Long Tallied Poems
Long Tallied Poems. Below are the most popular long Tallied by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long Tallied poems by poem length and keyword.
Stepping Lightly
Watch how you walk, my Brothers -
You tread on Sacred Ground.
The Thousand Eyes of Justice
Are watching all around
You may think you go unnoticed
While you hear no other sound
But the fall of your own footsteps
As you pass this way alone
Are heard by things unseen
Behind every tree and stone.
You may think that no one sees you
As you desecrate the land.
You may think no one is listening
As you discuss Development plans.
You may assume it never matters
When you turn good earth to sand;
But the debt is growing fatter
With each working of your hand.
Step lightly, step lightly
You don't want to trip and fall.
Step lightly, step lightly
If you don't want to lose it all.
Watch where you step, my sisters
There are Watchers in the Wood.
Take heed how you treat the forests.
Your intentions are understood.
You may never give back what is taken
Without changing it in some way -
What goes missed tomorrow
Brings dawn to a different day.
Step lightly, step lightly
You don't want to trip and fall.
Step lightly, step lightly
If you don't want to lose it all.
You may think the fields are empty
As you tread them underfoot.
Or that the skies are blinded
By the darkness of the soot
That pours from every factory
Settling on your Gucci boots
An account is being tallied
In the leaves and clouds and roots.
Step lightly, step lightly
You don't want to trip and fall.
Step lightly, step lightly
If you don't want to lose it all.
Watch that heavy tread, my Brethren,
You don't know who's there to hear.
Stay your heavy hands, I beg you
It's for all of us I fear.
Have a care for what you don't see
The anger you don't feel
Gathering all around you
Deaf to all appeal.
We all think we own the wonder
We trample though each day.
We stumble and we blunder
Never called to pay.
We may find ourselves answered in Thunder
For how we threw it all away:
If we don't wish to be torn asunder
We must hear what small things say.
Step lightly, step lightly
You don't want to trip and fall.
Step lightly, step lightly
If you don't want to lose it all.
Lock me in a room for days
Suffocating in purple haze
Tried so hard to change my ways
Catch me from this second chance floor
I used the window, but you slammed the door
No, holding me close like you did before
No use hiding anymore
I've been holding it so long
I forgot how to breathe
I've been waiting so long
I forgot how to leave
Drag my troubles away
Until I forget how to grieve
Lost in a maze, you can't help but inveigh
Draw your money, I tallied the day
Count your blessings, and I'll count your flaws
That pinned me down between your claws
Now pick my bones out from your jaws
And fold our paper life away
Tell me now; it's not okay
I dragged my troubles away
'Cause I forgot how to grieve
The race is on, the goal is set;
Opponents come out swinging.
We’re all prepared to feel the buzz
This competition’s bringing.
Right now there is no way to know
Which one will end up winning.
The final days seem far away;
It’s only the beginning.
The papers fill with background tales;
Reporters give opinions.
The spotlight follows all their moves,
Surrounded by their minions.
Each vows to serve the best he can
And when results are tallied,
We’ll look back at the game to see
Which one had better rallied.
Of course, I’ve chosen who I want;
My fingers, crossed, I’m hopin’
That Roger Federer will win
The current U.S. Open!
While i understand and totally get
It's human nature to want to
apportion blame
When it comes to one's government
remember
Very rarely do the voting public agree
With the choices made on their behalf
In a democray once we have placed
our tick in a box and our votes are
tallied up
It's then solely up to them to
fulfill that duty and trust we have placed in them
Unfortunately though when it
comes to politics
Once they are voted it's every
person for the party collective
And can anyone attest to
meeting or seeing a politician
who could look anyone directly
in the eye without blinking
And thinking first and foremost
of what lie to tell as long as he
or her can count on your vote
And if anything was to go wrong
willing to take or accept blame
Orders descend like sharpened hail
each shard cutting language to ribbons.
We learn to swallow pain quietly,
to bow our eyes before the flag of silence.
Walls do not need ears...
fear builds its own cathedral,
where every heartbeat kneels
to the god of obedience.
Children are taught to trace straight lines,
never to bend them back into loops.
Curves are forbidden
too dangerous a hint
that what dies might begin again.
Even breathing is tallied,
counted like coins in the dark.
Still, a single breath slips past.
Unmeasured, unowned
a secret chord that rattles
the cage of silence.
From that small ignition,
the world remembers how to grow.
How easy it is to get wrapped up
In our own little universe
The cocoon of the daily grind
Of going about our business
Trying to protect our turf
‘Cause we’re more fragile than we let on
We live in fear that aggressors surround us
Propelling us to not forget and not forgive
Yet when we step back and
Focus on the meaning of our life
On the direction we want to take
And the legacy we’ll leave behind
We do want to be kinder and
Contribute to a better world
Not just for us but for mankind
In the end we’ll face our Maker
Standing alone solely accountable
For our deeds and misdeeds
Responsible for our own journey
For how we cultivated our heart
And the goodwill we did impart
When tallied will we have done enough
Or will we be asking for forgiveness
For barely meeting a passing grade
With this in mind and while it’s not too late
Let’s all take stock of what’s in our heart
All start practicing forgiveness
And letting go of the past as we realize
To forgive is to set ourselves free
AP: 2nd place 2026, 3rd place 2025
Submitted on November 3, 2018 for contest SOMEONE FORGIVEN YOU: WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU'VE FORGIVEN DRAMATIC VERSE sponsored by JAMES EDWARD LEE SR - RANKED 4TH
THE DUSTY BOX OF MEMORIES
I was not searching, but just stumbled on it
Across a dusty box of memories in my brain
Not the usual recollection of a pleasant time
But some events that never seemed to rhyme
Ones when remembered, do cause me pain
And never deserving reference in any sonnet
Those were many years spent working away
A family growing up, yet me just like a ghost
My wife bringing up two kids, almost alone
And since then, a feeling that I should atone
Yet for me, progress unworthy of any boast
Just more tension and anxiety, day after day
The memories like coals I rake over in a fire
Regret that burns, of the precious years lost
What hurts me most is the deafening silence
And perhaps the wrong target for defiance
As when memories are tallied, I see the cost
I was in many sectors, almost a gun for hire
There’s a bitter taste now left in my mouth
From the dusty box of memories spilled out
Images, some only imagined and rarely real
Thoughts compete with how it makes me feel
As it resets the dial to endure another bout
No relief is found between North and South
I do need some way to forever lose that box
It’s here, denying access to better memories
But it is that span across grimaces and grins
That sets the scene for all the losses and wins
To avoid my treating those years as enemies
Give me that gentle tide washing over rocks
We’re committed no doubt, when the engines roll out,
as we answer an alarm.
So rally the men, ‘cause the score’s tallied when,
we’ve rescued those from harm.
‘Cause we never back down from a fire attack,
while dragging a nozzle, irons and axe...
We carry a life-saving breath on our backs,
in the hour that defines us.
From a basement below to a high-rise and then?
It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when...
The shifts are long, but our hearts beat strong
and our brothers stand behind us.
But we’re never seeking fortune or fame,
in the hour that defines us.
When disaster’s on an epic scale in the city dark
and deep, we run all night, the sirens wail,
and yet the city sleeps.
We’ll respond to a plight when the winter winds bite,
and in summer sun that blinds us.
But the minutes come tough when conditions are rough,
in the hour that defines us.
As for brothers in arms who will never forget,
there will be times that try us,
we’ve beaten every challenge met,
in the hour that defines us...
Copyright © 2016
I cheated on my wife once
while playing Monopoly;
I paid enough to buy two houses
but then I put up three.
I felt so bad about what I did
I confessed at the end of the day;
and swore I would never do it again
because I hated feeling that way.
Once I was in a golf tournament
and forgot to count a penalty stroke
after I moved my ball a little bit
to get out from behind an oak.
When we tallied the score at the end of the round
I disqualified myself;
it wouldn’t be right having the winner’s cup
displayed upon my shelf.
When doing my taxes at the end of the year
I didn’t have all my receipts;
so I couldn’t take all my deductibles
without feeling like a cheat.
I guess some people can and some people can’t -
I am the latter of those two.
Cheating tears me all up inside;
what does it do to you?
Written for the Cheating Contest - but posted too late - darn!
He fled beyond eternities, boundless, aching voids.
The walls of time tallied his sins, nameless.
Yet he chose the Sun, a prison ignited.
Fanatic heat, blistered skin carved to stone.
Far above, her glance burned velvet through storms.
Her gravity called softly, furnace-muted,
where light bent to frame her shadowed figure,
a silhouette of celestial grief. She wept.
Pierced by her sorrow, he circled endless days.
Golden chains cinched his wrists like whispers.
He watched, consumed by her form's fierce quiet.
Eyes hollow with wonder; soul quaked, undone.
Then fire cooled, surrender wore as peace.
Her light softened: molten balm, tender pain.
His tears joined hers, falling like volcanic rain.
Time cracked. Eternity shattered. Still, they burned.
Grief rewritten, etched into ash-drawn orbits.
"Witness me," he thought, sun-borne martyr.
Escape became weight. Freedom became her gaze.