Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Charity

"When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” 

― Maya Angelou

“Charity degrades those who receive it and hardens 
those who dispense it.” 
― George Sand

https://nationaltoday.com/international-day-charity/

"The International Day of Charity was originally a Hungarian civil society initiative. . . . [I]nstituted on September 5 to commemorate the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death. . . . [E]mphasis is placed on enhancing visibility, organizing special events, and increasing solidarity, social responsibility, and public support. "

Mother Theresa in Calcutta
UN Photo/O. Monsen

Midweek Motif ~ Charity

We may debate the politics of charity elsewhere, here let's describe charity instead: How does it feel to give?  to receive?  to be pressured to give or receive?  to refuse?  How do you know?

Your challenge: Write one new poem about giving and/or receiving some type of charity. Use a favorite quote about charity if you wish.

Depiction of Guan Yin in Vietnam 
The Bodhisattva of Compassion and Kindness

The giver (for Berdis)

BY JAMES BALDWIN

If the hope of giving

is to love the living,

the giver risks madness

in the act of giving.

Some such lesson I seemed to see

in the faces that surrounded me.

Needy and blind, unhopeful, unlifted,

what gift would give them the gift to be gifted?

          The giver is no less adrift

          than those who are clamouring for the gift.

If they cannot claim it, if it is not there,

if their empty fingers beat the empty air

and the giver goes down on his knees in prayer

knows that all of his giving has been for naught

and that nothing was ever what he thought

and turns in his guilty bed to stare

at the starving multitudes standing there

and rises from bed to curse at heaven,

he must yet understand that to whom much is given

much will be taken, and justly so:

I cannot tell how much I owe.

quaking conversation

BY LENELLE MOÏSE

i want to talk about haiti.

how the earth had to break

the island’s spine to wake

the world up to her screaming.

how this post-earthquake crisis

is not natural

or supernatural.

i want to talk about disasters.

. . . .  

i want to talk about our irreversible dead.

the artists, the activists, the spiritual leaders,

the family members, the friends, the merchants

the outcasts, the cons.

all of them, my newest ancestors,

all of them, hovering now,

watching our collective response,

keeping score, making bets.

i want to talk about money.

how one man's recession might be

another man's unachievable reality.

how unfair that is.

how i see a haitian woman’s face

every time i look down at a hot meal,

slip into my bed, take a sip of water,

show mercy to a mirror.

 . . . . 

(Read the rest HERE.)

New Stanzas for Amazing Grace

BY ALLEN GINSBERG

I dreamed I dwelled in a homeless place

Where I was lost alone

Folk looked right through me into space

And passed with eyes of stone

O homeless hand on many a street

Accept this change from me

A friendly smile or word is sweet

As fearless charity

Woe workingman who hears the cry

And cannot spare a dime

Nor look into a homeless eye

Afraid to give the time

So rich or poor no gold to talk

A smile on your face

The homeless ones where you may walk

Receive amazing grace

I dreamed I dwelled in a homeless place

Where I was lost alone

Folk looked right through me into space

And passed with eyes of stone 

(See the International Day of Charity Facebook Page)

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community.

(Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Sunset.)