Best Choke Up Poems
i look at the walls around me
bootleg-moonshine shadows dancing
a waltz atop nighttide's stage
yet i am empty of my own emotion
alone, covered in reflections of us.
i still smell your scent
linger in every deep breath
within this humid air
and i choke up another piece of me
as the hands of time rape me
of all my colored thoughts
i now dream in black and white
in a room dressed the same.
the clock laughs in seconds
mocking raindrops on rooftops
my eyes cry the same tune
over and over again
as time becomes my enemy
i can almost hear your footsteps
tracing the stairs, approaching me
they fill the voids within my heart,
momentarily, yet it beats no more for love
than the clock on the wall,
it's just there the same
tick tock, tick tock...
memories fade with night
Verse a Favoured form,any theme Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand
Sandra Adams 9/11/13
So many things I want to tell you my Dad
But I choke up in tears feeling awfully sad,
I grew-up so fast since the day you died
Pledging urgently to do well as tears dried.
Don't recall listening to anything you said
Never took trash out, never made my bed,
You asked me to study, keep up my grades
Instead I focused on video games I played.
To earn my badges, we went on scouting trips
Soon after, I stopped going to their meetings.
You will be proud Dad, now I have some clout
I honored your will becoming an Eagle Scout.
Remember the day when we played baseball
You stole second base ahead of my fast ball.
Recalling happy times with love and might
We miss you so much at dinner every night.
I have aced my grades in science and math
Well on my way to choosing a career path,
I'm proud to tell you Stanford accepted me
On a full scholarship I'll complete my degree.
I was so self absorbed, always feeling mad
I never told you how much I love you Dad.
I wish to be just like you, but can never be
Standards you set are so high to achieve.
I have taken a job to help Mom pay the bills
We watch every penny avoiding the thrills.
Mom will visit you soon, she's well as can be
Please let her know you're so proud of me!
Placed 2nd
September 16, 2017
Poems that paint a picture 2
Rhyme:aabb
Painting by: Mike Theuer
Sponsor: Silent One
I hesitated
Sorry I brought up the subject
I choke up
But he insisted
So I blurted it out
In the end I bared it all
He listened
He said he understood
And sympathized
I didn’t buy it but
It felt good to tell him
The weight off my shoulders
AP: 3rd place 2022
When I imagined what it would
be like to be a writer,
I saw myself hunched over a
typewriter with bourbon on the
rocks sweating a ring onto my desk.
I could smell the ink on my fingers
and feel the burn of alcohol in my gut
and hear the keys clapping, a standing ovation
for the poor sad boy who wrote wings onto
his back and flew away from the red mud county.
But it's quiet here.
I sit alone at my desk and I reach into my guts
and I grab fistfuls of blood and viscera
and the keys don't move
I choke up the rage my father left in me
and the keys don't move
I cut out the fear my mother so lovingly placed
and the keys don't move
I drag out every black eye, bloody nose, and split lip I ever earned, every fight I lost, every single argument I had, every sunset I was a brother beneath, every truck cab I ever fell in love in and
THE KEYS DO NOT MOVE
I am a dandelion and my world is a big meadow.
I'm growing on a cliff-side, I like to live on the edge.
Just blooming away, soaking up the sunlight beaming at me.
Needing a purpose so I can be everything I was made to be.
I was handcrafted, not a mistake.
I was placed on this earth, on the edge of this cliff to show others that I'm not afraid of heights.
To show all the people that ever put me down for being a weed,
That I was made for a reason.
Maybe to choke up plants, sure. But this weed has feelings too.
The burrs on my stalk hold me down. These furry things, I don't know what to make of them.
I seem to grow more and more and I can't get them off of me.
I'm trying to grow higher and higher but they're holding me down from my potential.
I see my fellow dandelions,
they're naked and happy.
Nothing holding them down.
They keep telling me about this breeze. A strong wind to prick the burrs off their stalk. And then an idea comes to me. So now...
I'm just waiting for a strong breeze to come pick me up and cast away all my fears and worries that I call dandelion seeds.
Ah! The Golden Years of Hollywood
And those old black and white movies
Some were cinematic disasters
But some you could call quite groovy
Even now, my heart skips a beat
When one appears on the late night screen
I choke up a bit seeing John Wayne
As he swaggers in and out of the scene
Today with its technology and trickery
We don't know if people are real
Or made up computer animation dudes
To me, it seems way too surreal
Take me back to the Spaghetti Westerns
The gangster films of Cagney and Bogart
The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello
Loved them all, that was cinematic art
The stunning sensuality of Ingrid Bergman
The glamour of a young Liz Taylor
The bombshell beauty of Marilyn Monroe
Bardot, Betty Grable and more
The newsreels, the cartoons, the travelogues
And the giant blockbusters of the time
Sure was a lot for twenty-five cents
Plus popcorn and a drink for a dime
Ah! The Golden Years of Hollywood
Great musicals like “Singing In The Rain”
“An American In Paris” with Gene Kelly
Sure wish I could go back there again
© Jack Ellison 2014
Ineptness / Ineptitude
The pen has become the tongue from which I speak.
Ink, the saliva, the driving force behind my words.
Paper, the wings upon which they take flight,
uplifting my thoughts, elevating my ideas.
Thoughts and ideas that might not have
– ever come out of my mouth – seen the light of day.
Grounded !, nothing taking wing, a voice that does not sing,
never expressing a thing, with any kind of proficiency,
clarity, depth of understanding, enlightenment of meaning,
as I stand before ?, choke up !, all coming to a screeching halt
– my train of thought, my boxcar of words end with the caboose.
All gets lost, before the moment lives, my death !!!
The death of all I set out to accomplish, but never doing.
This, my tribunal ???:
B. J. “A” 2
February 25th 2004
Numbness wraps itself around my beating internal organ, blood thickens to a high viscoscious pulp, lungs choke up, air becomes a luxury, I am brought to my knees with a sickening thud I fall to my side defeated I let out a last gasp for air the world turns upside down I see darkness I feel my thoughts quieting my body motionless on the cold, Grey pavement I admire its cracks running along itself and thank it for allowing it to me by resting place i feel the light within me dimming and all is silent at last
i awake to the sound of my broken heartbeat
the feeling of a struggling survivor tring to maintain
my grip on reality is slowly easing up
times are getting harder to cope with the fact that you are gone
no one understands the pressure mounting inside my once occupied being
you left me here to linger in your problems
my emotions are blocked by internal suffocation
rejection from any one who tries to make me understand
i live for the moment because the futures too far away
they stole your life from you and gave themselves a name
my friend my amigo my brethren you are all i know
you came into this world blazing guns and left it riddled by bullets
somewhere in the HEAVENS you rest up above
here on earth i dont sleep reminiscing on what was
you showed me how it was to be a real cat
holding on to your beliefs and raising your family
peole say you lived on the edge
i say they never lived at all
to come back home on that day and find out they took you away
in such a midevil fashion was too much
i still choke up when i think of you
its crazy because time will never erase the past
it only makes things worse
well if all i can do to communicate with you
is write a poem and remembering you
then for this moment we are together
living loving and resting forever
I MISS YOU PRESTON!!!
For this, my darling, I swear you're to blame,
Gave you a last chance and you didn't even notice,
I turn my back on the magic, already started to fade,
I take back all the kisses, the embraces come back and
Warm my lonely arms. Swallow all my words and
Choke up yours, brush off every touch then soon
Forget your voice. Couldn't care how you style your hair,
Whether you choke on the spray, if someone else
Curls up with you and pulls it all out of place.
I'll walk the journey alone, pass by your house, sun
Piercing me as it leaps from your window, makes me
Frown. For all the weeks and months you've made
Excuses I think I can manage by myself, can do a
Better job than you. Could do it without cutting people
Out of my life.
Should I see you in the street then I know what to do,
Stroll right on by, too busy to speak to you, no room to
Fit you in. Won't reply if you say hello, just wander home, my
Red glazed eyes proof I'm over you.
Hadn't time in your life for me yesterday,
Just gave me more time to run away.
I stand on the plate with the sun in my eyes
the pitcher is ready, a fastball he flies
I swing just as hard as I possibly can
love says "strike one" as I try it again
I choke up on the bat, pull down on my bill
nodding my head, a new pitcher on the hill
it hurls past my chest, just missing my heart
love says "ball one" as the clock again starts
it's the seventh inning stretch, I need the relief
I brush off the dust, no way will I retreat
the coach saunters over, giving a pep talk
as the lines are redrawn on the infield with chalk
the board shows each tally, each inning not close
no intervention from heaven or its holy hosts
and I shut the book on yet, another losing season
I'll still play the game with faith in the reasons
sweet seashell queen
just had surgery to remove a tumor off her brain stem
today she celebrates her 6th BirthDay
whatever she wants is the law of our world
i almost choke up thinking about how brave she was
hell, she gave me hope, encouragement, and inspiration
i tell her she can go in the water....but not too far
she replies by saying, 'i am on vacation when i am by your side'
she then puts the most beautiful seashells in my hand and rests her head in my lap
we listen to the waves for hours
she falls asleep....and i fall even more in love with this amazing little girl
when she wakes up, she asks if we could go and get the blue bubble gum ice cream
i remind her that it is her day and that she is the sweet seashell queen
she put the seashell crown i surprised her with just before we headed out back on
with a snaggletooth smile she says with her head slightly tilted to the right 'OH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!'
Peace or violence, with humans you never know,
When love will sprout or when seeds of hatred will be sown,
When in humanity & compassion people may find satiety,
Or when the lust to kill will choke up all their pity.
The bitterness in the human heart is like a patch of rust,
More the time you provide for it to go but spread all over it must,
For all the time inadvertently it is exposed & encouraged by all,
Till it begins to loom bigger than the source which started it all.
Peace, harmony & brotherhood prevail in times of trouble,
Which in the company of like men seems to disappear like a bubble,
It is true that in times of need often united they stand,
And peace regales on this Earth as the people live hand in hand.
But at times mad violence destructs this harmony & peace,
Fear & terror of its outcome each person’s face does it kiss,
Someplace this hatred reaps for someplace it had been sown,
And try as you might it never seems destructed however often it is stoned.
But sometimes love overcomes this hatred sown so long,
And love itself sways the people with its lovely song,
And acts of love are done worldwide to make other humans aware,
That love alone may be able to remove all traces of hatred.
Humanity & compassion exist in traces forever,
But it needs a huge catastrophe to make its presence felt all over,
And then unbelievable acts of humanity & kindness are done,
By risking one’s own life to save that of a fellow human.
However merciless killing sometimes throws away this compassion,
When over petty matters are evoked unnecessary flood of emotions,
When sentiments are hurt over religion, creed & caste,
Their intensity provokes acts that threaten to drain away humanity at last.
All this is nothing but the result of a turbulence of emotions,
That creates a cyclone in human heart with vigor & aggression,
Come rain, come storm; keep only love, humanity, peace, compassion & kindness,
& wash away if you can from this human heart all hatred, violence, enemity & bitterness…
When I first met you,
my hope and aspirations rekindle
as I approached you,
my heart went into captivity,
which made my body to be full of activity,
your soothing voice was reassuring,
which made me feel more alluring,
then later my aspiration and dreams
varnished like a mirage in the desert.
I dropped all, so as to remain viable,
yet,I was rejected to be accepted,
I tried to remove this great tumor,
yet it lingers,it lingers like weeds
that choke up the young plant in a vine
Even though it is mundane,
which has not been ordained,
I still love you,
but love is not enough.
I closed my eyes to wake up
to see a new damsel,
but the old one persists like an epiphyte,
The feeling is great,
the emotion is intoxicating,
Yet,this enigma remains with a stigma,
I am confused and bemused,
As my feeling is being abused,
Yet!,love is not enough.
Washed up at sea,
It’s hard to breathe,
It’s hard to think,
Mouth filled with salt,
I can’t speak,
I struggle but remain weak,
The sun in my eyes,
I survived
I’m alive,
Air sweeps through my hair,
Sand against my bare skin,
Gasps for air from within,
On my back at last,
I choke up a laugh,
Finally escaping the past,
I belong in the crash,
My limbs are limp,
My heart is ready,
Bring on the everlasting,
Bring on my passions,
My dreams and fears,
All those things I’m afraid to hold dear,
I’m here to live,
And to love life,
Easing my way into a sigh,
Cold water rushes past,
I’m pulled back to sea,
Directionless, Anxious. Free.