Long Hem and haw Poems

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


Premium Member Small Acts of Kindness

When a pregnant woman gets on a bus,
  Be the first to give her your seat.

When you see an old lady on a busy corner,
  Help her across the street.

When someone's carrying a stack of books,
  Open the door for him.

When your colleague starts to sniffle and sneeze,
  Bring him a tissue; don't ignore him. 

When you see a car stalled by the roadside,
  Do you pull over to help?
  Or do you hit the gas and accelerate?

When your best friend needs a sympathetic ear,
  Do you try your best to commiserate?
  --Or do you hem and haw, then pontificate?
  
When the shopper in front of you's short by a dime,
  Do you whip one out of your pocket?
  --Or do you give him a hard time?

Small acts of kindness cost next-to-nothing;
--The blessings and thanks begotten 
   Are really something.
Form: Rhyme


Premium Member In the Vice of the Big Picture

What is harder, the border, the pictures
or the brightness of light and dark pieces?
It is a mishmash, sordid assortment of
escapism, scrutinized under illumination.

Piece by piece, I fall to pieces, pick them up,
scatter them to my mind’s wind, hem and haw
over the nuances; why do I torture myself so?
In the vice of the big picture - resounding parks.

Two canvas frames, two boxes, tepid waters,
the need to complete, competing only with
me, myself and I. Now, I see everything in
tabs and blanks, even as I count sheep.

Even as I watch t.v., the pixels penetrate my eye,
portion into die-cuts. Dioxyribonucleic acid flesh -
are we pixelated…like paper doll cut-outs with
wardrobe and accessories, my own Barbie palace?

Soon, I will finish this 27 by 20 preoccupation.
With a stethoscope and head mirror, examine
each rectangle - 63 squares; my hope - not
one morsel is lost, pieces of my life complete.

Premium Member The High School Crush

I know it was a long time ago
In a place now far away
But way back then I had a crush on you
That I remember still today

I never acted on it then
And am in no position to do so now
But thought I would just let you know
And maybe make you smile some how

I would write your name next to mine
In my spiral class notebook
Along with poems about making love to you
On pages nobody else could look

I tried talking to you a time or two
But the words just got in my way
I’d hem and haw and shuffle my feet
Trying to think of something clever to say

I don’t even know if you knew me then
Let alone remember me now today
But I’m glad to learn from mutual friends
That your life turned out okay

I am married now and much in love
So my life turned out just great
I wonder sometimes what you’d have said
Had I the courage to ask you for a date
© Joe Flach  Create an image from this poem.
Form: Rhyme

Inspired by The Lugubrious Game by Dali

from the conch 
                whispers come
   dissect
      distract

  blow upon

         scintilla branch to intrinsic thought
weighed down
    consumed

             overwrought 

         mattering - so magnified
  that I can't turn away my eyes
               reach for able hand to soothe
    what dread could deed undo, disprove 

                kisses stolen 
     by long lost words
           explored lactic fallacies 
become absurd
                  til endings are not the body expired 
       but exposure of every cell and every wire

                   cathartic grip held in awe
                       control depletes as hem and haw
        til sadly swings 
              and bridges to shame
call time
        I must 
              on the lugubrious game
Form: Ekphrasis

Playing Games

There aren't many games I play
For most of them require
Some patience and some strategy
Or, at the least, desire.

I quite enjoy my "Words with Friends"
But usually I lose.
The very first word that I see
Is likely what I'll choose.

Of course, I should peruse the board
And calculate the score,
But doing that would make the game
A stultifying bore.

My mah jongg buddies hem and haw
Before they make their move.
I play real fast so rarely win;
The pros would disapprove.

For competition means that all
The effort we extend
Should serve to help us play the game
And win it in the end.

The only real advantage
Of my non-competing flair
Is that when I see the outcome,
If I lose, I  hardly care.
Form: Rhyme


Premium Member Burned In Flames of Finality

I caught a glimpse of my mirrored reflection
but dared not stop to take a closer look
for I feared my eyes would be an open book
with lines I wanted no one to read but me
No brush strokes of my brush or pen
did I want to capture with my sorrow seen
It was an absolute absurd notion
to paint the pale countenance on my face
as I walked and wallowed, lost in time and place

Since no longer does he exist in this life
I sometimes feel I am a mirage, a sullen shadow
The merest gossamer ghost of floating flesh
I know because it's what the mirror saw
With the whispering wind, I aimlessly drifted
A dreamer without a dream of what life portends
wandering in the darkest nights, depending
on the sun to rise when dappled Dawn opens his eyes.

I didn't go gentle into the nebula night
for I feel jealous when moonlight fondles the sea
feeling more pallid than Luna's light
and an echoing emptiness washed over me
I feel as if I am an alabaster phantom
my skin the transparency of a colorless hue
Procol Harum's whiter shade of pale 
miserable that somehow along the way, I failed 
and so it was that later...

I went gentle into the nebulous night
without the need to hem and haw
without the want to rage or the urge to fight
for the dirge of death burns in flames of finality 
With my eyes wide open, I couldn't read the words
I'd written for they were blurred on the page
My eyes might just as well have been closed
for exposed was the room I'd kept locked
behind the cage of ribs that protects my heart

My silence is not anger for having lost him
without so much as a final word of goodbye, 
one last smile or the chance for my eyes to weep
My silence is not bitterness, just anguished awareness
It's an umbrella I wanted to open against the weather
That storm of emotional pain I knew would arrive
I chose not to open it so the torrent of my tears 
would mingle with rain, but beneath the gloomy skies
one look into my eyes would give my heartache away
If he were still alive, I wonder what we would say
© Lin Lane  Create an image from this poem.

The Dance

The world is filled with some fancy dancers
who'll come a prancing through your bedroom door
They'll do a pretty good job of makin’
you think they're spot on what you're lookin’ for

But they'll hem and haw and skirt the edges
never quite proving what they claim to be
They’ll never give you any straight answers
when you tell ‘em just what it is you need

The words will roll cross their tongues so easy
they'll try to hide behind a white toothed lie
Watch ‘em primp and prune their fancy feathers
while promising you the moon in the sky

Just keep on looking for the kind of man
who’s only promise is a life of love
And asks for nothing but to share that life
under a wide Montana sky above

You'll know for sure my dear when you've found him
the right cowboy will treat you like he should
Never take a single breath without you
and no one will care for you like he would

So I’ll toss my hat into the circle
though I can never promise you the world
I can make darn sure to never hurt you
if you’ll only be this cowboy's cowgirl
Form: Rhyme

Premium Member For Life's Sake

I appreciate
The patriotic voices
It does my heart good

I truly believe
In what makes this country great
But I would say this:

The Constitution
And Bill of Rights created
To ensure freedom

Against tyranny
And to stop invaders from
Attacking our homes

We have the right to
Should pack a gun...

Having the right to
Be free goes hand in hand with
The right to feel safe

If we continue
To argue over our right
To security

We are betraying
The very thing we fought for
In all the wars past

We are no longer
Truly free because we now
Are captives of fear

We are so afraid
Of being insensitive
Offending someone...

We've allowed thousands
Of "sleepers" to live with us
Freely, unchallenged

Waiting for the time
The signal to attack us
Again and again

While we were sleeping
Enemies crawled in our beds
They destroy our dreams...

Would you invite your
Enemy to your house to
Sit at your table?

Right to privacy?
We gave that up long ago
It's an illusion

Each time we logon
To the web to conduct our
"Personal" business...

Each time we apply
To obtain that credit card
To purchase more "things"...

Willingly we will
Give up the rights to privacy
For financial gain

Making money is the
"Great American Way"
Nothing wrong with that

But when it comes to
National security
We whine, hem and haw...

We won't compromise
When it's not profitable
Even for life's sake...
Form: Haiku

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