Best Baltimore Poems

In heat
the pulse of your streets.

I've heard the crack
of hard political whips
that pinch the air.

Cores of human topography,
your aging neighborhoods.

Your people kick cans
counting gravel like jewels,

while chiselers roast dogs
in the courthouse.

Swine flu kills
the papers.

And already the sky is
feverish.

In your train tunnels
a violinist plays pianissimo. 
I've...

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Baltimore 4-28

Lets start,
By being real, 

I mean really, real! 

With harsh truths that need to be freed from our fragile lie, 

It is easy to say, or see "thugs", "punks" in the streets of BWI! 

But as I remove my eye from looking to weak,
and...

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spent some of the time
growing up in Baltimore
but not much at all...

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Baltimore is like the demon’s playground
he rats and roaches are screaming and running to cans and bottles
abandoned houses to run through like a play house
hallway frames left standing from burned houses to swing on
stairways to climb up and find cool stuff to play with
streets filled...

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Baltimore Tales


lazy fat cat meowing, begging for a meal,
mother baking cookies, grates an orange peel. 

husband’s belly flopping, cold beer in his hand,
watching Jimmy Kimmel, singing with the band.

little Susie playing, with her pregnant worn out doll,
dumb dog outside barking, as the oak tree’s acorns...

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Badgered In Baltimore

Dear Blabby,
     My bride of forty-five years has a cow whenever she suspects me of catting around.  She calls me a little weasel and a  snake in the grass.  I try to answer, but I'm ordered...

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Baltimore, 
again. 
8 AM, sweating, shaking 
on the verge of puking up 
stomach acid. 
the car is dead silent. 
are we early? 
are they late? 
is this how its going to be  
forever? 
who knows. 
who cares. 
i’ve been watching time 
pass and slip...

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Since the days of Francis Scott Key, 
this city has changed significantly.
Still standing is the historical site of Ft. McHenry.
The fifteen star flag still hangs proudly.
While Key saw the rocket’s red glare,
and the bombs bursting in air,
there were no tall office buildings anywhere.
Oriole fans are...

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No Love in childhood, it's understood why we love our hood, 
Raised by the village so I feel it,
Afeni says a child needs knowledge in the realest,
Everyones a teacher, so I listen to hear it, 
Keep my ears to da street, cuz it speaks as...

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Tribute to Baltimore
In memory of Freddy Gray

All The Colors Turn To Gray

On the thirteenth day of April
around the world some slept.
All the colors turned to gray
and in Baltimore some wept.

A young man with a troubled past
to his arrest he had submitted.
The world would soon then...

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Poet:  Ken Jordan
Poem:   Baltimore County
Edited by:  Sparkle Jordan
written:  January/2015

                         
                     


                   B  R  I  D G...

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A few soaring trees 
Here and there
On a green earth
Flowers with flesh in girth
The costume bear
No wear and tear


Air going out in BMW
Air coming in seven hues
This show is likely due to
System in a capital skew

In front of them
Is the waste land
 Marshy messy meadow
Dull...

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As night draped its cloak over Baltimore's sleeping form,
A cargo ship, the MV Dali, sailed to greet the dawn.
From the bustling harbor shores it had slipped away,
Bearing goods for far-off lands, under the sky's dark sway.

Two pilots steered the lumbering vessel, ‘cross the tranquil bay,
But...

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The grandfather on my mother's side was a cheapskate. 
A real cheapskate.
One Christmas, he gave me a used paperback book.
Something like “Jimmy Plays Baseball.”
It was written for a 7 year old child, and I was considerably older than that.
Still had “5 cents” written in pencil...

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She was faster than a rattlesnake
She could split a log in two
She was better than any hand
I think I ever knew

She was famous all throughout the west
But, it really was a shame
She wasn't known for what she did
She was famous for her name

She could rope...

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