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Meditation - Reflection on loss
         By Andrew Lander

A sudden shower
droplets fall
ripples fan out
          like years

Until the pool stills
          and returns

Nothing past
remains
save the memory
of its
passing.

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                   And I Cry

         By Bill Vanderbilt

You will paint your pretty face
     and put your best dress on.
Then you'll head out the door and
     you don't know how long you'll be gone

You say you've got a friend in need
     and you just couldn't say no
And though it hurts me deep inside
     I know that I must let you go

Another day has passed by
    And I can't help it if I cry
Another day, another night
    More bad dreams and another lie, and I cry

The hours pass as I sit alone
    And I wonder how long the pain will last
I think about the days to come
    Will they hurt as much as in the past

Then finally, you come back home
    And your pretty face is sad
And you can't look me in the eyes
    When we talk about the night you had

Another day has passed us by
    And I can't help it if I cry
Another day, another night
    More bad dreams and another lie and I cry

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She's gone forever

  By Claude Gagne

She's gone forever
the one that I love
in the winter of my heart
like the leaves she is gone

I watched her leave
fading in the distance
through the tears
her hair flowing in the wind

That cold wind of despair
that's got a hold of my soul
will it ever get warm again
I wondered as I turned away

The street seems so empty
As empty as my love
I walked away
no more we just I    

leaving the broken pieces
of my heart on that sidewalk
to be throdden on forever
she's gone and so am I

Copyright(c)2002 by Claude Gagne

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The Black Gate

© Edgar King

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The Extinguished Flame

By Jerry “Bo” Tipton

With the setting of the sun
threads of our lives unravel.
The energy of youth has fled.

The days that are gone
make contrails in our minds,
our thoughts heavy with memories.

Mistakes toss
our dreams that slowly
begin to flicker and die.

Days filled with living
and wooing lovers with inspired prose,
have withered and died.

Yet when our desire
to struggle was gone ...
something pounced upon our minds.

Across our path came
desires thought dead
and a need to escape tortoise shells.

It no longer matters the days
... unraveled
or that we thought life was over.
Deep inside we cry ...
        I live!

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                   GOLDEN ONE

                 By Pat Parker

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You    (English)
--- Rachelle Arlin Credo

You are a silhouette, hazy and gray
But a vain creation of lover's memory
A fair illusive vision everywhere displace
With a shady luster away from my yearning embrace

You are a lamplight glimmering with a flicker of surprise
A semblance of beauty that surpasses the azure skies
Endowed with a charm with a form of airy grace
Embellishing the black immensities in a peculiar maze

You are an innocuous moonlight angel
With the loveliness exceptionally real
Across the cold and misty moonbeam
Where no twinge of conscience can deny in any theme

Oh, you're but a being matchless to compare
A creature so alluring, how I love to touch your hair
But alas! You glided away and faded out from my vision
And only the whispers of your heart beats in slumbrous fashion

In the nocturne rhythm of the night
Where my perception was deceived by my sight
I was swept by the waves of realization -
You are just a dream, a product of my imagination...
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Naunsyaming Pag-ibig    (Filipino)

            --- Rachelle Arlin Credo

Umiiyak at nasasaktan
Ang puso kong sawi
'Di matanto sa aking isipan
Ang kaitiman ng iyong budhi

Parang aliping inalipusta
Ang aking nadarama
At anaki'y wala nang remedyo upang pawiin
Ang kirot ng damdamin

Ibig kong ibulalas at isigaw
Saka isiwalat sa mundong ibabaw
Ang kaapihang dinanas ko
Dahil sa pag-ibig ko sayo

Bakit ikaw ay ganyan
'Di mo ako magawang maintindihan
Na simula't sapul ikaw lang ang mahal ko
Mahirap bang maintindihan ito?

Ngayon ako ay iyong iniwanan
Ng nakaraang puno ng sakit na 'di ko makakalimutan
At dahil dito'y isinusumpa ko
Hinding-hindi na ako iibig sa mga lalaking tulad mo

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MORNING REALISATION
by Richard Sebastian Adams Jr

I drive on,
As my morning realisation
Teeters and pervades
Amidst recluse
Of last night’s dreams.

The sun in the sky watches
In silent strength and dignity
Guarding a heavenly security
Knowing forever, and
Burning with early thoughts.

I wake more now.
I have felt powered reality,
The creeping awareness
Of dawn thoughts
Spreading and towering
In a frightened sky,
In challenging contempt
Of my imaginations.
Like a knowing hand,
It grabs me,
To be true to this day.

How small my picture seems.
Now, in this crumbled frame,
I cry for wisdom,
Searching desperately,
To escape the truth
Of my morning escape.
I teeter to face realism
As my journey ends.

My thoughts fly
Into my future, and
The real day begins.
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WINTER WONDERS IN AUSTRALIA
        by Richard Sebastian Adams Jr

Think of Aborigines,
Think of desert sands,
Think of our Australia,
One of the driest lands.

No winter rain in winter time,
Strike me pink!  It’s hot!
No snow to tuck us in at night,
The land winter forgot.

The plain is stretching distantly,
The redness still pervades,
There is no chance of cold escape,
The silent sun invades.

There is no bloody winter here,
Where it’s always blinkin’ cold.
I wish it could be bloomin’ wet,
But drought still has its hold.

The driest state, the driest place,
A parched land still in grief.
Other places have their cold,
But we have no relief.

If your country’s cold and wet,
And freezing is the norm,
Think of poor Australia
Where winter’s always warm.

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