Stagger Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Night Life

I stumble to the wall
with a half-awake gait,
then I fumble and find
the light switch.

It's time to go
for that much-needed pee.
It happens every night
as I wish other things would, too.

Why cannot what I desire
be as inescapable?
Living alone cuts off
the possibilities of things
that once would have been probabilities.
Even inevitabilities.

(18 August 2026)

The Overrated

From a Happening Bar 
Staggered into his car
And after forty miles 
Still rich in The Saved’s Smiles, 
As he foully staggered out…
Against huge hopes of a lout 
Of a crashing incident 
If not a killing accident…   

A character people hyped:
A wrong name on the lists typed;
One needing to stand erect 
Allowed ‘Star who’d direct’; 
Just the magical result 
That denies The Due insult… 

Who has Charles overrated
And gifts exaggerated 
And speed accelerated?

Just A Power over Beer
And maker of lingered leer

Problem With Cultist Emblem

Eagle-Rare is The Union,
All her members’ arms pinion, 
Not with a from-behind arm twist  
But thrills that can dare a long list …

You join her you pray to not leave,
You indiscreetly go ahead to leave,
You never cease to piteously grieve
Or emotive sighs endlessly heave. 

But please, in the open say it not:
Still on her white sheet parades a blot
And lives with a touchable problem
Singularly bought her by her cultist emblem:
A pair of squinted eyes,
Whose owners’ broad smiles are lies;
And teeth that can one stagger
Farther than an Arab’s Dagger …

And Alakara isn’t bothered about it,
Wherefore many think it is her dug pit!


On Hell of a Journalist

Man, I understand,
Many can’t falsehood withstand,
The rationale for it confusing,
And a precious idea start refusing …
But grab, I promise you the calming details;
One should know what a thing entails …

Please, it’s all about a step moving in exaggeration,
To what actually happened, a slight recreation.
Claims that the jabbing finger was a pen knife,
That luckily couldn’t claim your life:
The knife that later attacked you, a dagger,
That offered onlookers a classic stagger!

For your story I shall pay a willing dollar,
Never to adjust a regretting collar.
If for information you should press,
I belong to the Sensational Press.

Dagger

In your bosom concealed, you are a fighter:
Who doesn’t a single matter take lighter;
The closest chap to you making a big mistake,
As you wouldn’t care what it‘d take

Inside your bag, some folk is about to drop dead 
Like some hapless character in novels read:
A murderous slashing of his windpipe
Or a jugular discharging services of the same type.
Soon traced to you, sun handcuffed,
A strong belief you should be in a prison overstaffed;
In others a  polite advice to you by the police
To go and hire a very smart lawyer
Be you Humphrey, Allen or Eunice
Or for that matter Tom Sawyer…

Unless it didn’t land –a dagger
Even bloodless angels would stagger!

Bragger Who Would Stagger

Bragger Who Would Stagger

Total amount of sins was enough to stagger;
About them Trump was boaster and bragger;
Publicly profane;
Hard to explain;
Destined for disaster yet he still did swagger.

Jim Horn


Walking, I Stagger

Walking, I stagger
 Lying down, I sink
 Running, I fall
 In silence, I think
 I think, therefore I ain't
 Always a sinner,
 Never a saint
 Never a winner
 A picture with no paint
 Flat, white, cold and bare
 Point at me standing here
 No expression, no hope
 A poison with no antidote
 Tickle my fancy, please do
 Color me any shade of blue
 Broken and bruised
 Make me your pain
 Walk away from me
 But come back 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.

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