Call it a day and go to play.
Who can stop you and what to say?
Work is good, and so is play.
Make it a rule to rest a day.
As life goes on, and much to stay.
If you ignore your need to play
And work so long and rarely lay,
Your health will fade and slip away.
You can’t stop. You can’t delay.
If health is gone, you dearly pay.
So, listen to me and make your day!
11/6/2026
leisure
fun, enjoyable
relaxing, uplifting, comforting
parties, dancing, drudgery, stress
exhausting, annoying, frustrating
dull, complex
work
I live in Leisure World where the grass is green,
and bunnies that munch it can always be seen.
For those little guys, it is essential
to breed fast, indeed, exponential.
So, a rabbit's life is never dull,
and their population is plentiful.
But, this ain't no kiddie cartoon show,
and every coyote that I happen to know
always makes it the strictest habit
to bag a furry bunny rabbit.
These canine delinquents and the crows, fast friends,
play, "who spots the rabbit first, wins".
Walking the sidewalks like shopping aisles,
coyotes are seen with contented smiles.
I say, "Bless their sly little hearts
and their bunny-filled shopping carts".
mutton-chop sideburns
bellbottoms... flowery, flared
chic… chains and chest hairs
Carefree summer days of leisure.
Ah, what fun to be a kid.
Parents always on what-if mode.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
Never a moment for leisure.
To Do lists chewing up my time.
I must break these chains!
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 1st place 2025
(Pema the Pug, 2025)
I’m retired so have the freedom to choose.
So often I choose to sit and read a book
And inevitably at least a few of my five dogs
Choose to lay around with me,
The small pugs beside and on me,
And inevitably something happens to my plans
And I get both distracted and soothed
Into a soporific daze
Or should I say, contact low, from the sleeping dogs.
Nothing like having a small warm living lap blanket
To keep you from getting up
To do something more productive.
Eventually I’ll get around to finishing that novel
After I finish these thoughts.
The dogs after all show me just how easy
And good it feels
To put off doing what can be done
Another day.
But the older I get
I think that other day may just end up being
Another life.
(11/13/25)
I woke up this autumn Sunday morning
with papier-mâché clouds performing
like a ticker-tape parade from left to right
a strong breeze doodling fall leaves to flight
The birds are just gliding, no flapping in sight.
Today’s a free day, a don’t mess with me day.
I’ve no homework, or assignments
it’s like I’ve escaped from confinement
even my coffee tasted like creamy freedom.
What do you do when you don’t have to do
anything? Why, I could write a play, like Mozart,
or an opera, like Shakespeare - if I were THAT smart -
but don’t those sound like academic effort to you?
I want to hold hands in the park and promenade,
Peter loves strolling the flower markets by the Seine,
a gelato at Amorino after lunch at the Saint James cafe,
and the rain or shine street art at Rue Saint-Rustique.
Isn’t boyfriend-time the best way to spend a Sunday?
.
.
Songs for this:
Waterguns (feat. Tom Bailey) by Caravan Palace
Backyard Boy by Claire Rosinkranz
Dreamin' by G. Love & Special Sauce
Sunday afternoons beg for relaxation
Stretching out with a good mystery novel
Kitty shows me the moves
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 3rd place 2025
In the busiest asphalt jungles
good and evil value bouts of recreation
~ shunning all work no play
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 1st place 2025
Neither toy nor a plaything
time on a whim squandered at leisure
frittered for sake of burlesque
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
you're laying back and toking
is that a funny cigarette you're smoking?
~ looking suspiciously calm and mellow
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 3rd place 2025
Hear the tale of the green fields where I roam,
Leisure World, the place that I call home.
If you take strolls (a healthy habit),
at dawn or dusk, you'll see a rabbit.
(If you were faster, you could grab it)
You'll see four-legged, curly-haired cuties
who lead their pets while they do their duties,
and grey-brown squirrels on their haunches
meticulously chewing their lunches.
If your garden was ruined by a snail,
I ask, are you reading my mail?
See the colorful apples of my eyes -
hummingbirds and monarch butterflies.
But what I'd like to see most (pardon my sharin'),
is a coyote or a great white heron.
a blank page
when I awaken
and walk barefoot
across the carpet
and when I embrace
the song of nothingness
it wants more
a cool breeze through the window breathes new life
onto the page in front of me
and the sun peaks through the window
as I sit at my laptop
and slide my feet under the desk
I love my muse and learn to let go
the moment when I follow the path
where inspiration leads
(folding mirror poem)
Sunlight leaks
through the curtain
after I’ve thrown off the covers.
Downstairs the television flickers
as a roommate sleeps
on the couch.
He was talking politics
last night.
I went upstairs
and read a poem.
This morning
I walk into the kitchen
and turn off a dripping faucet.
The furnace hums
to fight off a chill.
The calendar says spring
as if my life has just begun.
I go out for a leisurely drive
where the countryside
speaks to me.
I come back home
and make a quick brunch.
Words dancing in my head
cry out for me
to put them on a page
as the cat sits on my lap.
The roommate rolls to his side
saying, April’s the cruelest month
while I say the cruelest thing
is writer’s block.
A jet passing over a crown
of trees at the end of the street
streaks the sky.
The roommate talks about a movie
he watched in the middle of the night
and its philosophy.
Did you like it, I say
as a bird outside the window sings.
Sub Categories
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.