History Poems
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.
......
Baby's World
by Rabindranath Tagore
I wish I could take a quiet corner in the heart of my baby's very
own world.
I know it has stars that talk to him, and a sky that stoops
down to his face to amuse him with its silly clouds and rainbows.
Those who make believe to be dumb, and look as if they never
could move, come creeping to his window with their stories and with
trays crowded with bright toys.
I wish I could travel by the road that crosses baby's mind,
and out beyond all bounds;
Where messengers run errands for no cause between the kingdoms
......
The Photograph: A Lynching
by Lucille Clifton
is it the cut glass
of their eyes
looking up toward
the new gnarled branch
of the black man
hanging from a tree?
is it the white milk pleated
collar of the woman
smiling toward the camera,
......
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.
......
The City In Which I Loved You
by Li-Young Lee
And when, in the city in which I love you,
even my most excellent song goes unanswered,
andI mount the scabbed streets,
the long shouts of avenues,
and tunnel sunken night in search of you...
That I negotiate fog, bituminous
rain rining like teeth into the beggar's tin,
or two men jackaling a third in some alley
weirdly lit by a couch on fire, that I
......
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.
......
De Munsterkerk van Roermond
by Mario Odekerken
Een ode aan eeuwen van stilte en steen.
Tussen de stenen van het oude plein,
waar Maaswind fluistert langs gevel en schijn,
rijst trots een silhouet in Romaans gewaad-
de Munsterkerk, in stilte bewaard.
Geboren uit keizerlijk visioen,
in tijden van geloof en piëteit,
waar abdissen baden onder 't licht
......
