Poetry Blogs (poverty)

Recently I took a trip to Cardiff and was shocked by the level of homelessness in the city. It’s there but for the grace of god for all of us. I feel we ignore this. Having lost my job after a stroke, I was lucky to have insurance and a pension, if not then I may well have been left homeless. We never know what cards we will be dealt. Next time don’t just turn a cheek.

 

Next time we turn aw...

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There’s Gonna Be A Party 
But Your Past Is Not Invited.
Dreams Aren’t What They Used To Be,
Darker Days, Darker Ways.
Life Ain’t What It Used To Be,
But Death Is Always The Same.
One Day There Won’t Be A Tomorrow.
Unless My Heart’s A Bomb, 
Time Is An Illusion.
If Love Is Blind, The Sun Won’t Shine.
I Am Through Everyone’s Eyes, But Mine.
Though Time Is Just An Illusion, 
For I Cannot ...

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Albino In The Snow,
Steaming Red, Left For Dead
And I’ll Wait To See If You Have A Soul.
Lost Her Glow.
Mouth Of Foam And Barely Grown
And I’ll Wait To See If You Have A Soul.
Painfully Numb’s Only Begun.
In A Few Days The Way Of One.
Crawling Towards The Heat,
Ants Inside Her Feet.
Feeling For Fire, Waiting On The Worms.
Dieing At Her Place Of Birth,
Selling Life For What It’s Worth,
...

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Pound shops and takeaways,

salons for grooming of

dogs and their owners

sit side by side.

 

Rancid fat acrid

in back alley junk piles,

settees and Christmas trees

slowly decay.

 

Damp homes

in damp climate

for cotton mill workers

no longer needed.

 

The forest of chimneys

now superseded

by new build in miniature,

room sizes shrinking,

 

l...

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My funeral is a live cremation
My home is a burnt out tower
My plight is that of a nation
One of selfish gits wielding power

I am a ghost haunting the streets
My home is your left or right wing tv show
My place is within the gentrification scheme
Lost somewhere I don't know

I raise my voice to be silenced
My concerns are shit on the heel of your shoe
There's money in death and violen...

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Oblivia 

 

You look at me through your new found fashionista,

Tell me that I am boring,

I understand,

Why would you speak of the

Dull state of today?

Stars, planets, climates, people, love,

 

You perspire to the empty beat of a London club,

Held together with Hennes zip,

Peer through designer lenses,

Moulded to diamond encrusted frames,

 

Colourful ri...

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She’s got two part time jobs

and works her fingers to the bone

a single mum with no support from him

but she made that house a home.

Empty promises of child support

to help to feed her pack

every bloke she’s ever known’s

always fucked off and turned their back.

She doesn’t feel resentment

she never has the time

if she gets an hour to herself each day

she swears tha...

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Through inch thick glass at the airport circle

the traffic chocked us to a halt

the veiled shadow held her child to my window

 

Spittle covered its face

eyes as pale as a moonlit desert

we stared at each other

worlds apart

I said sorry without words

the child screamed “greed”

without any conscious effort

 

Frozen for the longest moment

me 

in a silent air ...

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From the lamplight of the factories, to the smoke and endless fumes
The workers toiled from dawn till dusk on ever spinning looms,
Ne'er did these places hear the sound of each bitter tear cried,
These were the places where some were born and just as many died.   The workhouses and squats of Victoria's kingdom fare,
Never saw many smiles, although many memories formed there,
Painfu...

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The Government Standard

 

 

     The band didn’t want to play,

They didn’t want to march

Through streets paved with

Gum and fag butts and poverty,

     They didn’t want for glancing

At bloodstains from a

Previous night’s brawl,

They didn’t want for none of it

At all,

 

     But as soon as the note

Struck, they knew their place,

Knew of nothing else

T...

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They’re Blaming Themselves

 

     A couple argue over something trivial,

And the snarls - rants and discord

Reach fever pitch

     Until,

They are left to part

Their own silent corner

Of a damp tired home,

     And it’s a sad fact of life

That we argue at all,

But here in the deepest

Troughs of poverty,

The stress management can reach all

...

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A silence fell upon the city,

contorted shadows twisting moonlight.

Stuttering in a speakeasy seemed so misplaced

bottles rattled flickering like Fedora feathers

in an unforgiving wind.

 

The wretched odour of deprivation

a stench that sticks and degrades ones existence.

Even by day this city remains a lifeless sap

and by night the vampires feast on thei...

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the trickle down poetics

coiffed, varnished, double dipped,

lay waste the oubliette of empathy

 

no balm, no salve

shall expel the foreign body that

thorns it’s path in the digital red apnoea

of each choked fallen promise

as they steal your desecrated breath

 

your lips are still moving

 

your lips are still moving even

as your face turns blue

...

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You think poor is…

One car not two

semi, not detached

the right school

the wrong brand

the wrong label.

 

I think poor is…

Tide-lines

thick enough to pick at

cardboard soles

in shoes with holes

and stains that don’t

wash clean.

 

Together

we know poor is…

the curl of a lip

in a hostile world,

the shame

of not fittin...

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I am a rebel against torture 

I am a rebel against pain 

I seek an end to hunger 

I seek an end to the shame 


The shame that comes from knowing 

all those children dying without water 

all those children dying without names 

all those children dying from war 


Why do men play their vicious games 

why do those men pretend to serve God 

when all they want is power over others 

when all the...

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Black

 

Black coal down the mineshaft so deep

Takes a pale sheen as my eyes do weep

Days without comfort are sending me down

The caged bird twitters but I still frown

 

Escape to the surface via cable or pills

The former brings succour, the latter masks ills

Sometimes my anguish calls the loudest of all

While strength I seek from a larder too small

 

©R...

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