Respect Poems
The British
by Benjamin Zephaniah
Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.
Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.
Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
......
Discrimination
by Adelaide Rhead
Why do you think you're better
If your culture is not the same?
Yes, maybe you seem different
But deep inside all are the same.
Why do they think they're better?
If one is black and one is white,
If one is man and one is woman.
They are the same, that is their right.
......
Dis Poetry
by Benjamin Zephaniah
Dis poetry is like a riddim dat drops
De tongue fires a riddim dat shoots like shots
Dis poetry is designed fe rantin
Dance hall style, big mouth chanting,
Dis poetry nar put yu to sleep
Preaching follow me
Like yu is blind sheep,
Dis poetry is not Party Political
Not designed fe dose who are critical.
Dis poetry is wid me when I gu to me bed
......
Beauty Standards
by Kelechi Kalu
Every look you take in the mirror
Distorts your vision, it gets less clearer
Society's foolishness knows no bounds
Now you judge your self worth in pounds
Obsessed with attaining the lightness of a feather
Enduring hunger and not caring whether
or not your body could be drastically affected
You're mimicking skeletal mannequins who are well respected
Only heaven knows what kind of chemicals and rituals
helped them ascend to their pedestals and pinnacles
......
The Induction
by Thomas Sackville
The wrathful winter, 'proaching on apace,
With blustering blasts had all ybar'd the treen,
And old Saturnus, with his frosty face,
With chilling cold had pierc'd the tender green;
The mantles rent, wherein enwrapped been
The gladsome groves that now lay overthrown,
The tapets torn, and every bloom down blown.
The soil, that erst so seemly was to seen,
Was all despoiled of her beauty's hue;
......
Ilje Leonard Pfeijffer
by Mario Odekerken
In de stegen van Genua klinkt zijn naam,
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, bard van het leven,
schrijver van overvloed en waarheid,
waar de zee zijn woorden kust.
Hij bouwt kathedralen van taal,
geen steen blijft onberoerd,
geen leugen blijft ongetoond.
Hij kijkt ons recht aan,
en vraagt:"Durf jij de wereld te zien?"
......
The hunter who became the prey
by Saleh Ben Saleh
There was a hunter,
who lived for game.
His mind was strong,
but thoughts were lame.
He met a deer,
who changed his life.
She stabbed his heart,
with a hunting knife.
The mighty hunter,
......
My poem to our defenders of Ukraine (in Ukrainian)
by Slava P, aka Maximus Decimus Meridius
Небо чисте, сонце ясне
День здаеться бути прекрасним
Да щось коробить душу,
Мабудь це війна, що залишае сушу.
Йде Москаль на Неньку
Бодай-тобі здих!
Та наші солдатики
Відстоять свій поріг!
......
Other people’s hands (or, love from the being mode)
by Alex Rose
I’ve done what I can
It’s out of my hands
It sucks that other people have hands
I mean, that’s why we love them
For their hands
We don’t want them to be puppets
At the mercy of ours
And in our deepest moments
......
The Once Mighty Rendered Low
by James Kipp
Oh what spectacle of visage rendered bare before the world to suffer silent ignominious glare
On bended knee in humbled show, head and heart abashed, by how the mighty have been rendered low
Venerated glories of faded past, evanesced long ago. Now, chattel'd bondage to indignations rending soul and bone. The once reverent, now lie ‘neath heel and stone
The once mighty have been rendered low.
Made so by inglourious traitorous deeds, self inflicted upon thine sacred creed. Solely fervent in the certitude. We reap that, in which we sow.
O' how the mighty have been rendered low.
......
-
Slava P, aka Maximus Decimus Meridius (3 poems about Respect)
October 31st, 1970 - Kyiv, Ukraine and since 1992 - New Jersey, USA -