Best Giving Away Poems
A Bridge Over Silent Waters
Never judge your fellow man
Before seeking your own reflection
Not the one that shines in a glass mirror
Seek it in the eyes of your fellow man
His eyes shall reflect your compassion or lack there of
When a pond has no ripples
Look for the lies, underneath
When you see the waves upon the water
Know that the winds are singing to you
Truth will always seek you out
Never close your heart to a strangers smile
His smile may bring you serenity or deception
Trust in your inner being to know
It shall open up towards the rainbows or seek refuge
To protect your soul
When you see a human suffering
Flea not inside your reflection
Instead reflect upon his suffering
Share the waters of your pond with him
This shall promise you both more rainfall
Notes
This was inspired by a poem written by Charmaine, she was kind enough to let me use a few of her lines in the first verse of this poem. Its amazing how when you read something it can open your mind to think of things you otherwise would not have. For some reason, maybe more because of his messages than his style I find myself thinking of Richards’s poetry as well. This for me is the beauty of the site, the inspiration one gets from fellow poets, it’s a great honor to have met so many, and to have shared so many ideas and views and opinions. More important than any poem is the laughter and smiles, this among friends is like giving away gold bars. (Although I do accept the occasional gold bar now and then)
In the Land of Opportunity
Entitlement reared her pretty head
Without a backstop to plain bad luck
Social Security's safety net was spread
Next came the 'War on Poverty'
Food Stamps and ADC
It might have staved off hunger for a bit
But dependency was galvanized, and (yes), obesity
Today there is unprecedented help
for anyone who will only yelp
Free computer classes, GED, ESL too
Guaranteed Job Training programs in high schools
and community colleges, Yahoo!
Yet the percentage of those working has gone down
and dropping most free classes reigns supreme
Seems that 'giving away the farm'
won't bring back the American Dream
It's only one man's unscientific perception ~
but 'teaching a man to fish' still passes inspection
__________________________________________________________
ADC = Aid to Dependent Children
GED = General Education Diploma (Equivalent to High School Diploma)
ESL = English as a Second Language (for immigrants and their children)
Aye, COVID-19 is here to stay
And we are all living day-to-day
So why must I ask
That you wear your mask?
No one wants what you're giving away!
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper - W.B. Yeats
There is magic in the twinkling eyes
Of a small, innocent child who smiles
There is magic in the laugh of delight
In a heart who sees a wonderous birth
There is magic in the light of a word
Focused on kindness instead of being heard
There is magic in the new dawn, the star
The feeling that races through a tender heart
Who knows about giving without expectation
Living without gratification,
Feeling without awakening
A need for recompence
There is magic – in hopes and dreams
In faith and all the little things
In wonders that melt away the sorrow
And remind us all that there is grace for tomorrow
There is magic – in the caress of a smile
Given by someone who blesses a heart
With inspiration, kindness, acceptance
All the love that brings assurance and affection
There is magic – in the soul who knows faith
Whispers a prayer and lingers in grace
Knows God is alive, filling up the inside
Of one who listens to His gentle spirit
There is magic – in psalms and praise
In new life that comes with salvation
In freedom from all those things that bring pain
In feeling alive to the new moment, the new way
The new joy that abides in the one who prays
There is magic – in the sun and rain
In the dewdrop and the gentle rose
In the light of the stardust night
And the miracle of one shooting out of sight
There is magic – in love
That is alive and thriving, striving to give more
Than it receives, with a open heart and sincere spirit
Love that is scented with a blushing aroma of insight
Inspiration and music created from the joy inside
There is magic – from the brilliance of a heart
Who knows that real love comes from God’s thought
Of giving away a breath of life to the one who listens
To the gentle, teasing urging of a feeling of expectation
Love like this is the beginning of true living!
To my surprise, seeds - did I ask for them? We are expecting rain and sun,
and a little manure. So I plant them with stakes. I just know what I need.
My garden, like a burial plot, yet something must rise from the pit. I just know it. I sense it is an important crop and its fruit will be spread to all my friends. The bag said “For 2020 — all you will need.” So I watch from my couch, expectant for seeds to sprout. I fall asleep and dream of a boy named Jack whose seeds grow
overnight. I wake up and look at my garden. You’ll never guess what happened next. I knocked on every door, near and far, giving away the sprouted fruit. Each one with different designs — plentiful masks. I laugh.
8/17/2020
Contest: Mystery Seeds
Sponsor: Carolyn Devonshire
i used to think
loving you too much
was romantic.
now i see—
it was me
giving away parts of myself
like clearance items,
hoping you’d find value
in something
i had already discounted.
you thought my devotion
was desperation.
you watched me fold
into smaller versions of myself
just to fit your world.
and when i broke,
you called me dramatic.
but i wasn’t asking for too much.
i was just asking you
to notice
that i gave everything
and asked
for almost nothing.
now,
i look at who i was with you—
and i forgive her.
she didn’t know
love isn’t supposed to
humiliate.
They survived the Great Depression, my parents did
living from hand-to-mouth for over a decade
Took any job they could get, and were grateful for it
working 72 hours a week for a ‘salary’ of twelve lousy bucks
My father watched grown men cry and jump out of tenement windows
ashamed that they could not provide for their families – two or three a day, he told me
My mother heard ‘dirty Jew’ hurled at her so often
she became obsessive about washing her hands and face…
…Yet when it came time to serve their country
they were first in line for the privilege of seeing America through WW2
Fighting side by side with fellow un-hyphenated Americans
Jewish or Catholic, from Italy or France – didn’t matter
Americans all, they fought their hearts out for the Stars and Stripes
for the land of the brave and the home of the braver
******
And now, it pains me to see what we’ve become on the cusp of our 250th birthday
Capitalists fleeing our signature city, NYC, run by an unrepentant socialist radical
‘Woke’ Governors, Congressmen and Mayors giving away ‘stuff,’
Free health care, free college, free food, free rent, free bus service, free, free, free
The greatest public misfit of any age, Bernie Sanders, the cheerleader egging it all on
And the devil himself, George Soros, quietly financing the destruction of the country
America! that saved his life, granting him refuge from the Nazis
******
May my mother and father, and their entire generation, rest in peace knowing they made
America great once and made us all so proud.
Fear eats within my soul
unknown moments where failure is
agony collapses giving away
falling swiftly downward stopping hard
black iron lines angles down
parallels joined in molten bonds
repeating rolls identical bars
anchors are driven securing strong
jagged sharp edges down to doom
to bite hard into yielding flesh
fear of slipping stumbling falls
pounding apart in trembling flesh
seizing gripping clinging strong
carefully edging descending down
memories of failure weaken resolve
need to forces onward going down
straight lines bend in weakening curves
strength is yielding giving away
fear is rebounding eating away
resolve is weakening yielding to fear
careful slow movement continues down
nearing an end carefully sought
freeing from dread at journeys end
escaping too briefly at dangers end
What hurts the most
Isn't harsh and cruel words
But words of a another kind
To them we are blind
but we need to see
the reality
these are words
more potent yet
sugar coated words
that mask the bitter truth
words dressed up in style
beautifully crafted designs
that shimmer and shine
they seduce reason
alluring, sublime
they mislead
they make one feel
false security
they testify of enduring love
of being special, unique
when the truth is quite bleak
undress those words
and see the naked truth
a love that has died
nothing can hide
the ugly truth
that's even more painful
than harsh words
that might be born
of love in pain
still fighting to live
and give
giving away
sugar coated words
love on display
trying to nourish
a starving love
with empty caloried sweetness
sweet to the lips
bitter in the stomach
it's just wrong
throwing back a bone
after love's feast is done
is so much worse
than sticks and stones
sad but true
the naked truth
isn't
pretty
Eileen
Our Ancestors fought to the death,
Just so we can live a brighter day,
So before you light up that blunt of meth,
Think about what you’re giving away,
It was a glad day in history when Obama rose to victory,
The first black president was all we knew,
Dark skin is in!
Haven’t you heard?
That even in our community,
You can get burned,
It’s a sad day when people would rather stay home and “Crank That Amber Cole”,
Than get up and run to a poll,
In our community,
Rockin’ Luis V is better than having a college degree,
And teen pregnancy is not only a trend,
But the single motherhood that follows should end,
Young girls learn of a wonderful prince to take them away,
Nothing should change thought their mothers prince didn’t stay,
And as the tears fade away,
She grows stronger every day,
In our community,
Fighting is no longer a word,
You argue with someone and shots are heard,
Girls showing places the sun don’t show,
So how do they expect the community to grow?
Where love is a figment of imagination,
Making a young child question her creation,
Young mothers would rather buy the iPhone 5,
Then satisfy her baby’s cries,
While her new man’s eye,
Wander up another girl’s thighs,
In our community,
Where #team dark skin vs #team light skin,
Makes others not love the skin they’re in,
Love, lust, hate, and trust,
Giving a rose on Valentine’s Day is no longer a must,
Where bad is good and good is bad,
Who would think to see their grandmother sad?
Her hurt and pain,
Shows how our community has lost everything her parents fought to gain.
An Outrageous Case of Illegal Immigration
By Elton Camp
We hear much about invasion from Mexico
But the U.S. northern border is the way to go
Aliens can, and do, cross with greatest ease
For proof, here’s an example of one of these
There is a man who comes and goes at will
He has done it for many years and does it still
Since he acts friendly and is always smiling
So, he is given an exemption from profiling
Though his appearance shows he’s not one of us
Without any doubt, he is some old foreign cuss
His strange clothes, thick beard and too-long hair
Show that he comes from somewhere “over there”
Oh, it’s true that he acts plenty generous enough
Friendship he buys by giving away valuable stuff
The government really should say, “What the heck!”
Since on private lives he makes a thorough check
Arbitrary standards of his own selection he’s set
That determine what, if anything, people will get
Should some foreigner ever be allowed to dictate
His own standards by which Americans he will rate
Should an alien establish what’s wrong and right
And be able to do it without protest or any fight?
Where is the outcry from the media or the press
Why is it this outrage they totally fail to address?
The employment he provides sure isn’t here
That he runs a virtual sweatshop is what I fear
According to what a good many people say
He accords his band of workers little or no pay
Since his manufacturing is done practically free,
To American companies it seems unfair to me
It’s unlikely that any tax this bad man does pay
For his workers, a union has nothing it can say
Worse, it is to our children he directs his appeal
To a foreigner their admiration and love to steal
Who knows just what his ultimate goal might be
Shall we wait passively and hope to finally see?
No! The time to take action is now well overdue
With these illegal border crossings we are through
Since it is well known when Santa Claus usually flies
The government should shoot him out of the skies
The element of handkerchief in the plot
Becomes its important pivot symbol
A heritage he got from his mother first
The Desdemona’s virtue sexual.
Losing or giving away meant her fall
Was laced with strawberries’s image design
On a wedding sheet bloodstains recall.
More interpretations one can define.
Iago used it on Desdemona divine
With the help of his wife stealing it
And placing it in Cassio’s confine
Enough proof for Othello to excite
He kissed her, killed her by smothering her
Then killed himself too lying near his dear.
=========================================
A Spenserian Sonnet:Rhyme scheme : ababbcbc cdcdee, with Iambic five feet
Don't we all live deep within the walls of a
rain-painted rose.
Moments that once were fresh are set ablaze.
Whose bones are jewel-encrusted with decay.
Within our deepest reds.
The scent of saints and dreams is bled.
Glancing off a soul of glass.
So very briefly glowing off the gentle face.
As every breath tends to climb toward light
reaching the softest edge, giving away.
Tumbling down a stairwell of thorns.
The clowns of living cycling round and round a face forlorn.
Dreams are placed where jugglers juggle dented circus pins.
Between the hell of the hopeless.
The kiln of God and the devil's twisted rope-
Don't we all live within the walls of a
rain-painted rose.
They say it’s rude to stare
But staring is caring
So forgive me if I’m staring
I’d have you know it’s for a good cause
I’m looking at people
Those people
With the backpacks on their backs
I'm talking about all of us
The slim and starved, the fat and well fed
Followers of this and that fad
Some slow, others fast
But either way, you know, people
Various shapes and sizes. Arriving, departing,
Standing still, pacing about
Milling around
Adoring fans, raving critics
Fact checkers on everyone’s heels
Telling stories, spinning yarn
Embroidering anecdotes
Or trying hard
To understand what’s taking place
Getting somewhere and nowhere
Giving in, giving up, getting in, getting out
Giving way, giving, giving away
Getting in line, grinning, getting away
All of them carrying something on their backs
Gold, frankincense, myrrh; gossip, weed or hot air
Convicts aboard the Con-Air,
Fresh Princes of Bel-Air
Faces plain and simple
Puzzled looks and open books
Sweet faces with dimples
Struggling, strangled, straddled, blank looks
Cuddling, frazzled, wise fools
Dreaming about this and that
Beaming, streaming live, screaming
Looking around
Visions of the sweet by and by
Dreams of happy ever after
Pimps, prophets, prostitutes and priests
Criminals, cops, politicians, finks
Jesters making funnies, people laughing out loud
Secretly lamenting
But filled with hope for the future
Ridiculous gestures to make a point
Perhaps two, about choices, about making a point
Free but among the captives by the big river
With all of them that wept over what they had lost
And all this, of course, is just an educated guess
I'm surrounded all,
by the negatives.
Sigh!,
all of them!
All, I met, got in contact...
Everyone is negative about me!?
Why!?
Why, they all have to be such negative?
About me?
Any time, when I'm happy,
those negatives..
They, make me feel sorry for myself...
I'm, surrounded by those negatives.
That even when I'm happy,
They make me sad.
Their talks penatrates my ears.
Their words, hurt me at the heart!
Don't they have something else to do!?
When, I'm on my own way,
Why do they have to block the way?
Why? Why, only to me?
They make me mad!
They destroy my hopes and, dreams...
Why, did I get them here?
Surrounded by me?
Or, why am I here with them?
Couldn't I get into another place?
Where, I could dream my own dream,
Where I would have hope to hope for something.
Uh!, that's only a dream...
They make me disturbed always,
Their useless words, their bitter
And harmful words?
Can't they stay silent
For me!?
Uh!, I hope, I'll get someday
When I can dream of, hope of,
My own.
I hope, I'll get it someday.
And, for now, I'll stay here
I'll wait to for it to come,
With those annoying, negative peoples!
I hate them!
I wanted my dreams to fulfill,
I just want my own day,
When I can find my own time,
Never giving away to those dumbs!
Well, uh! I'll wait.
Wait for the days,
Or the day?
To get a silent and the day of my own,
I'll wait for it to come.
I hope of it to come.