Here's one I wrote earlier, for the GU Poster Poems on the topic of Money, which seems more and more relevant as the days go by:
I wish that money liked me more
I wish it hung around me
and wanted to be friends, and swore
that it was glad it found me
I’d like it to cling just a bit
even be quite annoying
I could be rather rude to it
for being quite so cloying
and still it would stay close
and vow that it would never hurt me
and even if I were morose
it never would desert me
Instead, it does just as it pleases
never cares for me at all
stays outside my reach and teases
leaves me looking sad and small
it treats me mean and keeps me keen
it quite ignores my pleas and tears
slips through my fingers, every bean
it’s done it now for years and years
I swear it likes to see my pain
it finds tormenting me a pleasure
and even as it runs away
it promises me future treasure
I wish I could desert the brute
go live in simple new-age camps
and find a life devoid of loot
bartering with my fellow tramps
but that would never work for me
Money has got me firmly hooked
and I pine unrequitedly
still hopeful, ever overlooked
.
24 comments:
Poor Zeph.
You can send your donations to the Offside Fund for Impoverished Poets. P.O Box 7376, Papeete, Tahiti.
Please give generously.
Hmm, P O Box 7376 wouldn't be the address of your favourite bar, by any chance, Offie?
Not that I doubt your motives for a moment.
Zeph - great poem. If only money had a personality I'm sure I'd be able to tame it. They say "easy come, east go" like as if it's a perfectly balanced phenomenon, but my life seems to lean more heavily on the "go"...
Good stuff Zeph. Reminds me of Larkin: "Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me...".
So here's some more Larkin to cheer you up:
Lots of folk live up lanes
With fires in a bucket,
Eat windfalls and tinned sardines -
They seem to like it.
Ringo, I would prefer that frankly. Getting sucked into the bourgeois capitalist state has caused me nothing but trouble.
Nice one, Zeph.
I'm not altogether sure about the tinned sardines, though.
Never mind fires in buckets I had a real fire in my house this evening (a small fire luckily). I'm still distressed.
Sorry to hear that, Pinkerbell - insured, I hope?
Oh it wasn't that big an event in the end to claim for. It was well contained as I happened upon it in its infancy, so no real damage - although I must find out whether I can claim back for the electrician costs. It was an electric fire, so just need a rewire and lots of glade plug-ins. It stinks!
Sorry - I was feeling a bit dramatic about it last night, it's not really relevant to your poem!
Good one, Zeph. The late James Baldwin once wrote that money is like sex.
When you're getting it on a regular basis, you think about other things; when you aren't getting any, you can think of little else...
So funny money
Makes you laugh
Then cry
Heart break when money
Breaks your heart
So funny
money
Zeph,
always helping the poors,for a10£ donation, Robin will teach you how to make money.
Robin hood Robin you
Liked it the first time; like it again now.
Billy
Who's Billy?
Billy Mills, a fine poet who used to run the GU Poster Poets series.
Thanks Billy!
You know you don't have to be Anonymous on these Blogger blogs, you can use the Name/URL function and ignore the URL bit.
Thanks Zeph
mimi, your question had me pondering...
Billy - wasn't meaning to be difficult, just an enquiry.
And I was only joking ;-)
Were you posting as anonymous further down the page Billy? on the haikus?
Pinkerbell, to be honest I can't remember (age!). I have posted as anon a few times on this site.
Oh, I meant to say can anyone here who posted poems on the Poster Poems thread keep an eye on the GU books blog over the next few days?
I like this poem. :)
Emma Fishcake, is that you? Nice to see you here!
Billy - it's just that there was a comment from an anonymous who simply said "Lovely" - it seemed a lonely little comment really. It's a shame when people post as anonymous - you can be fairly anonymous with a fictional name, but it's easier to be part of things if people can recognise you some name.
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