Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Safana Apr 18
Bamboo sticks will never bend.
Bamboo sticks will never break.
Bending down is a moringer stick.
Breaking down is for dry moringer.

The book should be judged by its contents.
The heart will never be defined by its face.
Open the roof and see inside.
And open the door to see the house.

Read the contents of the book before going on.
Read the heart, then accept the face's smile.
Find the building before opening its roof.
Knock at the door before opening the house.

Why will the judge just judge the book by its cover?

Learn it before attacking.
Well, reason before rumour.
Wash your mouth and chew the words.

Attacking before learning is ignorance.
Rumour before reasoning is illiteracy.
Remember, your mouth is odorous.

Wash it again and again and again.
Prince Adam Zango
The Star
J J Jan 10
The sun's still out my head's in the heels of my shoes
I'm surprised I can even dress myself

And though I stand here lonesome
I lift my eyes from the ground
upto those birds that spiral novel uncharted shapes in the blank sky.

Me I'm still bleeding I just don't get to bleed on you now
How lucky for us both
To look back and forgive and forget as we please  and bless sweet nothings in and out of nothingness and choose whether we could or couldn't care less
Nicotine laced condensation scratches the window too blurry to see anything but my face
Though I only see it from the outside when looking back
Jester-like like the black cat's white-outlined grin
before crying to be let in and out of the rooms as he pleases
I know you spend as you get but can't you account for anything at all?

     I'm nibbling my wrists those birds are all I've got to lick the wounds
And I can only care for them so long as they still want me to look at them

And you
You sit with so much on your mind have you really just nothing to say?

I've met you several times but we only spoke that one time, didn't we?

You just took a couple draws from my cigarette and we were both happy enough to leave it at that

If I saw you in the street I may assume the identity of my doppelganger
  I'd still like to call her over to mine someday if I were able to but that's not something I dwell on
You're just the reason I'm starving I wouldn't pay me no mind in your spot either
Sweet-thing

You aren't worthy of another promise I would've been happy if I could've only atleast had them left to keep
I'd rather crash literal breakneck speed before speaking to you again and you know that by now, don't you?

Fog falls light from small mountains it looks faint but it imposes it's presence to-be
threatening to cover our faces heavy enough to stain our clothes

It beckons those pretty birds to be among the first to rise and
be engulfed

I'm stuck to the ground sweetthing with my eyes falling back down,
My feet are heavy as stone but I can't afford to get tired waking up so late into the day.
(Circa 1926 or something)
Asominate Sep 2020
Read me your words
I am yet to hear them
Knowledge to be absorbed...

Yet of the unknowns,
There's a fear within.
Ilonka Apr 2019
when poetry will die
the apocalypse of the soul will erupt in each of us
my being made of lyrics
will get lost in contemporary illiteracy,
our daily food will be missing from the shelves in the libraries
and virtual pages will replace the smile of the sweet girl from my favorite bookstore,
I will no longer cuddle the book covers made with good taste
and I will no longer breathe stories that hide behind them,
thinking will become limited by a collective sentence
which will swallow me
and devour my last remaining metaphor,
then amnesia will make a nest in me
and I'll beg it never to leave me!
A world without poetry, a world without books would look like this.
Randy Johnson Jan 2019
I didn't get much schooling so I can't read or write.
Many people don't understand my situation and plight.
I thought I was buying sugar but I bought salt.
My cake made people puke and it was my fault.
When I drive, I can't read stop signs so I always crash.
Over thirty people have sued because of whiplash.
When I was seven, Dad wouldn't let me go to school anymore.
When a person can't read or write, it closes so many doors.
I can count to ten but I have to use my fingers and thumbs.
And if you actually believe I can't read or write after reading this poem, you are dumb.
Justyn Huang Sep 2018
But! little did they know...
Seriously,
they didn't know much
Illiteracy prevents them
Kind of a joke. Kind of also real.
sunprincess Jul 2018
You will see what I mean, log onto any internet site
Pick up your remote and turn on any station
Read your local paper, chat with all your neighbors
This is one more unbelievable investigation

Impossible! He's lying, she's lying, they're all lying
Things like this just don't happen in our nation
In this great land, people are down right respectable
Believe this everyone receives a proper education

See families with children are always kept together
Small children being raised by parents impeccable
Government entities aren't transplanting flowers
Check this, in this great land of morales acceptable

Would you believe one has their own perspective?
Half of what I said just may be true for all of you
On the other hand everything I said may be false
So if you choose, you can say the sky is baby Blue

Only some of us know the Truth!
Whatever happened to the promises
We made for the greater good?
What are we doing to keep them?
Are we doing less than we should?

What are we teaching our children now?
Are we teaching them at all?
What will they grow up to be?
Will they live to become our downfall?

Did we forget our own language?
Or did we simply not learn in the first place?
And have we no words to write
And no words to say?

What good are our brains
If we have no mind to use them?

Is this the best we can do?
Have we reached our limits?
Can we aim high no longer?
Are we fated to aim forever low?

How many times must we be warned
Until we get the message?
Are the ones who warn wasting their breath?
Are we going deaf?

How much blood do we have to spill?
How much damage do we have to cause and feel?
Have we gone blind?
Whatever happened to goodwill?

What's to become of the loving ones?
What's to become of the earnest ones?
What's to become of everyone with a heart?

Are all the good people doomed
To be used by the bad?

Is this the best we can do?
Have we reached our limits?
Can we aim high no longer?
Are we fated to aim forever low?

What about faith, hope and love?
What about those who live to love?

What about faith, hope and love?
What about those who live for love?

What about faith, hope and love?
What about those who live in love?

What about faith, hope and love?
What about those who live and love?
In response to the headlines at the start of this month as well as the issues they describe (e.g. national illiteracy, incompetent politicians, crime and terrorism, etc.)...

---

© 2016 Jordan Dean "Mystery" Ezekude, Incognitus Entertainment
David W Clare Feb 2015
Let's watch the fights see who wins
***** politicians quack doctors spin
I will sue you in court of law
My sneaky lawyer will find a flaw

Get off my property or I call the hoggs
Then you get bitten by my cyber dog
You wanna arm wrestle or fight **** or dance?
I'll show you who wears the pants

My car is faster than your old stage
Drive you in the ditch in a bout of road rage

Rockem Sockem Robots will soon be the contagion of hate in the coming age...

D. Clare
How did this happen? I was here first ! Doh!

— The End —