Best Elephant Poems
Across the Serengeti plain our matriarch would lead,
Dining on the guarri fruit, and gum acacia seeds.
Upon our sweet green namesake grass our bellies we would fill,
I'd visit with my mother's bones, nap in the northern hills.
We'd cross the Mara river, then the southern rains would fall,
We'd see the African spoonbill, and hear the weaverbird call.
We'd care for all the young ones, and with my sisters I would roam,
Victoria Lake... But then I'd wake, give up my dreams of home.
I'd bust my cage, I'd smash the door, and trample all around,
If I was an elephant, I'd tear the circus down.
December 6, 2016
There once was a little mighty ant
Who was extravagant and arrogant
Known to be exorbitantly militant
She was so combatant and petulant
They nicknamed her My Commandant
One day she came across an elephant
Elegant and obviously dominant
She started on her typical rant
Then stopped and decided to recant
Both agreed it was all very insignificant
They chatted, it turned out the elephant
Was actually the ant's aunt
Suddenly the intolerant ant
Has become cheerful and exuberant
And now routinely breaks out in chant
Read on air by invitation ~ May 26, 2020 'WORDS & MUSIC'
AP: 2nd place, Honorable Mention 2020
Submitted on October 20, 2018 for MID OCTOBER 2018 CONTEST sponsored by BRIAN STRAND
and February 23, 2018 for contest MAKE ME LAUGH sponsored by Robert Haigh
The big headlines cause sensation,
Media’s chosen information.
Manipulative, they entomb
the big elephant in the room.
Stress is put on the suggestive
keeping tongue and the mind active.
They sweep aside with furtive broom
the big elephant in the room.
Gain is high on the agenda
grabbing votes in referenda.
They hide, on purpose, I presume
the big elephant in the room.
Many topics are selective;
they are made to look attractive.
Who dares to tickle with a plume
the big elephant in the room?
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A Kyrielle is a French form of rhyming poetry written in quatrains, each containing a repeating line at the end of each stanza. Each line within the poem consists of eight syllables. There is no limit to the amount of stanzas a Kyrielle may have, but three is considered the accepted minimum. Some popular rhyming schemes for a Kyrielle are: aabB, ccbB, ddbB, with B being the repeated line, or abaB, cbcB, dbdB.
This form is a pleasure to use because of its rhyming scheme and the strong pivotal line on which the whole poem rotates.
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Premiere Contest No. 13
Sponsor: Skat A (2016)
Contest: Poetry Writing #1
Sponsor: Broken Wings
Placed 1st
15th December 2015
You can try
yes you can
putting wings on an elephant
yes I know you can
Poesi without love
is impossible
13.03.2015 A-L Andresen :)
Copyright © All Rights Reserved
- Everyone who writes poetry leaves a bit of their soul and heart -
A lack of oxygen, a stifled room
A pregnant pause, apparent gloom
Bitter sighs and angry growls
Upon her face "It's not my fault"
His wrinkled brow, "I'm not to blame!"
Past mistakes that hover now
Where pride as tough as elephant skin
Clinch the eyes where tears begin
While those who made a lover's pledge
Now teeter on the razor's edge
Behind closed doors heads shake about
And raging voices mutely shout
Mountains, molehills, vent and spout
Fingers point inside the fist
No one recalls what led to this
Closed minds, resolved, and won't untwist
Raising questions one by one
Old ghosts that dangle, freely spun
A hopeless scene, what's left to gain?
No matter what,....they'll show no shame
What massive figure profoundly looms
as large as elephants in a room?
We have great animals on this grand Earth
of varied size- they live on land or sea.
Domestic ones, we love for all their worth;
like, family we live in harmony.
But grandest in our mix of wild beasts here-
our elephant, the largest one on land.
Though giant-sized, of them I have no fear-
a gentle kind with traits I understand.
They do not kill for meat or dominance,
but feast on greens wherever they might roam.
Their matriarch displays her prominence-
she leads and guards her group, her lasting home.
Emotions they display at death or birth,
caressing with their trunks the fallen ones,
and cradling safe tween feet of massive girth
their offspring, never crushed by weighty tons.
Of course, when threatened be it man or beast,
they will defend and charge with all their might.
But when the threat is gone or is decreased-
they back away and calmly end a fight.
They are not only massive in their size,
but awesome in the cultured ways they act.
Intelligent with feelings realize
the need to keep their family intact.
Oh, giant beast of Earth, dear elephant,
your gentle nature thrills my human heart.
Majestic in your size, so eloquent,
I pray from here on Earth you'll never part.
3 polished oak fans,
Swirling in robotic unison
High maintenance socialites,
Sipping on Merlot fallacies
Lemon yellow coated walls,
Flat,
Like their smiles
Comparisons of dangling Porsche & Bentley keys
A glorified day care center,
Pacifiers included
The muted virtuosos speak softly in hymn dialects.
Courtesy laughter in snob’s octave
Their heads twitching side to side,
Left to right to left
An equilibrium facing assault charges against self
They slow dance to cello dreams
And E minor dividends
Two-step monotone, sway
Against platinum lacquer foundations
…
But, it was then.
These same socialites,
Made of recycled candle wax
And rubberized, hedge-fund confidence,
Began to stare longingly at the party host’s 70 inch plasma TV
Proudly imported from China
“Attention uptight snobs of Mecca!
The city zoo has imploded!
The monkeys revolted!
The zebras were tired of being racially profiled!
Run for your LIV…!”
(SMASH!)
And before the reporter’s frightened inner child could finish’s his clause,
An elephant crashes into the decadent room
Filled with Crisp linen scents of Febreze & judgmental fear
It stares at the socialites,
Laughing heartedly as it playfully stomps away into constellation’s onyx night
As tears waterfall from the snobs’ sobbing eye sockets
As if they just listened to another Celine Dion song
The real newsflash
Metaphors played hooky today
©Drake J. Eszes
IF I WERE AN ELEPHANT
If I were an elephant I'd remember all kinds of things
like where to find juicy trees and nice cold springs.
I'd jump in the water and roll in the mud.
And I'd spray my trainer named Bud.
It would be such fun to splash and blow my trunk,
maybe blow a tune.
I'd remember each note.
And I'd like to take a ride in a boat.
We'd sail and I'd wave to the kids on the shore.
They would be amazed at my talent
and shout for more.
And I'd use my big ears to fly.
I'd take off and hit the sky.
I'd fly above the circus tent
and everyone would see
how smoothly I can swoop down
over the trees.
But I'm not an elephant.
I'm stuck on the ground.
I can't blow a sound.
And I don't like mud.
But I do like water and I know I should
go back to the circus and see my friend, Bud.
Copyright: Dec. 10, 2016
Of all the mammals living on the land,
the elephant is largest of that kind.
But if I were an elephant, I’d show
the largest also were my heart and mind!
If I could be this beast, here’s what I know:
I’m not some made-up Dumbo that can fly.
I socialize; I grumble, and I need
a jumbo size of tissues when I cry!
My hearing is superb, but did you know
that I can even listen with my feet?
I put my trunk down by my feet and hear
vibrations, and that’s one astounding FEAT.
It’s obvious I’m strong. My trunk alone
has forty-thousand muscles, and guess what?
I’ll wrap my trunk around you, for BIG LOVE
means I’ll be giving great big hugs a LOT.
I cannot see too well. Nor can I jump,
but with my padded feet, I softly walk,
I am so skilled, for peanuts I won’t work!
But first I need to teach myself to talk!
Because if I can talk, I’ll speak out for
my fellow elephants endangered by
the foolishness and cruelty of those
who harm us when we’re in such short supply!
We’re also more than stunts inside a tent.
And though our skin’s as thick as an old shoe,
we have compassion, and we mourn our dead.
As feeling creatures, we should have rights too!
Now even though we elephants are huge,
and probably I weigh at least a ton,
I love to laugh and play! Climb on my back
and take a ride. You’ll see that I am fun.
I hope you see that I’m a lot like you.
So take care with your fat jokes around me
because it’s very true what people say.
I now have got amazing memory!
12/10/16
Depression is killing more than ever, yet remains the largest elephant in the room
Mental health has a stigma attached to it
People are scared to get help for their mental illness and wounds
Cause people judge and laugh at it
Bipolar, depression, bulimia, schizophrenia
Just a few topics constantly missed by media
They prefer to post about celebrities and such nonsense
People go missing daily, cause depression takes them hostage
You'll call someone lazy, but depression leaves them with no energy to get out of bed
Anxiety making a person constantly panic and regret things they said
There's a female being called fat, and a dad that's beating his daughter
But you'll call the girl weak and stupid for having an eating disorder
I'm sick of seeing mental health and self harm be dismissed on the internet
How is self-harm any different from smoking a cigarette?
People get addicted, it relieves stress and takes the pain away
Not everyone deals with their pain in the same way
Wearing long sleeves to hide their scars yet you call them an attention seeker
Or "if you really wanted to die you'd cut deeper"
Just some things I've heard in my time
This isn't a poem, this is more than words that rhyme
Don't give up on someone who's struggling with a mental illness
Be patient and understanding, there isn't a quick way to heal it
Imagine being controlled by an illness and blaming yourself for it
If people judged less, maybe people with mental health issues would be more confident to get help for it
I know some of these lines don't go together
And I should have spent more time to make it flow better
But this is deeper than rhyming words, I'm here to share a message
I just hope the world is prepared to accept it
Believe no word I say;
Just watch what I do.
No matter how I try
I can't hide it from you.
Ashamed of every bite,
I starve in your eyes.
But when you turn around
I choke on french fries.
I can't hide from the world
That pure ecstasy I feel when in my mouth I cram
A cream puff, a box of cereal, a gallon of ice cream, a tray of brownies...
I break!
My heart aches.
If I had the guts
I'd eat only my scrambled brains
And drink nothing but my curdled blood.
But I'm a coward
So to numb the pain
I devour my self-esteem,
Cover my eyes,
And avoid mirrors.
The larger I become
The less of me you see.
I blend into the room;
I become the couch.
Maybe this is what I hoped for,
But I don't know for sure.
I'm the elephant in the room--
I would leave this hell
But I don't fit through the door.
On my walk I chanced to see
An elephant with a bumble bee.
It was such a peculiar pairing,
And they had ice cream, which they were sharing.
The elephant was holding the ice cream cone
For the bee was on his mobile phone,
I thought wow, this is really *****...
I never get a signal here !
I read Darryl Ashton’s poem Called Pinocchio Rex and this brought back
memories of a childhood incident
When I grew up we had a smallholding – the house was called ‘Longacre’ as we
had over an acre of land. Over the years we had chickens, pigs named Pinky
and Porky and a goat called Susie… she had kids called Billy and Nanny – guess
I was no good at names back then… but I digress
Attached to the house was a small village shop but my parents also made a
small income from selling fresh eggs and in the summer home grown
strawberries – I would help pick washing baskets of them and bag them up to
sell.
Every week a little old man would arrive for his dozen eggs and if the shop was
shut he would ring the doorbell. He wore a pointed felt hat, had steely blue
eyes and the most enormous nose you have ever seen. Unbeknownst to him
my parents nicknamed him 'Pinocchio'.
When I was aged about 7 years old the doorbell rang – mum was busy baking
in the kitchen so I answered it. There in front of me stood this old man wanting
his eggs. Mum shouted from the kitchen
‘Who is it Janet?’
I replied ‘Oh its only Pinocchio’
At once mum appeared from the kitchen, her face was the colour of beetroot.
She apologised for the comment from her ‘cheeky daughter’ The man
purchased his eggs and walked away – never to return!
The moral of this true tale is that parents ALWAYS tell the truth and that
children have ears the size of an elephant and a mouth just as big … so if you
don’t want them to repeat something YOU have said keep it zipped!
Jan Allison
11th August 2014
That’s not my elephant you see
right there in the garden.
Mine is in the prison
where he’s waiting for a pardon.
That one in the garden
is a charming one named Ella.
Mine just steals spaghetti off my plate;
Obnoxious fella!
Second graders like to come
watch Ella spray the roses.
At MY elephant those kids
just simply thumbed their noses.
Ella waters all the flowers,
helping out our town.
George (that’s mine), behind cell bars,
just sits and wears a frown.
But he’s been attending
inmates’ classes -Monday nights.
And his teacher taught him
all about the Bill of Rights.
He’s learned that his Miranda Rights
were overlooked, and so. . .
he made me find a lawyer
and I found one in the know!
So my unruly elephant
is getting out real soon.
A female has been writing him.
He’s way over the moon!
His lady likes to spray.
He told me, “Carry an umbrella
when you walk me down the aisle
with my charming bride named Ella.”
LOST in the "That's Not My Elephant" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Matt Caliri
If I were an elephant
I would marry my mahout man
Would fly very high
Up in the blue sky
Then fall down in a skeleton
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12/12/2016