Dollars drowned silver,
dimes, and quarters' sum sewered,
greed with no sandbags.
haiku by Val Morehouse
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Smart
My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more then one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes-- I guess he didn't know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head--
Too proud of me to speak!
poem by Sheldon Allan Silverstein
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Greed be the Ruler?
Do we really want our greed to be the ruler of our life
when all we get for our effort is agony and strife?
We keep chasing after dollars each and every day
but if it's really worth the time is very hard to say.
The need for ever bigger things has taken a firm hold
but treasures in our heart are worth far more than gold
instead we stress and run around like rats within a cage
we work ourselves into the ground and end up in a rage.
We live with tunnel vision having just one goal in mind
to use our hard earned dollars and buy all we can find.
With a big promotion and more money greed will grow
we want more material wealth that we can put on show.
This is the world we live in if we shut our spirit out
we'll never cherish what we have of that there is no doubt
but if we put aside our greed to see how we are blessed
we'll recognise that we have always had the very best.
poem by Monica Partridge
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Come On Home
Dark clouds are comin' like an army
Soon the sky will open up and disarm me
You will go just like you've gone before
One sad soldier off to war, enemies that only you can see.
Dishes stacked, the table cleared
It's always like the scene of the last supper here
You speak so cryptically that's not news to me
The flood is here it will carry you
And I've got work to do.
Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
There is fire there is lust
Some will trade it all for someone they could trust
There's a bag of silver for a box of nails
It's so simple the betrayal
Though it's known to change the world and what's to come.
Just come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Don't you recognize them anymore
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
There's the given and the expected
I count my blessings while I eye what I've neglected
Is this for better is this for worse
You're all jammed up and the dam's about to burst.
I hear the owl in the night
I realize that some things never are made right
By some will we string together here
Days to months and months to years
What if everything we have adds up to nothing.
Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
song performed by by Indigo Girls
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nickels And Dimes
I used to stand on a corner when i was a child
And i'd play my guitar and sing as the people went by
The sidewalks were crowded but i'd just sing louder cause i didn't mind
Just spending my time, spinning my rhymes and singing for nickels and dimes
Nickels and dimes a song at a time for nickels and dimes
I'd brighten their day as they go on their way and they'd brighten mine
A sidewalk rehearsal for dreams that i held in my mind
I knew that someday in my own special i'd repay all their nickels and dimes
I recall the sidewalk each night as i stand on the stage
As i play my guitar and sing for the people who paid
Cause i finally made it to what they all call the big time
But i still remember i still owe some nickels and dimes
Nickels and dimes a song at a time for nickels and dimes
A sidewalk rehearsal for dreams that i held in my mind
So if you remember a child on the corner of time
You'll know that i wrote this to repay your nickels and dimes
Nickels and dimes a song at a time for nickels and dimes
A sidewalk rehearsal for dreams that i held in my mind
So if you remember a child on a corner of time
You'll know that i wrote this to repay your nickels and dimes
Nickels and dimes a song at a time for nickels and dimes
A sidewalk rehearsal for dreams that i held in my mind
So if you remember a child on a corner of time
You'll know that i wrote this to repay your nickels and dimes
song performed by by Dolly Parton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nickels & Dimes
I used to stand on a corner when I was a child
And Id play my guitar and sing as the people went by
The sidewalks were crowded but Id just sing louder cause I didnt mind
Just spending my time, spinning my rhymes and singing for nickels and dimes
Nickels and dimes a song at a time for nickels and dimes
Id brighten their day as they go on their way and theyd brighten mine
A sidewalk rehearsal for dreams that I held in my mind
I knew that someday in my own special Id repay all their nickels and dimes
I recall the sidewalk each night as I stand on the stage
As I play my guitar and sing for the people who paid
Cause I finally made it to what they all call the big time
But I still remember I still owe some nickels and dimes
Nickels and dimes a song at a time for nickels and dimes
A sidewalk rehearsal for dreams that I held in my mind
So if you remember a child on the corner of time
Youll know that I wrote this to repay your nickels and dimes
Nickels and dimes a song at a time for nickels and dimes
A sidewalk rehearsal for dreams that I held in my mind
So if you remember a child on a corner of time
Youll know that I wrote this to repay your nickels and dimes
Nickels and dimes a song at a time for nickels and dimes
A sidewalk rehearsal for dreams that I held in my mind
So if you remember a child on a corner of time
Youll know that I wrote this to repay your nickels and dimes
song performed by by Dolly Parton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Take care of the dimes and the dollars will take care of themselves.
A Song Of The Sandbags
No, Bill, I'm not a-spooning out no patriotic tosh
(The cove be'ind the sandbags ain't a death-or-glory cuss).
And though I strafes 'em good and 'ard I doesn't 'ate the Boche,
I guess they're mostly decent, just the same as most of us.
I guess they loves their 'omes and kids as much as you or me;
And just the same as you or me they'd rather shake than fight;
And if we'd 'appened to be born at Berlin-on-the-Spree,
We'd be out there with 'Ans and Fritz, dead sure that we was right.
A-standin' up to the sandbags
It's funny the thoughts wot come;
Starin' into the darkness,
'Earin' the bullets 'um;
(Zing! Zip! Ping! Rip!
'ark 'ow the bullets 'um!)
A-leanin' against the sandbags
Wiv me rifle under me ear,
Oh, I've 'ad more thoughts on a sentry-go
Than I used to 'ave in a year.
I wonder, Bill, if 'Ans and Fritz is wonderin' like me
Wot's at the bottom of it all? Wot all the slaughter's for?
'E thinks 'e's right (of course 'e ain't) but this we both agree,
If them as made it 'ad to fight, there wouldn't be no war.
If them as lies in feather beds while we kips in the mud;
If them as makes their fortoons while we fights for 'em like 'ell;
If them as slings their pot of ink just 'ad to sling their blood:
By Crust! I'm thinkin' there 'ud be another tale to tell.
Shiverin' up to the sandbags,
With a hicicle 'stead of a spine,
Don't it seem funny the things you think
'Ere in the firin' line:
(Whee! Whut! Ziz! Zut!
Lord! 'ow the bullets whine!)
Hunkerin' down when a star-shell
Cracks in a sputter of light,
You can jaw to yer soul by the sandbags
Most any old time o' night.
They talks o' England's glory and a-'oldin' of our trade,
Of Empire and 'igh destiny until we're fair flim-flammed;
But if it's for the likes o' that that bloody war is made,
Then wot I say is: Empire and 'igh destiny be damned!
There's only one good cause, Bill, for poor blokes like us to fight:
That's self-defence, for 'earth and 'ome, and them that bears our name;
And that's wot I'm a-doin' by the sandbags 'ere to-night. . . .
But Fritz out there will tell you 'e's a-doin' of the same.
Starin' over the sandbags,
Sick of the 'ole damn thing;
Firin' to keep meself awake,
'Earin' the bullets sing.
(Hiss! Twang! Tsing! Pang!
Saucy the bullets sing.)
Dreamin' 'ere by the sandbags
Of a day when war will cease,
When 'Ans and Fritz and Bill and me
Will clink our mugs in fraternity,
And the Brotherhood of Labour will be
The Brotherhood of Peace.
poem by Robert William Service
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Nickels And Dimes And Love
Remember when pocket change was all we had
And all those calls from the corner phonebooth
Collect to Mom and Dad
And that old worn out couch we called our bed
When our cuisine was pork and beans
Baloney and day old bread
Remember that damn old car that kept breaking down
And all the times it left me stranded
Thumbing all over town
And that old weekly paycheck
Just never stretched enough
Back in the times of nickels and dimes and love
Together we sure made some dreams come true
Sometimes it wasn't easy
But somehow we made it through
And when I get to thinking times are tough
I remember the times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Oh those good old times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Remember digging through your old purses in hopes we'd get
Enough change for an RC cola or a pack of cigarettes
Now we've got almost everything
That we were dreaming of
Back in the times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Together we sure made some dreams come true
Sometimes it wasn't easy
But somehow we made it through
And when I get to thinking times are tough
I remember the times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Oh those good old times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Do you remember those times
Of nickels and dimes and love
song performed by by John Michael Montgomery
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nickels & Dimes & Love
(johnny macrae/steve clark)
Remember when pocket change was all we had
And all those calls from the corner phonebooth
Collect to mom and dad
And that old worn out couch we called our bed
When our cuisine was pork and beans
Baloney and day old bread
Remember that damn old car that kept breaking down
And all the times it left me stranded
Thumbing all over town
And that old weekly paycheck
Just never stretched enough
Back in the times of nickels and dimes and love
Together we sure made some dreams come true
Sometimes it wasnt easy
But somehow we made it through
And when I get to thinking times are tough
I remember the times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Oh those good old times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Remember digging through your old purses in hopes wed get
Enough change for an rc cola or a pack of cigarettes
Now weve got almost everything
That we were dreaming of
Back in the times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Together we sure made some dreams come true
Sometimes it wasnt easy
But somehow we made it through
And when I get to thinking times are tough
I remember the times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Oh those good old times
Of nickels and dimes and love
Do you remember those times
Of nickels and dimes and love
song performed by by John Michael Montgomery
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Wealth, in terms of dollars and so forth, could be counted up, because dollars were finite. It doesn't make any difference how many dollars you have-at a certain point you only have dollars. You start with finite, you end with finite.
quote by Michael Nesmith
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Silver And Gold
Silver, silver and gold
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold
How do you measure its worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth.
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Mean so much more when I see
Silver and gold decorations
On ev'ry Christmas tree.
Silver, silver and gold
Silver, silver and gold
Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Wise men brought gifts to the mange I'm told
Mary was humble to see
Shepherds and kings there on bended knees
It's silver and gold, silver and gold
Feeling the world with their lives
Silver and gold how they shimmer on ev'ry Christmas night
On ev'ry Christmas night
Silver, silver and gold
song performed by by Vanessa Williams
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Silver & Gold
Words and Music by Johnny Marks.
Silver, silver and gold
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold
How do you measure its worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth.
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Mean so much more when I see
Silver and gold decorations
On ev'ry Christmas tree.
Silver, silver and gold
Silver, silver and gold
Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Wise men brought gifts to the mange I'm told
Mary was humble to see
Shepherds and kings there on bended knees
It's silver and gold, silver and gold
Feeling the world with their lives
Silver and gold how they shimmer on ev'ry Christmas night
On ev'ry Christmas night
Silver, silver and gold
song performed by by Vanessa Williams
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Brass Spittoons
Clean the spittoons, boy.
Detroit,
Chicago,
Atlantic City,
Palm Beach.
Clean the spittoons.
The steam in hotel kitchens,
And the smoke in hotel lobbies,
And the slime in hotel spittoons:
Part of my life.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars a day.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars
Buy shoes for the baby.
House rent to pay.
Gin on Saturday,
Church on Sunday.
My God!
Babies and gin and church
And women and Sunday
All mixed with dimes and
Dollars and clean spittoons
And house rent to pay.
Hey, boy!
A bright bowl of brass is beautiful to the Lord.
Bright polished brass like the cymbals
Of King David’s dancers,
Like the wine cups of Solomon.
Hey, boy!
A clean spittoon on the altar of the Lord.
A clean bright spittoon all newly polished—
At least I can offer that.
Com’mere, boy!
poem by Langston Hughes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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To Mat Hyuin
Fell greed begot by man, by men in numbers
lost control of themselves, became wasted
needed to fill the fell void, the darkness
in twisted desire, seeking without thinking
thinking without caring, without compassion
grinning to grow beyond the individual
striving towards a green light called dollars
Dollars become numbers, become control
Control our lives, take away our spirit
Numbers, so contemplated, become control
green light turns greed to control
lost our spirits in the mathy green light
gave it up for control, for responsibility
lost the spontaneity, lost the caring
gave it up for a better life, they said
then turned the better life into making math
math was numbers in green light,
copulating with greed, carressing greed
taking greed and growing, losing sight
perpetual motion of growth, of stagnation
where the dream shrivels and dies
where the germs grow and grow, and infect
now the whole pond smells, stinks of filth
no more insects grow and fly away
only the germs grow now, without compassion
devouring, eating, less and less they became
trying to fill up, ate one another to grow
became empty and wondered why they stank so
lied, told one another it was a good smell
and they could grow without thinking again
In Loving Memory: Mat Hyuin
Father, Sister, Mother, Brother - Lost to us before his time
poem by Poet Dragon
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Greed is Good
“Greed is good! ” they say
Some say “Greed is great! ”
Will they say that when the masses
Are bashing down their gate?
Will they still pray to their god ‘Greed’
When they find that it’s too late?
All the starving children
They don’t think greed is good
They would rather have each day
A sufficiency of food
All the freezing homeless
How great is greed to those?
A bit of tin to shelter in
Would please them (I suppose)
What good is greed to anyone
When it is served with hate?
I’d rather have a shred of humanity
Sitting on my plate
poem by Neil Milliner
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Night School in lower depths
The drug addict teacher comes with pornography
And sits on a desk half drunk.
'Hey! You idiot clean the black board.
The idiot stumbles with the matured students his equals
Quarters, Dimes, Nickels and pennies
And he cleans it seems..
Then the teacher asked him to write a sad but a correct sentence.
'No chalk.'
'Then bring it soon.'
He went to the next door pub and had a gulp of cheap liquor returned with a piece of chalk.
He writes; I skipped my golden school days and went for movies, ran behind the stars to get their signatures.
Now I learn from my mistakes
How to sign myself.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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$5 a Barrel of What?
Oil?
Now sold at what?
Five dollars a barrel?
This is an immediate sign,
That something is not going too well.
Has anyone communicated this,
To those who chose this direction?
And they seem to be okay with this decision?
There just will be more greed.
With those who once had it made in the shade...
To stand with others who demand to feed their needs.
And you all know how improbable that is going to be?
Who is going to touch us anyway?
All Mercedes will be curbed.
And Bentleys will be driven by those deserving.
Well...
Why the gloomy faces?
Pass the caviar!
'Your Highness?
That was one hundred and five US dollars.'
My god...
Soon we will build heaven on Earth.
Right here in the desert!
When you have no clue of who those are
You choose to fight...
Do not ever pick the ones
To try to trick on their own land!
You only delay
Displaying yourself the fool.
Enough of this rubbish!
Where is the imported champagne?
And raise that to $115 per barrel.
It belongs to us.
They made this 'their' need.
Do as you please!
Have the lox and bagels arrived?
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Graceland
Tomb of a millionaire,
A multi-millionaire, ladies and gentlemen,
Place of the dead where they spend every year
The usury of twenty-five thousand dollars
For upkeep and flowers
To keep fresh the memory of the dead.
The merchant prince gone to dust
Commanded in his written will
Over the signed name of his last testament
Twenty-five thousand dollars be set aside
For roses, lilacs, hydrangeas, tulips,
For perfume and color, sweetness of remembrance
Around his last long home.
(A hundred cash girls want nickels to go to the movies to-night.
In the back stalls of a hundred saloons, women are at tables
Drinking with men or waiting for men jingling loose silver dollars in their pockets.
In a hundred furnished rooms is a girl who sells silk or dress goods or leather stuff for six dollars a week wages
And when she pulls on her stockings in the morning she is reckless about God and the newspapers and the police, the talk of her home town or the name people call her.)
poem by Carl Sandburg
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Lazy In Aruba
Life once had us running to the bank.
Banking on the prospect,
That investments in a future...
Would produce security.
Security fantasized,
To feed those whims and needs...
Afforded to please.
We believed that banking,
Was then a safe direction...
For a quality of life,
Respected to protect..
In quality ease!
If this was yesterday...
It would be okay,
To think about Aruba...
And snoozing on the beach.
If 'this' was yesterday...
We'd put our dimes away.
But unlike those yesterdays...
Today pinching dimes,
Gets rent timely paid!
If this was yesterday,
It would be okay...
To think about Aruba!
Just to snooze on the beach.
And...
Oiling heated skin,
Rubbing sand off our feet.
If 'this' was yesterday...
We'd put our dimes away.
But unlike those yesterdays...
A rent that's needed to be paid,
Is just a pinch away.
And today Aruba,
Is for many out of reach.
Because today Aruba,
Is a dream hard to keep!
If this was yesterday,
It would be okay...
To think about Aruba!
Just to snooze on the beach.
And...
Oiling heated skin,
Rubbing sand off our feet.
If 'this was yesterday...
We'd put our dimes away.
But unlike those yesterdays...
The rent is pinched to pay!
We wanted a retirement,
Reflected in ease.
Lazy in Aruba,
On a Sun drenching beach.
If this was yesterday,
It would be okay...
To think about Aruba!
As we snoozed the day away.
If 'this was yesterday...
We'd put those dimes away.
But unlike those yesterdays...
The rent is pinched to pay!
We wanted a retirement,
Reflected in ease.
Lazy in Aruba,
On a Sun drenching beach.
If this was yesterday,
It would be okay...
To think about Aruba!
And snoozing on the beach.
If this was yesterday,
It would be okay...
To think about Aruba!
And snoozing on the beach.
If this was yesterday,
It would be okay...
To think about Aruba!
And snoozing on the beach.
But unlike those yesterdays,
Aruba's out of reach.
If this was yesterday,
We'd put our dimes away!
If this was yesterday,
We'd put our dimes away!
If this was yesterday,
We'd put our dimes away!
To save up for retirement,
And feeling okay.
If this was yesterday,
We'd put our dimes away!
If this was yesterday,
We'd put our dimes away!
If this was yesterday,
We'd put our dimes away!
But today's not yesterday.
Today we pinch to pay!
Today is not yesterday.
Today we pinch to pay!
Today is not yesterday.
Today we pinch to pay!
Forgettin' 'bout Aruba.
Today we pinch to pay!
Forgettin' 'bout Aruba.
Today we pinch to pay!
Today we pinch to pay!
Forgettin' 'bout Aruba.
Pinching pennies not to save!
Pinching everything,
For a rent to get paid!
You've got to feel it,
Ooo...
The risk that we take,
Pinching everything,
For a rent to get paid!
You've got to feel it,
Ooo...
The risk that we take,
Pinching everything,
For a rent to get paid!
You've got to feel it,
Ooo...
The risk that we take.
You've got to feel it,
Ooo...
The risk that we take.
Pinching everything,
For a rent to get paid!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Where Is A Woman To Go
(jerry gillespie / k. t. oslin)
Do, da, do, da, do, da, do, da, day
Ahh, do, da, do, da, do, da, do, da, day
Maybe he was wrong, maybe I wasnt right
Whatever the reason Im on my own tonight
Hes gone his way and Ive gone mine
Well I bet you heat that story all the time
Well, sometimes your friends aint always available
To pick you up when youre feelin down, down, down, oh
My daddy would die if he knew his baby
Was seekin refuge in a little ol bar across town
So tell me where is a woman to go?
When shes feelin low and all she wants to do
Is feel a little better
Tell me where is a woman to go?
When shes feelin low and all she wants to do
Is feel a little better
Hey, bartender, honey gimme change for a ten-dollar bill
Bring it back as a stack of quarters, if you will
cause Im gonna play every song on your jukebox that makes me cry
Gonna find out how many tears ten dollars can buy, oh
Gonna find out how many tears ten dollars can buy
Tell me where is a woman to go?
When shes feelin low and all she wants to do
Is feel a little better
Tell me where is a woman to go?
When shes feelin low and all she wants to do
Is feel a little better
Tell me where is a woman to go?
When shes feelin low and all she wants to do
Is feel a little better
Tell me where is a woman to go?
When shes feelin low and all she wants to do
Is feel a little better
Do, da, do, da, do, da, do, da, day
Do, da, do, da, do, da, do, da, day
I said
Do, da, do, da, do, da, do, da, day
song performed by by Dusty Springfield
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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