Best Subtracted Poems
One day I decided to aggregate what I own
Realizing soon enough I couldn't count it all,
Though I never thought I had all that much
What I had was oddly beyond simple math.
Determined I was to know what I'm worth
And I knew the formula for how that works
So I added all assets and deducted liabilities
Yet, never could I derive the right answer.
My assets were tangible, so easy to add up
But when I thought of lives I had touched
And receipt of generosity they bestowed,
I could not appraise the value of their love.
Swiftly I subtracted what I owed to others
Feeling proud of self for I didn't owe much
Till I took account of much that was given
Not expecting from me anything in return.
When I finally accepted futility of my effort
My worth resembled faces of my loved ones,
Not susceptible to any numeric computation
Well beyond the bounds of ordinary cognition.
January 3, 2019
Placed 2nd in Food for thought poetry contest by Silent One
Categories:
subtracted, perspective,
Form:
Verse
There's a cloned avatar of the mystical moon
for dreamers in search of a beaming wave
amidst alienated alliterations,
waltzing in zig-zag within my cyborg mind.
I still find neon lights,
that teleport rhyme-less runes
to a realm of subtracted sorrow,
concluding splitting seconds
within divided despair.
Yet, when midnight melancholy multiplies,
murky minutes turn into jumbled jargon.
And Venus emanates clusters of sparkling rays,
flipping letters into endless equations
with amethyst auroras.
So tonight, I'll dance like a flying saucer~
to the magnetic tunes of swirling sapphires,
cosmically cruising above the cyber
canvas of accelerated dreams.
Categories:
subtracted, silver,
Form:
Free verse
When I was a sophomore, I was in love with "Chemistry"
Just as soon as I fell, for the girl sitting right next to me
When I turned, junior, I hated "History"
Because as it turned out, she and I had two different "Philosophy"
But if you must know, I love "Math" the best
It was how I subtracted her out from all the rest
Although "English" was by far the most useful of all
Well, I mean, it’s kind of true next to "P.E" and basketball
"Physics" became a sort of breaking of the ice
Once I supplied her with an equation that’d made her, to look at me twice
As a senior, I sort of had fun with "Political-Science"
Sure enough, we got back together with only a little of her defiance
As for electives, I chose "Creative-writing" and, of course, "Art"
I drew her a picture and wrote her name in my heart
"Graduation" came and we were both happy and sad
As we reflected on every single moment we ever had
Then we held each other’s hand with words-said in limited supply
Because we knew, inevitably; we can only say goodbye, in a sigh!
By: Wilbert E. Dela Cruz
Categories:
subtracted, fantasy, high school, innocence,
Form:
Rhyme
Dear Music
Dear Music- would you marry drum?
for it will be beautiful when played under the setting sun
How would you love to be tomorrow’S heading
will you invite Guitar to your wedding?
From million miles your melodies be heard
As soothing as the morning hymn of a mocking bird
Since happiness can only befriend you
For you’re surely beautiful and true.
Music- queen of the ballroom
You Indeed are dominator of the mind In vexed volume
Could you stop the violence- happening a thousand mile
Sole Perceiver of peace - thence thou shalt smile
For you are one of the timbers of earth
As every soul knows you since birth
Only you can manipulate the choice-less
And can also speak for the voiceless.
Music- should you need a king,
Who will endear you with a diamond ring
You can think of Michael Jackson and Bob Marley,
From your talented basement to your lobby,
And even to you, Lucky Dube, and John Lennon were dear,
among the spot earners on the isle of the phenomena
As they, the aforementioned had no limit of valence
Yet they lived and died under our pitiful surveillance.
Dear Music- I wish you could walk for the disabled
For they indeed are hopeless- and subtracted from the fabled
You mesmerized, thence emphasized the beautiful life
But don’t the laborer deserve a break from the hunger and strife
I admire your stance to point out the lies- that demised many dreams
However I’m disgusted by the ignorance of the poor’s screams
Music- you define immortality- yet omit the underlying reality
I wish a few will see beyond generalization one day- and preserve equality-
Categories:
subtracted, anger, courage, freedom, grief,
Form:
Ballad
Looked up and down, right and left
Wondering why life suffers a theft
Subtracted beauty from my chin cleft
If I deserved and preserved the best
My love could lavish to attest
Why my love passed a preset test
Under dodgy durations of circumstances
Pummeling endeavours made in instances
That diminished and dwindled distances
Acknowledged to reveal robust character
On a bus, on a train, on foot, on a tractor
Where we determined adversity no longer a factor
In consolidating the love we feel
Grows by leaps and bounds despite the bill
Your family sprang on me to deal and kill
The foundations you and I have built
Over the years to fight to the hilt
Any machinations to pour heaps of silt
Into our love cogs
Meaning love should don cogs
Saunter under coercion in bogs and fogs
To prove its strength
Walking on hot coals at length
If truth should pervade and invade love width
To delight your parents
So worried and harried by overdue rents
We owe for domestic tents
That accommodate our nights and days
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
Shared with supreme care
Far beyond compare
Even when evil eyes stare
Willing you and I could disintegrate
To delight the flight of the ingrate
Who wishes our relationship could migrate
Into Dante's Hades
Struck by full blown Aids
Enfeebled and disabled in beds
Where to detractors we surrender
Stuck owing bucks to the vendor
Who dares to crush our love in his blender
Administering his coup the grace
As we lie panting on yellow grass
Listening to soothing sounds of brass
Whispering osculation and consolation
Amid an attempt at immolation
Our love sustains not in isolation
But in tandem
With a hustled harem
Which sings its ultimate knell anthem.
Categories:
subtracted, poems,
Form:
Free verse
Words are Going Missing
Words are going missing……and no one seems to care!!
Red lined!! Redacted!!! Clandestinely subtracted!!
Their meanings have been undermined
to alter documents - long signed
cater to the lunacy
that altered words will set us free.
Words are being conjured…gene splicing gone awry
because our conversations may be heard by passersby,
someone may be offended
because our language wasn’t blended
certified as neutralized
words no longer “Super Sized”.
Words are being muffled….silenced by the mob
demanding that we serve them – fresh corn- without the cob.
Words are being “weaponized” – the arming of perception
a conversational “Cold War” – exchanges of deception.
Words are going missing……gaps upon the pages
trapped within this horror…….a poet’s heart still rages.
John G. Lawless
12/1/2015
Categories:
subtracted, poetry, power, words, writing,
Form:
Couplet
Every earlobe ever pierced, minus non-pierced lobes, without exception
Quantified by head size, quality of piercings, and variety of earrings worn
Under ultraviolet light, utilizing reflective space, sound waves and distance
At appropriate intervals, measuring cut, clarity, carat, color and character
Totaling to a six figure sum, then divided by US bonds withdrawn from IRA
Increase the risk of screaming in agony, up to, but not more, than 50 decibels
On an operatic stage, bursting glass objects, as per fat lady singing, wherein
Numerical miscalculations of damage, therein, must be subtracted from the
Sum, so that all of said variables will not exceed the confusion of the bystander.
Written on 3/9/2016
Categories:
subtracted, funny, nonsense,
Form:
Acrostic
Journey To The Calm
People populated in the millions, then came billions
A collective sound pounds in the head relentlessly
The ruckus became too much
As lands filled up with every kind of thing
There, waiting for trumpets to awaken the transformation
To answer questions never posed
Sun turned up to circulate the news about the truth
Moon too gave way to rotate around this matter
That; empty space is inherently cold, void and without voice
From it, science and technology burst forth
Matter inevitably takes its course
Building on the forces of the past, a matter of creation
There came complexities to make us whole
Thousands of machines with noises whirring loud
Cogs and gears whipped into a frenzied speed
Turmoil followed developments departure
Gravity became the enemy, could not hold on, to either side
The Plenum filled in the emptiness, a cacophony of noise
All things from atoms to large particles delighted
To occupy the holes that once were empty
As more things arrive, with void subsiding, at rapid pace
Then, in a sudden change in growth
Objects and machines decreased in numbers in the realm
Declined, abated, subtracted on a dime
The noise was deafening as the emptiness set in
Then! Just as it had started, it all came to an end
The air turned still and solid from surrounding boundaries
To collectively gather back from where it came
Follow nature quietly into a silent grave
To fill in what was forgot and what was not
Every day new energy had evolved at a rapid pace
Filled in the empty parts of space
Trillions turned into billions, into hundreds, into tens and then no more
People went away as well
Not one person left upon a throne or chair
To stare out to the wonderment once there
Now the sound of meditation cannot be heard
Not one single syllable or word
Utter silence appears in great abundance
And with it more emptiness abounds… evolving into calm
Categories:
subtracted, adventure, age, creation, image,
Form:
Free verse
Sending the tending to an unfriended ending,
yet somehow suspending from rending a newly offending recommending.
Logotype monotype linotype,
overripe stereotype,
teletyped an unripe heliotype.
Guttersnipe snipe,
stipe snipe ripe,
a wipe type a tripe,
unleash a withering hype.
Dip snip,
nip lip,
slip skip,
rip the apple pip
over a battleship Chip.
Clip,
airstrip,
blip,
scrip,
gyp,
flip,
dip.
Unsip, blue clip,
A warship, weathering stick.
To miche an itch,
to stitch a witch.
Rich a quitch,
Hitch a flitch.
Gabrilowitsch,
the grand son of a *****!
Pitched a ditch to flitch a niche.
Made a rich hitch lich.
The Thia tie thy tried to untie an unshy,
Spied a sny sty,
He ascribed a bribe tribe,
to dib drib, lib and sib.
A death pale,
dwaled and engrailed,
enjailed and bewailed.
The cocktale turned into a,
ginger ale stale.
A hobnail.
A pale kale.
The whale waled
a veil of wail.
The stale air,
railed the quailing sale.
Dipped the snip,
to pip the tip,
and baled the avail,
to the flailed snail.
Attract extract reenact,
saddle backed and subtracted,
the tact the pact
an unmistakable fact.
Swag the unsage,
the wage of the tutelage.
A coffee break
a bit of a cornflake
cupcaked the cake of the devil's flake.
Draked the fake fruitcake,
and hake the jake on the mellow lake.
Mistake the overtake.
A pancake sheik,
cried spake of a toothache.
Ack Ack!
Back, Bootblack Jack.
Pack the Pontiac rack,
sack the Hackensack,
hijack the leatherback.
Offtrack the outback,
rack the sack,
smack the stack,
stickleback the tictack track,
to the umiak Union Jack.
Twack the whack yak sack,
A mystical one eyed zodiac.
Bready a speedy,
deedy the weedy,
Reedy to leedy.
Unheedy indeedy.
Leda, Vida, Theda.
Sketched an etch,
itched a hatch.
So speechless,
breathless,
toothless.
The socialist,
the communist,
the theorist
the terrorist.
Bedded the bedding
in a dreadful beheading.
Weeded the weed,
leading the lead,
tended the teed.
The ready read,
the reedy reeded.
The seedy seeded.
The end is Ending.
Categories:
subtracted,
Form:
Verse
Turbo Tax - (Sing to the tune, "Jingle Bells," refrain only)
My TurboTax, dear TurboTax—
Oh, what a friend you are!
I enter facts, you process facts—
You are my shining star!
No need to think what I must do—
Just type my numbers in!
Behind my screen your magic works
To help me lose or win.
Income, deductions, interest too
Go right into their place,
Added, subtracted, multiplied
And saved in the right space.
I log off soon to take a break,
And then when I return,
You jump to where I had left off—
No need for my concern!
You check for errors off and on,
So quick to verify;
I am so very happy you
Make sure my numbers fly!
The end result, I hold my breath—
Refund? Or do I owe?
With all tax-saving tips, you find,
I should get back some dough!
Sandra M. Haight
~1st Place~
Contest: Sing Me…A Jingle!
Sponsor: Lyric Man
Judged: 07/18/2015
Categories:
subtracted, computer, internet, money,
Form:
Lyric
Nothing
I remember a few words of a song whose title and singer I do not recall.
It was rather an upbeat song, with both a good sound and meaningful words.
The words that I remember? “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing”.
Unfortunately, I do not know anything that came before or after those few words. So please allow me to replace ‘before and after words’ of my own, just for fun.
For example. Before: You can add to your life the good, the bad, and the ugly. But remember, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing”. After: You may choose to subtract from, divide, or multiply the essence of you. But just remember, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing”.
Okay! But you might be saying, “Your words added nothing good to my life today. And you made me feel bad; I do not know what it is, but you took something from me. And whatever you subtracted,(perhaps my good looks) made me feel and look ugly. You have even twisted and divided my mind, and the pain level of my headache has now multiplied.”
So my response is this: Fantastic! Perhaps I have achieved my goal of “Nothingness”. I started with 'Nothing', and ended with the same. I did my best to make these few lines all about absolutely “Nothing”.
09172015contest
Categories:
subtracted, confusion, feelings, nonsense, word
Form:
Prose Poetry
Konigsberg in old Prussia had of bridges just seven,
A distressing fact to the Konigsbergers since their rival had eleven.
To distract from their angst, the Mayor made up a game,
The winner of which would surely achieve great lasting fame;
The goal: to walk over the seven but each only one time.
For they thought such a walk would be ever so sublime.
So they tried and they tried, but success was denied,
An embarrassing failure the Konigsbergers couldn't hide.
For while the contestants could always walk over six, each
Would then find the seventh was just out of reach.
But one day the famed Leonhard Euler came to town,
And he looked at their bridges and described what he found.
“I’ve added, subtracted. multiplied and divided,
And after much thought, this is what I’ve decided:
In view of Koenigsberg’s bridge distribution,
Mathematically this problem has no solution."
"If you had six bridges or eight, or even twenty-one,
There is a solution and your contest be won.
But with seven it can’t.
Now please excuse me, I’m going off to see
Immanual Kant
To discuss philosophy.”
This so depressed the poor Konigsbergers
That they went into therapy with eminent doctors.
And they never did learn that their Konigsberg story
Would later become famous in mathematical hist'ry.
Categories:
subtracted, history, humorous, math,
Form:
Rhyme
I WANNA KNOW 2
Is a yo-yo still a treasure without a string?
Would you still love Shenia Twain if she couldn't sing?
Would a wasp be courageous if someone buried his sting?
Is a bathtub comfortable when it hasn't a ring?
If Halloween subtracted it's ghosts and goblins
And burned the masks of gloom and doom
And banished black cats and bats
And warty witches on flying brooms
Would you still go trick or treating door to door to fill your sack?
Would you return home to change your costume and then go back?
You're mean! But I'll keep your secret because that's allowed on Halloween.
What if wrong traded places with right?
Would Walt Disney be sad if someone kidnapped Snow White?
What if parents lost their all uptight?
Would you help them look or read a book?
How exciting is bacon without it's sizzle?
How desired is the soda pop without the fizzle?
How rich is the soil without plenty of drizzle?
And how sad the Railroad workers without Roy Thorsen and his whistle.
How confusing the alphabet without C and D
How soon man would perish if water ceased to be
How useless the forest if stripped of every tree
And how boring Hockey without Wayne Gretsky......
Categories:
subtracted, children, humorous,
Form:
Rhyme
10:43:26 AM
And ten weeks later
You'd be gone
But your socks
Are still here
You looked so bad when you left
Barefoot without a care,
Solitaire
The blanket you wore
You had sworn you'd tear
Before you'd leave again
All tattered and alone
Without a thought for your own
Pursued by thrushes
And their beautiful song
A gem by it's lonesome
Solitaire
Let well enough alone
The disquieting emotion
Of your isolation
Your unequalled proofs
Of provocations
Considered seperatly
Things are never
Of the same class
Solitaire
No displacement of egos
Along your trail
To go next your steps
No devotee gaining on you
No toting any trappings
And your back subtracted
Into the unsettling downpour
The colors of your cover fading
Solitaire
Bedcloths and linens
Wear dull the drifter
Prompted by airs
And your socks
Are still there
As if an advertisement
For the grandstand
Of your departure
Solitaire
So long to former discourse
Recoiling without answers
According to pattern
No more, the grand tour
For pegs on a board
Extinct and flightless
No long goodby
Forever distracted
Solitaire.
Categories:
subtracted, absence, destiny, leaving,
Form:
Free verse
Taught not to trust at a very young age
Lessons like lashes subtracted the sane
Stabbed in the back with one billion rusty blades
Visions they stayed violent...like volcanoes spewing what's vulgar and vane
Sometimes the ugly and unholy is all my eyes can see
When everyone is my enemy
Running like a rat inside the rattlesnakes ritual
Every turn that I take gets deeper and darker inside a dragons den
Just like a mouse lost in a mudermaze
I hear an audience laughing as a track starts to play
Fear comes fast like a flood and turns into flames
Pulsing mad paranoia...my pride is sure to pay
My soul gets spent looking for an exit
Shocked and sizzled looking for an escape
When everyone is my enemy
Snapped like a stick now my screams turn so savage
I take another detour to avoid danger and damage
My mind I can't manage...miswired...misled and maimed
I strap on a solution to this problem of pain
The timebomb ticks and tocks and today is the day
I can hear the sirens scream as I curse the crime scene
Now it's end game
I took many evil ones with me into eternity
Can I get a pair of wonderous wings?...
When everyone is my enemy
Categories:
subtracted, anger, anxiety, death,
Form:
Blank verse