Optional Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Premium Member Champagne Optional

a scattering of rice
    a few awkward toasts

  waves goodbye
    tin cans trailing
  
  just married sign
    upside down

  short drive to motel
    six, no a/c

  bedsprings creak
    soon fail

  glass shatters

  third marriage
    for both

Premium Member Clothing Optional

Devil sends his advocate to recruit us from the office.
Is this a joke? I ask, thinking it must be.
The advocate comes in with a flourish,
Throwing her red satin cape around with a swish
As she sits daintily on the arm of my boss’s chair.
My boss jumps a few inches. Scared probably.
She is armed with brochures about how nice Hell is.
She has testimonials too. A slew of them.
Probably gotten through torturous sordid ways.
“It is warm all year round,” the brochure says.
“The devil allows all kinds of debauchery,” the testimonial says.
“Marshmallow roasts hourly, and you can have s’mores.”
I am not tempted to sign on the dotted line until…..
“Clothing optional.”
Hmmmmmmm……………..

Premium Member Bible Optional

Donald Trump 
Loves the Bible optional
  Thrice to date hath he
  Celebrated nuptials


Premium Member Growing Up Is Optional

Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional
Choice is ours, but there are quite a few obstacles
A grade two education
Is handy negotiating
A million dollar contract, need more in your arsenal

Optional Titles

how do you feel
lost and alone at the end of your dime
someplace on the road between the here and the now
out of smokes and outa luck
barefaced to the carnival of night
the day passes slowly into the vastness of the past
hungry eyes puddled with traces of regret
for all the places you've been and think you belong
for all the treasures of the past yet to be plundered
and all the sweetness to which your heart has succumb
convinced of the need to find a home
a place to breath easy
you take a few tentative steps to the road
in hopes of finding its easier than it seems
to kickstart your old bones
and write a new tale for you to sing
how do you feel down here at the end of your last dime
finger-licking good or foretastes of gloom
waiting here for the prize you know aint comin'
waiting here for the explanation you aint buyin'
thin and looking a little like a ghost
see you on the other side

Optional

Optional is not an option anymore.
I will roam
and I will writhe.
I will rally, rebuild.
I will pave a road, 
I'll launch a ship.
I'll race a train, I'll run like hell.
I'll suck the marrow from my spine.
I'll hold my head above the moon.
I'll dive in the deep, I'll chase a bullet.
I'll wander out,
I'll slide away.
I'll lead an army and bomb the past.
Declare unrest and start new rule.
Crown a new king, 
I'll carve a new stone.
I'll turn a new leaf and I'll sing a new song.
I'll make a new wish 
And I'll burn a new bush.
I'll write a new page 
And jump in with both feet. 
I'll love a new lover
And befriend whom you hate.
I'll start a campaign.
I'll torch down our home.
Then move heaven and earth one inch to the left.
I'll shake. I'll regroup.
I'll push and I'll prod. 
Reincarnate
Regurgitate. 
I'll weave... I will tide. 
I'll bend, and I'll bob, and I'll steal, 
I WILL TAKE! 
Because optional's not an option...
Anymore. 

Sahn   6/8/14


Optional Perspective

Life is beautiful in the way of motion
Creating a notion of which you want it to be
Whether it a choppy sea or of a slow thrusting ocean
You can decide what you want to see
Terror of wars enter a fighting mans thoughts
Midwifes bear feelings of ill dying babies
Paedophiles stand unhumain before judges at courts
Vets see the injured dogs or those of lethal rabies
Passion within us determines what we see
Life can be beautiful if you just let it be

Optional Life

Money is a matter.
Telling me a Potter.
Child is very expensive,
Posted me a daughter.

When you was a child,
Your mum wasn’t wild,
If she can afford you,
Why are you a hooter?

I work always hard,
But my wife was a guard,
Always looking after me,
She wasn’t a modern cheater.

Social life was very cheap,
But nobody has a loud weep,
Cold was everywhere cold,
I enjoyed only coal heater.

Central heating, electricity and gas,
Heated up one face and two face,
That’s why she has complaint,
Optional life is a meter.

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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