Long Byline Poems

Long Byline Poems. Below are the most popular long Byline by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long Byline poems by poem length and keyword.


Premium Member More Secret Selves

I've been wondering about our secret selves...

The vegetarian smoker
The introverted joker

The soldier with the peace sign
The anonymous byline

The accountant with unfinished sums
The deaf musician's steel drums

The blue collar millionaires
The conservative who dares

The scientist who prays
The vagabond who stays

The man who kneels to take a stand
The female poet who's a football fan 

We are all more than we seem...

12/26/18

Submitted to 'Honourable Mentions Worth Mentioning' contest
Sponsor: Richard Lamoureux

(I like playing with the idea of secret identities, which started me thinking of how everyone is both Clark Kent and Superman, we all have a face we show and a face more private and unseen-)
Form:


Unbiassed Media

The Unbiassed Media

Bombs rain on Gaza, the youth throw stones, the Israeli soldiers killed 
or maim stone throwers, a dance of death.
What do the leading media say? Not very much,
the Gazans must be partly blamed; the victims are guilty
of the strength of being Palestinians defending their right.
In Hebron, the settlers are razing houses, killing goats and setting fire
 to olive trees and daily is the death of those who get in their way.
The media might have a byline about it, that’s all.
If Israel is criticized, it unashamedly invokes the sacred Holocaust
and calls us antisemitic
 Should a Jew speak up, he/her is called a self-hater
and be banned from entering the stolen land of Israel forever.
© Jan Hansen  Create an image from this poem.
Form: Sonnet

A Normal Name

who had a normal name

Now that October glides into November, we sleep later
till nine, and we do not use the living room heater, sit in the kitchen, watch TV after breakfast.
A light morning meal to break the fast, since we will eat lunch at one o'clock, or there about.
I have taken many nature photos of plants, flowers and
dead white trees no birds would sit on
I have seen birds nesting and their babies learning to fly
most were lucky, but some landed in a puddle and drowned, and the brave ones flying on untrained wings too far where the raven waited
Olive trees, if they survive the onslaught from ugly people called settlers, mostly rude fanatics who spit your way, say things like: “We killed Jesus,and laugh
A man who happened to be called Jesus, no, not him,woke up under an olive tree where Maria had sought shade, disturbances in the other field where the thuggish
were trying to burn down an olive tree so old it had got a byline in the bible.
Jesus and Maria liked to go to France where he could train and be a chef, but his father was old, too aged to run his carpentry shop with uncouth vulgarians around
the business faltered.
Jesus and his betrothed decided to take the old man, with them on the road to Damascus and met a Christian willing to take them to the port of Latakia and find a ship to take them to France
It turned out that Jesus was a talented chef who after training under the Famous Epicure, branched out and
became a famous restaurateur
Several hundred years later, a man called Macron was born, but since he has nothing to do with this story 
we can leave him alone to preside in Paris
© Jan Hansen  Create an image from this poem.

Buzzfeed

here comes the buzz
here comes the feed
don't bother with facts
there's really no need

if you're looking for stories
to sensationalize
if you need entertainment
just fill it with lies

and where we are going
is anyone's guess 
as we fill in the byline
with anonymous

saying we heard it from sources 
we can not confirm
but it still is our hope
you believe every word

though you may have your doubts
about what you just read
we've still placed that thought
inside of your head


I know I'm supposed to be off till the end of January but there's too many juicy current events to rhyme about! Plus I'm a wimp!
Form: Rhyme

Noel Neill

Noel Neill passed away,
No Superman to save the day.
If unfamiliar with her name,
Then you're too young to know her fame.

But those of us of certain age
Can see her byline on the page -
"The Daily Planet," where she worked
And Superman, she gathered, lurked.

For Noel Neill was Lois Lane,
Reporter with Clark Kent, her main
Contender as the Man of Steel,
Without that super sex appeal.

His glasses let nobody see
His actual identity
Yet Lois - nosy, sharp and wise
Could penetrate his weak disguise.

Other actors played the part
But Noel Neill, pert and smart,
Will always, in our minds, remain
The one and only Lois Lane.
Form: Rhyme


Premium Member Uncorking Bottled Man

.
Palpable 
fear lurks
a mystery
in the Air
a certain 
eerie feel
suspects
an killers
can come
anywhere
The strike
is invisible 
no tools or
weapon no
no trace no
fngerprints 
It’s in thin air
creeps ..
shudder... horror
Now everyone wears masks
All are Suspects All are Culpable
Three new cases in the neighborhood 
Death comes slow. is inevitable. No cure
Norms have changed. Hiding face is civil
Cannot trust None. Keep Social Distancing
At least two arms length. Barriers are drawn
Police Judiciary Governments are all clueless 
Doctors Nurses collapsing on desk ...Helpless
Cut off all people from people or All Are DEAD
SURE. There is no cure. Prevent, escape, delay
Every breath- A killer rests...................bottled
What did I just inhale ? ..........................broken
...................................................................m
You will not even know ....................................e
Till a laser on forehead ....................................n
.
The city never sleeps............................a
byline, we were told ...........................tiny
a happening place.............................prayer
young in sinews ...............................of hope
a big bucket list...............................kindles in
so much to fulfill .............................good faith
before we kicked.............................in the belief
nothing be missed...........................that the earth
Buy whatever sold............................will hear us heal
exclude deep sleep............................itself. Eventually 
rest can be delivered............................Good prevails.
In your home cave now.............................Amen !
time to reflect recover. recoup
.
Amitabh feels the world is not going to be the same again.
Now...
Yoga gurus have shut their shop . All ashrams are closed.
We are told to meditate from home take online classes
Sit in lotus pose. Padmasana. and pray..Pisses me off
None has the balls to defy curfew...all bars closed
Sportsmen...gym goers...flexing biceps...men !!
The only party in town ...hold your breath..
are for drinking of Cow urine...YES.
They say it is a cure.

Raise a toast to - GauMutra
All are invited ! At least they are showing some balls .
Form: Concrete

Disenchanted Muse

My muse did her fealty recuse
My honor she did stealthily reconnoiter
My discourse was grounds for divorce
Finding my writing no longer enlightening
My blithe parlance no longer my mistress did entrance
With my prose she did forthrightly dispose
Each short she did subsequently abort
Each regaling verse did prudently disburse
Each perforated line truncated with lackluster shine
Each conjured sentence only increased my penance
Each glamorous byline she did smugly decline  
Each dilated phrase with a bridling border did encase  
Each gilded stanza a burnished extravaganza yielding no artful bonanza
Each tethered word coagulated into a stolid curd
Each bloated quote sunk my creative float deeper in the moat 
Each lofty rhyme labeled too smarmy and sublime
My metric time no longer struck a concordant chime
Each literary device neatly spliced would not even a novice entice 
Each repetitive, stagnant metaphor made my verse a bore
Each strained, tortured simile engendered no empathy
Each supplanted metonymy a shock wave lobotomy

Beguiling Babble

Listen to my nursery rhyme
A tale so regaling, yet sublime
Sated with jester, clown and mime
Riddler along to sanction every, literary crime

Mime to mimic my contorted form
Jester to scuttle every, accepted norm
Clown to mock all that seek to conform
Riddler to meter and rhyme deform

Muse that deadens every line
Stanzas that have no structure or byline
Verse with no purpose or design
Syntax without luster or shine

Scribe with pen so erudite
Quipster all his words to blight
Cantor to sing of convention and rite
Charlatan to make his anthem trite

Story without beginning or end
Chorus that will constantly amend
Regular patterns, meaning to rend
To all readers I now condescend
Form: Rhyme

Premium Member Tale of Two Lines

When the byline was my line, I soared past the skyline
    
    When my line was the bye-line, I boarded the Sioux Line ... 




   _______________________________________________
   Note: The 'Sioux Line' was a railroad line that ran between
            Illinois and Wisconsin in the 20th century. Its trains
            were known as 'milk trains,' because they traveled
            in the wee hours of the morning, and they stopped
            at every stop... It used to take 14 hours to travel                
            from Wheeling, IL to Hayward, WI. (I did it twice.
            What an experience!).
Form: Epigram

Premium Member Reasoned News, Headlined Bruise

It is no longer headline news,

If anything scientific happens
it happens for a rational reason

If anything violent doesn't happen,
does it not happen
for an irrational unreasoned
compassionate nonresponse?

It is no longer byline news,
toxic anthro-aggressive at-most-spheres,
dark forbidding climes,
cold winter
evil viral feelings,
relentlessly depressing 
grey-clouded
chaotic 
irrational 
random thoughts

Complicate competing patriarchal 
privileged supremacy 
win/lose systemic media events,
stories monotheistically vengeful
OldTestament fundamentalist

Either my religious way
or you get to play
work
suffer the Prodigal Son/Daughter
loser highway

Monoculturing news
neglecting to mention white anthro-privileged 
Caste cast with strictly partisan 
polarizing eco-political rightwing supremacy concerns

And fascinations with capitalism happens
when compassionate democratic health
unrealistically
irrationally doesn't happen
while relentlessly furthering
white dogmatically "patriotic"
straight male dominance

Is not exactly headline news
but more the RightWing monocultural
Thing To Reactively Do
to find HolyBible scripture
to fundamentally cut
and evangelically paste
for ego-salvaging
narcissistic denial of democratic rationality
divine support

Furthering each individual ego-identity's
selfie bootstrap LeftCognitive
culturally superior to RightEmotive
win/lose religiously partisan 
straight white capitalism
overwhelming win/win 
systemic multicultural 
democratically cooperative 
co-arising compassion.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace