Unlovely Poems | Examples

Grace

Grace defined to be
God’s love to the unlovely
Light that we may see

Fishin’ for Time

In the pure bright wake, I went fishing’ for calm and all I caught was tumblin’ time. 
The hours were soppin’wet with pond scum and the seconds kept getting’ away as soon as I thought I had them hooked. 
The minutes peered up at me from the crepuscular waters and told a lie. “Be patient, those seconds can’t escape forever! You can get them, we just know it!”
They spoke with bubbles in their mouths, then those minutes were gone. 
I struggled with my fishin’ pole, the line hopelessly tangled with some phantasmic bugbear, my nightmares come alive! Probably a log, though. 
The hours in my bucket (catch of the day!) pulled me from my musing with weepin’ and howlin’, it was all so unlovely. What were they cryin’ about?
“Our beloved minutes! Precious seconds! We are in ruin without them, can’t exist without them,” the poor things whimpered. 
I kicked the bucket over and the dark water inside spilled the trapped hours onto the dock and over the edge. Sploosh! Plop! 
The hours proclaimed a love that is by far the only great love there is. Flawless. Desperate. Irrevocable. This paramour is unheard of! I heard the whispers on the bubbles.

Perceptions

Judgments based on one's perception.
Others are a mirror of one's self
Reflections in the mirror are captured by one's thoughts

I am lovely
I am unlovely

The World is Glorious
The World is miserable

The sky is blue
The sky is grey

Earth is transitioning
Earth is stagnant

The mirror reflects empowerment
The mirror reflects powerlessness

What you perceive 
is what you believe

An image of your world is beliefs
Change your beliefs
Change your world

new bamboo tases like a tennis shoe

Panda took a bite of the new bamboo
It was fresh and green, but there was a goo
What kind of crud is this? He asked sky of blue
Sky laughed at his consternation, wouldn’t you?

“This new bamboo is as tasty as a tennis shoe!”
He was joined by two cousins, Little Lee and Lu.
They crunched down onto the new green bamboo
This tastes horribly gummy like wallpaper glue!

Hey! Come here! They yelled to Aunt Booby Boo.
She ran right over and said “quit kidding, you!”
Why are you eating the prop put out here by Sue?
Tearing it apart, and eating out the glue?

This irritated Panda, Little Lee and unlovely Lu.
They growled and groused the entire day through.
How did we not see it was plastic? Asked Lu from the dew.
They had no answers, the other cousins, two.

Once Again

Once again bewitched I be
And why?  I do not know.
Her eyes alone enchant not me
Nor do they Love’s seeds sow.

‘Twas not her hair that did me in
(‘Though not unlovely it).
Her touch did not my fool heart win,
Not a smile this fire lit.

Something more intangible,
Something more divine,
Apparent yet invisible
Secures attentions mine.

A word?  A phrase?  A furtive glance?
Her perfume in the air?
What sets my stricken heart to dance?
What draws me to Love’s lair?

No matter what the implement
That did so shackle me,
My freedom’s key is to a woman sent
(In this surprise none be).

Blissful torments! Anguished joys!
Old friends, I welcome ye.
Watch how she, unknowing, toys
With my captivity.

The Great Deceiver

You say that I'm vile from my past, putrid crimes,
and that I'll never change, forever bound to pastimes.

You say that I'm ugly when I look in the mirror,
that people would be pleased if I'd just disappear.

You say I'm unlovely, not worthy to be known,
unable to receive the great grace I've been shown.

My joy has been robbed, and you are the thief,
The Great Deceiver, causing fear and grief.

Faith comes in a gentle whisper, but lies will shout.
Into the all-consuming fire, I cast each doubt.

By the power of the cross, the source of all love,
my sins are washed whiter than the purest dove.

Not by my merit; worthy by impartation,
I can begin again, renewed by salvation.


1-16-2023
Fear Is A Liar Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Sotto Poet

November Letter

A snow-filled world
   is a bowl just so wide
   with an intimate, friendly
   feeling inside.
Earth's lonesome toil
   was the dark yesterday;
   soon it will stain
   crystal carpet to grey.
But in world lately born,
   they lock arms and shout
   where the boot tracks meet
   when the path's shoveled out.
Quick-frozen blossoms
   sprout from hellos
   and flower from fellow
   explorers of snows.
A bouquet of echoes
   to exile has come
   in a sealed packet pocked
   by a wet woolen thumb.
Unlovely dear blot,
   it remembers the thrill
   of a streak down the slide
   of a snow-covered hill,
The trailing fine thread 
   of skates spinning by,
   a braided ski path
   binding valley to sky. 
Reach out a greeting
   with frost-reddened hand;
   sun-burned fingers
   trace in dry white sand.

Perfect Imperfect

Framed blemish.
Heavy as a tumor.
Solid as surrender.
Dig into epidermis.
Uproot the moment.
Unclean kernel.

Hard, cold reflection.
Show me pretty.
Clogged pores.
Yellow teeth.
Rheumy eyes.
Ugly is as ugly does.

Smile at the mirror. 
Try to forget.
This is you. 
Forever unlovely.
Look at what you did.
Children are so cruel.

Rose scented perfume.
Disguise the stench.
Excrete from every orifice.
Sweat soaked lace.
Urine stained ribbons.
Paint and purify the meat.

Shave the head.
Smear on foundation.
Sever the lips.
Dust with powder.
Extract the teeth.
Cauterize with lipstick.

Amputate the feet.
Brush on eye shadow.
Saw through hip joints.
Smudge on blush.
Open up the abdomen.
Suture with mascara.

Remade.
Smiling through distortion.
Deny the trauma.
Repair the shell.
Convincingly Beautiful.
Improbably clean.

When Its Ugly

Is it possible.........
when you cry, it was advanced to ugly
when you try, it was sooner doubly
when you lie, it was earlier abruptly
when you deny, it was ahead of time too ugly.

Is it possible............
when you smile, it will be still ugly
when you style, it will be once again roughly
when you hostile, it will be of old unlovely
When you are merry, it will be not enough to bury the cherry
when you compile, it will be long ago still ugly

Is it possible...........
when you versatile, it is already ugly
when you are bright, it is not polite
when you are ready, it is thus far unsteady
when you are already it is by now not heavy
When you hereby, it is already ugly

IS IT POSSIBLE..........
THAT ALL PREVIOUSLY DOWN THE MEMORY LANE
IS STILL UGLY ?

Endless Depression

Battered and bruised 
Yearning to be unbroken
Piece by piece, my boundless heart now collateral 
As I slowly realize this hell has become eternal
Time after time I overlooked your flaws
The inevitable came, endless flaws were all you saw
My soul - everlasting, torched, unlovely
The infinite demons scream they're a part of me
So fly away, boundless one, limitless and pure
It'll be easy to forget me
It'll be best for you, I'm sure

A Voice of My Own

For years it had flown through dim canyons,
hollows where the mute sheltered in echoing caves.

Poems shifted loose and gearless.
Words darted for cover as if caught 
in an empty bell tower.
On tongue-chilled days it would croon inarticulately
as it sang beneath jawbone rafters.

Then one drunken night I felt it clearing its windpipes,
coaching a squeaky organ into yawps of utterance.
I can see it now, a raw unlovely thing,
a creature hammered through gurgling fissures,
grown stark with a transpiring clarity.

I would mislay it like a lost penny, 
go crazy to find its untrod trail again, 
then it would return like a tramp begging at my door.
I hear it knocking now – a homeless angel 
eager to shed the next paltry revelation
in a foundling language.
No longer is it a chance sighting,
no longer a luminous flutter on dark walls;
it is red of lip,
a painted vowel in my unbolted mouth.

A mouth that now divulges,
and sometimes in a dull turning year
may say something worth transcribing
for the ears of other madmen.

Unlovely

UNLOVELY

unlovely, even ugly —
looks like a brown hand is sculpted to side of his face.
i admit it, had to say a prayer.

yet, his voice was the same, as any other.
i had to rely on mind over matter.

this dear soul will remain with me;
so afraid of mankind that differs from us.

yet he was heaven sent, i know this
and i’m blessed, that today

he asked for my help, and i stayed
by his side attentively.

God bless the unlovely;
one day, i shall meet this man in paradise,

with the face of a beautiful man
and i’ll cry. . .

i know i will.

8/8/2019

Excuses, Excuses

I have my own truths
I'm sure you have yours too,
sparkling gems of experience
that no one else will ever believe.
I remember the first time you left me
deep in Mother Earth's womb,
I awoke and you were gone,
It was supposed to be me.
Did God put his foot down
and change everything..
Pops use to tell me
that I was good for nothing,
I believed him.
and then he wanted me to reach
for the stars, soothe his worried mind,
expected me to feel loved,
expected me to show love
but I never learned how.
and now, even after all these years
I'm still haunted by his voice
Good for nothing.
So why do guys expect me to know
what I have never known.
What did I ask for
that was simply too much?

But take a look at yourself
because I am not the only one
who was left feeling unlovely.
Unlovely flowers wither
and drop from the stem.
Only plastic flowers please them.
I don't really believe that
but I need an excuse
for being me.

In the End

They were the ones who taught me to be loving and kind,
They were the ones who who showed me most in this life,
They never complained or retaliated, their intentions were good,
They took the time to listen when I felt misunderstood,
I did not have much materialistically to give, but the little meant much more,
My heart, the hours of conversations, some candy, and doing chores,
You taught the most important thing, to always give my heart,
That time is more important than things, that is always where you start,
Towards the end you asked me over and over what do you want, anything,,,it's yours,
I said I want nothing but the both of you as I cried n scrubbed the floors,
Now that your gone, the pain is deep, but what you gave me was the most beautiful to see,
That all these things come n go, but love will never leave,
And all the times I loved the unlovely, I always thought of you,
That in the end love matters the most, it's the only thing that's true...

Wimpole Street, Part 1 of 7

(Wimpole Street, in the West End of London,
has been the scene of many interesting events,
from the elopement of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
to The Beatles composing "Help!")

The Long, Unlovely Street

It’s such a straight and long, unlovely street,
not quite the retail zone, not quite the mouth
of Regent’s Park.  It plumbs a line north-south,
where Mayfair and more middling London meet.

Come walk with me on Wimpole, feast your eye
on blue ceramic plaques, as thick as leaves
that strew the brooks so loved by Freddie Treves,
where tall town houses shoulder out the sky!
	
Elopements, easements, songs of yesterday,
bereavements, human elephants and more:
we’ll see enchantment pour from every door, 
and find a little help along the way.

Where legal precedent meets Mersey Beat,
come tramp the straight and long, unlovely street.

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