Scoffs Poems | Examples

The Marching Poseur

Soft marches
spawn bravado
and cavalier soldier
He who scoffs
at distant gunfire
to meet its fury
Untested untried
untempered
his blade of little worth
As conflict preys
on the folly
— of the paper lion

(Dreamsleep: August, 2025)

Singing a Song in Honor of the Wind

Melody of the west wind
Wafts into the courtyard
Tickling the fresh buds of an apple tree
I am enthralled, excited, enthused

Singing commences
A ditty I make up in honor of wind
An appreciative cloud gives me a nod
I feel validated

Oak tree scoffs
He is not as easily won over as wind or cloud
Matters not, I continue singing the wind song
Feeling the excitement of spring

Renewal?

Who would sell that which they do not own?
Who kept quiet that truth not be known?
Who betrayed souls their faith now uncertain?
Who moved devils behind a secretive curtain?
Who empties His houses in the guise of renewal?
Who shattered its victims with lies and betrayal?
Who conveniently had loss of common sense?
Who eluded punishment expecting others to do penance?
Who dismays and dismantles the dwindling flock?
Who empties memories trading reverence for shock?
Who scoffs at laws specified in their own cannon?
Who pays their council with large sums of mammon?
Who has squirreled away substantial resources?
Who deems such is needed to fund other courses?
Who will litigate estates to take from rightful heirs?
Who does all they will yet maintain that they care?

the wish

The wish

The face on the mirror scoffs at me
I’m an illusion and cannot die
Yet, I see him late at night, watching 
“a house on the prairie.” crying 
Sentimental fool
Wishes he was me on a bright day
When the mirror is in the shade

May Wallows in Gloom

May does not know happiness at all.
I leave her sitting there, clueless, angry and small.
I help others up and it makes me happy when I am down, I say.
She scoffs at this stupidity and tells me to get out, go away.

I am depressed, and I want to die she yells, her voice a boom.
I leave her wallowing in her self-imposed cloud of ugly gray gloom.
She is determined to not help anyone, including herself, I think.
If I could force her to do good, it might change her aura to pink.

Lily And Billy Collab

Lilly And Billy

Street cat Billy's spongy scraggly and cool
So, so edgy-sik, he's a grunge-dusky jewel
House cat Lily purrs he's so fine
Billy scoffs just get in line
But he knows deep down he'll gladly play the fool   
                                                              —Robert Gorelick

Fools rush in when Lily the feline purrs
The alluring cat with enticing curves
Yet it’s only Billy
Who sends Lily silly
The one for whom Lily's little heart swerves            
                                                              —Beryl Edmunds

The Sahara Is Another Vast Sea

The Sahara is another vast sea
   Of zero-edge horizons
And remote hours of austerity
   For "sailors" upon caravans

And the Sun beams mercilessly
   And seems cruel to patrons
Until the Wind scoffs haggardly
   And reshapes its art of dunes.

Farewell To Summer - 2023

Fading blossoms drooping low in abeyance
Arouse Summer’s suspicions that now Autumn
Races forward, seeking Summer’s abdication. 
Even as the birds plan their migration south,
Willful Summer scoffs as she stifles the wind,
Eventually losing to the tug of chill air.
Looking at scorched ground, Summer abandons
Last requests to the barren clouds for quenching rains.

Trudging toward tomorrow, Summer remembers she was
Once a grand empress, and vows she shall be again!

She sheds her ragged regal robes and crown;
Uneasy in weight of peasant’s coarse tunic.
Maybe next year when the Sun again comes ‘round,
Maybe next year when Summer defends, just then,
Essence of life will calm and steady her realm.
Restoring hope for her next auspicious reign.

Iowa Girls Basketball Is Serious

In the state of Iowa girls basketball is the biggest sport.
Bigger than golf, football, baseball or any other that you’d sort.
We are basketball players before we settle down, an Amazon wife said.
And sometimes a player afterwards, said her son, Leland Lee Ted.

His mama scoffs at his reply, she beats him at horse after school.
Never letting up a bit, winning is the girls’ basketball creed and rule.
Husband will not play her, he has seen her tough it out since she was ten.
The one thing that she insists on doing is always taking the big win.

Bikini

"All a man really wants, is a girl who looks good in a bikini." - Jack Freestone


A girl is walking at the beach
A man whistles and shouts
“Nice walk!” She ignores
The comment from him
She's walking to the water
“Be careful! You wouldn’t want to
Mess those beautiful legs up!”
He shouts, she scoffs and ignores him again
She’s laying on her towel tanning
“A guy doesn't like a girl with a red ass unless
He's the reason its red” he shouts once again
She looks at him and he laughing
A guy doesn't care if it makes you uncomfortable
If you barely have any clothes on the more
He will shout
She puts her clothes back on
“Stop covering your perfect body!” 
He shouts

Who Invented the Motion Picture Camera

who gets the credit for the lightbulb, Dad?
Dad scoffs, easiest question he has ever had
That is Edison son, Thomas was his first name
Ask me again, and I’ll tell you the same

What about the motion picture camera, who invented it?
Dad is bamboozled now, but determined to not throw a fit.
His wife? He guesses, making his wife smile in her cutest way.
Edison dad! yells the child, who runs out to play.

Nugatory

"Nugatory" my teacher did decry,
As she threw my story up in the sky.
"Why must you write and hand in futile tripe?"
The comment itself, an offal snipe swipe.

At the break, I rushed to the library
To find the word in the dictionary.
There it was found between 'Nugget' and 'Nudge'
Perhaps it was gold dug up, or some fudge?

Then again perhaps it's some kind of soup!
Muggatory with tripe added in scoop!
But the truth was truly most alarming.
All my hopes of praise and good disarming.

For nugatory means futile, stripped bare
Of all adornment, flavor, scent and flare.
Worthless and having no value at all.
Sadly that's what teacher said to appall.

For nugatory robs the moon from night.
Dulls the colors of the sky in daylight.
It scoffs at dreams, dims creativity.
What's left bereft of spontaneity.

So what my teacher wants is same old tripe.
Dished up in plain old nugatory type.
Devoid of colors, bangles and dangles.
The old, old story locked up in mangles.

Who Dares Rouse Leviathan

Who dares rouse Leviathan,
the Giant beneath the heaving deeps?
This world now teams with Ahabs
whose heaping anger never sleeps.
Each one wants to hook its jaw
and each to press its tongue;
to try its rich and fragrant oil
and see it bound and beached and dumb.

Poor soul captains on fragile ships
vainly sharpening the barbless spear.
The Whale scoffs beneath the waves,
rising to teach all wisdom through fear.

Soon the Brute will breach and blow
and send each Pequod down below.

Medicine Woman Guards Her Tribe

Medicine Woman resposes at the top of the summit
surveying her village, protecting her tribe
a brave’s job, her mother scolded her
Medicine Woman scoffs, keeping a sharp eye out

She Does Not Look Back

he lands in a ditch of forlorn
she scoffs and laughs
he feels trashed and dissed
she does not look back
not caring that they used to love each other

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