Mandatory Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Mandatory Mother

I learned to swim in waters of amoeba 
You shout "Regarde!" as I float to the surface
But it's far from Paris in this viscous river

Your hands of guidance turned to scoffs
Trading my pain for stacks of coins~
I no longer hear the crowds beg for mercy

Forced to nurse groupings of septic cells
My chest covered in ripples and blisters
The wet nurse of a generation of youth

Doctor, how come I must be a vessel?
Because my skirt fell above my knees
My womb is no factory of steel

All of this for more soldiers to train
For the crippling economy and labor
Why must your wealth stay tightly packed?

I will never earn my dress of white
Men of our nation will deem me impure
Forever a mandatory mother, never a wife

My body shall remain my own
Free of your legislature~

Premium Member Mandatory Zoom Meeting

I think I will clean my desk.
My video is on, for I am on Zoom
And it was the instruction.
Luckily I am coming in on video upside down.
All they are seeing is the ceiling.
So, it looks like it I am trying.
I am not really but as long as it looks like it.
I am good.
I think I will take this time to clean my desk.
it is way past time.

Mandatory Health

M-andatory
H-ealth
I-s
N-eatly
A-pplied

J-ust
O-bliterating
Y-ucky

F-ever's
L-ink
O-nce
R-isk
E-ventually
S-inks

Topic: Birthday of Mhina Joy Flores (June 07) 
Form: Vertical Monocrostic


Premium Member Enjoying Mandatory Solitude

Enjoying my solitude the best I can
Nurturing myself gently
Without family or friends
I love this I think
For a moment or two

The moment long gone, I am gone
Entertaining myself daily used to be fun
Before the Coronado Virus 
Solitude made me thrive.
Now I’m not sure I am completely alive.

Mandatory Snowstorm Commute Senryu

drive to work in snow
so much fun to cuss and spit
a hater by force

Contributions Are Mandatory

It's a receptacle that we must always replenish,
a vessel that we may drink from only after
we have taken the time to add our share,
but we may only drink, our share
and only, when it is full
no more, no less
or there is 
no Love


Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.

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