I’m walking on sunshine,
slipping into the sparkling sea,
splashing the beach ball sun,
feeling warm and elated;
silk waters, as if in a womb
with plenty of room, coddle me.
dark waters, down deep;
the rays of the sun stroke my cheeks.
my feet dangle like jellyfish tentacles,
yet, as a human, I can become a raft,
drifting with the tides, tirelessly treading.
a ship comes along, another soul -
a stranger I might engage, but to kin,
I will release a wave, splash the sun
in their eyes, the ebb and flow of a
sunny kiss, and a rainstorm of bliss.
my fingertips like clouds, release
petrichor and plenipotentiary amusement.
a shark circles, in pretense; I sit
on a life preserver in the eddy;
I don’t want to come up for air.
The Cool Kids table
positioned in front
Where Rolex and Prada
like hounds on the hunt
They pander and coddle
each other with flair
Ignoring all others
outside of their lair
The Cool Kids engender
self-titles and brand
As brain dead and hollow
they spew on demand
But Mommy and Daddy
won’t suckle prolonged
And sooner or later
they’ll cease to belong
The Cool Kids outdated
when faced with the truth
They only exist
when they’re part of ‘The Group’
Their 2oth reunion
will come in a flash
Where that table in front
— is now pushed to the back
(To The Wallflowers: June, 2026)
Indulging in a flirting spree
Succubi demons within me!
I self- admire all daylong,
Humbly hum a seductive song,
To me my gorgeous bits belong!
As I gaze on me from above,
I blush with glee at my true love:
My biceps worthy of Greek myth,
My charming smile - the perfect pith,
No one I’d rather coddle with!
I believe beauty lies within!
It’s one-on-one, therefore win win!
I shall confess if you insist -
I’m an intrinsic narcissist,
I bet on me, you get the gist.
As over my visage I drool -
Head over heels! Dead in the pool.
Make me man as soon as my youngster
knowingly receives their very last coddle.
The unconditional love curdles from
your loving mother’s teat.
Make it matter despite what you moo to cattle.
Prod the brittle; the previously dilly-dallied say,
“Tagalongs, hogtied stowaway freeloaders with
the trade inside loading and shipping containers.”
Longtime division produced its remainders.
A cove far off the oceans cost.
A cove in a periwinkle sea,
frothing with a bacterial foam
whipping up these sweet
whipped creamed treats
and other delights.
A fondant atop it all
till the klutz ruination
curses cause clusters of
curse wordings together,
finding their bindings.
Shame soaks the rag that wiped away
a distressed and disastrous look upon face.
Words impact with a continuous compound fracture
under the masterful tongue's dismantling of the
peace talks upheld on the other hand.
.
i do
yesss
frequent thuh square
enjoy'n so
thuh bench'z
company
'tiz thuh hike
for thuh concern'd
and thoze city bench'z
slats uv wood
coddle mine frame
and thuh purty
and hern smile
"company"
'tiz bettuh than
uh mug uh
rum
an entry for Constance LaFrance's contest
Write a Beautiful Rubaiyat Poem
Make a discovery, well-worth your time!
Compare instant coffee to Starbuck's prime,
I-Hop's waffles to those frozen en bloc.
Voila! steel cut oats! makes hunger bells chime.
Use the stove to boil some salt water stock;
turn it down low and pile oats in the crock.
(what’s half an hour? I've a paper to read.)
I have retired and I don't watch the clock.
Lots of brown sugar and butter you'll need,
takes thirty minutes to coddle this feed.
Add whatever, the next verse gives my notes.
Steel-cut oats will get breakfast up to speed.
Include raisins which drift like little boats
in the sugary-rich, buttery moat.
For a breakfast or any meal sublime
include nuts. Then just grab a spoon and gloat.
Petty indifferences invade your perception;
To cloud the pathways of your mind.
So that those delusions you've concocted,
Assault what’s left behind.
The trifling narrow mindedness you coddle,
Gives these fallacies their birth.
You forget your responsibilities,
When you can't recognize your self worth.
When you start barking orders;
Your ignorance comes to call!
I need no play by play;
I've no need to be told at all.
You’re giving them authority;
To hold your intelligence at bay.
Clearly I am not your enemy;
It's your anger leading you astray.
Prioritize all that rot!
Detour that confusion; get some peace.
Stop dwelling on trivial nonsense so that your problems will decrease.
Give and take as you command; it builds healthy respect.
Compromise always has the upper hand when it’s anger you reject.
Worrying is from your lack of faith;
You should never empathize your stress.
You can't let that last straw break your back,
You'll make your life a mess.
Don't take everything so critical!
Relax, you have to let it go!
Let’s sync together, you and I;
I’m your team mate, not your foe!
Cardiac cadence
of mama tides
keep zodiac time
tears like tides
taste of brine on baptized lips
sway me sea
in cradle-swells
between the crests
coddle me
in a pink-wombed
conch shell
for I like driftwood
have died yet survived the storm.
There are those who take what they want.
Pez dispensers of pain and suffering
,, gleaning, never planting
Rapists of fresh air and confidence.
Staining the souls of everything.
Tumors in the marrow of society.
They are small glimpses into hell
professional complainers and oppressors
With bachelor's degrees in deflection and deceit.
PHD'S in the blame game.
Others only take what they need.
Giving the rest away to those in need,
Calm waters, splintering calibers of decay.
They are small windows into heaven.
Bachelor's degree in responsibility and reason.
PhDs in fathomless faith.
The well-meaning try to fix evil with bleeding hearts...
Evil thinks they're soft tools-plays them for fools.
To be used for evil endeavors.
If evil isn't acting out, it is plotting its next twisted step.
Fashioning chalk pentagrams, dreaming in hues of death.
Evil can never be fixed.
Evil must be minced into oblivion.
The trend is to coddle and pacify-
Until it festers from an irritating blemish to
incurable disease and endless menace.
The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.
~ Nikola Tesla
nights are dark and long
and those who come only
to wheedle
me into eating, or drinking, or brushing my hair
coddle and coo
yet bear knife and needle
to prepare my mind to sleep and rest
no, not to rest, to forget - they come and spiel
dogmatic scientific credal
Coddle my wounds as you once had done
So unearthly spirit, do your lips quiver the names of all you had pained hither
The wicker of my wallowing moon, do you see, so speak
If one had been held from whence my end had discovered,
From whence none shall recover,
Had you seen, so spoke, every bludgeoned apology struck parched upon your fallaced lips,
Yet none to touch, none to see,
Ever poignant word that had struck e'er so deep within me,
So see my tears, so weep upon these fears,
Had lapped upon the sand, drenched and disfigured with every clear blear of word
Had you seen, so had you spoke
Would you then succumb to every fear
Bleating upon the cognitive recognition of childhood
So hold me now
Here, as you had once done.
(without fear)
cool calico cat could come and coddle cuddle cautioned Cali’s cousin
Carmen. Campy Cameron coughed curiously, considering this caution
comical. Calico cat commandeered the cabin and café, a considerable
conquest, considering the coolness of Cali, Carmen and Cameron.
I’ll be keeping this one rather brief;
my arthritis is causing me grief.
Now I’m not one to coddle,
but Bobcat’s a good model
and grease fittings would provide relief.
V.
It used to be understood that
people were pretty safe,
that our streets and our neighborhoods
weren’t a dangerous place,
that you could let your kids go out
and they’d come back alive,
that we had good law enforcement,
security to thrive.
But now they coddle criminals,
help them get out early,
our cities have become failed states
of crime, drugs, and feces.
Worse yet is they’re importing them,
illegals in cruel gangs,
handing out money to the thugs
who probably should hang.
It seems a week doesn’t go by
we don’t see migrant crime,
people murdered and women raped,
it happens all the time.
Whole apartments taken over,
the tenants extorted,
by people your leaders let in
so they could get ahead,
all of it just to rig the vote
so they alone can win,
no problem with condemning you
to a future quite grim.
Your life has no meaning to them,
they’ll gladly leave you screwed,
see the evil and don’t forget
what was taken from you.
Hedgehog, O hedgehog
dear spiny, meek and mousy poppet.
In England
where the tickly grass grows
greener
we galumph in our rubber boots
up to your little
Hobbit nests
beneath the thorny bushes
were you rests.
We the ever scampy
nippers
fill tin cups with wriggly worms
leave then there
by your dinky
mossy dells.
All the pricky hogs
come from near and nearer,
to snuff and gobble
by the brittle briery
and eat their wormy mush.
Our mucky paws clap
in gay and giggly glee
to see that munchy feast,
their piddly
licky
muzzles
chomping -
quite charming.
Adults say, 'we will catch a flea'
from their pin pointy pelts.
yet we shrug
our never minds, and
our don't cares,
even bring
one tiddly tyke home,
smuggling it up the stairs
to coddle
while we playtime
with some jolly good
fun....
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.