Homelessness (Remove filter)
Christmas Will Pass Them By
Christmas Will Pass Them By.
We all gather around full of Christmas joy and cheer.
Preparing to celebrate the most selfish time of the year.
Obsessed by our own desires, wishes, greed’s and needs.
Sense of fulfilment and achievement we need to feed.
Cocooned within in our social and family bubbles.
Not giving a second thought to anyone else's troubles.
Table bulging ...
Sunday 1st December 2024 2:22 am
Begging Man (Tomorrow It Could Be You)
Tomorrow It Could Be You.
As I sit with my bowl huddled on the floor.
Watching endless people enter the supermarket door.
I'm cold and tired from another hungry night.
And to all these people I am an unwanted sight.
My worn-out clothes are smelly and full of holes.
My shoes let in the water right through my soles.
I just looked straight ahead hoping someone will stop...
Tuesday 15th October 2024 11:54 pm
DERELICT
DERELICT
[ SONG-LYRICS ]
______________
I am no one but I am
Known by everybody
Only seen but never heard
Just part of the scenery
Hated, ridiculed & shunned
For the way I live
I survive through every day
On what others give
Nothing to my name by a heavy load
And plenty of freedom
Never knowing where the road takes me
Where ...
Tuesday 27th February 2024 7:07 pm
Manifesto of Hope (with quote, not paraphrase)
Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!
(From the Masque of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Below is what I consider to be a Manifesto of Hope, to whose motives and principles I wholly subscribe.
Public ownership of all public services and infrastructure, including ...
Friday 6th October 2023 10:10 am
Jubilee
Jubilee
A step across the great divide
From this side to the other side
A cautious step, a careful stride
Centuries long and twice as wide.
Carefully place your stumbling feet
There’s caterpillars in the street
ghost butterflies with ‘nowt to eat
a life to live and death to cheat
TV screens in shop windows
Relay the parties and the woes
Resentment in...
Thursday 9th June 2022 2:24 pm
THE HERO A NATION FORGOT
A lonely soldier sits in silence
Amidst a hectic city crowd
His strength drained long ago
this man who once stood proud
he risked his life for his country
A land which once he loved
Conscripted to an unbearable war
Where he struggled long and hard
His once agile body now shattered
PTSD has left his mind scarred
more deserted than hes ever been
silent remains his internal screams
He...
Sunday 8th March 2020 5:08 pm
Change
They seek shelter from the rain
In the doorways of the city
Although the lights shine so bright
Believe for them it's far from pretty
Watching the world pass them by
In a kaleidoscope of grey
Feeling like nobody notices them
As we continue with our day
All they ask for is a moment
Someone to stop and talk
Providing them with some comfort
From life's painful, lonely...
Sunday 26th January 2020 1:41 am
Round and round
Galileo once said the earth was round.
Round and round we go.
Why do we cling to broken things.
Round and round we go.
I had a dream it was truth.
Round and round we go.
One small step for man. One giant leap forward for mankind. Forwards and backwards.
Round and round we go.
The rise and fall of rome. High tides, low tides flow back to the sea
Round and round we go.
This god, ...
Sunday 26th May 2019 2:28 pm
Jimmy Is A Ghost
Jimmy Is A Ghost
Jimmy is a ghost
Of the man he used to be
He sits in the rain
Drinking second hand tea
And he hopes that his kids
Will never have to see
His hands outstretched
In an ignored plea
Yeah Jimmy is a ghost
Jimmy is a ghost
Off of Oxford Street
He has nothing left to barter
He has nothing left to eat
Just threadbare dreams
And train...
Friday 26th April 2019 3:26 pm
Walk on part
He was a bit-part actor, he never dreamt of commanding his stage
He signed on as a walk-on character, a cameo role in a one-off play,
Each night he learnt his lines, the same words he would speak every day
Rehearsing his part word-perfect, in the hope that his public would pay
No one spelled out his name in neon, the only stars he knew were in the night sky
His costume was neve...
Wednesday 10th April 2019 8:43 pm
Stu of the Steps
Been working on this for a while... not sure about it really, but see what you think..
Stu of the Steps
This is my pitch, here’s where I sit
Cardboard and cushion to keep cold at bay
Down steps from the station, just half way
Gives em time to see me, reflect a bit.
Not all the way down, hanging in there
Holding my own, keeping my space
Forgotten detritus of t...
Tuesday 8th May 2018 9:25 pm
So many are falling from the skies, of comfortable lives
So many are falling from the skies, of comfortable lives
Until between the clouds, we can see me and you
Drinking in the bar one minute
Then outside Tesco
Mouths ajar
So many are breaking up inside
Falling from the skies,
Of comfortable lives
Passing the credit cards
Trying to grasp Universal Credit
Fingertips touching their children
On the way down
La...
Wednesday 18th October 2017 11:22 pm
Bag Of Bones
Bag Of Bones
Please let me introduce myself -
my name is Billy Jones.
You might know me better
as that useless bag of bones
that gets under your feet
when you’re staring at your phones,
planning all your creature comforts
on extortionate pay day loans.
Well I was once like you my friend,
I haven’t always been alone
huddled up in corners
where the autumn lea...
Friday 17th March 2017 12:58 am
Forsaking Auld Lang Syne
Forsaking Auld Lang Syne
The city centre puddles
reflect fireworks in the sky
whilst stripped
Christmas wrapping paper
soaks up the deluge
like a homeless sleeping bag.
Dustbins overflow with leftovers
oiled with greasy greed.
A bottle of wine splatters against
the multi-storey car park wall,
vomited from the throat
of opulence at midnight.
...
Sunday 1st January 2017 7:53 pm
This Is England
This Is England
the empty cardboard
coffee cup groans with hunger
eyes to eyes to anything
that isn’t eyes
clothes that itch with dirt
the taste of yesterdays soup
settles against teeth
sleep is the enemy
dulling your hopes of escape
if the spiteful arrive
with mean intentions
and brown leather boots
head bowed against the world
not looking ...
Monday 18th April 2016 8:26 pm
By the Thames
It’s the final burial ground –
the place where they go to die;
lapping dirt-brown waves;
tourist couples bidding goodbye.
Ships slicing through soundlessly,
as smog adorns the sky.
A pigeon hobbles by on its stump,
while a gull lets out a mournful cry;
beside benches, an old man holds out his cup;
on the cobblestones stands a solitary bride.
A homeless girl leans agai...
Wednesday 30th March 2016 11:40 am
The Hero A Nation Forgot
Thursday 28th May 2015 10:26 pm
Arroyo
Arroyo
The rain has fallen down for twenty hours
from a dead sky of slate and granite hews,
dampening the walls of urban towers.
Cobbled streets the colour of an old bruise,
tyres rattle over pothole dark drains,
counterpoint to some distant splashing shoes.
The day cast in monochromatic stains
as water forms itself into a lake
that eddies into inner city lanes.
A passing car cre...
Tuesday 25th November 2014 7:13 pm
He risked his life for the country he loved, For those he cherished for all of us. He went to war, and he fought hard, His body bruised his memory scarred,
Now his rights have gone away, He lives alone, uncared for, abused every day. He was lucky in some respects, He made it home, he survives yet...
Tuesday 2nd September 2014 8:32 pm
Little Jimmy
Tuesday 2nd September 2014 8:22 pm
Beat to my own drum - NaPoWriMo Day 5
Adopt
Saint Stephen's tale
It's Friday, sweets from Mrs Smith
Degeneration X and anarchy
Frankie's words: two tables, four chairs, suspension.
Discovered passing the buck, and thus passed it.
Stole the show with Twenty-one Questions, four dancers, and a singer.
First girlfriend changed everything, "You're young, she has baggage - get rid..." … did...
A pla...
Sunday 7th April 2013 3:01 pm
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