Hard Nosed Poems | Examples

Meadow Muffins

It sounds like a breakfast treat,
but be forewarned: it’s not to eat.
Your appetite may disagree;
so, go ahead, take a bite and see.
But my advice, if I were you,
is get some jam before you do,
or butter, if that’s your preference;
it’ll make a big taste difference.
And if organic is your latest thing 
here’s more advice worth hearing: 
Meadow muffins are made each day –
right from the oven, you might say.
So come early when they’re warmest,
don’t cheat your palette, get the freshest!
Now, we Yankees ain’t a fancy folk;
plain as they come is the usual trope. 
But hard-nosed Yankees do admit:
no matter how you camouflage it,
no matter how you care to eat it,
meadow muffins are still cow s--t!

Thought of the day

the one whose heart centre is closed
head over heart, actions hard nosed
ego in focus, soul asleep
yet to take the consciousness leap
they too will rise becoming wise
truth of love and light realise
but for now our life paths diverge
which in timeless time will converge

Eben Alexander

near death experiences 
compel us to relook
at our beliefs

take the case
of Eben Alexander
hard nosed neuro surgeon

with his cortex fully severed
he yet returned healed 
speaking of angels

love alone is real
is the message echoed
hello! is humanity listening

Pitfalls

Having formed an opinion
we become a mere minion
before ego, our mind closed;
dweller of darkness, hard nosed.

Childlike innocence pious,
shifts to an inbuilt bias;
our judgements oft negative,
becoming soul's narrative.

Breath by breath, we live and learn,
to make still mind-body urn,
choosing always throb of love,
of grace that pours from above.

21-October-2022

Hammerklavier

Beethoven smashes one piano after another.
He shears through keyboards,
a peasant scything hay.
The composer's fingers listen
through touch,
they become deeper, more blunted,
a vibration of mallets.

Frown the brow,
push the plow
make music drive a steamroller.

His apartment is disorderly,
tools and equipment
are hidden in Dresden figurines,
in elderly Delftware,
ball-peen hammers crammed
into the whittled stems of goose quills.

Augers, grinders, and rotary tillers
are rendered into themes and motifs.
Wrecking crews hum and stamp,
tables thump out allegro dissonance.

Into this din and demolition
comes a heavy sonata
the hard-nosed 'Hammerklavier'
bulldozing a blunt pathway
into cramped 19th century streets,

where in the absence of safety barriers,
all but one turns a deaf ear.

Hammerklavier

Beethoven smashes one piano after another.
He shears through keyboards,
a peasant scything hay.
The composer's fingers don't grow deaf,
they become deeper, more blunted,
like mallets.

His apartment is disorderly,
tools and equipment
are hidden in Dresden figurines,
in elderly Delftware,
ball-peen hammers crammed
into the whittled stems of goose quills.

Augers, grinders and rotary tillers
are rendered into themes and motifs.
Wrecking crews hum and stamp,
tables thump out allegro dissonance.

Into this din and demolition
plows a heavy sonata
the hard-nosed 'Hammerklavier'
bulldozing its trenchant path
into the cramped streets;
where in the absence of safety barriers,
a defiant deconstruction
has begun.

Antiquated Me

opinionated
stubbornly unique
determination
some say old school
wizened and wily

unpersuasive
immovable
often hard-nosed
antiquated

obsolete
intensive
old-fashiioned

antique 
common

me

Rising Aussie Autumn

Plenty is forsaken 
                                               Before
                                    Serenity is Awkened


Vehemence of flames devour branches 
Fire's wicked lick strikes long bark skirts 
Devastation ashen flattened unrecognisable 
Has a seemingly insurmountable task 

Charcoal spurs awakening of tiny children
Stubborn sprouts assert their need with a shove
Koalas discarded crawl tentatively back to snack
Goannas gratefully lap at ash powdered puddles 

Great Southern Land is a Lady on a mission 
Renowned for whole hearted hatred challenging
Hard nosed creatures created to recover, resume
Their calm rightful realm of red stemmed growth

Abundance is given a great chance in our Autumn 
Eucalypt wave flags of ever shifting resilience 
Terror of fire has no existence in their ambition 
Vibrant tiles of lime tickle black yesterday's belly




18th August 2020

Written for Contest:  Serenity Awakened
Sponsor:   Regina McIntosh

These Town Children Delinquent Breakers- -

In a small town of 800 the lonely town where children never sleep
Hardly can anyone imagine them ever being sweet
Some are bullies,  some rob, steal, some brake windows
Others are found juvenile delinquents breaking into condos
Adults and political authorities
Sanctions rules and laws just for the youth minorities

These hard nosed children keep breaking them curfews
Rebellious youth with incurred huge transverse views
The disorderly town children fight and riot
No wonder these rebellious cretins are sleep and so tried
Small town of 800 this lonely town where children never obey civil laws
These Town Children Delinquents breaking juveniles 



9/14/19
Sponsored by:Julia Ward

Hammerklavier

Beethoven smashes one piano after another.
He shears through keyboards,
a peasant scything hay.
The composer's fingers don't grow deaf,
they become deeper, more blunted,
like mallets.

His apartment is disorderly,
tools and equipment
are hidden in Dresden figurines,
in elderly Delftware,
ball-peen hammers crammed
into the whittled stems of goose quills.

Augers, grinders and rotary tillers
are rendered into themes and motifs.
Wrecking crews hum and stamp,
tables thump out allegro dissonance.

Into this din and demolition
plows a heavy sonata
the hard-nosed 'Hammerklavier'
bulldozing its trenchant path
into the cramped streets;
where in the absence of safety barriers,
a defiant deconstruction
has begun.

Intransigence--

Hello world
I'm not a follower
Unless you're trying to serve the Lord
I refuse to compromise 
It's not my way,  it's not your Way
To abandon an often extreme position of our attitudes 
Uncompromising intransigent the oppositions
An intransigent attitude not an absence 
Qualify the refusing to change our opinions or behaviour
World I'm adamant,
Devil, I'm adamant that you're bullheaded hard-nosed
Guess what, what right is not wrong
And I won't be listening to your noise-songs
Guess continually I'm gonna be...intransigent 
I'm unrelenting, unyielding my cadence to these this unruly audience 
I stand Affluence Conscience 
Yet still, in my defence, 
I refuse to compromise in sin I'll ever stand an intransigence
 
7/21/19

3rd Place placement in the contest
Intransigence Poetry Contest
Free verse poetry form only
Sponsored by: John Hamilton

The Hard Diamond

I'm warning you:
don't come weak
I'm telling you:
don't come lame
I play on the hard diamond,
so don't come with no softball game

I'm a hard-nosed ballplayer,
I don't mind some dirt being kicked in my face
'Cause I'm gonna come back hard charging,
and with fear that smug look is gonna be replaced

Natural born gritty truth-teller,
that's what I am, that's who I be
Step aside if you're in my base path;
if you don't wanna be in a world of pain,
then you better start doing the math

How much time do you have
before we collide when I get there
How much impact can you take
when I send you flying feet first up in the air

I play on the hard diamond,
so don't come with no softball game
I play to win every time always,
so take a number and state your name

Should I ever be down,
and it looks like for sure I'm gonna lose
There's no quit in me, no sir,
got a tough-as-nails ego that don't easily bruise

So take your best shot,
take your very best swing
Show me what you got
on this hard-to-hit offering

So take your best shot,
'cause you're down to your last swing
You've been losing a lot
to this flame throwing hard diamond king

After the Shower

Headlights cleave
Thin vapoured weave
Hotblack top
Cooked and stopped

Slice through air
Tendrilled hair
Steamy swirling
Ballroom whirling
Sweaty, surged, pressed
Hard-nosed crest

Closing behind
All but forgotten
Red-light gleam
Dimming, dimming
Weather’s dream

She's In Drag Mode

If that's what she did,
than trust me,
you're not under a lid,

she flipped it-

added pressure to admit ...

Characterization of the limitless,
shindig-less,
hard nosed,
pencil printed,
breaking of embarrassment,

getting others to care less,

but you never got to see the cherry list-

it got burned before the internet,

you should have had a little fit-
...before a big one,
and then another,
or just got a gun,
one that works hard to make you jump and run.


She's not in love with your hugs! 

She's not entangled with you at all! 

She's estranged to leave with mud and guck and-
maybe one nut-
but who's counting,
you're just as dumb...

A Voice Crying Out In the Wilderness

Hard edged (unreality) you face away from my immediacy (candour eschewing) inimically you parody, offering as nice the complexity of ''vice''exploiting even nature 

(as voyeur and narrator) your intention anethema to the nations, 
as you   coerce ''your creation'' encouraging over consumption, 

with a hard nosed gumption, yet my God who is greater 
is no longer willing to be a waiter!sickle in hand he is walking his land, 


with the sun as his shadow is this (One)
to be Hallowed..!

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