Night's still awake with flexible souls
At the daybreak a drunkard whispers to a beggar's ear
Who's fast asleep on the concrete bed!
'Sorry for the inconvenience brother!
Short of few coins and I want to go back home
As I lost my way last night and slept in a strange place.'
The kind beggar gave him a brand new dollar note
with a big yawn and he's surprised.
He jumped to the first bus and gone.
Now the beggar remembers the friend
Once offered him a drink and he's worried
That he should have given him more.
* A Diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pressure.
-Anonymous
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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The Spaewife
OH, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry.
An’ siller, that ’s sae braw to keep, is brawer still to gi’e.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Oh, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
Hoo a’things come to be whaur we find them when we try,
The lasses in their claes an’ the fishes in the sea.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Oh, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
Why lads are a’ to sell an’lasses a’ to buy;
An’ naebody for dacency but barely twa or three.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Oh, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
Gin death’s as shure to men as killin’ is to kye,
Why God has filled the yearth sae fu’ o’ tasty things to pree.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Oh, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
The reason o’ the cause an’ the wherefore o’ the why,
Wi’ mony anither riddle brings the tear into my e’e.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
poem by Robert Louis Stevenson
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Beggar To Beggar Cried
'TIME to put off the world and go somewhere
And find my health again in the sea air,'
Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
'And make my soul before my pate is bare.-
'And get a comfortable wife and house
To rid me of the devil in my shoes,'
Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
'And the worse devil that is between my thighs.'
And though I'd marry with a comely lass,
She need not be too comely -- let it pass,'
Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
'But there's a devil in a looking-glass.'
'Nor should she be too rich, because the rich
Are driven by wealth as beggars by the itch,'
Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
'And cannot have a humorous happy speech.'
'And there I'll grow respected at my ease,
And hear amid the garden's nightly peace.'
Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
'The wind-blown clamour of the barnacle-geese.'
poem by William Butler Yeats
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Misplaced Souls
Momma can you still love me my life has gone so bad
With everything you taught me all the things I had
I guess that I forgot the parts the ones you said I'd need
The words you used for me to hear I guess I didn't heed
And now I am a beggar the beggar on the street
I guess I really screwed up this time no place to rest my feet
I'm the beggar on the street the one that you pass by
Disheveled clothes and matted hair so filthy to your eye
Sometimes I wonder how I got here it all came on so fast
One day I was just like you the next I needed gas
My car is where I live sometimes and others its a shack
I know to you I'm filthy and to me you'll turn your back
The sign I carry sometimes reads that I am 'Out of work'
Or maybe it will say to you 'A vet and I will work'
They mean the same I have no cash no assets do I have
A sign that reads 'Will work for food' is all I own or have
It wasn't supposed to be this way my plans and dreams they mattered
But somehow things did not work out the clothes I wear are tattered
The thing I want for others to know is that I'm still their brother
And all I want when said and done is to be home with my mother
poem by Daniel Lloyd Kennedy
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The Jolly Beggar II
THERE was a jolly beggar, and a begging he was bound,
And he took up his quarters into a landart town.
Fa la la, etc.
He wad neither ly in barn, nor yet wad he in byre,
But in ahint the ha-door, or else afore the fire.
The beggar’s bed was made at een wi good clean straw and hay,
And in ahint the ha-door, and there the beggar lay.
raise the goodman’s dochter, and for to bar the door,
And there she saw the beggar standin i the floor.
He took the lassie in his arms and to the bed he ran,
‘O hooly, hooly wi me, sir! ye’ll waken our goodman.’
The beggar was a cunnin loon, and neer a word he spake
Until he got his turn done, syne he began to crack.
‘Is there ony dogs into this town? maiden, tell me true.’
‘And what wad ye do wi them, my hinny and my dow?’
‘They’ll rive a’ my mealpocks, and do me meikle wrang.’
‘O dool for the doing o’t! are ye the poor man?’
Then she took up the mealpocks and flang them oer the wa:
‘The d--l gae wi the mealpocks, my maidenhead and a’!
‘I took ye for some gentleman, at least the Larid of Brodie;
O dool for the doing o’t! are ye the poor bodie?’
took the lassie in his arms and gae her kisses three,
And four-and-twenty hunder merk to pay the nurice-fee.
He took a horn frae his side and blew baith loud and shrill,
And four-and-twenty belted knights came skipping oer the hill.
And he took out his little knife, loot a’ his duddies fa,
And he was the brawest gentleman that was amang them a’.
The beggar was a cliver loon and he lap shoulder height:
‘O ay for sicken quarters as I gat yesternight!’
poem by Anonymous Olde English
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Running To Paradise
As I came over Windy Gap
They threw a halfpenny into my cap.
For I am running to paradise;
And all that I need do is to wish
And somebody puts his hand in the dish
To throw me a bit of salted fish:
And there the king is but as the beggar.
My brother Mourteen is worn out
With skelping his big brawling lout,
And I am running to paradise;
A poor life, do what he can,
And though he keep a dog and a gun,
A serving-maid and a serving-man:
And there the king is but as the beggar.
Poor men have grown to be rich men,
And rich men grown to be poor again,
And I am running to paradise;
And many a darling wit's grown dull
That tossed a bare heel when at school,
Now it has filled a old sock full:
And there the king is but as the beggar.
The wind is old and still at play
While I must hurty upon my way.
For I am running to paradise;
Yet never have I lit on a friend
To take my fancy like the wind
That nobody can buy or bind:
And there the king is but as the beggar.
poem by William Butler Yeats
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A Be-ggar
No one opts for unless forced
Inner soul feels guilty with remorse
Yet that is compulsion
No one desires it even amidst confusion
It is curse to be called beggar
*Daridranarayan* in new avatar
Daily blessing all for little food
Respond to appeal and offer for good
Charity is not offered daily
It is done with insult really
No one parts it with smiling face
Only left over food is offered in such case
Body is able but no backing
No one thinks of utilizing and stacking
Their place for honorable living
Payment for real labor and relieving
Yes some kind of rehabilitation is warranted
Their place in society is hopefully wanted
They are very much part but really not blessed
God has given hands but helplessly chased
I shall only think and do nothing
Express pity but no offer for something
The beggar passes off and so our feeling
Our sympathy remains behind as concealed
It is gigantic task and needs some consideration
Not all can be rehabilitated at one place with concentration
Many may still want to be in same position
As it provides them no other alternative under superstition
*Daridranarayan… God's incarnation
*Be—(without) .. Ghar(home)
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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Be not a beggar
Avoid seeking aids
Unless in bare needs;
Avoid getting helps
Unless in dire needs.
Provide in equals
To those aids and helps.
You should not afford
To be a beggar.
Offer help and aids
That must not be baits;
Offer gifts and kinds
That should not be a debt.
Your pay out should not be
Less than your receipts.
You cannot afford to be a beggar,
You be not greedy
Which makes you ugly.
Then you aren’t shut
Doors by the dear ones.
You may remain poor
But not a beggar.
Being a beggar
Is worse than a slave.
18 09,2005
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Arbitrary
I am in my Honda Civic car at Haji Ali:
Boy of thirteen knocks on window screen,
But I turn away from this beggar, sure,
Not knowing how to go about it always.
In the morning however at Worli
I had asked driver to slow down
While I took out a ten rupee note
And gave it to that young beggar.
There is no difference between the two,
Both are begging by tapping on car window;
One makes my hand to open a wallet
And the other make my eyes move away.
poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph
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When The Conscience Speaks...
a beggar arrives home today
bringing her story
and she talks and talks
and convinces me that
she deserves to be
given food and money...
an intelligent beggar
with wits and wiles, and she wins
i am parting with
some charities
that only God can pay...
well and good,
that is what this feeling says
this conscience is not
dead
after all....
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Be-ggar
No one opts for unless forced
Inner soul feels guilty with remorse
Yet that is compulsion
No one desires it even amidst confusion
It is curse to be called beggar
*Daridranarayan* in new avatar
Daily blessing all for little food
Respond to appeal and offer for good
Charity is not offered daily
It is done with insult really
No one parts it with smiling face
Only left over food is offered in such case
Body is able but no backing
No one thinks of utilizing and stacking
Their place for honorable living
Payment for real labor and relieving
Yes some kind of rehabilitation is warranted
Their place in society is hopefully wanted
They are very much part but really not blessed
God has given hands but helplessly chased
I shall only think and do nothing
Express pity but no offer for something
The beggar passes off and so our feeling
Our sympathy remains behind as concealed
It is gigantic task and needs some consideration
Not all can be rehabilitated at one place with concentration
Many may still want to be in same position
As it provides them no other alternative under superstition
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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Two Songs Rewritten For The Tune's Sake
I
My Paistin Finn is my sole desire,
And I am shrunken to skin and bone,
For all my heart has had for its hire
Is what I can whistle alone and alone.
Oro, oro.!
Tomorrow night I will break down the door.
What is the good of a man and he
Alone and alone, with a speckled shin?
I would that I drank with my love on my knee
Between two barrels at the inn.
Oro, oro.!
To-morrow night I will break down the door.
Alone and alone nine nights I lay
Between two bushes under the rain;
I thought to have whistled her down that
I whistled and whistled and whistled in vain.
Oro, oro!
To-morrow night I will break down the door.
II
I would that I were an old beggar
Rolling a blind pearl eye,
For he cannot see my lady
Go gallivanting by;
A dreary, dreepy beggar
Without a friend on the earth
But a thieving rascally cur --
O a beggar blind from his birth;
Or anything else but a rhymer
Without a thing in his head
But rhymes for a beautiful lady,
He rhyming alone in his bed.
poem by William Butler Yeats
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Better Be a Beggar
A beggar is not a robber.
He’s not a swindler or a hoarder.
He is as he could not be they.
Being a beggar is not a shame.
(10.04.2011)
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Beggar is better
A dependant is worse than a beggar,
Though both of them don’t get self respects,
In that he, unlike the beggar, would get
Humiliations from his known people.
01.12.99
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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A beggar will always be a beggar even if they give him the whole world as a gift.
The beggar that begs near another beggar will never be rich.
We Are Worried
We are worried
Our once prosperous land
Is now a beggar
We are worried
Our incandescent light
Is now blurred
We are worried
Love no longer co-habits
On our wide streets
We are worried
That brothers slaughter brothers
All in the name of God
We are worried
How vultures prey
On our commonwealth
We are worried
The gap gets wider
Between the rich and the poor
We are worried
About our youths
Whose destinies are bleak.
We are worried
That the ship may sink
Like the titanic.
We are worried
We do not know who to trust
We are worried of many things
poem by Babatunde Aremu
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Bible in Poetry: Gospel of St. John (Chapter 9)
Jesus saw a man, blind since birth;
His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi,
By whose sins was the man born blind-
His own sins or that of parents’? ’
So, Jesus answered them, ‘Neither.
It is so that the works of God
Be manifested through the man.
The day is meant for all to work;
The night is for slumber and rest.’
‘While in this world, I am the light.’
Then Jesus spat on ground near-by
And mixed the clay with saliva;
He smeared the clay over man’s eyes
And said, ’ Go wash in Siloam Pool! ’
The man did so and got vision.
The beggar was able to see!
The neighbors saw and then remarked,
‘Isn’t this the beggar who was blind? ’
The beggar replied, ‘Yes, I am! ’
They asked, ‘How were your eyes opened? ’
The man described the whole story.
They asked him, ‘Where is Jesus now?
The beggar said, ‘I do not know.’
They brought the man to Pharisees;
Now Jesus did the miracle,
On Sabbath day and all knew that.
The Pharisees queried the man;
They said, ‘This man is not from God!
He does not keep the Sabbath-day.
How can a sinful man do signs?
They asked the beggar’s opinion;
He told them, ‘He is a prophet! ’
The Jews summoned his parents then
And enquired about their son;
His parents said, ‘He was born blind.’
But they didn’t know how he saw then.
They neither knew the healer’s name;
They told them to ask the beggar.
His parents were afraid of Jews;
If anyone believed Jesus,
And acknowledged Him, Messiah,
They were expelled from synagogue.
They called the beggar once again,
And asked him to give praise to God,
For, Jesus was a sinner great!
The man replied, ‘I do not know
If Jesus is a sinner great;
One thing was true that I was blind
And Jesus helped to make me see, ’
They asked him for more details then;
The beggar lost his cool and said,
‘Do you wish to be disciples? ’
They ridiculed the beggar-man
And said, ‘We are Moses’ disciples!
We don’t know where Jesus is from? ’
The man answered them quite bravely,
‘Isn’t it amazing that although,
You do not know who Jesus is,
Yet, He had made me to see then? ’
‘God does not listen to sinners;
If one’s devout, God listens then.
So far no one had given sight
To man who was blind, since his birth.’
‘If Jesus did not come from God,
He wouldn’t do miracles like this.’
They told the man, ‘You’re born in sin;
So, do not try to preach to us.
They drove the beggar-man away!
Then Jesus heard of incident;
He found the beggar-man and asked,
‘Do you believe in Son of Man? ’
He queried, ‘Who is he, tell me
So that, I may believe in Him.’
Then Jesus said, ‘You have seen Him;
The one speaking to you is He! ’
The man believed and worshipped Him.
Then Jesus said, ‘I came in here,
Into this world for judgment just,
And make ones who couldn’t see, to see,
And those who see become so blind.’
Some Pharisees who heard him said,
‘Surely we’re blind, are we not then? ’
Jesus told them, ‘If you were blind,
You wouldn’t have sins, but as you see,
Your sin remains and you are blind! ’
Copyright by Dr John Celes 5-23-2007
poem by John Celes
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Bottled At The Source
Approaching the oasis this thirsty pairing
A ragged beggar and a snake charmer
Noticed an oddly shaped ominous cloud
Which seemed to be hovering overhead__
Ready for a much needed refreshing drink
They cupped their hands and took aim at the water's surface
But before they could break the tension of the mirror like pond
Their eyes beheld what appeared to be the reflection
Of an utterly demonic yet spiritual creature....
Fearing to take a drink as the water may be poisoned
The beggar behooves and begs pardon for his intrusion
While the snake charmer drinks because he had seen
The devil's face before and had charmed many serpents
The snake charmers thirst was uncontrollable and so it was
He scooped up all his hands could hold and drank fully
Within seconds of quenching his parched throat
He grabbed at it and as if to be strangling himself
He fell face down in the liquid dose and did not move
The beggar fearful and pleading for his life to be spared
Fell on his back petitioning God to deliver him from a similar fate
.....and at that very moment the oddly shaped ominous cloud
Opened up its vessel and from it poured a drink of rain
Into the beggar's mouth....until the heavenly gift was fully evaporated
The beggar now having been revived...
Sits up and taking notice of the snake charmer's status
Robs him of his sandals and his cloak___
2007 © T Sheridan
poem by Ted Sheridan
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