Free Verse

Sentinel

The blackened trunk stands stark
against the backdrop of the sky,
leaves gone, its branches bare.

As balanced as a swan’s neck.
Bent in defeat, beautiful in death.
and
curved like a question mark.

It asks me
why I'm not adventuring
beyond the horizon
instead of wishing on these barren rocks
kissed by sea and wind.

‘Beware,’ it warns me,
‘death comes unexpectedly.’

~Deryn Pittar, NZ

Haiku

leafless lone cypress
only the roots are sheltered
from these salty waves

~Harvey Jenkins, CA

Free Verse

This Papillon

crooked as I am and
full of fear and age
my dark shape bent
my singing mocked
a blur of sky and water
urges me to come
and with the salty breeze
fly off to where this boat goes
waves go the sea plunges deep—
the strangeness I have earned with time
with storm with wind
constrains my roots and
flung back upon myself
I call to be set loose
as the speck of a bird rides high
as that ship barely seen
carrying mysteries hope change

this Papillon awaits transfiguration…

~Carol Pearce-Worthington, US

Acrostic

Eternity

Enormous sea glistening behind
This branchless, leafless tree
Eager to tell legends how it
Rifled with the storms,
Nestled sailors’ fears
In its dried powerless trunk -
Tabernacle of dreams for
Years and centuries…

~Diana Teneva, BG

Couplets

Alone

The sun is in retreat;
All that remains is its heat
Warming my shoulder
Against this grey boulder.

~Emily Romano, US

Free Verse

Sylph

We clamber quite ungainly across the rocks
The blue of the sea shimmering under the sun
This beach is stony with just a strip of sand

Finding just the right spot of luxurious shade
Under sea-grape trees of broad leaf foliage
Picnic cloths unfurl in bright colourful patterns

There are groups here, and groups over there
Groups of hats cluster around chatting heads
Straw hats, banded caps, and floppy cloth hats

Testing the water, toes edge, closer and closer
Till the soft watery sand, is trustingly accepted
New terrain for mermaids, and swimmers alike

The embracing water silently swirling, swirling
Gently rippling, gently rippling with the bathers
Who splash about after lengths of swimming

The lone tree in a graceful choregraphy of form
Bare of leaf clothed in wind and breezy drafts
Someone approaches, with towel in hand

"Come on in, the water is absolutely lovely"
The bathers urge on the one who dared
Approach the silent bare sylph, of dancer tree

~Gillena Cox, TT

Free Verse

With the eye as a target

A hunting riffle
And a yell…
On the blue shade of silence
Scratches:
Flashes light in the horizon
The quietness…

Worms spin the fortune wheel;
Interfere with mermaids’ songs-
Pierced by the arrow
The sunset is blocked
Between the eyelashes.

~Anisoara Iordache, RO

Haiku

ageless in beauty
illuminating the dawn ...
tribute to nature

~Keith A. Simmonds, TT

Haiku

no leaf,
only one way to
a song of siren...

~Anisoara Iordache, RO

Free Verse

The Lost Tree

Now that tree does blame our environment to the shame,
With its charcoal frame last remains of burnt life, we do feel pain.

The greens whose beauty was once aspiring life for our gain,
We then climbed upon it with breathing, on the seashore.

It created passage of waters on life in rules of the nature,
With love of whose we dwell with perception, imparting existence.

Our transition on natural resources takes away its leaves,
And our vigor to make our world more peaceful goes in vain.

We are haunting for fruits, on shore we travel, and looking for ships,
That will bring materials for our progress, yet not touched and filled.

The heavenly bird does not tweet upon the lost tree’s branches,
O how we feel nervous is not our search, where we are now?

~ Asim Kumar Paul, IN

Tanka

merely moss...
between the rocks
curvature of tree—
the hope
sail for nowhere

~Vania Stefanova, BG

  3rd Place ~Bernard Gieske 

Free Verse

Separation
 

alone ―
     on this island
          ― storm swept

here I stand
     your ship passing by
          receding, fading ―

     knowing not yet
          your return

here I stand
     like this tree
          bereft of leaves
               dormant to the season

     winter waiting

here I stand
     on rocks
          solid in my hope
                  of a horizon still in sight

on rocks
     anchored in my trust
          of your love

your love I know
     will not turn with the tide

~Bernard Gieske, US

Free Verse

Charred Bark

Life…death,
often balanced
on a rocky ledge.

Even scarred,
the strong survive
while the weak
are swept away
by the tide.

~Karen O'Leary, US

Tanka

Untitled

distant horizon
paints the reflection of sky
I wonder
amongst scattered rock bed
if my poem will stay alive

~Pravat Kumar Padhy, India

Free Verse

The Tree of Love

Seemingly alone
Left
of the green leaves

I live in the sharp karst
as a beacon
without the signals
but I meet the ships
which greet me
with the big blue waves

In spite everything
I grew
of one's love

My eyes are connected
with the blue sky and sea
I get warmth
of the divine sun
I've been cuddled
by the lizards
and unloved snakes

The winds rest
on my body side
I've been swung
by the bora and storm
but the birds
are singing on me

I am the tree of love
among the sky
sea and land

~Štefanija Ludvig, CR

Haiku

fearful waves—
the sky sat onto the hump
of the old wolf

~Malvina Mileta, Croatia

Free Verse

Sentinels

The watchers watch the watchers,
guarding against the foreigner.
Stationed on the shore,
anchored in the bed rock,
twisted and gnarled,
branching and reaching upward
into the endless blue sky,
this tree becomes a landmark.
Off shore a moored freighter,
tugging at its anchor, floats
and watches the rocky coast,
ever mindful, noting with digital eyes,
every movement of life.
Perhaps there are smugglers!
Perhaps there are pirates!
...Oh, what ghosts lurk here?
...And most certainly
there are whales and dolphins.
Click! ...just now a glide of gulls
and would you believe it...
a single albatross circling high overhead
catching the juncture of land and sea...
the crashing waves roll in...and out...
...the watchers watch...

~John Daleiden, US

Free Verse

A Lifeless Tree

My friend
do not cut this moaning tree
so lifeless above the sea
Once it was
a true tree full of life
With abundant green arms
bent down by strong winds
to the sea
The sea would leave its salty kisses
on those green boughs
Now from the cliff stretches
only a shadow of life passing by
As if I'm gazing at myself
in the future
when my back will be bent
my face withered and wrinkled
I will be a ruin like this
lifeless tree
with its heart beating quieter
and quieter
above the sea

~Evica Kraljić, CR

Free Verse

Untitled

blue and dark blue
joint of air and sea
rest of the eye

tiny nutshell--
on afar horizon
sail slowly

nice weather
for the naked tree and rock
the same

~Vladimir Ludvig, CR

Haiku

mute prayer—
the color of hope
suddenly blue.

~Dan Iulian
Bucharest, Romania

Free Verse

The Tree of Hope

Defying the rocky terrain
The salty air and water,
A tall leafless tree survives,
Standing against the blue skies.
Like a lighthouse, it brings hope
To sailors lost on the seas,
A reminder that the shore
Could not be too far away...

~Sandra Martyres, IN

Free Verse

Unitled

distances
broken in parts
the textured sea
how uncertain the way
we trace back memories

~Alegria Imperial, Canada

  1st Place ~ Chitra Rajappa, IN 

Free Verse

Longing...

the lone tree
wonders about the mysteries
of other shores ...

the weary ship
wonders what it would be like
to be still ...

~Chitra Rajappa, IN

  2nd Place ~ Marion Clarke, Ireland 

Free Verse

Lightning Tree

I stand in the shadow of our lightning tree,
watching a hot sun kiss the tips
of newborn waves that play in your wake.
The ship slips out to sea as effortlessly
as a weak lover’s lie.
Slicing the water, it slides silently forward
towards the fresh breath of a new horizon
leaving me on the shore,
like these stubborn boulders,
unable to move.

~Marion Clarke, Ireland

Haiku

West from here - my roots.
They extend to let me stand
                       here in Oregon.

~ J. P. Christiansen, US