Editors Choice Award 2003, -Rider of the Storm- poetry.com

The orientation of life blooms with birth, detours
with cycles of turmoil, which journeys off to a new beginning.
A flower blooms with such color, like the arc of a rainbow.
Can you see the colors that light the way
to the beauty of a soul?
In life, we see all the colors that make up a day
and bring on the night.
As stricken as I was in life,
my life was very limited with those to trust.
I sometimes stand in the center and watch everyone around me,
then again, I step out to look in, to hear the sorrows that fill
my eyes with tears, from the storm that lie's within my heart.
Fear is what I keep inside and tears are what I try to hide.
Observe the vicious circle of people who have betrayed
one another, yet beg for an approval from either one.
Play and feed off the good to nurture your arrogance,
like a cold, shallow heart that bleeds with thorns of pain.
Seek those that lurk in alleys of desperation,
and see the color of gray.
Knock the weak, but be aware of those recovering.
Separation comes from a world lived apart,
like a country in ruin.

This poem has been claimed by Maria Catania