Reprisals Poems | Examples

To Be as a Child

It’s more natural to be as a child
untouched by vices and greed of the world.
to wonder at ladybugs and dragonflies;
to swirl like a butterfly with wings unfurled.

To make up adventures while playing in woods;
to search for swift tadpoles while wading in streams,
jump over puddles or tumble in snow,
and proclaim with no guile implausible dreams.

How freeing to feel like an innocent child.
No preconceived notions clouding our mind
or fear of reprisals for things we might say
since to hate and racism we would be blind.

Why must growing old stifle our laughter?
We should model great kindness as we grow.
Can you imagine how great our world would be
if more like a child, we let our love flow?

A King’s Ransom

What is the gift in your life
Is it your husband or wife
Is it your children, your lover, your pet
The notion of someone you haven’t met yet 

Is it the door that you shut on the havoc
The sanctity of your four walls
Relaxing with something with lemon and ice
The chatter when family calls 

What is the essence of life
Is it the joy or the strife 
Is it the gift of another new day
Is it the moonlight that wipes it away

Is it the senses that most take for granted
Til veils are pulled over your eyes
The joy of the breath that means you escaped death
And you realise your life is a prize 

What is the price of a life
When it dwells on the edge of a knife
Is it dollars or cents as it sits on the fence
Before it stands firm or repents

Is it a penny ignored by the many
A glint to the partially blind
When shots overhead leave passers-by dead 
As I kneel to see what I may find

So what is the value of life
When gangland reprisals are rife 
And witnesses number not many
But my life was saved by a penny

So is this the value of life
Not a bargain store bear nor a Steiff
A penny: A low value find
But a glint to the partially blind

Israel Vs Hamas

Could conditions terribly sad
Lead captives to do something bad
When a sheriff not cool
Won’t let compassion rule  
Do lifers in prison go mad?

Did structure that forms Gaza’s pen
Encourage the Hamas gunmen
And with vengeance hot
Will Israel’s king-sized swat  
Hurt civilians at risk again?

Do dollars the contractors reap 
For the deadly weapons not cheap
Make reprisals cease 
Or bring lasting peace
After Gaza ends in a heap?

Author's note: If a civilian dies as a result of a bomb dropped from a plane or one dies after being shot by a deranged soldier, is the outcome any different? While a huge opportunity exists for talking right now, will politicians just scramble to satisfy constituent anger? During an interview, the Israeli father of a kidnapped daughter pleaded for dialogue rather than more violence. Is empathy for this father and daughter possible?

Women In the Cloth Robed Wall

How many lies have you extolled

How many commandments have you broken

How many futures have you stole

How many people have you made to suffer

How many pennies have you pinched

In order to cast wishes down a well

How much untold damage have you inflicted

And worst most criminal of all

You still are unrepentant

And actually believe and think

You are the good guy

Well hopefully one day you 
to as well will eventually meet 
your maker

And unless he is the devil incarnate
him very self

You should surely be in for 

A hell of a lot of rude reprisals 

And untold unpleasant surprises

Essay On Humanity

To be more complete
and closer to humanity
what the Lord wants....!
First I need a woman
who loves me, even if she is not a muse!
A cause I defend
with grace and honor, but that
does not enslave my conscience...
I need a certain mood
to confront
bitter situations...
have a caring way
to sensibly love!
I need to be strong at the same time
to receive reprisals...
I need security
truth, even in adversity
of lie...
I need to be calm and confident
to understand the sufferings of others...
I need to carry
a well of faith in the soul...
So I'll be so human
as Lord wants... !

Troublesome Kid

He was a troublesome kid,
Who punched the others and hid
If this wasn't safe, off slid
To be of reprisals rid...

Venturesome troublesome kid,
Who pot distances from lid
And could 12:00 pm from Mid;
A Life of the Twisty Grid
A street wise worldly - wise kid,
Who torched things and asked "who did?"
Nigeria's Grid of A kid?.

Pride of Place

The movers wheeled the piano in the apartment 
my tutors revealed plateaus climbed as an artist 
hours flying pages turned black and white keys charted 
scoured trying ages I played packed plight I started 
recitals, concert halls, from practicing hardest 
reprisals, my art calls, the piano sits modest 
In my twilight years I teach children to harvest 
the wild bright light nears, to each the piano harnessed

Deep Scars Remain

Reprisals are sharp thorns from stabbing tongues
   causing deep wounds that may never heal.
Regrets are sown in the seams of a guilty mind
   where no salve can reach, and scars remain.



November 16, 2021  ~  Liberum Divisa 8 Contest
Taken from the poem: Reprisal or Regret ~ 2016
Contest Sponsored by Gregory Richard Barden

A Not So Lovely Light

There is something special about the way 
the early morning light is drizzled across the park.  
A yawning of softness lingers in the air. 
Better pictures are stolen before the light fully awakens;  
before it takes notice of our gazing at its nakedness.  
It’s only after lunch, in the middle of the day, when it stiffens 
into sharp knives stabbing at trees and buildings 
while it skids and bounces off the river, bursting pupils 
with the pain of its reprisals, darting in every direction 
looking for escape as though something were chasing it, 
perhaps clouds, or night, or tourists’ cameras.  
The drowsiness of evening brings it to a calm. 
Surrendering itself to lovemaking with tender strokes 
and warm caresses before it takes its leave; 
A sailor briefly home, then back to sea.  
It loves and leaves us as a brute 
while we as harlots cling; 
and then we mourn our loss.

Modeling

Sculptor finger rakes
Creamy hands clone clay Egos
Warehouse reprisals

Love

Love isn't conditional
It's not what you yearn
Love's only given
It's not based on return

Love doesn't fear
Reprisals or shame
It's not on condition
You're loved back the same

Love knows no bounds
Let it fly, enjoy
Regardless of whether
You get the girl or boy

Love and let go
Be proud you can be
Loving and giving
Absolutely

Windpipe Malignancy

They love to puff the beryl nicotine

Incendiary lungs
sucking down the cancerous green

Hard drag queens,
dressed to mass extinct kill,
inhale poisonous mushroom dreams

Napalm verbal smoke:
fungi promises coming out of plastic windpipes
Pinocchio nose choke
pollute the global atmosphere with mint gripes

Cigar truth snubbed in a submarine ashtray
New Cuban missile crisis
put cerulean code Leviathan in play
Naval equatorial smoke circles ...
Ring of Fire raze reprisals ends a Green Day

Negotiated denials has got a jade glow
As the wizened warlords
sell refugee passes — 
Microchip markers ... gamma emerald

Dragging chain smoking kings,
boast ballast policies of reptilian oppression
Puff fork tongues pack a blowtorch sting

Black-hearted lungs
exhaling cold malignant scorch gangrene

Dirge windpipes hate the cure love brings

Self-Dissection

Self-dissection
By Stina lu 

Stab yourself with a sharp dagger 
Fresh blood splashing
No one stops you
There’s no piercing scream
No one scolds you 
There's no worry about curses and reprisals

To air your pure heart in the sunlight
Wipe gently the humble soul
To hold your guts high up in the sky
Let the moon and the sun penetrate and judge.

Stop the bee humming in your head
Place reason on the left brain
and passion on the right side. 
They don’t owe each other.

Dust covered thick in your lung
which should be peeled layer by layer.
Make your breath smooth again
Every alveoli feels fresh

After all this labor
Clean the wound and suture it 
Time will erase it 
A new lease on life
A reborn phoenix arises from the ash

Reprisal Or Regret

Reprisal or regret - both are meant to punish
Reprisal slaps the hand; regret lingers in the heart
Competitors of the fiercest kind,
Like weeds sown in among the wheat,
both sprout in the same field,
but only one of them wins out.

Reprisals are sharp thorns from stabbing tongues
causing deep wounds that may never heal.
Regrets are sown in the seams of a guilty mind
Where no salve can reach, and scars remain.

Regret, why do you thirst so hard after me?
Be gone to slake your enmity elsewhere
on some other unsuspecting prey.
You've tempted me to give in many times,
but not yet have I succumbed to your wiles.

I've paid the price reprisal asked,
I will continue to let his words condemn me.
But I shall live without one iota of regret
You'll hear no "What ifs" in my plaintive voice.
Feast upon carrion until you've had your fill.
My back is turned to your endless malevolence
You won't be singing songs of remorse for me.

Lost In Thought

Lost in thought thinking of me
Lost in thought thinking of you
Lost in thought thinking of my kind
Lost in thought thinking of the world

The world is in chaos
Africa the nearest is forever in upheaval
Coup's are the daily breakfast news
Killings are the order of the day

Babies,children,women,men are maimed
The purpose is to disfunction
No reprisals from them
But they are and will be
Current and future workforce of the country
They had to be future leaders of the country
But now are nursing shattered dreams and futures

Who gave you the right to destroy
Who gave you the right to take life
Who are you to decide on fate
Who are you to kill
Life is not manufactured
Life is precious

God gave you life so much as everybody
He wanted you to be a good child
He wanted you to be well  behaved
He wanted you to kneel down and praise him

• Short Reprisals Poems
• Famous Reprisals Poems
• Best Reprisals Poems
• Read Reprisals Poems
• Long Reprisals Poems
• Reprisals Quotes