In Far Too Many Numbers They Rise (In Answer To Maya Angelou)
There are many facts in history
of people both ignorant and wise;
at times I look with incredulity
at how people multiply to rise
having as many children as they can do,
with diarrhoea, living in gloom,
with blown up bellies where food run through,
living in the very red-brown dirt in doom
without a look of hope in their eyes
where president-for-life dictators govern
with an iron rod, not hearing weakened cries,
while for civilization, for food they yearn;
where platinum, gold and copper mines
are sold to the Chinese, are from the country apart,
while parts of Africa goes into total decline
and to make a living is extremely hard.
Does this poem of mine offend you?
Unfortunately I do not deal in lies,
unfortunately these facts are very true
and to some people it’s no surprise
as AIDS, poverty, pestilence runs as a black tide
that comes in unstoppable waves of pain
from which very few of the poorest people can hide,
as far too many deaths happen again and again
and from this destruction very few get clear
while for something better they constantly crave
as their daily lives are always lived in fear,
as far too many go to a very early grave.
Still people multiply to rise under blue harsh skies
in far too many numbers, to never be free,
from lives that many of them do despise,
from lives lived in constant poverty.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Related quotes
Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
poem by Maya Angelou
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People from a world corner
The worst poverty in the world
The worst discrimination in the world
While people thinking about Global Warming
Corner people thinking how to survive
Corner people struggling one day by one day
While people living in the rocket age
Corner people walking miles to miles for one day survive
Corner people surprising whenever a plane is flying
While people thinking about living on other planets
Corner people crying to get a four feet square area
Corner people watering their blood for a four feet squares area
While people thinking about homosexual marriage
Corner people giving their lives for saving their children
Corner people growing never ever seeing their parents
While people thinking about which food is the best in the world
Corner people running thousand miles to get a few rice
Corner people dying lack of food and water
While people thinking about legalization of prostitution
Corner people not knowing what is the law
Corner people never seeing decided by a just justice
Corner people are not people!
Corner people are not from this world!
I would wonder............
poem by Zaw Myat Htoo
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Don’t Cry For Me Africa
Don’t cry for me Africa
Because I will never let you out of my mind
I hear your voices people of Africa
I hear your cries people of Africa
I see pain in your eyes people of Africa
It is hard to describe what you people of Africa are going through
Poverty strikes you all people of Africa
Don’t cry for me Africa
Because I will keep you in my prayers people of Africa
Power to the people of Africa
People of Africa lift your spirit higher
Lord is the light and truth people of Africa
The Lord sends you a message from his heart to you people of Africa
He said because I love you
I will answer your prayers
I hear your prayers
Don’t cry for me Africa
Because you have a friend that is the Lord
People of Africa continue doing the Lords work
Make a wish people of Africa
The people of Africa are looking at the Lord face to face
Lord here is no paradise
We dream a little dream said the people of Africa to the Lord
The People of Africa Pray that the Lord will give each other strength every day
Don’t cry for me Africa
Save the people of Africa
Strengthened the people of Africa each day
Because I’ll be there in your dreams people of Africa
The people of Africa tells The Lord how much they love him
Don’t cry for me Africa
Lord comes when you are ready people of Africa
Feelings you have for your Lord People of Africa
And I know you will never let it die
Nothing but flowers the people of Africa will plant in the sea shore for the Lord
Don’t cry for me Africa
The people of Africa needs hope to heal there land
The Lord rose up on you people of Africa
Don’t cry for me Africa
My heart will go on
Once I close this door of the ship I will sail across the Atlantic Sea
poem by Aldo Kraas
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To You, Africa
You are a beautiful terra firma
With beautiful people
Rich in history
Rich in prosperity
You are a land of life hard lived
Through droughts and famines
Your people had a lot to give
Your villages were of close community
Unlike that of civilization
You were the best example
that the world could have seen
Then the toubob began to arrive
And your people were taken
With no regard for your childrens lives
I know you are still shaken
Taken from the land they loved
Shoving their beloved Earth into their mouth
For one last taste of you, Africa
Your people have been stolen
Your people have been killed
Your generations have been lost
Your families have been torn apart
Your people have been enslaved
Your women have been raped
Your people have long suffered
Your people have lived through misery
Stolen for what purpose
Other than to be a serf
Some say it could have been worse
But we know it was the worst
Africa, your people are great
Your people are strong
Your people survived through it all
Your people still sung their songs
After 1865 they were freed
Yet still they were enslaved it seemed
Today there are still places that ban your people
Brought here unwillingly, to this 'land of the free'
Your people are who can change this nation
Your people are here for that reason
All hope is not lost
We will succeed regardless of the cost
This is to you, Africa
poem by Ryan Sanders
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The Wild Sea-Shore
Some people don't know how to say,
'Thank you' or even, 'I am sorry';
Like in poverty, hunger and in dirt;
You are naked before the eyes of the people.
Your body,
You say you are beautiful;
Your body,
It is exposed to the public eyes;
Of Ex-Boyfriends and Ex-Girlfriends,
Of Ex-Husbands and Ex-Wives,
As you lay your bed, so you shall sleep on it.
Another day, another hope;
Another song, another poem;
He had been always with her in the house.
Some people don't even know how say,
'Please';
Like a low miserable lives of hand-to-mouth,
To whisper to your ears with human sustenance;
Like a fair sea-circle with no sadness.
Of people, places and things;
Far in a darker Isle beyond the line,
Like our nakedness to the public.
A black dot,
A walk by the wils sea-shore;
With the actions of the people that i do meet;
'Please', 'I am sory', 'Thank you',
Are out of the peoples lips!
Just a clear call for me,
Face to face with the facts;
A walk by the wild sea-shore where,
The silent water slips from the hills.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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Inequalities in the world
So much corruption,
so much hurt,
so much pain going on in the world,
so many people are treated unequally,
they haven't heard of equality,
they're exploited for everything they have a way of living from,
and we see the poverty infront of our eyes,
but it seems however hard we try,
it's always worse than before,
all these bloodthirsty wars,
pulverising our morals,
corrupting our purified souls,
grinding away at our faith,
discrimination progressing,
slowly generates hate,
predjudice blossoming angrilly on a dead tree,
so many people,
so many lives,
so many children are blatantly deprived,
so much greed,
so much is unfair,
we need to pull together for their welfare,
so many families struggling to survive,
all of these people have difficult lives,
yet we're complaining about working from nine till five,
if we swapped lives,
we wouldn't survive,
so why don't we realise,
that they're so many people,
so much of them are deprived?
We need to work together,
work as a team,
we can make this better,
we can make the world gleam.
poem by Emily Summers
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Submission (in answer to Don Mattera)
I have seen a white old man and woman
turned onto the street,
living in cardboard boxes
with their small white dog
in the new disastrous improved South Africa,
I have seen white people taking their own lives
when black mine owners robbed them of salaries
and there was no job to get,
no living to be made
and they did this
instead of starting to beg.
I have seen white men and women
with university degrees
leaving the country
in numbers that are more than a million
to find a place to have a life
somewhere else in a foreign country,
I have waited for more than a hour queuing
at a local bank to make a cash deposit,
as a payment to someone
and the way that things are going,
with the black economic empowerment
and people not up to doing a simple job,
soon all of private industry
will be falling apart
as the government departments are doing.
I have noticed friends and family members
who were robbed, hijacked in their vehicles,
raped, tortured and killed
while the South African Police
did their very best to make a arrest
and like in all other things
are not up to it.
I know people who live in despair,
who are totally without hope
while the country’s borders
are flung wide open
to the rest of Africa
to first have a chance at a job
and their degrees and experience
in the face of this means nothing
but not one does bend
under the black heel to submission,
at the mercy of God
their lives go on…
[Reference: “Submission” by Don Mattera.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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In Every Way!
how many people are blind?
how many people are deaf?
how many by choice?
perhaps you still have jobs,
homes, food to eat, medical care.
perhaps you have investments,
a way to retire....
perhaps your family is happy,
and well taken care of...
i hope so for you!
millions of people hurting,
millions in need...
millions of children hungry,
millions who cant get an education.
millions enslaved by poverty,
millions left alone....
people with faces and names.
all of these are normal people.
whatever their language, their religion,
their sexual orientation.
all of these are people just like you.
and many of these have families,
just like you!
is it their fault they're victims?
perhaps they've worked their whole lives.
male, female, young, old.....
all people,
with mothers and fathers....
all people....
and no, America is not free.
the news we watch is tainted.
the truth is hidden from us.
killing people around the world
does not make us free....
books are being banned and burned,
prejudice and discrimination are rampant.
we have forgotten we are responsible for each other,
we have forgotten we are all immigrants here.
there are no illegal people,
all people are just people.
freedom demands equality,
in every way!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Alone she puffs
uncertain future
alone she puffs
smoke covers her face
trails the night air
she hides behind
each night under
an inch of powder
lips coloured like roses
the night aids
accompanies
her cameleon existence
satisfying loners
groping in beds
that witness sea and sea
of swirling passion
shuttling between
excited real and
make-believe passions
to satiate musculine wants
wave and wave of
lascivious acts
escalated by teutonic desires
that always end in earthshaking explosions
that rattle the senses
the musty sweaty smell
of bedsheets
so familiar now
feel like home covers
a night away from them
she feels a page
of her favourite book unread
slowly she learns to fit
the regular
into the irregular
to pick up the pieces
when she falls
what mom told her long ago
the smoke envelopes her face
before trailing off into the glittering sky
alone she puffs waiting for the next loner
carrying a dream to straighten up her tangled life
in her own tangled ways
inspired by
Like Dust I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Maya Angelou #6
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Living In China
They got the red book, they got the new look
All the little people that are living in china
They got the answers to all the questions
All the little people that are living in china
The solution is revolution
For all of the little people that are living in china
They got ping pong egg foo yung
For all the little people that are living in china
What would chairman mao say, if he knew what theyre doing to his wife today
What did china do? she ordered out for submarines instead of chinese food
China fields of rice, modern man no longer evil hes a paradise
What did the chairman want?
A great big wall they could all watch orientals on
They got the red book, they got the new look
The little people that are living in china
They got the answers to all the questions
The little people that are living in china
The solution is revolution
For all the little people that are living in china
They got ping pong egg foo yung
All the little people that are living in china
What would chairman mao say
If he knew what his people think of him today
Revolution is out of hand
The gang of four, trying to make it as a western band
China, what do you need
Youve got everything from your scruffy head to dirty feet
China you want to dance
Youre wearing makeup and listening to adam and the ants
They got the new look, they got the red book,
All the little people that are living in china
They got the answers to all the questions
All the little people that are living in china
The solution is revolution
For all the little people that are living in china
They got ping pong egg foo yung
The little people that are living in china
The solution is revolution
They got the answers to all the questions
All the little people that are living in china
China, living in china
China, living in china
China, living in china
song performed by by Men Without Hats
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My country is in ruins
My country is in ruins,
it’s a place that here and there is falling to pieces,
the decline is clearly visible
and the home of almost every white family is a fortress.
Maybe the writing is on the wall,
maybe people who pillage,
at a time will be send out in thousands,
to murder and rob as they did from their prehistory
and time and again I wonder
how long the peace can last?
Sometimes it looks as if integrity
is totally lacking from your fellow man,
as if every one wants to take revenge
for one or other reason,
as if people only living themselves
but maybe compassion is still hidden somewhere?
How much I want things to be different,
and I am longing for a place in the sun of my own,
to talk my own language, to live out my own culture
and at times to express my own thoughts.
Still there is a sun shining in the heaven,
clouds do still disappear at times before the blue;
people still have got dreams, love and ambitions,
are living their lives in happiness, joy, sorrow and pain.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Cruel Formality
The dark weather spreading all place people shivered by cool humidity
Somebody shivered without food they wealth thieving cruel people like beast they cry
Turn to back for doctrine demolish impartial earn money from pray
Although they thieving money from innocent man who shivered beneath cold with sever hungry
The rich man drunk and with fill full stomach kicking innocent people
At last programmed of development country poverty people killing or arrest using them power of command till end of life
The king of people around many of queen drinking wine eating grapes discussing condition of people
Although suffered people by poverty around anybody no one shivered by rich man curse
Greedy judges and lawyers no sense of doctrine never giving for recompenses for living
Try to hang suffered people without guilty seem everything tie with lying
Just seem to be visage of poverty innocent people they turn to charge try to arrest they noising
Without free walking in him motherland living in formality who one talks him party for surviving
Every hoped broke cry him front of altar do pure my sole till redness both eyes
Although every one cure for rich people they never singing or written sad poems
Heritage of own country living and freely talking freely for fill stomach well without blanks
Make him courage for see better formality the doctrine follow him whispered blowing winds
poem by Inguruwatta Pushpadewa
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This One Meal
This one meal mom just made
All this food she prepared
This one meal, I remembered
Mom and I had a deal
She said 'Just Eat It'
I stared at the bread I just bit
Watching mom throw away the leftover
Did she even think about the world hunger?
I tried to stop thinking about all this
I couldn't look at my full dish
I cannot hide it
It is too hard, ..
All the world hunger..
From which people die
All this food mom just threw away
Kidney Beans, Sausages, Potatoes...
If only she thought of what she was doing
Throwing away all this food
If only she thought
of what this food could do
save lives, prevent hunger..
Help people live their lives longer..
poem by Klaudia Kuczynska
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Poverty, And Ignorance!
one of the most infuriating
things i've ever read inferred
that people live in poverty
because they are ignorant!
the majority of people living
in poverty are there because
they are the victims of human greed.
call it what you want....
when too few have too much,
the many do without.
we are not so ignorant as to
accept your blatent assumptions!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Blue For You
I was born by the river
So I know where the river runs dry
I couldnt last forever
Accused just for living
But I know that the living was right
I couldnt last forever
Look at me making movies
Making living like Ive never lived before
And the people wanting out of the river
Like a poor boy really should
Now I can sit and stand it
Like other people do
What you do for me Ill do for you, yeah
Now I can sit and stand it
Like other people do
What is blue for me, is blue for you
Theres a man who I know
You know hes got a fist full of dirty dollars
And I know they wont last forever
Does he really know what people are saying
Always feeling sure what he is there saying
But the others disappear he was alone
Now I can sit and stand it
Like other people do
What you do for me Ill do for you
Now I can sit and stand it
Like other people do
What is blue for me, is blue for you
I go back to the river
Cause I know where the river runs dry
I couldnt last forever
Take the night making movies
Like a villain never ever seen the night of day
Dont you know that I cant last forever
Now I can sit and stand it
Like other people do
What you do for me Ill do for you
Now I can sit and stand it
Like other people do
What is blue for me, is blue for you
Now I can sit and stand it
Like other people do
What is blue for me, is kind of blue for you, yeah
Hello Im going down
You know I dont want to wear no pretty crown
Help people Im going down
song performed by by Wet Wet Wet
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing
There are all sorts of people
some come across as very shy
but when you get to know them
you discover they're cunning and sly.
There are those who are friendly
who greet you with a smile
but secretly they despise you
and talk about you all the while.
There are folk you have known
who say they will keep in touch
but you never ever hear from them
as really they didn't like you much.
People come into our lives constantly
and some stay friends for life
but there will be some who hate you
and in your back they would stick a knife.
So beware of certain people
because you can meet them anywhere
they may at first appear harmless
but can turn your life into a living nightmare!
poem by Kevin Halls
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I Gotta Try
by Kenny Loggins & Michael McDonald
Maybe it's true what they say about it
Maybe we can't make the ends meet
Maybe we'll all have to do without it
Maybe this world's just incomplete
Still we all look for truth in our lives
Searching from different sides
It's so hard living in a desperate world
But we all do the best that we can
Some people dream of change
Some will remain the same
But all of 'em live their lives
Under the gun
Some see the road as clear
Some say the end is here
They say it's a hopeless fight
But I say, I gotta try
Maybe there's to much to think about
Maybe there just ain't nothin' left to say
But if our time's really runnin' out
Then this is no time to run away
"Cause we're destined to look for truth in this life
Blinded by tearful eyes
If it's no use tryin' in a desperate world
Then tell me, why was I born?
Some people see a change
Some will remain the same
All of 'em live their life
Under the gun
Some see the road as clear
Some say the end is here
They say it's a hopeless fight
But I say, I gotta try
Lonely, living too lonely
Is it too late
To turn it all around?
Some people dream of change
Some will remain the same
But all of 'em live their lives
Under the gun
Some see the road as clear
Some say the end is here
They say it's a hopeless fight
But I say, I gotta try and change
Though others remain the same
All of us live our lives
Under the gun
Some see the road as clear
Some say the end is here
They say it's a hopeless fight
But I say, I gotta try and change
Someone's living
Someone's givin' up
Someone's tryin'
Someone's cryin' out
Still we live under the gun
1982 Milk Money Music and
Genevieve Music (ASCAP)
song performed by by Kenny Loggins
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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That Millions Do Live In Poverty
That millions do live in poverty should never be seen as okay
The gap between the haves and the have nots keeps getting bigger by the day
Everyone should have the chance to live happy a home to live in and enough for to eat
There never should be slums and ghettos and never a poverty street,
That millions are born to live in poverty and to end their hard lives in despair
Only tells us if there's a god that god favours the wealthy and that god is not very fair
To leave millions homeless and dying of malnutrition the people condemned to die poor and young
In the refugee camps of the World live the displaced, the poor and unsung,
In the age of celebrity worship the poor in millions multiply
Why millions are destined to be poor don't ask me I wouldn't know why
Even in the World's wealthiest Countries poor people are no longer rare
And millions and millions of have nots in the bigger World out there
And millions are dying of hunger and millions are doing it tough
And millions are displaced and homeless and as refugees living it rough.
poem by Francis Duggan
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The Epithets of Poverty VI
I can see poverty...
In the eyes of the crying children,
In the the poor minds without any education,
To a person who have never known Christ
Families that were living from hand to mouth
To a man that has more appetite than food
In a boy holding a shovel instead of pencil
In beggar's palm begging some spare coins
In those thieves who were tempted to steal
Or kill someone just to take their valuables
A lonely person and felt being unloved
In a man who can't treat his lover on a date
To the unemployed worker consumed by laziness
To a rich man closing his company
I can see poverty, to all of those people who lose hope
To all the people who has no dreams in life
For no matter who you are; rich or poor,
We are all touch by the dreadful thing called
Poverty.
poem by Raymond Cabrera
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So Many People
Where do you want to go?
Are you sure of the road that you're on?
Who do you want to be?
All I know is the world deserves to be free
Let's pretend we're staring from the moon
Love is not only for the human
Look at the world you know
Do you believe it will go on?
Where do you want to go?
The things we take will only last for so long
In the end you know it's up to you
Love is not only for the human
Oh man, we are so many people
Living different lives under turbulent times
Oh man, we don't know good from evil
Looking through our eyes is the burden of our lives
Say can we tell for sure
The North and South will keep their snow on?
Say can the Earth endure
Do you really believe we can go on?
In the end you know it's up to you
Love is not only for the human
Oh man, we are so many people
Living different lives under turbulent times
Oh man, we don't know good from evil
Looking through our eyes is the burden of our lives
In the end God is the Universe
And the Universe is you
song performed by by Simply Red
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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