Inattentive Poems | Examples

I Plucked The Moon From The Sky

I plucked the moon from the sky last night.
No one else seemed to be using it
So, I thought, “Why not?”

I mistakenly thought it would fit comfortably in my pocket 
But, it bulged, protruded, and made it difficult to sit!

“Stupid moon!
What good are you?” I grumbled.

A TV news anchor rattled on about 
Potential collapsed ecosystems, climate chaos, and mass extinctions.
All around me
Would-be lovers unraveled their arms and parted ways and 
Dreamers no longer looked to the sky.

“The world has gone mad,” I muttered.
“But, at least I have this shiny rock, even if it IS a pain in the rear.”
However, it kept tugging, pulling, and wouldn’t stay still.
Determining it not worth the trouble,
I relinquished the object to the night
And went to dwell in a crazy world.

River Reverie

An old Mallard dines alone
A memory on the edge of the flock
A weaker yet still viable member
An inattentive sentry
Sifting grey mud
Chasing soggy bread crumbs

The sun warms his weary wings
As the river draws him away

A Great Blue Heron nods G’Day

A flutter of wings rattles heart strings

A flutter stirs in my chest,
Awaking it from its inattentive rest.
As a tiny butterfly wing unfurled,
To unleash a quake in nether world.

Such chaos reeks as tremor grows,
It billows and flaps as tempest bestows,
An effect far beyond what reason deserves,
From a flip of wing, hors d'oeuvres.

A simple glance, a glint from eye,
Triggers my heart to offbeat awry,
To blast a chain reaction melee!
All order is lost - May Day, May Day!

A wing flap in Brazil, a tornado in Texas brings,
A tiny ripple in the cosmos that sings,
A reverberating chaotic chorus to heart strings,
Tuned to quiver sympathetic, to resonant dings.

Strayed Sheep

Where is the shepherd
Who left behind his livestock
At the Lover's Seat?

The hired hand sleeps
Inattentive to the flock
The sheep go their way

They are unaware
There is danger near the cliffs
Though the grass is sweet

Where is the Shepherd
Will he retrieve his people
From the Sinner's Seat?

Tongues

Gaelic: it was my mother's native tongue,
and her grandmother’s elder tongue.
Grandfather was a Romani gypsy,
horses naturally understood his voice.

My lips follow English,
a tangled language with too many roots,
tuberosities awkwardly clumped together,
like hard and lumpy potato soup -
a dish My Irish mother made
with an inattentive gusto...

her pink tongue licking the corners of her mouth,
as she slopped the part-cooked pottage out
into thick porcelain bowls.

She had quite forgotten her mother tongue,
or how to respect the potato,
and its historical significance to all in exile.

My own tongue was young and tender,
and too hungry to care. Already I instinctively knew
how to take my lumps.

O, Why'D You Leave

Was it something I said inadvertently
Did my eyes reveal uncertainty
O, why'd you leave

Was my rapt listening inattentive
Or passion's kisses uninventive
O, how I grieve  

Alcohol, not once did I abuse
Or narcotics ever use
O, the sighs I've heaved

To the kids, I was devoted
On your mother, I always doted
O, please believe...

That now I'll never be the same
That I'll forever myself blame
~ To your memory, I will cleave

I - Illusion

Images of incineration interrupt
Infernal imagery imposes in intricate intervals, illegible to those ill with ignorance
Inadequate ideologies imply impoverish ways, never to be incriminated no matter how idiotic
Inattentive to our imaginary inflation issues 
Improvident to the waste of industrial indispensables
Keep ignoring the impending invasion and downward inclination or intercept the intrusion on your intellect and intervene
Invent instinctively into your own invincibility
An influx of idiots with no positive incline, our inability to feel insults our intelligence
Intolerant insecurities about income and the "it" influences impair our inner insight 
This IS an impeachment against the institutions for informing the incredulous and inciting the irrelevant 
I will stand intrepidly, inheriting the impending inferno

Dumb Mistakes

You get no breaks from dumb mistakes
For when you’re inattentive,
You’re bound to miss or else dismiss
A step that is preventive.

An extra glance may make the chance
Of messing up much lower,
As will a pause and that’s because
When we do things much slower…

We’ll likely spot the things we’d not
When we are in a hurry
And thus prevent the time we’ve spent
Consumed by doubt and worry.

Of course, in life, there must be strife
And if we make a fumble,
It doesn’t pay to waste all day
In irritating grumble.

Inattentive Blanks

When one reaches the heady heights of longevity
frail as in wear and tear physical agility,
a license to look upon each imminent birthday
celebrated by all in sundry but one’s bemused self,
as a reminder of the ultimate arbiter, time
soon to come a calling with his rigid agenda.
With every sunrise this perpetual antagonist
whom delves in give and take creates the perfect diagnosis,
when he allows one a moment to dwell in years of their youth
then a fraction of an anomaly, forgotten one’s name.

© Harry J Horsman  2016

I Cried For You

I cried for you today,
   tears of living in your absence.
Maybe not so much for you
   but rather,
   my own selfishness in missing you.

I await the time of healing,
  of getting beyond the loneliness.
It doesn't seem possible,
   so many things
   stir up your memory.

I was so blinded
   by the nonsense of the world.
I must have been inattentive,
   oblivious to what we shared
   when you were here.

Why did you put up with me
   and love me 
   with all my flaws?

I am grateful beyond words
   and what lies in my recollected memories.
Maybe now, at last,
   I can see
   the reality of who we were.

I was nothing and no one
  by myself.
I cried for you today,
  realizing you loved me more
  than I ever loved you.

The Gate

The Gate
	is wide and spacious
	but overgrown with vined flowers.
If you are inattentive and preoccupied,
	you would miss it
	and pass the entry way
	that eases on the step stones to the pond.
Therein, the waterfall cascades
	sometimes softly, sometimes loudly
	depending on the wind;
	and the fish swim in schools
	encircling the rocks
	until they spy your shadow.
They greet you with hungry, open mouths
	swimming toward the edges;
	life is so simple here.
The gate greets all comers,
	human and animal,
insect and plant,
	sun and moon.
The gate is always open,
	Come, 
	See.

Newton's Law

I was inattentive in Science class one day
When the teacher at random looked my way
I didn't look up, I wouldn't dare
There's no escaping that intense glare.

Asked me to explain to the class
Newton's Law of Gravity and mass
My mind was a blank, heartbeats louder
For an answer, I started to flounder.

I stood before the class trembling with fear
"Gravity," I said..., and then oh dear!!!
I fell off the stage on to the floor
How the class with laughter did roar.

The children tittered in great amusement
They didn't know my sad predicament
The teacher said, "You've demonstrated gravity"
"Although you did it with much levity".

At length, I returned to my seat
With much applause did they greet
Now I look back upon this and ponder
I decide to listen and not let my mind wander.

An Owl

an owl flies so low
over packed winter's white snow...
inattentive mouse

Scorching In Our Own Passions

Heart swelling, blood pumping swiftly through my veins,
        	Blood warming my skin, relaxes each and every muscle.
Lungs collapsing, air inhaled brings tranquility,
        	Every appendage at peace while intentions tense into knots inside my brain.
Soul thriving, aggressively attempting to be released into space,
        	Along the stars where it belongs to sore, it remains vigorously trembling inside serenity.
Mind vanished, nearly letting the soul take over,
        	Though the soul is inattentive.

I Hate the Player and the Game

I loathe you-

    I especially hate your face-

        But, I really hate that I miss
          
              The salty way that your lips taste-

 

I hate all your hurtful lies-

      That are cleverly hidden behind-

               Charmingly deceptive 
       
                        Clear, blue eyes-

 

Such a careless, inattentive lover-

      I really should have guessed-

            That you were too good to be true

                     & Of course,
  
                           you were hidding "others"-

 

You take off and you leave-

       Disappearing somewhere into the night-

              Just as I naitievly thought
 
                    Everything was begaining- 

                           To start to feel right- 

 

I really dont think that your able to care-

        About anybody else-

              Because in this life-

                     Your just in it alone-
 
                            Only caring about yourself-
   
           -Erin Anderson 04/20/2012

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