
Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?
quote by Henry David Thoreau

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Imperfectly
Can I help it if Im not neat
If there were creeps before you
How can I help you if I am weak?
If I dont know how to help me
But I love you, I love you
Imperfect, imperfect, imperfectly
I love you imperfect, imperfect, imperfectly
Can I help it if Im high strung
If I was born with a sharp tongue
Will you marry me if I stay sweet?
If I am the one with the cold feet
I love you, I love you
Imperfect, imperfect, imperfectly
I love you imperfect, imperfect imperfectly
I love you imperfect, imperfect, imperfectly
Imperfectly, imperfectly, imperfectly, imperfectly
Imperfectly, imperfectly, imperfectly
song performed by by Veruca Salt

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Show Tune II
That's the long and short of it
now you know
how I've been waiting all these years
where I'm coming from
that's the long and short of it.
That's the long and short of it
now you see
just how hot hot jazz was
how it turned about, my bookcase
that's the long and short of it.
That's the long and short of it
now you know
that my arrest record's
not my best record
that's the long and short of it.
That's the long and short of it
now you see
how the Past's like a love
you can neither leave nor live
that's the long and short of it
That's the long and short of it
now you know
it was no gun in my pocket
it was a rocket
that's the long and short of it.
That's the long and short of it
and you're wond'ring dear
how I kept so pure
hull, it was easy
that's the long and short of it.
That's the long and short of it
now you see
so bounce your head
into bed
that's the long and short of it.
That's the long and short of it
read the blues
in these tattoos
make a song of it
that's the short and long of it.
How I wish
there was a bridge-
then I could burn it;
or the train
of a refrain
then I could board it
but there isn't
no there isn't, so...
poem by Morgan Michaels

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Shadows Thinning Out
you all know
that the shadow thins out at noontime
at high noon
the shadow and the body become one
there is no more speculation
about why the shadow and the body are different
on extreme light
you see the truth casting no shadows of doubt
something false flashes not shadow
at this moment
such thing happens on the power of the stare
when an eye looks straight to another eye
when the other sobs into a cry
then the telling of the true story begins.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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Shadow
From darkness I came,
I was short but
My shadow was long,
Sun crowned me,
I was the weakest
King of the world,
My dream was east to west/
Slowly shadow shrunk,
At noon it touched my foot,
Or I must say hid under at low,
Sun shone brightly over head/
Sun slid and shadow peeped,
Elongated up to the darkness,
From where I came,
My crown lost like a ghost,
And no more seen//
O! My desire, my hope, my life
Tell me; please tell me, ‘O' My dream!
"What relation do you have with Shadow? "
poem by Aftab Alam Khursheed

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Rip
It can't be the passing of time that casts
That white shadow across the waters
Just offshore.
I shiver a little, with the evening.
I turn down the steep path to find
What's left of the river gold.
I whistle a dog lazily, and lazily
A bird whistles me.
Close by a big river, I am alive in my own country,
I am home again.
Yes: I lived here, and here, and my name,
That I carved young, with a girl's, is healed over, now,
And lies sleeping beneath the inward sky
Of a tree's skin, close to the quick.
It's best to keep still.
But:
There goes that bird that whistled me down here
To the river a moment ago.
Who is he? A little white barn owl from Hudson's Bay,
Flown out of his range here, and, if he wants to,
He can be the body that casts
That white shadow across the waters
Just offshore.
poem by James Arlington Wright

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Emotional Scavenger
And now in the cold light of day,
Grief casts her shadows long,
and grey
Draining warmth & blinding me
To the glorious hope
Of day;
Grief would steal my soul and hide it
In blackness,
Whispering reminders
Of pain,
And loss,
And death…
Mocking hope's insistence,
Spurning love's comfort;
Grief watches,
Expectant, she waits…
Grief, scavenger of emotions,
Is ever hopeful.
poem by Jinge Norvall

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The ordinary man casts a shadow in a way we do not quite understand. The man of genius casts light.
quote by George Steiner

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Shadow
THERE is a shadow on the sunny wall,
Dark and forbidding, like a bode of ill;
Go, drive it thence. Alas, such shadows fall
From real things, nor may be moved at will.
There is a shadow on my heart to-day,
A cloudy grief condensing to a tear:
Alas, I cannot drive its gloom away—
Some sin or sorrow casts the shapeless fear.
poem by John Boyle O'Reilly

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The body has all merits
Imagine there is no temple where it is.
Imagine there is no tomb where it is.
The space underneath the both is same.
Imagine the soul casts its holy body.
Imagine the soul casts its lowly body.
Which do you hate: the soul or the body?
If body, the body sans soul is a corpse.
We still love and hate one’s body alone.
05.05.2001, Pmdi
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

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Heart Retires
When the heart tires and the throbs are recalled,
Thinkers pass their souls in instants that retire;
When the arrow falls and destroys the broken body
Hands are clasped, yet for ever are parted,
To the lives sundered can Time bring rejoining,
Adoration is a throb of rejoicing, in rejection
When rejecting is the opposite of our lives,
But the spirit remembers, to the sense of losing.
poem by Naveed Akram

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Sonnet 14
Are these wild thoughts, thus fettered in my rhymes,
Indeed the product of my heart and brain?
How strange that on my ear the rhythmic strain
Falls like faint memories of far-off times!
When did I feel the sorrow, act the part,
Which I have striv'n to shadow forth in song?
In what dead century swept that mingled throng
Of mighty pains and pleasures through my heart?
Not in the yesterdays of that still life
Which I have passed so free and far from strife,
But somewhere in this weary world I know,
In some strange land, beneath some orient clime,
I saw or shared a martyrdom sublime,
And felt a deeper grief than any later woe.
poem by Henry Timrod

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Shadows
Beside the Narrow Crossing-Place
(And night was falling gray),
Two Shadows met, the legends tell. .
Each Shadow went its way.
But there was anguish in their eyes,
And tears in both their hearts.
Beside the Narrow Crossing-Place,
Where Shade from Shadow parts.
For they had seen the Rising Sun
In opal and in rose,
For they had seen the Rising Sun,
Who saw the long day close.
And had they met at Mom or Noon
Who met the shades between?
Ay! had they met at Morn or Noon
And so — the Might-Have-Been !
poem by Edwin James Brady

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I Could Be The Moon
i could be the moon
where you can be a body and a
shadow
i could be a lake where
the moon may shine
and you can still be the body
and the shadow
and the voice
i could be a candle in the dark
where you may put
your hope and you can still be the
body and the shadow
and the scent
i could all be your moon
your lake and your candle
and you can still be the body and the shadow
and you shall walk
under me (if i were the moon)
and around me (if i were the lake)
and you may have the power
to put me off (if i were just a candle
in the dark
where you are the body
and the shadow and the voice
and by the mere sigh
of your whimper
i may die
so i still prefer to be your moon
or your lake so i can be your full light
so i can be your mirror
larger than your body
not helpless to your shadow
in silence, i still like to be myself
not a slave, not someone whom you can just
give away as easily as a flicker of a candle
as fickle as you are
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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Light And Shadow
the shadow hides itself
behind the body
away from light that
stabs it to
death
'too much light' says the
shadow
' amidst this heat
i shall perish' the shadow
fears
the body is there
as shield
and protects the shadow
from extinction
'not too dark' warns the shadow
i must be in the middle
somewhere
where light makes love
with absence
the shadow to its fullness
plays
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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A Red Rose
a red rose
casts a shadow
on a white
canvass
light strikes
on the body of
its redness
and the greenness of
its leaves
this red rose is
for you
give it the light
so i may cast
a shadow of myself
to you
when you touch
it
the rose begins
to live
another span of
love
it becomes an
inspiration of dreams
which are about
to die
of love that is
about to be
forgotten.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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The Winter Love
Such a cold was in january.
In december love had come vainly.
Winter love is short,
Obviously.
Snow is quiet falls
Down on earth.
Snow is on the streets,
Snow's in wood.
Snow in words I hear,
In your eyes, too.
Winter love is short,
Obviously.
Snow is quiet falls
Down on earth.
You are saying: 'Bye'
To me now.
And I hear your voice
Icy, round.
Winter love is short,
Obviously.
Snow is quiet falls
Down on earth.
And the oaths
are cold
In winter time.
I'll wait for long
The spring love.
Winter love is short,
Obviously.
Snow is quiet, falls
Down on earth.
poem by Robert Rozhdestvensky, translated by Lyudmila Purgina

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Cast The Spirit
Written by russ ballard, 1983
Found on your move, ventura highway and other favorites, and the very best of america.
When you feel down and youve nobody to turn to
When you feel youre about to give up
The sun goes down and darkness surrounds you
And its runnin dry in your lovin cup
Cast the spirit, cast it out
If its in your body, then let it out
Put out the fire, let it cool down
If its in your tears, then let it drown
Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo
Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo
You cant ignore the feeling inside you
In your mind youre without a friend
The spirit is there, its in every doorway
You say to yourself, will it ever end
Cast the spirit, cast it out
If its in your body, then let it out
Put out the fire, let it cool down
If its in your tears, then let it drown
Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo
Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo
When you feel down and have nobody to turn to
You say to yourself, why cant it be
The sun goes down and darkness surrounds you
You feel you want to be free
Cast the spirit, cast it out
If its in your body, then let it out
Put out the fire, let it cool down
If its in your tears, then let it drown
Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo
Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo
Cast the spirit
Cast the spirit
Cast the spirit ...
song performed by by America

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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His Shadow
When I was young
the shadow he cast was long.
When I was afraid.
In his shadow I could be brave.
Walking together
watching his shadow by mine.
I yearned for the time
like his my shadow would be long.
As the fledgling finally
flies alone from the nest.
To step away from his shadow
my time came.
One day long after
my child at my side.
Two shadows I saw.
One long joined one small.
In my thoughts
I reflected to when
the longer shadow.
My father cast.
I realized
the time had come.
The father's shadow
now my shadow.
(04SEP97)
poem by Kurt Hearth

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