History Poems
The Tattered Flag
by Helen Allan
A soldier lad lay dreaming,
Near a battlefield one day,
In his mind he was scheming,
How to win victory.
He heard his captain calling,
"Rise and fire rapidly",
Then he began bawling,
"Yes Sir, right away".
......
Just A Smack At Auden
by William Empson
Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.
What is there to be or do?
What’s become of me or you?
Are we kind or are we true?
Sitting two and two, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall I build a tower, boys, knowing it will rend
Crack upon the hour, boys, waiting for the end?
Shall I pluck a flower, boys, shall I save or spend?
All turns sour, boys, waiting for the end.
......
The City In Which I Loved You
by Li-Young Lee
And when, in the city in which I love you,
even my most excellent song goes unanswered,
andI mount the scabbed streets,
the long shouts of avenues,
and tunnel sunken night in search of you...
That I negotiate fog, bituminous
rain rining like teeth into the beggar's tin,
or two men jackaling a third in some alley
weirdly lit by a couch on fire, that I
......
Let It Enfold You
by Charles Bukowski
Either peace or happiness,
let it enfold you
when I was a young man
I felt these things were
dumb, unsophisticated.
I had bad blood, a twisted
mind, a precarious
upbringing.
......
We Refugees
by Benjamin Zephaniah
I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
......
Photograph
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Some haunt me pleasantly,
Using the grains of dewy silence that speak loudly
Within the long, grey halls of history.
I recline on such images with smiles I borrow from
The penetralia of my soul and skin.
Behind them come lean trees denuded by the swift
Gales of re-greened winters that celebrated
Friendliness in the course of wondrous seasons.
I peer deeply at them, genuflecting to Time
For its abundance of grace and reflections.
......
Cleopatra
by Mario Odekerken
Cleopatra, a vision draped in gold and shadow,
eyes painted dark as the Nile's midnight flow,
lips curving with secrets
whispered to power,
each glance a promise, each word a silken snare.
She moves as a storm hidden in silks,
her beauty a veil over cunning
that glitters sharp,
a queen crowned in mysteries,
......
Stanbrook Abbey.
by Laurence Argyll Simon Noond
In a quiet Worcestershire village,
Stands an Abbey of a by-gone age.
Once a home to Benedictine Nuns,
The holy order; the silent ones.
A place of peace and grace,
Stanbrook Abbey; a Holy place.
Along the Cloisters; the chapel to reach,
On bended knees to pray and beseech.
It`s a hotel now of grand design,
......
Beyond the Past
by Aloo Denish Obiero
The past is a lesson, not a prison,
The past is a mentor, not a captor.
The past is a tale, not a jail,
The past is a page, not a cage.
The past is a foundation, not a stagnation,
The past is a phase, not a maze.
The past is a guide, not a slide,
......
The Truth of Nothing
by Michael J. Nappi
Long winded words
hot and polished
read aloud,
as if from the heart.
Speeches of subterfuge
feed full spoons of fraudulence,
slightly sweetened slander
gobbled by a gaggle of goons.
......
