Pittance
Nary a pound a penny a pittance not.
Many a scoundrel will take what you've got.
By
Josehf Lloyd Murchison
Categories:
pittance, analogy, art, money, parody,
Form: Other
He mended shoes for a mere pittance
His payment was your smile
A craftsman from another age
Pride in his work his going wage
One morn his light was off, his door closed
His customers wept, understanding
Never again would they see his like
The call of his craft daily demanding…
Categories:
pittance, art, loss, lost, pride,
Form: Rhyme
Sore Ankle
impatiently edging past my husband
the lid - lifts off - from the pot
microwave still ajar
He Cares
not in mood to hear capitulation
at my ankle’s screaming pittance
I harden, he softens
Introspect
his kindness and care remove my black ring
my mood slowly turning blue
not unlike my ankle
Prologue
microwave does not throw out dirty looks
nor does it knock out the light
that fills room with gladness
Categories:
pittance, angst, care, love, pain,
Form: Kimo
George Rodrigue never expected the Blue Dog to be his ticket to fame
But it is, and it has never stopped
If you were one of the lucky ones, you have first editions
Purchased for a mere pittance on the streets of New Orleans
Others can copy it, but they had better not.
Everyone knows who has rights to the Blue Dog
George has become rich off of him, and rightly so
Categories:
pittance, art,
Form: Free verse
'Twas a tawdry affair that trifles pittance fare,
A Qualified Judge.
~0~
Allied With Grudge.
~0~
Pride Did Smudge.
~0~
Backslide By Nudge.
~0~
Denied To Rejudge.
~0~
Teary-Eyed No Budge.
~0~
"FORGIVENESS"
"Implied?" ... "Theorized!"
"Her fate has already been decided ..."
"... and what of me ...?"
"Your fate will be defined."
Categories:
pittance, allusion, analogy, appreciation, beauty,
Form: Vaasokht
In New York City- Nineteen thirty-six,
the crowds had gathered for a final show;
none playing the next day- no more to see
of organ grinders coming to their streets.
Throughout the city, all those places where
they came around to play- silent would be.
The citizens protested- with no win;
Mayor LaGuardia- ruled they must leave.
Renew their licenses, he would not do-
that radio and concerts were enough.
A nuisance, these musicians he declared;
he did not want them on the city streets.
As poor Italian immigrants, for them
their talent was the means to live and earn
a pittance from the coins left in their tins;
as songs, the sadness of their lives, unveiled.
On this last day, the organ grinders came
to greet their waiting fans and play for them.
When done, all waved goodbye with teary eyes
as the musicians gathered up their things.
With monkeys in their arms, they walked away
to leave their lifetime art of playing songs-
as each last organ grinder bid farewell;
to dwell as history from New York's past.
Categories:
pittance, farewell, music, new york,
Form: Blank verse
To A Warrior's Creed, Valiant Death, Fate Oft Decrees
I follow the red line into hot, blazing Hell
with razor sharp long sword firm in my fighting hand
sending the devils down where their demon friends dwell
down, down deep, upon earth's surface I take my stand
I, raging fighter, with valiant blood in my veins
The Sun my only friend as its light clears my way
I leave behind me, nothing but huge bloody stains
I live as a warrior on a pittance of pay
A day's ration of bread and a bold flask of wine
few gold coins for every dark monster I slay
and the great favors of girlfriends, I daily dine
pride and Fate demands I die on some future day.
As life will be forfeit what care I of death's hand
no more than a bad-spit whisper the dying groan
To truth I am sworn, courageous is my dear stand
I am a valiant warrior, I dare fight alone.
My Lord, to an honorable death I so plead.
I lay here glad as away my life slowly bleeds.
Robert J. Lindley, Sonnet
Note- "The valiant brave die but one honorable death"
Categories:
pittance, birth, career, character, courage,
Form: Sonnet
With a roof over your head,
A key to your door
Fire in the grate
Clippie rugs on the floor
The countryside to roam
A dog by his side
A boy may be poor but
He’s still got h!is pride.
Another spring approaches
Weather more and more mild
Memories rush back from
When I was a child
More than fifty years ago
My dad used to say
Nights were drawing out by
A cock stride a day.
A man of the land once of
The shire drawn plough
Earning his weekly pittance
By the sweat of his brow.
A man of his time when
Most of the working nation
Were condemned to poverty
And blatant exploitation
My mam and dad never
Ever had a lot
But seemed so happy
With what little they’d got
And I had a childhood rich
In everything but wealth
Loved and wanted and
Blessed with good health.
Times have changed and today,
Poor materially have much more,
But the bailiff does at times seem
Never far from a worker’s door,
And I never thought I’d see the day
When a worker gave thanks
For the charity donations
From now essential food banks.
Mithering - North England dialect - worrying , complaining, countering
Categories:
pittance, childhood, growing up, memory,
Form: Rhyme
Murmuration of starlings high. I’m high!
Low stars twinkling with wings. The trumpet’s call!
As winds of war, incline, in warm wind sigh,
the flock, a shock, sans enemies appall.
These friends do fascinate, heard like bombers,
like Japanese over unsuspecting
Pearl Harbor fight ~ these darling bird-balmers.
The nudge of melodic buzz, quite affecting.
Not of national consequence, abuzz
not with politicking but peace of soul -
remains of war pittance, the scrawling-t’was.
My awesome sight, this di’mond-bling of coal.
Mere humans offer crumbs ~ my heart flaps wings.
With murmurs high and low, communion springs.
Categories:
pittance, bird,
Form: Sonnet
Boiling away the edges
letting the core expand
Limitations drifting free
clarity at hand
Horizon coming at me
sky and earth as one
Sunsets in my memory
answers on the run
A token for the master
a pittance bye and bye
Value placed in what is not
scientists decry
My width and breadth immortal
the universe set free
To roam forever in my heart
—your eyes too blind to see
(Saint David’s Pennsylvania: May, 2022)
Categories:
pittance, visionary,
Form: Rhyme
"AFRICAN AMERICANS CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH"
Juneteenth, Juneteenth, Juneteenth
What does it really mean?
Slavery ending news, delivered two years late
155 years to date, black people still have to wait
African American celebration of freed slaves
Home of the free and land of the brave
We've suffered such brutality
Equal rights, still not a reality
From whence we came, some improvement
That has produced the least movement
The country's problem, is our color
Constantly being labeled the other
A perceived freedom, what have we learned
Still being denied, what we've rightfully earned
Ending slavery, an alleged act of liberation
Is it really a celebration?
They love our culture, but they don't love us
This optional choice, has stymied our trust
Over time, as a race, we've made some gains
But our mental psychic, is a lasting source of pain
For the pittance and crumbs left on the backdoor step
We should've been grateful and appreciative, before we wept
Reminiscing on the storied history
Unlocking the chains of a hidden mystery
Juneteenth, Juneteenth, Juneteenth
What does it really mean?
Categories:
pittance, black african american,
Form: Rhyme
Owed to a Grecian Formula,
Though secretive and unbetrayed,
Scarce noticed, by gradations wane:
Auld sylvan strands, fine argent grey.
Rich chestnut hues, slow, unannounced,
Emerge discreet midst ashen roots,
As grizzled mantle transforms brown,
Like autumn leaves or wooded shoots.
And though ’tis pittance sacrificed
To dab small bits at break of day,
Alas, amended means, I yearn:
An aerosol, fine misting spray.
’Tis sweet to subtle reclaim youth,
To push back time, to mount attack.
A caution raised to those who dare:
Embrace thy choosing, glimpse not back.
Categories:
pittance, age, humorous,
Form: Ekphrasis
HEAD TO HEAD
tête-à-tête, Rita and I
two heads are better than one
in praise’n prayer
melodic lips of kin
our moms in heaven
lift
their lullaby assist
our hopes in cradled arms
we worship in different sects
but today we’re linked—
part of the extended army
no chinks in God’s armor
my people pray
carry me on my way
no demonic-dinosaur
no rattling dragon
nor human-pittance
comes in our way
they’d be destroyed
with just one thought
of hate
we love—
one heart, one Lord,
our neighbors
our differences deposited at the door
we share a smile
our gospel feet
smell rather sweet
2/10/2022
Categories:
pittance, christian,
Form: Free verse
Bits 'n Pieces of my soul
to be downloaded by the Marketplace
(or souled for a pittance at your request)
Doth thou find me Likeable?
God Bless my Fakebook Self!
All the shiny bots N pieces I've manicured just for you?
Why, they're just a miniscule reflection
An endless mirror,
scattered pixellated gems--
An electronic finger pointing back at Me.
The manicured, curated Me I've
divvied up for you to see, Yes--
but Nonetheless, you didn't protest;
Or did Thou?
Categories:
pittance, conflict, irony, perspective, satire,
Form: Free verse
In this godforsaken place, I felt disconnected
from the climbers around me--
emotionally, spiritually, physically…
Jon Krakauer pg 63 Into Thin Air
EVEREST
to breach topmost peak
one must reach
pittance of soul’s wit
bodies warmth
all but dead near climb’s
great escape
10/27/2021
Lune (Mixed Pair)
Sponsor: William Kekaula
Categories:
pittance, adventure, death, mountains,
Form: Haiku
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