I started to clap, but no-one joined in.
Do people not do that here? I asked.
But at least my applause was genuine,
Unlike a round with which one is tasked --
Pressure to buy several pints, feeling casked,
Pegged to a keg of expectation
When all you want is icy hydration.
Not feeling awkward as the odd one out
Is one of my social aspirations
When silence distorts one sound as a shout.
Stand straight - stay unaffected
They're watching your every move,
If not they have reason -
And no one will believe you
Your heart will say panic,
But your head knows to be quiet,
It anchors your survival
Smile, but not with teeth,
Polite - but not too scary,
Remember our teeth breed fear
Don’t make eye contact,
The police are looming near -
And they are awaiting the call of a white woman's tears
Don’t speak, unless spoken too,
Don’t be too loud -
Again they will call the police on you
Speak softly, because -
Softness equals professional,
If this is too difficult -
The mirror is a great practice tool
DEFINING THE DEAFENING
Unhappiness isn't 're going through,
It’s thou we pretend to be.
Series of bio-and socio-cultural stage
That, Alter hormonal and physical change.
Everyone arrives via same matriarchal womb-
Why is it's same, When they want to change?
Isn’t it strange?
Erect by nurture, nature and norm,
Which grows aloud with past form.
Not outside, but within-
Oh! Peace, reach me please.
Don’t vapor like a musky cloud,
Drain Invincible poison out.
March, Oh austere mindset,
To bloom in borrowed hues.
Perhaps, deafening doesn't lie outside-
We breed it inside (individual).
Conformity does not comfort me
Its friendly friends
with clown smiles,
beware of the guile,
beware of the bile.
Rambling repertoire
from a mouth of an asp,
subject matter
I just cannot grasp.
If following along
is the mission of most,
I cannot dance
and sing as the host.
The wolf on the lone path
the eagle soaring high
picket signs against tear gas
having the snow leopards eye.
I will stand in solidarity
these resolute individualists
the nature of their souls
has no conformity.
Nah! NAH!
Blahhh! BLAH!
Wouldn't Wanna Be One!
You Know The Drill!
Join In! OR Vacate
The Tribe, Bozo.
I Forget All The Words...
You Know 'Em.
-Gray Squirrel
09-18-2025
Conformity Normal Court
How Can You Feel
Anything Real
With Values So
Artificial?
-Gray Squirrel
03-19-2025
Butting heads, locking horns
the difficult child of three
if any one was causing grief
It was always going to be me,
the stubborn chip
and that stubborn old block
never at ease we two
so I left and made a life for myself
far from the one you knew,
you pushed too hard
to tie me down
I went and you felt betrayed
you never saw my need to go
I could never see why you stayed
Like the earth and moon collide,
In which we stand in a world full of lies.
The mind is where we confide,
Come with me to the end of times.
Where mother nature cries,
And humans die.
Long in disparity where I find,
Myself alone but what’s to hide.
Where I know its true but cant deny,
The truth in my soul, but why?
Why speak things sweet like pie?
Fake in narrative, digging deep in mines.
Just to find myself ignite,
In a dark place in my mind.
All along It was like committing a crime.
Heinous but kind.
Truthful but evilness behind,
Of how life is Devine.
DeVINE like a mime?
Something like a joke just to
Provide.
A fulfilment which ties,
The likes of intimate surprise,
And the death of time.
I remember being told
Since I started joining letters together
I was taught to fit them into words, sentences, stanzas or paragraphs
Let your creativity flow they said
How was i to do so?
Just jumble up the words in the voice of another
Be anything but elementary
Use bigger words, a flowery language
Make your writing eloquent and exquisite
No one cares what you are writing as long as you're filling pages
Your poems should have symmetry
And your prose should be lengthy
Kudos! You got the highest marks
Does it end there? Is this what I perspire for?
At what liberty am I to use my creativity
If I can't make new words of my own?
Why aren't I taught that?
Why must I always fit my voice into poetry or prose?
Why must my handwriting be cursive and my poems have a rhyme scheme?
Why must I always conform to these moulds?
Its common,
To not want to seem foreign,
The safety net of what's told,
Even though we're controlled,
Somehow we don't see the problem,
Because we're used to being patrolled
Into whatever we're being sold,
Thinking we've found gold.
No.
We're just thinking without a mind of
our own.
Ice is water that held the container tight
and found the shape of its containment just right.
Water has no shape when not confined,
No dish, no jar, or holding wall to design.
Vapor is water without many friends
Up from the heat and containment it assends.
be a follower
afraid to be the real you
conformists all lose
just lap dog fame
disingenuous is your name,
cookie-cutter fame
deceit fills your day
selling your soul to belong
empty shell on sand
2/27/2023
They kill horse don’t they
Economical strokes
Of the knife
That let the blood drain
Gushing at first
Into the sand
As they watch the light fade
From eyes that trusted
Then move on
To destroy more dreams
And things of beauty
To create a world of grays
For the colour blind
And one of conformity
To deter the poets
And the dreamers
They kill horses don’t they
How are you my pet?
Have all you need?
Are you all set?
Have all your wants and needs met?
Good, now it’s time to pay
With your vote for me today
Prove your loyalty and appreciation
To further our political masturbation
Of you my obedient pet
Just obey
And please don’t fret
We need your mindless conformity
As we employ our brand of deformity
Time to keep quiet and do as your told
As we bring you to heel
If I may be so bold
It’s the same story
That’s old and retold
We prey
You obey
And fit the mold
Of soulless servitude
To the heartless and cold
Surprise, surprise
Your existence has sold
To the lowest bidder
Is what I’m told
Now come my pet
And submit to the F. O. L. D.
(Follow Our Logic Deviant)
Eric (and sometimes not)
George was to us The Deformed
And his bones The Malformed …
Then, to our rules he conformed,
After he was duly informed
And by us pointedly reformed
And-Lo!-George stooped looking deformed
Nor were his bones still malformed
For overnight, new ones had formed!
Just through his Conformity for Acceptance,
In him stifling Tiger of Resistance.
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.