Nineveh Poems | Examples

List of Member Poems

Dreamtime: Secret Garden


alone...
in a vast meadow, 
silently counting ruby explosions 
of rare, lion's tooth orchids;  
Hidden under tiny royal cloaks 
of elliptical emerald leaf canopies, 
so  beautiful....
I'm briefly blinded

he sits 
watching us sweetly, 
the blue of his eyes are unmoving 
calm, as the waters of Nineveh
Flourishing under the umbrage 
of an ovaloid optic embrace,  
he settles into our garden of love. 
He is delightful, 
concisely pre-arranged, just like us. 

Written in collaboration with James Marshall Goff

Premium Member A Must-Read

What is logical
May not be biblical.
What is biblical
May not be logical.

Reveal man's folly!
Shame their wise!
His manifold wisdom- 
Hidden in a must-read.

For in it, He says, 
“I will crush their wisdom, 
Sages are dumbfounded.
Behold, My open-book!

I know where you live,
And everything you do,
Either a source of comfort,
Or a cause for alarm!"

Sennacherib sent packing,
Back to Nineveh,
Back to Nisroch,
His idol could not save.

What wisdon is this?
A face full of offal,
A tail between his legs,
Struck down by his sons!

Man cannot prevail
Apart from his Maker.
Stop judging the Judge!
Make His wisdom supreme.

Premium Member A Cosmic Event

 Sometimes, when heavenly bodies align
 A celestial phenomena is spun
 Some say it's a sign
 When we have this total eclipse of the sun

 The path of the eclipse will pass over places called Nineveh
 Which in the bible, was a wicked city
 Where the prophet Jonah went
 and the people of Nineveh did repent

 Our brightest star
 will be eclipsed, casting dark shadows on the Earth soon
 in a cosmic event from afar
 As the sun is obscured by the moon
 But is it merely a cosmic event
 Or a sign that we should repent!

 3-28-2024


Should You Ever Tarry

Should you ever tarry, for even the briefest of moments,
   Amongst the quiet of the pre dew-drenched grey dawning,                                    
 And, wiping away just one hesitant, lingering tear,
  Fancy you might hear my soft footfall moving steadily through
When gently brushing aside those thin veils draped as if they
   Were the great sorrows
 Which hung from the ancient walls of long-vanished Nineveh,       
  Feel a fleeting, but heartfelt, pang of remorse at my passing...
Know then I will have touched you as a slowed finger traces 
   Across the deeply ingrained lines upon a tired lovers 
 Aging face.

Ill Wind Blowing

There’s a cult fever chill
in the Assyrian air
Coven chants of Rabshakeh croaks
are placebo heard
‘round the alabaster oval frond

Toadie tongues swallow
swarm of fly words,
a-blowing Nineveh ill
Maggot tone larvae of lies 
carried on an opiate pulse wind,
which conscience kill

Smell the fetid emanations
a-blowing siren shrill
Sickening Jareb adulation 
has an electromagnetic vibration —  
An idolized fealty feel
o’er a static opaque Ivory pond
Such a graven attraction!

A tubular ill wind is a-blowing:
Pinocchio sparrows 
love to sniff 
the parrot vespers —  
This Shalman spoiled scent
is so bow, vile vapor bent
A burnt brass odor that don’t spit relent

Tempestuous Tiglath thoughts
got those sluice echo, Beth-aven tadpoles
desiring flagellated more

So woe much more 
odious, 
Pul windpipe pestilence 

An unpalatable breeze message sent:
Let Sennacherib penny pus lips
sordid profit kiss 
the covetous wound not cured

Premium Member Jonah's Nineveh

Jonah believed that justice required punishment, not mercy                                                                                    
Obedience is what God desires from us, not our opinions
Never weep or whine over spilled milk; just wipe it up
And remember that every secret will be brought into the light
Heaven is a place for forgiven people, not perfect people
'
So let us all rejoice in God's mercy, not our goodness.

Never give up on people who have gone astray
I and you are candidates for God's mercy
No one who still breathes is too far gone
Everyone is capable of making a change
Valuable lessons from Scripture are priceless
Even animals are recipients of God's mercy
Happily and Fortunately, God is rich in mercy

122119PoSoupContest, What's In A Name, Juliet Ligon, 1P


Premium Member Forgetting Jonah

Woe to the city of blood,
full of lies,
full of plunder,
never without victims!

Nahum 3:1 NIV

FORGETTING JONAH

Nineveh suffers.
turn your back...don’t feel sorry.
how the mighty cry
in their evil-wicked ways.
mercy long, not forever…

11/8/2019

Heed the Nineveh Calling


Underground bunker earworms
love to listen
to the Archie messaging
Rapt in their sheltered atomic blast,
dreamy past rewind,
they snore ignore 
their borrowed time destiny

On a seethe countdown crawl,
they uranium breed much cesium fungi
Cloven mushroom tongues that fire breathe
pestilent spores of destruction — 
Dark clouds of cellular division 
is the Adam-splitting condition
that expands collapsing global economies

Jagged sandworm teeth,
with the overturned hourglass underbelly,
are insular wielding their unstable weaponry
They devour the olive green leaf of peace
with carnivorous cankerworm ease

Fear lovers of violent pleasures
take heed
Eve of extinction 
comes upon the cause careless
like a thief

New Assyrian society,
oh how their Sennacherib hearts
Stone Age bleed — 
The time space for repentance
is near zero, 
needle point ticking

A conscience prick seems only to get
their radioactive rage attitude a-burrowing
Crawling deeper into the crass core of their cobalt being,
their wormwood deeds are Nineveh calling

Six-Word Couplet Series Encore

JONAH'S ADVENTURE
Ran to Tarshish
Now, inside fish 

DEVOUT JONAH
Three whole days 
Inside, Jonah prays

FISH VOMIT
God ordered fish 
Fulfilled God's wish

JONAH TURNS OBEDIENT 
Went to Nineveh
Preached God's way

TURN TO GOD 
People there repented
In sackcloth lamented 

GOD HAS THE FINAL WORD 
Jonah has hypertension 
God teaches lesson

09/19/18

Contest: Six-Word Couplet Series Encore poetry contest 
Sponsor: Mark Toney

Jonah Son of Amittai

Jonah Son of Amittai

Jonah should go to Nineveh one day,
But to Tarshish is where he ran away,
And off to Joppa he raced and went,
Without ever having God's consent.

Paid required amount and went aboard;
Headed towards Tarshish from the Lord;
Jonah then was thrown into raging sea
Where he never had been meant to be.

They offered sacrifices and vows made;
To God who was one they once forbade;
Certain section of water God would hallow,
And Jonah, a great fish, him did swallow.

Will complete letter after I wake up tomorrow.
The rest is all ready to be typed up. Jim Horn

Nineveh Is Here

I look at the lane,
I see a great black line,
With things that look like comets of fire
So fast they are.

It's the cars,
They are like flaming torches.
Already said the poet Naum¹.

As in Nineveh
The cars here beat each other furiously.
If they collide, they destroy each other.
They run like lightning.
Already the poet Naum had said.

¹Naum, chapter 2, in the Bible said.

Jonah and the Ninevites

After Jonah got out of the whale, he went to the city of Nineveh and warned the Ninevites.
He told them that God was going to destroy them because they weren't doing what was right.
God was going to destroy them in forty days because of the evil they had done in the present and the past.
The King heeded the warning and he and everybody else covered themselves with sackcloth and began to fast.
The Ninevites turned from their evil ways after they were warned.
God saw that they had changed and he was no longer scorned.
God spared the Ninevites because they were no longer unfit.
Jehovah isn't a harsh God and that sure did prove it.

You'Re Invited

Like the man with his gourde in sitting there off to the side
Looking down upon the whole horde with a disdainful pride
In so waiting for such a sight to suddenly come and appear
Doubting they'll see the Light, doubting they will ever hear

Poor Jonah up there on that hill waiting for God to destroy
Never really having the will to share with others God's Joy 
So he would sit there and wait as the sun beat on his head
But he didn't know Nineveh's fate as they repented instead

Such a gloom filled heart had he that he missed the point
What Jonah never came to see is that only God can anoint
But Nineveh didn't last eternally just two generations or so
For it was their weak morality their children came to know

So the point in being is to go tell everyone of His Kingdom
Help others in so seeing even if you have no luck with some
Don't sit up there on a hill looking down upon what you see
I believe it is God's Will to give everyone a chance to be free


Jonah Chapter 4:1-11

Premium Member The Beheading of Ninwe

The Beheading of Nînwe

Ninwe is the ancient Syriac name for Mosul
(not to be confused with the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh)

Burned books
Dead poets
Dark ages of Mosul

Smattered relics
Islamic horrors
Dark ages of Mosul

Education denied
Blind minds cutting out eyes
Dark ages of Mosul

Evil hearts
Dark Souls
Rulers in Mosul

The golden age of Islam long ago
Evil winds have blown
Now they live in darkness

In Burka tears
Fear
For years

Crucified Christians
Run run run
The museum is closed in Mosul

Running Away

Knowing exactly what he was supposed to do
Yet from this responsibility he suddenly withdrew
Boarding a ship and heading the other way
For Jonah was running so he wouldn't have to obey

And there at the very bottom of that ship he lay
Even as the ship began to violently rock and sway
But all the sailors knew with such fear in their eyes
Just as Jonah himself would also come to realize

So they took Jonah and threw him over the side
Into that stormy ocean so dark deep and wide
Soon to be swallowed by a very large whale
So many people think this is just an old Bible tale

But for three long days in that belly would he lay
As later he would do that just as God would say
Then on that third day he was finally set free
And headed straight to Nineveh ever so quickly 

Are you also running from what God has said
Doing only what you really want to do instead
Maybe this would be a good time to admit
Before another such storm would also hit


Jonah 1:2

 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it;
 for their wickedness is come up before me.

Sub Categories

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.

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