The face of the dead man was concealed, of course, our customs not being those of the south, where corpses are carried to the grave in open coffins, that they might – one last time before slipping into the pit – be warmed by the light of the sun.
quote by Jan Neruda
Submitted by Simona Enache
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Related quotes
Slipping Away
Guess it's just another dream
That's slipping away
Each time I fall asleep
It seems I'm just drifting away
Just as yo have touched my heart
Babe I wake and we're apart
Yeah and it's slipping away
Here comes just another day
That's drifting away
Every time I draw a breath
It's dying away
First the sun and then the moon
One of them will be around soon
Slipping away
Slipping away
Drifting away
Slipping away
Just as you have touched my heart
I wake up babe and we're apart
It seems we're slipping away
Slipping away
Slipping away
All I want is ecstasy
But I ain't getting much
Just getting off on misery
It seems I've lost my touch
Well it's just another song
But it's slipping away
We we didn't sing it long
'Cos it's fading away
First the sun and then the moon
One of them will be round soon
Slipping away
Slipping away
Slipping away
song performed by by Rolling Stones from Steel Wheels
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Jewish Cemetery In Germany
On a little hill amid fertile fields lies a small cemetery,
a Jewish cemetery behind a rusty gate, hidden by shrubs,
abandoned and forgotten. Neither the sound of prayer
nor the voice of lamentation is heard there
for the dead praise not the Lord.
Only the voices of our children ring out, seeking graves
and cheering
each time they find one--like mushrooms in the forest, like
wild strawberries.
Here's another grave! There's the name of my mother's
mothers, and a name from the last century. And here's a name,
and there! And as I was about to brush the moss from the name--
Look! an open hand engraved on the tombstone, the grave
of a kohen,
his fingers splayed in a spasm of holiness and blessing,
and here's a grave concealed by a thicket of berries
that has to be brushed aside like a shock of hair
from the face of a beautiful beloved woman.
Translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld
poem by Yehuda Amichai
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Noose
So glad to see you well
Overcome and completely silent now
With Heaven's help
You cast your demons out
And not to pull your halo down
Around your neck and tug you off your cloud
But I'm more than just a little curious
How you're planning to go about
Making your amends to the dead
To the dead
Recall the deeds as if
They're all someone else's
Atrocious stories
Now you stand reborn before us all
So glad to see you well
And not to pull your halo down
Around your neck and tug you to the ground
But I'm more than just a little curious
How you're planning to go about
Making your amends to the dead
To the dead
With your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping
Your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping down (repeated)
Your halo slipping down to choke you now
song performed by by A Perfect Circle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Slipping Away
Slipping away, just a heartbeat from disaster
Nothing could make me stay, close your eyes and Ill be gone
Turn the page, yeah, time to start another story
Slipping away, slipping away, time to move along
No reason to stay
Oh, when Im slipping away
Take a look at yourself, youve been running in a circle
Round and round you go, youre a start without an end
Start a new life, yeah, from the city of the gypsies
Running away, slipping away, right behind the plow
Slipping away
Slipping away
Nobody to pay
Look out, cause Im slipping away
Rockin the glass, I wont leave you my reflection
A future without a past, no more road to take me back
Come if you will, just dont question my direction
Running away, slipping away, we can find the sun
Slipping away
Slipping away
Got nobody to pay
And youre slippin away
No more running in a circle
Its time to move along
Round, round, round we go
A start without an end
So Im slipping away
Slipping away
song performed by by Black Sabbath
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We have perfected the art of not talking to each other
we have perfected the art
of not talking to each other
suckerface
we reach out to each other
only in telepathy
sending hell to each other
and when we do pass each other
it is more than
a graveyard can hold
the coffins overturn with
their untold tales and lies
each grave, chilly and quiet,
gnaws at the soul like worms
festering on the privacy of corpses
tidal waves churn in places
only the inhabitors know where
devilish corals, fangtooth,
blobfish, stonefish, sea wolves,
vipers, snakeheads, granadiers,
slimy slippery monster eels
suckerface
8888888888888888888 88888
we have perfected the art
of not talking to each other
suckerface
we reach out to each other
only in telepathy
sending hell to each other
and when we do pass each other
it is more than
a graveyard can hold
suckerface
the coffins overturn
with untold tales and lies
tidal waves churn in places
only the inhabitors know where
urchins, sharks, seasnakes, devilish
corals, slimy slippery eels
suckerface
each grave, cold and quiet,
gnaws at the soul like worms
festering on the privacy of corpses
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Carried Away
(barry gibb/albhy galuten)
There you are
Shiny as a morning star
Its a figure of speech
But youre still out of reach
You never told me loving you could be so wrong and right
And its gonna be a lonely night
I turn to you
You turn away
Youre looking at someone else
And here am i
Loving you more and more
Weve got an open door, my love
Oh let it be just a state of mind
And suddenly you appear
Im carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
Im carried away
Cest la vie
So you wanna play another part
Can you say goodbye
Can you live a lie
Shell never give you what I gave you was my breaking heart
Better than I ever knew
And if you can live without my love
Youre really gonna be alone
And here am i
Walking against the crowd
Calling your name out loud, my love
Oh let it be just a state of mind
And suddenly you appear
Im carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
Im carried away
Carried away
Baby there aint no final word
Ill be yours again
I got a world of tenderness
Yours until the end
Im carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
Im carried away
Im carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
Im carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
Im carried away
To be carried away
song performed by by Olivia Newton-John
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Death Alone
There are lone cemeteries,
tombs full of soundless bones,
the heart threading a tunnel,
a dark, dark tunnel :
like a wreck we die to the very core,
as if drowning at the heart
or collapsing inwards from skin to soul.
There are corpses,
clammy slabs for feet,
there is death in the bones,
like a pure sound,
a bark without its dog,
out of certain bells, certain tombs
swelling in this humidity like lament or rain.
I see, when alone at times,
coffins under sail
setting out with the pale dead, women in their dead braids,
bakers as white as angels,
thoughtful girls married to notaries,
coffins ascending the vertical river of the dead,
the wine-dark river to its source,
with their sails swollen with the sound of death,
filled with the silent noise of death.
Death is drawn to sound
like a slipper without a foot, a suit without its wearer,
comes to knock with a ring, stoneless and fingerless,
comes to shout without a mouth, a tongue, without a throat.
Nevertheless its footsteps sound
and its clothes echo, hushed like a tree.
I do not know, I am ignorant, I hardly see
but it seems to me that its song has the colour of wet violets,
violets well used to the earth,
since the face of death is green,
and the gaze of death green
with the etched moisture of a violet's leaf
and its grave colour of exasperated winter.
But death goes about the earth also, riding a broom
lapping the ground in search of the dead -
death is in the broom,
it is the tongue of death looking for the dead,
the needle of death looking for the thread.
Death lies in our beds :
in the lazy mattresses, the black blankets,
lives a full stretch and then suddenly blows,
blows sound unknown filling out the sheets
and there are beds sailing into a harbour
where death is waiting, dressed as an admiral.
poem by Pablo Neruda
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Precious Time
Precious time is slipping away
But youre only king for a day
It doesnt matter to which God you pray
Precious time is slipping away
It doesnt matter what route you take
Sooner or later the hearts going to break
No rhyme or reason, no master plan
No nirvana, no promised land
Because, precious time is slipping away
Yuu know youre only king for a day
It doesnt matter to which God you pray
Precious time is slipping away
Say que sera, whatever will be
But then I keep on searching for immortality
Shes so beautiful but shes going to die some day
Everything in life just passes away
But, precious time is slipping away
You know shes only queen for a day
It doesnt matter to which God you pray
Precious time is slipping away
Well this world is cruel with its twists and turns
Well the fires still in me and the passion burns
I love a medley til the day I die
til hell freezes over and the rivers run dry
Precious time is slipping away
You know shes only queen for a day
It doesnt matter to which God you pray because
Precious time is slipping away
Precious time is slipping away
You know youre only king for a day
It doesnt matter to which God you pray
Precious time is slipping away
Precious time is slipping away
You know youre only king for a day
It doesnt matter to which God you pray because
Precious time is slipping away
song performed by by Van Morrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Slipping Away
Yeah
La dee dah dee dah yeah
La ooh, yeah
Oh ooh, yeah
So far, so far
You're slipping away, away
Slipping away from the live and the love we made
Baby, I'm so afraid
So far, so far, so far
Slipping away, away
Slipping right out of my grasp and you're fading fast
It seems... you know you're slipping away from me
I keep on reaching and I, I keep on trying
But you never even hold me
And it seems like you don't know me baby
I keep on yearning and I
I guess I'm learning that it's just a losing fight
'Cause there's no passion in your eyes
No, no, no, no babe
Yeah-eah
Chorus
I keep denying that our, our love is dying
But it's all a big charade and it's a fruitless game to play
I can't remember when you, you last were tender
And it's always touch and go
The silence chills me to the bone, yeah
Chorus
Away, away, away, away
Yeah
Hey, yeah
Further, further
Ooh yeah
You're so far
(Time after time I reach for you
I try and I try but you're so aloof
Where is the boy that you used to be?
Baby you're slipping away from me)
You're so far
(Repeat)
(So far, so far
Slipping away, away)
Slipping away from what we had
Truly I just don't understand
(So far, so far, so far
Slipping away, away)
You're slipping right out of my grasp and you're fading so fast
It seems... you know you're slipping away from me
Baby, oh
Yeah, yeah, yeah
So far
Yeah
Baby, baby, baby, baby I'm so afraid
Oh, where?
So far... so far
song performed by by Mariah Carey
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Babe You Left...
Six remnants, your shadows acutely damaged, and
Severly tortured are your survivors. Still I see
two braids slouched on your shoulders:
A Shamed Choctaw face concealed under a wide-brimmed hat;
Two beady eyes blinking, squinting above your aquiline nose, just
a squawking at your widow's peak that looks like a petite plait
Your pigeon toes touching and caressing each other somewhat like a creative child pointing to white sheep floating in the sky. Though real are the remnants compiled and concealed under your felt-hat.
Babe, you never knew that a surviving piece of you, with zest
hawked your house, land, then placed your remains in a distant land.
Yet not burying her meanness, apathy, and hate to rest.
You left your time-worn descendants holding Pandora's cache.
Misery and evil destroyed most, and one of four under continual attack.
Babe, you carried scores of secrets to cold grave's stash.
January 15,2011
poem by Almedia Knight Oliver
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Light And Lightness Of Our Beings
let the soft light land on my face
let it stay there for a while
as i close my eyes
and lay myself in the lightness
of my being
my hands are soft as
the hair of a rabbit
my lips open
to let my tongue wet
its red sides
i am as light as a feather
lifted up by air
i become light myself
rising from the walls
and the ceiling
i am freedom from
sanity i am the conqueror
of the logical order
there are no numbers
just an open space
there are no days now
and neither do nights exist
i am eternal
and i am inside this
space beyond
any space
i am a ray of light
i am a shooting star
i am a black hole
i am lost and no one
shall ever find me
except you, the one i love.
you make me feel so light.
i am carried away.
hold me and kiss me.
i am all yours.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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In Praise of Hell
Tonight I've an invitation to be in hell
I know it would be a perfect setting
A zombies' party in a stinking dale
With guests carried on vampire wing!
Bloated corpses would be carried around
To feast on with blood in clinking goblet
The dead would rip open the ground
To welcome me their only living mate!
The party would begin as the night's chill
Slowly freezes d hearts of the lost souls
Their hunger goading them to go for a kill
Their hollow eyes glowing like burning coals!
They would dance the length of night
Singing couplets in praise of hell
Under pale moon and ghostly starlight
The living would appear infinitely stale!
Tonight I am invited to hell
There I'd find my new nest
To live forever in the night's spell
And be there as an eternal guest!
poem by Pradip Chattopadhyay
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Membership
Whether laying down yourself beside it
Or slipping into its cool and rushing effects
Or drifting on it to where it broadens
Your admiration for its more elusive aspects
Being draw along by it
Carried under carried away
By its long-term membership
By the time the ice-huts hit the bottom
We were already home in bed
The most worthy men and the fiercest architects
Couldn't fight the current they couldn't save
song performed by by The Tragically Hip from Phantom Power
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Heading South
Orbison/dees
I want to talk to folks back home again, to walk along a lonely country lane
To spend some time with that woman of mine, heading south, heading south
Things look bright and I feel alright yeah Im heading south
Heading south to see the sun go down on camp fire light,to join the singing at night
Heading south to cotton rows and honeysuckle bloom
Under the cumberland moon heading south, heading south
Give me room to travel on my way to a place where dreams all fade away
Where the river flows and tobacco grows heading south heading south
Cause the sun is hot and people love a lot yeah Im heading south
Heading south to see the sun go down on camp fire light, to join the singing at night
Heading south to cotton rows and honeysuckle bloom under the cumberland moon
Heading south, heading south
song performed by by Roy Orbison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
the home of the slaves
and the land of no freedom
I'm gonna take the south out of South Africa
where George Wallace stood
on the University steps
and said no blacks
no blacks shall enter here
except over my dead
and crippled body
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where separate but equal means
that blacks lived in the homelands
and not in their homes
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where Jim Crow laws
have tried to change their colors
but it's still the same old shackles
call Apartheid
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where young people are detained
...without trials
...without lawyers
...without rights
but never
... without hope
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
poem by Oscar Mireles
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Slippin' Through My Fingers
Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by
Then when she's gone there's that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I can't deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(Slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didn't
And why I just don't know
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers...
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
song performed by by ABBA
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What The Poet Wrote
What the Poet Wrote
(Birth over an open grave)
A poet wrote: ”Mothers give birth over an open grave. I thought it was harsh, most
children live long after their mothers die. A young man driving behind me was edgy
wanted to overtake thought I was driving too slow. I kept as far to the right as I could,
he saw his chance, but he was not quick enough, front collision. He wasn’t wearing
seat belt, died on the bonnet of his car. So much blood, dark red and sweet, but his
eyes were open and they saw beyond to a place I have never been. His mother,
a widow, collapsed when the coffin was lowered into a an unfeeling ground, she had
given birth over an open grave. I see a field lit by millions of candles in rows a man
walks among them and ever so often snuffs out light with his thumb and index finger.
But behind him new light appear, sometimes he turn go back and snuffs the new
lights out, mothers who have given birth over an open grave. He is now heading for
the part of the field where the candles have burnt out, only the wick flickers, quickly
he snuffs them out, but misses some, of people who live too long, those who death
has cruelly missed. There is no light on my terrace, a car passes by and plants casts
shadows on the wall, they have no colours. I’m past caring; tomorrow will come
whether I’m there or not, mother will never know if she gave birth to an open grave.
poem by Oskar Hansen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Slipping Away
Open to everything happy and sad
Seeing the good when it's all going bad
Seeing the sun when I can't really see
Hoping the sun will at least look at me
Focus on everything better today
All that I need and I never could say
Hold on people that slipping away
Hold on to this while it's slipping away
All that we needed tonight
Are people who love us and like
I know how it feels to meant
Oh and we leave here, the seas
Open to everything happy and sad
Seeing the good when it's all going bad
Seeing the sun when I can't really see
Hoping the sun will at least look at me
Focus on everything better today
All that I need and I never could say
Hold on people that slipping away
Hold on to this while it's slipping away
So long
So long
Open to everything happy and sad
Seeing the good when it's all going bad
Seeing the sun when I can't really see
Hoping the sun will at least look at me
Focus on everything better today
All that I need and I never could say
Hold on to people that slipping away
[14x]
song performed by by Moby
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Slipping Through My Fingers
Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that Im losing her forever
And without really entering her world
Im glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see whats in her mind
Each time I think Im close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by
Then when shes gone theres that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I cant deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didnt
And why I just dont know
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see whats in her mind
Each time I think Im close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers...
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile...
song performed by by ABBA
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Cobblestones
The coffin, set up as coffins always are, near the grave, contained the father. The sentence, set up as sentences always are, on the page, contained the words. The meat package, set up as meat packages always are, with cellophane covering, contained the chops. The synagogue, set up as synagogues always are, for people, contained the rabbi. The classroom, set up as classrooms always are, for chairs, contained the professor. The coffin, set up as coffins always are, beside the grave, contained the mother. The word, set up as words always are, beyond hearing, contained the syllables. The prose, set up as prose always is, in census-rectangles, contained the phenomena. The nation, set up as nations always are, in questionnaire rooms, contained the sworn. The can, set up as cans always are, with ornate paper covers, contained the chicken o’noodle soup, with the circular noodles. Abacus, guitar, and quipu, set up as abacus, guitar and quipu always are, hieratically on notional strings, contained tobacco’s troubadours. The coffin, set up as coffins always are, next to the grave, contained the sister. The elegy, set up as elegies always are, dishonestly, contained the family. The steak, set up as steaks always are, artificially reddened, contained the fat. The rectangular venetian blinds, set up as rectangular venetian blinds always are, in the windowframe, contained the slats. The DNA, set up as DNA always is, in double helixes, contained the and. The word people, set up as the word people always is, in writing, contained the o.
poem by Aaron Fogel
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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