Poverty Poems
Great Are The Myths
by Walt Whitman
GREAT are the myths--I too delight in them;
Great are Adam and Eve--I too look back and accept them;
Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages,
inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests.
Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower;
Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail,
I weather it out with you, or sink with you.
Great is Youth--equally great is Old Age--great are the Day and
Night;
......
My Brothers
by Robert William Service
While I make rhymes my brother John
Makes shiny shoes which dames try on,
And finding to their fit and stance
They buy and wear with elegance;
But mine is quite another tale,--
For song there is no sale.
My brother Tom a tailor shop
Is owner of, and ladies stop
To try the models he has planned,
......
A Man's A Man For A' That
by Robert Burns
Is there for honesty poverty
That hings his head, an' a' that;
The coward slave - we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.
What though on hamely fare we dine,
......
Sonnet 103: Alack, What Poverty My Muse Brings Forth
by William Shakespeare
Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,
That having such a scope to show her pride,
The argument all bare is of more worth
Than when it hath my added praise beside.
O, blame me not if I no more can write!
Look in your glass, and there appears a face
That overgoes my blunt invention quite,
Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
Were it not sinful then striving to mend,
To mar the subject that before was well?
......
The Two Men
by Thomas Hardy
THERE were two youths of equal age,
Wit, station, strength, and parentage;
They studied at the self-same schools,
And shaped their thoughts by common rules.
One pondered on the life of man,
His hopes, his endings, and began
To rate the Market's sordid war
As something scarce worth living for.
......
"La Bohème"
by Mario Odekerken
Een kamer vol kou,
maar het licht van een olielamp
maakt de muren zacht.
De tafel is leeg
behalve papier,
behalve dromen
die groter zijn dan brood.
Vrienden lachen,
......
La Bohème
by Mario Odekerken
Ein Zimmer voller Kälte,
doch das Licht einer Öllampe
macht die Wände weich.
Der Tisch ist leer,
außer Papier,
außer Träumen,
die großer sind als Brot.
Freunde lachen,
......
Search for Consciousness
by Lokenath Roy
the expanse of the splintering fire flames flash
across space time, pouring onto grey pupils.
I like how they appear once, and then in another form: another.
lanterns of tinted glass in power starved the rural households,
streaking through bland darkness.
arrival of the faintest rays from the shaded corner of the
mud brick encased kitchen,
lights the letters on the pages to life.
......
Anatomy of a Pyre
by Lokenath Roy
tugging down hair strands,
right where the foot of the flame breaks even—
outreaching from a coarsen rug; in little time
cheeks crater out. engulfing the blessed cry of departure.
have you watched the fire spread on a pyre? the last time the muscles
twitch.
human skin of pastel gorges beneath the river, yellow.
the danube devotes praises to the blue skies of distant dawn.
......
Sad Santa
by Wayne Hebb
A man up in years
Hunched over as he
Walked along the street
On this chilly December day
Zipping up his hoodie as
He approached the rotary
On the median stood
Another old man in shabby
Clothes covered with an
Equally shabby Santa Claus suit
......
