History Poems
Let It Enfold You
by Charles Bukowski
Either peace or happiness,
let it enfold you
when I was a young man
I felt these things were
dumb, unsophisticated.
I had bad blood, a twisted
mind, a precarious
upbringing.
......
Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
......
We Refugees
by Benjamin Zephaniah
I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
......
Kaddish, Part I
by Allen Ginsberg
Strange now to think of you, gone without corsets & eyes, while I walk on
the sunny pavement of Greenwich Village.
downtown Manhattan, clear winter noon, and I've been up all night, talking,
talking, reading the Kaddish aloud, listening to Ray Charles blues
shout blind on the phonograph
the rhythm the rhythm--and your memory in my head three years after--
And read Adonais' last triumphant stanzas aloud--wept, realizing
how we suffer--
And how Death is that remedy all singers dream of, sing, remember,
prophesy as in the Hebrew Anthem, or the Buddhist Book of An-
......
The River's Tale
by Rudyard Kipling
Prehistoric
Twenty bridges from Tower to Kew--
(Twenty bridges or twenty-two)--
Wanted to know what the River knew,
For they were young, and the Thames was old
And this is the tale that River told:--
"I walk my beat before London Town,
Five hours up and seven down.
Up I go till I end my run
......
On the Streets of Old London
by Mario Odekerken
Cobblestones remember
the weight of centuries-
boots,hooves,bare feet
all pressing stories
into the cracks.
Smoke curls from chimneys
like the ghosts of industry,
and the fog-
thick,yellow,and watching-
......
The Seven Wonders
by Mario Odekerken
The seven wonders stand,
silent witnesses to time,
stones and stories carved by hands long gone.
The Great Pyramid rises,
a triangle touching the sky,
enduring through desert,winds and sun.
The Hanging Gardens breathe,
lust with forgotten green,
......
D'Artagnan
by Mario Odekerken
Niet in Parijs,
niet in een duel bij dageraad,
maar hier,
aan de rand van Maastricht,
vond him zijn einde.
Tussen rook en kruit,
tussen bevelen en stilte
viel hij
zoals hij had geleefd-
......
Polsko,ziemio ojców naszych
by Mario Odekerken
"Ballade o duszy narodu"
Próbowali nas wymazać-
traktatami,czołgami,
ciszą,co miała zagłuszyć
nasze imię.
Ale my pamiętaliśmy.
W szeleście śniegu,
w krokach po brukowanych ruinach
szeptaliśmy:Polsko,ziemio ojców naszych,
......
I KNOW MY PEOPLE
by Eric Washington
I know my people.
I've seen their suffering and their tears,
Their anger and their fears.
I've seen them work amongst the mills,
In cotton and sugar fields.
Working with bleeding hands,
And refusing to give up then.
While tortured with whips and ropes,
And they still believe in hope.
I know my people.
......
