We’ve Lost
Things around us change so rapidly
we sometimes forget what we’ve lost
to the call of progress.
The neighbourhoods and streets
where as children we played
replaced by blocks of flats towering tall.
No place for children to play anymore.
Blocks filled with broken lifts and stench laden stairs.
Its progress you know,
the property developers say with big grins.
Dens of iniquity more like.
Slowly eroded are close-knit communities
and the help one another attitude
replaced by isolation, as you grow old.
From a caring society of the past
to an uncaring one of the future.
Isolated in little boxes,
deprived of neighbourly help
as we progress down the road
forgetting all that we’ve lost.
13 January 2009
poem by David Harris
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Related quotes
Disgusting Changes Indeed
when i come back to my
old hometown
the creeks where we as
children once fished
are gone,
trees replaced with
tall buildings
playgrounds turning
into commercial districts
markets into
monotonous stalls
they call it progress
i am saying
goodbye.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Nothing is more useless in developing a nation's economy than a gun, and nothing blocks the road to social development more than the financial burden of war. War is the arch enemy of national progress and the modern scourge of civilized men.
quote by King Hussein I
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Talking Book
I wish I had a talking book
That told me how to act and look
A talking book that contained keys
To past and present memories
A talking book that said your name
So if you were gone, youd still remain
More than a picture on a shelf
In imagination I could touch
A talking, talking book
I wish I had a talking book
Filled with buttons you could push
Containing looks and sights, your touch
Your feel, your breath, your sounds, your sighs
How much Id bluster to ask it why
One must live and one must die
I wish I had a talking book
By my side so I could look
And touch and feel and dream, a look
Much bigger than a talking book
A taste of loving future and past
Is that so much to really ask
In this one moments time and space
Can our love really be replaced
By a talking book
Can our love really be replaced
By a talking book
Can our love really be replaced
By a talking book
Can our love ever, forever be replaced
Can our love ever be replaced
Can our love ever be replaced
(can our love really be replaced)
By a talking book
song performed by by Lou Reed
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Progress Is the Concept That Inspires Ideas
To move forward,
In thought.
Or in actual movement.
Means exactly that!
Not to discuss it,
As if to do so will get it done.
To move forward takes applied effort.
If a repeated situation,
Does not get resolved.
Because there is something,
In one's consciousness that blocks this.
Moving forward is not going to be accomplished.
To make noticeable progress.
And progress is the concept that inspires ideas.
Rarely, if ever...
Does enlightenment stirs or occurs,
To one 'enhanced' by the driven excitement of stagnation.
Unless this has been determined as a fresh activity.
And for a very few,
This may be a possibility.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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His heart is broken
His heart is broken,
broken like pieces of glass
which nobody
can fit together again
and he has lost his own worthiness,
the meaning behind his existence
a long time ago
and the days fly past
as if time has escaped somewhere
along the road
and nothing still has meaning
and even bright days
turn grey to him,
with a greyness
which disconcerts and makes every thing dull
and there are spider webs and a lot of dust
where he keeps his compact discs
which he doesn’t play anymore
and still loyally he prays,
tries to keep his integrity intact
but has lost trust
in a God, who sees everything and who understands
and it feels as if that God
does not exist for him
and as if he is fighting alone against destiny,
stands alone on this earth
without anybody caring
or wanting to know something about him
and the past lies just too deep,
too deep inside him
so that he cannot forget it
and never gets to a new future.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Change is scientific, progress is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy.
quote by Bertrand Russell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Society
Talking to someone today,
we reminisced of years gone by.
We reflected on things
when we were young and didn’t have,
and how much fun we had.
We didn’t have TVs, CDs or DVDs,
computers or anything like that.
We had to twiddle a cat’s whisker to hear
the radio we might have built.
What we did have was an imagination,
creating games we could play.
We didn’t destroy everything in our wake,
but looked after everything we got.
Today our society it doesn’t matter,
things are so easily replace,
if you break something today
you can always replace it tomorrow,
and the wastage that goes around,
because nothing means much anymore.
Years ago, we used to treasure
everything that we got.
Today it means nothing,
as they have everything and want for naught.
Everything has lost its value.
Now just look around and make a list,
of what material thing in your life
that can never be replaced.
Then do another list of everything
that can be replaced.
The first list will contain next to nothing,
and the second will go on and on.
This should show you a picture of our society today.
6 September 2007
poem by David Harris
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If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.
Miracle On Barbour Street
Quiet.
Peaceful.
And not one syllable,
Of a cuss word heard.
Children are laughing and playing.
Fathers are strolling hand in hand,
With their actual children.
And mothers are seen,
Exposing less cleavage.
And the air is free,
Of the scent of weed!
They all appear to be dreadlocked.
With faces shining like gold!
'I will count to three.
And when I do...
You will not remember a thing!
1-2-3...
SNAP out of it! '
Thank you doctor.
I think my taste for nicotine,
Is diminishing.
'We are making some progress.
However...
You keep returning to this place,
In your visions.'
What place?
What are you talking about?
'It sounds delightful.
I'll call it Miracle On Barbour Street.
I will take detailed notes,
And share them with you...
At the end of your visit.
I think you digress to a time,
Many many years ago!
It must be a place you are channeling.
From a different life.
Would you like to schedule another session? '
Yes.
Record me next time.
I often dream of seeing the pyramids!
I bet my ancestors are trying to contact me.
Should I continue to take the medication?
'Yes...
Of course.
We are making much progress.'
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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When light and air were born
When light and air were first born
Man came,
And woman followed,
So filled
With awe & wonder,
What is this light that makes them see?
What is this air that makes them breathe and live?
Definitions were made,
In awe and wonder, What it feels when air gets
Into their lungs what it feels when they Walk in the light and not stumble on stones?
The years accumulated like layers and layers Of earth and fire and rocks and earth and sea
Came then some cataclysmic changes While more and more
Men and women and lots of children came
Inhabiting this earth
And awe and wonder
Were lost, More changes came that kill and annihilate and
Men and women and children were so preoccupied with saving themselves, Forgetting how air first filled their lungs Forgetting how light first guided them not to stumble to stones,
Now air and light
Have become so ordinary, & no one really remembers about how it was at first No one really cares to recall what first was,
Men and women and children are so busy
Preoccupied with darkness,
these choking blankets darkness
These poisonous packets of air,
so debilitating, so deadly &
some of the children Simply dropped dead on the streets, and fear so gripped the men and women
gripes and grimes geometrically hurried in their hearts,
Night’s darkness
The darkness of insensitivity
buried them and indeed things change and
everything goes from bad to worst
What was it at first, is now not felt anymore, what was first
was taken for granted and finally forgotten,
Where is the awe? Where is the wonder?
Men and women and children, where are you all going?
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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A Sequel To Mamta's Asking About Sky Scrapers
after the progress
when sky scrapers
stand tall reaching
the moon and the
stars and elbow to
elbow with the sun
the birds may have
asked: where shall we
put our nests?
and the trees may
have asked: where
shall we ever grow
again?
and the brooks may
have asked: where
shall we ever flow?
and yes, mamta, the
children as asking:
do we still have
playgrounds to play?
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Progress
Progress
Progress expresses courage, leaves behind
All unhappiness as heart can start
Making up time lost. Each puzzle part
Eases into place within the mind, -
Light the touch, much tension may unwind
Allowing scope for hope, new worlds to chart.
Problems solved, and walls dissolved with art,
Augur pastures green, set scene to find
Magic harbour safe, serene, assigned, -
Excluding pressures in a world apart.
Life takes on fresh colours à la carte
And offers fair reflection unconfined.
PAMpered past to self acceptance cedes,
ELAtion follows as vain pain recedes
17 January 2005 Acrostic Sonnet robi3_1363_robi3_0000
poem by Jonathan Robin
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There will never be peace
As long as
someone can pull out a gun
to shoot someone dead
as long as
someone can dropp a bomb
on some strangers head
there will never be peace
no there will never be peace
in this world
as long as
someone can start a war
based on a pack of lies
as long as
someone ignores the truth
when they look deep in your eyes
there will never be peace
no there will never be peace
in this world
if this is progress
we haven't come too far
if this is progress
we don't know who we are
if this is progress
we are worlds apart
if this is progress
we'd better go back to the start
as long as
someone stabs you in the back
and sticks the knife in good
as long as
someone walks without shame
in streets paved with blood
there will never be peace
no there will never be peace
in this world
Landscape
As I look around me
at the ever changing landscapes here.
I often wonder what happened to
the landscapes my childhood used to know.
Gone I’m afraid
to a growing population
and progress so they say.
Ruined is what I would say
and gone to greedy
property developers more like.
6 February 2008
poem by David Harris
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We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
quote by C.S. Lewis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Gone but not forgotten
The water meadow by the stream
where I was wont to sit and dream.
Has disappeared, replaced by
much less pleasing to my eye.
A street of brick red bungalows.
You can’t halt progress I suppose.
This used to be a pleasant place
of beauty now there’s little trace.
Developers just do not care
they’re building houses everywhere.
Despoiling every beauty spot
in search of any vacant lot.
Though city dwellers wish to live
Somewhere at least an hours drive
from the city where they strive.
I do not think I can forgive
Destruction of my riverside.
Now ugly bricks and mortar hide.
the water meadows where I dreamt.
I owe them nothing but contempt.
2-Feb-08
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.
quote by Henry Steele Commager
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We have to attack those things which stand in the way of America progress. And what stands in the way of American progress right now is the federal government.
A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, and desire to serve the great cause of this progress, should be called not a humanist, but a humanitarian, and his creed may be designated as humanitarianism.
quote by Irving Babbitt
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The ever watchin eye.
Be careful what you choose to do
C.C.T, V is watching you.
If you’re caught short and need to pee
You can be certain you will be
recorded by C.C.T.V.
A matter of security
I’m not too sure that I agree
I’m sure that it was meant to be
But have to say it seems to me.
Invasion of our privacy
Though placed on private property
they are positioned so they see.
Where people have a right to be.
Recording automatically
whatever happens secretly.
That’s not the way things used to be
nor am I sure things ought to be.
Favoured by the powers that be
The ultimate authority
C.C.T.V has come to be
Accepted though reluctantly.
That is the harsh reality
We must live with apparently.
Please take this warning seriously
Remember that C.C.T.V
Is watching and watching me.
Because they’re placed strategically
they can’t be seen too easily.
You might well think you are quite free
from scrutiny by C.C.T.V.
It is a possibility
in isolated property
In city streets a rarity.
It’s seen as a necessity
which will safeguard your property
Although sometimes it saddens me
The advent of C.C.T.V
Has changed the world permanently.
Progress does not come for free
We have no choice but pay the fee..
Monday,29 August 2011
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poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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