Poverty Poems | Examples of Poverty Poetry

Is a picture worth a thousand words? Is it the same with a song? Is it worth a thousand pictures? Who can deny the powerful images evoked from Songs of Struggle and Protest – a forte of common humanity? A song can paint optimism, commitment, and a desire for peace, freedom, and the right to live without …Your Millions, Mister. A piece of...

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Every picture I’ve seen of you as a child, You wear your hair in plaits. A stern middle parting and two dark brown braids Falling down on each shoulder. A maypole’s dream. You would do your best to wash them when you could, When shampoo was available, Or even in the single, small bathroom. You would vigorously scrub your face too With...

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This guy looks (and smells) like a loser in every way. Why does he have to hang around my table today? Right now, I wish he would turn around and go away. For the last few days, he has been in this casino. He is certainly nobody I would want to know. Overindulging, he has lost every penny to his...

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Perfume of tremendous worth, Emptied from an airtight jar, Left a sweet fragrance in the air, As roses on a spring morn. Promptly brought a harsh rebuke, Labeled as a wasteful sin. Others had an insightful view, It’s too precious to contain. Basic goods must always flow, Not withheld with selfish greed, By the “haves” from the “have not” poor We must respond to their need. If...

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Who am I that I can choose To pick from my closet different types of shoes Who am I that my feet are bare When I only wish I had shoes to wear Who am I that I have food Whenever I'm hungry to eat Who am I that I am hungry And for food I have to seek Who am I...

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They sat holding bottles In their hands And armpits Pouring mouthful Of liquor to fill Their hollow stomachs. They gazed at each other As cat and mouse And spoke a lot of Inglish with slain syntax To devirginate Their motherland. The two drunkards! Spoke of a nation's illusions And the wilted state of A nation's elites Raping the cultural norm Who raped the temple? They said something About...

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Deafening Silence we live in a world juxtaposed  with apparent contradictions with poverty...

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Face, Frozen to concrete river The rest, Has fallen through the pavement cracks Will not be found ever...

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silverware tarnished forks absent some teeth plates chipped at the edges set of cups incomplete the table wobbled and creaked like them, sad and bleak... down the block from prosperity ...

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I was married, but to me, it wasn’t marriage. It was poverty-induced— a fate sealed by hunger and silence. I was an orphan, taken in by my mother’s brother— the uncle who accepted that I could live with him. But he was abusive, an emotional robber. He broke the seal of my womanhood when I was just into the third of the teenage years. Long story short— he...

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Beneath tin roofs and between rusted walls, their dreams hang like torn cloth patched, and faded , in the wind. A cracked bowl, a child’s laugh hope drawn in a poster on broken walls....

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-The Chalk Beneath My Fingernails- I walk a path where roads dissolve, Where rivers rise and hopes revolve, Through jungle mist and dusty lanes, With every step, I carry names— Of children born with hollow bowls, But eyes that shine like tempered coals. The schoolhouse leans against the sky, Its roof a patchwork, spirits high. The walls may crack, the floor may creak, But voices...

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What truly is power Is it control or the silence that follows it? Is it born from bullets and broken promises Or from the love we dismiss as weakness? Can power ever be shared like bread split between hungry Sudanese hands as if leadership were a meal the poor can taste in equal halves? Or is power what poisons the soil the reason Sudanese...

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The beauty of graceful sunsets lost, the price of non rewind deep wound cost, addict blows the opium itching & bleeding, losing cardboard parts to a child laying in the sun as the needle stings & pierces. Lost a deep nerve frantically fierce, reach out and touch the piercing stars, its time to play so lets rehearse, dream of kingdom comes remains far. Fire...

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impish urchins doze dragon-slayers bold and brave ~ dawn’s gray as they beg ...

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