Open And Shut Poems | Examples

Warmer Mind Sway

I am so tired 
At kitchen table
Cat stare orange

I sit on chair
Handkerchief red, pencil box black
Chair cat grey

I shut my eyes and think of blue
I open and shut my eyes
I sway my body back and forth in a gray soft robe
I sway

I will leave my house in this mess
Water in the sink like stream, like puddle, silver, then fade
Box on the floor like brown
Shoes with cat
Open drawer 
Ribbon

White cat floor

Jacket, scarf, jacket, shawl
Clock
Three hours backward
Couch like homeless lumps

Humming electric ==============
Screen saver swim swim swim

I could have peanuts, coffee
I could have lotion
Pillows, blankets, get naked
Joy, curl 
Slide sheets say, “Home”
Run my legs in the covers
Run run run
Blankets …
Blankets …
Warmer, mind sway
Swoom. Black screen. 
Last eyeshow inside lids
The feeling
This feeling
Takes a day alone — to fall, to rest, to believe in real meaning
Meaning is in the darkness, the alone.
I fall like this out of this world into the darkness — thank you.

Animating Innate Vibrance

Line of inquiry:

“betwixt the pulse of our heartbeat
simply present, head-heart linking
dwelling in time stretched blissful peace
awareness became unblinking

Animating Innate Vibrance

Open and shut, constant change
He’s on His throne, He’s off
My heartbeat says otherwise
My mortifying act of anamorphic shame

He says, “Sit still.”
He says, “Know that I Am…”

When I clear my head
not of everything
but when I sit in place
with only the inside and outside
universe; not without sound

I would be dead, without the sense
I’ve been given. I’m holding hands
with my own heart, quietly kissing
the peace, which I, all too often,
want to run from and to what…

How much time can I take
five or ten
minutes that I want to spend
elsewhere

but this is what I need. He
knows; the exploration time
spent in meditative prayer
pays higher dividends

Oh what I see
when I truly open my eyes
high beams highlighting,
sculpting, silhouette-sitting,
the unknown takes shape

The aha transforms. One
never forgets
when floored
with answers that transform

Pearls at Your Feet

I watch pink-blue horizons  

as visions of your face 

fade in the sinking sun  

your footprints linger in the haze.  

 

Reflections of white satin seas 

open and shut walls  

the Elysium of endless dreams  

where shadow and light fall. 

 

Nameless on these pages  

weaving sweet tapestry  

in sonnets, poetic sequences  

as every word comes rapidly.  

 

Secrets of your heart  

Touched by subtle motions  

Rising with a rising star 

At the start of profuse notions.  

 

Gems of topaz 

on your caramel hands  

sun rain angels’ dance 

in a lover’s trance.  

 

Let me play a sonata  

as silver moons glide  

the muse, Hakuna Matata  

you by my side.  

 

Every inch of you is beautiful  

curves, your body petite  

yesterdays were forever few  

I lay pearls at your feet.   

 

I disappear into an ocean of people  

leaving paths of sweet jade  

until we meet again in the regal  

among diamond blue shades.

Zero, One, or Two

I

Two wiener dogs and their owners so proud
Approached each other right there on the green.
Then, the hounds commenced at yapping so loud.
But that wasn’t the dangdest thing I’d seen.

One of them’s front bit the other one’s butt.
At once, the other one’s front did the same.
This baffling case was not open and shut.
Those who saw it didn’t know who to blame.

I can’t believe what I saw on the lawn,
Because it all happened there so neatly.
In an instant, both yaps and dogs were gone -
They had devoured each other completely.

II

Don’t listen to that fool - I’m his brother.
I saw the wieners who had no muzzle.
He tells the wrong stumper, there’s another -
Quite a different confounding puzzle. 

One ‘et t’other, while t’other et the one. 
Which was out, which was in, no man could tell,
But there remained but one, not two or none.
One endured; one, a sadder fate befell.  

III

Don’t listen to them, I’s little sister.
I saw what really happened, if you please.
There warn’t none, nor one, but two left, mister, 
But uncommon strange, they switched identities.

Two, One, or Zero

Two wiener dogs meet
Each yap loudly, strangely greet
Oddly on the street

Hounds bite other's butt 
Owner blames the other's mutt
Not open and shut

I note discreetly,
"Both were gone quick and neatly, 
Devoured completely"

Another witness 
Says, "'twas one, not two or none 
Lucky to remain"

Judge asked the witness,
"If each pooch ate the other  
Which was out, which in?"

A surprise witness
Loudly shouts, "there were two, they
Switched identities"

Coconuts

Lets do the coconut strut,
Hard shell oh well,
As long as its nice inside,
Lets all dance with pride.

Oh, let's do the coconut strut, lets cheer,
Movements so smooth, it's better than cold beer.
We'll sway to the left, we'll sway to the right,
Our hips gyrating with all our might.

We'll shake our coconuts with style and grace,
Our feet tapping out a lively pace.
We'll twirl and spin, we'll dance and prance,
Feel too old? Just take a chance.

With each step, we'll feel the beat,
Coconuts leading the way, can't be beat.
We'll strut our stuff, and do it right,
All holding a coconut very tight.

So come on,  let's do the coconut strut,
Its an easy dance, open and shut.
So come on all, out of your huts,
And all give praise to COCONUTS!

Toilet Reasoning - Open and Shut

A toilet that doesn't hold water 

      like specious reasoning ~ naught there

From My Bookshelves

Spiritual dragons – the ones that kill
reside and wait impatiently for seeking fingers.
Hobbits eat breakfast mushrooms
in a leather-bound shire.
Small books on overly large religions.
Poets and their random works
all in a row.

The shelves are long but not lengthy
I lack the space for unnecessary reading.
I write now,
I write inside invisible books
they open and shut every day like mouths.
Few read the words that tumble out,
but the news from my bookshelf
is encouraging.

I need to categorize and order,
not alphabetically ranked by authors
or subjects
but by how much I have yet to comprehend
and need to read again.
© Now

My Homies That Don'T Know Me

My homies that don't know me from the outside in
And wherever home is I feel outside in
I feel inside out
Wide open and shut
I keep silent but inside me i am screaming aloud

I keep trying to learn me how to figure me out
Why do they stencil always try to figure me out
Let me sink to the bottom
Then they try to finger me out

Sometimes the world feels scaled down like a figurine house

And I'm a real boy
Or perhaps the houses chew toy
Now I know why they keep swallowing then spitting me out
Yes, I am never about
Yes I am hiding out loud
To my homies that don't know me from the inside out

Anticlimax

I lay down to sleep
with the lovely lilts of rain
and the soft whisper of wind in my ears
At some unearthly hour
wakened up from sleep
by howls and shrieks

I don’t know when the rain and wind
turned into a tumultuous roar
and why I failed to notice
the windows turning on their hinges
and the doors snap open and shut

When I woke up, I saw
the land inundated
trees arm twisted and splintered
hanging limp in lifeless mass
beleaguered by wind's foul game
and the leaves still shedding
drops of tears!


( This happened yesterday night)

Sep.1.2022

A Brian Strand Premiere Choice Poetry Contest

Touch Foot Ball

On Saturday, the L A Rams
Encountered the Monterey Clams
With no and, if, or but
It was open and shut
The Sopranos limped home like lambs!

Flatulent Fannie

Fannie Strumpet is a flatulent floozy
With each wiggle her rump lets out a doozy
She blows out so much gas
Foul vapor from her a$$
It's asphyxiating and makes me woozy

Fannie lets 'em rip without hesitation
When I point a finger in accusation
She points hers back at me
and laughs saying, "Phew Wee!"
I'm tempted to enact strangulation

I threatened to have the woman arrested 
Indecently walking around bare breasted
She farted in my face
Through her panties of lace
I think I was infected and molested

One night Fannie was with a man she'd just met
When she tooted he left, much to her regret
Rectal fumes exploded
He screamed, "You're corroded!"
Her tail expels toxins like a gas jet

Fannie saw a doctor of proctology
She farted without making an apology
She disgusted him so
He said, "Madame, just go.
You're a noxious threat to world ecology!"

I don't fear being assaulted by her smut
She was sued; the case was open and shut
The streets no longer stink
Cuz Fannie's in the clink
For hiding lethal weapons in her butt



October 1, 2021
May the Gas Be With You-Farts Part 2 Contest
Sponsored by Chantelle Anne Cooke

The Mockingbird's Mistake

A mockingbird sits on my windowsill,
Eyeing the shelly beans I am cooking
He snaps open and shut his sturdy bill
So intent is he in his window peeking,
He fails to see the black cat sneaking.


written July 8, 2021

Death Is Open and Shut

death ends things fast
doors slam shut in many minds
empath opens hers

Sweet Hearts

Handmade cards, white, red, and blue.
Made to exchange with our friends.
Some were for Mom and Dad, too.
Hearts were made with ruffled ends,
paper shapes all stuck with glue.

Paper doilies – a great boon –
thin disguise to a rough cut.
Snippets and scraps were all strewn.
Cards folded open and shut.
Fun hours for an afternoon.

Sweet words enclosed within hearts
not rent from stationer’s hand.
A simple poem imparts
Unwavering love’s grandstand.
Innocent, expressive arts.

Each design, solely unique.
Words hand-written from the heart.
A small child’s naïve technique.
Her love poured into each part.
Sealed with a childlike mystique.

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