Poetry is one of the oldest forms of showing tribute to someone’s achievements, struggles and contributions to a community. Even to this day people still write poetry to commemorate their peers’ achievements and personality.

Retirement is no different, but not everyone is a natural poet. However, there are plenty of free retirement poems online to work with and use as examples. Although you should never actually use any of these retirement poems in their original state, they can be used as a basis to write a good and funny retirement poem.

The website http://poemhunter.com has a whole host of funny retirement poems to use. Be warned: some of them have a little risqué element to them, but since you’re likely wanting a funny retirement poem, some risk can be safely allowed; using discretion of course. There are plenty of good poems to be found on this site, and you can use them for inspiration to write your own works.

Here's a place to find the Top 10 Retirement Jokes http://www.lovetoknow.com/top10/retirement-jokes.html

Another good website, especially for teacher retirement poems, is http://poemsource.com. Teachers are some of the most deserving professionals – some after having devoted nearly four decades to the public education system, they deserve every bit of praise and recognition they can get.

Also, you can find poems dedicated to other occupations at this same site. One of the best ways to write a poem for a teacher is to put it in sonnet form. It’s made even more effective if said teacher taught English as his or her main subject. These are just a few suggestions for retirement poems for those in academia.

Another time you might want a good retirement poem personalized is for someone who served in the military. There are plenty of military-type poems available on http://www.retirementgiftshop.com/milretpoem1.html. The most touching one of these poems is the one featured on a plaque that can be mailed as a gift. This poem, when framed, makes a great retirement gift as well for someone in the military.

The best military poems should be dignified because of the extraordinary service the military personnel offer to their country. Military retirement poems will dedicate themselves to the decades of service that were given. Whether a poem for retirement is military, education or civilian-based, any good retirement poem should give the retiree a great sense of appreciation and gratitude.

If you want to actually write a poem yourself, there are plenty of websites online that will give retirement poem examples in different types of verse. Many people think that poetry has to be written in a standard rhyming couplet scheme, but this isn’t the case.

You can actually write poetry nowadays in blank verse. This means that there is no overall rhyming or stress scheme – just like spoken conversation. It’s the wording of the poetry that makes the difference, rather than what format it’s presented in. Whether you decide to write a poem in quatrain, blank verse, couplets or even haiku, the same message can still be conveyed in the retirement poem. What they will remember is how they felt appreciated, not how good your retirement poems were written.