ghastly grimy gruesome greedy gray ghost
happily haunts Henry’s hoarder habitat
igniting icy incredulity
jiggery-pokery jimjams justified
kismet keeping kowtowing kin keen
lighthearted lively long-winded laggard laughs
magnifying mystical malefactor’s mysteriousness
Categories:
kowtowing, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form: ABC
Heads veiled in immaculate white,
Like cloistered nuns tanning in sun light;
As the farmer starts plowing,
Flock around, twenty of you kowtowing;
Searching with your sharp eyes,
Finding and pecking little warms and flies...
Struggle to exist in environs hard,
That does not, often, your rights easily award...
Around ponds and lakes and rivers and seas,
When they're full or in drought wheeze;
You wait and watch standing on a single leg,
Seem as though to the almighty beg;
For your freedom of survival here on earth,
Midst livelihood, often, gone to dire dearth;
You do not seem to feel discouraged, yet,
But, with the ecosystem amalgamate and get set...!
Displaying elegance, loyalty, and closeness,
Ambition, endurance, and progressiveness;
Exhibiting your eternal youthfulness,
You strive, struggle, migrate in sumptuousness;
Living your life, here on earth, in its fullness,
Like us, humans, you attain eternal graciousness;
Beyond limitless skies you would fly away,
Leaving behind this land-sea-ocean bay...!!!
16 March 2023
Categories:
kowtowing, bird, life, nature,
Form: Free verse
Looking Back
(Always Give a Man More Than He’s Paying For)
Written: by Miracle Man
12-21-2019
Kissing up to someone is called kowtowing,
doing a super good job was enough I believed.
Not once in a lifetime was I ever seen bowing,
but I always tried to earn every dime I received.
Many times I have heard unsolicited praise,
this alone, looking back, makes me feel proud.
Not once in my life did I have to ask for a raise,
with a good work ethic I was always endowed.
I said what I thought not considering consequence,
and after thirty-two years I retired at fifty-six.
I was told my retirement didn’t make any sense,
and that I’d die early but the clock still ticks.
(I’m now eighty-one)
I retired as Senior Production Manager
with eighty- five people reporting to me.
Categories:
kowtowing, character, how i feel,
Form: Lyric
I shall not envy the upstart's polished gait,
Or wish myself as old knights in diamonds
Hued to bamboozle familiar souls and eye,
Flattered by aping pals and ersatz blondes.
For swanky gait soon in quiet slumbers lies
In darkest gloom beyond men's urging eyes;
Where kowtowing lip trills no ego-oiling tune
To laud vain legs that all wise sense impugn.
Since old knights and their fabled crystals fall
Into gloomy abysms past all plagiarized cheer,
And their wide glows sheer shifting dreams be;
Which deft poet thereon docks his sailing soul?
As for manipulable eyes and souls of fan-stars,
And idol blondes cued to flatter clumsy knights;
Are not both simple wit and truth strictly averse
To all such visionless ego-trip and short-sights?
Give upstart parvenus and 'knights' whole pomp,
I'll claim the simple logic they so mulishly tromp!
Categories:
kowtowing, abuse, allegory, allusion, discrimination,
Form: Didactic
On the first of every month
Grandpa trimmed his salt and pepper beard
Polished his big black shoes to a shine
Put on a crisp shirt and creased trousers
Held by a weathered leather belt
For his trip to the bank to collect his pension
He bought sweets and snacks of many kinds
Then neatly folded old newspaper to
Make square pieces with a knife
Placed each grandchild’s share in those fresh plates
And waited for them to arrive
Felt like a festival each month
We rushed exceptionally fast from school
Trotting to his room to claim our share
He then pressed a coin in each one’s hand
Unleashing dreams of what all we could buy with that
Rest of the bounty
He stored in a rectangular wicker basket
Secured with a tiny steel lock
The key to the trove he shared only with me because
I was the favorite grandchild
And that was a fact, not a secret
My brothers and sisters flattered and cajoled me
Till the lock hung on the basket
Everyone kowtowing to the crown
Grandpa put on my head
Glittering with his love and trust
How I was the queen for a week each month!
Written on:12/10/2016
Categories:
kowtowing, grandfather, nostalgia,
Form: Free verse
Like a wandering nomad
I roam this earth in a quandary,
Oblivious of the passing time,
Knowing not what I seek;
Obliterating each passing moment
as inconsequential,
Each passing year—
Unrewarding.
Do I seek true love or absolute truth?
An escape from
the confines of the traditions
and the clutches of social mores
or deliverance from the sins
and release from the concerns of life?
Whatever I seek, I seek in vain
Whatever I achieve is naught,
Cowering in obscurity
kowtowing to the dictates of time,
Unable to free myself from
the overwhelming sense of self.
Until this journey ends
How many more lives must I endure?
How long must I suffer
the folly and bigotry of man?
I look back at my obsolete past
Look ahead at my vague future,
Whatever I do, I must do it now
Or drift into an eternal oblivion!
~Contest: "N" poetry
~Sponsor: Constance La France.
~Contest: Oblivion
~Sponsor: Rob Carmack.
Categories:
kowtowing, journey, life,
Form: Free verse
In the perfect job of which I dream,
I'll be working with great talents.
Surrounded by inflated egos
I will strive to keep my balance.
To find success, I'll surely need
A lot more gain than loss.
I'll be so happy not to be
Kowtowing to a boss.
I'll have clients who respect me
And concede that I am right,
Who will give me the full credit
When I show them black and white.
By: Joyce Johnson 10/01/09
Written for Matt's contest
Categories:
kowtowing, hope
Form: Light Verse