poetry winners feature

Outlander Poetry Contest Winners!

Finally, we have the winners of the Outlander Poetry Contest! Winners in each category – general Outlander poems, Droughtlander poetry, and Murtagh’s Eyebrows verse – were selected by a panel of esteemed (well, friendly) judges: two in the General category, and one in each of the other two categories. So congratulations to Jackie Merrell, Tamara Lawson, Rosita Elias, and Toni Hoffman!  I had some additional favorites, and I’ll note those in the posts by group later this week, but for the most part, judges pretty much agreed on our winners. Big thanks to Jo, Koko, Diane, Samantha, Nicole and Alyson for trying very hard to pick winners from all the excellent fun, romantic, sentimental and exciting entries. All entries will be published over the next few days. Today, though, we have our four winners!

Category: General

Where You Are

I’m stripped naked, broken,
tattered, torn at the feet of the monster
that rages in my mind
and in my heart.

Empty, battered, weathered,
alone in the blinding silence.
Waiting, hoping, breathing
in the soft sighs of my longing
and wondering where you are.

I’m raw from the scrubbingOutlander Season 2 2016
I inflict on my skin, trying,
hoping to rid myself of his scent.

It lingers still, even as I try,
even as I beg for a release from
the binding that holds me alone.
And still I wonder where you are.

I’m used, spent, hopelessly
lost in the melody that floats
on the wind as the tempest flares.

My hands ache with longing
to touch another, to feel again the
hard lines of contentment under,
over, around, inside my frail form.

My heart aches with desire to see
another stare, another longing glance,
another stolen touch in the darkness
and a silver band resting peacefully
On a hand that no longer trembles.

And yet I wait and wonder,
sigh and fret and scald in the hot
loneliness that surrounds my soul and
my empty heart.
Still, always, wondering where you are.

Jamie…

Find me, free me, help me know where you are.

– Jackie Merrell

Nothing’s Easy

Ye’ve some odd ways about ye, Sassenach,
Manners and words I dinna ken.
Mayhap the place where you call home
Is like none I’ve ever been.
Ye’ve a sense of potions and of herbs,
And ye raised Wee Tammas from death,
I found ye with the changeling wean
Just after it’d drawn a last breath.

And that scar I’ve traced how many times
When we’re safe and complete in the dark,
How is it the same on Geillis’ arm –
Where little doubt Beelzebub left his mark.

And though I’ve no seen your nose once twitch –
It’d have been a good deal easier if you’d only been a witch…

– Tamara Lawson

Category: Droughtlander

Post Partum Outlander

Droughtlander feels like
the empty void after fireworks explode
and the sparks vanish.

– Rosita Elias

Category: Murtagh’s Eyebrows

3An Ode to Brow Power
(with tongue firmly planted in cheek)

Fair Jamie’s champion,
brawny Highlander through and through
your bushy beard impresses,
but t’is your expressive brows that entice me.

A subtle arch,
a glowering stare,
a manly line of chestnut hair?

Never still upon your face,
lifting here and lowering there.

Murtagh’s eyebrows…
I ponder your power.
Without you,
How could he question or glower?

Would he be the same,
were his face not thus blessed?

I think not.

– Toni Hoffman

Watch for posts with all of the Contest entries!

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