Length Poems | Examples

An Arm’s Length Away

Sometimes, when we hurl
angry words—
ancient stones thrown by indifference,
lodging in the ears of our children.
Witnessing horror twist itself into child’s play.
A stone’s throw—killed our empathy.

Anger knows its enemy:
sitting next to,
sitting opposite of,
never with.
It sits a stone’s throw away.

Rising from the ashes of fear—
Vapours of flesh smoulder
as blooded lava flows.
Cools—
our scarred magma to a crusted creed.

The stitched social fabric
binds us—
its loud colour blinds us.
Worn by both—
the right
and left sleeve.
United buttons,
reconcile for peace.
Unironed—full of wrinkles.

We tear further apart
the closer we come,
repelling—mirroring
the same magnetic face.

We read our compass,
in a bipolar place;
wondering how,
we’ve lost our way.

Believing everything
we’ve been taught,
until we die—
Realizing—
too late,
it’s all been a lie.

No more pride

Abusing the meek,
Manhandling the weak,
Pleasure, if you like to seek,
Thinking that they don’t speak,
Your life becomes very bleak,
Once the torture reaches its peak!

People will no longer be mute.
If you change not your pursuit,
It will bring down your repute;
Very bitter is its fruit!

Become not ‘The Narcissistic Sun’;
You will be liked by none.
Permanent is not your power;
Hour by hour, it withers like a flower!
Take not pride in your strength;
Be aware, too short is its length!


4th Place

Touch with a Pole

If I wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot pole,
why would I touch it with any other length pole?

Life is no length of happiness

Know, life’s no length of happiness,
Imbued ‘tis in uncertainty,
Life’s little but imperfectness.

What defines life is fleetingness--
An artwork drawn on sands of sea,
Life is no length of happiness.

Scarce is eternity its case,
Nor its goal nor end ever be,
Its nickname is imperfectness

That gives to life meaning, no less--
A raft to rescue from mid sea,
Mere ticks define life’s happiness.

Mere moments, no more to get blessed--
Moments of immortality,
For life lives in imperfectness.

Joy and bliss is no ‘thing’ to guess,
Emanating from within me, 
Life is no length of happiness,
It’s little but imperfectness.
____________________________
Villanelle |23.08.2024| life, joy, happiness
Poet’s note: Read also ‘O to live full, not long’.

A wolfs embrace

There is nothing like falling for a wolf.
To which you would do anything for.
After once wounding the wolf,
there is not a length you will go to repay the wolf.

For allowing his fangs in your neck
means his bite may redeem your sins.
So you let him bite and hope it is hard enough
to leave you unconscious of any sin you may have committed.

After all, the wolf knows better than a dumb bunny.

Not One Inch Has Length

Heaven has not left
the long dead bone,
alert mouse whiskers,
still move the seven seas.

At the beginning and the end
there is nothing to come,
that has not come and is.

Mammoths stride
a thousand leagues,
over a single blade of grass.
One small sparrow -
an Ark for infinity.

All that is,
is but one single event.

The speckled hen
lays worlds within worlds.

The unbridled beaks of seagulls,
unlock a book,
of common prayer.

Full-Length Daydream

I smoke a blunt
barricaded from the harsh sunlight
by a striped canopy.

You're taking a shower,
I daydream of full-length mirrors,
and soapy brown skin.

The post card in my hand
depicts the Roman Colosseum.
Gladiators are still hopelessly fighting time.

It's 1985
the world, as usual,
spins on like a tossed coin.

Make love while you can.
Find the lady in the shower,
wherever she is,

don't just sit there!

Arms Length

I want to write to you the endless paragraphs I dream about sending you,
Then shut the door behind and never look back but what good will it bring?

You’re too good for me, and I hate that. 
I’m fragile, and clingy,
One wrong move and i’ll crumble. 

I hate you, I love you,
I wish you knew how much you hurt me at times.
You don’t know it, and you don’t mean it I’m just blaming you too much.

I need to stop, I need to limit us,
So now I’m going to keep you at arm’s length now, 
No more and no more.

A Length of Time

combing my unkempt hair
unraveling years of not caring
my freedom knotted with reckless abandon
untangling each strand of dissatisfaction
cutting as curls fall away
each length a strand of injured time



January 30, 2023

Bite Size Contest #60
Sponsored by Line Gauthier

Farmers To Not Forget Snakes

Planters who have to toil
To have some food boil
And the Digestive oil
Start with 500 AM Soil,
The Morning’s Freshness their strength;
The surest way to take it to a length.

Farmers should early toil
In a cultivable soil
But not forget snakes that goals spoil
And The Carefully Planned foil
By simply sliding in to coil.

Snake could deal with a planter,
In his farm at a canter,
His blood stream promptly poison 
Without so much as this noising.

At Arm's Length

Just when we thought
wars were well and truly over,
done and dusted -
Russia invades Ukraine.
No mettle for friends
to take up arms.
to don the coat of arms
and fight tooth and nail
to quell the invader.
Instead its alms that are offered
and sanctions to starve and demean
the invader's will to fight.
It's a new World Order 
at arm's length.

Arms Length

I avoid people who try to put me in their category ~~
                       when I know in my heart who and what I am.

Written April 1, 2022

Almost Spring

almost spring
the cobwebbed corners
of the garden shed

Distance Length-

A distant is a length of measure going from here to there~


1/13/21
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr © 2021

At Arm's Length

We used to be so close
Close enough to read each other's minds and hearts
So in sync and in tune
A bond I never thought would be at risk of breaking

But now, you have boarded up your heart
Leaving me feeling rejected and dismissed
Cowardly avoiding me
Keeping me at arm's length with the distance you've placed between us
And I wonder...
Whose heart, is it that you are protecting, yours or mine?

October 19, 2020

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