Are you offended by the word 'offensive'? If so..
‘Cell-phone and sell’ is the new money-maker;
‘taking offence’ vicariously is the new morality…
switch on your mobile if you’re near
any ‘celebrity’ – best of all, backstage
or nervous from the make-up room;
you may catch some phrase that’s not meant
for your ears; or a private word that causes offence
between two people, but privately;
then put it up on YouTube; sell it to the Sundays;
the world can share it; and shiver with righteous delight
in ‘taking offence’; maybe a reporter will catch you
in the street so you can add your shock-horror quota
to the public outrage at a private word..
oh for the days when the gusty breeze of humour
blew these words away; who remembers now,
when the nation revelled in ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ on the telly
and ‘nig-nog’ and ‘whitey’ were thrown about;
(When will they dare to broadcast a repeat?)
or even the days when ‘Paki-bashing’ drew attention
to our vicious prejudices; and we could feel genuine shame;
or the time when ‘niggardly’ was practically banned
because it sounded like an insult?
If we go on like this, being called a ‘Northerner’
will imply some insult; as would ‘Southerner’…
As the cannibal chief said when he popped
a tasty missionary into the curried (oops, sorry..) stew:
‘It’s all a matter of social context, Rev…it’s
nothing personal…’
And whatever you’re called when you’re grown-up –
remember: it never hurts like those playground names...
or worse, nick-names that stuck for years…
from those of your own age, who
yesterday or tomorrow, might again be chums..?
Somewhere in Australia at this very moment
someone called Murdoch is calling someone just like me or you
a ‘whinging Pom’…remind me to take offence, would you?
Then I’ll sound off to the Sun…
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Defense and offence.
Defense is a kind of offence;
Offence is a smart defense.
Offence is to break defense.
Defense is to thwart offence.
As predator, one needs offence.
As a prey, one needs defense.
Otherwise defense is as bad as offence.
12.02.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Truth can Hurt
The truth can hurt
Some writers write infrequently
and others write prolifically.
What matters is the quality
much more so than the quantity.
Good writers by their words display
their thoughts in a coherent way
Describing things they have observed
and garner praise that’s well deserved.
But some think anything will do
and they pay no attention to
the rules successful writers use
they will not learn: point blank refuse
to accept well meant critique.
They much prefer dishonest praise
from so called friends afraid
to speak the simple truth lest they dismay
their friend by speaking honestly.
So naturally they take offence
when other people criticise
that which seems perfect in their eyes.
True writers take this in their stride
they know their work is not perfect.
But what they know is they have tried
and that is all you can expect.
New writers lack experience
but everyone must start some where.
The wise ones do not take offence
when other people show they care
enough to offer some advice.
Because they can remember when
they too were just a new novice
to painting pictures with their pen.
27 feb 08
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Private Money
Dynasty private banks hate the State
Dynasty private money hate the fate
we all were told,
The world sold all gold. Honey, honey
Private money. Mankind find in mind,
Front page, low wage,
David Ricardo’s dangerous offence,
Makes no sense. Honey, honey
Private money. Interest of money out of nothing,
You knew the true, anything.
Bless confess negligence,
Birth of earth impotence. Honey, honey
Private money. They are not the world to neglect
The true of this world ugly content.
Their hate will attend tough low blow,
Their fate is a soon end down below. Honey, honey
Private money.
poem by Vladimir Funduc
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Poopey PooPoo
My grandmother,
Was not into calling her children
By nicknames.
In fact she once said to my sister...
'I gave my children the names they have!
Each was given with a special meaning.
To identify and dignify that which has been given.'
I often wondered...
Had my sister and I been,
The only ones listening?
With comprehension?
Over the years...
It just appears that way!
Today...
Grown folks are known better by their nicknames.
Than those names given.
Poopey PooPoo. BeBop. Slice and Dice...
BooBoo and Drooper!
What 'energies' have they called upon themselves?
And their children have no idea who their parents are.
Their real names.
Or their purposes.
I remembered when I began calling myself Lawrence...
My birth name.
Lawrence, Junior in fact.
Named after my father.
We were both called Larry at one time.
I decided I would become Lawrence S.
After discovering on my father's birth certificate,
His name was listed as Lawrence A.
And I wanted to be 'AS' much as Lawrence as possible!
Can you guess...
I am between poeticness.
As I share a bit of 'personal-ness'.
Folks got upset!
Guess who smiled?
Clara Louise Countryman Pertillar.
She was very strong and dynamic.
She was pleased to know I was daring!
And the leaves upon the trees,
Begin to bloom in Spring.
As I reminisce those things I miss.
Taking trips back through time.
Those things impressed upon my mind.
And finding me feeling blessed!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
You can change the names
You can change the names
of places and call them,
what you want.
My people who life there,
will still be living there
next year and for many years more.
You can change the personnel
that work for the city
and the inadequate delivery of services
and corruption,
will in time make you
pay a handsome bill.
You can change the names of streets,
and fashion them
to your heroes.
Never could you undo
the acts of those
whose names they originally bared
and everyone that uses them
will still know
what they were called before.
Without fixing the roads
people will remember
about the holes in Slovo street
and the dead robots in Mandela drive,
which will keep them alive
You can change the names of airports
for its better that way,
that the world knows
that they coming
to an new country
that’s has fallen years behind,
from where it was before.
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
speaking Of Re-birth!
** SPEAKING OF RE-BIRTH!
Many a time it has been said, that despite my
prayers and fond wishes,
The soul must go through several re-births,
To absolve itself from all debts on this earth!
And those who committed acts of violence,
Must take re-birth to meet such an end!
It is indeed a reassuring and comforting thought,
That crime never goes unpunished in the eyes of
God!
Now what happens to all our courts of laws,
With hanging and life imprisonments galore? !
For the same offence you cannot punish a man
twice!
Do the advocates of ‘re-birth’ listen to such
advice?
Despite whatever has been said in re-birth’s
defense,
I have always prayed for Moksha without giving
offence!
My the Gods make my soul truly free, -
And if the soul must suffer re-birth, -
Well, let it not be me!
-Raj Nandy
03 Jun 09
New Delhi
(Though written in a lighter vein, many a true word
is spoken in a jest!)
I Admit I Have Forgotten
When I was a much younger person,
It was difficult for me to listen...
With a paying of attention.
I was young, dumb and full of...
Ignorance I shared.
With those who became upset,
With decisions I made too late to correct.
Today,
I listen to everyone.
Whether what is said is solicited or not.
I even sit through people repeating themselves,
With hopes my raised eyebrow would send a clue...
I got the message two days ago.
And they 'still' continue.
Believing I am listening intently.
I've learned that one never knows,
What is being said today...
Will not apply one day.
Whenever that day arrives.
'Remember you told me to shut my mouth,
To listen years ago.
And I became offended,
Calling you some horrible and atrocious names? '
No.
I don't remember that.
What names did you call me?
How horrible and atrocious were they?
'Well...
I just wanted to say I am grateful to you.
And I feel even more blessed,
You have forgiven me.'
Wait a minute. Hold on.
What were those names you called me?
Help me remember.
Maybe I haven't forgiven you at all.
Although I admit I have forgotten.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Accidental Insults
Although I write mainly for me.
I choose to share my poetry.
With other poets on the net.
The only thing that I regret.
Sometimes I find I have upset.
Somebody inadvertently.
Albeit unintentionally.
I can only apologise
For bringing teardrops to their eyes.
Though I am taken by surprise.
By what they read into my words.
I often find it quite absurd.
They take offence at what I write.
They see it in a different light.
And choose to take the opposite.
view. Because they fail to understand.
They then dismiss me out of hand.
As they have every right to do.
Because sometimes I've chosen to.
Criticise what they hold true.
I do not mean to cause offence
I offer this in self defence.
The words I write, you filter through
Experiences peculiar to you.
That's why you read them as you do.
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Vicious Games
I never knew
How much I loved you
I never knew
How much I cared
So I played
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
I was afraid
To go under
Afraid to see
When I closed my eyes
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
I never knew
How much I loved you
I never knew
How much I care
I just played
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
Now that youre gone
And you have left me
I had to learn
I had to learn how much it hurts
To play those vicious games
Vicious games, vicious games
Different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
Different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
Different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
Different names, different names
song performed by by Yello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Vicious Games
I never knew
How much I loved you
I never knew
How much I cared
So I played
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
I was afraid
To go under
Afraid to see
When I closed my eyes
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
I never knew
How much I loved you
I never knew
How much I care
I just played
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
With different names, different names
Now that youre gone
And you have left me
I had to learn
I had to learn how much it hurts
To play those vicious games
Vicious games, vicious games
Different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
Different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
Different names, different names
Vicious games, vicious games
Different names, different names
song performed by by Yello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Force Of Habit
A little child, who had desired
To go and see the Park guns fired,
Was taken by his maid that way
Upon the next rejoicing day.
Soon as the unexpected stroke
Upon his tender organs broke,
Confused and stunned at the report,
He to her arms fled for support,
And begged to be conveyed at once
Out of the noise of those great guns,
Those naughty guns, whose only sound
Would kill (he said) without a wound:
So much of horror and offence
The shock had given his infant sense.
Yet this was he in after days
Who filled the world with martial praise,
When from the English quarter-deck
His steady courage swayed the wreck
Of hostile fleets, disturbed no more
By all that vast conflicting roar,
That sky and sea did seem to tear,
When vessels whole blew up in air,
Than at the smallest breath that heaves,
When Zephyr hardly stirs the leaves.
poem by Charles Lamb
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Parrot
The Parrot.
The café in our village has shut. The couple who ran it left
when their parrot died. They had kept the place open for it,
since it was a genial bird. The parrot called everyone who
entered idiots; people laughed no one took offence, or so
we all thought. But someone must have taken umbrage, it
was shot through the window when the café was empty.
Feather everywhere the village was shocked, who could do
such a shameful deed? The culprit, was a farmer, who had
drunk his coffee at the café for twenty odd years, and had
enough of being called an idiot. The moral of this sad tale,
if there is any: if you call a man an idiot long enough he will
end up being one.
poem by Oskar Hansen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Recalcitrants
Let us off and search, and find a place
Where yours and mine can be natural lives,
Where no one comes who dissects and dives
And proclaims that ours is a curious case,
That its touch of romance can scarcely grace.
You would think it strange at first, but then
Everything has been strange in its time.
When some one said on a day of the prime
He would bow to no brazen god again
He doubtless dazed the mass of men.
None will recognize us as a pair whose claims
Righteous judgment we care not making;
Who have doubted if breath be worth the taking,
And have no respect for the current fames
Whence the savour has flown while abide the names.
We have found us already shunned, disdained,
And for re-acceptance have not once striven;
Whatever offence our course has given
The brunt thereof we have long sustained.
Well, let us away, scorned, unexplained.
poem by Thomas Hardy
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Total Control
(m. davis, j. jourard)
Producer: carter
Album: we are the world (usa for africa)(85), the collected recordings (94)
Looking counter clockwise
Knowing what could happen
Any moment maybe you
Maybe even you
Steadfast collapse
Always certain any moment
Maybe you maybe you
Maybe even you
Recline complete dreams too sweet
I cant do it not with you
Not even with you
Maybe never with you
And Id sell my soul for total control
Yeah Id sell my soul for total control
Street wet tonight, lovers touch
Its pure delight
Always certain any moment
Maybe even you
Stay in bed stained sheets
My head hurts I repeat
Maybe you maybe you
Maybe even you
And Id sell my soul for total control
Yeah Id sell my soul for total control
Id sell my soul for total control
Over you, over you
Total control over you
song performed by by Tina Turner
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Monkeys and Talent
Some people say that man comes from monkeys but the Good Book tells it different and brother if you believe what some people say. I'd rather be that monkey then you any old days. Speaking of talents which I wasn't. Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.
Names I've been called stupid. I been called dumb. I've been called lots of things and then some, but I'm smart enough to know I'm just as good as you and so, I say to you who call me names. I hold no of rudge or place no blame. Being stupid is some times smart and playing dumb is just a part of life, and one of the smartest people I know is ME.
poem by Betty Mae Eaton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Friends
What is a friend
Could it be that it's just a word
Or something in your life that you've heard
Or just another one of those big fat lies
Because many nights this word has made me cry
So hard my stomach hurts deep down inside
[chorus]
uh oh there goes that word again
How do we let it end
I thought you were my friend
I can't believe my very eyes
Right to my face you lied
Cause you're my so-called friend
How could you call yourself a friend
Oh oh there goes that word again
That brings people together and tears them apart
It's always said by those who claim they love you
When all the while they want to fill your shoes
And never calling you up with no good news
They're always happy when your through
They never want the best for you
They're always trying to fill your shoes
(I don't understand this kind of friend)
[chorus]
uh oh there goes that word again
How do we let it end
I thought you were my friend
I can't believe my very eyes
Right to my face you lied
Cause you're my so-called friend
Opportunity's knocking here comes my friend
uh oh there goes that word again
(they only come around when they need something y'all)
They call you everyday 'til they reel you in
And they want to hang out so you can spend on them
(I don't understand, I don't understand this kind of friend)
[chorus]
uh oh there goes that word again
How do we let it end
I thought you were my friend
I can't believe my very eyes
Right to my face you lied
Cause you're my so-called friend
[repeat chorus til fade]
song performed by by Mary J Blige
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Least said soonest mended
Least said soonest mended
I am condemned to wonder why
I cannot make an apt reply.
When someone has insulted me.
I find I can quite easily
but only when it is too late
Why can’t I just retaliate?
when someone has insulted me.
At the time immediately.
Perhaps I’m taken by surprise
perhaps because I am too wise.
When someone has insulted me
to take the insult seriously.
Though I must say in self defence
I am not quick to take offence
when some one has insulted me
I hold on to my dignity.
I will not be an easy mark
to be hurt by some chance remark.
Perhaps they weren’t insulting me
but merely meant to disagree
I simply smile and let it go
I do not really want to know.
If they were insulting me.
It hasn’t worked as they can see.
20-Aug-08
http: // blog.myspace.com/poetic piers
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Horror Of The Nights
Again the savage night came to hug my heart
With it's dark wings
How scary you are like a devil
You come
everyday to bring the horror to my soul.
To remind me that the happiness had passed my way long time ago
And empty days are all that I own
To remain everyday again and again
The pain of the past
And now you are here again
It's the end of the day
Yesterday I have had the faith
May tomorrow I will catch the happiness one more time again
But tomorrow came and i'm still the same
I know it's too late
The days are slipping like a moment among the fingers of the lifetime
And the years are running to chase each other
Everyone had catched their time
And had found her way to happiness somehow, somewhere
But I am still Waiting every new day
May I can find my way somehow someday
The stormy winds of the life
Have took away
my happiness
For a while I forgot myself
Asleep
But it took my years
When I woke up at once
The years had passed
me by
The devil of the night was there to remain the pain.
I took my phone book To call my friends
But the pages were empty
No one was there.
I Looked out of the balcony
And I saw there were people
At the darkness of the night
Dough the sky was crying with me
But the lovers were there
Holding each other hands
They never were aware of
The darkness of the night
Or crying of the sky
They were just in love
It's admiring how charming you become
When the lovers are around
poem by Sossi Khachadourian
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Hard Core Heart
Hard rock and drugs
Running thru my veins
Mother fucking bitchy whore
Been called by many names
Moshing thru the nights
Sleeping thru the day
Drinking in the bathrooms
Pretending I’m ok
Breathing in the smoke
Laughing at the pain
Giving up all hope
Taking all the blame
Hard rock and drugs
Running thru my veins
Mother fucking bitchy whore
Been called by many names
Hidden by my smiles
A part of me resides
Getting smaller by the day
The rest of my heart dies
Hard rock and drugs
Running thru my veins
Mother fucking bitchy whore
Been called by many names
Smoking pot in my room
Know I won’t get caught
Mom and dad are drunk again
Forgetting what the taught
Hard rock and drugs
Running thru my veins
Mother fucking bitchy whore
Been called by many names
poem by Hannah Anderson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Tucked Away
Well, I saw you once
Then I blew it for the next ten thousand days
I should have flapped away
I needed to come back and show you
I needed to go back
I know its wrong
I laughed to get along
[chorus]
Mama just called
Says shes tucked away
Mama just called
Says shes tucked away another day
Mama just called
Says shes tucked away
Mama just called
Says shes extra sad today
Well, I spent the whole day yesterday
On clichs about love
Making me remember when your pushes became shoves
I wanted to come back and show you
Needed to go back
I know its wrong
I laughed to get along
[chorus]
So whyd you go and play my trust
Todays the same as yesterday, and Im okay
? ? i take the time this weatherman did time again to get along? ?
Since youve been gone
Ill get along anyway at all
Mama just called
Says shes tucked away
Mama just called
Says shes tucked away another day
Mama just called
Says shes tucked away
Mama just called
Says shes tucked away another day
(tucked away)
(tucked away)
(tucked away)
(tucked away)
song performed by by Goo Goo Dolls
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!