Million Bells ~ Calibrachoa Flowers

September 3, 2025  |   | Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

Million Bells

If sights are not set

On a million dollars –

Flowers will surely do

Sunny days will follow

A million bells imbued;

When tinkling in the rain ~

They peek into my window

And pine away the pane.

They invite all the bees

To bumble as they please

A hummingbird can carry

Everything she needs.

Money might make

The world go round ~

It spins so fast

We hit the ground.

Can it ring a million bells?

All those blooms abound,

And strike a chord

We can afford.

After all we do is spend –

Yet nothing is as sweet

Until the bitter end –

The lyrics of the bees.

Life is just a breath away,

When all there is left to say

Is like a butterfly in the breeze.

Valerie Hayes

When The Cosmos Met A Daisy

August 5, 2025  |   | Health & Wellness, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

When the Cosmos met a Daisy

She said – stand up straight

Do not be lazy!

No wonder the Willows weep

To see the Cosmos half asleep 

He replied – I need my space ~

You should know your place ~

For you are just a pretty face,

And I am in all that matters ~

Energy & the laws of time…

I sway in the wind

And know what rhymes

I bend with the breeze

Can reach to the heavens,

And don’t die if I freeze –

I see the span of each star

 I may have wispy leaves

But can see what’s afar –

For I am the Cosmos;

You can find me in books

And all that grows

I am not stuck here on earth.

Pray tell ~ what is a Daisy?

Vanity full of mirth,

Adorning the garden’s edge

A splash of paint ~

Is nature’s pledge

But in time you faint –

So lest we judge each other,

Our names we might taint,

There is force in a name —

Some can sing ~

Others can paint

Be not ashamed

The Hens & Chicks ~

How do they rate?

Or the Creeping Thyme ~

Her fragrance glows –

 Candytuft like summer snow;

 Periwinkle as a violet maid

  Bugleweed whorls on spikes

Before they fade…

Lavender calm and serene,

Her plumes of indigo –

Balance the scene.

Consider the Lily ~

None can compare

God has dressed her 

With so much flare ~

Oh we do have harmony,

For we have known peace

We share the same tune ~

We have different colours

Yet we all still bloom.

Not just for the Cosmos…

But for all who can hear

The language of flowers

Is angelic and clear.

Valerie Hayes

Note: The Language of the Flowers was first published in 1819, and popularized during the Victorian era. I do not associate any flowers with hidden occult meanings. Just whimsy in poetry and comparisons, colour and intrigue.

Old Dogs & Anti-Boners

September 24, 2024  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

Old Dogs

When an old dog

Gets a bone,

He chews it hard

It’s his own.

Dare you try ~

To seize or pry

He calls you the name

Anti-boners inflame!

He will get mean,

And bite your hand –

His wounds we lick

As the clock ticks

Can’t teach an old dog

Any new tricks. 

Let sleeping dogs lie

They don’t have to try.

And so we learn

How to discern.

He can have his bone

His heart is stone. 

Poor old dog –

With a bone to flog. 

An ice to pick

Oh so slick…

Cold and lost,

The bone has cost

His peace of mind –

& Truth he can’t find.

Valerie Hayes

The Aging Wolf

September 20, 2024  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

The Aging Wolf

Cool blue smoke – will choke

The wolf has lost his cloak.

Teeth are falling out,

Eyes are filled with doubt

Slowly going blind –

In the tatters of his mind

Stares into the looking glass,

As smoke and mirrors pass.

He withers in retreat,

He slithers in the heat.

The skies soon clear

His prey lose fear ~

He lacks senses to rescind

Like a vapour in the wind. 

Valerie Hayes

Lunar Tunes

August 7, 2024  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

Lunar Tunes

Full moon in the sky

Mist ~ by the cloud,

& The moon does sigh.

A break in chorus –

Sad songs come alive,

After cycling around

Both water and ground.

No ups – Only downs,

Of a melancholy mood.

Never answering why

It’s not a sob or a cry

Just sigh upon sigh.

Mere mortals are moved,

By the sight of the moon.

For the sigh of the moon

Plays back a sad tune.

Music’s memories mingle –

Guilt loudest on drums,

My sin it repeats – 

An overpowering beat.

Do not let it drown

The subtler sounds ~

Notes – harmony sweet

These finer melodies –

Are delicately strummed

One soul’s sad longing –

My emotions belonging ~

To the sigh of the moon,

For she knows a sad tune.

Valerie Hayes

1992

Food For Thought

August 7, 2024  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

Food For Thought

When the coffee is growing cold,

And bread alone sits stale and old –

Forgotten dinner simmers and burns

Sauces fail if left unstirred.

Cream is whipped,

Through change & churn ~

Bodies need for food and rest

Simple are the needs

If we stew & brood –

It’s relationships we do digest

More steadily than food.

Valerie Hayes

Grief ~ Knowing Many More Will Leave

August 7, 2024  |   | My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

Grief

We travel to places

It wears on our faces –

What people are afraid

To talk about.

The darker shade,

The deepest holes –

We contemplate,

& Magnify our souls.

We all have to grieve,

For many more will leave.

We are set to touch upon,

Living, dying, & beyond

Still – We simply carry on. 

Valerie Hayes

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2025). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

If I Was A Bird

August 7, 2024  |   | My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

If I Was A Bird

If I was a bird ~

& Lost all my feathers

Would I be scared

& Sit there and shiver?

My heart beating fast,

With no quill left to quiver.

If I picked up just one

& Dipped it in ink,

Trailed the unknown

In the space of a blink –

I would flutter alone,

Til the songs in the wind

Are calling me home. 

Valerie Hayes

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2025). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

When Conflict Takes On Form ~ A Breeze Becomes A Storm

May 24, 2024  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

When Conflict Takes On Form

When conflict takes on form

A breeze becomes a storm –

Fight against things unseen,

And all the places we have been.

Futile attempts to overcome

The things we can’t outrun.

Fear will follow

And so we wallow ~

Pitch and plunge,

Cannot expunge –

There is no clout,

That can let us out.

Every battle has an end;

So forgive and mend –

For the seeds we sow

Can heal and grow.

Change the gear,

And fight the fear.

When fear is gone ~

The peace will dawn.

Valerie Hayes

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2024). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The Snare Of The Fowler ~ A Bird On The Fly

June 19, 2022  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

The Snare of the Fowler –

We are prey in its teeth,

For the bird is ensnared ~

As she prays for release.

Soon all of the noise,

And fear of disease –

Is lost from her mind.

The trap springs open –

With no latch she could find.

Wings open her eyes,

Above the trees,

No longer blind.

Or dreams to be free!

Never again stoop,

Like a fool in the dark –

She has been shown,

 Is no longer duped.

Her notes are stark –

So let it be known ~

A snake is no lark. 

Valerie Hayes

 

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2022). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

Hold Onto Hope

January 8, 2022  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

Hold Onto Hope

Put flies on your ears,

And a bug on your collar –

Then wash off the fears

From the media’s squalor.

Put germs on your list,

Then cover your face

And clench your fist

So you leave no trace.

But pray do tell –

What is the point?

For every point has an end

Or an aim –

A spike in the bend 

Continues the game.

  We are still free to dream

Nothing can bind us

To their scheme.

Who knows the breadth and scope?

Or when we have had our fill.

They can pillage and poke –

But they can’t take our will

 So hold on to hope.

Valerie Hayes

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2022). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Would You Rather Have A Fickle Fact?

July 14, 2021  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, View All Articles & Photos

Would You Rather Have A Fickle Fact?

Would you rather have a fickle fact,

And pickle it in time?

Or will you try another tact,

To brighten up your mind?

Seek the truth and you will find

The latest craze is just a phase,

The truth got left behind.

Stranded in the broken haze,

The smoke is on the trail –

The vapors are inhaled

The eyes are turning blind.

Yet the mirror in the sky

Will reflect the humble cry,

So let’s keep asking why.

Like dancing phantoms on the fly,

The lies get blown away.

Truth is water to the seed ~

It grows from what it means.

Or nothing looms above us,

And nothing lurks below –

We have nothing to hold onto,

And nowhere left to go…

Valerie Hayes

Stargazer Lily
Stargazer Lily

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2021). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Doorway To Denial

October 7, 2020  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, View All Articles & Photos

Doorway To Denial

You think –

I think.

I’d rather not…

Show you –

The thought

–I’ve got.

Your technique;

Interprets me –

To be…

A freak.

Like a germ –

Might I squirm;

Until you learn,

Which way to turn…

To catch it.

Make it clean;

Fix the screen.

The door unlocks,

Content shocks!

– So Latch it.

A vacuum finds;

Proud empty minds –

Closed up tight –

Sans insight.

Sucks up time

& Leaves truth behind.

Valerie Hayes

This poem was written long before covid with the germ metaphor. It seems rather facetious now.

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage (2020). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Faith

October 7, 2020  |   | Health & Wellness, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, View All Articles & Photos

Faith

I found a leaf pressed in a book;

A reminder of when like a leaf I shook,

As God opened the door a crack,

And showed me how we get off track.

Letting go and without restraint;

Just barely missed the sewer’s drain,

How carefree it must have floated down,

Lost and doomed to a decaying ground.

 

Then someone picked it up to save,

And placed it gently on the page.

Oh we – just like a leaf will fall,

Our lives on earth are just as small.

Faith is knowing that we can too,

Be picked up and our lives made new.

Valerie Hayes

 

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage (2020). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

A Poem Called Flirting With Homo ~ Nyms

July 15, 2018  |   | Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, View All Articles & Photos

Flirting With Homo~Nyms 

If the needles on trees

Could sew up the breeze

And the date on the calendar

Might sweeten and please ~

If the legs on the table

Could walk away free —

Then grey doesn’t matter

If you are thinking of me.

 

If the hand on the clock

Runs out of time…

And the catch is a fluke

But meant to be mine.

If one stalk of celery

Should follow me home

And the peel of an onion

Cries when I’m gone…

 

If the crop bears fruit

Without loss of its sides,

And the train has a thought

That both of us ride –

If the pair has a shape

That won’t alter or divide ~

Then whatever the weather

We could bail it together.

 

If you bolt when I see you

I’ll pipe up in your dreams –

And the drift will hold true ~

Like a trunk full of steam. 

Valerie J. Hayes

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage (2018). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The Inside Passage Legendary Map Theme Poem ~ About Grief & Hope

August 22, 2017  |   | Inside Passage Legendary Map, My Story, Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, View All Articles & Photos

Music Reaches The Wandering Herd

Music reaches the wandering herd,

Timeless tunes of twittering birds ~

Fallen and fractured – Swallows sleep

Wind O’less waves churn dark and deep.

Feathers find warmth – Still silence hopes

Sunlight shimmers upon scattered notes ~

Through all history one promise remains —

Birds sing a new song ~

After it rains.

Valerie Hayes

 

Sky So Blue

Like me – The sky is so blue ~

Then the setting sun – With a purplish hue;

Bruises & bleeds – Clear across the skies ~

‘Til absorbed by the darkness – & Shadows our lives…

Valerie Hayes

1992

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage (2017). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

A Poem Finding Flowers ~ With A Festoon Of Flowers In Bloom

March 26, 2016  |   | Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, View All Articles & Photos

 

Finding Flowers

When I was a child ~ I mistakenly thought…

A weed was a flower ~ Until I was taught —

Then I grew up & found out wrong;

Some weeds are flowers ~

Grown wild and strong.

Valerie Hayes

 

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Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage (2016). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The Hourglass ~ Fashion Is Figurative

September 6, 2015  |   | Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, View All Articles & Photos

The Hourglass

The Hourglass Figure ~

So hotly admired;

 The “Our” need-les through –

The heart of desire,

Holds all that she dreams…

As thread from her gown,

Came apart at the seams –

She could not have known;

What she needed to mend,

‘Til she went back again –

In her search for the end ~

& The good she could find.

It was then she was shown —

How the darkest of skies –

Has put stars in her eyes ~

As she rides in that chariot,

Called the “Passage of Time”.

Valerie Hayes

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage (2015). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Fashion Metaphor ~ A Poem Called Silk & Ruin

November 4, 2014  |   | Poetry By Valerie Hayes, Thoughts & Ideas, Valerie Hayes, View All Articles & Photos

Silk & Ruin

Silk & Ruin 

Runs so Fast ~

Always Cruisin’

Snags the Past —

Goes Unnoticed

By the Masses…

As Fine Conjecture

Slips About ~

And in Reverse —

It Wears me Out!

Valerie Hayes

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage (2014). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.