Best Expectations Poems

spilling mother’s milk
Nature’s bounty feeds her child -
river’s youth fades fast


Susan Ashley
April 29, 2020


~ Fourth Place ~
Premiere Contest: Hi-Ku (5)
Sponsor: Brian Strand...

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I flew to Olympus, to find its heart,	
armour intact against Hades’ dark wrath.	
At birth the power of light made its start	  
as Homer's ghost sent me upon my path!	

Yet there I found only an empty throne	
where once Zeus in glory firmly reigned.	
So sad! For...

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Place parsed pennies, purposely upon pretty porcelain palms.
The wanderer, restrained her raised ranting wrists!
She fell to her Humpty Dumpty position,
unable to ever be put back together again...
Each of us witnessed her fall,
yet we failed to gather those colourful leaves.
I believe we could have laid them...

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Betrayed Expectations 
    (Sonnet) 

I flew to Olympus, to find its heart	
armor intact against Hades' dark wrath.
At birth the power of light made its start 
as Homer's ghost sent me upon my path.  

Yet there I found only an empty throne	
where...

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Today’s students strive only to meet expectations
We used to go all out to exceed expectations
Young people have no real goals, just vague destinations
Their minds seem to be set on low-level vibrations
 
Our young people seem to lack worthy aspirations
Discouraged teachers are left with exasperation
With weapons...

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Passions for expectations with life were none
Till the teenage accepted life as it came anon.
Went to gym, played games, attended school
Swam in the open sea, life smooth and cool.

Might’ve been endowed with great expectations
In gestation to perform later in life like everyone.
Sprouted while in the...

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You swallow billions in cash, yet your assault strengthens,
everything with life now stands on one side against you
but your unpredictability is what gives you this audacity.
Your sarcasm and indifference to mankind
may seem to amputate medical science
but even on wheel-chairs, 
we will hold hands together, never...

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Expectations

Triumphant note of a magnolia's pearly white
Wakens the sleeping ground,
Beautiful ballerina
Impressing all around.
Herself the spotlight.
Brave fragile snowdrops light the woods' darkness,

Fluting, keen, white and green
Like panpipes in Peruvian mountain scene
Banishing starkness.

Each year we come to see this lovely sight....
Now, Spring's within our scope,
From Winter's chains...

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Do you know what I'm sick of?
Expectations 
Expected to live this picture perfect life
My life is not a post card
I do not own a picket fence
And if I did it would probably be black
And broken 
But that's ok
sometimes my life can be terrifying 
I spent...

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Diminished Expectations


Everyone lives with a degree of frustrations
Although having backgrounds from different nations
Lives are destroyed by giving into temptations
As mates try rebuilding on broken foundations

Leaders lust for applause and standing ovations
While the common mans dreams are lost in translations
Children   busy   ...

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She longed to be a baker
         Though neither thumb was white
Couldn’t rise to the occasion
        And the contest is tonight

“Listen Cupcake, don’t you fret”
      ...

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between the plant pots and the trays
the cobwebs had seen better days
and for all the wood and damp and soil
the smell was one of paint and oil 
as flies and wasps lying in state
were curled up past their fly-by-date
and nails and screws and metal hooks
shared...

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I have the rhythm of a winding road
how do I consign myself to being confined
rows of poplar pillars prop
the rendezvous canopy beneath we meet
—I self-cajole on ooh-la-la afternoon 

yellow eyes; daffodils watching 
lean into gossip groups nodding
a prodding breeze instigating deep-freeze
I am a sweet weed...

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It’s May 18th, 2022. I’m poised, alone, heart pounding, in front of my laptop, waiting for courage, my finger hovering over the return key, like a child hoping the timing of my keystroke will bring me luck.

I took this summer off - which drove my...

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Wanting to belong is not what is wrong,
it’s over longing about belonging.
It could be the problem is in the seed,
maybe you’re showing an unfulfilled need.

Overexposing our expectations,
may derail developing relations.
What most people want is a sensation,
a gradual feeling of elation.

People want to see a to...

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