I've always been fascinated by numbers. Before I was seventeen years old, I had lived in twenty-one different houses. In my mind, each of those houses had a number.
quote by Robert Indiana
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A terse poem on numbers
Numbers are everywhere
twenty four hours in a day
seven days in one week
thirty one in the month of May.
A number on your front door
and on houses down your road
numbers on your credit card
and also of your postal code.
Numbers called out at Bingo
two fat ladies are number eight
and if your numbers come up
you'll go home feeling great.
Would you like a cup of tea?
one or two sugars in your cup?
sorry but I have to go now
that's the end time is up!
poem by Kevin Halls
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Empty Old Houses
Empty Old Houses
Empty old houses can talk…
But one must know how to listen…
to hear them
Empty old houses have stories…
But one must be eager to listen…
to hear them
Empty old houses can suffer..
But one must have empathy …
To feel it
Empty old houses can feel pain
But one must be able to bear it …
To feel it
Empty old houses have memories
But one must believe … that they have…
To share them
Empty old houses contain people’s lives
But one must believe…that they do…
To share them
Empty old houses can seem dead and deserted
But one must know that they’re not..
To know them
Empty old houses can teem with life’s pleasures
But one must walk through
to sense the aura of life
Empty old houses abound in life’s treasures
But one cannot help but…
To admire them
poem by David Whalen
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Zero Covers All
Lately I realize.
I am a numb number,
living through life.
First child.
Date of birth.
Sixth star of twenty-seven.
Scorpio numbers six of twelve.
Studied tenth class,
Then 5-year’s graduation,
Every class I had a scroll number.
Exams written on id number.
Studied law.
Head churning three years,
with numbered sections.
Penal code, constitution.
Clauses of law in numbered sects.
Registered in bar council.
Legal practice.
Case files are numbered.
Subsequently I got,
House number, door number.
Phone number.
Mobile number.
Account numbers.
Credit card number.
Pan card number,
Folio numbers,
Car number,
License number,
Policy number,
Health card number,
Election card number,
Passport number,
Ration card number,
Ultimately, when you put me in morgue,
allotted me a number.
Which, I do no know.
However, I know a number.
I am a big zero.
It covers all my life
Yes, we discovered zero.
What a relief?
Does it not cover all?
fulfill all values!
By the way your number please?
X number or N number?
Infinite numbers.
________________
poem by Satheesan Rangorath
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Numbers
Its stranger how some numbers
keep recurring in our lives.
At first, we do not notice it
until one day we think of them.
Our date of birth, houses numbers we have lived in,
our children’s birth date
and our brother or sister’s date of birth.
When you look at them
and one number seems to readily appear,
you begin to wonder if that number
has some bearing on our lives.
The number linked to my life is number 8.
I was born on the 18th,
in Canada the house I grew up in was 28
and my sister was born on the 18th.
Moving to England our house number was 62.
When my wife and I got married,
our first house was 24,
our second house was 18
and our present house number is 107.
My wife’s birth date is the 8th;
my son was born on the 17-8-71.
Everywhere I look the number 8 just keeps popping up.
Coincidence I guess you could call it,
or is there something else a foot.
I will just let you the reader to decide.
3 September 2009
Author’s note.
The evening I wrote this, my wife went out, was talking to someone, and mentioned how the number 8 always appeared in our lives.
Coincidence?
poem by David Harris
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Lonely Lady #17
Lonely lady one, she run away.
And number two, she do the same.
Lady number three walk out on me
Like number four.
Whos keeping score?
Lady five, oh how she lied.
She made me pay some dues.
Six and seven, eight, nine, ten,
They really were bad news.
Oh no, theyd only break my heart.
Thats how it seems.
And then I finally came upon
A lady seventeen.
Lonely lady number seventeen,
She stayed a while.
She had the style.
Lonely lady number seventeen,
She got to be with lonely me.
Lonely, lonely lady number seventeen, yeah.
Lonely lady!
Ladies eleven, twelve and thirteen,
They came and went.
Baby, I still can hear them sayin
Its time to repent.
I turned around,
And there she was
With such a sweet surprise:
A lovin face,
Lovin smile,
And love lights in her eyes.
Lonely lady number seventeen,
You stayed a while.
You had the style.
Lonely lady number seventeen,
Come on and be
With lonely me
Oh no, when lady fourteen walked out,
Thats when I screamed.
No luck with lady fifteen
Or sweet sixteen.
But lonely lady number seventeen,
You stayed a while.
You had the style.
Lonely lady number seventeen,
Come on an be
With lonely me.
Lonely, lonely lady
Number seventeen, yeah!
Lonely lady!
She makes me feel so sociable
song performed by by Neil Diamond
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Magic of Numbers
The Magic of Numbers—1
How strange it was to hear the furniture being moved around in the apartment upstairs!
I was twenty-six, and you were twenty-two.
The Magic of Numbers—2
You asked me if I wanted to run, but I said no and walked on.
I was nineteen, and you were seven.
The Magic of Numbers—3
Yes, but does X really like us?
We were both twenty-seven.
The Magic of Numbers—4
You look like Jerry Lewis (1950).
The Magic of Numbers—5
Grandfather and grandmother want you to go over to their house for dinner.
They were sixty-nine, and I was two and a half.
The Magic of Numbers—6
One day when I was twenty-nine years old I met you and nothing happened.
The Magic of Numbers—7
No, of course it wasn’t I who came to the library!
Brown eyes, flushed cheeks, brown hair. I was twenty-nine, and you were sixteen.
The Magic of Numbers—8
After we made love one night in Rockport I went outside and kissed the road
I felt so carried away. I was twenty-three, and you were nineteen.
The Magic of Numbers—9
I was twenty-nine, and so were you. We had a very passionate time.
Everything I read turned into a story about you and me, and everything I did was turned into a poem.
“The Magic of Numbers” from The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 2006 by Kenneth Koch.
poem by Kenneth Koch
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Numerical Tyranny
Who conspired
this needless need for
the numbers?
Now we all live in fear of
the numbers
tremble at the feet of
the numbers
live our lives according to the demands of
the numbers
Identify ourselves by
the numbers
we've sold ourselves short with
the numbers
locked ourselves in a cell with
the numbers
no one believes they can escape
the numbers
our status our worth
our health our happiness
all dictated by
the numbers
Who are you?
Are you just another
number?
For if only we could see the truth behind
the numbers:
the truth being
there is only one number
that number is one
and that one stretches on
through infinitude.
poem by Gregory Allen Uhan
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Tomb of Ignatos
Here I'm not the Kleon famous in Alexandria
(where they're not easily dazzled)
for my marvelous houses, my gardens,
for my horses and chariots,
for the jewels and silks I wore.
Far from it—here I'm not that Kleon:
his twenty-eight years are to be wiped out.
I'm Ignatios, lector, who came to his senses very late;
but even so, in that way I lived ten happy months
in the peace, the security of Christ.
poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
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Seventeen
Late last night
I get a call from a so-called friend
He wouldnt give his name
Says he saw you with another man
Feels like seventeen years
Its only seventeen days
Since I saw the real you
And I let you walk away
You left me broken
You left me stranded
The way you play this game of love
Its just plain underhanded
I spent a lot of time
And I spent all my money
Dont want no other fool
To put his hands on you
Who you been talkin to?
Yeah who you been walkin with?
Seventeen, youre just seventeen
Seventeen
They said I was playin with fire
I knew I had to take a chance
I had to take you higher
To a new experience
But little did I know
Id never get that far
Girl, you know you put on quite a show
Youre gonna be a star
When you grow older, girl
Youll remember I told you, girl
Seventeen, youre just seventeen
Seventeen, seventeen
Seventeen, youre just seventeen
Seventeen, seventeen
Seventeen, youre only seventeen
Seventeen, seventeen
song performed by by Foreigner
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My parents are wrong
They bought lands
Built houses
Expanded their territories
Saved money
Sent all of us to school
They sacrificed a lot
Lived miserable lives
Lived as misers
For our future
Look at us now
We sell these lands
We sell these houses
We squander money
We were never educated
We give away these vast fields
We do not care
And worst we are ungrateful
We think ill of them
We think they were greedy
We think they were land grabbers
We do not want to wear their family names
We do not want to be like them
We are us, the next generation of their consciences
Lazarus is heard speaking in tongues.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Ten Grey hairs and a silver one
I discovered my first grey hair
when I was Seventeen years old
It had to do with broken up my first relationship
I discovered my second grey hair
when I was Twenty years old
It had to do with the quarrels at home
I discovered my third grey hair
when I was Twenty-one years old
It had to do with searching for work
I discovered my fourth grey hair
when I was Twenty-three years old
It had to do with loosing my job
I discovered my fifth grey hair
when I was Twenty-five years old
It had to do with giving up my unborn child
I discovered my sixth grey hair
When I was Twenty-eight years old
It had to do with opening my pub
I discovered my seventh grey hair
When I was thirty years old
It had to do with giving birth to my daughter
I discovered my eight grey hair
When I was thirty –two years old
It had to do with the first day at the kinder garden school
I discovered my ninth grey hair
When I was thirty-four years old
It had to do with to find out that some thing was missing
I discovered my tenth grey hair
When I was thirty-five years old
It had to do with the fights between my sisters and mum
My one Silver hair I discovered lately
Has to do with you
Because I miss you so hard …
poem by Pascale Ost
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Divorced from Dumb Reality - Number Lesson on Numb Pointless Love
DIVORCED FROM DUMB REALITY
My fun begun with number one,
swore to be true to number two,
happy to be with number three,
then to adore fair number four.
No more alive is number five,
mix stones and sticks Styx number six,
who’s in heaven, number seven?
its now too late for number eight.
Another line for number nine,
begin again with number ten.
13 May 1982 revised 20 January 2009
robi03_0199_robi03_0000 WXX_LXX
for previous version entitled Numbers see below
Numbers
My fun begun with number one,
swore to be true to number two,
happy to be with number three,
then to adore sweet number four.
No more alive is number five,
beset by tics was number six,
she’s in heaven, number seven,
its now too late for number eight.
Another line for number nine,
begin again for number ten.
13 May 1982
poem by Jonathan Robin
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We believe the 36, nearly 40, billion pound discount given for a right to buy houses took a million houses out of the public housing sector which is desperately needed for rent.
quote by John Prescott
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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White Houses
Crashed on the floor when i moved in
This little bungalow with some strange new friends
Stayed up too late, and I'm too thin
We promise each other it's till the end
Now we're spinning empty bottles, it's the fives of us
With pretty-eyed boys girls die to trust
I can't resist the day oh no i can't resist the day
And Jenny screams out and it's no pose
'Cause when she dances she goes and goes
Beer through the nose on an inside joke
And I'm so excited I haven't spoken
And she's so pretty and she's so sure
Maybe I'm more clever than a girl like her
The summer's all in bloom
The summer's ending soon
It's all right
And it's nice not to be so alone
But I hold on to secrets in white houses
Maybe I'm a little bit over my head
I come undone at the things he said
He's so funny in his bright red shirt
we were all in love and we all got hurt
I sneak into his car's cracked leather seat
The smell of gasoline in the summer heat
Boy we're going way too fast
It's all too sweet to last...
It's alright and i put myself in his hands
but i hold on to secrets in White Houses
Love or something ignites in my veins
and i pray it never fades in white houses
My first time
Hard to explain
Rush of blood, oh
And a little bit of pain
On a cloudy day
It's more common than you think
He's my first mistake
Maybe you were all faster than me
We gave each other up so easily
These silly little wounds will never mend
I feel so far from where I've been
So I go and I will not be back here again
I'm gone as the day is fading on white houses
I lie, put my injuries all in the dust
In my heart is the 5 of us in white houses
And you, maybe you'll remember me
What I gave is yours to keep
In white houses
In white houses
In white houses.
song performed by by Vanessa Carlton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Animals' Houses
Of animals' houses
Two sorts are found -
Those which are square ones
And those which are round.
Square is a hen-house,
A kennel, a sty:
Cows have square houses
And so have I.
A snail's shell is curly,
A bird's nest round;
Rabbits have twisty burrows
Underground.
But the fish in the bowl
And the fish at sea -
Their houses are round
As a house can be.
James Reeves
poem by George Redgrave
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Paper Doll
Written by stevie nicks.
You like a man with a future
You like a woman with a past
Well do you really believe that
She said to faces in the crowd
(yesterday I was facinated by somebody else)
Yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else
(yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else)
Yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else
And even if you did miss me
You never let me know
You prefer to be just a little bit
In and out of love with me
And not to scream and shout
You prefer to be just a little bit
In and out of agony
(yesterday I was facinated by somebody else)
Yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else
(yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else)
Yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else
Come on now, let the sad winds blow down
As the rain came, she refused to wear her coat
But deep in her heart she knew, that the song must go on
He says well I have forgotten you
And your beautiful eyes
We were off the wall
We were mirrors of our former selves
Well you could have said no
You could have said well I just cant
Whoa we were off the wall
We were mirrors of each other
Passing by
(yesterday I was facinated by somebody else)
Yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else
(yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else)
Yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else
Repeat
Well I was your paper doll
(yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else)
Paper doll
(yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else)
Well I was you paper doll
(yesterday I was fascinated by somebody else)
Paper doll
And it doesnt even matter
(I was fascinated by somebody else)
It was a real clear answer
(I was fascinated by somebody else)
I was fascinated by somebody else
(I was fascinated by somebody else)
song performed by by Fleetwood Mac
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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No architect troubled to design houses that suited people who were to live in them, because that would have meant building a whole range of different houses. It was far cheaper and, above all, timesaving to make them identical.
quote by Michael Ende
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Walked Last Night In A District I Lived In For Almost Twenty Years
I WALKED LAST NIGHT IN A DISTRICT I LIVED IN FOR ALMOST TWENTY YEARS
I walked last night in a district I lived in for almost twenty years
I came back after being away for a time
To visit an old and ailing friend
The streets were empty and lonely as they often were then-
I thought for the first time I understood how lonely the district itself is-
‘A lonely district’
I wondered how I managed to live there all those years
And how anyone still manages to live there-
I looked up at the sky and wrote in my mind a small poem of a kind I wrote many of in my years there
I remembered teachers and friends who had lived there
No longer of this district or any district on earth
I wondered how life goes and how from so many years so much life has been lived without having any place in my memory
I felt as empty inside as the district without
I did not have to wait long for the bus
And relieved inside it I put my heart to home
So many years had been lived there
I remembered taking my small children to the playground there
Now they thank G-d have children of their own
Oh the years go by and the life we have lived in them largely dies
Forever to be unknown again-
I put my heart and mind in a different direction
And began to do what I always do – not think of the district again
Life is this mystery and question we live through and never wholly possess even as we are experiencing it
How long before all will be gone for me
Including the district I live in now?
poem by Shalom Freedman
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When Numbers Get Serious
I have a number in my head
Though I dont know why its there
When numbers get serious
You see their shape everywhere
Dividing and multiplying
Exchanging with ease
When times are mysterious
Serious numbers are easy to please
Take my address
Take my phone
Call me if you can
Heres my address
Heres my phone
Please dont give it to some madman
Hey hey, whoa whoa
Complicated life
Numbers swirling thick and curious
You can cut them with a knife
You can cut them with a knife
Two times two is twenty-two
Four times four is forty-four
When numbers get serious
They leave a mark on your door
Urgent. urgent.
A telephone is ringing in the hallways
When times are mysterious
Serious numbers will speak to us always
That is why a man with numbers
Can put your mind at ease
Weve got numbers by the trillions
Here and overseas
Hey hey, whoa whoa
Look at the stink about japan
All those numbers waiting patiently
Dont you understand?
Dont you understand?
So wrap me
Wrap me
Wrap me do
In the shelter of your arms
I am ever your volunteer
I wont do you any harm
I will love innumerably
You can count on my word
When times are mysterious
Serious numbers
Will always be heard
When times are mysterious
Serious numbers will always be heard
And after all is said and done
And the numbers all come home
The four rolls into three
The three turns into two
And the two becomes a
One
song performed by by Paul Simon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Don't Ever Call Here Again
Why did I call?
You have been on my mind.
You are there most of the time,
With thoughts of wishes
I hope you are fine.
Why is it you?
Doesn't my call to you provide a clue?
Perhaps one day,
Out of the 'blue'...
You will call me too!
Instead of seeming to be annoyed.
And giving me attitude!
'Yeah...
But you've called me five times in ten minutes.
You have the wrong number!
How long has it been since you have spoken to your mother? '
Mom I know this is you!
I apologize for not calling in twenty years.
I have fallen on hard times...
And I need your assistance.
'That's unfortunate, young man.
The only son I had told me to mind my business.
He moved out over twenty five years ago!
And I know that could not be you...
Because the last time I called 'him'
He told me where to go!
I went!
And my life has been wonderful ever since!
I would give you his number...
But I have forgotten his name!
I have forgotten I have had any children at all.
And I bet 'if' you were in my shoes,
You would do the same.
When you find your mama...
Give her a hug for me, baby!
And as for you...
Don't ever call here again.'
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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