My fight with the pencil sharpener was unceremonious and desperate
And afterwards my hands smelt like metal
Torn skin stuck to my sheets
And my pyjamas burned through
I couldn’t get the plasters off the next morning
And my soul heaved with shame
I told you it was a one time thing but by the time I told you that I’d already done it twice
And I planned on it happening again
We spent 15 years together and,
All I have is this stupid tattoo
Wrecking balm can’t remove it
'Cause you inked me thoroughly
We didn’t know it’d go there
Capturing magic out of thin air
I was trouble riding across the border
You hid me away in short order
Intoxicated with the future
We charged out of the past
You abruptly ended things with a cold stare
Walking off without a care
I gave my blood, sweat and tears
Just to walk away like nothing happened
They say time heals —
But I still have is this stupid tattoo
We spent 15 years together
You can’t burn this thing off
Deep dark hues tell our story
With my soul as your canvas
You’re permanently etched
You’re forever, you’re eternal
Growth from a wreck
Artistry from a speck
Unceremonious ending
Heart wrenching
Memories drenching
Some goodbyes are uneven & forever…unfinished
Yet all I have is this stupid tattoo
Do you know what it’s like
To be required no more,
To be put out to grass,
To be kicked out the door,
To know your work’s ended,
No more will be done,
To be slung on the tip,
Pushed aside by the young,
To be pensioned off
In an unceremonious way,
To know you’ve had yours,
Every dog has its day,
To have an appetite for work,
But be left to hunger,
To be replaced by someone
Less able but younger,
To be told you’re too old,
When you feel in your prime,
To be sent on your bike,
Before it’s your time,
To be all washed up
And flushed down the drain,
To have no physical wounds,
But still be in pain,
To feel your age,
Find you’re no Peter Pan,
To see your life going
No longer to plan,
To recall when you felt rich,
But now you feel poor,
To hear your heart slowly pumping,
Alas’ it races no more,
To experience an emptiness
That nothing will fill,
To have no medical symptoms,
But still feel ill,
To be out of control
Of your own destiny,
To be constantly asking
Why me ... why me?
In the shadow of the Second World War,
Fuehrer wanted to augment maritime power
and control the waters of the northern oceans.
In the North Sea he proudly set sail Bismarck,
the largest German battleship ever built.
On maiden voyage off the coast of Scandinavia
she got fiercely engaged with the Royal Navy,
heavily damaged, survived the first battle
in the fateful strait of Denmark,
but was totally crippled by later air attack.
She was scuttled by the German navy,
bringing her brief life to an unceremonious end,
as she committed suicide so to say, and sank
to save herself from further ignominy.
November 6, 2021
Contest : A Noteworthy Ship
Sponsor : Robert James Liguori
Ultra-conservative
undertaker umpires
upperclassmen unit;
Unique undergrads used
Unceremonious
Underhanded unions--
Uncooperative!
THIRD PLACE WINNER
Written April 30, 2021
for "Pleiades 'U' Contest"
sponsored by Kim Merryman
An unceremonious finale
Where humbled, clean beginnings
Awaken as I continue my sleepwalk
Through it all
Evidence collected
Self-worth resurrected
Dusty pasts remain infected
Careful to traverse
The spotty crumbles
Jagged, pure and uninvited
Failures in their attempts
To lead me astray
Modest sustenance in a world
Vacant of altruism
Brimming with exchanges
Involving humanity's present value
And all that is left
And all that I care to search for
Remains dormant
Yet secured
Deep inside chasms
Desperate for excavation.
(10/11/06)
Luscious night overseen by crescent moon
Playful ludic breeze toys with miles of sand
A zillion stars out in full bloom this June
'Twas yesteryear nervous you took my hand
The charming way you were so chivalrous
Stories shared with innocent childlike heart
Time vanished most unceremonious
Our souls melding as one right from the start
Looking at remembrances endearing
Years generous to us in every way
All hint of skepticism disappearing
Never be another come judgment day
Two souls inexplicably attracted
Entwining hearts forever connected
AP: 3rd place 2020
‘Twas a mellow evening overseen by a crescent moon
A ludic breeze playfully lurking above miles of glittery sand
A zillion stars out in full bloom commemorating a late June
I remember as if yesterday how you nervously touched my hand
In an awkwardly charming way you were so chivalrous
I loved the stories you shared with a childlike innocent heart
Time evaporated casual and content in a way most unceremonious
Our souls affectionately melding as one right from the start
Looking back now makes remembrances so endearing
Years have been most generous to you and I in every way
From that tense genesis every hint of skepticism disappearing
We’ve grown closer and couldn’t imagine another now to judgment day
Two compatible souls inexplicably attracted
Intertwining hearts forever connected
**PoetrySoup definition of a SONNET does not say anything about # syllables per line - giving the impression that varied # of syllables per line would be acceptable**
AP: 2nd place, Honorable Mention 2020
Submitted for contest A FIRST DATE SONNET sponsored by BRENDA CHIRI - January 20, 2018 - RANKED 1ST
unabashed anticipation
unblemished appreciation
unbridled exhilaration
uncensored imagination
unceremonious recreation
unchartered exploration
uncomplicated communication
unconfined aspiration
undreamt creation
unfading veneration
unfathomable exaltation
uninhibited expectation
unleashed fascination
unlimited inspiration
unprecedented celebration
unrehearsed reconciliation
unscheduled relaxation
unsolicited cooperation
unsurpassed vacation
unswaying determination
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Submitted on January 4, 2018 for contest NEW YEAR_RHYME sponsored by JANICE CANERDY - RANKED 3RD
I am a man
I am the bearer of our name
I am in part the maker of my fam
I lead by behaviour and stature
I lead with and not by fame
I am a man
Not by my stance to a toilet
Not to the raising of my hand
I am not culturally inclined
Not by weight of adultery
Nor mistreatment of an other
I am not a man by group, sect or activity
I am a man
by my independence
By confidence
By honesty
Respect and loyalty
I model my father in good or bad stead
I am a man
As I do not need to raise my voice
As I margin a future
Am forgiven in moments unceremonious
I forgive not for Ego
Only in being a hero
Am away from childish activity
Transition to being thee
I listen to both women and girls
Mannerisms
I am both gentle and hard
Rough and clean
Kind and mean
I am me, myself, a family
Brother, protector and a human being
I am a man.
Here comes the silence.
Shoving its way through the crowd to greet me.
Like a tsunami would greet a stony cliff.
What an impetuous, impertinent lull...
Settling itself on my head like a heavy blanket.
Suffocating my ears.
Should I scream?
I should scream.
But there's no sound.
Just unceremonious reverie.
Just silence.
That raucous, deafening silence.
Until the world turns.
Negligibly.
A motion indiscernible.
Except for the sound it makes.
Cool breezy swirl
Pregnant with rain;
Abrupt metaphor
Man walking dog
Faces so alike;
Harmonic motion
News flash
Warring fractions;
Lose-lose situation
Grass verge flowers
Unceremonious strands;
Beauty unnoticed
Old rubber tree
Nature's monument;
Wears a regal countenance
Sky of grey-black
Random lightning flash;
Nature re-decorating
Feline chorus
Evening entertainment;
Midnight madness
Easy breezy
Zephyrs swirl and dance;
Cold evening gathers
Between sad and bad
Choose to be glad;
Weather grim change
Leon Enriquez
14 August 2014
Singapore
Today I practiced
tai-chi in front of a mirror
with a dozen beginners my age.
I didn't apologize
as I thought I might.
Strange
to pick out the
reflexively familiar.
Icon I,
seen from the outside.
Some of us
would have commanded
with angry eyes
if rumples were smoothed
but now we listen.
They lined up like this
in many old photographs of
unsymmetric faces
unceremonious bodies,
dignities clinginging to fact.
A cloud without a sun
So dim, it sets the heart to burn
Across the wild redemption is heard
Awakening the unknown to be bared.
All around the drums of revolution is heard
Flashes and grey smear the end.
The rhythm on a flat, tempo rising in every note
Like a drum on a strut crescendo climaxing as it wrote.
In the greens,
Some total obiesance, others undecided swaying and bowing.
For the crawlers,
Roosting was early, unceremonious, devoid of squacking and flapping.
As the rumbling and tumbling heated
The scurrying and scrambling ended.
Roofs thumping, pallets sated buckets filled
Puddles forming, earth elated streams tilled.
Gluggamous-fluggamous
Grandfather Thaddeus
went to the grocery store
bought him a lime
Home with tequila and
salt coated shot glass he
unceremonious
lost track of time.
Spitimy-bitimy
Grandma Penelope
done with her work early
home she did race.
One glance at Grandfather
mega-monstrosity
Grandma retreated to
Clyde's warm embrace
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
inspired by John Wulf's McWhirtle
Sub Categories
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.