Poverty Poems
Holy Thursday (Experience)
by William Blake
Is this a holy thing to see.
In a rich and fruitful land.
Babes reduced to misery.
Fed with cold and usurous hand?
Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!
......
Saturday's Child
by Countee Cullen
Some are teethed on a silver spoon,
With the stars strung for a rattle;
I cut my teeth as the black racoon--
For implements of battle.
Some are swaddled in silk and down,
And heralded by a star;
They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown
On a night that was black as tar.
For some, godfather and goddame
The opulent fairies be;
......
Blood, Sweat And Tears
by Susan Mary Robertson
Think just think, of all the blood, sweat and tears
London has shed with the passing of years.
The dirt, dust and smog, the noise and the grime.
Poverty, slavery, squalor and crime.
Ambitions and hopes, mad schemings and fears,
Disease, depravity, vice, wines and beers,
Arts and culture can pass the test of time,
City of contrast from base to sublime.
......
Oh! Mr. Malthus!
by Stephen Leacock
"Mother, Mother, here comes Malthus,
Mother, hold me tight!
Look! It's Mr. Malthus, Mother!
Hide me out of sight."
This was the cry of little Jane
In bed she moaning lay,
Delirious with Stomach Pain,
That would not go away.
All because her small Existence
Over-pressed upon Subsistence;
......
Passage To India
by Walt Whitman
SINGING my days,
Singing the great achievements of the present,
Singing the strong, light works of engineers,
Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven outvied,)
In the Old World, the east, the Suez canal,
The New by its mighty railroad spann'd,
The seas inlaid with eloquent, gentle wires,
I sound, to commence, the cry, with thee, O soul,
The Past! the Past! the Past!
......
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
......
Poems about the Homeless and Homelessness
by Michael R. Burch
These are poems about the homeless, homelessness, victims of war, and similar themes.
Homeless Us
by Michael R. Burch
The coldest night I ever knew
the wind out of the arctic blew
long frigid blasts; and I was you.
......
Happy Moments Bloom
by Bhaskaranand Jha Bhaskar
Happy moments bloom
ever in full beauty,
like a delicate flower
wafting sweet fragrance
of pleasing felicity,
of cherished longings.
Some time later
they grow red and pale,
all fade and wither
as the leaves, dried
......
Charlotte Angel
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
I was a minister of the gospel, very happily living my life for the Lord,
Preaching the Word every Sunday, in the spirit of affinity and accord.
I always knew that I would preach, for I had been called in my youth,
To perpetually serve the will of God, while forever speaking His truth.
Like the lush gardens of springtime, are all abloom with fresh purpose,
Spreading joy with their presence, in a gold, green ritual that is ageless.
I lived an exceedingly busy life, doing work that was dear to my heart,
......
It's about time
by Khayelihle Bongiswa Gamedze
IT'S ABOUT TIME
Let us talk to the birds visiting us in summer,
Let us talk to the afternoon shadow,
Let us raise our pets to our level,
Let us raise our decibels...
It's about time.
Let us talk to the palarysing heat in the air,
Let us pick our items from the rubbish heap,
......
