Best Slow Down Poems
Walk everywhere. Go on long sea voyages;
Ask for days like symphonies of slow music,
banks of blue flowers to wrap you in the moment.
Become immersed in watching clouds
spiders building their webs.
Travel by the slowest modes of transport.
Ride a camel, camp out in the desert.
Move into a museum and declare it real time.
Dress in a crinoline. Decorate your room with
fossils. Read endless books- make your own wine .
Churn your own butter. Grow a garden.
When all else fails,
pull the hands off clocks. Declare it a crime to tell
time.
Hang curtains on the daylight. Hold back the sea.
Ruin the sun and cycles that turn,
annihilate the moon - close the doors on eternity.
Suzanne Delaney
I look at remains of the morning craving
it deep
more time to manage my life
and complete
Can my cramped life handle one
more thing?
can the eyes of our soul see
life’s swing?
No single advantage gained
to hurry
a thousand broken things missed
to flurry
Bulls in a china shop we break
our lives
missing precious moments as
trivial thrives
Worlds addicted speed mechanics
skills maintain
blur unholy moments and smear
mercy drains
They say time is money- that is
not true
this is what God intended for us
to do:
time to breathe deeply
time to see what’s real
time to laugh longer
time to rest peacefully
time to give Him the Glory
time with Him in Eternity
“We are merely moving shadows and all our busy rushing ends in nothing” –
Psalm 39:6
©September 2013—Kim van Breda
Wait! Wait! Slow down, time.
Try moving like a snail for once.
How quickly you drain your sand
As soon as the hourglass flips upside down.
Knock it flat; keep it horizontal, for once!
You shake me wide awake early morning,
Then you sprint off like Cheetah at full speed.
I need you to stand at ease; linger long enough
For me to at least savor all golden moments
With my better half before I walk out the door.
Slow down the ticking hand of the clock, time.
Stop drifting away with the evanescent clouds
And chasing after every gust of wind!
When will you learn to co-operate?
When parallel lines merge at infinity?
Wait for me. Just wait! Why not try walking?
I wish to put away my worn-out running shoes
Allow me to keep up with your supersonic speed
Pause the morning buses and trains
I drop things sprinting to hop on!
Let me catch up and let's stroll down
The footpath in the vernal meadow of life.
Let the world match you step by step.
Extend the halcyon days of summer
You move much too fast, you devil you!
Hold up! Can I at least get sick
Before I die? Work with me, time.
Where are you always hurrying off to?
I really wish you could crawl...
Just like a snail, very slowly.
Date written: 12/23/2020
I miss the peace of silent thought--
This worldly pace has grown so fast—
And in its wake that speed has brought
Us woes unknown throughout the past,
And now we find we have to face
A sea of troubles, deep and vast.
If we could only slow that pace
And find a means for its decrease,
Perhaps this unrelenting race
Might finally be made to cease,
And in that silence we might find
Some vestige of elusive peace.
For there at last may be divined
Creativeness of every kind.
April 30, 2019
The world persuades us to go faster
never to settle for an average speed
but eventually faster puts us off the road
proving nothing good comes from greed
The fast pace of life takes enjoyment
far far away taking out the good
the beautiful scenery you've missed
flashes past you as it has stood
Where are you going in life?
do you actually know at all?
to know the sense of all this
watch out you've missed the call
As well as the sense of your way
there's also why this is to be
going so fast too difficult to stop
no matter your machinery or the fee
Learn to regulate your pace
in common with life's expectation
what's life really doing for you?
turn your throttle for real motivation
(Quote:
Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.')
- Eddie Cantor (1892- 1964)
Stop to smell the roses
we'll make the most of each day
~ there's splendour where we walk
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Slow down and remain
eight years old and all squirmy
footie pajamas and dolls
glitter on tables
tea parties and teddy bears
and you weren't always busy.
The soothing dreams of poetry, now, are just flowing in.
Like effortless streams, they all are my cherished kin.
Poetry has become my serene, garden of floral delight.
My sensitive quill moves with both ease and might..
10/1/2020
11am PST
Swing and sway with Sammy Kaye
In the mood the Glen Miller way
Names from the past
When life was a blast
Slow down and enjoy each and every day
In this fast paced day and ag
all anyone has in mind
is finishing school, growing up
leaving childhood behind
regardless of the circumstances
and regardless of what they needf
parents push their kids too hard
the key emphasis is speed
"Quick quick! hurry up! Learn faster
are you out of your mind?
You can't afford to move that slow
your going to be left behind"
Pushing children to act like adults
expecting matruity beyond their years
never listening to anything they have to say
not their questions, doubts or fears
Underage we have no voice
we are neither seen nor heard
but the things you expect us KIDS to do
are really damn absurd
a generation of adolescants
pushed ahead and forced to compete
fighting in the adult world
attempting to find their feet
Listen, we are not ready
to act and think like you
when we grow up, we will go on
and do the things you do
You have CHILDREN in the workforce
struggling for their wage
with the whole world on their shoulders
before they are of age!
Give us a little more time
before you put us to teh test
let us learn just a little bit more
before we have to compete with the rest
When we get old with arthritis in our bones we make thoughtful decisions about the use of our time. We can amuse our grandchildren while our children inhabit their jobs. We can volunteer to help others like a wolf that knows how to hunt. We can do something creative with our hours and work toward an outcome that warms people’s hearts.
We have options about what to do with our days. We can sit alone in our homes like the last drop of water left on a rock, or we can behave like practiced magicians who can slow down the clock with the snap of two fingers and live like an elder who is not afraid of the dark and be more inclined help our family and friends as they voyage down the highway of time.
I stole the brain of Einstein to feed a hungry head.
Sliced some in an omelet with a roll of onion bread.
Biting, chewing speedily, to prove his theory chaste:
That time does stall (however small)
When feasting past the taste.
I smeared a slice with cold-cream
Onto a winter face.
In hope that smart-cell makeup
Would return me to my place; meanwhile,
I hid within the basement to escape the force of fate.
Blinded by the science, nowhere left to turn,
I consulted the Necronomicon and prayed I would not burn.
The words were chanted freely -- the cost only this news:
A reversal of the flow of time
For a soul that God refused.
Young and fit and prosperous,
I discarded all the brain.
But in my blackened, empty shell I knew there waited pain.
Tricked, the time sped faster -- faster than before.
When once again the winter came, Einstein was no more.
I've had a good life
It's time to move on
The curtains coming down
Remarked the old man
Who sat next to me
In the park, in the center of town
So much life have I seen
In my share of ups
Along with my share of downs
I hear deaths whistle blowing
His trains a coming
And there ain't no slowing it down
We talked of the past
The traps of our youth
All that we had done
The last words before he left
That he passed on to me
Slow down, Relax, Move on
So I took his advice
And slowed down in life
Relaxed when things went wrong
Now I look at this life
Through different eyes
As life keeps moving on
HEY OLD MAN, SLOW DOWN!
There’s no hurry
The struggle parade has passed
Vain youth is over
I have decided at last
Those triumphal huzzahs
From favored industry’s brass,
The shatter and stomp,
Are mere crude noises at last
Let the world rock on
Verbal butchery ignore
The cacophony!
I’ll listen to such no more
There’s no hurry
Save heart, veins, ears from the blast,
Save my sanity
I have decided at last
There’s confliction and contradiction,
opposition inside a deep collision-
Encounters that lead to arbitration,
the fear of making the wrong decision.
No rest found without accommodation,
a disagreement without alleviation,
if only there was an agreeable negotiation.
There’s a showdown that won’t slow down,
a combat fought without food for thought-
No safety is around in a crowded town,
for honest peacemaking was never taught,
as we are bound in the lost and found.
We are all just caught here, earth bound...
living a life where harmony is never sought.
Rhyme Battle: Showdown Poetry Contest
Juli- Michelle
March 7, 2018