1. Our Silent Hero: RATED E - WAR- #2349027
True at Heart Award on October 27, 2025
This is a poem that was inspired, by my boyfriend who is an EX-Marine.

In shadows they stand, our veterans so brave,
With hearts heavy, burdened by the secrets they save.
It wasn’t just battle, it was choices they made,
When courage was tested, and justice was strayed.

A young soldier stood tall, facing destiny’s call
To follow the order or choose risking all.
A life hung on thread, a person in need,
His conscience cried out and planted a different seed.

The commanders voice, a harsh, metal sound,
“Take aim, let the shot fly, take the target down!’
But he saw a soul there, not just a marked for,
A father, A brother, a life must know.

With hands that were shaking, he held to his gut,
A moment stretched thin in war’s bloody rut.
He chose peace in chaos, to shield life from harm,
A hero in darkness, protected from storm.

The gunfire was loud, but his own heart beat higher,
He stood against hate, consumed by a fierce fire.
For love, for hope, he chose the bright way,
And sealed his own future from that fateful day.

But the price was too heavy for standing up right,
He faced the cold wrath of men valuing might.
Who treasured the orders more than the lives they controlled,
A hero cast out from the ranks of bold.

He carries multiple purple hearts, the true price he paid,
For the times he was hurt, the wounds were made.
He’s been blown up, and broken, yet his Spirit remains,
The cost of his honor still running through his veins.

His discharged and home now, a survivor of war,
With scars that tell tales of what his life is for.
No remembrance for the choice, no parades for his name, just echoes of courage and fueling the flame.

Yet in the eyes of his love, he wears the gold crown,
For the strength of his soul that the world couldn’t drown.
A testament true to the depths of his might, a beacon of hope, shining hard through the night.

He walks a new path with that limp and that ache,
The promises kept for humanity’s sake.
But he stands there so proud, a warrior of heart,
A hero who played a defiant, true part.

So, here’s to you, my love, a hero to my eyes,
The light that still shines as the dark moments fly.
For every life saved, for the choices you’ve made,
You are cherished, you are loved, and your spirit won’t fade.

2. The Rhythm of you: Rated E - POETRY - SPIRITUAL - #2350209
Be yourself and speak your truth on November 19, 2025
The Bright Solid Note Award

In the quiet dark,
whispers drown your truth,
but deep within you,
a spark waits to rise,
to break through the noise,
to claim your own sound.

Stand tall, heart open,
let the world hear you,
not the echoes of
what others demand,
but the song you sing,
the rhythm of you.

3. The Volatile Heart: BPD Rhyme: RATED E - POETRY - PERSONAL - #2350662

I live inside a fever that refuses to subside,
Where every peak of rapture is a place, I cannot hide.
The dial of every feeling is completely turned to ten,
And I crash from 'all-or-nothing' to the bottom once again.

There is no middle ground, no gentle slope to tread,
Just an instant switch from worship to the furious, bitter dread.
I fix my fractured compass on the one who seems to care,
A desperate, vital anchor cast upon the vacant air.

You are the oxygen, the structure, and the light,
Then you take a simple breath, and I am plunged to night.
The fear of being left, it has a taste of steel,
A raw and blinding terror that my whole soul has to feel.

I push away the hands that try to pull me from the brink,
Then drown in lonely silence when I'm left alone to sink.
I am a hundred faces in a quick and turning wheel,
A personality dissolved by everything I feel.

I mimic what you cherish, I reflect what you require,
To fill the endless chasm with a temporary fire.
But when the act is over, and the spotlight leaves the stage,
I am only shattered fragments, locked within an empty cage.

The agony's persistent, it is sharp, and it is deep,
A harvest of old sorrows that the wounded must still reap.
It begs for drastic measures, a sudden, blinding cease,
A desperate, awful rupture just to win a moment's peace.

My body holds the chaos that my mind cannot contain,
An inescapable pressure, like acid in the rain.
Forgive the frantic flailing, the cling, the sudden flight,
It’s not a choice of malice, but a terror of the light.

To be consumed by feeling, to drown within the swell,
Is to know the burning torment of this deeply guarded hell.
But I will mend the fractures, though the work is slow and hard,
And learn to hold the pieces of this sharp and broken shard.

4. Rooftop Whispers: RATED E - POETRY - PSYCHOLOGY - #2349594

Above the city's concrete sprawl,
Where steel and glass stand grim and tall,
A secret green begins to bloom,
Dispelling shadows, chasing gloom.

No fertile earth, no open field,
Just barren tar, a hardened shield,
Yet here, where logic finds no hold,
A vibrant, living stories told.

A tiny shoot, a hopeful gleam,
Defies the harsh and urban dream,
It pushes through the stony plight,
And stretches upward to the light.

With careful hands and tender care,
A garden blossoms in the air,
Each potted plant, a whispered plea,
For beauty in adversity.

And so it is with hope, we find,
In unexpected turns of mind,
When all seems lost, and spirits tire,
A spark ignites, a hidden fire.

It rises from the cracks and seams,
Fulfilling long-forgotten dreams,
A rooftop garden, lush and bright,
A testament to future light.

5. Rambling of and unquiet mind: RATED E - POETRY - PERSONAL - #2349634

The clock ticks loud, a hammer on the night,
But silence offers no reprieve or rest.
A thousand phantom thoughts ignite the light,
A fractured mosaic in a troubled breast.

They leap like sparks from an unseen dark fire,
The "what ifs," the "should haves," and the "never was,"
A chorus rising, higher, ever higher,
Ignoring logic, heedless of the cause.

The ledger of the day, unspooled and read,
Each awkward word, each glance misconstrued.
A tapestry of things that were unsaid,
With worries for the morrow close pursued.

I pace the borders of a tired brain,
Where yesterday is vivid, future vast,
A phantom traveler on a restless train,
Too fast to catch, too deep to be surpassed.

Oh, to find the anchor, the still, quiet shore,
Where every thought dissolves into the air.
But the mind is a wild sea, and all I explore
Are wave-tossed fragments of perpetual care.

Dottie Wheeler