" Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion .*"
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
Vistors
Converse
Over
Artificial
Turf
Ironically
No
Ball
Games
To Be
Seen
Ambushed
By a
Rude
Stranger
Realized
Danger
City
Deserted
Daylight...
Sudden
Change
To
Dark
Now
Enclosed
By
Fence
In
City
Park
No
Shelter
To be
Found
Sleeps
On
Ground
Morning
Breaks
Emotional
Quake
Arrested
For
Sleeping???
How ridiculous!!!
Author notes
Written at Myrtle Edwards Park, 8/19/2008 11:30am
* http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/franklin_d_roosevelt.html
A related topic:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights.html
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/depwwii/depress/depress.html
For more information about the homeless; just click on these Google Links:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWO,RNWO:2008-24,RNWO:en&q=%3Chomeless+youth%3E
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWO,RNWO:2008-24,RNWO:en&q=Homeless+Veterans
http://www.local.com/results.aspx?keyword=Veterans+Organizations&location=Seattle+Wa
http://www.lyricsbay.com/tenting_tonight_on_the_old_campground_lyrics-unknown.html
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=1757
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWO,RNWO:2008-24,RNWO:en&q=%3CHomelessness%3E
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWO,RNWO:2008-24,RNWO:en&q=homeless+families
In a list
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 17 of 17
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So many homeless...leaves a feeling of shame that our country has shed on these poor people who have nothing, and nowhere to go. We see them...but not really SEE them. We talk about them, but not really TALK about them. WE had to leave our own comfort zones! Sad...Love this write. ~Sie
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Thank you for your most thoughtful comments. If you want more info about homeless societies, just click on the links (footnotes), in my AN: Veterans; Families, Families with Children, and homeless children as well.
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Hahaha this is amazing. Great job!
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Thanks for your comment; compliment, and applause. I do appreciate them.
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ohhh this is so sad =[ but what a true write well written can see the emotion put into this!
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Thank you for your thoughtful comments, and compliments, Sorry for the late reply.
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Clovis
I think all these links are great! And so is the need.
I rather liked the sparse formatting. It gets the point across really well.
Actually though, I think it might be dangerous sleeping out in the open all night on a park bench. Your shoes might be very coveted to another homeless person, whose degree of reasoning may not be that of your own.
In fact, I am going to a meeting this evening, and a good many of the people who are attending have been homeless formerly, including myself.
Speaking for my city, there have been many changes in the degree of assistance that can be offered to the homeless, the most salient, and important, is housing.
A far cry from when I was homeless here, 40 years ago.
Glad I saw this up in features.
Keep on advocating!
John
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Thank you for your most thoughtful comments. Yes, the need is great; funding often not enough to help solve the problem of homelessness. And even worse, some politicians don't even seem to care; they'ld rather harass the homeless instead of helping to solve the problem.
Where's the compassion, is what I often ask my self.
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I felt the disregard for the homeless person. Good job. Give the guy a break. You captured the fun everyone else was having. He was just trying to live.
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Unfortunately my first problem with this poem is the font. With the leafy background the orange font is difficult to read. I didn't mind the one word lines, although I would have preferred them not be capitalized. I liked the internal rhyme, because it was used sparingly. My bigggest problem with this poem is that it is too descriptive and not metaphorical enough. I would have appreciated more of the internal workings of this person's mind rather than just a laundry list of observations. There can never be too many poems on this subject because the disenfranchised need a voice. Your ending was very good.
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Thank you for your thoughtful observations; comments, and compliments. I do appreciate them.
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At first I didn't like this poem. The one word a line was frustrating me. But after a second reading I think that I help the reader imagine the life of a homeless person: Only able to take it one step, or line, at a time.
Good write and good point.
Simply pinpointed amazingness! -
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Aye, I understand your comment. This is what I call my "barebones poetry style", which a friend taught me. It can be a little confusing, however, I often prefer to allow the reader to use their imagination to provide the special effects. There is a very good article on wikipedia, about the homeless. A link in a moment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless
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Yeah! I can see this, and I can feel it. You have done a great job at capturing a day in the life of a homeless person.
Mike
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Thank you, my friend, for your comment, compliment and applause. I do appreciate them.
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i really like this poem, the form was wonderful and this is sadly true... if they are gonna arrest people for sleeping on the streets provide them with a home.. thats the way i see it. you came across a very good point RIDICULOUS! great write keep on penning
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Thank you for your comment; compliment and applause. I do appreciate them.
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