Best Roth Poems
Madness, the Hatter blinks.
Madness, Oz's link.
Repercussions of concussions.
Madness was Portnoy's complaint**,
Madness must reciprocate!
Hallucinations filter by....
Leary* winks at Dali's eye.
A house lands on Dorothy's thighs...
Chicken Little wanders by.
"Madness," Hitler's honcho’s sneer.
Madness splices genes with fear.
"Lobotomize!" becomes the cheer.
Kellogg’s* enema's find waiting rears.
"Are you the ass? Or is it me?
Have I ears and a nose? What do you see?"
"Hehawww," said Pinocchio's friends.
"Heeehaw," said Darwin* back again.
Round and round went Steven Hawkings*.
"Madness," said Lenore's raven* squawking.
"Madness," said Einstein* in a blink.
"Reciprocate!," said the missing link.
Reference Poem Knock Knock by The Archaic Poet - topic madness
* Art by Salvador Dali
* Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth states
if you know you are crazy than you must be sane.
* Timothy Leary explored LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs.
* Kellog [of cereal fame] proposed enema's as the cure to
all health ills, plus loads of sex!
* Darwin proposed man evolved from apes.
* Edgar Allen Poe was mad when he wrote The Raven.
* Einstein had aspergers syndrome a type of
* Steven Hawkings is a wheelchair bound scientist who autism.
extrapolates on the edge of mathematical reality.
Categories:
roth, confusion, fantasy, funny, imagination,
Form:
Rhyme
Madness, the Mad Hatter blinks.
Madness, Oz's link.
Repercussions of concussions.
Madness was Portnoy's Complaint*,
Madness must reciprocate!
Hallucinations filter by
Leary* winks at Dali's eye.
A house lands on the wicked witches thighs.
Chicken Little wanders by.
"Madness," Hitler's honcho’s sneer.
Madness splices genes with fear.
"Lobotomize!" becomes the cheer.
Kellogg’s* enema's find waiting rears.
"Are you the ass? Or is it me?
Have I ears and a nose? What do you see?"
"Hehawww," said Pinocchio's friends.
"Heeehaw," said Darwin* back again.
Round and round went Steven Hawkings*.
"Madness," said Poe's raven* squawking.
"Madness," said Einstein* in a blink.
It drive me crazy just to think!
"Reciprocate!," said the missing link.
* Art by Salvador Dali
* Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth states
if you know you are crazy than you must be sane.
* Timothy Leary explored LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs.
* Kellog [of cereal fame] proposed enema's as the cure to
all health ills, plus loads of sex!
* Darwin proposed man evolved from apes.
* Edgar Allen Poe was mad when he wrote The Raven.
* Einstein had aspergers syndrome.
* Steven Hawkings is a wheelchair bound scientist [has autism]
he extrapolates on the edge of mathematical reality.[Really!]
Categories:
roth, funny, imagination, inspirational, introspection,
Form:
Verse
Beyond the Black Fence
By Sy Roth
The land lay fallow
Beyond the black fence.
Growth once dressed in a white blanket of hoar in winter landscapes
Lush in summer months
Deer speckled backdrop
Munched all day behind a scrim of lush camouflage
And black birds rested on the scrub
Coupled with the land and each other
A fornucopia of perpetuation.
But like time
It marched in to war on its own turf--
The cranes, yellow tractor-footed creatures
Tore at the soil and formed mountains of dirt
That wild (plants?) draped over
And the long-necked (?) concrete spreaders
Filled the gaping foundations with its gray slush
And the deer fled
And the black birds had resting places on the open rooftops
And the last trees crumbled to the diesel monsters
Where future houses will stack itself with the firewood
Of septuagenarians and those who aspire to end that race.
Incessant noise of change
A cock-a-doodle-doo alarm
On the other side of the black fence
My side where I find comfort in a book
And a drink to whet my appetite
And conjure up the images of the verdant green that once was
And the hoary land that once was my winter vista
Categories:
roth, angst,
Form:
Free verse
Two Dogs at the Gateway
By Sy Roth
They slurped their saliva,
huge globs,
big, barking mouthfuls
dripping from their jowls like milky icicles
Teeth-bared lips,
They guarded the gateway.
Pleased by their vacated spittle,
their noses now sniffed the air, and
like a marching band of electric ants
they ogled the nearing invader.
Anew, the soppy, conglomeration of spittle
wells at their muzzles
forming a frothy milkshake
determined to expel the approaching trespasser.
His hands stretched out flat in peaceful kindness,
prophylactic, heavy-breathing
moseying him to the gateway
wraps him in a pulsing eagerness.
A satyr’s blessing upon him as he approaches
Where the two dogs growled ominous presentiments--
Twin Cerberuses,
Headache kin of dashed wishes.
Evening shadows stifle all desires.
Lips part in anticlimax.
He rolls to the other side
away from the yapping hounds,
away from the uncomfortable pauses,
away from the anticipation
onto a sterile, flattened field
where done yet reeks of a flaccid fantasy.
A grotesquery of mordant imagination
content to sleep on the other side of the booming roar
away from the slurping beasts,
he drops hands down to his side.
Tomorrows march on and the gateway,
a finale wrapped in the twins’ slurping,
slams shut.
Categories:
roth, anxiety, death,
Form:
Free verse
Aha...At Last,..Bitta Bing Bitta Bang
The Figurative Nail Hit On The Hair Strand Size Head!
Though no physician,
this aging baby boomer
absolutely, intuitively, and
unequivocally sensed hair loss (mine),
at first a speculative rumor
not simply in my (ahem) head,
no matter a minimalist groomer
nevertheless, thinning follicles,
upon dawning realization, sans medical
sought relief thru good humor,
though within this balding cerebral noggin
became repulsive as if my scalp
pulled pate rendered as a tumor.
Thus an unexpectedly present surprise
when in private consultation in the guise
as out patient client (early afternoon
December 19th, 2018),
where I did fraternize
and kibitz with the medical assistant
(old enough to be my...sister),
aye did exercise
mild mannered mien mean, aye do patronize
before doctor Rudolf (dearly
reigned) Roth, a practicing
Dermatologist told me no lies
his instant karma knowledge - mainly his
thirty seven years expertise
sought to excise
a prominent non cancerous mole approximately
centered middle of back
a small patch of skin,
he needed to anesthetize
nonetheless, a reassuring persona,
yours truly did lionize
(not merely, cuz
he received a five star rating,
specialist under auspices
of Penn, Medicine)
in Radnor Pennsylvania),
his modest calm did neutralize
any uneasiness, as did his pronounced
humility earn kudos to idolize
such rarely present gentility, and
unwitting capacity did harmonize,
and maximize significance to me,
asper my thinning limp
hair logically rationalize
identified underactive thyroid gland
(hypothyroidism) tubby,
which didst legitimize
no hair brained rooted concern,
hence...less reason to catastrophize',
which for no reason I
wanted to mildly emphasize,
hence choice to apostrophize...
Categories:
roth, anxiety, december, emotions, nostalgia,
Form:
Bio
Fall; somewhere up north
an Indian kept one's vaneri
an image of thy soul kept a roth
of a great legendary story
a girl so beautiful an pretty
kept all three brother's witty
an threw th' dice at war
Up against th wall shadows crawl
leave behind th fall an novel all
a stroke of an old man kept th' role
to never end yet keep thou pole
of life an birth that thou art call
inspired by th' movies gracious facts
having touched th' inner glimpse
beautiful actor's tracked in act
of playing a story by d're lips
smoke an war left a hint of a branch
of a tree of a family of a bears waul
of power an strength thou art placed
reality hence felt an threw th' race
Categories:
roth, adventure,
Form:
Sonnet
Bullwhip Bob settled in the cafe
and ordered fried spuds and beef.
A railroad man in Bingham’s Town,
he came here each noon to eat.
He’d gotten his name not for his job,
but because each and every day,
he went about his job with a whip
coiled high up upon his waist.
Nobody had ever seen it used,
but the message it sent was clear,
luckily Bob was the amiable type
with little need to inspire fear.
But behind him there rose a ruckus
out in the town’s only street,
Geena was chasing Big Tom Roth,
accusing him of dastardly deeds.
“You stole my money for medicine!”
Geena cried out in despair.
“My sister’s sick, your heatless thug,
stop walking and give it here!”
Big Tom did stop, and hollered at her:
“Back off it you value your life!
I ain’t got nothing to give to you
except for this here knife!”
Bob frowned, stepped to the street
and uncoiled his long whip.
His heart pounded in his chest,
he said,”Bob, that’s enough of this!”
Tom had twenty pounds on Bob,
but fear came to his eyes.
He took one look at the long whip,
then dug a pocket on his side.
He removed a pouch of coins
and tossed it on the ground,
then he stormed off grumbling,
stomping his way out of town.
Geena picked up her coin-pouch,
and kissed Bob on the cheek,
Bob went red because on Geena
he had always been sweet.
She hurried off as Bob slowly
coiled the whip up on his belt,
hoping against greatest hopes
that she knew how he felt.
He’d put himself at risk for her,
he’d done what he felt right.
He didn’t want to image if Bob
had chosen to start a fight.
For though he carried the great whip,
to look all intimidating,
he didn’t have the slightest idea
how to use the gol-darn’d thing.
Categories:
roth, conflict, courage, fear, hero,
Form:
Cowboy Poetry
I'm so sad and mad, said Clementine the porcupine
Everyone is afraid of me, one glance and they pee
Do they think I shoot my quills, just for thrills
I can't help the way I am
Me, too, said Antoinette the anteater
I look scary, be wary, others say, but I'm not
My long muzzle is no puzzle, this is me
I can't help the way I am
Me too, said Roth the sloth
Everyone says I'm lazy but I'm not
Hanging in trees, looking at birds and bees
I can't help the way I am
Me too, said Jake the snake
We come in all shapes and sizes, but no one realizes
This is me, I'm special and free
I can't help the way I am
Well, said Barnaby the baboon
I'm not little and cute like a raccoon
And I wouldn't want to be, I'm ME
I look big and imposing, but really just posing
Because I'm unique, shiny and sleek
People feel this way too, just like you
All shapes and sizes and colors
Some screech or holler
But Barnaby is right, just be YOU
Categories:
roth, children, , cute,
Form:
Rhyme
One of the beautiful things about Siberia it is a sea of grass
Like purple color of the soul Roth grass
And flowers like Siberian corydalis hides in the grass
The surreal beauty of flowers sends its divine fragrance through the ocean of grass
The grass covers the endless expanse
This is what inspires poetic romance
The sea of grass in which wind whispers soul will in trance
Among the grass the bears and tigers hunt and antelope will dance
The smell of freedom is mesmerizing
As the father time and mother Earth give birth to daughter spring
Of destiny connected to very abyss the nightingale will sing
The echoes of his voice lift the soul to place fit for a king
The grass is not it but it reflects the visage of genetic zero point
And if one looks for nirvana the fields of Siberia will not disappoint
As with sublime universal energy the spring is conjoint
And can completely lift one to divine viewpoint
Categories:
roth, fantasy,
Form:
Rhyme
Say bye-bye to these:
"Hold, please." (Hold what?)
Typewriter Repairman Ads
"Dial this number..." (What's 'dial?')
Down-time... Offline
Compliments (Complaint Departments have swallowed them up).
"Mail me your resume."
Shame, and its cousin, Guilt
Pay Phones and Phone Booths (Sorry, Superman)
Cash (esp. pennies)
"How do you do?" (How do I what?!)
"Chick," "Piece," "Stacked," "Hot Number"
The Debt Ceiling
Brown Suits
Brown Fedoras
White Bread
White Big-City Mayors (in the USA)
Math Facts
Grammar & Grammar Schools
Heroes
Good Samaritans
Public Drinking Fountains (except for dogs and cats)
All but Mega-Gigantic Hospitals
Modesty
Cash Bail
Drug Busts
'Land Lines'
Gasoline-fueled automobiles
Private Health Insurance
Private Doctors
Free Museums
Disturbing the Peace
Roth IRA's (at least, Roth IRA's whose distributions are tax-free)
Peacetime Economies
Gun Laws (The Wild West roars back)
Non-Mixed Use Zoning Laws
Fair Elections (Did we ever really have them?)
Ideals, Idealists, Idealism
The 'Renaissance Man'
Daily Newspapers, Print AND Digital
The 'Weather Channel'
META
Music Majors, Art Majors, Anthropology & Sociology Majors
Cooperation
Cashiers
Receptionists
Cleaning Services
'Straight People'
Teachers
'The Four Freedoms'
Courts (You'll get a ticket and either pay or go to jail...)
Courtroom Lawyers
'Law and Order' Politicians
Non-TV Ministers
Dentures
Non-union University Personnel
Non-gated upper middle class and upper class housing
Neighborhood Watch Groups
Public Schools
Childhood
Non-government Day Care
Nursery School and Kindergarten
Free Public Libraries (You'll pay for those Drag Shows, lol!)
Free-TV
Non-Tip Services
'The Great American Novel'
The Home of the Brave -- Oops! (I mean, of the 'Guardians!')
'Lesbos' and 'Homos' (Can you believe we used those terms?!)
Marital Sex (What for?)
Foreplay (Now it's just "Fore! Here I cum!")
~ Roger Dodger, Over & Out!
Categories:
roth, fun, future, goodbye, history,
Form:
List
Listen to my call O' dear one, listen
Spirit sweetly calling to your spirit
So desperate for your loving touch so,
Soul inhaling another precious soul
Love divinely rescues our souls, my love
Worry nevermore my dear, no more worry
Cry a heartfelt prayer, answer thee, I cry.
Dream realm playmates enhance the sweet, sweet dream
Forever remains true, truly returned forever
Waited so long as both our hearts patiently waited
Joined tenderly by the spirit we are joined
Tears from the heart seasoned our love, tender tears
Battles started fear, hope to end battles
Listen to my call O' dear one, listen.
Author's notes:
Shadow Sonnet created by Amera M. Andersen may be written in any sonnet style. The Shadow
takes place at the beginning and ending of each line as the words are identical.
14 lines; 9 or 10 syllables per line
Should have a Volta or pivot
Iambic pentameter is not necessary
Copyright © 2007 Kristin Roth-Davis
Categories:
roth, girlfriend-boyfriend, happiness, inspirational, life,
Form:
Sonnet
Where all of us would gather
we'd always see the roth.
Where family causing friendship
was query to the troth.
And everything we'd spoken
was words etched into life
Where flowing as they settled
were fears come back as trife.
That everything we wondered
were words we didn't like
And thoughts we were together
were fears unfounded pshyc.
That all our love together
was helping make it right
As all our time together
was found to be in sight.
That every thought we wondered
were never really taught
Until our course of action
was there to feel the knot.
(A Family Reunion)
Categories:
roth, allegory, allusion, analogy, angst,
Form:
Quatrain
The Boys in The Back
By Sy Roth
The right hand turned the waters 360 degrees
Then another willful rotation
Until the bubbling chicken-fatty waters splashed over the sides
While the boys in the back did their algebraic calculations
Considering the enigma of a minus two yellow eggs
Then jouncing on the waves of her stirring.
An arthritic chicken leg made its way to the surface
Its death-claw clawing at the chunks of flesh swirling amid a flotilla of vegetables
And with it redolent steam captures the air of the kitchen in its garlic thrall.
She continued the rotation in the silence of the eddying water
Resting for brief moments in the minutes of her remembrance
Embracing the time when food was ersatz
And the act of eating became a chore.
She held the dreams of her survival in that ladle
A galumphing oar in her packed chicken soup—
Shabbos wonderment to stir away the remembrances of things past
While we played behind her back with imaginary numbers.
Her front, a no-access vestibule
A sodden wall of sorrow against a world
Where we did our algebra and plumbed the secrets of numbers
Away from her horrors.
No words—
A simple sometimes brief shake of her hair
To bring her back to reality.
No left,
No right.
No judgment
Just the temporary aroma of living
With her sons scratching their numbers in the background
Thumping the depth of calculating incalculable numbers.
Categories:
roth, africa, dark, death, dream,
Form:
Free verse
Dreams in the Bunk
By Sy Roth
An aching tired eats away,
Slurping at his soul
Yearning wakefulness from the darkness.
He heaved.
Sigh in a soft world of crimson-waving flowers
Dancing away to his numbers etched on him, his scales.
The others turn, he with them
Intemperate mob
Waring in fisticuff frenzy with the bedbugs.
Their odor wafts in on the breeze
From the chinks in the poorly built walls,
A pig-sty pen for the downtrodden.
And their snoring, a milk-curdling vengeance
That threadbare cloth could not mask---
A chorus of caterwauling madness.
With it the dawn, still somewhat dark outside,
When permeable reality, aloft on a black steed,
Clip clops them off their boards, swaying under their weight
They disassemble themselves from the nightmare
Like nano-robots clicking off their nerves and senses
To march another day
To the tune, an assembled cacophony of scratching
And hats sweeping from their brows as the others jackboot
About them in their own jocular way.
Drink and ego made them bold,
And they could pretend to die through their night,
Their own snores a tuneful melody.
While the others dream of respite on their feet
Their muscles scream of the daytime terror
And the beasts feed on their determination to live.
Categories:
roth, sleep,
Form:
Free verse
Eyes with full of tears,
Hearing all these sounds in my ears,
Feeling you inside my soul,
In my mind I extol you,
My whole body vibrates inside.
Yet scared of what will happen,
I can't reject you,
You are the one who created me.
I want be free,
I want to be a bird,
To fly around & discover things.
Why can't we have peace?
Why is everything so,
Deep inside the Roth?
I'm going crazy,
My skin is becomes numb so easily,
My face is becoming loose,
My fears are running down the page,
I don't understand why now?
I feel like I'm melting,
On this ground of hate.
Categories:
roth, fear, life,
Form: