Kindness Contest 2016

2016 Kindness Contest

(Open from Dec. 15, 2015 - Mar. 31, 2016)

The Winning Poems

& their Poets

Click on above covers for the single-page Origami micro-chapbooks (PDF)

Winning Poems

Honorable Mentions

Editors Appreciation

Angel of Kindness

It never rains in
Southern California—
but man, it pours.
I’m at the toy store
when a curtain of water
hits, laced with hail.
No other shoppers,
so the clerk and I go
under the awning
to watch. We laugh
and laugh, there’s
nothing else to do.
Back inside, he leans
on the counter, says,
It used to rain like this
in Vietnam—two or
three times a day.
You couldn’t tell
which way the bullets
were coming from.
We are quiet.
You never got dry,
then, I say. No, and
it got so you didn’t
care anymore.
For a moment
he’s far gone,
down a dark road—
but he comes to,
resuming his life
as an angel of kindness.
He hands a balloon
to a crying baby,
and finds a reversible
doll for my niece’s
birthday—Peter Pan
and Captain Hook,
two sides of the coin
that was wagered
in his name.
•
Cynthia Anderson © 2016
- Winner, First Place
Origami Poems Kindness Contest 2016

- - -

Faith in Us

Sometimes I choose
a spot on a quiet page
and write down
something unusual
such as the story of
how everyone
on a street
in Chinatown
walked carefully
while a woman chased
hundreds of tiny turtles
after they got loose
from a tank
in her market stall.
Not one turtle
was harmed.
And this mercy
lifts my spirits,
reminds me that
acts of kindness
appear like moths
circling our porch lights
drawn to the light.
•
Jeffrey Johannes © 2016
- Winner, Second Place
Origami Poems Kindness Contest 2016

- - -

The Difference Kindness Makes

If my father was alive
I would take you to meet him
in our humble abode in El Monte
He’d be sitting in a sofa
a stack of newspapers on his lap
He’d be looking up behind
thick myopic lenses
his eyes wide and good humored
He would nod his head and smile at you
Not scowl at you like my sister does

If my father was alive
you and I might be cruising down
the highway with the windows down
the soft afternoon breeze
would brush against our faces
as we head to a Chinese buffet restaurant
where we can eat fish fillet and sushi

If my father was alive
I may not have a nice car
or more money for clothes
but I might be slightly happier
for he would nod his head and smile at you
Instead of scowling at you like my sister does

•

- Winner, Third Place

Origami Poems Kindness Contest 2016

Content

Outside a restaurant in Chivay, Peru
the short-haired yellow dog
gazes furtively up at you
and away,
brings her head and brown eyes
down shyly, yet hopefully.

Hola, perro, you say.
Orbs raise, blink.
Tail wags, thumping the stucco wall
where you lean.
Oh, you’re a good dog.
You’re such a good dog.

She sits, raises her paw,
presses your leg with kindness in return.

Confirming friendship,
she lays down, rests her chin
on your shoe,
content to be near you and rest.
•
Marilyn Zelke-Windau © 2016
- Honorable Mention
Origami Poems Kindness Contest 2016

- - -

Saint of the Day

In class she knits prayer shawls.
Smooth yarn rolls between her fingers
like rosary beads. Each stitch
a wish for recovery from sickness
heartache, addiction. By noon

she is halfway there. The instructor
frowns at her, blind to the work
of her soul.
•
Jan Chronister © 2016

- Honorable Mention
Origami Poems Kindness Contest 2016

- - -

Holstein

I was also a child.
And also had one,
and another a year after,
and another,
and could not touch

even one.
Had I been born into a kinder
world, my milk would have been
for them. No one would have pulled
my children from my body

to crates, their lungs
full of loss.
Had I lived in a kind world,
long stretches of me
would have weaved
in the stretches of the world,

my natural-born children
taking in the milk I created
for them, not for a trade
of strangers,
and my life would have been mine
and theirs
as long as my body wanted life.
Child, put your head where our kind
is never allowed: at my flank,
at the great spill of me. Smell me
from your bent neck.
•
Gretchen Primack © 2016
- Editor’s Appreciation
Origami Poems Kindness Contest 2016

We've published an anthology of 41 selected poems (see below of list of participants):

The Best of Kindness is available for $9.50 + S&H on Amazon.

Cover image by poet/artist, Lauri Burke, "Rainy Cherry Blossoms"

Alphabetical List of Poems & their Poets in this Anthology:

All I have - Carol Ayer * Angel of Kindness – Cynthia Anderson * Arms Wide Open – Bill Carpenter *

Bedtime – Helen D’Ordine * Camellias – Sandra Anfang * Content – Marilyn Zelke-Windau *

Dogs and Cats and Places – Frank Beltrano * Duplexity – Tammi Truax * Errand – Joely Johnson Mork *

Every Moment Passes And Every Moment Stays Still – Martin Willitts Jr. * Faith in Us – Jeffrey Johannes *

February – Marguerite Keil Flanders * Hearts – Joan Leotta * Her Act of Loving Kindness – Roz Levine *

Holstein – Gretchen Primack * Is It Natural To Be Kind – George Such * Kindness – M.J. Iuppa * Kindness – Peter Bergquist *

Language Like Medicine – Ann Kestner * Left You In the Dark – Chris Toto Zaremba * Lesson – James Penha
Make Offerings – Carol Aronoff * Morning Gift – Mary C. Rowin * New Childhood – Helen Burke *

Ode to an Eleven Year Old Boy – Ronnie Hess * Rosewood & Inlays – silent lotus * Saint of the Day – Jan Chronister
Shut-Ins – Caroline Johnson * Taking it Back – Bryanna Licciardi 8 The Difference Kindness Makes – Jackie Chou

The Ice – Padma Prasad * The Poem I Should Have Written – Charlene Neely * The Possum – Marybeth Rua-Larsen
The River – Maryann Russo * The Untouchable – Susan Furst * Two Kinds – D.G. Geis 8Whatchamacallit – Shittu Fowara *

What do you say? – David Allen Sullivan * What if – Elizabeth S. Wolfe (with special permission)
When She Cried – Christina Sng * Years Later – Mary McCarthy

Thank you to everyone who submitted their poetry.

All submissions came with Kindness and we are better for them.

The Editors