Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Money (for World Savings/Thrift Day)

World Saving Day
Source
World Savings Day was created and is still organized by banks.  Why save at home when you could establish a bank to"put your money to work"?


Image result for Sparefroh Austria
International Saving Day Austria


Midweek Motif ~  Money  
(for World Savings/Thrift Day)



In the USA, World Savings and Halloween share the same date.  This year, we're "talking money."

Money.  How did it become so important? Little coins and paper bills, numbers in websites, global economies, lotteries, "haves and have nots," etc. 

Here are a few quotes to consider:  

     “Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget,
 and I'll tell you what you value.” ― Joe Biden

     “Why people take drugs baffles me to no end. Especially when  they can't afford them.” ― Terry McMillan

     "A penny saved is a penny earned." ― Benjamin Franklin

     "There are two major modes for dealing with money in life: circulation and congestion. Circulation is paying bills, tithing, giving to charity. Congestion is hoarding, saving for a rainy day, being stingy. It's no coincidence that one word for money is currency; it comes from the word current, which means flow."  ― Beliefnet, "10 Spiritual Ways to think About Money"

     “I learn over and over again, that we can't spend, save, or budget money when we have too little money to begin with.” ― Susan Chast
💰


Your Challenge: Write a new poem with money as its focus.  Dwell on what money is and does, reveal it.



File:Brooklyn Museum - Comme Sisyphe - Honoré Daumier.jpg
Comme Sisyphe - Honoré Daumier


Velocity of Money

by Allen Ginsberg

I’m delighted by the velocity of money as it whistles through the windows of Lower East Side
Delighted by skyscrapers rising the old grungy apartments falling on 84th Street
Delighted by inflation that drives me out on the street
After all what good’s the family farm, why eat turkey by thousands every Thanksgiving?
Why not have Star Wars? Why have the same old America?!?
George Washington wasn’t good enough! Tom Paine pain in the neck,
Whitman what a jerk!
I’m delighted by double digit interest rates in the Capitalist world
I always was a communist, now we’ll win an usury makes the walls thinner, books thicker & dumber
Usury makes my poetry more valuable
my manuscripts worth their weight in useless gold -
Now everybody’s atheist like me, nothing’s sacred
buy and sell your grandmother, eat up old age homes,
Peddle babies on the street, pretty boys for sale on Times Square -
You can shoot heroin, I can sniff cocaine,
macho men can fite on the Nicaraguan border and get paid with paper!
The velocity’s what counts as the National Debt gets higher
Everybody running after the rising dollar
Crowds of joggers down broadway past City Hall on the way to the Fed
Nobody reads Dostoyevsky books so they’ll have to give a passing ear
to my fragmented ravings in between President’s speeches
Nothing’s happening but the collapse of the Economy
so I can go back to sleep till the landlord wins his eviction suit in court.

💰






BY HA JIN 
We sat in the neon light
on a cool evening of a summer day
drinking beer and eating salad.
You told me your story
similar to those of many others:

All your savings are gone,

the managers, the secretaries, the supervisors,

the police in charge of passports

all having received a handsome share.
Now you have nothing left there,
your color TV and refrigerator were sold
to get the cash for the plane ticket.
“But I was lucky,” you assured me.
“Many people have spent fortunes
and still cannot leave the country.”
. . . .

(Read the rest HERE.)

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source
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I dreamed I grew a money tree
outside in my yard.
My job was to care for it
and I worked very hard.


I saw that it was watered.
It grew so straight and tall
and when the money ripened
I picked it in the fall.


The flowers were green dollar bills, 

the seeds inside were coins, 
and others grew and glittered
where all the branches joined.


On windy days I stood below

and held a great big bucket.
Other days I climbed right up
to find one ripe and pluck it.


People say that money

doesn't really grow on trees.
I know. I only wish it did
just like in my dreams.

                         💰

When all birds else do of their music fail,
Money's the still-sweet-singing nightingale! 
 💰                                                    

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community.  
   (Next week Susan’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Reading Fiction.)

9 comments:

  1. Good Morning fellow poets, Happy Wednesday. Reaffirming "I am a millionaire in transition"
    (✿◠‿◠)

    much love...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good morning Poets United! May our lives be rich in more ways than one! (I like "millionaire in transition," Gillena.) I'll be in and out all day to read and enjoy how money enters here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi friends, i am away from home, and not feeling well, so i might not link today. But i will read everyone's through the morning and later in the day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Take care of yourself, dear poet. I couldn't sleep last night myself, so I'm, about to take a morning nap!

      Delete
    2. Hope you feel better Sherry - rest up as much as you can :)


      Susan, I just woke up within the hour here, and already, I'm ready to slip back for a snooze - it's a grey wet slippery slope day ... a nap sounds great! LOL - hope you had a good one. :)

      Delete
    3. Yes! I slept for 3 hours! Almost a full night's sleep. And now I'm heading to the library where I volunteer to tutor writing from 3:30 to 6 on Wednesdays. I thought I'd be working with teenagers, but I've two women in their 50s trying to change their careers. I am blessed!

      Delete
  4. Thanks for hosting Susan - I've enjoyed the different selections you've offered us, - definitely makes for some interesting ideas ... Money, the root of all evil?? LOL - some days, it definitely feels that way.

    I was inspired by several prompts and specifically "Thrift" - which I think is a really cool word ... so my "on the money" poem is a bit different for its exploration. Hope it's okay for the prompt, as such.

    And happy Wednesday everyone. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Susan: Hi! Hope you wake up to the 'Dodo' and find it interesting:) Thank you for the prompt:)
    @Sherry: Take care and get well soon:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. A wonderful selection of poems for inspiration. Thanks for the prompt, Susan! I took multiple metaphors for money and worked around it, based on my conversation with a friend last evening. XD

    I hope you feel better soon, Sherry. Take care! :-)

    ReplyDelete

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