Award Winning Poetry

Joan Huffman

Dog Walks

Canis cruises round the block,
wagging tail a happy flag,
head held high, a strutting cock.
Canis cruises round the block,
thinks he is a little jock;
mother carries scented bag.
Canis cruises round the block,
wagging tail a happy flag.

All is well and life is gay,
puppy emits pints of pee,
lots of grass to smell and spray.
All is well and life is gay,
planting land mines on the way,
waters hydrant, bush and tree.
All is well and life is gay,
puppy emits pints of pee.

Doggie dallies, taking stock,
newsy sniffer, friendly bark,
never mind the ticking clock.
Doggie dallies, taking stock,
has to stop and check each rock,
‘specially in wet, cold or dark.
Doggie dallies, taking stock,
newsy sniffer, friendly bark.

Joan Huffman© 05/10/2005
[Triolet]

**2006 PPS Contest Winner
Category #18: Selina Cox Esheleman
Light Verse [rhymed & metered]
2nd Certificate of Merit
Judge: Nancy Breen, Loveland, OH

Elegy for Eden

In our innocence, we climbed apple trees,
perfect perches, to see and be unseen.

Father lay dying. Men walked the orchard,
tasted of Eve's fruit, knew the land was good.

Condos, casinos, sparkled in their eyes.
Thirteen silver coins, forbidden deed done.

Serpent slithered and smiled. Adam took bites
of the screaming bark. Trees of life...lifeless.

Old Mother Earth trembled, as her children
thudded upon her sweet mossy cushions.

Funeral pyres piled high, flames crackled, spewed
wind scattered martyrs, banished heaven bound.

Today machines come, bringing their robots.
Deep diggers wrinkle Paradise's face,

tear her green blankets, smother stumps beneath
the folds of her cloak...disobedient.

Now we know evil. Blood drips from rose prick.
Scarlet towers rise to grasp at God's thighs.

Joan Huffman©07/06/2005

WINNER: Category #37 Save Our Earth, NFSPS 47th Annual Conference
3rd Honorable Mention; Contest Chair: Theda Bassett

Jamaican Cradle Song

A green flash,
the guava sun dissolves into the sea.
I sink into my pillow-nest,
sated with jerk-lobster,
sweetened by mammy-apple,
and smashed on rum punch.

Waves pulsate, pound,
beneath my cottage's balcony.
Strains of Bob Marley mingle
with patois-sprinkled laughter.
Ganja and citronella linger,
tickle my nose with island incense.

The ceiling fan revolves lazily,
lacy mosquito mesh flutters
and teases my sun-toasted toes.
Iridescent feathers gleam,
coral and speckled shells
chink and chime.

Cobalt-blue shutters frame the full moon,
that shimmers on the surf,
reflects off ochre walls,
and paints my dreaming eyelids.
My reverie is rocked by calypso-soul music,
ska mon, one love.

Joan Huffman©01/27/2006

**2006 Philadelphia Writers' Conference
Poetry I Contest: Honorable Mention
Judge: Barbara Daniels

Gender Play

Ken cavorts shamelessly with GI Joe,
resplendent in pumps and glittered gown.

Barbie and Midge strut in khaki and leather,
flowing locks butch cut into submission.

The boys dash about the room in a pink jeep;
the girls march off to a Lincoln Log camp.

The Erector Set fort flies a rainbow flag.
Mom peers through the Lego fence, disoriented.

Honorable Mention

Non-rhyming Poetry Category.

75th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition.

November 2006.

First Term

The new headmaster
surveys the slate of history lessons
horror-smeared with red war-gashes and bankruptcy blues.
He wipes the blotched board,
erases hate, prejudice and torture,
claps the felt blocks: "yes-we-can",
and releases clouds of hope;
chalks a fresh algorithm
with bold strokes:
tolerance, science and green energy.
Everyone gets homework
for this ambitious class project
The teacher will grade himself the most rigorously.

Honorable Mention

2009 African American Poetry Contest.

Shands Jacksonville Hospital. February 2009.