I want to make you all cry
It's good for people to cry
It's better than sitting round miserably
Pretending to laugh
People don't cry enough!
I want to make you all cry
For yourselves and all people who
Don't have to die
For kids who are hungry and put to hard labour
When they should be greedy and pains in the neck
Who know the world is wrong but won't be heard
Who only hear shouting, destruction
And cries of distress
Only our shared tears can clean up this mess
I want to make you all cry
At the shame of getting by
Unable to cope with life's complexities
Or even ask why
Love is never enough!
I want to make you all cry
For yourselves and all people who
Don't have to lie
But must for the sake of our little luxuries
The only way we spread love and happiness
To spite the orders that come from above
“You work your contract or there's the door!”
That's the reason why
We live on lie after lie after lie.
I want to make you all cry
For people you just let go
To politics and the geography
You know, the money
Forcing us to depart!
I want to make you all cry
For the people you must pass by
In your own home
On the street, in the shop and on the TV news
Feeling sorry but too powerless to help
All the problems you deal with by yourself
With nobody knowing to help you
Just trying to smile
At the cruel way the world became so vile
I want to make you all cry
To salute what you see die
In Syria, here and inside yourself
For what? The money?
Global economy?
I want to make you all cry
It's urgent, we must cry today!
It's not too late
To face up to what we've been trying to deny
What we have suffered and what we are losing
Blanking it out with our kind of boozing
Not letting the merciful tears flow
Time to let them go!
To weep and embrace and do what we know.
Sep 1, 2013
Sep 1, 2013 at 9:06 PM UTC
I want to make you all cry
It's good for people to cry
It's better than sitting round miserably
Pretending to laugh
People don't cry enough!
I want to make you all cry
For yourselves and all people who
Don't have to die
For kids who are hungry and put to hard labour
When they should be greedy and pains in the neck
Who know the world is wrong but won't be heard
Who only hear shouting, destruction
And cries of distress
Only our shared tears can clean up this mess
I want to make you all cry
At the shame of getting by
Unable to cope with life's complexities
Or even ask why
Love is never enough!
I want to make you all cry
For yourselves and all people who
Don't have to lie
But must for the sake of our little luxuries
The only way we spread love and happiness
To spite the orders that come from above
“You work your contract or there's the door!”
That's the reason why
We live on lie after lie after lie.
I want to make you all cry
For people you just let go
To politics and the geography
You know, the money
Forcing us to depart!
I want to make you all cry
For the people you must pass by
In your own home
On the street, in the shop and on the TV news
Feeling sorry but too powerless to help
All the problems you deal with by yourself
With nobody knowing to help you
Just trying to smile
At the cruel way the world became so vile
I want to make you all cry
To salute what you see die
In Syria, here and inside yourself
For what? The money?
Global economy?
I want to make you all cry
It's urgent, we must cry today!
It's not too late
To face up to what we've been trying to deny
What we have suffered and what we are losing
Blanking it out with our kind of boozing
Not letting the merciful tears flow
Time to let them go!
To weep and embrace and do what we know.
Sorry to return to Hello Poetry with an invitation to cry, but it seems that this year has been a pretty bad one for me personally (nothing tragic, but stress, worries and petty distractions) and the world in general; not the worst in history, perhaps, but still too much killing and greed and continuing inequality, despite the efforts of such good people as Martin Luther King - celebrated especially this year for the inspiration given by his example and his rightly celebrated "I have a dream" speech.
Thank you to all who've read my work on here and shared their own. Thanks to this and other forums, the community of poets may grow ever closer and more truly global. We, the "unacknowledged legislators of the world" (Shelly) can have a voice in the debate!
Should've mentioned it on Hello Poetry sooner but I am helping to found a poetry contest in aid of poets and Titchfield Festival Theatre in Hampshire, England, near where I live. Entry can be by email, no fee involved and the first prize is £150! Please search my WordPress blog or Titchfield Festival Theatre's own sites for further details, And if you can't make an entry by September 8th, have a go next year!
Love and peace to you all,
JPF Goodman
Request permission to use this poem