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Background Image: "Emotions" by tuckett

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by Tabatha Yeatts

The other voices loud and grim —
clamor so I can't come in —

They draw your eye, confound your ear,
make me feel unwelcome here.

My steps are light, my scent is slight --
I come to you most every night

in dreams you might remember when
you oust the rest and let me in.

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Curiosity whispers in your ear, waking you from a deep sleep.
Curiosity tosses back the covers, splashes water in your face,
fills your belly, and packs your bags.
Curiosity turns the knob and throws the front door wide open.
Curiosity nudges you, to step out into the waiting world.

By David McMullin

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Silly
Tilting
Toppling
Tiptoeing
Teehees
Nasally laughter
Rolling sounds
Thunders at times
Sometimes a quiet mouse
Chimes and shouts
Giggling not's
Rosy cheeks
Butterfly lashes flutter
Silly is you
Silly is me
Silly is we
Silly is a song
On little bird feet
With little bird chirps
And little bird wings
And dinosaur laughter
Silly
Tilting
Toppling
Tiptoeing
Teehees
Silly is you
Silly is me
Silly is we
Our foot steps
On wobbly hilled shows
Silly is a seesaw
Kind of dance

Poem By Jessica Bigi

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by Juanita Havill

Happiness scampers
across the roof of my mind
leaps to a branch
all spunk and play
descends
gargle-giggling from a toothy smile
delight in digging
delight in finding
delight in sitting on the deck wall
question-mark tail
curved along its back.
What next?

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She spins
like a merry-go-round,
she climbs every tree.
She's a busy, buzzy bumblebee.

She's a red balloon
drifting across blue sky.
She's a pair of polka-dotted rainboots
worn during a dry July.

She sings, she smiles.
Sometimes she curls up
with sleeping crocodiles.

SNAP!

She disappears for a while.

- Irene Latham

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by Bridget Magee

Embarrassment squeezes
between Julio and me
at the lunch table.
The ketchup packet feels
the pressure,
bursting in such a way
that Julio wears
the flush of my cheeks
for the rest of the day.

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Burning face,
sweaty palms,
thumping heart that
nothing calms--
makes me want to
cut and run
from something that I’ve
said or done.

© Cynthia Cotten

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by Ellen Leventhal

Unexpected and unwanted,
she tiptoes towards me,
assaults my body,
my soul.
She paints my cheeks a ruddy red
and forces my eyes down, down
to the floor.
She thumps on my heart,
quickening its beats.
and she is satisfied.
She giggles at my
stumbling words
and slumping shoulders.
I am hot, red, and
out of control
when she takes my hand
in hers.
Blush, sputter, stutter
But then she leaves, looking back
with a grin
and a promise to return.

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Wound tight as a drum, Anxiety sought to move or speak.
To move caused a crack in the drum’s surface and splinters in other areas.
To speak through his closed teeth, and clenched jaw, he produced only groans of sheer agony.
To break wasn’t an option, so he inhaled.

Leane Gill

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This morning meditation
meagerly curled up in a corner
for lack of her time. Though,
Frenzy finds her throughout
her day, and interrupts her often.
A late afternoon walk dampens
Frenzies fire, and puts her at bay
for at least another day.

© 2017 Michelle Kogan

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Creeps into dreams.
Steals sleep.
Doubts decisions,
But
it could have. . .
It might have. . .
It would have. . .
It should have. . .
I wake up sweaty,
Heart palpitating.
Breathe.

Kathleen Mazurowski

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Helplessness is being a passenger on a speeding train,
steaming forward.
I can’t get to the engine car.
I can’t find the conductor.
My face is pressed to the glass,
scenery whizzing by,
night to day to night again.
My heartbeat--
the clackety-clack along the tracks.
I glimpse the tunnel around the bend.
Inside is a hole,
long and pitch black,
and I’m headed in.

Ann Magee

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In the mirror
she pleads for strength,
but submissiveness
reflects her image.
Its downward glance
avoids his stare and
creates a shelter,
protecting her
from his hand,
if only for a moment.

©2017 Leigh Anne Eck

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Hides in the closet,

lurks under the bed,

slips out when you’re not looking.

It clutches your heart, and

squeezes your hand.

At first, you can’t escape the grip.

Heart pulses, hands sweat,

body twists and turns.

Then, you look him in the eye and

breathe,

Knocking  him over with your confidence  . . . for now.

-Sandie Vaisnoras

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A ballerina watches
a photographer
set up tripod and camera
near the window.
He hunts, she thinks.
Each move, every glance
measured light,
hushed selection
of prey.
The music stops
and Señora claps sharp.
Dancers line up
for portraits,
one by one against
the weather-beaten wall.
And now her,
the prize shot.
Obediently she steps
into position,
bringing her braids
forward, a deer
in a sun-dappled forest.
The ballerina, however,
escapes falling prey
to simmering clicks
of his camera.
No resigned smile,
no first position
or plié
no giving away
her dance inside.

© Linda Mitchell

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Fear chilled his being,
tap-danced across
locked memories,
threatened to drag
them to the surface
where they would
bounce and react,
a nuclear fusion.

© Sherry Howard

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A tattered card grasped tightly in my nervous sweaty hand.
I pass her desk- not once- but twice-My Valentine So Grand.
FEAR you are a trickster that whispers in my ear
You slyly say she’ll laugh at me whenever I go near.
I saved my best for only her but your words have me shaking.
The thought I’ll be a laughing stock does have my insides quaking.
But then I hear a louder  voice that drowns the voice of fear
It wells up in my belly and it tells me “I AM HERE!”
Yes Courage comes to meet me and takes me by the hand.
I place my card upon her desk- My Valentine So Grand.
She grasps my card so tenderly and then I see her smile.
And fear retreats - this trickster sly- was lying all the while.

Poem by Janie Lazo 2017

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paratrooper leaps;
Fear, unwelcomed, never
survives the fall

- (c) 2017 Matt F. Esenwine, all rights reserved

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I sense you behind me,
silent, scheming
sneaking a glance over my shoulder.

Test grades.
Text messages.
Timed sprints.

So I study longer.
Bury my crush.
Push harder.

You won’t catch me,
because every time you try,
I will transcend myself.

© Keri Collins Lewis, 2017

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Bravery,
you slip and slide,
you dart and hide.
I know what to say,
but it’s not as simple as that!

Bravery,
you show your face
when I find my place,
and I think of words,
but then fear pushes me flat.

Bravery,
Is this your game --
I get the blame,
whether silent or not?
Then I’ll roar like a wildcat!

Copyright 2017 Brenda Davis Harsham

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the elvish imp,
will not be leashed
like some pointy-eared pup.
With a wiggle and woot,
she’ll slip
your grip
and streak naked through the streets
just as fast as her little legs can scamper.

© 2017 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.

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Impatience spills from her fingers, tapping and typing

squirms her chair and wiggles her legs

bounces her feet

clicks send before she can reread her words

swivels her neck to check the clock

clenches her jaw, grinds her teeth

checks her email for the umpteenth time

and mutters under her breath

waiting for the reply

that never comes.

--Buffy Silverman

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Patience calmly sighs
Dormant daisy lies
Deeply slumbering
Awaiting next spring

Impatience cackles
Forest fire crackles
No hesitation
Quick devastation

© 2017 Mindy Gars Dolandis

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Grief washes over me
with waves of intense sorrow,
then ebbs, swells, crashes again,
refusing to release its surge of pain.

Pat Podlipec

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Concern wrinkles its forehead.
It silently whispers a prayer.
Giving a hug and listening,
it’s helping me fight Despair.

© Cindy Breedlove

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I see you hidden in this place
where sorrow and surrender roost,
where burdens, heavy, should consume
all hope but faith is cradled, soul
resistant, hope persists, and you
against all odds and fleetingly
are seen when trusting opened eyes
can glimpse what adversary grief
would shroud.  I hear you, quavered soft,
in psalms recited frail but true;
a sweetheart—aged but faithful still
holds fast e’en past the end and smiles
through tears and mem’ries shared with all
who care to hear.  I see you, small,
in tiny fingers wrapped around
a sleepless mother’s.  You—holy—
against all odds and heeding not
the sage advisors—persevere
in quiet crooning song.  I see you,
in gentle speech, in careful touch
in chaos split by calm.  You touch
eleventh-hour rushed goodbyes
when life with death collides.  You’re in
this space, this time when weak defeats
all strength—yet you, the greatest, here
remain; I see you in this place.

Rebekah Hoeft

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I hold you in cupped hands—
an embryo curled tight
around your fear.

My thumb strokes
your tense silhouette,
urges eyes to open.

I whisper, you’re okay
because I see beyond
your close cocoon.

I hum a reassuring note,
nudge your face toward light
until resistance dissolves,

your head lifts,
fingers unfurl,
and you reach for my hand.

© 2017 Doraine Bennett

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Hope comes near to me,
When the wings of fear beat free.
She stands but small at first,
Until greater like wonder, she bursts.
A flower blooming in the spring,
Hope smiles on every living thing.

By Angelique Pacheco

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Joy moved away one cloudy day
and broke my heart in two.
I lay upon the pile of trash
wondering what to do
without the snuggling
and all that hugging,
without that happy you.

Then Joy returned in two large hands
when the trash truck  came along.
No longer left a lonely soul,
you sang a sweet, sweet song
of coming bliss,
a daughter’s kiss.
Joy turned right from wrong.

Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved

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I wake in dawn.
My larksong,
a half-hour chime,
calls
from parish tower.

She said
I am not to fly down
back stairs
until bells strike
eight.

An entire morning!
For my own thoughts,
with my own
paper,
three pens!

O Gratitude, I sketch you
as leafy branches kissing
my attic window,
sunrays feathering
each jade jewel.

I spell your name
in Italics and curlicues,
I write this poem to you

from a stranger,
Prudence

©Jan Godown Annino

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The clapping, the fanfares,
the trumpet tones
Bother you not at all.
The quiet of introspection
Silences the adulation but
does not stop it.
Still, I'd rather hold you in my heart
Quietly ceding the credit to others,
Than suffer the pangs of not enough,
what next,
who,
how.
Let's go on.

© 2017 by George Heidenrich

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Make an active mind, non-active
Re-awaken your innermost self
Seek a word of peace,
Blow away resistance, fear, and dread.
Engage your attention to now
Hold on with compassion and understanding
The space left open is for love.

Margaret Simon, all rights reserved.

(Combining two challenges: the words came from Laura Shovan's ten found word challenge)

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Carefree with barefeet
Overalls and a tee-shirt
Melting into a hammock
Freely swinging,
One foot dangling
Relaxed, not
Taxed
Azure eyes
Blink slowly until
Lazy lids
Extinguish the light.

By Donna JT Smith, 2/10/17