Breathing in silence
Poverty living
Suffocating life
Empty, ungiving
Living with little
Sadly, no escape
Seeing no future
Desolate landscape
Bonding together
Despite life’s darkness
Overcoming much
Home lives with starkness
Searching, any job
Family needs food
Tasting emptiness
Life feeling so skewed
Thinking of future
Numbing journey calls
Shattering each dream
Poverty’s pitfalls
Facing each crisis
Today’s worries leave
Finding work again
Hope now smiles, believe
Different levels of poverty strike the world everywhere. Some areas face more daunting challenges than others. Here are a few sobering statistics:
- Ten percent the world lives in extreme poverty.
- For every 1,000 children born, 39 will die before reaching five years of age.
- Over 60 million children, ages 6-11, are not attending school.
- Seventy-five percent of extreme poverty is found in Africa and Asia.
- About one third of the world’s least developed countries are the least churched in the world.
Big Sky Buckeye 
We too readily complain about our situations when we live in abundance …. with way more than we could ever need. It’s important to remember that, and to be greateful 🙂
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Well stated! Thanks for sharing. We can never overlook the importance of gratitude for what we do have.
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We soon forget what God has abundantly provide for us, but there are still people going to bed hungry and desolate. We can help through various charities, but the greatest gift is the Gospel which provides the food that really sustains all of us. We can also ask God to intervene and provide the earthly things they need.
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It’s hard to believe how many kids do not have the opportunity for education. That’s the way out.
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My final ten years of teaching were in a larger urban setting from my Montana roots. I can totally relate to your words.
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there is a great deal of inequity in our world, and usually through no faulty of those living in poverty…
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Jim, your words are filled with wisdom and truth.
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I might share your comment with all my friends and family 🙂
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Wow! I am glad to help you out in a pinch anytime.
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🙂
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yet living in poverty in a highly developed nation is even more intensely obscene!
Loving your rhyme in this Richard and appreciate your nod to those with far less …
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Thanks Kate for your kind words. When I moved to Columbus, Ohio, I experienced the inequities of life in an urban setting.
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sadly our world will never know equality …
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It’s very sobering to read those statistics. I know I am blessed – and I am so grateful to have been born where I was, when I was, and to the parents who loved me and one another. Thankful to God. Doing what I can to help those in need whose plight is put in my path. Wish I could do more!
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Jan, I agree with your thoughts. Growing up in Montana and later in teaching in different regions of the state, I saw the inequalities of life on the reservations.
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SObering
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Very much so Jim! Your single word captures the intention of this poem.
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=)
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