Best Unceremonious Poems
It's been covered
by that christmas tablecloth
for years.
You remember...
the one with the large poinsettia pattern
directly in the middle,
with the cranberry stains decorating
sporadic spots along the border.
I almost forgot it was here.
I always hoped somehow a magic trick
would be performed while I was away
and it would disappear before I returned.
The years have passed for me
yet as I do the unceremonious unveiling
time seems to spiral backwards until
I'm sitting on the floor
drowning in a flood of memories.
Yet,
no more tears come.
Time to clean house.
No more tablecloths to cover the pain.
No more boxes to tuck away
the memories that are better off forgotten.
No more excuses for not visiting this place.
No more.
This space is clean now
and will remain that way.
Clear of the cobwebs and dust
that have been clouding my vision
for too many years.
The heavy velvet curtains give a groan
(or is it a cheer?)
as they're thrown open.
Finally, the sun can shine through
and the warmth can be felt
by a heart that was unsure it deserved
to feel the warmth of the sun.
Categories:
unceremonious, hope, inspirational, life, nature,
Form:
Free verse
Here comes the silence.
Shoving its way through the crowd to greet me.
Like a tsunami would greet a stony cliff.
What an impetuous, impertinent lull...
Settling itself on my head like a heavy blanket.
Suffocating my ears.
Should I scream?
I should scream.
But there's no sound.
Just unceremonious reverie.
Just silence.
That raucous, deafening silence.
Until the world turns.
Negligibly.
A motion indiscernible.
Except for the sound it makes.
Categories:
unceremonious, anxiety, crazy, grief, hyperbole,
Form:
Free verse
Gluggamous-fluggamous
Grandfather Thaddeus
went to the grocery store
bought him a lime
Home with tequila and
salt coated shot glass he
unceremonious
lost track of time.
Spitimy-bitimy
Grandma Penelope
done with her work early
home she did race.
One glance at Grandfather
mega-monstrosity
Grandma retreated to
Clyde's warm embrace
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
inspired by John Wulf's McWhirtle
Categories:
unceremonious, family,
Form:
Double Dactyl
Ultra-conservative
undertaker umpires
upperclassmen unit;
Unique undergrads used
Unceremonious
Underhanded unions--
Uncooperative!
THIRD PLACE WINNER
Written April 30, 2021
for "Pleiades 'U' Contest"
sponsored by Kim Merryman
Categories:
unceremonious, humor, word play,
Form:
Verse
I am a man
I am the bearer of our name
I am in part the maker of my fam
I lead by behaviour and stature
I lead with and not by fame
I am a man
Not by my stance to a toilet
Not to the raising of my hand
I am not culturally inclined
Not by weight of adultery
Nor mistreatment of an other
I am not a man by group, sect or activity
I am a man
by my independence
By confidence
By honesty
Respect and loyalty
I model my father in good or bad stead
I am a man
As I do not need to raise my voice
As I margin a future
Am forgiven in moments unceremonious
I forgive not for Ego
Only in being a hero
Am away from childish activity
Transition to being thee
I listen to both women and girls
Mannerisms
I am both gentle and hard
Rough and clean
Kind and mean
I am me, myself, a family
Brother, protector and a human being
I am a man.
Categories:
unceremonious, africa, dad, family, men,
Form:
Lyric
Naked to Nurture. Naked, to Nurture.
Why not naked into woods?
We yank up gumboots.
Enshroud our piggies in wicking and itching sockbags.
Hoping to holdfast against the forfeiture of bought heat.
The city slickers in their shiny slickers
clasp and buckle, zip and bundle
before they trudge and trundle
into the Great Unlabeled, the alien birthright.
An undershirt, a tank, a tee, and then an overthing!
And this in Spring, in Summer. Winter's another thickening:
strappings wrapping trappings, coalgulable clottings clogging
scarf-shrouded and unceremonious cerements.
The gloves, if cold or wet. The hat and muffs, if blustering.
We insulate ourselves from the uninsulated.
Remove ourselves from that which we aim to enter.
To re-enter. To be received by. Naked as we came, now
at our peril, apparently apparelled in unparalleled antiferalelry.
Each civilized entrant into sylvan realms-
textile banished for fear of cold,
for fear of wet, for fear of dirt.
The mind must first give up its notions
of propriety to hope to slake the self in the
sunlit and secreted shimmerings of sanctity.
Be bare of sole, skin to wind.
Be bare of soul, Yin to begin.
Why not naked into woods?
they do, so certainly, come naked...
into us.
Categories:
unceremonious, art, philosophy, tree,
Form:
Free verse
‘Twas a mellow evening overseen by a crescent moon
A ludic breeze playfully lurking above miles of glittery sand
A zillion stars out in full bloom commemorating a late June
I remember as if yesterday how you nervously touched my hand
In an awkwardly charming way you were so chivalrous
I loved the stories you shared with a childlike innocent heart
Time evaporated casual and content in a way most unceremonious
Our souls affectionately melding as one right from the start
Looking back now makes remembrances so endearing
Years have been most generous to you and I in every way
From that tense genesis every hint of skepticism disappearing
We’ve grown closer and couldn’t imagine another now to judgment day
Two compatible souls inexplicably attracted
Intertwining hearts forever connected
**PoetrySoup definition of a SONNET does not say anything about # syllables per line - giving the impression that varied # of syllables per line would be acceptable**
AP: 2nd place, Honorable Mention 2020
Submitted for contest A FIRST DATE SONNET sponsored by BRENDA CHIRI - January 20, 2018 - RANKED 1ST
Categories:
unceremonious, cute love, relationship, remember,
Form:
Sonnet
Luscious night overseen by crescent moon
Playful ludic breeze toys with miles of sand
A zillion stars out in full bloom this June
T'was yesteryear nervous you took my hand
The charming way you were so chivalrous
Stories shared with innocent childlike heart
Time vanished most unceremonious
Our souls melding as one right from the start
Looking at remembrances endearing
Years generous to us in every way
All hint of skepticism disappearing
Never be another come judgment day
Two souls inexplicably attracted
Entwining hearts forever connected
AP: 3rd place 2020
Submitted on February 28, 2018 for contest BEST SONNET sponsored by LAURA LOO
This is the versed version (10 syllables) of my original A FIRST DATE unversed sonnet - submitted in February 2018
Categories:
unceremonious, destiny, june, love, night,
Form:
Sonnet
Cool breezy swirl
Pregnant with rain;
Abrupt metaphor
Man walking dog
Faces so alike;
Harmonic motion
News flash
Warring fractions;
Lose-lose situation
Grass verge flowers
Unceremonious strands;
Beauty unnoticed
Old rubber tree
Nature's monument;
Wears a regal countenance
Sky of grey-black
Random lightning flash;
Nature re-decorating
Feline chorus
Evening entertainment;
Midnight madness
Easy breezy
Zephyrs swirl and dance;
Cold evening gathers
Between sad and bad
Choose to be glad;
Weather grim change
Leon Enriquez
14 August 2014
Singapore
Categories:
unceremonious, blessing,
Form:
Haiku
A cloud without a sun
So dim, it sets the heart to burn
Across the wild redemption is heard
Awakening the unknown to be bared.
All around the drums of revolution is heard
Flashes and grey smear the end.
The rhythm on a flat, tempo rising in every note
Like a drum on a strut crescendo climaxing as it wrote.
In the greens,
Some total obiesance, others undecided swaying and bowing.
For the crawlers,
Roosting was early, unceremonious, devoid of squacking and flapping.
As the rumbling and tumbling heated
The scurrying and scrambling ended.
Roofs thumping, pallets sated buckets filled
Puddles forming, earth elated streams tilled.
Categories:
unceremonious, analogy, change, metaphor, rain,
Form:
Couplet
Today I practiced
tai-chi in front of a mirror
with a dozen beginners my age.
I didn't apologize
as I thought I might.
Strange
to pick out the
reflexively familiar.
Icon I,
seen from the outside.
Some of us
would have commanded
with angry eyes
if rumples were smoothed
but now we listen.
They lined up like this
in many old photographs of
unsymmetric faces
unceremonious bodies,
dignities clinginging to fact.
Categories:
unceremonious, identity, self,
Form:
Free verse
Do you know what it’s like
To be required no more,
To be put out to grass,
To be kicked out the door,
To know your work’s ended,
No more will be done,
To be slung on the tip,
Pushed aside by the young,
To be pensioned off
In an unceremonious way,
To know you’ve had yours,
Every dog has its day,
To have an appetite for work,
But be left to hunger,
To be replaced by someone
Less able but younger,
To be told you’re too old,
When you feel in your prime,
To be sent on your bike,
Before it’s your time,
To be all washed up
And flushed down the drain,
To have no physical wounds,
But still be in pain,
To feel your age,
Find you’re no Peter Pan,
To see your life going
No longer to plan,
To recall when you felt rich,
But now you feel poor,
To hear your heart slowly pumping,
Alas’ it races no more,
To experience an emptiness
That nothing will fill,
To have no medical symptoms,
But still feel ill,
To be out of control
Of your own destiny,
To be constantly asking
Why me ... why me?
Categories:
unceremonious, analogy, confusion, depression, drink,
Form:
Rhyme
In the shadow of the Second World War,
Fuehrer wanted to augment maritime power
and control the waters of the northern oceans.
In the North Sea he proudly set sail Bismarck,
the largest German battleship ever built.
On maiden voyage off the coast of Scandinavia
she got fiercely engaged with the Royal Navy,
heavily damaged, survived the first battle
in the fateful strait of Denmark,
but was totally crippled by later air attack.
She was scuttled by the German navy,
bringing her brief life to an unceremonious end,
as she committed suicide so to say, and sank
to save herself from further ignominy.
November 6, 2021
Contest : A Noteworthy Ship
Sponsor : Robert James Liguori
Categories:
unceremonious, analogy, sea, world war
Form:
Free verse
unabashed anticipation
unblemished appreciation
unbridled exhilaration
uncensored imagination
unceremonious recreation
unchartered exploration
uncomplicated communication
unconfined aspiration
undreamt creation
unfading veneration
unfathomable exaltation
uninhibited expectation
unleashed fascination
unlimited inspiration
unprecedented celebration
unrehearsed reconciliation
unscheduled relaxation
unsolicited cooperation
unsurpassed vacation
unswaying determination
Submitted on January 4, 2018 for contest NEW YEAR_RHYME sponsored by JANICE CANERDY - RANKED 3RD
Categories:
unceremonious, encouraging, hope, inspiration, motivation,
Form:
Rhyme
How pretty this placid sea
appears to everyone's eyes
in the quietest morning,
not a single sail challenging
the surf of waves rambling;
do I hear a scream
of desperation arising
from the bluest depth?
How somber is to stare
at the deserted sea
that has lost its harmony;
the only noise is the shrill
of the hungry seagulls
swooping down and searching
for salmons and mackerels!
Who has ever confided
his secrets to a taciturn sea
willing to listen and keep them
in its deepest cave of dwelling corals?
Who has ever asked to reveal
them to an enamored, bright-eyed girl?
I dare not ask why all the sailing boats
went missing after the misty sunrise,
are they waiting for the fog to dissipate
and return to the battering shore
overlooked by the unceremonious lighthouse
with a solemn glare suspecting that all freshmen
who set out to catch lots of fish, are lost at sea?
I'll wait until dusk hoping to catch
the flamboyant return of every sailboat
in unchartered waters that have brought
either glory or defeat to each fisherman
fighting off the wild waves that predicted a squall.
During the liturgy, Guido the bearded priest,
lifts the golden chalice while the altar boys
ring the altar bell and repeat an Amen
that confirms the dire fate of the twenty
fishermen who had gone missing since sunrise.
The deserted sea has lost its harmony,
how loud was the joyful song of the fishermen
leaving their home at the first gleams
of the peaceful dawn giving them the fortitude
to earn their living with rough hands and be grateful.
Categories:
unceremonious, anxiety, fate, fishing, men,
Form:
Narrative