In this special feature, we have published a mixture of quotes and poetry for your reading pleasure with more "Best Entries" chosen from a previous offering we posted on our Facebook Group. QUOTES: "Teetering for war is a violent disposition to humanity as children are vulnerable victims." © Vincente A. Valdez, Jr. "To earn respect we need to be humble and sincere."

© David Soh "Crossroads ahead,
your decision must be made,
feeling confused?
Feel the hand
that holds you."

© Ernesto Santiago "If you really want to genuinely justify on how well you're good at a particular skill, in terms of performance and improvement, never mark your script yourself, and don't present it before your frenemy to mark, either. Therefore, you need to seek divine wisdom in order to be accurately justified by the right individual."

© Ajibola Rahman Dr.-Oral "Life is an experiment of a hundred observations, unknown is the result until death."

© Amar Shah "Time is a best friend for all, only when we manage things which we want to do. We need to optimize the world to be happy again." © Amb Maid Čorbić " Luckiest amongst men is a man who finds a friend that's selfless in a world where too many are self-centered." © Akori Clement "A weeping heart is always true to their only one love. Because the bond continues even after death."

© Gloria Magallanes-Loeb
POETRY When I fly in echoes of the rainbows
In engulfed eyebrows of thoughts
I find flourishing feathers of a tunnel dressed up for occasional day at soul sound
Well festivity meals are so prepared to decorate cravings with million reflections
defining their taste
Just as I walk barefooted on your curiosity
Maybe you will realize aches of my pen that intrigued your conscience
I couldn't knit your voice but I tried to sew its roots so that you will find GPS of
your existing dichotomies after you read abilities of my ink. © Nkadimeng Kamogelo Welcome Catharsis

I have danced the ballet of broken hearts
Tossed the chalice of missed chances away
Written out all the rutilant ink
Embracing the light of a new day
Finally freeing this heart hoarding hurt
Bandaged butterflies now sip nectar
From those crying chrysanthemums with joy
As all latent laments have been set free.

© Donna McCabe "Don't"

Don't love only a part of me
Peek at what the others could not see
My sneaking fingers into a book
My retreat amidst rough waves
The roaring foam of a healing sea.

Don't put a veil upon
That symphony of colors
Done what is done,
just stand once more to rebuke horror
That symphony of colors spread in the sky
Bringing a balm to a wing slain every day
why don't you put a ladder
climb an inch or more?
The sky is just a field
with no closed door.

© Sihem Cherif Poetry Form: TANKA beggar's song
some new some blue
bread on a bowl
mercy for blind fingers
fretting the heart

© Loreta C. Bande Moods of a Sun-stealer

The northern kiss had fluttered its hi
And feather's fall from the sapphire sky
The winter's blanket cocooned the town
Houses were wearing their cotton crown
Though the sky's candle is wide awake
Winter's blade and frosty spear can't break
This face freezer frozen my hawk twigs
And made me a great couch potato
While kids are flocking on the frozen road
Skating and grooving for the no school load
Skiing down the white fluffy flurry bed
An icy night stretcher is dull to some
But to others it's a musical hum.

© Anne Maureen M. Esperidion A Poem of Hope
Breaking Dawn

Summer nights were gone
The dawn was breaking into my eyes
Colors are you
Unforgettable...
Why is this longing?
For I'm so depressed
Looking for a cause through the firmament
There's nothing there
Only memories
Did you say
You're coming back?
Why is it too late
How many dusky nights passed away

Trails I can't hardly see
Into my dreams subtle art
Gives me hope...
Yes! Hoping that one day
At the end of the road
You're coming home...


© Bernadette Reyes Unforgiving
is the hearts pain
in loves
abrupt
absence
among
one's own self doubt
You are the one
who whispers
my name
My heart peeks through
the curtains
of scares
to see your light,
time and again.

Let my hope be
more the beginning
than the end
A single new breaths
air to my heart
be our safe
unquestionable
passage to love


© Toby Bills Hold My Hand We never held hands
Not since childhood, anyway
At least I think we did back then
The only memory I have of my small hand
Being in another's is that of my nana and my uncle
The chemo ward was busy
The nurses coming and going
The leather chairs filled
The bags of colored liquid dripping into arms
One young man all eyes, a wooly hat on his head
The blood lady approaches
Taps yet another vein
Her hand reaches for mine.


© Bernadette O'Reilly Care For Her...

Lost days
Beautiful days
Blackened days
Days she is drowning
Days she is suffocating
Days when she is stagnant

Care for her...

She will always do the same
For him...


© Mena Sisto