As for the pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.

quote by Henry David Thoreau
Added by Lucian Velea
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Sheshonk He's Shrunk

How are the mighty fallen! King of kings
around whose word world spun, just dust remains
confined near Nile which ignorantly brings
feast or famine as high fate ordains.
He lies forgotten, for what poet sings
his praise to raise most memorable strains.

Faded now are former hieroglyphs,
he and all generations since despair,
life like lost lemmings heading o'er fate's cliffs,
lose base pace space race trace face fair - unfair
seems life's strife dreams which nano seconds blaze,
then lost in haze lies memory of our day.
(14 February 2010 revised 4 February 2012)

For previous version see below and also link to wiki

How are the mighty fallen! King of kings
around whose word world spun in dust remains
confined near Nile which ignorantly brings

[...] Read more

poem by Jonathan Robin
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Mubarak Pride?

Mubarak pride purchase price paid
in costly country millions not cheap.
Mubarak pride is worth more than
economy of an entire nation of Egypt.

Mubarak face saving speech worth
more than potential Nile River run blood.
Mubarak pride is worth more than
all tourism all trade all people terror bled.

poem by Terence George Craddock
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Gypsy

I asked a gypsy pal
To imitate an old image
And speak old wisdom.
She drew in her chin,
Made her neck and head
The top piece of a Nile obelisk
and said:
Snatch off the gag from thy mouth, child,
And be free to keep silence.
Tell no man anything for no man listens,
Yet hold thy lips ready to speak.

poem by Carl Sandburg
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Retro Notes

Like a spatial Babylonian tower,
towards perspectives of a great celestial Being,
monolithic and nestling with regal poise,
a cryptic monument in the dust of the Nile Delta,
to reflect Cheops genius,
and as a colossus, to straddle the heavens,
standing in its own statuesque aura,
in memoriam, and as a totem pole,
pinnacling man's hope, and Egypt's ascendancy and masterdom,
for Egyptian power is African power. I can vividly remember
annals of the ancient kingdoms of Ghana and Mali,
of the beautiful Nymph-like Nubian princesses clothed in mahogany skin,
sparkling like the jewels of the kings of the Nile.With lucidity I can recall
the sagacious Angel yclept Lucifer incredibly stunned,
falling like lightning with his votaries, out of that brilliant light,
in the aftermath of Celestial's cataclysmic clash,
after spawning an inventive tale. Such spiel
initiating heaven's haemorrhage by its irreverence,
initiating the turmoil in virginal Eden,
and man's epic drama, like an Odyssey-

[...] Read more

poem by Enoch John
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Hippopotamus

'Why you struggle so much my friend over there?
Please come to Africa in an auspicious time
And I'll do piggyback along the river Nile,
Then you feel like a King in the Congo jungle.'

*[ Though it has a thick skin yet I realized it's soft heart as melting butter.]

It's another touching dream of Africa.....................!

poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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The Moon of Ramadân

The sunset melts upon the Nile,
The stony desert glows,
Beneath heaven's universal smile,
One burning damask rose;
And like a Peri's pearly boat,
No longer than a span,
Look, faint on fiery sky afloat,
The Moon of Ramadân.

Our boat drifts idly with the Stream,
Our boatmen ship the oar;
Vistas of endless temples gleam
On either topaz shore;
And swimming over groves of Palm,
A crescent weak and wan,
There steals into the perfect calm
The Moon of Ramadân.

All nature seems to bask in peace
And hush her lowest sigh;

[...] Read more

poem by Mathilde Blind
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Power Of Love

Oh love the genesis of life
how divine are you. When
you find the heart of men
it gets fresher than the grains
at the shore of nile.. My heart
with you is a cute flower in the
middle of grasses.

Oh power of love, when you smile
my heart smiles, my heart is dedicated
to you as eyes are dedicated to the beauty
of flowers love..

poem by Enyinwa Okechukwu Enyinwa
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The Pelican Chorus

King and Queen of the Pelicans we;
No other Birds so grand we see!
None but we have feet like fins!
With lovely leathery throats and chins!
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

We live on the Nile. The Nile we love.
By night we sleep on the cliffs above.
By day we fish, and at eve we stand
On long bare islands of yellow sand.
And when the sun sinks slowly down
And the great rock walls grow dark and brown,
Where the purple river rolls fast and dim
And the ivory Ibis starlike skim,
Wing to wing we dance around, -
Stamping our feet with a flumpy sound, -
Opening our mouths as Pelicans ought,

[...] Read more

poem by Edward Lear
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The Nile Springs

There are naked souls
being clothed in purity
There are limbs, young in age
being watered with nutrients of growth
There's flesh, dark in color
swallowing the rays of the mighty sun

Down the Nile springs
African steam rises to heights
from the depth of the red earth
to fill the clear sky of opportunity.
Blessings are whirling
like the winds of our history

poem by Timothy muggaga
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Ruined By Sitting

Do you discard the ruins of sitting?
Let us walk hand-in-hand down the river Nile,
Like centipedes or milestones, whatever.
This learned man is wise as well,
Judge him by his intellect as if to magnify.
Rally support from afar, busy butane,
Opening doors to the world of tricks.
So pronounce the letters in my heart
So that by doing this you keep a learning.

poem by Naveed Akram
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Danville

Danville, Dan, villa, ill, ale, dial, lad, din, dine;
Of the confidence!
Of the mighty sceptre,
Of the glorious staff,
And to accept it;
But, you said that you love me.

Dave, diva, nail, veal, vale, veil, den, an, deal!
Like the read sea;
Exclusive red! !
Like the muse of your love;
Lead, led, lane, lean, in, Nile, idle, vine, vain, line!
But, i am always around you.

poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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Revelations

O God of earth and altar
Bow down and hear our cry
Our earthly rulers falter
Our peolple drift and die
The walls of gold entombe us
The swords of scorn divide
Take not thy thunder from us
But take away our pride
(g. k. chesterton: english hymnal)
Just a babe in a black abyss
No reason for a place like this
The walls are cold and souls cry out in pain
An easy way for the blind to go
A clever path for the fools who know
The secret of the hanged man - the smile on his lips
The light of the blind youll see
The venom that tears my spine
The eyes of the nile are opening - youll see
She came to me with a serpents kiss
As the eye of the sun rose on her lips

[...] Read more

song performed by Iron Maiden
Added by Lucian Velea
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A friendly smile

A friendly smile

Just your friendly smile
When I think of, it makes
Me smile and afloat on the Nile

Absent, no matter long it takes
Your smile stands vividly still
In my memory and can it fill

Offered, your friendly smile
Is lovely for a being my kind
To love you I made up my mind

With your friendly smile
None of smiles can your place
Take and shrink back my pace

Joseph de la Sulh

poem by Joseph De La Sulh
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The Battle of the Nile

'Twas on the 18th of August in the year of 1798,
That Nelson saw with inexpressible delight
The City of Alexandria crowded with the ships of France,
So he ordered all sail to be set, and immediately advance.

And upon the deck, in deep anxiety he stood,
And from anxiety of mind he took but little food;
But now he ordered dinner and prepared without delay,
Saying, I shall gain a peerage to-morrow, or Westminster Abbey.

The French had found it impossible to enter the port of Alexandria,
Therefore they were compelled to withdraw;
Yet their hearts were burning with anxiety the war to begin,
But they couldn't find a pilot who would convey them safely in.

Therefore Admiral Brueyes was forced to anchor in Aboukir Bay,
And in a compact line of battle, the leading vessel lay
Close to a shoal, along a line of very deep water,
There they lay, all eager to begin the murderous slaughter.

[...] Read more

poem by William Topaz McGonagall
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Lines Read at a Dairymen's Supper

It almost now seems all in vain
For to expect high price for grain,
Wheat is grown on Egyptian soil
On the banks of mighty Nile.

And where the Ganges it doth flow,
In India fine wheat doth grow,
And the price of labor is so cheap
That it they can successful reap.

Then let the farmers justly prize
The cows for land they fertilize,
And let us all with songs and glees
Invoke success into the cheese.

poem by James McIntyre
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Walk Like An Egyptian

All the old paintings on the tombs
They do the sand dance don't you know
If they move too quick (oh whey oh)
They're falling down like a domino

All the bazaar men by the Nile
They got the money on a bet
Gold crocodiles (oh whey oh)
They snap their teeth on your cigarette

Foreign types with the hookah pipes say
Ay oh whey oh

song performed by Bangles
Added by Lucian Velea
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Damaged Love

Thou innocence-primed beauty
Thou dainty svelte
Emotion-ripping
Like the sun’s silhouette
Painted on canvass of the horizon:
Almond-eyed woman
Just like a diamond
Lyrics of the lyres of yesterday
Thou rippling voice
On whose crest
Memory potsherds
Are borne to berth
On the shores of this heart

Frenzied Suitors,
Soil your hands in every toil
Till until evening!
Though on your laps
She lays no love
Pay the dowry of a thousand foreskins,

[...] Read more

poem by Chukwuemeka Ogbu
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He Comes From A Different Culture

He comes from a different culture the tall dark one with such a great smile
And he finds it so hard to settle here so far from the banks of the Nile
He cannot speak the English language the tongue of this Southern Land
And that he feels he is an outsider ought not be hard to understand.

Tall and lean he looks very athletic and like a runner quite light on his feet
But he is not known as a sportsman and he never was an athlete
A young man in his early twenties and so gentle in his own quiet way
He speaks just a few words of English and two of those words are 'good day'

War and famine ravage his Homeland and for him 'twas not a safe place
And he fled just like many others to live far from his clan and race
To smile to him comes rather easily and he seems untainted by guile
But in his dark eyes there's a longing for the distant banks of the Nile.

My sympathies with the poor fellow he seems such an honorable bloke
He came to this Country a pauper financially dependant and broke
From his tribe to a refugee camp and life for him downhill all of the way
One hopes for him a better future though in that he doesn't have a say.

[...] Read more

poem by Francis Duggan
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The Hermit of Thebaid

O strong, upwelling prayers of faith,
From inmost founts of life ye start,-
The spirit's pulse, the vital breath
Of soul and heart!

From pastoral toil, from traffic's din,
Alone, in crowds, at home, abroad,
Unheard of man, ye enter in
The ear of God.

Ye brook no forced and measured tasks,
Nor weary rote, nor formal chains;
The simple heart, that freely asks
In love, obtains.

For man the living temple is
The mercy-seat and cherubim,
And all the holy mysteries,
He bears with him.

[...] Read more

poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
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