At Once Poems | Examples

Vega, You Appear at Once

Vega, you appear at once
Within your shady fold

And I am so fortunate
To catch your torrid glow.

Know that God gave you glory
When first He lit your flame.

Summer's curtain parts for you;
Deneb leads the pathway.

I cannot slow your travels
Nor place you in a bind;

Can I then meet your Maker
Some other eventide?

Hot and Cold Weather All At Once

March always has lovely weather,
for people and for the birds of feather.
How can it be both hot and cold together?
In the 60's last night,
today 100 or more hot and sunny bright.
This came as a huge blow,
even to the weather man Joe.
Yes this is very so.

Both Ways at Once

Through two narrow slits,
light photons unfurl as waves
with interference—
when watched they harden to points,
but unseen they share a swim.

So too for our selves
form and shadow share one skin—
defined, undefined
we change masks under glances,
being shaped by who's watching.

Our many-held selves,
playful, solemn, split by gaze
actors in context—
only under scrutiny
are we firm focused solid.

Appearances are all at once

Appearances

are all at once

everything appearing~

this appearance and that

wide or narrow focus

whatever differences

appearances are

Appearances~~

I don't leave all at once, but slip away like ink running off old pages

I don't leave all at once, but slip away like ink running off old pages,
Like a song you swore you'd never forget, until you do.
It starts small—your name becomes foreign on my lips,
Your messages remain unread, not out of anger, but from a strange helplessness.
You don't ask why, maybe you don't notice, or maybe you just let me go,
And that hurts the most—not that I faded, but that you watched.
You let me dissolve into silence, to become a shadow of a thought,
To lose the weight of my name, to become an echo lost in the wind.
Tell me—did you ever truly see me, or did I disappear from the start?
A silent dance of shadows among memories, each step a whisper of goodbye,
In this labyrinth of silences and echoes, I wonder if I was ever more,
Than a blurred dream in a universe where words scatter like leaves.
We remain prisoners of our own illusion, searching for meaning in the void between us,
A void that deepens with each day that passes without us touching,
And in this silence, questions dance like stars in an endless sky,
I wonder in the quiet of the night if I was ever more than a faded dream.

Two Things at Once

Like a typical elderly woman or man,
I play back the scenes of my life in my mind’s eye -
To yesterday and today from the time love began. 
At successes I smile, and at failures I sigh. 

It seems like I mostly did what I had to do.
I made it atop the mountains I had to climb. 
To do what was really needed, I made it through.
I can do most anything, one step at a time. 

Yet there are two things I could never do at once,
Impossible for me, at once, ever to do,  
Over all the years, during all twelve months -
To look into your eyes and not love you.

All At Once and Step By Step

That creature that walks inside your soul
has become a house cat,
but beasts are beasts after all.

Before the fall and rise
there was just a middle moment
when we were only bewildered angels.

We are still within a puzzle of our own making,
but God is infinitely patient
and She has a long leash.

The Cosmic All-At-Once

A cosmic stage

The evening sky

Time and space

In wondrous display..

Yet..the view may

Seem as

Emptiness appearing

All-at-once..

Tales and teachings

May seem to

Sequence and separate

Yet these too seem

All-at once..as

Vastness explodes...

All At Once I Knew

All at once…

I realized that it was peace
Who left me breathless,
Hope who left me without a question,
Faith who knew my deepest need,
And love who silenced my every fear

All at once…

I knew, down deep inside me,
That there is something more important
Than my own tears – my own needs…
There is someone who prays, prays
And, in my gift of time – my gift of light…
I answer those prayers, those prayers
Who abide on the heart’s beating,
Abide in the questions, the believing

I answer those prayers
With the gifts I bring, giving
My hopes, my dreams, my friendship

Gifts of grace, listening, faith
Interest in the smallness of a star
Attention to the kindness of a heart

All at once…

I knew that real faith gives away
More than it takes

All at once…

I simply knew that God’s love
is generous and plentiful
it is lavish and lives in those…
who listen to the heart who believes
it is far better to give than receive 




2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 22 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Mark Toney
December 8, 2022

An In-Out At Once

breathing at...
mossed-fears
is

breathing with a...
time-meme oar-ease
as

most-spheres of...
mind are reflect-shuns
that

define some re-all...
at-tea that soak-cursed
my

......favorite t-shirt.....?


stans sand

Haiku's Temple 230

An art 
a calendar of mountain
Murba, unreliably shuts.

At Once

At Once
by Michael R. Burch

Though she was fair,
though she sent me the epistle of her love at once
and inscribed therein love’s antique prayer,
I did not love her at once.

Though she would dare
pain’s pale, clinging shadows, to approach me at once,
the dark, haggard keeper of the lair,
I did not love her at once.

Though she would share
the all of her being, to heal me at once,
yet more than her touch I was unable bear.
I did not love her at once.

And yet she would care,
and pour out her essence ...
and yet—there was more!
I awoke from long darkness,

and yet—she was there.
I loved her the longer;
I loved her the more
because I did not love her at once.

Published by The Lyric, Romantics Quarterly and Grassroots Poetry

Everything At Once

Sometimes there's time that you're trying to fill,
A stretch with no upcoming plans,
When suddenly, hours you were needing to kill
Disappear like a movie with pans.

For everything happens at once, so it seems -
Obligations, repairs and requests,
Adding stress to your life and appearing in dreams
Where you find yourself failing all tests.

The expression is apt - either famine or feast
Is the way that the world tends to go
And, of course, at those times you expect it the least
That's when problems and obstacles show.

Be Free At Once

Be free at once
And for all time
Fight the evil 
In our minds
Enlightenment awaits

Forever At Once

Folding the past
  inside the present

Rolling the future in layers
  of perpetual time

Escaping from one then the other
  leaving all three in simulation

A dancer shrouded in mystery
 —all things forever at once

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2014)

• Short At Once Poems
• Famous At Once Poems
• Best At Once Poems
• Long At Once Poems
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