Pain Poems | Poemist

Popular Pain Poems

The British

by Benjamin Zephaniah

Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.

Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,

......

The Slave Dealer

by Thomas Pringle

From ocean's wave a Wanderer came,
With visage tanned and dun:
His Mother, when he told his name,
Scarce knew her long-lost son;
So altered was his face and frame
By the ill course he had run.

There was hot fever in his blood,
And dark thoughts in his brain;
And oh! to turn his heart to good

......

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.

......

Let America Be America Again

by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

......

Sun

by Michael Palmer

Write this. We have burned all their villages

Write this. We have burned all the villages and the people in them

Write this. We have adopted their customs and their manner of dress

Write this. A word may be shaped like a bed, a basket of tears or an X

In the notebook it says, It is the time of mutations, laughter at jokes,
secrets beyond the boundaries of speech

......

Recent Pain Poems

maybe the only way to find out is death

by Mackenzie Bilz

What do I do?
I feel like everything just keeps going wrong.
Things get worse and worse and never improve.
Every time I see the light, I can never reach it.
What do I do?

Hope is there.
Just at the edge of my fingers.
At the tip of my tongue.
It’s under my nose.

......

goodbye forever

by Mackenzie Bilz

Why does my life always end up this way?
No matter what I do nobody comes to save the day
Although the sun shines and the birds sing
No matter how far I walk my ears just continue to ring

Walking
Turning
Running
Panting
Breathing

......

Hidden Sorrow

by Mario Odekerken

It walks beside me,
quiet as breath,
cloaked in the spaces between words.

No one sees
the weight folded behind my smile,
the way silence wraps around my ribs
like a second skin.

In crowded rooms

......

The Crushing Crash

by Somali Mukherjee

I got crashed; I became crashed;
There must be some reason;
I endured when I was lashed;
Still, all slandered me of treason.

I get flown by the Pilot,
Who, too, succumbed with me;
Tooth and nail he had fought,
But who won was destiny.

......

Fortresses of Hollow Lies

by Igor Vykhovanets

Celery Won’t Heal the Mind

No leek or celery can mend
The wounds that rot your dying mind.
Wake up, you fool, this is the end—
Life has left us all behind.

The mind’s not king—it's just a part,
The Spirit rules, it stands above!
Deny this truth—and lost you are,

......