Doing Time Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Stop Making Cents

They can print money, when there’s a big dept
for us that’s a crime, and we’d end up doing time

It smells of baloney, with this concept
it’s for them to shine, so they can have their dime

Premium Member Doing Time

On a dark and rainy afternoon
Whence I’d been sentenced to my bedroom
For my crime of failing to take care
To not be a pain in my mother’s derriere 
As it happens, I was a lad of six
Full of mischief and annoying tricks
Apparently, I had failed to take warning
That had been admonished all morning
Thus, when afternoon did arrive
Tried, convicted, and sentenced was I
Confined to barracks until further notice
Oh, what the heck, I’d make the most of it
I played for a while with a couple of toys
Yet, this furnished so very little joy
There on a shelf sat a book my sister said
I’d really enjoy if I wasn’t so thick in the head
I looked at the cover and it did look fun
The title was The Swiss Family Robinson
Now this came to pass, though my heart didn’t swoon
A love affair began that very afternoon in my room
I while still at tender young age was that day engaged
As I fell in love with words on a page

Premium Member Doing Time With Love

Doing Time With Love

Like a raisin in the sun
Time is its own enemy.

Encountering love on its battlefield
It ticks away with ageless accuracy.

Eternity knows no boundaries;
And love is infinite.


Doing Time

I know I did wrong I committed a crime
That’s why I’m here just doing my time
Alone in a room behind a locked door
With stains on the wall and dirt on the floor
Four bars on the window there’s not much to see
For breaking the law looked what happened to me
I miss all my friends and my family as well
For doing wrong I am locked in a cell
One little room with a pan and a sink
You couldn’t imagine ho what a stink
I can’t wait for the day that comes to an end
Why no visits V.O’s I did send
For what I had done I had a lesson to learn
Just sitting and waiting to hear the key turn
I’m telling you this so listen to me
For breaking the law behind bars you will be

Premium Member Just Doing Time

I have faced death many times
How, I escaped its grasp ?
Simply,  can't be defined
Someday, I know, it will be, my time
But until then, this fragile life is mine

I know the clock is ticking
It will,  'till I take my last gasp
But for now, I'll just keep on kicking
And take my licking,
While death keeps pricking

Oh Shadow, I see it in your eyes
You want it to be a big surprise
The day you hold me in your clasp
I will see right through your guise 
And find the truth, that hides behind the lies

Doing Time

As I sit alone in my cell 
My mind starts to dwell 
On the fact that I’m still here 
Trapped in my own hell 

Alone and imprisoned 
By my own fear
As I continue my sentence 
Year after year 

My own prison I've built 
Out of my own depression and shame 
Unwilling to forgive 
I have only myself now to blame

The foundation was laid 
From my mistakes and bad choices 
Bonded and strengthened 
By all the angry condemning voices
 
The walls are built high
Solid and stout 
To insure that I never 
Climb or break out

Though my crimes were not evil 
To be punishable by death 
Sometimes I imagine it so 
That I can breathe my last breath 

Loneliness and heartache 
Are two things I know well
Along with sorrow and pain 
That keep me confined to my cell 

One day I may be pardoned 
And finally set free 
From the emotional chains
That are now binding me 

When that day comes 
Will I be reformed and made whole 
Or in this cell will I stay 
Another condemned and lost soul


Doing Time In the Coffee Shop

Thirty five years ago I met a man in the coffee shop.
 He told me that he had been coming here for thirty five years. 
I smiled at him and said really?
That was my first time.
Thirty five years later I am still here in the coffee shop.
Today I spoke to a young man.
I told him I had been coming here for thirty five years.
He smiled at me and said really?
This was his first time.

Doing Time

don't be bought
you might get caught
don't be blind
there trouble of all kind
its a crime
might you to do too
it
DOING TIME

Doing Time

kept this in mind
and not lying
you committe
a crime
read the sign
you will be not free
you'llbe
DOING TIME

Premium Member Doing Time In Kimo

Thirty days hath September, April, June
November and anyone...
over the speed limit. 

 © Harry J Horsman  2011

Doing Time

Sitting here day after day wondering and dreaming of what i left behind. 
Not being able to communicate with the outside world. 
Waiting and hoping for a visit or a call. 
The days and nights seem to be lost forever. 
Longing to see you or anyone to say hello. 
The days pass by just counting the time till i will be set free. 
 free to come and go. 
Not having to listen to the doors of our cell block slamming behind us as we walk through. 
There is nothing compared to life behind bars.

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.

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