And so it ends, and begins.

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A very nice showing for the contest this week!  The regulars and the irregulars were called in and the contest went very well.  There is something about the raw power of mother nature that seems to bring something out of us?  With tornadoes and hurricanes, perhaps it is a venting of all the bitten tongues we have endured for peace.  For volcanoes, all of the hidden anger.  For lightning, perhaps the will to action, and possibly terrible consequences, that can seemingly happen in less than an instant.  All for good or ill, perhaps.  Our savage nature encapsulated by our will to do good, all of it in an odd dance that natural phenomena show but in a larger format than what we can exhibit?  Maybe.  But the draw is there, it seems.

Of those posted, I have shrunk them to my favorite per poet.  Uhrm, with the addition, for Colonialist, thanks to the quick eye and mind of foam.  Quick, that woman, to note a haiku where no other saw the twist.  The contest can get tight, and maybe a little ugly as everyone works it.  Well, at least there have been no deaths.  There is that.  All part of the contest.

It truly was a painstaking effort.  Much like looking through a family photo album and picking your favorites pictures of those presented.  Odd how those can either stay the same or change in time, but once set, are good for some time.  No guarantees in life, not even of our own understandings.

foam,

waves rock the kayak

with quickened strokes I paddle..

lightening heralds doom

Serendipity

High lonesome firestorm.

Crouching ‘neath waist-high krummholz...

Krak! Pow! All around.

Rafael

Lightning's silent stalk

Faster than the speed of sound

Strikes before the CLAP

Colonialist

*Holiday mishaps

In threehundredandfifty?

Very tempting...

Crash, flash, together:

Still alright, but awful fright -

Bright summer weather!

Mynx

Cicada song loud

Scorching heat with no relief

Lightning strike - bush fire

Amanda,

Stalk The Prey, Starving

One Swift Motion Life Is Gone

Lightning Fast Killer

becca,

dreams take flight on wings

wonderment captured held tight

Lightening in jar

Karl,

Foretells coming change
A flash seen then the report
To hear is to survive

fishy,

A godly rebuke?
Thor demonstrating his might?
Sky splitting wrath! Woe.

Rafael,

Anchored to Heaven
Lightning bolts from sky to land
Charging life with death

Aunty,

Ah, Prometheus,
Would thou steal fire from the gods?
Searing arrogance!

Next, to judge.  There are always a few that don't show here, but for brevity's sakes.  That is the part that is most annoying to my mind as judge.  The following are my picks, in no order save that the final poem will be the judge next week.  Congratulations!  Let's see where your rhyming mind can take the contest.  It's good to be king!

becca,

dreams take flight on wings

wonderment captured held tight

Lightening in jar

Karl,

Foretells coming change

A flash seen then the report

To hear is to survive

foam,

waves rock the kayak

with quickened strokes I paddle..

lightening heralds doom

Colonialist

Crash, flash, together:

Still alright, but awful fright -

Bright summer weather!