Best Slugging Poems
This is where I indeed, do live!
With many churches, to support and which to give.
Murder is a most rare occurrence here.
No riots, no drunks, walking about, slugging down a beer.
Trees are luscious green, all year round.
Flowers grow in lovely silence, not uttering a sound.
Bunnies, opossums, cats at happy play.
Would that our world were as sweet, as this peaceful valley Sunday!
3/21/2021
~1~
...He reformed the routing patriots,
formed a line atop a rise, Perrine’s Hill,
brought in General Knox and the artillery,
commanding the mass through sheer force of will.
He needed to buy time for the main force
to march on and join up in the battle,
the British kept coming, soon to attack,
convinced they still had the patriots rattled.
Before in battle the Redcoats just had
to flash their bayonets in the bright sun,
that was enough to scare Continentals
and assure them the battle was won.
But they were no longer facing such men,
the Americans had learned Europe’s game,
they did not flee at the sight of steel,
gave hard volleys once the foe was in range.
Britain’s field commander, General Cornwallis,
made several attacks to break up the line,
only to run into fire and rage,
with his Redcoats turned back every time.
They he tried to turn Washington’s left flank,
the boldest maneuver of the fight yet,
but the main force had come, and pushed forwards,
striking hard under young Lafayette.
Seeing there would be no quick victory
the British withdrew there forces back,
both armies in defensive positions,
the fight would become a long slugging match.
Soldiers hunkered down as across the fields
artillery thundered and cut loose,
both sides trying to break up the other,
their foe’s ranks they sought hard to reduce.
The heat was such that many of the men,
suffered and even died from heat stroke!
One man passed out and his wife manned his gun,
fighting on alongside all the blokes.
Then Washington sent Nathaniel Green
with artillery up towards Comb’s Hill,
a high position on the British left,
from which the guns could enfilade and kill.
The British saw their hopeless position,
and quickly began an ordered retreat,
marching north towards Clinton’s main force,
having blown their opportunity.
Washington saw his enemy leaving,
and sent Mad Anthony Wayne forward,
to harangue the British as they marched off,
cutting down men despite their good order.
And through the battle ended as a draw,
for the nation it was victory,
they’d kept the field in an open battle,
and matched the Redcoats in soldiery.
This changed the calculus of the whole war,
all knew battles would be more costly now,
England would no longer campaign in the north,
hoping for easier prey down south…
Zombies ate my Christmas guests
Oh Lord you should have seen it
Don't know what the cops will think
But the neighbors won't believe it
Granny dodged and moved so quick
She ran like Herschel Walker
Just as it seemed she'd get away
She tripped, that's how they caught her
Uncle Fred was passed out cold
From slugging lots of scotch
So they put him in the blender
And started drinking shots
What happened to the others
Is a tale to gross to tell
But i think that me and grandpa
Are going straight to... well now
See grandpa is a Wiley one
And he knew just what to do
Smeared on blood and messed his pants
Then said you'd better too
The zombies still came after us
But when they caught our smell
stopped all of their snarling
And said welcome..... what the well now
So grandpa, me, and zombies
All sat at the dinner table
Drinking shots of uncle Fred
And dinning on aunt mable
Twelve rounds of excitement
Two rivals smiling in the middle of enchantment
The bell rang...
Both fighters were wild
Two rough hands still mild
The bell rang again -- end of first round.
Second round...
Gaiting horses, eluding kicks and punches
Baiting bodies, protruding hunches
Third round...
Fighters in merry-go-round
Hide and seek on square ground
Fourth round...
Faces smearing, eyes rolling
Bodies perspiring, allies chanting
Fifth round...
Feet hovering, foot work disintegrated
Temperature rising, hard punches connected
Sixth round...
Audience clapping; boxers hitting
Attacks jabbing, gloves slugging
Seventh round...
Whacking arm follows, gloves batting
Ulnar bone gallows, heads swatting
Eighth round...
The champ fighter grinning, nailing one hard scour
Second fighter fainting, flailing above the litted floor
Ninth round...
Stronger fighter grinning again with right hook
Left hook thrashing, down the second fighter of blind look
Tenth round...
Challenger flogging, kept on rising
Challenger pelting, the champ fell on floor gasping
Eleventh round...
Both warriors pummeling, whipping, jostling
Switching, clubbing, lashing, drubbing
Both fighters fell on adulated white floor
Before the ninth count both warriors stood tall
on wrestled floor
Twelfth round...
Last two minutes of peppering round
Both fighters staggering until the challenger dropped first and gaunts.
Champ still standing, waiting for the ten counts...
Last twenty five seconds of the final round,
First fallen fighter with a bigger heart stands
Champ dropped on his knees --
Laid flat on aproned, famed canvass
Ten counts numbered as confetti lands...
The winner and challenger standing in the corner, beaten and bruised
Bleeding profusely after winning a dream never cruised.
This is a story that goes back some twenty years
To when with the Special Olympics I did volunteer
I worked with the older Olympians who were kind of rough
Caring for them by other volunteers was a job just too tough.
They were sixteen through eighteen and didn’t know their own strength
To keep them under control took me to mental and physical lengths
There were eight young men in my group this Olympic day
I was the only volunteer willing to work with them when the games got under way.
Keeping them together and where they were supposed to go
Required lots of cunning and running by this guy they called Coach Joe.
They worked me ragged and kept me at my wit’s end
But within the first hour we were all best of friends.
They liked to hug me and squeeze me and wrestle me to the ground
Always slugging me and hitting me every time I turned around
They were strong as an ox and didn’t know how easily they could hurt
I got bumps and bruises, one busted lip and was all covered in dirt.
As the medal ceremony began indicating the games were coming to an end
I was exhausted and spent and ready for my body to go home and mend
My Olympians got medals that made them all so happy and proud
They loved hearing the spectators cheering so wondrous and loud.
As I watched from the bench they gathered in a huddle
What were they up to now? I was a little befuddled
Then one by one they took their medals off and walked my way,
Placing them over my head; “Thank You, Coach Joe”, is what they would say.
Their parents and guardians had tears in their eyes
I’ve never been more touched by a simple surprise
Then we all held hands and the Olympic Song we did sing
For me, in my life, this was the sweetest of things.
Thinking of my ex, there is an ounce of pride,
Even though our opinions did sometimes collide.
He was a pilot, and a jack of all trades,
With a stubborn opinion that could not be swayed.
He was a charmer, and at one time had a heart of gold,
Even though he liked to hide it, if truth be told.
On a trip, we came across a dirty homeless man,
Holding out his meager money pan.
My husband said to me, “I won’t give him a single dime!”
“Give him food instead…he reeks of cheap wine!”
We gave him the food, and went on our way,
Happy we had done our good deed of the day!
In business he was about as ruthless as they come,
Slugging it out with the big guns, only giving them crumbs.
Too busy counting his money, he lost his lovely wife.
Now he can spend it all on himself, in his new life.
.
-The Last Straw-
Sometimes he went too far
Shunning the sunlight, wading into the dark
swimming in places the sun couldn't find
shifting the wind to suit his own fall
speeding through life with his back to the wall
where he'd spit in the eye, and bend all the rules
yet with something to find, that was not of this world
spilling his guts
wading through fog, feeling the chill
unfurled in a dream
that was seen through a glass
while he looked for asylum in the black of the night
Boomerang words were like bats out of hell
to dwell in the mind and rattle the bones
of someone with soul, who feels all alone
changing their world from the outside in
Students mull over his words, taking sides
A skate on thin ice
Some call it nice........some call it sludge
slugging it out, from opposite sides
Some can't decide........ some claim to hate it
Fate has a name. Genius I'd say
Some of us stumble, and tumble right in
_________________________________
For Contest Sponsored By Amy Green 4/7/14
Genius
Resubmitted for PD's Contest: 101 in a Row #14
9/16/16
Half-baked smiles, conversations disarrayed, high in poetry, I guess I’m nineteen.
Half-filled maturity, occasional fits of naivety, I guess I’m nineteen.
Eyes frenzied, tears anfractuous, it’s too dry, the environs, where to look, where to?
Voices seem distant, no arc of light behind dark dreary, I guess I’m nineteen.
Scampering through days, slugging through moments, no sense of time, only of beauty;
I guess it’s too late to say, “I don’t want to be twenty”, now that I’m nineteen.
Age opens a lid, Dew, experience lifts, winds hurl it through light into darkness:
Past days of childish frolic, recreational pranks, gone free, I guess I’m nineteen.
-Pin Dew (30/04/2017)
How about this for OPENERS
You STOLE my heart away
With SIGNS of love and caring
A sparkling two way PLAY
You guys are all a HIT with me
You're WINNERS every time
Raising me in the STANDINGS
Such loyal FANS of mine
Since I was just a ROOKIE poet
Had myself quite a RUN
Feel like a real VETERAN now
This GAME is so much fun
Appreciate every seven STAR rating
This poetry fits like a GLOVE
Quite a CHANGE in one short year
Above AVERAGE kind of love
So I'm gonna keep on SLUGGING
Aiming for the FENCES
Hoping to hit a poetic HOME RUN
And SCORE with all your senses
© Jack Ellison 2013
It was not the robe flowing beanied
kind;
nor the ball batting
St. Louis slugging
variety.
I saw the shrill-
whistling flying
mr. proud to be a bird
red male looking for a
palomino-ed colored female kind of cardinal
come a calling not for me,
the earth-bound tin-eared
feather-free wingless woman
martian-looking
through a pair of Zeiss.
©Kathryn McLoughlin Collins
June 21, 2012
Inside fleshy walls, wallowing in youth,
lava coarses corrosive through peeled licorice
onward, fleeing the thundering stone
vacillating at the center of a man slugging
elderberry wine, to become both numb and Dionysus.
Yellow convertibles park on brown-banged boulevards
obstructing the ravishing, glacial blue hands. They stretch
unassuming, but firmly grab my empty arms.
Mannequin pale, those twin starved orphans,
offered the chance to grow into men, to feel
rushing gales of breath, trembling limbs of love!
Goodness, grace incarnate in a smile. Blue jeaned
angel, the deliverance of a self-loathing leper
naked in the shadows of his own shortcomings.
Ravaged, I stand stoic; an amorous, wounded statue
on call before her, a tragic hero in vain,
battered in body, in spirit, in moonstruck mind,
ill with the drawing force of four hoarse
scotch-swigging demons, poisonous jealousy
of a starry eyed Italian gondola captain. Who am longing I but
Nobody, wishing for a crack to melt into, or
a shatterproof heart.
Derek
Will you be able to bear it?
First weekend in May
And who the Yankees will play,
Bringing slugging Louisville woods
Tigers score if they could.
In the Bronx
Bombers get what they want.
While springtime proposes
A tradition featuring red roses.
In Kentucky, a Derby is always held.
Stories these four legged athletes do tell.
As three-year Olds
Being very bold
In weather no longer cold
Hanging in their stalls
Standing tall
Waiting for publicity and post time calls
Dreaming of a Seabiscuit run
When the mile dirt something is done
Everybody will be wondering who actually won.
Cheering having fun.
Applauding the one
Off to the winner circle celebrating in the warm bluegrass sun.
On the first
Your Marlins will have the thirst.
Using those bats
To physically challenge the politically hosted Nats
Retired Pinstripe General German American King George watching from heaven.
Monitoring the two-dollar betting
While conversing with Mr. Ruth
Getting the Highlander truth
And Mr. Martin will still stir the marinara sauce.
Screaming and yelling, “yeah yeah you are the boss.”
All this is summer entertaining.
Purpose is relaxing so who is complaining.
Good luck playing Donnie ball.
Fielding a civil warrior army whose names are not on any military memorial wall.
Instead, their remembrance could be in a record book.
Noticed if a fan decided to look.
As I end this seventh inning stretch
I do hear Cracker Jacks do make a nice afternoon mouthwatering catch.
Operation Barbarossa
the panzers start to roll,
Breaking out from Poland’s Baltic,
towards Sevastopol,
Ten million soldiers strong,
go goose-stepping east,
The Fuhrer’s Wehrmacht,
alongside his waffen SS elite.
No margin for error,
nazi Germany’s biggest gamble,
Get this wrong, and under
the red army might get trampled
But no need for worry, as
all before starts to collapse,
Generals believe be over by Autumn
or Christmas perhaps.
Murdering and enslaving millions,
as they overrun,
Reds burn their own cities,
denying shelter for the hun,
Hitlers well oiled machine,
begins to slow right down,
As Stalin moves his factories,
to out of range towns.
Nazis keep attacking,
as only they know how,
But stretched thinly on the ground,
winter has settled in now,
Can see domes of the kremlin,
victory looked so close,
May as well be a world away,
buried deep in Russian snows.
So nothing for it, must dig in
wait for the spring,
Writings on the wall,
offensive over, blunting their sting,
Then comes the counter,
sure as day follows night,
Red army attacks all fronts,
clad in cloaks of white.
The tide starts to turn,
in ruins of Stalingrad,
Germans are surrounded,
uniforms reduced to rags,
No food in their belly’s,
living off dogs and cats,
Paulus the general surrenders,
Throwing Hitler into a spat.
Killing still not over,
lots more bitter fighting to be had,
Stalin sacrifices millions,
in suicidal counterattacks,
Both sides face off daily,
in a mammoth slugging match,
prisoners were not taken
none left alive to catch.
So in the end Nazis crumble,
not beaten by a better army,
Never stood a chance,
once America joined the party,
Russia lost thirty million people,
Stalin did not care less,
Was only one real winner in
WW2 and that was the U.S.
By
David Kavanagh
In WW2 every life and sacrifice counted,
my poem is looking at the wider bigger
picture and is not meant to belittle or
negate any of the other allied nations
involved in the ultimate victory.
A river flows through this fold of life,
sometimes too turbulent,
occasionally too still
even for older established streams
with sluggish circulation currency
nearly to our shore of oceanic
sea's streaming into one surfing surface
tidal stream
Sanguine river of sublime rivers
flowing and surfing out and up
and back and forth
surging and slugging
stressing and struggling
with undertow
need to flow
back home again,
to when this river's story began
to flow through this unfolding life
Sometimes too turbulent,
occasionally too still.
Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island
Generously endowed with ***** and spirit, GEENA
Engaged a most unusual leading lady role. And DAVIS
Ever so skillfully brought the audience right IN
Not one scene was lacking and it was definitely CUTTHROAT
At death, she shaved her father's head for the treasure map to Cutthroat ISLAND.
Delightful costumes enhanced her role as a pirate, never better PLAYED.
And it appears that no expense was spared to make this fantastic movie. For THE
Violence, explosions, fistfights, and duels are blasting packed, UNPRECEDENTED.
If ever there were awards for the most fun movie to make, this one would be LEADING.
So often, her laughter reminded me of a child pretending, playing the pirate ROLE.
If I were a movie critic judging on entertainment in action, I would give Geena an A.
Naturally, I, who love fantasy, like her in this role; she was: pretty, happy, and FEISTY.
Clearly, she looked like a lady, but a lady would never fight a man with her FIST
Until she was seen on a wanted poster in Jamaica, there had been no SLUGGING...
Then, the pirate, Morgan Adams, and her newly purchased slave, Shaw, needed a GUN.
The Governor's militia started surrounding them; soon bodies were SLINGING,
Her getaway met stealing the Governor's carriage and fist fighting without a SWORD,
Relentlessly pursued, fired upon by cannons with the carriage teetering, SWINGING,
Over ruts, out of town, wide eyed, escaping, and laughing, the epitome of RUTHLESS,
Real passions for a good fight, challenges, and she made pirating seem fun! AND
Throughout the action, suspense captivated; scenery and costumes were BEAUTIFUL.
In the end, she killed her murderous Uncle Dawg in self-defense using a CANNON
She saved Shaw; remained behind briefly with the treasure. No guns were FIRING.
Luckily, they dove off of Dawg’s ship before it exploded, watched by every PIRATE.
After the explosion debris had settled, up from the ocean emerged both he and SHE
Next, a marker barrel popped up. The treasure was brought on board; oh, the WOWS
Divvying was postponed; pirating would continue with Capt. “Morgan” . . .gutsy to ME!
© Name withheld for contest
February 17, 2010
Poetic form: Acrostic and End Line Word