poverty (Remove filter)
Hop Picking And Love
Desperate poverty in The East End of London all too true
Ten-year-old Alice never complained, what good would it do?
She had reached the age to travel with her family to Kent.
Leaving behind the dirt and smog, their struggle to pay rent
Hop picking in 1920 the children did their share of grafting
Alice loved the clean air, the food, the banter and chatting
She fell in love with K...
Wednesday 16th August 2023 9:04 am
Ye Hypocrites-Ye Whited Sepulchres!
A nation,
That steals
From the
Poorest
To give
To the
Richest;
Not good
Enough
For me.
Swearing
Like a
Trooper;
Good enough
For World
War Two;
Good enough
For me.
Philip
Fuckin’
Almost
Laureate
Larkin,
Good enough
For royalty;
Good enough
For me.
Socialism’s
Loaves and fishes,
Bread and roses;
Good e...
Tuesday 27th June 2023 7:49 am
Bread and Roses for All (re-post with open letter to Labour NEC)
Bread and Roses for All
One swallow will not our glorious summer make,
Nor red-tied frauds, true friends of labouring folk:
No friend of mine can love Apartheid’s yolk,
More swallowed lies, our nation’s heart will break:
Britannia’s future guard, for our Children’s sake,
Compassion’s spirit we must now invoke,
Let zeal for justice fill our Hearts of Oak,
Lest fate make any ...
Wednesday 21st June 2023 6:27 am
Romanticizing Poverty
A ragged boy
Picking up garbage
A malnourished girl
Carrying around
Her brother
A family of five
With patched up clothes
Lonlely old man
Sipping on a cigar
Group of workers
Doing manual labor
A smile
Caught on Camera
Doesn't prove a thing
A smile
Frozen on a
Framed photograph
Doesn't convey the truth
They may not have everything
But they are the happiest
-The world's best l...
Tuesday 14th February 2023 4:44 am
Consumed
I remember in poverty,
eating ramen noodles,
daily.
Beans and Weenies.
Meatless sauce
spaghetti.
Rice, Rice, Rice,
without any real
spice.
Bologna Sandwiches.
Hamburger Helper
mixes.
Fried Spam,
and all kinds of meat,
canned.
Hot Dogs on a stick,
burnt to a
crisp.
Catfish from the creek,
yellow belly
meat.
Milwaukee’s Best.
Another broken
promise.
The cheape...
Tuesday 17th January 2023 10:18 pm
Never Mind the Bollocks!
She’s too white!
He’s too ginger!
She’s too rich!
He’s too rich!
She’s too black!
He’s too white!
She’s too slim!
He’s too fat!
She’s not white enough!
He’s not fair haired enough!
She’s not black enough!
He’s not auburn enough!
She’s not rich enough!
He’s not rich enough!
I’m not rich enough,
‘Cos I don’t write...
Thursday 12th January 2023 12:41 pm
In My Life Time
In my entire life,
the worst things to come
upon me,
has come at the,
hands of respectable
people, who call themselves
good.
It has not been,
scary men, in dark shadows.
It has not been,
those people, across the sea.
It has not been,
the conman, stealing my soul.
It has been,
men and their wives,
who own businesses,
and lands,
and courts,
and governments,
and religions,
too...
Saturday 31st December 2022 4:30 pm
俳 句 General strike now! 2
“Food banks” for the poor.
Nurses work in poverty.
“Food pantries” if posh.
Wednesday 14th December 2022 11:49 am
俳 句 General strike now! 1
Poor little match girls.
Can you hear the people sing?
General strike now!
Wednesday 14th December 2022 12:46 am
Strive to Succeed
Emblems
A small yellow stitch against green and black,
Secret inspiration, strength in the mud,
Anguish and poverty dragging us down,
A relentless and cold North-England town,
Days upon days of unrest and ill ease,
Scratching for sunshine, empathy, fun,
Uniforms hang or squeeze, they don’t fit,
Seven clear months ‘til a government cheque,
Anger, bad attitude, untold frustrations...
Saturday 6th February 2021 8:53 am
Who Would You Give The Library
To Winston, Paul B all admin and, everyone.
Imagine you come from Poverty, complete and sheer poverty. Imagine too, your creative mind, wiping the floor with Eton and Oxbridge Candidates.
Imagine that, you have too many coincidences of being 'put down' under bogus accusation. Imagine too, knowing that all you do, is being filtered so only a select few know of your intellect, compassion, tale...
Wednesday 9th September 2020 8:50 am
Locked Down Locked Out
Its a pain in the neck and no mistake
Locked down, our busy lives on hold
But what of the billions less wealthy
Forever locked out in the cold?
Locked down or locked out
Are two very different fates
We blandly wait for a vaccine
To benefit our richer states
In Africa the virus is poverty
Immune to vaccines and drugs
Kids locked down all their lives
Regard...
Saturday 25th April 2020 12:40 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
N/A
eating off the floor momma aint got no plates
she shield me from the world full of crime and full of hate
all of the world going on outside my window, i got a little curious
fell in love with the danger and it made my momma furious
she stopped paying attention
told me her warning was already mentioned
i went on because i no longer felt the love
the streets gave me more affecti...
Wednesday 15th January 2020 10:40 am
resolution
resolution
I don't do new year
there is a lot of noise here
none of it is mine
when the chimes kick in
auld lang syne hands are unlinked
as phones point skywards
cascading fireworks
fall on lost souls in doorways
where poverty lies
Wednesday 1st January 2020 2:41 pm
Homeless Curse
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...
Tuesday 9th July 2019 12:24 pm
A Week From 21
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 ...
Friday 17th May 2019 6:47 am
Albino
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,
...
Friday 17th May 2019 6:28 am
Culture
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...
Friday 22nd June 2018 5:36 am
Real Life
She lies awake at night,
eyes wired,
frantically reading
anything, anything,
to not think about it,
to patch up the cracks,
sew up the seams,
stuff the holes with cushions
made of trash TV and Facebook,
while the mould seeps
down the bedroom wall,
letters lie ignored
re: default sum unpaid,
again.
So sick, sick
of hospital appointments,
waiting in ...
Thursday 24th May 2018 6:03 pm
The Gentrification Scheme 2017
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...
Sunday 23rd July 2017 1:35 pm
Oblivia
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...
Friday 2nd June 2017 3:46 pm
Poverty In The UK
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...
Tuesday 2nd September 2014 8:10 pm
The Government Standard
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...
Sunday 18th May 2014 2:18 am
They're Blaming Themselves
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
...
Sunday 27th October 2013 2:44 am
You can't Streep poverty under the carpet... - NaPoWriMo Day 9
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 th...
Tuesday 9th April 2013 4:44 pm
Policy
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
...Tuesday 8th January 2013 10:50 pm
No Jobs For A Man
Sunday 27th March 2011 2:03 am
Poverty Is
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...
Saturday 29th January 2011 1:23 pm
Rebel With A Cause (v2)
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 ...
Wednesday 11th August 2010 6:08 am
Black
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...
Tuesday 21st July 2009 2:57 pm
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