Best Rationalizing Poems
Dr. Jekyll
Diabolical, villainous
Experimenting, killing, hating
Murder, schizophrenia, man, husband
Loving, caring, rationalizing
Gentle, friendly
Mr. Hyde
Categories:
rationalizing, death, fantasy, father, mystery
Form:
Diamante
Longer than twenty years it took me
Of steadfast faithful simplicity
Voicing reassurance, for her to truly get that I’m not you
Explains just how much you put her through.
Mister important ladies man, so dashing
Everyone else takes a back seat; hearts are for smashing
Another looker, another ********, another member of the ex-wife collection
Narcissism is a shameful condition, but you have zero
Shame, else you’d loathe yourself as I do, mister hero.
Love means loyalty, putting your loved ones first
Owning your impact, not rationalizing your thirsts
Your choices all--good, bad, and worst
And keeping your damned pants on when your
Lady is not around for you to ignore
Too late now, for the sake of your daughter’s heart
You’ll never fix it, but that’s no longer your part.
4/22/16
For Contest: Loyalty
Sponsor: Broken Wings
Categories:
rationalizing, character, childhood, father daughter,
Form:
Acrostic
It seems I’ve traveled this path,
too many times to count.
A road which leads to nowhere,
mentally unable to dismount.
It was an easy route to follow,
for demands were not emplaced.
The only requirement needed,
was precious time to waste.
As I follow the road of surrender,
thoughts tease my mental state.
Is this the path I’m destined for,
and have I sealed this fate?
I should have turned around,
and taken an alternate route.
But rationalizing the purpose,
left me full of doubt.
The path less traveled is easier,
than walking towards one's goals.
The road which leads to nowhere,
always embraces this empty soul.
Categories:
rationalizing, introspection, life, loss, sad,
Form:
Rhyme
I just heard Buffy's song
for the first time in many years.
It brought me to tears,
because it reminded me of
how much I have changed,
how far I have gone and
what I have become.
I once stood
shoulder to shoulder
with other of the same mind,
sure to the bone,
that no killing
could ever be justified.
The universal soldier
could never claimed
to be sent by me.
Now I sit,
a dirty old poet,
analyzing angst,
grieving over grief,
rationalizing apathy,
watching a hard rain fall,
and universal soldiers
kill women, children
and each other,
do genocide in the name
of the corporate order
and myself.
Categories:
rationalizing, introspectionme,
Form:
Free verse
There is exquisite pain
In being offered a beautiful gift
Fine the wrapping
The bows beautifully beguiling
The attached card:
Love’s testament in writing
Everything indicates
The contents are perfect
What lies inside
Can satisfy, electrify, gratify….
BEAUTIFY, yes, beautify your life
Wrapped up in pretty paper
The outside tantalizes
Alluring me to open
Open…Open…OPEN!
Yet….
I sit and stare
At the beauty before me
Thinking...rationalizing...
Nothing lasts forever
NOTHING
Were the gift to be handled and fondled
It might lose its newness
Its mystic
Its beauty
It might get...old
And so
The gift sits there
Unopened
But there is exquisite joy in knowing
In there beats a heart for you
Strong and true
Experiences fresh and new
When you are stronger
You will pull that pretty blue bow
Yet for now...
it’s good to know
the gift remains waiting...
The gift is for you
Eileen Manassian
Categories:
rationalizing, giving,
Form:
Free verse
Fear not for the time is now
Erected, stand and declare freedom
Arm yourself with axioms of humanism
Rationalizing the essence of being
Categories:
rationalizing, allegory,
Form:
Acrostic
Defenses of the Mind
Mechanisms employed as defense
Unconscious pretense
Unrevealed
A protective shield
Inner truths hard to bare
Held safely there
Defenses, the living ghost
Rationalizing, one of a host
The do not care escapes
Known as “sour grapes”
When displacing a truer threat
Dumping on… as safer outlet
Suppressing and stuffing inside
Difficult to hide--- set-aside
As emotional retreat
Subconscious self-defeat
What cannot be faced
As if erased
No visible trace
A well-hidden trail
In mind’s jail
Locked in memory’s file
Stored under denial.
08/10/15
Categories:
rationalizing, psychological,
Form:
Rhyme
The typical intro,
A moment of reflection,
Philosophical conversation with my glass veil is ago,
I swear she's the perfect audience lacking in cognition but excellent in reception,
Shameless in anonymity and thoroughly content being one-dimensional,
An afterthought emerged from reverberating echoes,
Rationalizing a fantasy through demented reality and an appeal to logos,
External concern expressed through intellectual opinion against a majesty outside the realm of scientific convention,
A slight ringing in my ear,
The hazing of the eyes,
My hand presses against the screen and a genie appears,
her technicolor smoke-screen muffles sound and blankets sight,
Far beyond my mortal boundaries I reach,
Into the land of impossibilities ignorantly called "make believe",
Calling upon my polygonal masters from this pulpit I beseech,
That your realm of tangible thought be opened to me,
Allow me to apply my humble craft in hopes of conveying your magnificence to the world,
So that they too will experience your wonder,
Before they grow too old.
Categories:
rationalizing, age, computer, fantasy, imagination,
Form:
Rhyme
Alphabet poems are sometimes called, “a,b,c” poems.
But that is incorrect because a.b.c. poems only have 25 words in them.
Commonly, that mistake is made because the lines are written in alphabetical order.
Despite a clear definition of the Abecedarian form, even I continued to say, “a,b,c”
Everyone makes mistakes, but I always try to be so careful, sometimes overly so.
Forgetting is easy, but after writing this poem, I am hoping I will remember.
Generally speaking, perhaps many poets don’t care one way or the other.
However for me, I seem to be obsessed with continuing to learn and remember.
Instinctively, I know that words said matter more than what the form is called.
Just like the essence of a person is more important than their name(s)
Kindhearted souls express opinions, forgive mistakes, and share knowledge.
Laugh if you like. Laugh if you will. Go ahead. Laugh. LAUGH. LAUGH!!!
My feelings will not be hurt one little bit. No, I will not dwell on my mistake.
Never have I worked so hard to help myself remember a definition.
Over and over, I have made the same mistake in the past; it is time to stop!
Perhaps, I am rationalizing so I won’t feel so bad about my mistake.
Quality a.b.c. poems, after all, can be more difficult than Abecedarian poems.
Rationalizing poetic forms, does not make any poem better or right.
Sometimes, you have to just suck it up and admit that a mistake was made.
Today is that painful day for me. Abecedarian poems are NOT a.b.c. poems.
Underneath this chatter lies an embarrassed poet I should have known better.
Verily, verily, I say unto myself and others, “Get over it, already!”
When everything is said and done, no on gives a flip!
Xena might IF she were a real live woman who wrote strong poetry.
Yet she is mythological, created by the imagination of humankind.
Zip it up is what I’ll do, now. I have reached the letter z. LOL
By Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
12/27/2016
Categories:
rationalizing, angst, word play, words,
Form:
Abecedarian
No’s
Talking to themselves in the third person
Detached, separate,
ominous—a stilted nuance that does want to know
Abrupt attention spans lashing out as the deadends foreclose
Cutting back on all the backslapping
Having wanted to believe all the
smooth lies and all that crap brings
Devolver minds snapping
Struggling to get out from under makes denial clear
That hate will only listen to fear
Ground-zero panderers jacked up on anger and lack of reason
Birthers,
churchers,
hardrighters, flinching through all the circumspect treasons
The angryanxiety fringe
A binge of onthemake bumper-sticker values gone rouge
Corrosive
these druthers and their blackface esthetic:
the avarice acumen pathetic
Offish flaws as validation, rage as wisdom
What the No generation has become
A reality TV worldview that sees itself through its swindled delusions
Overmedicated, undereducated—the slander ethic
70%-off prosperity
Nightmare personalities who just don’t get it
Alibiing
the next impulse—gimme now
Rationalizing the next urge—gimme now
Surging the absurd—gimme now
Going for another denial do or die—gimme now
Categories:
rationalizing, political, urban
Form:
Free verse
for you, m
-------------
pale horse led by shrouded spectre through foggy thicket
dark days behind them illuminated by soaring ember skies
saturated soil slick under their feet impeding their ascent
leafy shelter their only escape from the rainy elements
their trek is treacherously long, winding over the countryside
days on end, not another living, breathing soul in sight
the spectre locked in inescapable conversation with his mind
rationalizing the pain and loss given and taken without ask
muscles sore, aching back, throbbing feet, gasping lungs
resting against damp bark, drinking water from a leaf
looking, his eyes piercing through the thick foilage
a sign of life comes to him, the humming of a muse's song
a lady in white, aimlessly about, content to herself
her fingertips gently caressing both flora and fauna
stumbling over a tree root, her majestic dress soiled
the spectre witnessing, rushes over, aiding her recovery
her arm draped over his neck, rolled ankle hindering her steps
taking her fully into his arms, he seats her atop his steed
back on route to new life, the company now made three
her inquiries met with silence, not so much as a name spoken
destination reached, he retrieves the damsel from on high
carrying her through the inn threshold, to her rented loft
dressing her ankle, elevating it and massaging away discomfort
his eyes fixated on hers, remnants of his past reflecting out
== see part two ==
Categories:
rationalizing, anger, devotion, hope, lonely,
Form:
Narrative
Rationalizing cost humanity Paradise
with burden to choose right the price
an ego to be awaken to rise
when the herd falls asleep to vice
Snake pride tends to hide
selfishness in a tomb inside
righteous façade outside
to camouflage grudges' bite
Passing blame for robbery of joy
burning culprit in thoughts like toy
scattering ashes' sparks to destroy
compassion that love may deploy
As part of humanity body
a sneeze in Wuhan is felt in Bari
a boomerang that travels to return
multiplied to quench or to burn
Only God reads thoughts judges right
His lovelight perfection shines bright
through any window open to His light
sprouting charity everywhere in sight
First Place Winner: A Brian Strand Rhymed Contest-8/2/21
Honorable Mention: Carolyn Devonshire-Unity-1/22/21
Categories:
rationalizing, judgement,
Form:
Rhyme
Just like My Daddy
It started a long time ago as a kid, I was still young
Rebelling against the law, back talking adults, but I thought it was still fun
I always thought about changing but I figured why bother
When I did good, it wasn’t noticed, but when I did bad, “ I was just like my father”
That’s what my mother would say, when she got angry
Because she knew that the lack of love at home wouldn’t be enough to sustain
me
My mother’s excuse was” my father was working” but I knew she was lying to me
I was emotionally dying inside, waking up in cold sweats, and crying in my sleep.
With no role model to correct me, all my problems just carried over
Because the same issues I had when I was young just got worse as I got older
I should have known that this must have stemmed from my beginnings
As a result I lack understanding and knowledge on how to treat women
Trying to find out my purpose when I roll life’s dice, and there is no luck again
Rationalizing with the punishing thought that I might have to grow up again
I found out my ex was pregnant, now she is already sending child support bills to
me
I wasn’t taught how to respond to that, so I run, after all the responsibility was
killing me
Now I spend my days on the road having fun and drug using
To escape the thoughts of what my life really is or what my son or daughter is
doing
My mother’s words echo through my mind at night, until the truth grabs me
I find myself crying, because I quit life and responsibility, Just like My Daddy
Stevie D/ Lover Boy
Dedicated to breaking the cycle
Categories:
rationalizing, depression, family, life, people,
Form:
Narrative
Near vacant reason
Absolute truth vanishes
Rationalizing
Categories:
rationalizing, truth,
Form:
Haiku
Illicit explicit; sexual attraction
Excited ignited; creating breath contractions
Inquiring inspiring; conceptual abstractions
Revising devising; negative reactions
Growing flowing; concoctions to beguile
Evasive persuasive; march in single file
Conformity repeatedly; strewn about the isle
Leading pleading; unhappy domicile
Complimentary imagery; designed to spark ones passion
Compulsory adultery; often not in fashion
Illusions delusions; to your heart will fasten
Rationalizing compromising; involuntary actions
Accumulating formulating; accomplishments ornate
Devising disguising; the shadow cloak you drape
Forward bound lost and found; an exit less escape
Looking round from underground; is he who wears a cape
Insistence resistance; that of which you know
Retribution restitution; the lines already show
That stench he'll blow in that hole; will rip you to the soul;
The voice you hear in your ear is you; begging not to go
He pleasures the treasure; your time has come and went
Reviewing undoing’s; will be the time you spent
Destinies irony; too late to take repent
Eternity’s agony; you made your own torment
Categories:
rationalizing,
Form:
Rhyme