Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Related quotes
I remember now
I remember wanting it back
I remember all the boredom
I remember all the security
I remember holding myself back
I remember the want
I remember the denial
I remember getting it back
I discover all of the excitement
I discover all the new ways
I discover all the acceptance
I discover all of the interest
I discover all the greenest grass
I remember all of the dreams
I remember all the waiting
I remember all the uncertainty
I remember all the letting down
I remember what I ought not to have forgotten
I remember the limbo of my decisions
poem by Jack Cyclone
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In a distant land many years ago, there lived a black sheep. It was executed by firing squad. A century later, the grieving flock erected an equestrian statue in honor of the slain sheep that looked very nice in the park. In the years that followed, every time a black sheep appeared, it was executed so that ordinary sheep could practice sculpture.
Augusto Monterroso in The Black Sheep and Other Fables (1969)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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I remember serving in Vietnam in that war, and many of us at the major Lieutenant Colonel, colonel level were frustrated that no one in the U.S. wanted to debate it that way.
quote by William Odom
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Mom Said 'Remember Them
The childless, Father remember them
they are termed barren
the subject-matter of in-laws
the meal of their evil tongues
remember them.
The single ladies, Oh Father
it's their will to have family
a husband and children
but it ain't their wish to be single
remember them.
The widow, My Father
give them love they miss
their integrity is questioned
their cries, watch it father
remember them.
Those your daughters, Father
facing intimidation
them: street's laughingstock
they have no peace in heart
shame on them can't be bore
remember them FATHER.
poem by Fate Mcfate
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Father I Still Love You
I tried so hard to love you
But you never really cared
I tried so hard to trust you
But you were never really there
I wanted you to love me
But your heart had grown so cold
I wanted you to play with me
But money was your only goal
And now that I've grown older
And I look back on the years
I remember all the anger
The hurt the pain the tears
Father I forgive you
For all those wasted years
And I try not to remember
All the hurt the pain the tears
But father just please tell me
Did you ever love me once
Or was I just like leftovers
That you throw out after lunch
Father I still love you
And I'll never let that die
But father just please look at me
Say you love me to my eye
Father I must be honest
When you left I found another
My Father up in Heaven
And Jesus my loving Brother
They were the ones who loved me
When you had never cared
They were the ones who saved me
From a life of hate and despair
Father I still love you
And that will always stay true
But father will you love me
Because your child still needs you.
poem by Daniel Sweetnam
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Goon Squad
Mother, father, Im here in the zoo
I cant come home cause Ive grown up too soon
I got my sentence
I got my command
They said theyd make me major if I met all their demands
I could be a corpral into corpral punishment
Or the genral manager of a large establishment
They pat some good boys on the back and put some to the rod
But I never thought theyd put me in the
Goon squad
Theyve come to look you over and theyre giving you the eye
Goon squad
They want you to come out to play
Youd better say goodbye
Some grow just like their dads
And some grow up too tall
Some go drinking with the lads
Some dont grow up at all
And you must find the proper place
For everything you see
But youll never get to make a lampshade out of me
I could join a chain of males or be the missing link
Looking for a lucky girl to put me in the pink
They pat some good boys on the back and put some to the rod
But I never thought theyd put me in the
Good squad ....
Mother, father, Im doing so well
Im making such progress now that you can hardly tell
I fit in a little dedication
With one eye on the clock
They caught you under medication
You could be in for a shock
Thinking up the alibis that evryones forgotten
Just another mummys boy gone to rotten
They pat some good boys on the back and put some to the rod
But I never thought theyd put me in the
Goon squad....
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Rethink
Think think and rethink
Again again and again
Think rethink and invent
Invent and discover
Discover your root
Invent the moot
Who is your father
Father's father and father's father
And the problems
About about and about
And the seed of solution
There in.
Think think and think
Think think and rethink.
poem by Gajanan Mishra
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José Arcadio Buendía: If you don’t fear God, fear him through the metals.
line from One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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State of Grace
The bachelor and the spinster
stood together, hand in hand,
before the Priest who’d wed them
in the chapel Kilmainham.
With two prison guards as witnesses
there in Kilmainham gaol,
Joseph Plunkett and Grace Clifford
wed at midnight goes the tale.
At dawn a firing squad awaited
her brave bold Fenian man.
She’d remember their one, stolen, kiss
and the ring placed on her hand.
Her Joseph chose a dark way home
when he tweaked the lion’s tail.
In martyrdom he found a way
to rouse the sons of Gael.
Some marriages last many years,
some, a shorter time-
but a love that lasts a lifetime
is truly hard to find.
Joseph, knowing what he was to lose
His love and fate embraced.
He died when bullets pierced his heart
while in a state of grace.
poem by John F. McCullagh
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I Remember
I remember being ten years old
And wondering what I would be?
I talked it over with my father
And he said, “We’ll see.”
I remember being twenty years old
And wondering all about life.
I found myself getting married
And learning to be a wife.
I remember being thirty years old
With 2 sons at my side.
I saw a few strands of gray hair
Which I tried to hide.
I remember being forty-five
And birthdays coming too soon.
I was teaching kids all about music
And waiting for vacations in June.
I remember when I turned fifty
And my body started to change.
The hormonal and emotional challenges
All became so strange.
I remember becoming fifty-eight
When retirement came my way.
I thought to myself, “ Now what do I do? ”
On every single day?
I remember becoming seventy
When breast cancer came to me.
I decided I wanted to live some more
So I created poetry.
All that I remember from that point on
Is where I am today
Using this pen that’s in my hand.
It’s become my way to say
Thank You.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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“Remember”
Remember where you came from.
Remember where you have been.
Remember whom you have encountered.
Remember whom you have known,
Remember joyous moments.
Remember sorrow too.
Remember all the lessons.
Remember the lessons you forgot.
Remember your Father.
Remember your Mentor.
Remember Mother Earth.
Remember the universe.
Remember to remember.
Remember gratitude.
Remember to be humble.
Remember your heart.
Remember always to love.
(Created 09-23-05@4: 53PM, Completed 11-27-06@6: 41PM)
poem by Michelle Chargualaf
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A 'Mass' Meeting
It was a solemn rite as e'er
Was seen by mortal man.
The celebrants, the people there,
Were all Republican.
There Estee bent his grizzled head,
And General Dimond, too,
And one-'twas Reddick, some one said,
Though no one clearly knew.
I saw the priest, white-robed and tall
(Assistant, Father Stow)-
He was the pious man men call
Dan Burns of Mexico.
Ah, 'twas a high and holy rite
As any one could swear.
'What does it mean?' I asked a wight
Who knelt apart in prayer.
'A mass for the repose,' he said,
'Of Colonel Markham's'--'What,
Is gallant Colonel Markham dead?
'Tis sad, 'tis sad, God wot!'
'A mass'-repeated he, and rose
To go and kneel among
The worshipers-'for the repose
Of Colonel Markham's tongue.'
poem by Ambrose Bierce
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I Can Remember
I can remember when I was six
my father would play so many tricks.
and I would fall for them all.
He'd pull coins from my ear.
He'd measure my height on a wall
and say to me,
'My you're getting tall.'
I can remember when I was seven.
he made up stories all about heaven.
He told me that there was no hell.
Then he'd kiss me. I remember his smell.
He called it 'Old Spice.'
I called it nice.
I'd watch him shave the foam from his face.
I can remember it all.
I can remember when I was ten.
My father always knew just when
to make me laugh if I was sad.
I also remember when he got mad.
He'd slam the door and pace the floor
and when his temper would settle down,
he was back to being my dad.
A special remembrance of my father on this Father's Day. I miss you.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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Commandant Gideon Scheepers
Not only was he assassinated
as a ill man captured in the field
by a British firing squad
but was buried in the ground
in a grave unmarked
planted without a coffin,
buried like rubbish,
or rotting dead meat,
like weed
without anyone heeding
where they laid him down.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Colonel Martin
THE Colonel went out sailing,
He spoke with Turk and Jew,
With Christian and with Infidel,
For all tongues he knew.
'O what's a wifeless man?' said he,
And he came sailing home.
He rose the latch and went upstairS
And found an empty room.
The Colonel went out sailing.
'I kept her much in the country
And she was much alone,
And though she may be there,' he said,
'She may be in the town.
She may be all alone there,
For who can say?' he said.
'I think that I shall find her
In a young man's bed.'
The Colonel went out sailing.
III
The Colonel met a pedlar,
Agreed their clothes to swop,
And bought the grandest jewelry
In a Galway shop,
Instead of thread and needle
put jewelry in the pack,
Bound a thong about his hand,
Hitched it on his back.
The Colonel wcnt out sailing.
The Colonel knocked on the rich man's door,
'I am sorry,' said the maid,
'My mistress cannot see these things,
But she is still abed,
And never have I looked upon
Jewelry so grand.'
'Take all to your mistress,'
And he laid them on her hand.
The Colonel went out sailing.
And he went in and she went on
And both climbed up the stair,
And O he was a clever man,
For he his slippers wore.
And when they came to the top stair
He ran on ahead,
His wife he found and the rich man
In the comfort of a bed.
The Colonel went out sailing.
The Judge at the Assize Court,
When he heard that story told,
Awarded him for damages
Three kegs of gold.
The Colonel said to Tom his man,
'Harness an ass and cart,
Carry the gold about the town,
Throw it in every patt.'
The Colonel went out sailing.
VII
And there at all street-corners
A man with a pistol stood,
And the rich man had paid them well
To shoot the Colonel dead;
But they threw down their pistols
And all men heard them swear
That they could never shoot a man
Did all that for the poor.
The Colonel went out sailing.
VIII
'And did you keep no gold, Tom?
You had three kegs,' said he.
'I never thought of that, Sir.'
'Then want before you die.'
And want he did; for my own grand-dad
Saw the story's end,
And Tom make out a living
From the seaweed on the strand.
The Colonel went out sailing.
poem by William Butler Yeats
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Afternoon Tea
Tea time wont be the same without my donna
At night I lie awake and dream of donna
I think about that small cafe
Thats where we used to meet each day
And then we used to sit a while
And drink our afternoon tea
Ill take afternoon tea (afternoon tea)
If you take it with me (afternoon tea)
You take as long as you like
cause I like you, girl
I take sugar with tea (afternoon tea)
You take milk if you please (afternoon tea)
Like you talking to me
Because you ease my mind
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba (afternoon tea)
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba (afternoon tea)
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba (afternoon tea)
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba (afternoon tea)
Tea time still aint the same without my donna
At night I lie awake and dream of donna
I went to our cafe one day
They said that donna walked away
Youd think at least she might have stayed
To drink her afternoon tea
Ill take afternoon tea (afternoon tea)
If you take it with me (afternoon tea)
You take as long as you like
cause I like you, girl
I take afternoon tea (afternoon tea)
Every day of the week (afternoon tea)
Please come along if you like
Because I like you, girl
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba (afternoon tea)
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba (afternoon tea)
song performed by by Kinks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hamlet
The murmurs ebb; onto the stage I enter.
I am trying, standing in the door,
To discover in the distant echoes
What the coming years may hold in store.
The nocturnal darkness with a thousand
Binoculars is focused onto me.
Take away this cup, O Abba Father,
Everything is possible to Thee.
I am fond of this Thy stubborn project,
And to play my part I am content.
But another drama is in progress,
And, this once, O let me be exempt.
But the plan of action is determined,
And the end irrevocably sealed.
I am alone; all round me drowns in falsehood:
Life is not a walk across a field.
poem by Boris Pasternak
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Father & Son
There is the family photograph
That is your father’s face,
There is your father’s father
Grey-gathering years apace;
The son, bright-eyed in the morning,
The father, lined and drawn,
The son became the father
On the day that you were born.
We’ve all set out on the highway
Our fathers wished us well,
The sons became the fathers
In the same distinctive spell;
The road of all beginnings
Is all there is to lend,
But many a twist, and many a turn
Has marred us at the end.
He was my father’s father,
I am my father’s son,
We’ve travelled as far, and farther
Than our father’s years have run;
The twists and turns of fortune
Mean nothing, lost or won,
But the love of a father’s father,
And the love of a father’s son.
3 September 1977
poem by David Lewis Paget
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We Did Our Bit At Waterloo
It was the year of 1815
on Sunday the 16th of June.
Wellington and we British lads
arrived here in the afternoon.
Napoleon and his Frenchmen
were waiting for the ground to dry
before commencing with the battle,
and today looked like he’d try.
We stood across the Brussels road
and were ready to begin the day,
but the French had beaten us to it,
by eleven their guns were firing away.
For two hours solid we came under fire
and things weren’t looking that well,
until Colonel Colbourne gave the order
to stand up, fire back and give them hell.
The Garde Imperiale were the best,
but the 52nd repelled their attack.
We charged causing the French to flee
and we weren’t turning back.
The 52nd Light Infantry won the day
for England and Wellington,
and yet we hardly got a mention
when history was finally written.
poem by Orlando Belo
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You know, I was a regular on the Friday afternoon drill squad. Um, which... The year after I left school, I went back and thanked the sergeant major because I was so fit.
quote by John Newcombe
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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