Best Cliches Poems
A POEM MADE UP OF CLICHES
At Poetry Soup we're admonished
Never to use cliches
They provide us an extensive list
For the error of our ways
But one thing you can rely on
Is people just don't pay heed
Like a dog gnawing a ham bone
Poets write stuff unfitten to read
Over and over again
I traverse the road less traveled
No one understands me
I feel worn to a frazzle
When all is said and done
I'll just wish upon a star
Or perhaps I'll follow the sun
And hope I don't go too far
Since fools rush in
Where angels fear to trod
And people get under my skin
I'll go by the grace of God
When life takes an unexpected twist
And you're plagued by a multitude of sin
Not making money hand over fist
Misery loves company and broken hearts never mend
You have reached the end of your rope
Tired of waiting for your ship to come in
Don't sit around and mope
'Cause you have fences to mend
Curtis Moorman
30 November 2018
To 'ride on somebody's coat tails'
Is the most dangerous thing you can do
'Keep a stiff upper lip' is another cliché
Mine's not stiff, how about you?
'One good turn deserves another'
Turns my stomach if you must ask
'There's no fool like an old fool'
I'm quite offended by the last
'Sticks and stones will break my bones'
Can break someone's heart as well
So if somebody up and says this to you
Tell them to go straight to hell
'A penny for your thoughts' is yet another
That's pretty damn cheap I'd say
A dollar would certainly be more in line
With the times we live in today
'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'
Who made up this silly old verse
A bird in the hand is quite messy I'd say
Poop on your fingers or worse
So I've come to the obvious conclusion
Concerning the debunking of clichés
Refuse to use 'em coz people abuse 'em
You'll wind up much happier I say
© Jack Ellison 2013
Testing the waters
of this undeserved fame.
As this life as we know it,
really isn't much more than a game.
Theres nothing left to lose.
No more to soon gain.
What you bring to the table,
isn't much to many.
And if silence is as good as gold.
Look forword to what your future can hold.
When I was young, I fantasized of the girl I’d like to find:
A certain look, a sense of style, enlightened education,
Alluring eyes, a charming smile, and some sophistication.
But over time I realized she was only in my mind.
Lonely years passed, I compromised, and left my dream behind.
Met some with looks, others with style—even sophistication.
But I never could find, through error and trial, just the right combination.
Just existing, I felt demoralized, in a sorry state of mind.
One day by chance, I met this girl…sort of what I had in mind.
The way she looked, I realized, just fit my illustration—
As if the dream I’d idolized was brought into creation.
What could I say, to meet the girl that I’d always hoped to find?
Pardon the clichés, but I have to say
“Where have you been all my life?”
I know we’ve just met, and you don’t know me yet,
But what are you doing the rest of your life?
She rolled her eyes, but then she smiled, as she seemed to see the light.
We talked a while, then talked some more; got her address and her phone.
Since then I’ve seen her a whole lot more. I no longer felt alone.
When I proposed, she said with a smile “I think I’ve found my ‘Mister Right’ .
Pardon the clichés, but I have to say
“Where have you been all my life?”
I know we’ve just met, and you don’t know me yet,
But what are you doing the rest of your life?
No Time Like The Present (Cliches Contest)
I need to get out of this place!
So very tired of everyone's bromidic rhetoric.
It's sickening...
The continuous chatter of a dramatic existence.
It's sickening...
Who are these people anyways?
Shhhh! I hear my mother whispering some old cliché, so far away,
"There is no time like the present", she says, and she's right again!
I am tired of this malodorous smelling room.
Tired of all the inferior, chintzy plastic furniture in it.
It's sickening...
And all of the neighbors tumultuous affairs.
It's sickening..
To the birds with it all, I'm better than this!
Have confidence in your own ability to overcome adversity.
Be a doer not a hypocrite of your own dreams.
GET UP! GO! LEAVE, YOU NEED TO LEAVE!
It's sickening...
Grease me up for I am wedged in this room.
It's sickening...
Well I am done being a mouse amongst all of these rats!
I'm looking forward and never turning back!
At Last! The motivation that I need!
The door is opening as I walk right through it,
and never look back...
Ecstatic...
Smiling...
Happy...
Goodbye Harvard University!
03/25/16
Are cucumbers cool
As a general rule?
How fresh is a daisy?
Are loons always crazy?
How snug is a bug
When he’s not in a rug?
How gentle are lambs
If not happy as clams?
How clever’s a fox
That’s as dumb as an ox?
How fit is a fiddle
Not clean as a whistle?
Are doornails most dead,
Or are dodos instead?
Is it drier than toast
To say “deaf as a post”?
Such puzzles befuddle and much mystify
Till suddenly you see they’re as easy as pie!
Every poet worth their sault
Every teacher and professor declare you will prove to be as dense as a London fog
Using clichés
But I think clichés make it clear as the nose on your face
That there are things as beautiful as the day is long
And as far as the eye can see
As many to enjoy as there are chins in a Chinese phone book
So my advice to young writers,
From time to time abandon the ship USS Proper Expression
Be above board
Do an about face
Make clear as a bell
That a rose by any other name does still smell as sweet
That absence still makes the heart grow founder
Airing dirty laundry is a no no
And if you must have an ace up your writer's sleeve
Let it be a cliché!
first " there's not time like the present" then they say "haste makes waste"
then "don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today"
"the more things change the more they stay the same" some say
and in the next breath"tomorrows another day"
they say "if it don't happen naturally then leave it"
then "if at first you don't succeed try try again "can you believe it?
I once lived in a notebook but now I live in your head with your dreams.
And I scheme.
He was warmed to the truth by tea and intoxicatologigated by me
I see!
I am right round the corner from him.You might say,we are at right angled cross purposes
Is there a cross surplus?.
As all set out,storms set in,then we all fell out if you see what I dream.
I am mean
You are as truthful as as a chorus of wrongs in rites of the Church choir
Don't leave me in the lurch.I'm a liar.
He’s as tense as a mournful frog in a bog in Ireland in wintery discontentll
It's all meant
As far as the wife can throw,I flew.
I shall sue Sue.
I was flooded as a whole.My emotions welled up and ran all over me like faries’ hands..
Like elastic bands
I am honest as the day is wrong.
Give me a song
He was torn in three by tomcats with balls of steel
They will appeal
I have lost a whole stone and still no moss will grow on me.It grew on the stone!
Now I feel so alone
As Gluck would have it, music is heavenly singing by invisible choirs of cats.
He was bats
I sought him here,I sought him there.I sought him with angelic flair.
But noone catches Tony Blair.
I am as snug as a lapdog in a bog with a brick on its head
Can I sleep on your bed?
She was as tender as an apple tart is round.
and quite sound
As the crow flew,I had to fly as well to avoid it escaping me..I leave no crow alone
They usually get stoned
I've got butterflies in my stomach,
A frog in my throat,
Cat's got my tongue,
And someone's got my goat.
I'm as sly as a fox,
But as blind as a bat.
I'm as silly as a goose.
Now what do you think of that?
Seduced by clichés of love,
We signed on for wedding doves,
Being at those wedding receptions,
All clichés of norms' conventions,
Having a cream puff wedding day,
Was an expensive way of getting laid,
All clichés for the bridal industry,
Trite cant and hypocrisy,
BUT--the appliances outlived everyone!!
Wedding gifts when once were young,
On film noir weddings I ponder on,
As golden years I wander on,
All that phony hypocrisy,
Cliches and norms of society,
D.I.V.O.R.C.E.
(who didn't hate going to their in-laws for tea?)
I rest my case
on a house of cards
(that)
hit the nail on the head
(of) the nail in the coffin
(that)
hit the ground running
where the rubber hits the road
(while)
time flies when you’re having fun
in the nick of time
(and)
all’s well that ends well
all is fair in love and war
(let’s not forget that)
the writing’s on the wall
it could be worse
(as)
the light at the end of the tunnel
is a perfect storm after the calm
To live by cliches
is a apparently a taboo.
But I won't deny
My -hopeless romantic- beliefs
in -true love-
or
My faith that humanity has
-more good than evil-
or
My philosophical perspective
that -you live and you learn-
or
My belief that
-time heals all wounds-
...cliches define our lives
-as we know it-
They are the simplest form
of explanation;
the -bottom lines-,
the -punch lines-,
of life.
"Be who you are" may be cliche,
as it is but 4 small words...
But there's no fluff, no complication.
Just the -naked truth-.
Somebody told me that cliches are dead
But what if I run out of things to say
Can I say "to know me is to love me"
Or "tomorrow is just another day"
What about "liars never prosper and cheaters never win"
Would I be accused of reviving the dead
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"
Or is it "an ace in the hole instead"
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder"
Or if you fall "it's only a scrape"
What if I tell them to "button your lip"
Will they get "all bent out of shape"
But I'm "at the end of the pecking order"
So how much can I really know
I'll never use cliches again
Right after " I told you so"
The stillness of the sound
It’s feeding like a drip
Oh life’s a funny old thing.
Planes drone overhead
Seas lap dirty shores
It’s just a string of clichés.
My hands are bored
My heart’s overgrown
It doesn’t know where to go.
I’ve got a fissure inside
It gets deeper every time
Whenever I try to move.
Upwards and outwards
I’m scrambling upwards
And outwards…
Now…
And the crack is growing
It’s growing in
To me
Oh how do you stop
What’s already started?
How to stop a freight train?