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Ivan Brooks Sr Jan 2018
I came directly from through the ranks
All my dues paid, my homage to life
To my God alone all my humble thanks
For bread I slice with prayer knife .

I came strictly from my very own hood
All of my dues I paid through my strife
To mama dear for prayers and our food
For all she sacrificed to save my life .

I came humbly from a very blessed home
All my dues are paid through my chores
To charity, that says take and share some
For all I learned , I am beyond my shores .

I came strongly ready to join the hustle
My dues paid with my years of readiness
To poverty, a real caveat for my struggle
For I've persevered through steadfastness .

#Vanguard-poetry
Every step of the way,everything came at a price..I paid my dues
April Jan 2018
When Hope comes knocking at your door,
Asking for a handout in the cold,
Who among you would not spare a dime?
Then shame on you.
For deep inside you is the cold
That you shut out behind your door,
It’s brightly painted wood a mocking light
In the gloomy dusk.
So shame on you.
But each of you who gives as you can spare,
Though it be less than one might wish or need,
If with sincerity you open up your heart
To let in Hope,
Then a blessing be upon you,
For you are Hope.
Ivan Brooks Sr Jan 2018
Learn to always love yourself
For it's the realest and greatest love of all
Learn to prop and balance thyself
I guarantee you'll never ever fall .

Learn to always say the truth
They say it will always set you free
Don't trust words from a man's mouth
Some truths will hang you from the tree .

Learn never ever to believe a living man
For man to man is so very unfair
Learn to never trust a beautiful woman
Many things fits beneath her long hair .

Learn to always hustle and look for your own
Nobody has time for those without
For the poor will always be the least respected in town
Nobody really cares what they're ever about .

Learn to always give those in need
But make sure you do it when you can
For charity is a blessing and a seed
And learn never to say yes when you can't .

#IvanBrookspoetry✍️©️
twitter @ivanclappers
One life to live ..follow these rules and you will longer
an earlier draft of this barely satisfactory missive ex post facto, i chomped asper with upper dentures upon evincing a couple of typographical errors, in up rye or draft, and did not wanna dodge being a spell bound stickler for typing words correctly.

though no obligation to trot out this fixation sans zero misspelling tolerance, a compulsion with any concomitant obsession found me reposting before a repast of dessert - so there Ghost of Marie Antoinette, wherever you might be hiding - i can have my cake and eat it too!

Minus trimmings and over stuffed ego freezers,
but altruism, civility, Dharma *** ethnocentrism,
gratuitous homogeneous internationalism,
karma mosaic opportunism, quitessential righteousness,
unpretentious vivacious wide world yipping,

brouhaha dutifully emphasizing friendliness,
antithetically booing critical, popularly pugnacious
spoiled trump petting uber western yikyak,
zealous antipathy craving everything.
---------------------------------------------------------
a hypothetical, mental, rhetorical thought question
   occurred to me just moments ago
sans, milk of human kindness bubbles frothily
   upon major American holiday,

   whereat figurative bro
   thar and sisters exhibit philanthropic ambitions
   especially, towards indigent that crow
for bare necessities

   other than
   when Thanksgiving rolls around, and dough
nuts to dollars even most frugal misanthropes
   play feigned charitable card egoistically glow
with ambient benevolence, civility,
   diligent energy, and friendly hello

and sundry pleasant greetings
   hook hood be some
   soon tubby rich entrepreneurial stranger
   ready to make shares available vis a vis  IPO

   to dirt poor anonymous guarillas G.I. Jane or G.I. Joe
   who cross paths with each other,
   even those one doth not know
when ordinary biases, callousness,

   denigration...doth full low
out the mouths of hoity toity MainLiners
   towards working class people - mow
awe less trying to remain financially afloat,
   and with plea for handout
   would receive an emphatic NO!

Thee exception to unspoken aristocratic rule
   arising on feted buzz
   feed ding occasions where oboe
players invoke cobra to deliver riches galore to the 'po

whom sincerely show gratitutde,
   yet wonder why status quo
reserves select calendrical dates for handouts
   proffered after standing in a row
of similarly bereft individuals aware at stark

   outpouring overt nurture minded, humanity
   (with perchance a guest appearance by Sean Hannity),
this public denouement,
   an atypical venue for his television show

where generosity spills forth
   from said personality and others alike
blithely, demonstrably, fortuitously, happily,
   jubilantly, lovingly, modestly, poignantly,
   where an announcer speaks thru a mike

to open their doors and hearts asper,
   those down and out
   pushing belongings along the pea king pike
of broken tureens with
   only a mangy dog as companionship,

and though I admit tubby hyperbolical,
   hypocritical, hypothetical hypoteneuse of hippopotamus
   no charity less valuable then self and spouse,
   whom both experience spike
in anxiety since net income purportedly
   below the poverty level, though we reside

   within subsidized housing (outliers
   here at 2 Highland Manor Drive),
   yet random acts of an effortless smile,
   cordial greeting to passersby, or
   waving fellow drivers right of way,
Page Number Three:

such minimally polite services today,
the most within my limited monetary hi say
means, which behavior aye strive ray
   dee to maintain zero cost politesse, which doth pay
highest dividends, which reciprocal acknowledge may
be the greatest reward,

   whether or not a response elicited tis quite o kay
the satisfaction arising breeching comfort zone
   viz exposure therapy lighting up gray
matter analogous to a cerebral Christmas tree
   and any regret avoided, asper congenial efforts    
   generate “hi” kickstarts my day.
Carlos Oct 2017
They stay vigil, ever waiting the new design of sigils.
Kinda simple, keep their fingers pressed to pimples,
The pus a pit of petered parts,
Perceived by the reckoning of depleted hearts.
I rushed the doors at the sound of a great escape,
The process a repeat coordination of hurry up and wait.
Ever balking at the atrocities of cost,
Average Joes chasing dreams at the velocity of sloths.
How to be content with immense disparity?
Hands out faking quivers, shaking for some charity.
Forsaken someones somewhere surviving on a sliver,
Watching all the getters, I see myself a giver.
Henry Koskoff Oct 2017
i give a couple hundred dollars to the orcas on charity night
which is the night that isn’t so great because I don't get anything

i go to an orphanage in Kenya
and it’s not fun

maybe because I have look them in the eyes
or maybe because it's just not fun

my brother is really involved and I am not

he makes the few small dents that he can with the insufficient chisel that he was given
he works tirelessly

and I just say “**** it”
and I throw my chisel on the ground and instead pick up my laptop and watch netflix

moroccan women line the streets with chipped teeth and black gums

some with babies
some with groceries

their backs disfigured and their skin corroded
by the weight of responsibility
and mom and I pass by them at 45 miles per hour

their stories are a blur
a mere glimpse
drowned amongst the picturesque landscapes

they are comfortably at bay
i have a satisfying distance from their days

we take the high road
across the Tichka Pass
which is surrounded by overwhelming purple mountaintops

that have the power to separate two worlds
that are indifferent to the meager tires of our jeep
that amount to more than I ever will
that I will never be able to appreciate enough

they taunt me with their greatness
they soak me in their pride

but the pass is covered in ice
so we will have to wait to go to the desert

and although I play a character that is flexible and understanding
i am a little annoyed that our precious little itinerary is ruined
Bella Oct 2017
There's a story about  starfish
they're sprawled out on the coast thousands of them after a storm
a boy is tossing them one by one back into the ocean
he is told what he is doing doesn't matter
that he can never put all the starfish back into the sea
but he picks one up and says,
“ it  mattered to this one.”

in the story he's seen as a hero, saving all the starfish
but I don't see him as a hero
he is just living the way he is
the way we are supposed to live

I don't like the concept of schools requiring community service hours.
you see the point of community service is not to get credit for it.
the point is to make the world better
I don't want to hand out a homeless back,
see the smile on their face,
and then hand them a piece of paper to sign saying I did my
good deed for the week.

now some of you hearing this are thinking,
“ ***, she's such a great person. she hands out homeless bags ”
you my friend have missed the entire point of this Poem.
no, I'm not
I'm A PERSON
I would be an, “ awesome person, ”
if I  dedicated my whole life To charity
or if I cured something.
if you cure cancer you are a hero
if you feed a whole Community you are a hero
if you actually risk your life for someone you are a hero
and we should all strive to be heroes everyday.

I'm not trying to degrade the awesome things people do
and have done
like that little boy in the starfish story should get Praise,
In This Day in age
I'm saying that in the alternate reality where everyone does
what humans are meant to do,
community service is done like eating food
not like something to brag about at church
not like something to add to a resume
it's not like... community service.
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