Best Nonconformity Poems
Scrambling over each other, trying hard to be heard, interrupting, yelling out, being yourself.
We knew how to do this when we were two, and three, and four, but they socialized it out of us.
So we grew up un-learning our naturalness, un-learning our playfulness, unlearning our potential.
Sure, they say, we are going to help you with your potential, but as we fit into the lines, conforming,
Winding our real selves into the pretenders others accept, we lose our potential, because it is
Not ours anymore, it is your idea of what ours should be. When we break ranks, and run for it,
You lament that you cannot control us. Thank goodness you cannot, for the leaders, the ones who have
Stood for hundreds and thousands of others have learned to scream their truth from the roof tops,
Challenging those who think controlling others is normal. There is nothing more abnormal than that.
Nonconformity
All my life I have been controlled
Told what to think
Told how to behave
Told what was right and wrong
Don’t talk to strangers
Eat all your vegetables
Obey the rules that God set down millennia ago
Who made the decisions for me?
Preachers, teachers and parents were all guilty
Don’t use drugs because they rot your mind
Their morals and ideas twisted my mind
I grew up obeying every word in fear of eternal punishment
At least a note in my permanent record
I grew, read and learned that the world was not white and black
Strangers ended up being cool people
Meat tastes better than the vegetables I used to be served
God’s rules were designed to take every bit of fun out of life
Pot was a cool drug that never hurt anyone and helped some
I learned that the people who taught me never listened to the rules they preached
One thing they did teach me was to never conform
Never listen to people who feign authority
Always learn for yourself
Experience is more knowledgeable than preachers, teachers or parents
So now I live hated by some and admired by others
Both call me the same name, “nonconformist”
That name is one I wear with pride
I hope that kids of the next generations will refuse to accept the nontruths
I hope that they will learn to question authority
I hope that someday there will be more nonconformist like me
They will not have to live being spurned by a conformist society
It is my hope that they will speak out and be heard
And at that time nonconformity will be the norm
And all will be good
What I miss day and night,
is the nonconformity to realize
that we don't know anything...
Hence, this terrible emptiness
in the soul ...
This hole in the solar plexus...
An incurable disease in this world
that we call, anguish... !
When I saw her eyes were burnt sienna,
and her lips were purple plaid,
when she said she wasn’t my kid’s teacher,
boy, was I ever sad.
Confusion in all the most obvious places
On her face,
In his words
A collective silence to urge nothing said should leave this room
A mark of intelligence
Missed by a split second of hesitation
Its harder to talk with a drink soaring down your throat
But I can't say it's out of character
And it must suck to see me this way
Avoiding confusion in all the most overlooked places
It's all over their faces
Oh, how the night was slipping away from them
They'll never get that time back
They'll never get that time back
But me, I've already moved on
And I'm ready to trade up in the afterlife
They'll never get that time back
But you'll never improve
with one foot in the present
And the other in the past
Fear prevails for another day
I thought if I waited long enough
I'd eventually find the strength
Is my body getting weaker?
Is my body giving up on me?
I'll never get that time back
But you'll never improve
with one foot in the present
And the other in the past
So fear prevails for another day
But I find hope in the most unexpected of places
And I'll hold onto that
For when my body's giving up on me