Deflection Poems | Examples

List of Member Poems

Thank You

Your presence hums along from afar sweet and strong
Thanks for being with me, sharing time all day long

Your laugh catches the eye charming one’s reflection
But no image comes back, your mask a deflection

Reading between the lines: see the heart of your reign
Your color is so dark, full of shackles and pain

Thus to make you happy—or satisfied with me
Your back will be covered so please don’t you worry,

Your atmosphere sparkles as you step into sight
Dignity of a doll, inspired as a light
 
Our chats are a pleasure to debate all questions
And wrong disagreements are mended with reason

Thanks for being my friend, thank you for being you
Sorry if I look cold, actually I like you

Unbent

I asked for a breath of room,
a sliver of understanding,
and you handed me a diagnosis.
"Abnormal" you said.
Your favourite label for a woman
who refuses to shrink to fit your frame.

Then the quiet deflection, right on cue:
That condescending little laugh,
that passive step backward
the moment a conversation demands actual effort.

It is a clever trick:
I ask to be met halfway.
and you turn my boundaries into a defect.
You shrink back, play the victim,
and call your control a compromise.

Go ahead. Label me stubborn. 
Call me unbending.
Roll your eyes and take your games elsewhere.
I was never asking for the moon.
I just wanted a man who could show up 
without needing to pull all the strings.

The Closet in the Corner of my Room

Sleeping inside three oak walls and a creaky double door
Is something that hasn't glimpsed the sun
Since I first hid it from my pupils.
I've taken great care in decorating the sides of the wardrobe
With carvings of flowers and horses, 
And everything else one would expect
From an old closet such as it.
I've stacked my plump balls of mismatched yarn 
On the tippy top of its dusty roof, 
so that when people ask me why I have such an old closet 
In my new room, I can tell them it's for storage.
I've also locked the door with a little something I call
Omission and deflection, two very useful tools 
I keep in the tool box under my bed,
Also not in view of any shafts of light that may trespass
Into the room through the bedroom window.


Premium Member This Earthly Existence

Earth is round
Earth is shifting
Shifting north
Shifting South
South points on a compass
South, where people live 
Live and free
Live with diversity
Diversity is everywhere
Diversity is beautiful
Beautiful is colorful
Beautiful is an array of colors
Colors all around us
Colors of the rainbow
Rainbows are a peaceful deflection
Rainbows are our planet’s reflection
Reflection of the old
Reflection of the new
New ideas of being helpful
New ways to welcome peace
Peace in the East
Peace in the West
West winds blow
West, we now know
Know is knowledge
Know till we read
Read our history
Read to learn
Learn to succeed
Learn to celebrate
Celebrate our differences
Celebrate our existence
Existence is unique to everyone
Existence is what makes us who we are
Are we here
Are we there
There you are
There is someone who cares
Cares to be bold
Cares to unfold
Unfold nature’s desire
Unfold the power of the Creator who never gets tired
Tired, we go into a deep sleep
Tired and dreaming, we greet
Greet the old 
Greet the young
Young and old, we will forever roam
Young and we work 
Work…
Roam…

Premium Member Objects From My Loves

I keep the pair of socks he never wore again
After he mistakenly taken mine instead.
I felt for him, but he didn't care for my pain.
I just wonder if I was ever truly in his head.

I keep a bangle as an exception for jewellery,
After another lover gave it to me generously.
I felt for him, but we lacked true chemistry.
I just wonder if I ever did love him fully.

I keep his lighter, our metaphorical fire,
After I mistakenly pocketed it after using it.
I feel for him, but I'm afraid love may expire.
I just wonder if we will grow more, bit by bit.

I keep objects from my objects of affection,
As I remember all the memories we share.
I felt for all, but I was met with deflection.
All but one lets me show how much I care.

Red Flags and Realizations


We started like a story,
You read me cover to cover,
Pretending you cared—
Just long enough to smother.

You said all the right words,
But your hands told the truth.
You weren’t in it for love,
Just the body of my youth.

I was a game.
A joke.
A cure for your boredom.
While you hid someone else—
Your loyalty was a phantom.

I was never your partner,
Just a place to pass time.
You wanted what was mine,
But never to make me mine.

When I spoke of my battles,
The darkness I faced alone,
You smirked—
Like pain was punchline,
Like I was weak to the bone.

You laughed when I cried,
Mocked what I felt.
As if my mind was broken,
And your jokes were how it dealt.

But I see it now.
The gaslighting.
The games.
How I was only a conquest,
Not a name.

You broke me—
But through the cracks came light.
And I finally saw the truth
I was too in love to fight.

You were a walking red flag,
Dressed in fake affection.
All charm, no depth,
Just lies and deflection.

But I’m free now.
Not yours, not fooled, not small.
You wanted in my pants—
But you’ll never have my soul at all.


Premium Member Blemish to Menace

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.

Meet the Man

A covert narcissist dressed in a hand-me-down victim cloak,
Master of the tear-tantrum tactic —
He sniffles, sobs, and simpers until your defenses drop,
Then slides a betrayal in your back so smooth you almost thank him.

A codependent parasite latched to his mother’s emotional tit like a tick,
Bound by an enmeshed dynamic so tight you'd think she birthed him twice.
He’s 40 going on 14,
Displaying classic symptoms of Peter Pan Syndrome with a sprinkle of Oppositional Defiance Disorder every time life whispers “grow up.”

Zero employment history,
But extensive experience in triangulation, gaslighting, and learned helplessness.
He’s the CEO of deflection, a PhD in projection,
Weaponizing guilt like a toddler with a grenade.

He calls you "too emotional,"
Right after he weeps his way out of another confrontation
Like a soggy Machiavelli.

He’s not just a mama’s boy.
He’s her emotional husband,
Their emotional incest dressed up as devotion,
While he lets her make every decision
Between his gaming sessions and tantrums.

He’s the kind of man who, if given a mirror,
Would still find a way to blame the reflection for his failures.

Premium Member A Career in Undercover


It's no surprise
that I'm back here
looking out over the river,
painting thoughts, dripping
memories, smearing streaks
of the here and now 
across the canvas of a dull,
overcast day.

There was a time 
when I had ambitions to be
an artist, high school dreams
of a life in smoke filled studios,
tee shirts and paint splattered
Levi jeans. ( A la Jackson Pollock )
Fate though had me 
nine to five dressed in a suit, 
white cotton shirt and a tie.

Over a long career I digested
libraries of corporate jargon,
studied the intricacies of office drill,
the dark secrets of management
all with consummate skill. 
To survive, I mastered the art 
of disguise and deflection
as an undercover poet 
learns to do.

Pedestal

3/2/35 03:19

I glorify men 
Placing them high on a pedestal 
Where my father fell short
The bar is in hell 
And the bare minimum are the crumbs I live off 
Satiated from nothing and empty promises
An illusion of fullness 
As I see myself in half
As I saw myself in half 
As I stand here with a void desperate to be filled
Take me served up on a silver platter
Ill intentions disguised as good deeds 
And deflection paired with belittlement right on time 
The light within me dims when I’m faced with their conditioning 
And the fire is lit 
Am I being gaslit? 
I hook my claws onto potential 
As my reflection bounces back at me 
Disguised as I swim in the delusion of what they’re telling me 
Words so loud and action rarely found 
I abandon myself at the sight of basic decency

Premium Member Morning Musings

Morning Musings
Miracle Man
1/2/2025 

Morning thoughts drift,
seeking guidance or direction.

Unsure of destination,
they fend off deflection.

Hoping 2025 will be as tasteful,
as some newly concocted confection.

Also, thoughts that might tempt,
are quickly met with rejection.

Premium Member I Asked, I Believed, I Confessed

I Asked, I Believed, I Confessed
Miracle Man
November 11, 2023

Once, my days were lived as a feather,
wind blown, and without fixed direction.
Unknown to me, life’s storms I’d weather,
until God changed my life’s deflection.

Looking back, I see, only faint shadows,
of days when I had no message to share.
But from sin’s depth I abruptly arose,
God had answered my sinners prayer.

When She Heats, Boils and Bubbles

when she heats, boils, bubbles, then we got real troubles 
braised evil perfection, ...matron of deflection

Premium Member Compost, Anyone

Compost, Anyone
Miracle Man
September 17, 2023

Most of what comes from congress is nonsense,
so their approval poll numbers they don’t dispense.

They couldn’t agree on the winds direction,
and both parties are masters at blame deflection.

In agreeing on a budget they’re always unsure,
so they create this mountain of cow manure.

Always without the use of a Heifer or Steer,
but they quickly testify to being sincere.

Premium Member Zen Mode

The blemish we saw in the other's soul
Was but mirroring our own reflection
Narrow views causing from love deflection
Oneness recognition making us whole

Linear time and memory erasure
Releases us from burden of our past
Else grief for erst misdeeds leaves us aghast
Tranquil eye ensures there's no heart fissure

Each entity as aspect of The One
Navigates contrast to feel love shine through
In active cognition, bliss beats renew
Rekindling within, the light of the sun

10-November-2022

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.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace