waite

went on a walk one day and saw a man that was needy

He was holding up a sign the first line said "Please help,

next it said "need food, but will work for money,

then the last line said "please, my kid is really hungry"

maybe He was lyin, but I couldnt chance the feelin

so I gave a couple dollars as He thanked me and concealed it.

returned that with a nod and walked away real content

never weighing in my mind where that money really went...

years later I lost my Job and lost my house

both my kids died of cancer, then I lost my spouse

then I lost my hope livin out on the street

cuz my life was filled with rain clouds, doubt and defeat

even had a lil sign said "Im feelin really bummy,

could use a couple dollars, cuz Im really really hungry."

one day I ran into a kid and he said his name was Tommy

he was cryin to a picture of his daddy and his mommy.

said his mommy wouldnt leave him but she had to go today

and his daddy would return but for now He couldnt stay.

see his mommy got a job cleanin carpets in the summer,

and his daddy had a job, He was a carpenter or somethin,

but He had an accident, thats all he really knows and

it happened on the job, He worked at 33rd and Roman

he said he prayed so much that it made his knees welp

then he showed me this sign, the first line said "Please help..."

Cognizance by Adelia Rose

My vagabonded rebels
Of bravery and stupidity
Write me a sonnet
That tells me of old
Before they burned my books
They walk in sheep skins
The wolves of ignorance and respite
Condemning us to follow
They hide behind almighty vows
And use his image to enforce
But to their own device
They twist and lie and twist
Till there is not truth
But what they speak
And they speak of evil
Of the written word
And harming the innocents
Normality, my dead concept
But to those who are no more
We brave the morning
But not the storm
God has allowed a scoundrel
And the Devil has compelled
That this evil
May allow
For the blind to lead the weak
And for the hidden never speak
Always remember
That ignorance does not win a war
Breeds only sorrow
My lover becomes the nemesis
When the brave cannot desist
A bridge to cross
Another to burn
Still there is much to yearn
And chivalry is dead
Then there is nothing left to tread
But remember–
Nothing is ever hidden
You just have to know where to look.