Posts for June 17, 2026 (page 6)

Registration photo of Joseph Allen Nichols for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Sanctuarium Poëtica

                “You are a poet, and poets are dangerous
                 to ordinary words  (…)  You build cathedrals
                 of feelings while I stand holding a single candle
                trying to show you the same light.”

                                                                                    – M 

Poetry is my attempt to capture a moment
like a photograph, like a still-frame glimpse
of beauty, even when this world can be
terrifying or tragic; there is still something
profoundly orchestrated and transcendent
if one can simply press pause and see
and know—so I try to express that, shape it,
speak it in such a way that others feel an echo
in the chambers of their being, or can see
and be in that moment, for but a moment
lose themselves on the page, within stanzas,
inside the borders of what I build
on the page.

                                           But I never intended
to fashion walls, to enclose, to exclude, to hold
you out.  You speak a benediction over us,
when you call what I build               home,    peace,
inside your heart, a place where you can lay down
burdens you did not know you were carrying

and this is all I ever desired, for you, for us—
a sanctuary of solidity in a wavering world,
a refuge for reflection, a monument for momentum,
a sacred space neither of us has ever known,
a holy Eucharist where we break and bleed ourselves

into one flesh before the altar of our Lord…

where Love and all that is and flows from
Love can be worshipped in thanksgiving.

             Come.  Come, Beloved, and speak
in the language of your silence.   

It is enough.
It is good.

We need not corners of streets nor synagogues
nor to be seen by men.  I will write my words
as prayers, fold your hands within my hands, hear
the spectacle of your spirit
in the sanctuary we build, together,

palm to palm,
                           face to face,

                          silent, drawing nigh
                          and nigher

                         a place to stand and love in
                         for a day, with darkness

                         and the death-hour
                         rounding it


Registration photo of N. D for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Emergency Haiku 2

Today has been full
of unexpected stress. One
more haiku it is 


Category
Poem

Whispers

The wind whispers
to the trees.
And the trees answer
by rustling their leaves.

What are they saying?
Why won’t they tell me?
Is it a secret?
I’d like to know, please.


Registration photo of Mya Sophia for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Next Time

I pray we meet in every lifetime
But next time you are safe
Next time you live a life of dignity
And if that means we don’t meet
so be it, two souls, liberation
forever intertwined.


Registration photo of Sylvia Ahrens for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Dear Peace

Why haven’t you called
Are you safe
Have enough to eat
A place to stay
We worry about you out there in the cold and lonely  

We want you to wander home like the lost kitten of our youth
Be the surprise in our cereal boxes
Tap our shoulder one day while we wait for the train
Persist like an infomercial we can’t turn off        
Croon our heart’s favorite lullaby  

It’s summer
We long to feel the rain cool our fevered dreams         
Watch the old men nod away the sultry hours
Wallow in fireflies and lilacs
Be happy in our peaches  

We’ll keep the light on  


Category
Poem

Tyrannosaurusday

Taxes

Drip
Peanut Butter
Drip
Ideas
Drip 
I need to get started 
Drip
 
Coffee’s Ready 
Muddy on the Mouth 
 
This is how Goldie used to drink it….
 
Smearing the Green Yolked Eggshells
My Bare Feet
On Concrete 
 
Dares to Defy 
The Sitting 
Staring 
Stewing 
Bully Blount 
The Ghost
That Has Haunted 
Generations 
 
In a dream on set
Me:
” man, the Coffee’s too expensive”
 
Joey Hill: 
“You don’t finish the coffee. The coffee finishes you”
 
Touché Dream Joey 
In a Turn 
I had Turnt 
 
My Dreams 
My nightmares 
Into
Set Pieces 
With Pleasing 
Pleasurable Plural Plays
On the Extreme and Mundane 
Emotion is what Carries a Heart 
Through the fluttering excuse for 
What
Passes as 
Sight 
These Days 
 
All Ways 
 
Another 
Spell
For 
Another 
Oh Well
 
Maybe The Next Dream 
Will Be More Digestable 
For the Slow Class
 
No One Wants to 
Under 
Stand 4 Hours 
 
They can barely Get thru 
4 Seconds 
On their Flip Phones 
 
Dream Joey puts sugar in his coffee 
“Generation Die Born to Reside Inside” 
 
“Our Minds? Cuz its Cloggy in Here.” 
 
“Drink a Quad Shot Banana Mocha and Be Thrilled, the Damned Third Street Coffee Creep Wish She Could Flush That Fast” 
 
Enema Electric 
Perfering 
The Pie Shop
Daze
Of 
Flour Forever, 
Baking Pies to Spend 
All the Time 
A Buck Seventy Five, bi weekly
Ayala Laughs, “THEY have your Ass. We got to keep em out of our military”
 
“Them, Ants”
They Have Ant Heads
Is What He Means
The Ghost of Ayala 
Shadow Sentry 
Bleeds Back into the Wall
A Stain in the Wallpaper
 
Drip
Drip
Buzz
Less Beans
More Milk
Less Sugar 
 
Pays to Get Started 

Registration photo of R.J. Gordon for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

A-Z

You beg to be fed
Alphabet noodles swirling
Potager Poet


Registration photo of E. E. Packard for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Last Night

I dreamed of you

and woke stunned, confused
by how that slap of memory struck.

Day by day, I long to answer a phone
that never rings. Your name
spans my vision, an ethereal caller ID.
“Hello? Hello? Are you there?”
Dead air greets me.  

Released from pain by death
you slipped away while miles from me
though you remain ever present.

Mourning in morning’s light  

                                            grief unwinds again.


Registration photo of Nancy Gourde for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

The Banana on the Car

I thought somebody
put the banana
on top of my car
to ripen. However,
that is poor food strategy.
So maybe somebody
laid it there because he
had to tie his shoe
or answer a text
or adjust the leash
on his dog.
I would have left it,
but it looked good.
I checked it for suspicious marks
and needle pricks.
I figured the peel
was protection enough 
against germs and
noxious cooties.
So I ate it.
It was just fine.


Registration photo of Roberta Schultz for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Emerge

Out of the lush green

of my overgrown stepping

stone walk—a pink bloom.