Best Obstacle Poems
Brushed timeless in youth's inner light, dreams flow
like ruffles on dress stitched blue -
no fence long legs can't climb.
By Rhonda Johnson-Saunders, 2/15/15
For Nette's In Praise of A Kimo Contest
Visual #2
forward
watch your step
the shadows will hide deep cracks
if you should fall get back up
the path will guide so never give up my friend
at times you may walk
you may even run
crawling will never be shunned
if the path becomes hidden
you may stray
just look up and find your guide
there are many obstacles and many paths
stay the course and do the math
January 23rd, 2021
Suzette Prime Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
The grocery store becomes a maze
the moment I walk in~
a senior-sized obstacle course
I never signed up for.
The top shelves taunt me first,
stacked with everything I actually need.
I stretch, I rise on tiptoe,
I perform a small, wobbly ballet~
only to watch the cereal box
remain smugly out of reach.
Then come the bottom shelves,
where the soda cartons lurk.
I squat like a cautious archaeologist,
praying my knees won’t file a complaint.
I tug at the twelve-pack~
it tugs back.
We negotiate.
Eventually, I win,
but only by calling it a team lift
between me and the Holy Spirit.
Carts whiz by like racecars,
children dart like squirrels,
and I weave through the aisles
with the grace of a retired gymnast
who misplaced her balance in 1998.
But somehow, I make it~
past the shelves, past the soda,
past the checkout line that moves
with the speed of continental drift.
And when I finally reach my car,
I feel triumphant.
Victorious.
Practically athletic.
Who needs a gym membership
when the grocery store
offers a full-body workout
and a spiritual lesson
in patience, perseverance,
and laughing at myself
every single time.
Every Obstacle Away
Like a bird that sails over everything on earth
Without even a dram of worry in its heart,
If you try to live that way
You will certainly get every obstacle away.....
Find, in yourself, your capabilities
Be confident and obtain your susceptibilities,
Like a king who is known for his sceptred sway
Imitate him and you will get every obstacle away.....
Be optimistic but be content
Forge your future in every silent moment,
Like valorous lion hunting it's prey
Follow it and you will get every obstacle away.....
“Obstacle In Our Path”
Elephants
Side to side
Side to side
Rhythmically rocking my enormous body and head
Side to side
Side to side
Like a pendulum my trunk swings side to side
I'm only doing this because I'm bored
~
My family and I walk for miles and miles
Foraging,
Dusting,
Mud wallowing,
Swimming and socializing
~
We encounter an obstacle in our path
Humans have built a fence and block our path
Evidently they forgot that we never forget the path we always take?
~
I tense my enormous frame
Flare my ears and with a
Trump of rage
I gather my herd and together we work and push the fence down
To clear our path
~
Side to side
Side to side
We walk across and melt into the bush
©By: Eve Roper 8/28/2015
Contest Name: Giant animals
Sponsor: Nathan D.
I look up at the intimidating sight in front of me in anger.
A frustration so deep, so bottled.
I want to punch this obstacle, this enormous steel wall, but I refrain.
At least I still have my wits about me...somewhat.
How do I conquer this wall?
I look to my left, the wall extends as far as the eye can see...
and to my right, the same. No way around it.
My eyes dart up and follow the wall till it disappears in the clouds.
"I am not afraid of heights."
I say to the wall...or myself. Doesn't matter,
I will find a way up and over.
I’ve had struggled through long nights of sobbing.
Days of questioning,
Wanting reasoning.
Mental threatening.
There were things I just couldn’t answer, but still seeked.
I set boundaries for my self but still cheated, still peaked.
When someone comes along to help you see things for what they are,
They present you with something valuable.
They present you with a new outlook,
New mindset,
New hopes and dreams,
A new start, not to mention an open heart.
They help you strive,
They help you cope.
They help you live.
I used to stumble through life as an obstacle course,
You've helped me view it as a playground.
I play tag, you’re it.
Not to mention a perfect fit.
I swing high, through the sky.
I’m telling you, I’m madly in love with this guy.
I jumped through the air,
and I’m yet to hit the ground.
Don’t let me down, just always be around.
I dance with the clouds,
And am led to a new journey.
Light of the feet is light of the heart.
You’ve been doing your part.
I can be alone with my own thoughts,
I have more friends
I give myself a fair shot.
I can’t explain how you’ve helped me improve and turned me a new leaf.
After years of work, I’m sure I’ve caused you grief.
I just thank you for not giving up you see, because when I wake up I can finally breathe.
To sum it all up, my world is finally right.
I believe in myself so much may just take flight
I finally land and I’m not just anywhere.
I’ve placed my feet,
Right next to you, the only place I want to be.
You’ve fixed just about everything for me.
I used to stumble through life as an obstacle course; you've helped me view it as a playground
And you’re playing on it with me.
We didn't start out this way
We didn't plan for this
We created this
Our ancestors didn't think about
Corporations
and
Cars
What were their dreams?
Were they as materialistic as ours?
Survival only has one road
But many potential avenues to travel
It all ends up the same
My friend
Death
That final unconquerable
Obstacle
I was brought her under the false impression that this was one big adventure
I listened to my intuition (hopelessly wrong)
I was confident and excited and young
but time can change people
Now I feel older than the trees in Century Park
trapped in a concrete jungle
despairing, hopeless, but alive;
my confidence withered like the cacti on my balcony
hot, stuffy days learning nothing at a desk and
endless nights praying for a miracle to happen
Of course meeting you made this worse
but it was fun while it lasted
childish illusions all fade away eventually anyway
and even if I am taller than the buildings next to the flat I live in
taller, even, than the Pearl Tower
I will always be living in the shadow of someone else taller
I really shouldn't expect much from this life
but at least I can stick up two long fingers at her in the dark
but at least I can still exist
even as an obstacle
While sidestepping impediments,
Achilles heel stricken with paralyzing zap
chronically inducing captain klutz
to bemoan and yap,
i.e. (think) booby trap
strategically laid down by the missus -
necessitating yours truly
to patschke with marauder map
in an to circumvent and handicap
becoming lame and crippled for life
essentially rendering me totally tubular
pathetic non-ambulatory chap.
Aforesaid dangerous tripping hazard,
the spouse I do calmly berate
causing me being waylaid
for very important date
and/or additionally hurrying
to forestall bowel movement,
viz urgent incommodious fate
mine impromptu tanglefoot (feet) dance step
doth ineluctably foment hate.
Ready to lash out courtesy sanity claws
meanwhile thee wife burst out with guffaws
me cursing Sir Isaac Newton's gravitational laws
one infuriated husband
our marital covenant, he swiftly redraws
subsequently divorce sputters
thru clenched jaws
underscoring how feigned wedded bliss
(actually shotgun marriage)
replete with many flaws
e'er since chance encounter
regarding future maternal cause
deux daughters we begat
packed their bags at tender age,
and left home without pause.
All these approximate
two score plus oddly even years
avoiding precarious hazardous risks wears
heavily reinforced steel tipped
crampon tricked out boots,
which rugged footwear eventually tears,
though they outlasted lifetime
predicted on advertisements and follow up
customer satisfaction questionnaires
as satisfied survivor traversing
harrowing riddled landscapes,
I feel adequately trained to join
most hardy (doubting thomas) mountaineers,
especially those with surname Reznick
livingsocial, snapchatting, and twittering in Switzerland
possibly linkedin with Harris heirs
this wordsmith conclusively blares.
I non-jokingly attest -
above recounted spectacle no humorous avail,
thereby true love moost prevail
when wife leaves mayhem and bedlam
nothing boot trail of destruction without fail
excellent preparation if/when
purblind poetic papa needs to learn Braille.
fog as the white ghost
escorts the airship wrongly
brings a pathless wreck
-January 01, 2018 Chattogram
My family never allows me to read a book
Every time I attempt to read a page they'll tell me to cook
So day and night I sweat
But bitterness wipes of the wet
Triumphantly it makes me do all the work
A face with the bitterest frown,
For long years expecting a crown;
Now in prickly sweat bathed
And A Tongue is scathed …
It’s really an awful spectacle,
Facing no challenge, no obstacle,
As reported by his mirror
Doing so without error;
Ability he’s got and Agility
And all his life no infirmity.
So, why is he, Chief Favor
Facing Monarchical Disfavor;
For long years living for a crown
And it’s public knowledge in a far-off town?
What's this hill in front of me?
Is it another love obstacle? No it can't because I've been through one before.
A few steps closer yet it seems to travel further away.
Is it a goal or a destination, I don't know.
The sun blurs my vision for a moment but I can hear your guitar in the air and that
reassures me you're close by.
The notes slowly fill my heart with desire and passion.
I can hear your voice singing,"The keys are in the back by were we used to sit. You loved
me and I envied you. Let's start this journey over again. Just you and I."
He is out to spread his tentacles
In the face, of combative obstacles,
And dying to end through a tackle
Any unacceptable spectacle
Between The Rickety and The Ramshackle:
Busy roads he’d started their channels,
Hateful robbers sealing off their tunnels,
Corrupt judges replacing with panels,
Supported subsidy showing with funnels,
Filling stations without towels obliging flannels
Bottled water for user of runnels
His love for dogs at their kennels...
Determinedly spreading his tentacles,
All the wrongly jailed breaking their shackles!