Single Handed Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Roach Motel for Freedom

Julius Caesar hastened a decline in liberty
Roman rights abridged, from a partial democracy.
A leader can come in, and single handed attack
The freedoms people had, not easy to get back.

Germany was a democracy under Weimar
Then Hitler came in, they followed his star
Mussolini dismantled freedoms Italy had
Democracy is easy to lose, and that's sad.

Nicaragua was a democracy, then voted in Ortega
He said no more voting until we reach the planet Vega.
Venezuela voted in a populist red:
Now people shiver when secret police tread.

Turkey was free until Erdogan moved.
He jailed journalists, judges too.
It is like roach motel, no doubt.
You can check in to dictatorship, but you can't check out.

Some leaders won just enough of the vote
Some took a while to don the dictator coat.
But freedom is apparently not immune 
to a strong leader sweeping it off with a broom.

Churchill was on Democracy's side
But said it's the worst system except for all that were tried.
We have trillions in debt, as far as the eye can see
And immigrants who don't all accept liberty.

So there's pressure to enter Roach Motel
Can we avoid it?   Too early to tell.

Premium Member Ad - Annual Destruction

When in December I make resolutions
    I fixate upon vows unkept

  Single-handed I topple the Theory of Evolution
    For every year I come up inept

Solitude

Solitude is my preferred state
Nothing pleases me
Like my own company
I’m so happy being on my own
I’m never lonely 
Just because I’m alone.

I got here single-handed 
And that’s how I plan to stay
If you can’t understand it
Then you’d best be on your way.

Don’t try to phone me
I don’t have a phone
No, I’m not lonely, 
Just because I’m alone.

The people I get on with best
Are me, myself and I.
I can’t find time for all the rest
No matter how I try

If you think it’s tough 
My being on my own
I’m well enough
So leave well enough alone.

Don’t try to own me
I just won’t be owned
And don’t think I’m lonely
Just because I’m alone

Don’t think me rude.
And don’t get irate
It’s just that solitude
Is my preferred state


Incidental Catch

Incidental Catch 
‘The catch of non-fish species’

At the town’s cusp, terraced homes blaze out.
The mill and the green jetty wane to abandoned garages.
Kept, like trophies, by the type of men who have love affairs
with themselves. I was met by an agricultural runoff -
where land intersects water, sky and rock.

Your image waded flat over the water that had slowed
to a few passive ripples. Your books snagged
under your paperback wrists, dead as granite.
In my single-handed grip, I cast my hook
over the shallow water’s shelf and reeled you in with the Trout.

I made sure that you’d see me. On my heels in mud
I shrank myself. Your tired old books still viced between your fingers.
I watched you squirm, thrashing the water to a paste.
And this is my lover I said to the briny tapestry of the sea,
as I bagged you for tea.

She

They say she is irresistible
And she is too quick sometimes 
Or she is too chaotic sometimes.

She says I am what I am
She is the one who stands against all odds
And proves herself unique and confident in every role.
She is the one breaking silos of society and bends them like hard rods.
She fits herself in every role and single handed can manage the family as whole.
She may be a caring daughter
A lovely sister 
A wonderful wife
A perseverant and nurturing mother
A poised and confident working woman
A generous listener.
She is the one who embraces multiple changes in her life like a flowing river.
All say that the whole world is a family. .
For a lady, her family is her whole world.

She can be extremely polite yet maintaining her esteem at the same time
She is the source of light flaming itself to spread brightness and love…

Happy women’s day to all ladies.

Sonnet

Sonnet 

Don't grieve for me when I am dead
For I’m still here I’m by your side.
I am so close that every tear you shed
Touches and torments me though you think me gone.

Give word that I am the star, shining so positive,
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
Don't grieve for me, from discomfort I'm free.
My caring arms will hold you, when we meet again.

Don’t stand at my grave and cry,
Perhaps my time seems all to brief;
For this voyage we all must take, and each must go single-handed.

Let your affection even with my being decay.
Don't lengthen your pain with undue grief.
I've now found peace at the end of period.

By Seth Yuhi Musinga


Take the Blame

Take the blame and give them smiles,
Get into deep by breaking each worldly tiles;
Get down into your knees,
To let your closer ones standing with cheeees;
Repeat your own mistakes,
So they can trigger their angry face;
Pissed off with this world and humanity,
Shut up your mouth who grace vulgarity;
They don't count and they don't mean your tears,
They want to see you sad for years and years;
No need of any companion to stand by my side,
I can single handed tackle this world wide.

Premium Member Proud of My Wee Friend

Had this super duper dream last night
Took on ten men single handed, oh what a fight
Came away almost unscathed
'Cept my manhood got defaced
Was proud of my wee friend, what a horrible sight


© Jack Ellison 2015

Premium Member Cowboy: Pocomoto

Pocomoto was a cowboy who inspired dreams galore
With adventures and heroics that lit up my days of yore.
He survived the cruel killing of a ravaged wagon train
Was adopted by ‘old-timers’; lived in camps across the plain.
He rode fast across the prairie pushing forward on his steed;
Bronco Buster, Buff’lo Hunter, helped the Rangers when in need.
Pocomoto the Li’l Fella went in search of desert gold
Single-handed fought the bandits, constant evil, heat and cold.
Independence, resolution were the traits that showed his best,
Self-reliant, conquered hardships in the wild and famous West.
There are plenty years behind me but I often tend to find
Pocomoto’s recollection in the corners of my mind.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6th May 2014
Contest: Howdy Pard
Sponsor: Shadow Hamilton
Placing: 2nd

Lozen the Woman Warrior

With nimble-fingers braids the midnighter mare                                                        killing a long horn steer single-handed with bladed care                                                     Chief Victorio's well chosen was called his right hand                                                        a single woman yet revered fought strong as man                                                             Of enemies and friends as cunning she wore the boast                                                     as a Brave the woman warrior rode braver than most                                                        not frozen by fear of the battle braving regaining lost ammo                                              with her arms outstretched a chant a seer as with Geronimo                                    Circling with power where the enemy was and how many told                                         Lozen was a shield for her people as the woman warrior rode

Simple Command

lost love is simply that only because both parties are no longer on the same page... yet if one is fighting the fires of confusion single handed... its like their union ...she or he has commanded... love is colorful flame that changes as the intensity of the two... some say its pink others say its blue...

Premium Member Rotation of the Earth

I read somewhere
That the world turns
Right on a dime
And the seas move
Upwards and downwards
Through the moon's power
With its great gravity
And single handed might
Slumber of the night
Prosperous is its desires
To sleep onwards throughout
Lifting tiredness away
Around we go
Living by night and day
Caring not its glory
Weighing not its humbleness
Let time persist to say
Live free each and every day
And let only the sun and the moon
Dictate the value of your life

Russell Sivey

Legacies of October

Legacies of October

Pinstripe domination 
Out of nowhere perfection
Pittsburgh’s unexpected celebration
The great Dodger rotation
Gibby’s game 1 animation
69 defies explanation
Green and gold covered the nation
The queen city was king during the second Nixon administration
Reggie’s single-handed ruination
Bean town’s 86 devastation
The heroic apparition
Atlanta’s autumn frustration
An eight decade delayed coronation

Down the Memory Lane

Rambling down the memory lane
I remember the day 
When you made your first espy
and made me believe 
you are the one for me
your care and tutelage 
sheathed me from umpteen stings
and got me over the hot springs.

I even cherish the moment 
Whilst walking on the street
when lips moved on, in their motion
leaving others shocked
and looking for someone beside me
when everyone deduced me alone
the truth was shared between you and me.

I still mesmerise the time 
when all my dreams crushed
and hopes swayed away
still I smiled to mark the nerve
and the darkening night 
augmented the pace of tears 
and that of your wiping feat too.

I could enchant the aura
and memorize the shadowy icon 
whom you were overly green eyed
cause still being clandenstine.

And today again 
while walking on the same lanes
I'm lost in the cloud 
when I turned around
to look for the one
chatting, giggling, sharing, glowering,
walking together all these years 
appears had vanished.

Why today I'm down with the feeling
It was just a false coloring 
all the way I was single handed 
or I had lost someone very dear
and turned out to be a lonely soul again.

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