There’s beauty in imagining great things;
It lights our dark future with hope-filled dreams ~
Visions of peasants ordained to be kings,
And plebeians crowned as queens, so it seems.
It charts dream paths lit by elegant beams.
Imagination hears each scarecrow's groans;
It squeezes water from dry desert stones.
It carves deep oceans in hot desert sand,
Lifting us from known realms to worlds unknown,
Where minds may wander due to no command.
Imagination lends us its safe wings,
So we can soar toward futures we choose,
To fill our life with hopes and precious things;
Though striking gold is never a mere cruise,
Nor are the lily-livered crowned as kings.
Sweat would streak our face and our skin would bruise,
Our legs may throb and swell with insects' stings;
It's for our future that we pay the dues —
We'll patch our hurts with plasters, cloth, and slings,
On great hopes, our imagination clings.
It’s real hopes that imagination brings,
With peace of mind when reason reigns supreme,
With thoughts that glide without the need for wings—
Yet sometimes birth false hopes no truth redeems.
And dreams may fade like echoes in a stream.
Categories:
lily livered, dream, future, hope, imagination,
Form: Rhyme
Date written: 26th July, 2025
Contest: Three Options in I Poetry
Sponsor: Constance La France
The man who has no imagination has no wings.
— Muhammad Ali
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Imagination lends me its safe wings,
So I can soar toward futures I choose,
To fill my life with hopes and precious things;
Though striking gold is never a mere cruise,
Neither are lily-livered crowned as kings.
Sweat would streak my face and my skin would bruise,
My legs may throb and swell with insects' stings,
It's for my future that I pay the dues —
I'll patch my hurts with plasters and with slings,
On great hopes, my imagination clings.
Categories:
lily livered, dream, fantasy, future, hope,
Form: Rhyme
If it takes a dollop of Dutch courage
to French kiss an English rose
would it make a lily-livered
Indian giver look down his nose
but with Yiddish chutzpah
as a Spanish fly on the wall
and luck o' the Irish
you could Australian crawl
and yet the Chinese fire drill
it's still a safe bet
and a Mexican standoff
are not Russian roulette
but who'd deliberately open the door
for a Portuguese man o' war
Categories:
lily livered, fun, humorous, silly, word
Form: Rhyme
Goliath was a big threat to Israel
A giant with intimidating records
Of military prowess which turned Israelite soldiers
To a bunch of faithless cowards
And to an army of lily livered derelicts
As they capitulated in fear
And let the sleeping dog lie
While Goliath had his fill
Threatening God’s own army
But it took a lively faith and just a stone
To bring the mountain of a giant
Crashing to a disgraceful end
As David used faith as heavenly currency
To purchase heavenly grace
And brought the boastful philistine
To a dismal end
Are you faced with any life’s challenges?
Look back with faith on God’s track record in your life
And be filled with amazing strength and power
To overcome all Goliaths threatening your very existence
Categories:
lily livered, anxiety, christian, courage, depression,
Form: Free verse
HOCUS BOGUS, BOGUS POCUS!
A hex on the dryers of you who owe us
A pox on your socks never to be found
Unwound and pulled down underground
I voodoo better than you do, and you'll rue
The day you walked my way because I knew
If I'm toil and trouble, you're definitely double
So bubble bubble grow no more than stubble
It might seem weird as something feared
But I know you've always wanted a beard!
You think I'm too lily livered to deliver?
Just wait until I conjure... A WOODEN SLIVER
Didn't think this is something you'd fear?
You'll think twice when near tweezers disappear!
Such sorcery the likes you've never seen
An enchantress so mean there's never been
My final vengeance enclosed in this vile
You cry and I smile, I fly while you're in a pile
A potion with eye of storm and tongue of twist
And whatever else is on my list, with a flick of the wrist
I cast a spell you cannot quell that’s straight from hell
You’ll swell as you yell in pain as you fell
Unable to imagine such a fate is more than fable
As your pinky toe catches the corner of a coffee table!
MWA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Categories:
lily livered, funny, humorous, magic,
Form: Couplet
A weather wizard
delivered a blizzard
to Chicago yesterday
If I weren’t so lily-livered
I’d have torn out his gizzard
~ right away
Categories:
lily livered, giggle, snow, violence, weather,
Form: Rhyme
What activates my reflex arc
And causes me to shiver?
Which stimuli come into play
To set my nerves aquiver?
At home alone at dead of night
A creak will make me skittish.
My lower lip begins to drop
In fashion quite un-British! *
And should I inadvertently
Whilst in the garden walking,
Be tickled by a spider's web
The shock will leave me balking.
Don't mention snakes and darting bats
Obnoxious smells and vermin,
Or scraping sound as chalk meets board,
For all will leave me squirming.
In other matters I am bold;
No lily-livered chicken.
But when sheer instinct rules the roost
It leaves my senses stricken.
* in contrast to the traditional British 'stiff upper lip'
08.06.19
'What makes you flinch poetry contest'
Sponsored by Julie Leigh Rodeheaver
Categories:
lily livered, fear,
Form: Rhyme
Alliteration always awesome
Ballad beyond barnyard basics
Crystalline calls careful consonants,
Diamante delivers deeply
Enthusiasm excites eager ears,
Fanciful frolicking faerie
Generously gives grateful glee
Hyping haiku to heavenly heights,
Imagery and imagination
Jubilantly jumping joyfully,
Kimo kindles king-sized kingpin,
Lamenting the lily-livered lunacy
Momentous muse modulates melody,
Necromancer normalizes Neverland,
Opulent Opalescent orchestras opt
To pollute poetry previously pristine.
Quixotic quorum of questioners
Respond and recover rhymes rapidly
Serendipitous sentimentality
Turns timely tanka traitorously toward
Unmistakably understated Uranus,
Vindicating verses vilifying Vashti.
Whacking wannish warblers west,
‘Xaggerating ‘Xtemperaneous X’tra special poems
Yet yielding a yeomanly yearning toward
A zealous zany zingaroo of zest.
Categories:
lily livered, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form: Alliteration
Women rush their cooking
Children talk in whispers
Nursing mothers put the babies to sleep
Darkness descends on the land
The winds are becoming aggressive
The buzzing is getting louder
Like a cockpit;
The ant holes are opening
From them the Akpali spirits are emerging
Their sight makes women miscarry
Make the children to convulse
The lily livered clings to their wives
The braves with a kola nut in the hands;
Sits at their door steps
The catechist doubt its efficacy
Yet his fields are still without seedlings
He too awaits this dance
Tonight the land plays host to them
Our ancestors;
They bring no harm
Without this dance
The land sees no rain
Categories:
lily livered, africa,
Form: Free verse
I should have looked before I leaped
now I have been left in a lurch
by my lily-livered boyfriend,
but I'll have the last laugh
when he see his laundry
in a lovely shade of pink.
ALesiach © 9/30/2015
Categories:
lily livered, boyfriend, humor, leaving, silly,
Form: Alliteration
The dark of the night sky: clear, unlimited space
Lights and a bright white moon, of clouds no trace
The mood suddenly changes, the lights are faded
The vault of heaven is raided, the azure invaded
Realization in a flash, the barren moon stands abashed
Now fainthearted, lily-livered, her quiet joy is crashed
Hide not your face behind clouds the color of yellow dirt
I know your phases, feel your moods, I know you`re hurt
Battered, barren, lonely, evanescent orb of night
From your cursed dance peace you`ll never find
But I`ll be your fire eater, one who devours the sun
Artemis, Luna, Diana, your true name knows none
Categories:
lily livered, nature, romantic,
Form: Quatrain
SNOWSTORM
Now the wind’s invisible hand
Can be seen across the land
With finger, arm and wrist
She’ll grasp and she’ll twist
The airborne masses swirled -
Those princes of the icy world -
And wrestle them to the ground,
Piled in a graceless mound
Together, where they huddle
And give up the struggle -
Pale, white, lily-livered -
From the sky-battle finally delivered,
Surrendering their white flag,
Cowardly white feathers sag.
Their invisible foe now laughing and shrieking
In the trees at the mayhem she’s been wreaking.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Note: Today in a snowstorm, it suddenly struck me that I could “see” the
normally invisible wind, by the movement of snowflakes. Sometimes
the obvious is amazing to me.
Categories:
lily livered, nature
Form: Couplet
Lily livered lint of a lizard, let him be called
In pious protest of his primevel name
He who in the spinning sun our death installed
Made history mere cinder for the flame
Why mark me with mortality for your material rage
What treasure in life's flesh yet I cage
He slithers between lines scrawled on a creeping page
And leaf by leaf levers love with lurid rage.
Categories:
lily livered, allegory, mystery
Form: Verse