Best Byline Poems
More Secret SelvesI've been wondering about our secret selves...
The vegetarian smoker
The introverted joker
The soldier with the peace sign
The anonymous byline
The accountant with unfinished sums
The deaf musician's steel drums
The blue collar millionaires
The conservative who dares
The scientist who prays
The vagabond who stays
The man who kneels to take a stand
The...
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Categories:
byline, conflict, identity,
Form:
CurrentsCurrents
by Michael R. Burch
How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the motion creation stirs within?
Originally published by The Lyric. Keywords/Tags: poetry,...
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Categories:
byline, assonance, extended metaphor, language,
Form:
Verse
Disenchanted MuseMy muse did her fealty recuse
My honor she did stealthily reconnoiter
My discourse was grounds for divorce
Finding my writing no longer enlightening
My blithe parlance no longer my mistress did entrance
With my prose she did forthrightly dispose
Each short she did subsequently abort
Each regaling verse did prudently disburse
Each...
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Categories:
byline, funny, metaphor,
Form:
Light Verse
Island Girl In the Big CityThere was a moment
in time and space no distance
can erase when she was standing
on an island in the middle
of Times Square, cars whirling around
from all directions, their Technicolor
taillights additive to Big Apple
illuminations, and she,
the conductor of this current...
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Categories:
byline, city,
Form:
Bio
The Guilt of An Innocent PoetIt was my own thought
My own poem with a novel quote
I smiled with a poet’s pride
I let my pen bleed and slide
I wrote it down
Framed it for my wall
Familiar words caught my eye
A strangers name in the byline
The poem was many years older than...
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Categories:
byline, how i feel, poems,
Form:
Free verse
Freelancing, Miserable MimeWords that echo the sublime
Each syllable resounds a doleful chime
Accentuated by a bleak, monotonous rhyme
That skews the cadence and scuttles the time
Words that filter through, then prime
Heart's engine to slowly pine
Fueled by structural anomalies; sick, semantical serpentine
Break lines that throttle, then realign
Soul's transmission shifts in...
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Categories:
byline, allegory
Form:
Rhyme
Tale of Two LinesWhen the byline was my line, I soared past the skyline
When my line was the bye-line, I boarded the Sioux Line ...
_______________________________________________
Note: The 'Sioux Line' was a railroad line that...
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Categories:
byline, goodbye, word play, writing,
Form:
Epigram
Sanmati Jain a Source, Part IiSanmati, my source, is completely mine
As she never missed going to shrine.
Nor does she move slowly like a bovine.
Much was done to munch through byline
Against me or her to bypass or to confine.
Thanks to expedition that made her whine
Inner talents, flairs, bents and gifts fine.
Jain...
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Categories:
byline, daughter,
Form:
Monorhyme
Hourglass Vasemicro-fine is the line
time by line, byline
-
grain by grain by grain
it passes discrete with
total indiscretion of desire
slow down, speed up,
turn around and float
up the venturi to come
again so that I may BE
there again with you
the gravity of sand
grain by grain by grain...
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Categories:
byline, art, time, visionary,
Form:
Ekphrasis
Man From the MoonSaid a man returned from the moon
“I fear I have come back too soon,
For I left about seven
On my journey to heaven
And here it is now only noon.”
written, Winter 1972
edited June 29, 2021
[first published in The Hoosier Challenger, 1972;
republished in ByLine, Summer, 1989]...
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Categories:
byline, earth, moon, space, travel,
Form:
Limerick
Uncorking Bottled Man.
Palpable
fear lurks
a mystery
in the Air
a certain
eerie feel
suspects
an killers
can come
anywhere
The strike
is invisible
no tools or
weapon no
no trace no
fngerprints
It’s in thin air
creeps ..
shudder... horror
Now everyone wears masks
All are Suspects All are Culpable
Three new cases in the neighborhood
Death comes slow. is inevitable. No cure
Norms...
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Categories:
byline, analogy, angst, anxiety,
Form:
Concrete
Buzzfeedhere comes the buzz
here comes the feed
don't bother with facts
there's really no need
if you're looking for stories
to sensationalize
if you need entertainment
just fill it with lies
and where we are going
is anyone's guess
as we fill in the byline
with anonymous
saying we heard it from sources
we can...
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Categories:
byline, character, fantasy, life,
Form:
Rhyme
Just Mosquitos and Squirrels“Nature Lover” my byline,
Hell, I even like girls
But where I draw the line
Is mosquitos and squirrels.
Love how bug zapper spark fries,
Pellet gun is so nice,
Squirrel’s carcass on ice,
Tiny smoke clouds from trap rise.
With the clean sent of ozone
Starting off each new morn,
Longer lasting than ****,
Hanging...
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Categories:
byline, journey, life,
Form:
Rhyme
Noel NeillNoel Neill passed away,
No Superman to save the day.
If unfamiliar with her name,
Then you're too young to know her fame.
But those of us of certain age
Can see her byline on the page -
"The Daily Planet," where she worked
And Superman, she gathered, lurked.
For Noel Neill was...
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Categories:
byline, death,
Form:
Rhyme
Leafing Through Love's Primordial BookHeart's cover sealed in burgeoning prime
Fading leaves folded in the book of time
Follicles of love blanched on the pages sublime
Billowy blades dulled with eroding sands that modulate and slime
Bleached, seamless threads spliced in the deep recesses of my mind
Glossy words overgrown, strangled with thistle and...
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Categories:
byline, allegory, lost love,
Form:
Rhyme