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Famous On The Run Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous On The Run poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous on the run poems. These examples illustrate what a famous on the run poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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...be that heavy breathing 
or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house 
and he will wrench himself awake 
and make for it on the run - as now, we lie together, 
after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies, 
familiar touch of the long-married, 
and he appears - in his baseball pajamas, it happens, 
the neck opening so small 
he has to screw them on, which one day may make him wonder 
about the mental capacity of baseball players - 
and flops down between us...Read more of this...
by Kinnell, Galway



...to you, a lover of palindromes, who will also
be glad to learn that JA read us three "chapters"
of his new poem, "Girls on the Run," a twelve-
part saga inspired by girls' adventure stories, with
characters named Dimples and Tidbit plus Talkative and 
Hopeful on loan from "Pilgrim's Progress."
As Frank O'Hara would have said, "it's the nuts."

The poets' books were on sale and afterwards
two of the poets signed theirs happily and the third
did so willingly and Joe too...Read more of this...
by Lehman, David
...ng wise, always where
the action is, the lights, and the sexy lingerie. 
Poems, she said, were meant to be written 
on the run, like ladders on the stockings of a gun moll 
at a bar. Jorie had to introduce the other poet with the fabulous hair
that night. She'd have preferred to work out at the gym. 

She'd have preferred to work out with Jim. 
She'd have preferred to be anywhere 
but here, where young men gawked at her hair 
and old men swooned at the tho...Read more of this...
by Lehman, David
...of sin,
And a rare lad wot's a husband and a father gets done in.
And while havin' these reflections and advancin' on the run,
A bullet biffs me shoulder, and says I: "That's number one."

Well, it downed me for a jiffy, but I didn't lose me calm,
For I knew that I was needed: I'm a bomber, so I am.
I 'ad lost me cap and rifle, but I "carried on" because
I 'ad me bombs and knew that they was needed, so they was.
We didn't 'ave no singin' now, nor many men to ...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...br>
I’m the cutesy picaninny
with my hair tied up in bows.

I’m the funny little shoeshine boy.
I’m the convict on the run;
the ****** in the woodpile 
when the cotton pickin’s done.

I’m a blacklist in Kentucky.
I’m the night when hound dogs bay.
I’m the cut-price, easy light relief
growing darker by the day.

I’m the “yessir, Massa, right away”
that the audience so enjoys.
I’m the full-grown man of twenty-five
but still they call me ‘boy’.

F...Read more of this...
by Lindley, John



...m for days, 
and woke gaunt and quiet, 
still only seventeen, his face 
in its own shadows. I thought 
of my father on the run 
from an older war, and wondered 
had he passed through Amsterdam, 
had he stood, as I did now, 
gazing up at the pale sky, 
distant and opaque, for the sign 
that never comes. Had he drifted 
in the same winds of doubt 
and change to another continent, 
another life, a family, some 
years of peace, an early death. 
I walked on by myself f...Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip
...The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley...
No kitchens on the run, no striking camp...
We moved quick and sudden in our own country.
The priest lay behind ditches with the tramp.
A people hardly marching... on the hike...
We found new tactics happening each day: 
We'd cut through reins and rider with the pike
And stampede cattle into infantry, 
Then retreat through hed...Read more of this...
by Heaney, Seamus
...and his jaw was hurt -- in fact, he could scarcely speak -- 
So they let him spell till he got his wits; and he camped on the run a week, 
While the travelling sheep went here and there, wherever they liked to stray, 
Till Saltbush Bill was fit once more for the track to the Castlereagh. 

Then Stingy Smith he wrote a note, and gave to the fighting man: 
'Twas writ to the boss of the neighbouring run, and thus the missive ran: 
"The man with this is a fighting man, one S...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...e autumn 
when the blizzards came early. Brought them down; 
down, what aren't there yet. Or driving for Cobb's on the run 
up from Tamworth-Thunderbolt at the top of Hungry Hill, 
and I give him a wink. I wouoldn't wait long, Fred, 
not if I was you. The troopers are just behind, 
coming for that job at the Hillgrove. He went like a luny, 
him on his big black horse. 

Oh, they slide and they vanish 
as he shuffles the years like a pack of conjuror's ...Read more of this...
by Wright, Judith
...elona are
Such mostly little caps,
That when you see them from afar
They make you think of Japs;
Yet they can take life on the run,
Quite peppy, I'll allow,
For when there's something to be done,
They shout: "We'll do it NOW."...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...the night', 
Nor is he for ever riding when `the morn is fresh and bright', 
And he isn't always singing in the humpies on the run -- 
And the camp-fire's `cheery blazes' are a trifle overdone; 
We have grumbled with the bushmen round the fire on rainy days, 
When the smoke would blind a bullock and there wasn't any blaze, 
Save the blazes of our language, for we cursed the fire in turn 
Till the atmosphere was heated and the wood began to burn. 
Then we had to wring our ...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry
...s *****;
He had a dozen notches on his gun;
And whether he was sober or whether he was drunk,
He kept the lousy outlaws on the run.
So now he shouts: "Say, boys, there's been a hold-up Hunker Way,
And by this poke I'm throwin' on the bar,
I bet I'll get the bastard braced before another day,
Or send him where a dozen others are."

He banged the bag of gold-dust on the bar for all to see,
When in a lazy drawl the stranger spoke:
"As I'm the man you're lookin' for an fe...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...ur for words, and then were done. 
“Good-bye!… You have the same old weather-vane— 
Your little horse that’s always on the run.” 
And all the way down back to the next train, 
Down the old hill to the old road again, 
It seemed as if the little horse had won....Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...like a ball of blood the sun
 'Angs o'er the scene of wrath and wrong. . . .
"Quick! Stretcher-bearers on the run!"
 O Prince of Peace! 'ow long, 'ow long?...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...d trees
like his team's best ever winger, dribbler, swerver,
fills every space he finds with versus Vs.

Vs sprayed on the run at such a lick,
the sprayer master of his flourished tool,
get short-armed on the left like that red tick
they never marked his work with much at school.

Half this skinhead's age but with approval
I helped whitewash a V on a brick wall.
No one clamoured in the press for its removal
or thought the sign, in wartime, rude at all.

These ...Read more of this...
by Harrison, Tony
...you, old Brown, was it you I saw
Like a bull-dog stick to your gun,
A cursing devil of fang and claw
When the rest were on the run?
Your eyes aflame with the battle-hate. . . .
As you sit in the family pew,
And I see you rising to pass the plate,
I ask: Old Brown, was it you?

"Was it me and you? Was it you and me?
(Is that grammar, or is it not?)
Who groveled in filth and misery,
Who gloried and groused and fought?
Which is the wrong and which is the right?
W...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William
...And what is Life? An hour-glass on the run,
A mist retreating from the morning sun,
A busy, bustling, still-repeated dream.
Its length? A minute's pause, a moment's thought.
And Happiness? A bubble on the stream,
That in the act of seizing shrinks to nought.

And what is Hope? The puffing gale of morn,
That of its charms divests the dewy lawn,
And robs each flow'ret of its gem—...Read more of this...
by Clare, John
...eet them all
(And if I don’t you know how flat
 The novels all will fall),
I cannot take much time to fight,
 I must be on the run,
Or some historic novelist
 Will surely be undone.”

Said Congress to George Washington:
 “You are a noble man.
Your thoughtfulness is notable,
 And we approve your plan;
A battle won pads very well
 A novel that is thin,
But it is better to retreat
 Than miss one man and win.”

Said Congress to George Washington:
 “Kiss every pretty m...Read more of this...
by Butler, Ellis Parker

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things