Edgewise Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Premium Member Get a Word In

If I can’t get a word in edgewise,
why would I bother trying any other way?
My wife always finds a way to get a word, or two or more in.

Premium Member Rambling


                            rambling 
                        is all he does 
           when drunk, which is often;
    nothing he says ever makes sense.
 don't be surprised if he falls like timber...
      you won't get a word in edgewise.
              please, quit the bottle, sir!
                          an expert in 
                            rambling

Premium Member Something About David

Something about David, unsettles me
Something about David, is different
I saw . . . the warning sign
It came, with my compulsion, to be near him 
To console and comfort him
To share the nerve, the pain, and the loss
To understand the unknowable, the incomprehensible
The dark, perilous journey, to the flip side of humanity
Where David lives, edgewise, from day to day

You see, few people know David
Few people know his drive, his willingness
To go where most have never gone
To strike, under the circumstances
At the very heart of pain, fear, and death
To calmly walk away, still ready, to disrupt
The sensibilities that serve our greater instincts
For warmth, peace, and calm
In a world gone mad, inexplicably insane

You see, David has blood on his hands
The blood of many innocent people
People who, in many cases, trusted him
Believed in him, and shared, for the moment, his path
But ultimately, did not survive, the horror
Of dying, unexpectedly, fearfully, and miserably
At the hands of David, David the man
Who saved me, and many others, from death
David, you see, is an ER surgeon.


Premium Member A Bird In the Hand

falling on deaf ears 
       can’t get a word in edgewise 
       ~  now they see my point

Premium Member January Sunrise

January Sunrise

Arresting carnations through divulged eyes,
o'er bursting citrus stretching a punchbowl
--drapes prized quilt of January's Sunrise.

Underneath confident amorphous skies,
a year dawns, snowdrops grow in icy knoll.
Arresting carnations through divulged eyes,

fan a nippy faint frost neath earth's disguise,
since a chilled session saunters in its role
--drapes prized quilt of January's Sunrise.

Pomegranate seeds spur garnet to prize
as a crimson cardinal whorls midst troll.
Arresting carnations through divulged eyes,

as spacious house scores quiet time surprise.
Resolution course, move on and console
--drapes prized quilt of January's Sunrise.

View a sanguine sun slipping down edgewise,
month's shift gears, first of twelve, on cruise control.
Arresting carnations through divulged eyes,
--drapes prized quilt of January's Sunrise.

2020 July 02

*3rd Place*

Month of the year I like most
~Mohan Chutani

Pet - Peeves

Everybody has them - whether they admit it or not.
Sometimes they're the same - as what others have got.
Whether it's a lack of communication - or not getting a word in edgewise.
Pretending to be someone you're not - being always in disguise.

Trying to get into - or staying in the popular crowd.
Straining to hear a whisper - or worse yet when someone's way too loud!
Being on your electronic devices - when you have company.
In some cases may chase your friends away - making you sad and lonely.

Perhaps their bodily noises annoy you most - when their manners have gone astray.
Or their only vocabulary seems to be vulgarity - and from them run away.
Maybe it's that they only hang around you - when you have something that they need.
Living their lives in the fast lane - their hearts are filled with greed!

When you accept someone into your life - you take them as they are.
So you'll just have to push their Pet-Peeves into the highest star.
Try to concentrate on finding something good - in each and every one.
And be thankful for what they've given you- when the day is done!


Woman In 2017

Fight hard 
as long as you're not too defensive
or worse, stronger than him
so we can't tell that he hit you
so we don't have to pick up your slack

Speak your mind
as long as your voice isn't louder than his
or worse, too assertive or contradicting it
so you say something worth listening to
so he can get his word in edgewise 

Make it rain
as long as you don't make more than him
or worse, take his
so you're not a gold digger
so you can't get out from under his umbrella

Be a damsel
as long as your inevitable distress doesn't cause unrest
or worse, distract from his 
so you know how to fend for yourself 
so we don't have to hear you whine

Stay in shape 
as long as your muscles aren't too bulky 
or worse, bigger than his
so you're easy on the eyes
so you don't hurt his pride

Seduce sweetly
as long as you're not a ****
or worse, a whore
so he wants you
so you think that's what your worth is

Make this house a home
as long as you don't forget who makes the bread around here
or worse, forget to put his dinner on the table
so that you're a good homemaker
so that you have no valid claim to what he makes

Be everything
Be nothing

Times of India a Source 1

Whenever there are cold cruel cries
Times of India appears in full-size
For help of common to criticize
All unjust, biased  and unfair ties.
All articles or poems to visualize 
Are supplied freely by the Wise.
We feel after reading it energize
Quench of knowledge here pacifies.
All sort of news or ads or pies
Are available in format revise.
I tell all my children to idolize 
TOI as it never does pressurize 
One to form opinion and actualize
Things and never does stupefies.
Gives articles to easily memorize
Or modern development supplies 
On different arenas edgewise.
Has decency if wronged to apologize
And never we found it terrifies;
For Improvement TOI is a device
Never taught us to compromise.
Let mater be national or localize
Gets place in it to immortalize.
Hoping better future TOI allies
And for our metal exercise.

Different Gifts

Now you know all of us
were endowed by our Creator
with different various gifts,
some of us can write, some of
us can draw, some of us just sit,
but there's a special brand out
there that are very good at chit-chat,
they're partly vegetarian but mostly carnivorous,
as you try hard not to roll your eyes and scoff,
they stand there and like a hungry cannibal
slowly chew both your ears off,
cornering you as if your their prey
like its chit-chatting hunting season,
you look at them and try to leave
while you think up a good reason,
these people I'm talking about
were endowed with the special gift of gab,
while their one person conversation
turns from pretty interesting to boring and drab,
all the while thinking of your small bladder size,
you try as hard as you can to get
a word in sideways and edgewise,
you look at them and wish a
cat would claim their tongue,
all the while thinking they have
an awful lot of hot air in their lungs,
and when I finally escape and make
a bee line for the restroom,
the gift of gab person is once again on the hunt,
while innocent victims notice and like
Forrest Gump scatter and start to run.

A Theatrical Nose Dive

This just in, we are long drawn out drab sentences of our breath,
trying to base a topic off epiphany's languid scry, waiting on osmosis to spark a nerve.

Crinkled pages, termites gnawing on pencils, saw dust.
Failed improvs to deliver colloquial precedence, un performed characters with ventriloquist strings for livelihood, the presentation uncanny to scintillating epitomes.

Group 2, line one, drawing a line in the sand. Out of the blue sparks a Big Bang, a flash of genius, a flicker of brilliance in a nano second, staged to theatrical dreams of sun dance wins.

Then there is me, clapping my hands in silenced tongue, speechless with hesitation in my thoughts, smoking in the after burn of rust, only the mind would know what to say left in the smoke clouds of their creation.

I've got nothing, quick sand running through my fingers like vapors in edgewise, and while I am still just breathing they just are, encircling around me like a shooting star.

Speak My Peace

Let me please
Speak my peace
All ears
On me
All eyes
Because I never get a word out
Edgewise 
It’s not my place
To get in your face
Causing a big scene
Because you never bring your speech
To cease
To let your mouth
And mind 
Recline
But this time
I ask 
I plead
Please
Hear me out
While you stop
To breathe
Please
Let me 
Speak my peace

Whom Thou Lovest

face down
again tonight
this time
of the sacred cathode
all white ways
when it glowed
free, electric

flat-line
when to destroy
is to
defy his last request
soulfully
all the best
or not at all

Godspeed
with hearts and stars
edgewise
hold high your smartest blade
whom thou lovest
thou betrayed
without question

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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