Andrew Lilburn
Child Category Honorable Mention
Dad
Dad
safe, fun
gardening, learning, playing
I love my dad
always there
Evangeline Barton-Grimley
Child Category Honorable Mention
Grassy Spring Mountains
Grassy spring mountains
beautiful, sunny
flowering, sprouting, refreshing
the mountains covered in mustard flowers
beautiful
Maya Shaw Gale
Adult Category Honorable Mention
The Sacred Privilege to Feel
I live in this badass body
muscle, sinew, bone
talkin’ to me all the time
‘bout my connection to Earth
tree, water and stone
living in human sensation
a constant conversation
with vibration all around me
bird song wakin’ up my brain
more than facts that want to fill it
with stress or strain, oh heck
I could drown there if not for
coming back to solid ground
of this bodacious body
these pleasure pulsating rhythms
from walk, dance, run
even pain reminds me I have
the privilege to feel
taste/palpate the living music of real
all around me
don’t want to go too far afield
into thinking thoughts and theories
‘bout life’s what, why and how
when right here this body translates
everything into sultry, sensual savoring
of NOW, this moment of seeing
blue, green, golden light
a symphony of sound all day and night
singing my heart into syncopation
my bare skin stroked
by the wind, sea, sun
a friend’s enveloping hug
I live in this body
more than territory of mind
where I sometimes get lost
wander for too many hours
before coming back to the power
of barefoot on cool cement floors,
silky sand, crunchy grass,
heartbeat like an African drum
talking to me all the time in sass
never alone when I come back
home to this badass body
something wild and wondrous
always going on/something
so real, this sacred privilege
to feel!
Kimbrough Ernest
Adult Category Honorable Mention
Unbidden
it came to me
late in life,
this glimpse of tenderness
fierce and fleeting
as a teenage crush
it came to me
like a soft breeze
that I could not
schedule or direct
just only nudge
open a window
and allow in