Picture Poem #163 (From, This is my Wasteland)
Monoliths subways
and concrete boxes
this world
surrounded
by gray streets
with spring rising
along cold buildings
poem by Peter S. Quinn

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New Zealand
An earthquake struck New Zealand's city of Christchurch on Tuesday
Burying vehicles under debris and collapsing buildings into the streets.
Police announced a curfew and city was shut down on Wednesday,
Rescuers scrambled to reach beneath the rubble the residents.
The quake devastating the spire of the Cathedraland is a real tale.
The buildings had collapsed and the people were trapped inside.
All around the city, this powerful earthquake strangely bent some rails, Moreover, it toppled the tall buildings and seventy five people died.
The earthquake combination of distance and depth was so deadly,
Streets were strewn with concrete and people were stuck in towers.
Firefighters climbed ladders to pluck people from roofs to safety.
Buildings have gone because aftershocks hit the city within two hours.
Pre-World War buildings were damaged by the quake on September,
People wandered through streets strewn with debris and concrete.
The further damage was caused by a strong aftershock in December.
Now there is a real carnage with bodies littering the streets..
The women went into premature labor and the city was in agony.
The airport was shut down, in ruins the people began to groan,
Every child has been walking home trying to find the lost family.
The city were suffering cuts to the water supply and the phone.
A thirty million tone block of ice sheared off a glacier of New Zealand
After the earthquake had devastated the city groping it into Dark.
The iceberg crashed into a lake had rocked the South Island
Ripping off the Tasman Glacier at Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.
poem by Marieta Maglas

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A Sad Bridge In Eastern Europe
In a Slavic city,
Unpronouncable, on a concrete bridge,
Spanning churning gray water,
Smokestacks on the shrore belching yellow fumes.
Peering over an English paper
I saw her and we locked eyes.
She joined me on the bench:
'All alone? ' she asked.
Then we exchanged pleasantries
That soon, so soon, became profound.
Of course it began to rain.
We held hands and trotted off the bridge.
Here she told
me she had to return to work,
Home or boarding-house.
It was predestined, my loneliness, for why else was I here.
Walking the drizzling streets,
Crowded with gray brick buildings,
impossible Complex corners,
I wandered for hours,
Just needing a hand to hold.
poem by Stan Petrovich

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Powerful Hurricane Sandy
Sandy gathered strength
from rivers and seas
flooding homes, fields,
markets and subways.
Sandy made a pact
with the strongest winds
knocking down trees,
buildings and other
man-made creations.
Sandy declared her power
over technological inventions
sending houses and streets
into days and nights
of darkness and cold.
Powerful Sandy
has just declared
her invincible power
over powerful humans!
_________________
October 30,2012
poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

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Foggy Day
Foggy day in the street
Of its wandering play
Giving shadows on concrete
As they grow long their way
Thru the moments of twist
That the streets are now in
And gray morning has kissed
With a diffusional spin
Every hour in its gray
As the evening passes thru
And kids in streets play
For each opportunity new
When feelings are in laughter
In every moments awake
And what there comes after
In their giving and take
Foggy day in the city
Like a haze of the grays
So much playful and witty
That is now in its haze
Sideway kids there talking
Youth of hope and a smile
Brussels playground walking
For its enduring while
Foggy day in the street
Of its wandering play
Giving shadows on concrete
As they grow long their way
Whisper dark soon there
With its nocturnal sleep
As darkness is everywhere
In their dreams to keep
poem by Peter S. Quinn

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Cowboy
Cold gray buildings where a hill should be
Steel and concrete closin in on me
City faces haunt the places
I used to roam
Cowboy, cowboy - cant run, cant hide
Too late to fight now - too tired to try
Wind that once blew free
Now scatters dust to the sky
Cowboy, cowboy - cant run, cant hide
Too late to fight now - too tired to try
song performed by by Randy Newman

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Kick The Can
A gray hanging sky loomed above
The ugly concrete monoliths
That chokes the cramped urban skyline.
For Christ's sake! Why doesn’t it rain?
Said the young, angry teen kicking
An empty Budweiser beer can
As he walked along the sidewalk;
That! (He kicked again) should happen
To those goddamn, so-called buddies
Of mine- A swift kick in the ass.
He kicked the can again, this time
It flew into the busy street.
Chasing after it a horn blared
But the car could not stop in time.
A light drizzle began to fall.
poem by Albert Ahearn

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[motor Of Thought Resident Boxes]
motor of thought resident boxes
think outside and collapse
highest concrete dust teeth
ridiculous hepatitis
ducting vitamin like
blue and black birds
hemopheliac twigged pole.
I count nineteen of them.
You count seventeen.
with the world's weight combined
to travel
to our nearest star.
it would still take millions of years.
And all the years
killing and counting,
addicting and loving our friends,
and following collapsed boxes.
poem by Aaron Eliad

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City Dwellers
Towering concrete monoliths
Loom above seemingly mindless
Lemmings rushing, bumping, pushing
Their way in endless, moving lines
Of backward and forward motion;
Each with programmed destinations
Instilled by subtle brainwashing
By the few who reside above
In luxurious penthouse suites.
Below one of the unthinking
Queue falls dead on the cold pavement
Only to be trampled underfoot
Unattended amidst raucous
Noise of taxi horns and Sirens.
poem by Albert Ahearn

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Faith
A wall
Gray and tall,
And a sky of gray,
And a twilight cold;
And that is all
That my eyes behold.
But I know that unseen,
Beyond the wall,
On a lawn of green
White blossoms fall
In the waning light;
And beyond the lawn
Curtains are drawn
From windows bright.
And within she moves with her gracious hands
And the heart that loves and that understands,
Waiting to succour poor souls in need,
And to bind with her blessing the hearts that bleed.
I know it all, though I cannot see;
But the tired-out tramp,
Dirty and ill,
In the evening's damp,
In the Spring's clean chill,
Knows not that there
Is the heart to care
For such as I and for such as he.
He slouches along, and sees alone
The gray of the sky and the gray of the stone.
Lord, when my eyes see nothing but grey
In all Thy world that is now so green,
I will bethink me of this spring day
And the house of welcome, known yet unseen;
The wall that conceals
And the faith that reveals.
poem by Edith Nesbit

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Chained by Language
We live in concrete boxes with ceiling and walls
Sometimes, Deco sometimes Roccoco
With minds trapped in bony skulls
Chained by language, stuttering thoughts of the soul
We live in darkness lit up by glaring,
And electricity to illuminate and reflect and reflect
We hear the tiny echoes of voices and thoughts,
Bouncing up and down bumping back and forth
Conjugating, communicating, copulating, fornicating
Metaphors allegories everything and anything to cloud identity
We live close and next to, only in rare moments souls touch
Then, Slip back to concrete boxes with ceilings and walls
poem by Shimon Weinroth

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Concrete Girl
Bleeding thoughts.
Cracking boulder.
Don't fall over.
Fake your laughter.
Burn the tear.
Sing it louder.
Twist and shout.
Way up here,
We stand on shoulders,
Growing colder.
Laugh or cry.
I won't mind.
Sing it louder.
Twist and shout.
Immovable shadows.
The concrete girl.
They'll rock your world to nothing.
And they're swimming around again, again.
And they're swimming around
The concrete girl.
Catch your breath like a four-leaf clover.
Hand it over.
Scream to no one.
Take your time.
Sing it louder.
Twist and shout.
Nothing to run from is worse than something,
And all your fears of nothing.
And they're swimming around again, again.
And they're swimming around
The concrete girl.
Concrete girl, don't fall down
In this broken world around you.
Concrete girl, don't fall down.
Don't fall down, my concrete girl.
Don't stop thinking.
Don't stop feeling now.
One step away from where we were,
And one step back to nothing.
And we're standing on top of our hopes and fears,
And we're fighting for words now, concrete girl.
And we're swimming around again, again.
And we're swimming around now,
Concrete girl.
Concrete girl, don't fall down in this broken world around you.
Concrete girl, don't fall down.
Don't fall down, my concrete girl.
Concrete girl, don't fall down in this concrete world around you.
Concrete girl, don't fall down.
Don't break down, my concrete girl.
song performed by by Switchfoot

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You could walk the streets, no matter how hungry people were, not matter how long they'd been out of jobs, you could walk the streets, you could ride the subways in New York, and you would not get knocked in the head.
quote by Ray Walston

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sponge
Vic Chessnut)
pleasure is melting like chocolate
my blue ribbon gumption is gone
all my gravy must have soaked into something
and the world...
the filthy steps, the cold concrete
the phony earth below my feet
the ancient odor of the streets
yes the world it is a sponge
and when the crisis passes
when the coast is clear
I'll be buffed down to a liquid
and the world it is a sponge
throughout this entire ugly outing
I've been mumbling the convex of what I should be shouting
but I'll soon be silent you'll soon hear nothing
'cause the world it is a sponge
song performed by by REM

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nature Will Reclaim
Silent rain gently falls
Just as the moonlight quietly calls
Calls to the withering nature around
Concrete replaces soft tender ground
Cities take over, buildings rise
Nature escapes us, hiding from man
Resorts cover cliffs, shadowing the sand
The world warms, ice capes melt
Mankind is slowly killing itself
One day nature will revolt
Flowers will bloom, feathers molt
Birds will cry out, soaring the sky
Shrubs will grow, weeds shoot high
Nature will return, crushing our hopes to dust
Reclaiming the streets, smothering us
Creeep and crawl to take our towns
Regrow on asphalt, wind around
Cover windows, turn concrete to gloom
Nature will spell out mankinds doom
poem by Trina Johnson

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neath A Cold Gray Tomb Of Stone
Passing by a lonesome graveyard
Everything I love is gone
Weeping as they lay my darling
Neath a cold gray tomb of stone
In this world i'm left to wander
With no one to call my own
While my precious darling's sleeping
Neath a cold gray tomb of stone
Out there in that lonesome graveyard
She is sleeping all alone
And I burried my heart with her
Neath a cold gray tomb of stone
Skies above are dark and stormy
All the sunshine,all is gone
For the while my love is sleeping
Neath a cold gray tomb of stone
My heart is dead and yet i'm living
Traveling through this world alone
I wish that I was with my darling
Neath a cold gray tomb of stone
song performed by by Hank Williams

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Afraid Not Scared
Look at this ocean with everyone drowning
Idiots screaming and everyone sinking in slowly
We're surrounded
In the yellow lights of the city wasted as bodies
In bed with somebody a touch away with nothing to do
We're surrounded
I'm really dying here
I'm really dying here
And I'm afraid, no I'm scared
She started freezing, lungs all collapsing
The momentum is passing, but the moment is eating us whole
We're surrounded
Put the guns in the water, they're turning to vodka
Triggering nothing we're sinking the sea takes the ship
And I'm really dying in here
I'm really dying in here
I'm afraid. I'm afraid. No, I'm scared. No I'm scared.
I'm just scared. Just let me down.
I'm getting really cold and I'm cold and I'm looking at you
You're not moving
I'm getting really cold and I'm cold and I'm looking at you
You're not moving
I'm getting really cold and I'm cold and I'm looking at you
And you're not moving
song performed by by Ryan Adams

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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If We Let Mozart Play Like A Beggar
if we let Mozart
play the violin
like a beggar
in one of the busy
streets in India
or even in New York
subways
he too will go
unnoticed.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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It's Time For You Escape
in concrete houses
in concrete silence
nobody can not hear
your call
concrete houses are
sinking more than once
in the wine
when the clocks
are hitting
at the morning hour
concrete hearts
being getting cold
are slowly undergoing
the life
although it this way aches
escape ahead of yourself
nobody will catch up
with you
and even behind you
nobody will dropp tear
you will rescue yourself
escape - already time
poem by Maria Barbara Korynt

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This concrete city
infects the sky...turning it
into concrete too.
Concrete sun and concrete rain.
Concrete humans... cry...real tears
tanka by Dónall Dempsey

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You Can Never Go Home
Open the door and adjust my eyes
The concrete streets are as gray as the skies
The wind stings my face and this world just melts away
And it brings me back to another place bur memories are such a waste
You can never go home, you left that world behind
Is this the only place
The only place to go
Are these tired words, the only that we know
The old familiar taste, of the bottle in my hand
Or is this the only place, I can understand
Your whiskey tainted wisdom spills like vomit from your mouth
The world is closing in and I just gotta get out...
Of my head and of this town
Familiar places are bringing me down,
The truth can be hard to swallow
When its spit right in your face.
I just gotta get out
Hay
song performed by by Unseen

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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