Best Three Ring Circus Poems
Big top three-ring-circus ferris wheel and sideshow freaks
Ringmaster draws your attention to the center ring
Presenting the bareback rider with a graceful fling
Silly clowns riding tricycles
Fierce animals and lion tamers
Elephants waiving their disclaimers
Cotton candy and merry-go-round
Trapeze acrobats dangling high in the air
Walking the tightrope without a care
No matter how it seems appearances can deceive
Though life is but a circus with its fireworks and flames
Behind the scenes might not always be fun and games
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
In the middle of the woods lived nine women,
each woman was unique in their own special way.
Pd walked around wearing one sock everywhere she went.
Andrea lectured all the women on the English language.
Everywhere Tracie and Gail went they made funny faces.
Linda Marie could be found swinging from a tree.
Anna Lise likes mustard and cheese on crackers please
Carol, Abby and Melissa played jokes when they could.
this was a three ring circus in the woods.
Tracie's 9 contest
Cory
Moisture coated chair and table
Silvery fog everywhere
Birds sing happily 'pon wet limbs
A few fly in thick air
The Swallows are back flying high
Hunting bugs over fields
Their sonar a guide where sight fails
Bouncing off bugs their peal
My thoughts like a three ring circus
Bouncing around in my head
Foggy confusion dominant
Time on the porch clear dread
My free time soon to diminish
Noise, bedlam will increase
Lord, help we take it with patience
Let my spirit love release
For every good thing there is a bad thing to counter act the joy....
walking a tightrope
boos down here, cheers overhead
safety-net ~ vanished
Viola,
if you could,
would you come home with me?
Far, far, far away from your three-ring circus dream.
Far, far, far away from your master's steel-eyed hook,
the one that broke the joints of your spirit.
They dress you in sparkle and silly caps.
Happy cotton candied music fills your gray ears.
They pile half a ton of frantic on your back...
Your master can't look anybody in the eye,
while he's counting your hard-earned cash.
It's a wonder you haven't already snapped your chains,
stomped the barker and his clowns into far away.
Viola,
come home with me.
We'll stroll a few acres of plush green
to roll in a muddy pool.
So, you can wash away those greedy green-eyed fools.
We'll weave pleasant elephant memories.
I'll bring along a sack of your favorite treats.
Sing you songs from Mother India...
And when your time has come
I'll set you down so very gently between dreams made of ivory...
Viola
Last night my sister died
One week before the Winter Solstice.
My father was worried about her jewelry.
He, one of my other sisters and me,
went to the hospital because he wanted
the three rings frozen on her fingers.
The rings like the circle of life
may have powers to bring her back.
They were taken from another dead women
her mother who died more than one year.
My father would not leave the emergency
room until he got those rings.
The woman helping him
was too nervous to enter the morgue.
But like Nephthys she went in the underworld
Cold dark place where my sister's body
lay in state.
My father blamed himself
for not taking the rings off
when she died.
But when he like Osiris
was given two rings by a women.
He was the ringmaster of a three ring circus.
He came to life, he was clowning, telling jokes.
Maybe the rings have the power to bring back life.
At her funeral there she lay in state,
no rings,
no life,
cold and still dead.
My father was wearing ten rings,
crying maybe cause he lost his powers.
Like Cronus his eldest son was a no show.
One drunkard said my father's daughter died in his arms,
Or maybe the rings have lost their power to
bring back the beloved dead.
What Am I leading Up To.
You often will wonder what phrases mean,
Like a little lean or maybe even green;
You should try one on for size,
Or to me it might be a big surprise.
Things are turbulent underneath, not on surface;
Performance was like that of a three ring circus;
You should see me in my great auto gravure;
Compared to today was simple, plain and pure.
Run was made right down the middle
By player found to befit as a fiddle;
There might be some Obama trauma;
Should have ended with death of Osama.
Now new Congress is all nestled down
And word has been spread all over town,
Mighty Seahwaks met there greatest goal,
Which was to end up in the Super Bowl.
Sounds like they are starting a new trend;
When game will be tied at the end;
After so hard each one of them did try,
Pass landed in receiver's hands sent from the sky.
From sky view camera all of it could be seen;
Every player looked like a bouncing bean;
Outright owner whose first name is Tall Paul
Ended up with a big trophy and a game ball.
James Thomas Horn
www.poetrysoup.com
www.story-telling-around-the-world.com
Summer begins and everything old is new again Including my heart as it stretches out and relaxes in every moment As it did in days gone by when the child inside of me was struck with wonder And the world unfolded before my eyes like a three ring circus My parents took turns being the ring master then As I ran in and out of danger Past the beautiful women toward the big cats cage And on to the the dancing bears Even the clowns were funny then Before Frankinstien and Viet Nam began to huant my dreams But lets not talk about that today because it's summer And everything old is new again
Circus troupe at county fair
jump through hoops are dogs that dare
painted clown big shoes that smell
showers water from flowered lapel
bearded lady house of mirrors
changing shapes of those who stare
freaks of nature entertain
beguile the crowd without explain
all for laughter all for fun
as "pow" pops out from phony gun
elephants in colored costumed
lion tamer to the rescue
man with helmet shot from canon
into a net for safety landin'
no escape from three ring circus
caught the hype to entertain us...
on tour, gone to the mountain, raising the roof,
keeping time w/ the music of the spheres;
down that old, ecstatic, out-of-the Way-
honky tonk highway,
a star blazing brighter
in the mystery of the night
in the heart of the desert.
***
(Usury is dead, not God.
There're no bloodied, dancing bears
in the three-ring circus.
There're no circuses.
There's only bread.
There's no organ grinder's cowed monkey,
cap and beggar's cup in hand.
Sweeping, the river runs fuller.
Cacti grow taller, more thoroughgoing,
desert blooms burgeoning,
blooming richer in the moonlight.)
***
Real deal,
saint and sinner,
hunkered thundering over his drum kit,
and coolest in dark shades in the heat and
glare of the spotlight,
he beams, Buddha-like.
Some of the Stramgest People
Trump has been cause of my much stress
The poor way that people he will address
Many things into pea brain he does cram
Never saying neither yes nor no mam.
Trump tries to make things spic and span
Is so difficult to do with a small hand
After many morons had all been polled
Trump lacks having a heart of gold.
Three ring circus tri-cameral system has become
When people are nuts do they prefer plums
And also will eat prunes and raisins instead
A lump of it later was found in Trump's bed.
They were discrete and saw it on his sheet
Amazing strangest people you may meet
Selling sox, toilet paper and swimming pool
Also something to soften your hard stool.
James Vivacious Voracious Horn
Retired Vindicated Veteran and Perturbing Poet
Hillary Has It In the Bag
To understand things often has been hard
So what is all of this about a Woman's Card
We find that causes every female to suffer
And getting through life making it tougher.
Maybe a Constitution Card we really need
Or a men's one causing them to stampede
That will then try to seal their final doom
When refusing to create transgender room.
Men's and Women's are currently in style
And voting lines that are as long as a mile
For voters for Trump which are unanimous
Most are either a misfit or an ignoramus.
Of delegates can campaigners be a raider
Or could they be known as a Trump traitor
How horrible women he has been treating
And by Hillary hope he will be badly beaten.
People started voting for Trump on purpose
After all he is now part of a three ring circus
And on him us women must be sure to rag
For President, Hillary surely has it in the bag.
James Thesarious Hilarious Horn
Retired Veteran and Poet
If I Were to Ever
If I ever were to know
Reasons why all things will grow
Which way wind does blow.
Song some song bird would soon sing
Life baby birds to in bring
Who may be next king.
Or a queen could be instead
Perhaps President who led
Faces to be fed.
Should I start shedding a tear
As our twilights will grow near
Only fools find fear.
God my life planned for me
And from sins set us all free
Have humility.
When into this world I came
Never sought fortune or fame
God still knew my name.
My life was for God's purpose
Part of His Three Ring Circus
As us He nurses.
James Thomas Horn
Retired Veteran and Poet
Life is a three-ring circus
Thrice around and around
The jolly merry-go-round
Fun the ultimate purpose
Mesmerized at this and that
Laughter for every age
Exotic animals in a cage
Used to being stared at
Rides speeding up and down
Through hoops and loops
Joining dancing troupes
Circumventing any sad frown
Lining up sideshow freaks
Presenting a two-headed man
Sexy dancers doing the cancan
A bearded lady that wreaks
As he flaunts treacherous highwire act
Ringmaster shows off painted elephants
Clowns making fun of fake elegance
Big top forever designed to attract
AP: 1st place 2025
As the movie starts, they cut out the heart,
it’s beats on the living room floor.
It’s a mob attack and everyone’s whacked
in a three ring circus of gore.
And what a surprise, in a disguise
the bad guy is dressed as the law.
He shoots everyone down, goes underground
and starts a family war.
It’s all bosoms and buns, grenades and guns
nothing but satyrs and whores.
It’s two thumbs down for tinsel town
there’s really no cause for applause.
How many actors are zero factors
off of the silver screen?
They slither around tinsel town
in satanic limousines,
picking up sleazes with neo diseases
and no moral hygiene.
They play with fate, that often equates
to playing their final scene.
The last curtain call is when critics fall
on them like a guillotine.
It’s two thumbs down for tinsel town
just color the scene gangrene.