A River Dies

a river dies choked to gills
expiring upon industrial waste

sadly as the river dies the fish die also
oxygen starved extinguished

life was a web of light upon the water
life web torn broken discarded

water breathed life into river flowing
man breathed in death river choking

oxygen rich river was flush with fish
smell taste drink putrid pollution

poem by Terence George Craddock
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We'd have to suck away at oxygen canisters between songs just so that we could keep playing.

quote by Michael Hutchence
Added by Lucian Velea
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Flame

Like oxygen
to a flame
strike a match
to the mortal coil
the flame
flares brightly
before extinguishing.

poem by Vince Gullaci
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Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the ""gotta have it"" scale.

quote by Zig Ziglar
Added by Lucian Velea
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Let your youth be oxygen

Feel boring in the freezing cold
Let your youth be oxygen
To burn the coal
To get warmth
Till to extinguish
To become old.

poem by Abdul Wahab
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Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.

quote by Margaret Thatcher
Added by Lucian Velea
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A poor caterer's advertisement

She writes on her apron with a colored chalk.
Dear Customer,
I provide you tasty food at all to buy few oxygen for my weak lungs.

poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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The animals of the planet are in desperate peril... Without free animal life I believe we will lose the spiritual equivalent of oxygen.

Alice Walker in Living by the Word, 1988
Added by Lucian Velea
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The animals of the planet are in desperate peril... Without free animal life I believe we will lose the spiritual equivalent of oxygen.

quote by Alice Walker
Added by Lucian Velea
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Tree Speaks

I
paint the sky
with my branches,
I fortify the soil with
my roots, I fill the air
with oxygen, for a million
years I have given you the reason
and the resources to exist,
my branches never kill One another,
my roots never tell my fruits: “I owe you”.
You have butchered, burned and demolished me,
and I have no desire to reciprocate, in lieu,
I have continued to give you more oxygen
and food and never retaliate, I wish
you would treat one another like
I have treated you for years.
Stop over and
give me
a hug sometimes.

poem by Ibrahim Ibn Salma
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Vital

close to my heart
lungs contract
chest falls

fighting
to maintain my
windy passion

chest rises
blood requires
oxygen's fire

still alive

poem by Steven Federle
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Love is burning in the coal

Love
Is
Burning
In
The
Coal
To
Make
Life
Warm
Giving
Oxygen
Taking
Inside
Carbon die oxide
Dying
To
Extinguish
To
Ash

[...] Read more

poem by Abdul Wahab
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A Wind Breeze

I am the Southern Breeze;
bearer of the Wisteria;

The North Wind
from where the ice blows.

I am the lover's caress
on sandy beach,

The Wind-Mill Corn Grinder
and the Water Wheel;

I am invisible
yet everywhere
I blow all over
this globe.
.
I've billowed your sails
propelled your ships
carried you

[...] Read more

poem by Lonnie Hicks
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I have no ego investment in being on the air. I don't knock others for whom that kind of attention is like oxygen, but I don't miss anything about it.

quote by Hugh Downs
Added by Lucian Velea
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Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.

quote by Dave Barry
Added by Lucian Velea
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How to breathe diamonds

A breath of diamonds

First take a small diamond
Then proceed to heat it until
It becomes extremely hot

Then carefully pour a bit of
Liquid oxygen within
A liquid oxygen proof pot

Then stir rather brisk, with
A long handled whisk… as a burn
With Lox you would not want to risk

Stir the diamond within
Watch as it dances
and revolves

Til’ the precious Ingredient
begins to soften…to melt

[...] Read more

poem by David Whalen
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Among the notable things about fire is that it also requires oxygen to burn - exactly like its enemy, life. Thereby are life and flames so often compared.

quote by Otto Weininger
Added by Simona Enache
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Activating oxygen can produce compounds called radicals that put oxidative stress on cells. Such stress could ultimately lead to cancer and other diseases.

quote by John Simon
Added by Lucian Velea
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Oil slick

Black gold balckens blue surface
oxygen barred from pumping life
ventilators go missing in hospital.
-----------
copyright reserved by Tribhawan Kaul/15122011

poem by Tribhawan Kaul
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Lessons In Hunger

'Do you like me?'
I asked the blue blazer.
No answer.
Silence bounced out of his books.
Silence fell off his tongue
and sat between us
and clogged my throat.
It slaughtered my trust.
It tore cigarettes out of my mouth.
We exchanged blind words,
and I did not cry,
and I did not beg,
blackness lunged in my heart,
and something that had been good,
a sort of kindly oxygen,
turned into a gas oven.
Do you like me?
How absurd!
What's a question like that?
What's a silence like that?

[...] Read more

poem by Anne Sexton
Added by Dan Costinaş
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