Winter White
by Paula Timpson

Winter white
Is my soul
Inside
Drifting, free
As snowflakes
Bloom
Flowers
Landing softly on Earth,
Mesmerizing
Spirits…

Space
by Allen David, New York City

Layers of inert matter sleep in the darkness of Space, awaiting the
Cosmic Command to coalesce into galaxies with webs of stars and
planets, spinning in fathomless dark. A dazzling, limitless, array of
whirling spheres race through the backdrop of night, with a velocity
beyond speed, to fulfill a preordained destiny.

The grand creation of celestial fire spreads an effulgent canopy through
endless night, exulting in its brilliant light before extinction, to which all
of creation must finally submit.

On planet Earth, the seasons and the immense diversity of burgeoning Life,
complete their brief sojourn warmed by the Sun, then depart
for unknown realms.

The powerful forces of dark and light bound together in everlasting
space, duel for supremacy in a battle that can have no victor or
respite until finally the combatants sink into that soft sleep of
non-being which hath no beginning and no end.

Icicle
by Mankh (Walter E. Harris III)

with accuracy
of a clock's second hand,
the icicle melts

Haiku
by Gerald Starlight, Roosevelt Island

This enlightened path
The soul abides in our
hearts
There is always love

Today
By Michael Etts, Port Washington

Before the night ends
before time pulls her favorite caper
taking all that is precious
and leaving just a memory
I lay myself open to the
picture before me

Your eyes are
closed and so at peace
they remind me of a time
before cares
before worry drew a single line

All in a moment
I see the picture
of when we first started
and the innocence that allowed us to follow
an unmarked path
that we might not have chanced
had we known more

How fortunate I am
to see that the hand behind the softness of your hair,
laying on this pillow
is mine

Now, the sun is clearing the darkness
and music starts to mark
the start of a certain hour.
I rise quickly so as not to rouse you
so as not to break the spell
of the moment that I still want to extend

I look down one more time
fixing you into my mind
and draw a deep breath
to seal it in my memory.

Today
another happy day
with you

Two Wolves
(Cherokee Wisdom)

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about
a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “My son, the battle is between
two ‘wolves’ inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy jealousy, sorrow, regret,
greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies
false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
Kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion
And faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:

“Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

No Words
by Karuna Devi

In my gut I know what’s right
and though I press upon my pen,
I can’t put words on inward light
though write, I must and try again.

You pressed on me an indelible mark
in ink you wrote my every page,
and though my heart caught smallest spark
its flames of love brought fires rage.

In taste of salt when soul does stir;
In place of heat when heart does melt;
In these I fail to write what’s sure,
When devotion speaks, no words are felt.

(excerpted from Surfacing: A Poetic Journey of The Self. www.innerlight-publications.com)

The Cold Within
Anonymous, from the State Correctional Faxility at Chase

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In dark and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story’s told;
Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back,
For of the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.
The next man looking cross the way,
Saw one not from his church,
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third man sat in tattered clothes,
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use,
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of wealth he had in store;

And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black mans’ face spoke of revenge,
As the fire passed from sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
The last man of this forlorn group
Did naught except for gain
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played his game.
The logs held tight in death’s still hands Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from
the cold without;
They died from –
The Cold Within.

Universal Truth
by Neil, Long Island

I see
the Universe
as it is revealed
through a prism

Real Beauty –
embraced in the colors
Truth –
reflected in the light

That’s all
I need to know,
that this World
is inherently Good.