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Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore —
No doubt you have heard the name before —
Was a boy who never would shut a door!

The wind might whistle, the wind might roar,
And teeth be aching and throats be sore,
But still he never would shut the door.

His father would beg, his mother implore,
'Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore,
We really do wish you would shut the door!'

Their hands they wrung, their hair they tore;
But Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore
Was deaf as the buoy out at the Nore.

When he walked forth the folks would roar,
'Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore,
Why don't you think to shut the door?'

They rigged up a Shutter with sail and oar,
And threatened to pack off Gustavus Gore
On a voyage of penance to Singapore.

But he begged for mercy and said, 'No more!
Pray do not send me to Singapore
On a Shutter, and then I will shut the door!'

'You will?' said his parents; 'then keep on shore!
But mind you do! For the plague is sore
Of a fellow that never will shut the door,
Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore!'
It is one of the poems we read as children in English readers, and repeat many times in spare times. "Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore" sounded funny to us at that time. Just remembering it :D

The rhyme scheme is the stand out point of it
Itumeleng Mar 2014
You choose to ask me about me, you choose to want to know me. You speak words out my vocabulary! You speak of your world so fine. You lure me into your mind. You try speak the truth while talking lies. You tell me about beauty and brains combined. You tell me I look fine and my poetry is in line. You tell me you'd want to know if I'm woman enough. If I can really play tough with whips and cuffs! I ask you how? Cause this is my body? What more can a woman define being a woman? I then realise the misconception. Try give you direction, but your minds path is too narrow, filled with *****, ***** and lubes! Reluctant to teach a head with no backbone, I smile:) you then begin again. You tell me that that smile you have, is worth a million rands, you tell me my curves don't lie, that could handle me right? you tell me about the bed, the floor, the kitchen counter, you define me by how many rounds I can encounter! This is my body..how dare you try you undress me? How dare you define my womanhood out of desperate needs?
You terminate my soul and don't bother to ask more. You say thanx like I did a good job. For watering your ego and moaning your insecurities away. Respect my body sir. Then ill Salute you.
For 21 days I saw changes wrought
by the freedom of 22 years  
Secrets of razor wire straight and taut
Speak of those who continue to fear

I saw nature’s beauty in land and face
As black heel continues to rise
Via school, ambition they prep for the race
Even as secretly despised

What’s changed in Soweto? I did not live
But photos and newsreels survive
Pictures of shanties bulldozed to give
Whites room to extend their hives

Now malls; monuments to white retail
Built on Mandiba’s words
Polished chrome and marble hail
“Happy” workers in a black-faced world

Monuments ringed with vendors tribal
Carved goods for sale and cheap
The rands they make do not rival
What multi-nationals’ continue to reap

Happiness is shallow until sundown
When the curtain of decorum lifts
Showing reality’s new shanty-town
Where space and plumbing are gifts

I wonder if He would be okay
Seeing his people so used
As pawns for labor with little say
As black is seldom excused
  
The young know the time is now
As old hatred’s in shallow graves
To be unearthed by book and plow
Keeping dreams from stunting and fade
It may not seem as such, but I had a terrific if not educational time in South Africa. The Kruger animal photo opts, the Swaziland kindergarten where half of the five and six-year-olds are orphaned due to the aides epidemic. The glassmaking co-op where exquisite glass figurines are all hand blown from recycled glass. I witnessed the resilience of a proud people even as I was saddened at the extreme draught nature has visited upon man and beast alike.
DeVaughn Station Mar 2021
I am from a dreamland.
My great land was diverse yet so grand as
the food and words were never bland.
The hands were rich with bands and rands,
built from working the same ground upon which we stand.
I am from a home that once spanned
prosperity itself; such a lovely
thing was a gift to our health. The sands,
skies, and seas could even hold the Heavens.
The trees used to dance in the breeze with ease.
I am from a dwelling of past envy,
but not of a hating feeling,
in the purest form, this was just only beauty.
But I am from broken societies.

Our hearts were bled dry
as we were taken overseas.
We prayed, begged, cried why
ever so loudly, but it was in vain.
I am from a place where our veins
still course with a saddened passion,
as a lack of love is our new fashion.

With sorrow, I am still from a life of death,
as their malice has never left.
Yet they still set us so carelessly upon the trees;
despite our screams and pleas, we
become the strangest fruits you have ever seen.
We have no identity and we have no names.
yet they still set us so harshly upon the pyre;
the painful extermination of desire
is a freedomless and killing fire.
Even our look for love is seen as theft,
and sadly, I am from where they even have my last breath.
I leave in a hood where gun shots have become music to our ears.
It goes like "bang-bang"
We know its an alert that we are one short...
I live in a hood where blood has
Become the painting of street art...
Its like we lose to gain...
I live in a hood where underground kings have become the pimps of all ****'s..
Its like "aaah-aaah"
Yeah ***** you gon' be ****** for
A ***** to gain rands...
I like in a hood where knives have become friends with underskin..
Its like knives have been glued into pockets...
So welcome to my hood...
Anthony Perry Aug 2017
I'm a giant surviving on scraps from smaller hands, an Atlas without a known purpose living amongst Noam Chomskies and Ayne Rands, scrounging around this philosophical symphony for somthing hidden in the slaughterhouse of lambs.
K J Apr 2014
Flinger fargen
Bo kindres parben
den randf er morgen
blenk ting er horfen

JORP! Ein blaord fa
Rands er yozard dentra
parben bo floken wretha
O borben er tien jorta
Well then, if we agree, it is not odd
that one man's filth is another's wealth
or that the true pleasures comes from
a magnitude of abnormal achievements;
anticipation of gray shades on human error
is our life's constant coefficient.
Perception betrays with its blindspot:
Fate tracks always meet, not here, but only
in the impossible mind's sight;
intentions beats recognition as we commence
on thin sheens crawling to overtake that lens
where highlight captures pretense cleansing darkness.

So we could stand up, move on, darling, you and I,
until the glare tick out the rest in the worst
nothing changes, for all the blazing of
our drastic style, but leading hands that move
forcefully from adorable to done.
We raise our arguments like a diluted depict
heave to a better angle for screen clarity
shake logic with escape of comfort
and contradict ourselves for humor;then pixels leak
raw wind dries our stand and we put on
the heights as an oath; love is a tinted gloss
who insists her associates play in the rain.

Now you, my sophisticated fading icon,
would you have me carry the dry lands  
Or swallow the future and coat consequences
to store them on a cloud, down
the server in one language:
Drawing vowels from a loop through the dark
we only left with [L.P] played at 3:33 am
should it overwhelm the almost awake town.
cycling phoenix never stops to frame
If it should, should it be real or
should it sketch drunks upon the vignette
and Rands spent in dubious doorways
Our Valentine habits, engraved decoders
dining close to burning candles with our expired heads;
I donate applauds, until the same cause attacks again
scattering image from imagination,
recovering from ghost shots of exposure.

The rise leans down to hook; the resounding leak
in the dustbin sinks and drowns; we consume
divine west and east and sigh
how do you do,
and then how do you do again
to a blind breathing routine
till our harsh melodies reaches
to call for a cut on our restored scenes;
capturing photocopied reflections,
shutter opens where black or white begins
and separate the film from focus:
the philosophy of absolute apertures
exposed in a retina of moralities
which idealist call absolute, and rationalist, myth:
an insight like the prism of mirrors:

The result that mangle direct gaze is flipped,
while knowing the secret of their glaucoma is going;
some day, to move, and drop,
trace a wound that heals collections
only to reopen as flash thickens:
So we shall walk barefoot on chatroom walls
build our bed as high as a dead silhouette;
Duplicating the pain in our own tears:
Today : we start to pay the optic with each infrared,
yet love knows not of perception nor reality above
the simple sum of collages.
Kabelo Maverick Mar 2018
All my friends are dead
All my fans are red
All the rands are bled
All amends are dread
All my trends are read…

All my plans ahead.
Highlight©
Naash Jan 2018
I came here searching for gold
But these mines keep swallowing what's mine,
For a piece of paper just to temporarily belong.
I long for the day grandpa falls off the rails,
And gives us a chance to live.
Oh wait, he already did,
But there is no change.
So in this land I'm alienated,
In this land I'm disoriented,
In this land my identity is a shame,
It's shunned,
It hidden in the name of protection
Because they decapitate here
They disintegrate
The ****
They cull
And we want you alive when home starts to look greener,
And a little less brown.
So graze with your head down,
Bleed Rands to the ground.
It's okay.
Long as you breathing baby
IT IS OHKAY.
Extreme docility summarily
characterized demeanor,
when yours truly
pip squeaking little lad
the loudest sound,
this then pint size kid

generated courtesy
snapping, crackling, and
popping on quisp
and quake cereal
dems mighty good
eat'n snack food

straight out the box
this the most egregious behavior
exhibited by otherwise
extremely obedient sole son,
who feared never
venturing far from home

linkedin, albeit voluntarily
thank mother's durable apron strings
content self absorbed
taking especial attention
to surrounding flora and fauna
marveling at whirled wide webs

oblivious arachnids exemplified,
which near picture perfect dutiful son
a ***** fussy dorky dude,
now reimagines chock full
of mischievous deeds
epitomized, couched, applied

to fictitious unrepentant rapscallion
named Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore
brainchild made manifest destiny
obscure poet christened
William Brighty Rands
(British writer and major author

of nursery rhymes of Victorian era)
Google aforementioned name
if least bit curious
said crafted little
persona non grata
gangsta rappa if alive today

unleashed rather lame pranks
compared to golden opportunities,
no name brand garden variety
envious impish ragamuffins,
or even well groomed youths
respectable looking

albeit precocious progeny
need not leave comfort
of home nor hearth
what with wreaking havoc

freeing, loosing, releasing
veritable rainbow coalition
gender neutral binary rapscallions
across borderless cyberspace
itty bitty doggone petty files.

— The End —