Best Haight Poems
On an early spring morning, butterflies
flutter among dancing leaves,
While windsongs float within a breeze
As the monarch flies
In a field long forgotten,
Purple cues in orchid motifs
welcome the gift of spring
with sun kissed glee
When the wind blows,
Soft scarlet flutters of
hummingbirds in flight
caress a flower with wings,
as petals make waves
like ripples in the pond
Beyond the breakers, on distant shores
a sunset serenade,
with rainbow colored camouflage,
plays a sunset lullaby.
7-28-19
20 Titles From 20 Friends Contest
Sponsor: Richard Lamoureux
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Early Spring Morning ----------- Paul Callus
Butterflies ----------- Sara Kendrick
Dancing Leaves ------------ Heidi Sands
Windsongs ------------ Nette Onclaud
Within a Breeze ----------- Sandra Adams
As The Monarch Flies ----------- Charles Messina
In A Field Long Forgotten ------ Eve Roper
Purple Cues in Orchid Motifs ---- Vijay Pandit
The Gift of Spring ------ Sandra Haight
Sun Kissed ------ Jennifer Proxenos
When The Wind Blows ------- Darlene De Beaulieu
Soft Scarlet Flutters ------- Connie Marcum Wong
Hummingbirds In Flight ------- Jan Allison
A Flower With Wings -------- Kim Rodrigues
Ripples In The Pond -------- Laura Lu
Beyond The Breakers --------- Andrea Dietrich
Distant Shores --------- Alexis Y.
Sunset Serenade --------- Victor Buhagiar
Rainbow Colored Camouflage -- Laura Leiser
Sunset Lullaby --- Janice Canerdy
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Listen, my fellow dreamers,
But listen with your heart,
And hear the silent music of which we're all a part.
Cover your ears, my dreamers,
Lest the worldly tunes drown out
The inner magic symphonies of what life's all about.
Listen, listen, listen,
And hear the song of Love;
It's echoing within you, outside, beneath, above.
It's playing in the meadow
And in the city street;
Resounding in your friendships and the stranger that you meet.
Listen, listen, listen,
To the symphony of Hope;
Its crescendo's growing louder to help you grasp and cope.
It's drowning out the concert
Of trouble and of strife;
Just close your ears and listen to this melody of life.
Listen, listen, listen,
To Faith's unending song;
There's magic in its music to make and keep you strong.
Feel the mighty power,
It's flowing through your soul.
Its tune will conquer mountains and fulfill your every goal.
Listen, listen, listen,
But listen with your heart,
And hear the silent music, of which we're all a part.
Sandra M. Haight
~3rd Place~
Premiere Contest: 2019 Marathon Mile 12
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Judged: 01/26/2019
Listen With Your Heart
~1st Place~
Contest: Life ~ Premiere Contest
Sponsor: Janis Thompson
Judged: 05/15/2016
~1st Place~
Contest: Simply Beautiful
Sponsor: Kelly Deschler
Judged: 04/05/2015
A Divine Miracle
That day- I placed my father's crimson rose,
quite randomly, inside a book of prose-
God's intervention was my only guide.
What I had hoped- was joyous truth implied-
for words upon the page where that rose slept-
'in God’s eternal life- our souls are kept'.
"The Grave," by Robert Blair, bodes life anew-
Dear God- you let me know- he rests with you.
Sandra M. Haight
~2nd Place~
Premiere Contest: Let's Have An Argument ~ Miracles
Sponsor: Kevin Shaw
Judged: 05/01/2019
The give and take in love should reach a mean
whereby the two be equally disbursed,
so givers' hearts would never suffer lean,
cold hungry hours without love reimbursed.
And those who take would never reach the stage
of ravenous and selfish, one-way traits.
Such balance would create a better age,
if give and take maintained their equal weights.
But somehow this could never balance out,
for givers give beyond the gifts they bear;
in turn, must feed on crumbs, for without doubt;
the hungry takers take beyond their share.
While takers tip the scale with all they gain,
the givers, weak and thin, smile through their pain.
Sandra M. Haight
~7th Place~
Premiere Contest: Any HM Ever
Sponsor: Laura Loo
Judged: 01/22/2017
~ Honorable Mention~
Contest: Love Justice
Sponsor: Justin Bordner
Judged: 01/24/2015
Three keys of life...faith, hope, and love...
unlock the joys you're worthy of.
Nothing in life remains the same,
yet changes have their time of strain.
Before a butterfly takes flight,
it must endure a darker light.
How many winters must there be
before the twig's a fruitful tree?
So turn the key of FAITH for you...
set free belief that sees you through.
Do not let yesterday block out
today's new tasks which you're about.
Help butterflies leave their cocoons,
with life renewed, spread wings out soon.
Help ripen too, the needed fruits
which grow from common, faithful roots.
So turn the key of HOPE for you...
set free the sun to shine anew.
As brothers, sisters, we are one
big family beneath our sun.
All butterflies are pretty things
regardless of their varied wings.
As trees bear fruits both tart and sweet,
they all are welcomed as a treat.
So turn the key of LOVE for you...
set free acceptance, deep and true.
Unlock the joys you're worthy of...
three keys of life...faith, hope, and love.
Sandra M. Haight
~1st Place~
Contest: Your Personel Perfect Poem Pick
Sponsor: Brian Strand
~1st Place~
Premiere Contest: Marathon Mile #27
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Judged: 03/30/2019
~1st Place~
Contest: The Creative Collective Anthology Series
Sponsor: Geraldine Taylor
Judged: 06/23/2017
~2nd Place~
Contest: Three Keys
Sponsor: John Lawless
Judged: 07/20/2016
Our Boogeyman
There is a boogeyman within
this home of ours, we swear he's here!
He comes and goes to mess with us
and bring about a silly fear.
It happens if we're here or not;
he seems to go from room to room
to keep us guessing why we see
phenomena that brings such gloom.
It has to do with lights, you see,
the kind you touch to turn them on;
somehow this boogeyman knows how
to toy with us, and whereupon,
we find our touch lamps brightly lit
in rooms, we enter while we're there.
But worst of all, to find them on
when we've been out, and such despair,
to wonder how that comes about??
For sure, it doesn't make much sense.
Do boogeymen have fingers that
can generate capacitance?
Sandra M. Haight
~4th Place~
Contest: Boogeyman
Sponsor: Nayda Ivette Negron
Judged: 06/02/2016
True Story!
"Touch-sensitive lamps almost always use a fourth property of the human body -- its capacitance. [kuh-pas-i-tuh ns] The word "capacitance" has as its root the word "capacity" -- capacitance is the capacity an object has to hold electrons. The lamp, when standing by itself on a table, has a certain capacitance. This means that if a circuit tried to charge the lamp with electrons, it would take a certain number to "fill it." When you touch the lamp, your body adds to its capacity. It takes more electrons to fill you and the lamp, and the circuit detects that difference." http://science.howstuffworks.com
The Wind and Sea
The mighty wind unleashed its gusty song
across the tranquil, undulating sea,
and stirred her body with his breath-filled kiss.
Set out to resurrect the dormant wave,
with ever-gaining speed, began to ride
her surface till it formed the throbbing swell.
She came alive with joy from wind's strong kiss,
and quivered to the music of his song
to join as one...the wanton wind and sea.
Vibrating life into the waking swell,
as higher climbed the ever-mounting wave,
the wind pursued its frantic, urgent ride.
In rapturous communion, wind, and sea,
succumbing to the magic of their song,
together formed the wave with passioned kiss,
and reached the grand finale of their ride;
with great dynamic thrust, exploding swell,
at last attained their thrill, the highest wave.
Wind's lusty song has left the tranquil sea;
its breathless kiss has bid farewell the wave
to end its ride, and put to rest the swell.
Sandra M. Haight
~1st Place~
Premiere Contest: 2019 Poetry Marathon Mile 11
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Judged: 01/17/2019
~2nd Place~
Premiere Contest: The Poet's Fire
Sponsor: Gregory R. Barden
Judged: 12/07/2017
~1st Place~
Contest: Wordscapes
Sponsor: John Hamilton
Judged: 08/17/2016
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The Tritina form is a mini version of a Sestina but there are three Tercets
of three lines and a final line which uses all three words; 10 lines total.
The three Tercet's use the same three ending words in a pattern.
I intermingled two Tritina using six ending words in the required
pattern with the last tercet using all six ending words from both of them.
1st Tercet: 1 2 3 song sea kiss
2nd Tercet: 4 5 6 wave ride swell
3rd Tercet: 3 1 2 kiss song sea
4th Tercet: 6 4 5 swell wave ride
5th Tercet: 2 3 1 sea kiss song
6th Tercet: 5 6 4 ride swell wave
7th Tercet: 1 2 3 4 5 6 song sea kiss wave ride swell
Inspiration where do you go when
you leave and your dry, barren
riverbed causes blinding dust storms in
my mind? Do you evaporate into
mist, become a gray dense fog
lying heavily in the air, intangible…
floating like a cloud, ever
changing shapes? Are you carried
by the wind, held hostage
to feed another storm when
lightening strikes and your deluge
once again swells the
river to overflowing, racing
free and wild, reaching
out beyond all boundaries?
If so, storm
of inspiration, please
deliver unto me
your monster
category five
hurricane!
Sandra M. Haight
~2nd Place~
Contest: Strand Select 12
Sponsor: Brian Strand
Judged: 01/16/2020
~1st Place~
Contest: Take The Dagger From My Heart, Please - 2
Sponsor: Broken Wings
Judged: 10/14/2016
~1st Place~
Contest: “I Do Not Know”
Sponsor: Andrea Dietrich
Judged: 10/25/2014
Where have they gone, the simple days of old?
Though filled with toil, their melody was sweet—
A blending of the common joys that hold
That special place in memory's retreat:
Warm home fires burning, families gathered close,
The day's chores done, the evening shared with zest,
That tranquil peace that hovered to disclose
Life's humble ways and means were surely best.
But now the complex song of modern man
So filled with discord drowning out the good
Of basic joys inherent in life's plan,
Makes happiness a gift misunderstood.
And why must progress hush the old refrain
To play this frantic tune we so disdain?
Sandra M. Haight
~4th Place~
Premiere Contest: Contest No. 227
Sponsor: Brian Strand
Judged: 10/24/2016
Our hearts have chambers, four in all;
like caves, they are defined and seen.
But there are hidden caves within
where our emotions live between.
The Cave of Love, the largest one,
is filled, but sometimes shuts its door.
Much better to keep it ajar
so give and take can flow, restore.
And next to it, the Cave of Faith;
it feeds our hearts with gifts of trust
in God, our Earth and those we love;
and also in ourselves, a must.
Along with Faith, the Cave of Hope
puts sunshine in our hearts so bright,
that lifts us up no matter what,
through sunny days or dark of night.
The Cave of Service in our heart
is filled with help to fellowman;
must keep its contents flowing out...
a part of our survival plan.
At last, the Cave of Thankfulness
provides an echo loud and strong.
Our hearts get fuller with the joy
when gratefulness sings its sweet song.
Heart chambers hold the beat and flow
that keep our bodies so alive.
But unseen caves where "heartfelt" lives,
our magic inner selves survive.
Sandra M. Haight
~2nd Place~
Premiere Contest: 2019 Marathon Mile 16
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Judged: 02/05/2019
~1st Place~
Premiere Contest: Caves
Sponsor: Anthony Slausen
Judged: 08/07/2016
Hope
I shut out sorrow.
Drowning in my rainy days,
I hide from the hurt...
close my eyes to what has been;
close my eyes on what's to come.
Yet, past my sorrow,
somehow I know they will come;
new flowers of joy
will spring from my lonely tears...
to bask in sunshine again.
Sandra M. Haight
~6th Place~
Contest: Photograph #1 - Under 10 Lines
Sponsor: Poet Destroyer
Judged: 04/18/2016
The Ballerina
The curtain parted...there upon the stage,
'neath bright chatoyant spotlight's glaring glow
she stood, a cynosure in tunneled beam;
demure, yet with ineffable glamor.
With lovely bow, this ingenue young girl,
composed, yet like a whirling breeze, began
her lissome ballet dance of twirls and swirls
to mellifluous sounds of violins.
A panacea of sweet calm filled up
my soul as she so gracefully succumbed
to call of violins and merged with them
in artful dance I wished sempiternal.
The beauty of her gracefulness in dance
enveloped me in deep, hypnotic trance.
Sandra M. Haight
Unrhymed Sonnet
The Eternal Rose
The rosebud blooms...begins its earthly ride
through life; with sun and rain it must contend.
And day by day, its petals open wide;
all stages lead to fullness in the end.
When cold winds make it wither in the Fall,
as life and death, their endless duet sing,
the petals drop. It then awaits the call
of life awakened with the coming Spring.
The tireless earth holds promise for new fruit,
though signs of death are surely there to see.
The rose leans on the spirit of its root
to make it bloom when Winter sets it free.
The seasons of all things hold much in store...
for life brings death which brings new life once more.
Sandra M. Haight
~8th Place~
Premiere Contest Late August 2018
Sponsor: Brian Strand
Judged: 08/25/2018
~8th Place~
Premiere Contest: Not Just Any Old Rose
Sponsor: Mark Massey
Judged: 08/05/2018
The shell remains
picked clean by hungry vultures
ravenous with greed.
Gouged-out eyes
now bare hollow sockets
vacant in their stare.
Morsels of choice parts
deftly stripped or torn away—
and gutted vitals, furtively devoured,
have filled the wanton needs
of scavengers who shared the feast.
The carcass rests
flat on bony frame
supported once by plump, round legs
on which it mightily ran.
There it lies—
a brittle, empty shell—
the poor abandoned Chevy
on the Harlem River Drive.
Sandra M. Haight
~1st Place~
Premiere Contest: Bring To Life
Sponsor: Shadow Hamilton
Judged: 04/14/2018
~3rd Place~
Contest: East Jesus
Sponsor: Roy Jerden
Judged: 01/02/2015
Note: Inspired by my many trips years ago in the late 70s, to visit my father in a hospital there. I would see so many abandoned cars lined up as 'empty shell carcasses' along the Harlem River Drive in New York City.
Ribbon Dance
Ribbons fly in graceful loops
flung by hands of maidens fair,
as they dance with turns and twists,
rainbow ribbons fill the air.
Curves of wonder, colors bright
like a rainbow, mesmerize.
Music, synchronized, combine
gifts of art through ears and eyes.
Rainbow ribbons rise and fall,
twisting, turning high and low.
Led by movements of skilled hands,
twirl an endless color flow.
Like a rainbow, colors blend
and create a mystic trance,
through the art of maidens fair;
dancers of the Ribbon Dance.
Sandra M. Haight
~8th Place~
Contest: Rainbows
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
Judged: 11/09/2018
~3rd Place~
Contest: Chinese New Year & Celebrations
Theme: Ribbon Dance
Sponsor: Debbie Guzzi
Judged: 02/15/2015