Long Labourer Poems

Humanity keeps looking forward, toward the coming of a birth,
and we’re all deemed as equals on our first day on this earth,
but as the years go quickly by our lives become our own;
we’re seen as...

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Mark Hurlin Shelton is a Poet from Cape Town South Africa, born in October 1967. He was raised by his grandparents in Three Anchor Bay, near Sea Point, where he attended his first schools: Ellerton...

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" You saw my tomorrow, seated on your yesterday's laps,
Dirty-duty rusty and arrogance humming, 
Bathing in the smokes of marijuana, basking it malodor, 
Yet, you didn't bother to wash me your words of corrections. 

Did...

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He was a common man...
Common man's feat defeats
Nature's stubborn blockade
The mountain has taken
away his beloved -
Phaguniya - still haunts

He started cutting...
Rocks with his hammer
and chisel all alone
People ignored
his great desire

He made a road
for us...

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IRONY

My joy that I wasn't born a Nigerian
Is that my parents are Yorubas
I would have been limited to Naira

Mo dúpé pé mo lókó nílé (All thanks, I have a hoe)
Mo láyò pé omo alápatà sá...

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I am what I am* by the Lord’s gracious gesture:
Adopted child of God, imparted with divine nature
Beloved daughter of parents who raised me by loving nurture
Cared for and caring sibling around Christian family culture
Directed volunteer...

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(Told to me by a patient, when 
working as a
builder’s labourer at Menston’s asylum 1963)

This little middle aged lady,
watched and followed me
around for two days,
when I was working on a
renovation job, in Menston
asylum 1963.She told...

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I think I can remember, maybe dreamed, 
a bright green field one handsome summer day, 
the Duke's blue tent resplendent with its flags, 
his drummers practising for Festival, 
a sense of things to come -...

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Born the son of a digger in country SA
A tough childhood leaving home at 16 to find his way
His course was set early on 
When  he captain-coached North Whyalla to a premiership won

His working...

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He was the village blacksmith
To us children he was known
As our adopted Uncle Wilf
They’d no children of their own.
Six days a week he worked,
His hours long and physically hard.
Our cottage back door opened 
Straight onto...

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Calloused canvas, etched with sun and rain,
A map of toil, where muscles speak their pain.
No crown adorns it, nor scepter's gilded shine,
But in its grip, a legacy entwines.

Not pharaohs' monuments, nor empires vast,
But fields that...

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December 19 Scripture Meditations Based on Revelation 2

Key Verse – Revelation 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil… 

MY GOD, THANK...

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These are photographs of my village
Taken over a hundred years ago
The streets look just the same
As those I used to know
When Fifty or more years later 
That village was my family home
And i wandered them...

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every day without fail he stopped at the small stall

whatever the weather and however hurried he was

his shoes did not need glow for his path was muddy

and the sweaty feet managed to moisten the leather

from...

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Whether the shadow of your face
Or the stripes of grace on the leaves
Whether the water and soil
In turmoil to sprout and  bloom out
Releasing the stress of the bones
Into the cones of the buds
All I...

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Who am I?
A peddler, a giver, a labourer, a thief?
A monster, a maniac, a secret, a spy?
A friend, a fighter, someone barren of belief?
A realist, a hater, a forsaken doomed to die?
A dreamer, a tryer,...

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He looked in the mirror and said
I have seen that face before
do we know each other
Are you someone I once knew
Mirror beamed knowingly then replied
Spare me a few moments of your time
and I will give...

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In God's Word, many promises abound
To those who put their trust in Him
Resting upon what He has proclaimed
He will guide us when the way is grim

He promised, those who seek shall find
And a door is...

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For them:
	TGIF! It’s weekend;
	The ATM vomits its cods,
	Unwinding at the bars,
	The cinema’s got a blockbuster!
	Yes,…pizza… barbeque… red wine…chicken…
	…come on, keep the change girl, it’s weekend!

	Campuses empty for “World-Trade-Centers”;
	Hey, Two nights, Sunday’s off…your bill
	…turn on the...

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Black Christmas
Spread your gifts beyond boarders
This season if you care 
Let the brightest of you be 
The gift to humanity
End the year with gratitude
And remember 
The empty tables of the 
Poor 
While you merry 
Out...

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The Sound of Distant Ankle Bells


Memories of those delicate tinkling bells,
casually fastened around calloused feet,

take hold of my waking moments,

and fling my thoughts back to a distant time,
where folk-songs were heartily sung,
joyful, yet hopelessly out...

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Once out of a mother’s womb,
Labourers we all are,
Till we reach our tomb.

We labour for ourselves and others, day and night,
For breakfast, lunch and dinner we all fight.
Yes, we struggle day and night for our...

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I
When I breathe my last and my soul finds its path back to whence it came
and my lifeless body is lowered
beneath the earth to my resting place
and a stone is set over me
encrusted with endearing...

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Amazingly awesome is my God of salvation-assurance
Redeeming me from sin’s wages with Christ’s blood-ransom
Loving me, leading me to learn from His lessons’ light
Empowering my faith for service-earnestness
Nourishing me with His Word’s nurture
Entrusting to me ministries...

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Enlightenments way
In the name of the Lord the one Gods self,
begone foul demons of the health,
rise up the 5 billions of the way,
demand retake the wealth today,
cos greed makes Piggy, hey.

Every mortal on the shore,
will...

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