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Best Poems Written by Sam Kauffman

Below are the all-time best Sam Kauffman poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

Oceana

Oceana

Oceana flings her sequined petticoats
Upon the sands as if to toss the seaweed 
From the swirling edges
While she dances with the wind
With each turn she swings her skirts
In thunder
As she passes – faster, faster -
Until her laughter foams upon the waves
And in the early midnight dawns
She turns to cover up 
Her turquoise evening gown
With capes of fog so thick
The soaring gulls seem to carry
This her summer train
To quickly change into a dress of silver satin,
Bound with trims of frothy sprays,
Rising and swelling,
When morning reaches for windy afternoons,
She teases sudden lightning outbursts
Leaving behind upon the outstretched strands
A foaming lace of pearls
That decorate her new rippling dress
Of brilliant sapphire blue
Drawing it around the world in flowing currents
To follow, ever follow, the lilting music
Of her lover moon,
Softly singing enchanted melodies,
Ever beckoning his earthbound bride unto himself
To watch her gaily waltz upon the rolling seas
Circling to his rune. 

Number of Lines 30

6-29-22 - N/A
Contest: Marathon Mile Five
Sponsor: Mark Toney

8-13-22
Contest: Poetry Marathon Mile 12
Sponsor: Mark Toney

6/20/19
On Top 100 All Time Poems list
1st - Trophy Win - Juliet Lingon
1st - Julia Ward 11/29/20
1st - Brian Strand 1/14/20
Featured Poem 5/2/21
Included in Poetry Soup Anthology #2 - It's Still Poetry
Included in CWC Anthology - First Prize Winner Independent Publishers Award
                                                         Indie Press Awards

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

Mindful

Mindful  

Startled out of nonchalant light,
Wakefulness stands at attention
Ignited flame from the eternal candle,
Energized vigil of the watchman
At the soul’s dawning daybreak
Tingling in the presence
Of every dappled infinite breath.

Rotating eye of illumination
Watchful, like a lighthouse beacon hovering,
Charts rocks and shoals through clear oceans insight,
Every nerve exposed in circumspection
Sometimes cringing in wary expose
Often basking in the light touch of satisfaction
As niggling prophecy finds confirmation in revelation

Throwing off the blinded penury of antonyms,
Embracing flashing synonyms of wisdom,
Tears of the heedful heart touch drab puzzles poverty
To polish with refinement’s shine burnished enthusiasm
For the incandescent dancing mindful
Then banish chary strobes of destitute indifference
Reaching beyond self-centered parentheses.

A lantern of thoughtfulness in floodlights
Of full harvest shared – no scattered crumbs of bread
Baked to stone in scathing flashes of the false
Eloquent vigilant splendor - never morning extinguished –
Torch to awaken lambent radiance of clarity’s joy,
Identity of the pilgrim heart, ejects sightless shades  

Mindfulness blends the conscious scattered fragments
For Mosaics in clear lit portraits of charity's open hands
Throwing off the numb stalker branded carelessness
Born of intentional ignorance
Seeker’s actuated incentive to the attentive – 
To hear!  To see!  To feel! To move in birth!
Action invigorated by accentuated humility of grace.

Date Written 6-10-21
Best #1 Poem - September 2021
1st place Trophy Win Poetry Contest - Mindful
Included in Poetry Soup Anthology - It's Still Poetry

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

The Language of Blue

The Language of Blue

Sinking into the lyrical language of blue
Prime layers of still solitude speak
 With muted voices
  In sapphire soprano rhapsodies,
Lines of bass blushes, electric flecks of neon fire.

Hear in dusky blue’s modal shafts of light,
  The peaceful plaintive sotto voce
 Set an indigo scene 
   In delft lingua for a pas de duex 
With trebling hues lapis and arbot.

Blue chants a lexis, a cerulean chroma glow
 Sung in tender tenor tones patois 
  To translate soft sky blue aqua idioms,
As minor phrases meditate on azure,
In prose text that wafts in periwinkle blooms.

Unhurried blue on blue in plain-chant paeans,
 Whispers and bedazzles teal twilight librettos
Of cradle songs in soft celeste waves
    Of cobalt midnight in the consoling,
And the mystic, language of blue.

11-3-21
Contest: Blue
Sponsor Mystic Rose Rose

Trebling = triple
Arbot is a shade of blue
Chroma means glow

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

Summer Dance Party

summer dance party

blue waves rock and roll
 seashore tides shimmey and shake ~
  sunlight tap dances

6-28-21
Contest: Summer Haiku
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

The Time Between the Seasons

Between

Between dawn and dusky light
Lies the season of daystar’s delight

Between the summer and winter cruel
Lies the season of spring bursting renewal

Between black and white equivalence
Lies the season of gray ambivalence

Between babble and silence sweet
Lies the season of retreat

Between birth and senility
Lies the season of fertility

Between adulthood and the spirit redolence
Lies the season of childhood innocence

Between sin and grace transition
Lies the season of decision

Between prophecy and reality
Lies the season of the heart’s plea

Between doubt and miracles appearance
Lies the season of faith’s perseverance

Between love and hate’s indifference
Lies the season of mercy’s preference

Between death and life’s nativity
Lies the season of Heaven’s clarity

Between Eden and Resurrection
Lies the season of anticipation

7-19-22
Contest: Between the Seasons
Sponsor: Kim Rodrigues

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

Acorn

Stay - One more golden morning –
Linger - One more silver night –
Abide tiny child born of my desire
To encourage a new life;
Watch with me the amber moon
Peek through moonbeams rising up so large
We could touch it's creamsicle face -
Sleep caressed within the shelter of soft umber leaves,
Preparing for their final journey,
To sing a last duet with you,
This last autumnal aria, no more with choruses, just two thin voices
To a harp song strummed through my oaken limbs;
Now see the changing cloud ships
Gather - carrying cargoes full of rain -
To scuttle ‘cross the sunrise
When breezes turn from summer zephyrs
To blustery torrents, tinted with icy dew;
As you sail away, soaring on their roller coaster wings,
I leave a kiss upon your face in sunlight that taught your heart to beat –
Watching with a blessing on my lips -
My empty arms still remembering your round, smooth face - 
As you ride the vagabond winds
Following their air-born trails to find your place
Where you nestle deep within a warm and richly decorated nursery –
A birthing place –
For when you labor I stand a silent sentinel alongside ancient family,
A vigil as the silent snows blanket your dreams of mighty forest oak -
To wake in seasonal celebration
When, re-formed, your first leaves appear;
No farewell now only adieu, my little one, until we meet again.

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

Parallel

Parallel

Evening arrived scattering snowflakes,
I sought a solitary
Path
Through winter’s barren woods
Made magical this night
With glittering snow
Gracing every empty branch
Each twig
In the muffled silence of a downy dusk
And, thinking that I walked
Enfolded in the snowy twilight,
Only with myself,
I overlooked the footprints
Slowly walking 
Side by side
With my own –
Unnoticed in the rhapsody
Of the winter’s stormy
Forest celebration
Until
The path uncurled around a curve
Revealing in the gathering dusk
Another traveler,
Familiar to my heart,
Plodding
Through the windblown drifts
Bent,
Stooping beneath a heavy burden
Slipping side to side
With every step
Until the baggage
Pulled
The bearer to the snowbound path –
A solitary figure
Captured in the jealous grip of gravity - 
And so I left my reveries,
My path,
Crossing through the unmarked snow,
The snowy wall,
Between us
To lift the burden
Of my companion in the twilight
To follow in the footsteps –
In silence - 
And
Knowing 
I could not lead upon this path,
Nor walk within the chambers of another heart,
But only trace the tracks
Outlining the journey of my friend
In this brief moment of time and stars
Beneath a darkening sky
Till we would walk in parallel
Again.

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

Abigail's Spring - POTW

Abigail’s Spring  

Beneath the shelter of winter’s barren arbor
My winter abused heart
Watches the day’s light linger in the sky resisting darkness -
Begging to play a little longer every day –
Pushing twilight away at arm’s length with pink and brilliant orange
Leaving wispy trails of color in the sky;
Urging empty branches and shivering wheat
Lift up their eyes from bruising rains 
And crushing chill of wilderness storms;
Seeing here howling tirades of blizzards
Trade places with long sunbeams stretching slowly
Across my sun starved shadow, warming the winter’s wildness -
Coaxing pale green shoots to peek timidly at meadows
Covered with patchwork quilts of blue and yellow -
Orange scattered across arching hills –
Welcoming the face of spring with arms spread wide;
Listening for the bleating of black faced sheep 
When they shed their fleecy coats;
Not looking back into the breath of moaning winds,
Longing sighs transformed into shouts of laughter
Chase themselves across the plains in children’s games;
My spirit, once wrapped in hibernation, feels the changing of the wind
Running up the road – knocking on the gate -
With a moveable feast born of abundance; 
Stone cold frozen heart beats again in rhythm with gracious blessings
As the simple sparrow teaches 
Her young to fly with the morning light
Rejoicing on warm nights filled with songs of mourning doves –
My face turns - embracing this greening valley -
As spring sprints breathlessly up the path.

April, 2020
Contest: Personal Favorite No. 2
Sponsor: L. Milton Hankins

5/16/20
Contest: Poetry Marathon Mile 13
Sponsor: Mark Toney

30 Lines

First place - Brian Strand Your Choice B - 5/17/20
Number 1 Best New Poem - 6/13-20
Poem of the Week - 6/20/20
First place - Brian's Choice G 6-21-20 - Brian Strand
First place Your Best Poem of 2020 - John Hamilton
Top Ten, #10, Poet Destroyer 11/7/20
Chosen for publication in PS It's Poetry

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

Nova

Nova

Mountain sunshine, take my hand;
 Wrap your warmth around my shoulders;
Slip your arm within my arm;
 Dance in my eyes as on sparkling waters;
Warm my heart to grow as columbine.

Mountain moon, weave me a gown;
 Cast in my spirit a summer night serene;
Braid my hair with silver ribbons;
 Give my face your harvest glow;
Let me too reflect the sun’s light.

Mountain rains, wash my heart clean;
 Fill up each day with tender grace;
Create in me a wellspring of peace;
 Give me the melody of rushing rivers;
Let me share the joy of rambunctious raindrops.

Mountain wind, give birth to my soul;
 Shake the dust off of my feet;
Sing me songs of rustling leaves;
 Give me the words to a snowstorm lullaby;
Send my feet to greet the dawn’s light.

Mountain stars, give me your dreams;
 Diamonds that twinkle to wear for a ring;
An open heart for a wishing star;
 Shining dreams to hold in the night;
Make my life a heavenly nova.

Details | Sam Kauffman Poem

Dance Party In Summer

dance party of summer

blue waves rock and roll
 seashore tides shimmy and shake ~
  sunlight tap dances

white clouds pirouette
 delphiniums deep plies ~
  ebb tides grand jettes

meadows slowly waltz
 forests polka with raindrops ~
  breezes minuet

willow trees tango
 sunflowers skip jump and jive ~
  moon does the hustle

butterflies slow dance
 ladybugs groove in two-step ~
  surfside twists and shouts

shooting stars moon walk
 tide pools salsa dancing ~
  birch trees swing and sway

dandelions stroll
 fields of daisies jitterbug ~
  long days zydeco

swift rivers rumba
 rapids mambo in quickstep ~
  starshine at the hop