Best Respectability Poems
Let is flow like runny honey your sweet creativity,
Let is shine all sublime your original artistry.
For you have your place with such grace and respectability,
Do your thing so it may bring you peace and sheer stability.
~ For 'Liberum Divisa 5 Poetry Contest', Sponsor: Gregory R Barden~
Taken from 'Inspiration for writers'
Categories:
respectability, art, encouraging, inspirational,
Form:
Free verse
Let is flow like runny honey your sweet creativity,
Let is shine all sublime your original artistry.
For you have your place with such grace and respectability,
Do your thing so it may bring you peace and sheer stability.
Express yourself with no fear for we all have our place
to be a part of greater art where others can embrace...
Your theories, your ideas, your feelings from your heart,
Know your worth born on earth to be a working part.
Write, write, write and to delight write on til all duration
Be proud of you and all you do for such imagination !
Categories:
respectability, art, encouraging, inspirational, write,
Form:
Free verse
TalAngela JamIN
Dance in the early 19th century
There’s s a woman named TalAngela, complementary
She was a pretty woman she wears a crown
And she surely knows how to get down
TalAngela wore 10 inch heels
While out on the dance floor she would reel
Her step be on point
As the music lit the whole joint
Ragtime music began to gain mainstream respectability
Her desert on the floor the cakewalk, tippy-toe
TalAngela racket, quick foot cuts space
And sideways slides, performed in either place
Three-forth such a gallop in redowa, in the waltz
Ooh we we not getin lost in the Foxtrot
Ahh! Show them girl you can dance
Dancein cause got has a smooth gliding feeling frank
Tango Teas, reneasause got me on my tippy-toes
Ragtime begin to gain mainstream look at her go
Popularity around the late 19th century and into the 1910s.
Redowa triple time come on down girl friend
Spin around three times with me
Grizzly Bear growl at me
Run on them two legs luv
, Foxtrot, Duck Waddle, Bunny Hugs
What kind of gentleman is love?
How bout, it Turkey Trot stepin hard
Ooh, you stepping on the right spot time
Black Bottom move groove N rhythm rhyme
Combined shoulder and hip movements spin that dime
A modified national craze get them hips rotatin rhyme
The Texas Tommy
Swing dance in San Francisco African Follies
The Texas Tommy breakaway step
In an 8-count rhythm move your tummy breath
Ooh! Getting down swing like in African Follies
There was this woman named TalAngela Dolly
And she knew how to get down
TalAngela wore 10 inch heels she does
10/8/24
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2024©
Dedicated VERSE FOR SHASTA SIMMS ANTHOLOGY #2
Categories:
respectability, adventure, allusion, celebration, character,
Form:
Lyric
repugnant racist republican reviled - rickettsia re:itch ruler.
rapaciously ravaged revered reverential rubric.
radical ruthless renegade rapidly riotously rips rigged ramparts.
refrains retaining remnant redolent regal, resplendent rafters.
riches rudely rupture rooted rectified rights.
ruckus ricochets revenant reign.
ratified rattlebrained rules roil reductionism.
rumbustious rapscallions rollick; render ruinous ramifications.
rusty razor razing revenge rents reprisal.
rabid rectal rictus rotten rebrands re-calibrate.
rambunctious revolutionaries rejoice.
ruffians ride roughshod routing reigning royalty.
reiterate revetting robust recidivist rationality.
ride Rolls Royce relentlessly rendering rock ribbing.
riffraff raconteur raise reactionary response.
revisit rancorous restrictive redlined realigned rightward rivets.
robocop ridiculously rubber-stamped reorganization.
recalcitrant reactors release rapture.
rash Russian roulette reconnaissance raconteurs rack rubles.
red room reflects republican RNA.
rap risible rheumy ratiocinated rug-rats revoke righteous refulgent repertory.
rapier robed robbers ransack reliquary resounding retaliation.
retaliatory redcoat regnum reformation remembered.
Rudy robotically recoiling rapprochement
raison d'être rosily revered rifled relics raffled.
rookie raves ripe rackful rubenesque reliably ranked.
refulgent rotundity requisite requirement re: reappointment.
road-tested, roadworthy redeem reapportion routed role.
reprehensible reassignment rapidly recognizes response.
rife rampage removes respectability - respect.
responsible roused restitution refuted.
risky resultant reconnoitering runaway railroad reverberates rivalry.
reflexive ramrod reaction reconfirms redoubling ridding revitalization.
reconfiguration realpolitik reinstates repudiation
rebooting Roosevelt regime reconsidered.
requisition requires resilient reseeding republic.
regrettable riley roars remorseless ribbing.
rare recount restoring recondite renown reprobate Rapunzel.
Republican representatives rejoice reclaiming reins
registering retarded romantic remains
re: Rastafarian revered reliquary rests!
Categories:
respectability, allusion, analogy, confusion, crazy,
Form:
Alliteration
Charles Bukowski Road Not Chosen
While reading Charles Bukowski poetry
On the metro ride home
Listening to Buddha bar music
On my oh too hip IPod
I begin to see myself as I was
Over 30 years ago when I was merely a bit player
A minor character in a Charles Bukowski poem
A wild young underemployed intellectual
Hanging out in dismal bars and dives all over Asia and California
Hanging with disreputable women and drunks and drinkers
And characters out of his kinds of haunts
A mad poet bard of the underground
A drunken poet in a drunken bum show
That nightly played in his head
Then one day I met the women of my dreams
And went down a different path
A long slow path to respectability
And now 30 years later
I am no longer a wild man
I am still a poet at heart
But I am now also a bureaucrat
In a button down suite
Doing the people's business
Working for the Government
I've become the Man
Sometimes I wonder
Would I have been better off
Going down that another path
Would I have ended up
Somewhere else
Doing something else
Would I have been as happy
Would I have been as successful?
There is no answer that satisfies
The longing in my heart
For that wild thing
That still lurks beneath
It's civilized cover
And I know that I am still
A mad poet at heart
Railing against the injustice of the world
As I work day by day in the belly of the great beast of State
I recall the ancient Chinese saying,
"Confucian during the day while Taoist rebel at night"
Playing out in my head and nightly dreams
In the true American Upper class patrician tradition
I close the book and look out the window
Get off the train, and walk slowly home
And realize I had no choice
But to take the path that I’ve trodden on
And so I put aside my misgivings
And say goodbye to my "Bukowskian"desires
For another night of domestic contentment
Was it worth it all to take the conventional path
And not take the bohemian road to hell and back
I look at my wife and realize
I had no choice, had no choice
But to follow her to the ends of the earth
And beyond by her side as we walked our path
Of shared destiny
Goodbye Charles Bukowski wherever you are
May I meet you in a bar in the next life
And figure out where we should have gone
Until then the drinks are on me.
Categories:
respectability, anger, anxiety, career, change,
Form:
Free verse
You create them
You give birth to them
You nurture them
You raise them
All the while seeking to rearrange them
For you insist on always owning them
Kids are forever
Children are our saviour
Dynasties become prolonged
It is never best to have just one
Mirrors of one’s ambition
Apple of our critical eye
A mini me who is never contrary
A vessel to fill with my life plan
Someone to control till I die
Pride is king
The family name is nirvana
The façade of respectability must never crumble
All and sundry must toe the line
For the world must believe all in this household is fine
Be better
Be all we wish you to be
Attain heights we never grasped
Never let our ambition lapse
Caged and thus unable to be free
Longing for a faraway glimpse of liberty
Dying to show some level of individuality
A life on a road to eventual calamity
Secrets and hopes
Are encased deeply
In a psyche that aches gloomily
Insular and depressed
They contemplate university
They exist from day to day
Awaiting a long list of all they need to say
The dress sense must be perfect
Their manner never abrupt
Everything is done to give the family
A social step up
Grades must be exemplary
A career path must show economic sensibility
Friends must be vetted minutely
Who cares about your sanity
Do it all for our vanity
You can never grow up
We own you for life
Fly the nest and we follow
We are your bothersome shadow
Letting go is hard for us to do
When we made you
It was not only because we wanted you
Our future plans have always revolved around you
Smile and never let the world know
How dismally we have wrecked you
Those that must forever be
The centre of another’s world
Have a big responsibility
They are clones
And will always be second best
Categories:
respectability, abuse, betrayal, children, dedication,
Form:
Free verse
During last night’s draft coverage, ESPN would reveal
that the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles made a deal.
At the last minute, Philadelphia sent their first-round pick
to Cleveland for two Browns choices in a move that was quick.
With pick number twenty-two, the Browns chose Johnny Manziel.
This was a move many Browns fans thought was swell.
Cleveland folks will be happy as hell welcoming him here.
He was the first Heisman Trophy winner in his freshman year.
Johnny hopes to bring the Browns back to respectability this season.
Cleveland is quite happy, and Johnny is the reason.
From a sports news story found on ESPN.com
Categories:
respectability, football,
Form:
Rhyme
spring sonnet
The vines are greening and the old man who owns the vines
was busy trimming them although it was Sunday and church
bells chimed He is very old 92 last year, and it was father’s day
a few days ago. He never married, but every bush is his child
And he gives them equal time. He is in many ways a lucky man
the vines love him, he knows that, leaves softens in his caring
hands that carry a promise of everlasting worship.
On father’s day, I never left the house, sat by the phone waited
for a call from my daughter, she is everything I never achieved,
my futile dream of respectability.
A whisper of a wind came through the open window, gently told
me that my cherished is a figment of my dreams of perfecting.
Then an irate storm cast rattled the window, your real daughter was
born in poverty in Kingston, Jamaica, the child of a prostitute and
she became one too.
Categories:
respectability, angel, assonance, beautiful, best
Form:
Suzette Prime
I cant take it anymore,
This isn't what I've planed for!
I was confident, saturated with ambition,
I became lost, with no destination.
I had it all, It got took all away;
Joy,love and transparency, became nothing but sadness, hatred and ambiguity.
I loved the way it was, but it was never Okey,
Okey for adapting to facing indignity with respectability.
However Seeking change, Is a double edged sword challenge;
A halt caused by fearfulness, or a motive stimulated by persistence;
To shrink and deteriorate, to rise and pullulate.
Categories:
respectability, anger, anxiety, change, conflict,
Form:
ABC
These are all ruminations that arose from a recent backpacking trip in the Ventana Wilderness
Needing to bring spiritual realities
into the press of raw humanity,
amongst the most humble
the dreamer seems visionary.
Addiction is a mirror;
if I look into it for long
I will see myself
attempting suicide.
With my conscious mind in tow
I descend into my heart
through imagination,
there learning your memory
is the sunshine
each new day bears.
A covey of fat
mountain quail and me,
we surprised each other
on the trail this morning
at just past six,
the significance of this not eluding me
having already had my manna.
In a field of false lupin
spilling the earth
an unearthly blue
surrounded by young madrone
of vibrant green and neon brown
sprung from the ashes
of disastrous fire
i chanced an encounter
with One who has all power
in taking a chance
on His love
They are
perhaps not stars
but distant openings
windows to beyond
to back where i started from,
ever His intention
i find my way home
It would make more sense
were my gray matter
yellow, or white
with a goldenrod center,
given the scrambled
and fried responses
it comes out with
Little glimpses
leaving hunger for more,
poetry draws me into
an other's life:
just because I wasn't there
doesn't mean
I can't recall it.
A non-entity with ambitions
inured to my own strangeness,
being published gave an air of respectability,
the way squirrels are saved
from looking like rodents
by their bushy tails.
In process he found
a self-worth being, then
a self worth becoming, and
a self worth revealing.
Categories:
respectability, adventure, faith, forgiveness, imagination,
Form:
Free verse
The San Diego crowds you continued to amaze
in your twenty seasons playing for the Padres.
A lifetime batting average of .338
and over three thousand hits are feats so great.
As you played the outfield with fluid dexterity and grace,
the offense was ignited with your many times reaching base.
You helped lift your team from past mediocrity
to a prominent position of respectability.
You are taking your place among the best of the game
as your bronze plaque is displayed in the Hall of Fame.
Categories:
respectability, dedication, sports,
Form:
Rhyme
Pick up the pieces, the remnants of
your folly, you few who shuffle the
decks of life. So few to guide ones
destiny, giving quality or lack of,
to your indigenous subjects.
Contesting paladins that manipulate
every move, each infinitesimal pawn
representing a million fold, facing
extinction from each perpetrating
venomous queen, masquerading in her
veil of respectability, whilst
threatening in all directions, just
seeking to intimidate before
striking the ultimate blow for her
player. A stalemate situation
giving both sides honour without
loss, but whom gives a through to
the mother’s, are not her losses the
nations also, are not her tears
programmed, her emotions computerized
into your warring brain?
Who! Are these unmoralistic
puppeteers, those ignominious players
of the ultimate game, those that
stand behind courteous expressions
of decency, love and respect?
“The kings of this game,” Them to be
written into the annals of life,
giving intent of emulation to
future disciples. “History has no
past, no future, just a recurring
theme, only the names change”
© Harry J Horsman 1990
Categories:
respectability, political,
Form:
Free verse
The high life is the cause of the drug trafficking lifestyle,
A kilo of contraband, can gain a man/woman respectability
on demand,
Transatlantic flights to and fro, only makes their fortunes grow,
Selling their junk to the suburbs and ghettos,
where the folks are overtaken by their vices,
Making them weak and mello,
Causing their children woes,
The authorities are willing to look the other way,
as long as they get a piece of the "take",
Many will use themselves as vessels,
no one's the wiser until a body part breaks,
Drug mules, they are called, because
they have no limit,
Any quantity will do
as long as they reach their financial
zenith,
Even then, they are never really through,
Their spirits are barren and can easily
be filled by the poisons they transport,
Their souls are empty and their integrity
lacks merit,
Yet, they never give up,
Always on the prowl for compromised
cohorts.
Categories:
respectability, political
Form:
Prose Poetry
"I" lends respectability
To extant personality
And offers much to those it serves -
Perhaps more than it should deserve.
Important as this "I" might be
It lacks depth in humility
And sometimes fails humanity
By being its own efigy.
Beyond the realm we know as "I"
Is that which we identify
As beneficial harmony
That honors truth and equity.
It is a place of selfless grace
With neither gender, class nor race;
No self-proclaimed philosophy
Nor strident religiosity.
It prompts no economic scheme
Of gain derived through plan or dream
And holds the harness of the Id
As Ego, superego did.
It gives no thoughtless verity
To "sunshine days" integrity.
Unawed by status or by wealth -
This is the realm of "Beyond Self."
This realm is blessed with keen insight
Enhanced by self-reflection's light
And tests responsibility
In terms of our civility.
Here, selflessness is our just cause
Relying on a moral clause
That accepts human frailities,
Conditions and proclivities.
Categories:
respectability, character, future, hope, humanity,
Form:
Rhyme
EARLY MASS IN ORDINARY TIME
Gray helmet hair, carefully
Curled, dangling earrings,
Designer suit, ear of salamander,
Eye of newt. White haired
Soulmate, shoulders strong,
More is More, importance seen
In every pore: Respectability
highly prized, but my Sunday
Plea to The Powers That Be:
Deliver Me from Respectable,
so unacceptable.
Categories:
respectability, bird,
Form:
Rhyme