#activism poems on Hello Poetry

Agatha Prideaux Apr 2020

Dried-out sweat, tired-out eyes
Placards coated in reds and blacks
Hair strands wet, vermillion skies
Whiteout sneakers underneath slacks

Chipping bricks adorned with dusk's glow
Soft thuds drown in bustling sidewalks
Concrete walls enrobed in guised woes
Like calls of Cincinnati clocks

Down the path's lead, an alley lies
Only known by a few handful
An easy shortcut for the wise
A definite route for the fool

Empty blocks pampered in ruins
Grow dahlia shrubs in feeble soil
Yet cherished by passing humans
As they perceive in gleeful toil

Click, clack. Tip, tap.
Echoing the narrow pathway
Click, clack. Tip, tap. Click, clack. Tip, tap.
Reverberating the walkway

Gush of summer coldness trickles
Playing with thin skin's hair to stand
Along evening's hazy drizzles
Until lips' beam's closed by a hand

Frozen. Motionless. Absolute.
Pulsating ears, vibrating fears
I, the troubled, straightaway mute
Searching for comfort in fresh tears

Frigid, sharp blade graze flesh through clothes
Algid, rough palms tightened their grip
With trembling mouth, whimpers in lows
Time's ticking, closer to the tip

"How dare you go against!?" he yells
His voice falling on deaf pavements
Alike encaging prison cells
Beneath wretched, worn-out basements

Writhed free from his desperate hold
Unclasped myself, away I go
Yet burly hands grab my shirt's fold
On my side, planting the grand blow

The night weakens, the knife deepens
Meeting downcast eyes as I stare
Remorseless, the demon wakens
No plans—this petty soul—to spare

Deafening shrieks still ring my ears
The masses' cries of unjustness
Voices crystal clear amid tears
Demur of headstrong robustness

Earlier's protest fresh in mind
Echoing as I reminisced
Realized the shrills' suit unfeigned
Are screams from my own throat's abyss

Away from the hustling streetscape
For anyone to hear my plea
In desperate crawls to escape
He lifts the wood in counts of three

Bashed head meet placards to shatter
Jagged splinters abrade my face
Entwined with rain's pitter-patter
To finish me off, just in case

Each and every breath nears to none
Boulevard of dreams come broken
The mist douse this limp body done
I take my last, eyes wide open

Dried-out life, tired-out cries
Pebbles coated in reds and blacks
****** palms rife, obsidian skies
Lone witnessed—mum dahlias on cracks.

Day 5 of #NaPoWriMo 2020. This woke me up all night, and definitely not regretting. Yes, I love dahlias.

#napowrimo #napowrimo2020 #dahlia #alley #suspense #sad #activism #****** #death #traditional

Sarah Mar 2020

FBOR

be still, my love, it's all ok
or will be soon, I hope
the world, with sweaty palms, still clings
to fraying bits of rope
the plants, they like it warmer
and the animals can cope
(or those that hold tight, anyway,
to fraying bits of rope)
what’s wood made for, if not a flame?
the creatures can elope
the forests singe another inch
of fraying bits of rope

and now it's time to go, my love,
to journey down the *****
you didn't learn, and so you lost
your fraying bits of rope

#climate #change #activism #global #warming #leftist #leftism #politics

monique ezeh Feb 2020

when can we see photographs of blackness?

Not until you can see the pain in our eyes, the scars on our skin, the protruding ribs and distended stomachs of malnourishment, till you can gape at small black bodies disfigured by kwashiorkor and colonization, till you can gasp at people that don’t look like you being branded like cattle, like animals on their way to the slaughterhouse
(and thank goodness we’ve come so far, things used to be so bad)

Not until you can marvel at the mottled marks of a whip, the black and blue bruising only white hands can inflict, till you can shake your head at teens boldly drinking under a whites only sign, till you can cover your mouth and peek through fingers at the water hoses, the dogs, the guns, the blood— black blood on black bodies in black and white photographs
(and you inwardly sigh, relieved that it was so long ago and so far away)

Not until you can retweet teenagers face to face with riot gear and tear gas, till you can shake your head and show that you’re different because your black studies class told you so, till you can give a 40 character message about how sickening the violence is, but you keep watching the videos of him her him her him her him her him her
them
shot choked kicked punched beaten whipped slapped
killed
by government sanctioned executioners

Not until you can see everything but understand nothing

Always have to be ugly raw hurting bleeding suffering
Why can’t we be smiling laughing eating dancing breathing

Why can’t we be smiling

Why

been thinking a lot about the pervasive voyeurism of black suffering, of how widely circulated images of suffering and death are. i don't want to see another image of a black person dying in the street. i don't think i can.

#black #blacklivesmatter #suffering #pain #racism #antiblackness #repetition #politics #activism

Shaylie Pryer Jan 2020

Nothing about us, without us

Nothing about us without us,
Always about us, you're without us.
Including the moments in history, that deserve our religious screams, our outrage and defiance,
The human rights that slip your systemic mind from time to time, because it comes with a billboard that has a painted letter of a capital D.
We own the crippled and crumpled pages,
Your oppression is our spark of history,
Flattering the pages and creating a novel,
a permenant marker of our precence.
Will you pick it up and understand?
We made our place in the palm of your hand,
This is about us, and without us you wont stand.

#disabilities #activism #peerwork #disabilitypride #pride

Mark Toney Oct 2019

John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon
From Britain to Brooklyn, decked in denim
Controversial through his political and peace activism
Felled by Mark David Chapman's act of barbarism

#clerihew #johnlennon #britain #brooklyn #denim #activism #peace #markdavidchapman

Juhlhaus Oct 2019

Tender Thunder

Stiff necks turn your ears
To the approaching thunder
In the sanctuary walls,
A tremor in the civic flagstones,
Four million poster-board sentiments,
And twice as many young lungs.
They will be marching still,
When you can no longer
Answer those piercing eyes
Looking to your legacy,
Nor stand before the tender feet
Shaking the earth you leave them.

For Greta and the planet.

#earth #climate #climatechange #protest #activism #youth #hope #future #greta

Lily Aug 2019

The ‘F’ Word

Anger is surging,
I am watching all my bridges burning.
Rhyme- I cling to the safeness the rigid structure evokes, the soothing sway of stability.
I am seeing flames,
your bigoted, misogynistic ways ebb away at my faith in humanity.
Cowardly, I bite my tongue, tasting iron, desperate not to be branded with the dreaded ‘F’ word.
Why am I ashamed? It is not a ***** word.
So do not roll your eyes when we preach equality,
we are not equal stop objectifying my body!

I’d love to receive feedback on this! This poem discusses how difficult it is to break away from the norm and fight for what you think is right due to society making feminism seem like a bad thing. Although, I’d love to get your interpretation of it!

#activism #feminism #young #poets #emotional

Owen Cafe Aug 2019

Do Not Be Confused

Anger is not passion.

Passion can make you angry.
Anger can breed passion.
But do not confuse the rose from its thorns.
Do not let the horns of self gratification
confuse you for value.

Passion is as pure as a first kiss,
as powerful as an earthquake radiating from the soul.
Anger is as naive as a bullet in a gun and as weak as..
"I didnt mean to"

Do not mistake anger for passion.
Anger is not passion.
You are not anger.

You are passion.

Thoughts on social activism and arguing for the right things the wrong way.

#protest #passion #anger #fight #activism #value #morality #reflection #growing #self

besidethefallenfigs Jun 2019

in the deafening silence.

You were blessed with a voice,
One of power and brilliance--
Yet you still choose to sit in the silence?

You were given words upon words
& stance upon stance--
Yet I see not one sign of resistance.

Oh my dear child,
What is holding you back?

Is it fear of shame? simple diffidence?

Your speech is ammunition--
Your lips capable of deliverance more
Powerful than the rifles of wars once long fought.
Yet you still choose to sit in the silence?

Oh my dear child,
If only you knew.

In a world plagued so greatly with censorship and shame,
You’ve been blessed to speak freely as you choose.
Under this flag of red, white, and blue,
The only regulator of your speech
(or lack thereof)
Is you.

Somewhere across the pond is another--
One just as bright and capable as you.
But alas their tender head is still deemed naive
& their gifts remain invariably at rest.
Even now will you sit in the silence?

Oh my dear child,
Now do you see?

Your ability to speak up is a privilege--
One of rarity and great worth.
So cherish this blessing &
Hold it close while you can.
Because who knows?
Just one policy and it could all be stripped free.

#politics #democracy #censorship #activism #student #freedom #poetry