Best Limitations Poems
you say there are no limits
in this limitless contest
but scrolling down, look what I found
Instructions like the rest
Preparing Your Entry
Submit one copy of your poem online. Format your poem. Please make your entry easy to read — no illustrations or fancy fonts.
English Language
Poems should be in English. Poems translated from other languages are not eligible, unless you wrote both the original poem and the translation.
Why can't I illustrate it
using fancy fonts if need
not bothering to make this stuff
a simple easy read
Why can't I post three copies
or perhaps, even more
In languages I'm sure
I know you never heard before
and as for translating
Oh that would really blow
'Cause half the words I write
I don't even know
So next time, you post a contest
and you say it has no limits
please erase the rules
and I pledge to jump right in it
you got to know----I'm just Kidding
She was zooming down the hillside.
The wind blew through her hair.
Gliding through the pure-white snow,
in the bitter-cold night air.
Everything was going great.
She thought that she was cool.
But she would learn, but way too late,
that she was just a fool!
Another *Suzy Chaffee,
she thought that she could be.
Then it happened in an instant,
she was only on one ski!
Soon her balance left her.
It was something to behold.
She came crashing to the ground
and sprawled out in the cold!
One leg north, the other south
tears fell down like rain.
There weren't any broken bones,
but oh my God - the pain!
When done by someone trained to ski,
it can look easy, I suppose.
But it pays to know your limitations,
as the saying goes!
*Suzy Chaffee is a former Olympic Alpine Skiing Champion.
The Statute of Limitation Has Run Out
By Elton Camp
Most have things in their past
That present life could blast
Whose life’s an open book
So to welcome a close look?
We hope none will ever learn
Things our name could burn
What we did way back when
And wouldn’t ever do again
Such acts and thoughts as those
That we think nobody knows
Some claim such they didn’t do,
They lie about other things too
But the time limit has run out
About such long ago, no doubt
While back then, evil I did do
I’m too old to make any new
(Autobiographical? Moi? Of
course not. It’s just a poem.)
This is:
"An ominous notice to all oppressors of worlds"
Limitations Of Power
Even the mightiest and most impregnable wall
Looming over the weakest amidst endlessness
In hidden silence crumbles then eventually fall
10/08/2022
6:47 P.M.
Rhodes, Greece
By Elton Camp
Most have things in their past
That present life could blast
Whose life’s an open book
So to welcome a close look?
We hope none will ever learn
Things our name could burn
What we did way back when
And wouldn’t ever do again
Such acts and thoughts as those
That we think nobody knows
Some claim such they didn’t do,
They lie about other things too
But the time limit has run out
About such long ago, no doubt
While back then, evil I did do
I’m too old to make any new
According to the dictates of Suzy Berlinsky,
a Hello Poetry sibilant chargé d'affaires
female equivalent, sans Grand Poobah
aye surmise she deems my preference
favoring lower case, especially taking
a figurative page from thee poetic play
book of e.e. cummings, (not to be con-
fused with Elijah E. Cummings, thee
American, and United States Democrat
representing Maryland's majority dark
skinned precinct of Baltimore County
seventh congressional district), whose
shadow of fame diminished, but flagrant
flapping flaunting Puritanical principles
tantamount to in traducing taboos up-
ending ala revolutionary lampooning
his trademark imprimatur guilt frisson
faculty of his to delve into controversial
material blatantly candidly devotedly ex
pressing thoughts, sentiments, and re-
flexes skewed asper an irreverent teas-
zing exuberance flouting orthodox re-
finery by playfully making mince meat
of long cherished, fixed, and insulated
mores as shock treatment technique to
exhibit parsimonious, opprobrious, and
noxious malice lobbing fondness for
writing without heeding thy fondness
NOT CAPITALIZING the first person
singular pronoun, i, an upside down
exclamation point, whose dot eye see
clearly despite the fierce maelstrom!
How does a mom feed her triplets?
By getting some kinda griplet
allocating teat to liplet...
….I guess. Seems the math
suggests that this path's
more suited to bats.
I had three poems
- Short ones-
And was told where to stand
To read them
My time was limited
Only time to read the bare words
No time for introductions,
Side stories,
Or explanations
“Just read the poems”
So I did
My elocution was perfect:
Clear, and to the point
I left the stage
To a silent reception
Because no one knows
Who I am
You want to give up, before you even begin,
Undoing your thoughts on the target;
Not because it isn’t an exceptional idea-
But you ‘believe’ it doesn’t measure up to you.
So…
Do you measure up to unlucky fate?
Do you measure up to stagnation?
Do you measure up to unfairness?
Do you measure up to failures?
Do you measure up to pain that they bring?
For you adorn these, every dawn and dusk-
Yet what’s imperfect about them-
You grumble about their effects.
But your ‘belief’ is your undoing.
Life is ever clockwise;
But it will treat you the way you perceive it-
You see it a pain, it will be.
You see it unlucky, it will be.
You’re uncertain about moving, it will remain immobile.
You see it a curse, it will rub itself that way.
You see it a burden, it will weigh you down.
It is fair to the extent you let it be.
And maybe if you take a step of faith from the known into the unknown;
You might find exceptional ideas measure up to you,
And more than that, they are achievable.
Can't tie shoes. Can't read aloud. Can't memorize Latin.
IQ test. Panic. Shyness. Confidence goes missing.
"Ask, and you will receive." A corner turned.
College, city planner, romance, graduation.
Paradise lost. War drums. "You are ordered to report."
Many rockets fired, explosions all around.
"Grab your guns. Prepare for the invasion."
Terror and dread, the overwhelming emotions.
"Ask, and you will receive." Deliverance!
Cheers on homeward flight abound.
A terrible war left behind.
Civilian life. Lost and bewildered.
"Will I get a job? Will I fit in?"
"Ask, and you will receive." It all comes together.
Grad school, true love and a career.
Wedding bells, children, grandchildren. Blessings astound.
Retirement: activities, sports, travel. All a pure delight.
But time speeds up. No, we slow down. Sunset and aging.
Microsoft 7, 10 and 11. Ever more complicated.
Accounts, passwords. Far too many Applications.
Masks, shots and Covid-19. The spreading contagion.
Patient portals. Lab tests. Hospitalizations.
Can't keep up. There's no time. Difficulty remembering.
Anger. Self-doubt. Far too many frustrations.
"Ask, and you will receive." Rescued again.
True love comforts. Eternal Love sustains.
The Bible, Matthew, Ch. 7, Vs. 7-11
expectant motherhood
doth generate aurorean
glowing halo, inducing
jubilant kickstarter lil bean,
administering capitalone
earthlinked joyful lyft,
natural pheromone readying cerulean
tommorrow, venerated x2c gleam
zinging bounteous
dizzying feelings hormones houseclean
jackanapes leviathon nestling
pinterestinly interocean
reaching terminus vista
xing zee birth canal mien
doctor Fallopian
helps jiggle little nymphean
possibly ranking
topnotch venerated olympian
x-ray zooms
bringing developed fetus healthily seen
joyful loving neuro
logically plain resplent teen
knee weeny tiny
vaunted xpn zing baby dripping vasoline
like goo fully gesticulating happy jolly newborn.
Which miracle whipped purely by chance
given reason to the most orthodox
to sing and dance,
sans said singular biological
phenomenon does enhance
freshly minted parents,
or mommas and papas genetic grants
who already passed along
to a brood of offspring
gushing with excitement
akin to fire hydrants
spewing forth water
treasuring such Kodak moment,
cuz such instance
and subsequent tender
wonderful blessed
Instamatic reverent cherished instants
will zip at greased lightening speed lance
sing remembrance of things past
during twilight years,
an eye blink those yesterday,
and upon being centenarian,
doddering fogie gripping hold,
hugging intensely, indubitably decrying
how quickly of decades long ex pants
didst elapse, when tendering
to a coliciky, finicky,
inscrutably lemony offspring
wishing infant would grow up already,
now his tis aged father or mother
hood doth rants
at father time, he doth access
without a word an excel lent
power point demonstrattion
with near vertical line brevity
of how mortality slants.
Dear you responsible you
Dedicated sit back hug and kiss the hell out of you
Built up you like a brick you
concrete steady wall made you
Yes you low talking deep voice you trimmed mustache low hair cut brown you
Hey you yes you
Desirable you turn up and down the sound incredible you
Flint to bent down knee on the ground
Propose I know you
Yes you now you known ready
Playing games with you
Oh you yes you
Dependable you
Daddy day care rock the children to sleep story tell you
Protective you yes you
Provide only me stand take command deep voice you
Hey you yes you
Accept you as you don't change handsome you
(following on figurative heals
sans, l'amour,
i.e.,and that bastard conception
of life, liberty, and the
pursuit by George - Marshall ling, Grant
ting, and Bing Frank.)
Expectant motherhood generates aurorean
sonogram x-ray zooms
bringing developed fetus
healthily shimmering viz,
quasi hologram seen
glowing halo, inducing
jubilant kickstarter lil bean,
administering capitalone
earthlinked joyful lyft,
natural pheromone readying cerulean
tommorrows, venerated ecstacy doth gleam
zinging bounteous
dizzying feelings hormones houseclean
jackanapes leviathon nestling
pinterestinly interocean
reaching terminus vista
xing zee birth canal mien
doctor readies Fallopian tube cutting
helping jiggle little nymphean
possibly ranking...
as future topnotch venerated Olympian
fast forward to joyful loving neuro
logically plain resplendent teen
knee weeny tiny
vaunted expanding zing
baby dripping Vasoline
like goo fully gesticulating
happy jolly newborn.
Which miracle whipped
purely by chance
given reason to the most orthodox
to sing and dance,
sans said singular biological
phenomenon does enhance
freshly minted parents,
or the mommas
and papas genetic
copy wrought grants
who already passed along
to a brood of offspring
gushing with excitement
akin to fire hydrants
spewing forth fountain head
treasuring such Kodak moment,
cuz such instance
and subsequent tender
wonderful blessed
Instamatic reverent cherished instants
will zip at greased lightening
via speeding hurled lance
sing remembrance of things past
during twilight years,
an eye blink those yesterdays,
when my troubles seemed so far away
and upon being centenarian,
doddering fogie gripping hold,
hugging intensely, indubitably decrying
how quickly of
decades long ex pants
didst elapse, when tendering
to a coliciky, finicky,
inscrutably lemony snickety offspring
wishing infant would grow up already,
now onset of autonomy
Das Agean sea sunned
father or mother
hood doth rants
at father time, he doth access
without a word an excel lent
power point demonstration
with near vertical line brevity
of how mortality slants.
There isn't much that I know,
You should question someone else,
Someone who knows quite a lot
Where doubt's touch has not been felt
Into the wildness unknown
no time for thought
I've already entered
like it or not
against my own will, depression
hits me like a strong suggestion
I can't make wake or shake about
turns me upside down and inside out
No use for cheap imitations
my best bet know my limitations
won't fall victim to intimidation
certainty gives me such frustration
Once angry at the world
then angry at myself
until nothing else mattered
but amassing a staggering wealth
of knowledge in turn I learned for good
until everything in me worked
exactly how it should
then nothing could stop me
but self or the creator
I am just myself
I am tired fool's savior