Adrian Henri's Last Will and Testament
`No one owns life, but anyone who can pick up a Fryingpan owns death.'
William Burroughs
To whom it may concern:
As my imminent death is hourly expected these days/ carbrakes screaming on East Lancs tarmac/trapped in the blazing cinema/mutely screaming I TOLD YOU SO from melting eyeballs as the whitehot fireball dissolves the Cathedral/being the first human being to die of a hangover/ dying of overemotion after seeing 20 schoolgirls waiting at a zebracrossing.
I appoint Messrs Bakunin and Kropotkin my executors and make the following provisions:
1. I leave my priceless collections of Victorian Oil Lamps, photographs of Hayley Mills, brass fenders and Charlie Mingus records to all Liverpool poets under 2 3 who are also blues singers and failed sociology students.
2. I leave the entire East Lancs Road with all its landscapes to the British people.
3. I hereby appoint Wm. Burroughs my literary executor, instructing him to cut up my collected works and distribute them through the public lavatories of the world.
4. Proceeds from the sale of relics: locks of hair, pieces of floorboards I have stood on, fragments of bone flesh teeth bits of old underwear etc. to be given to my widow.
5. I leave my paintings to the Nation with the stipulation that they must be exhibited in Public Houses, Chip Shops, Coffee Bars and the Cellar Clubs throughout the country.
6. Proceeds from the sale of my other effects to be divided equally amongst the 20 most beautiful schoolgirls in England (these to be chosen after due deliberation and exhaustive tests by an informal committee of my friends).
Adrian Henri
Jan. ‘64
Witnessed this day by:
James Ensor
Charlie `Bird' Parker.
poem by Adrian Henri
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Me
if you weren't you, who would you like to be?
Paul McCartney Gustav Mahler
Alfred Jarry John Coltrane
Charlie Mingus Claude Debussy
Wordsworth Monet Bach and Blake
Charlie Parker Pierre Bonnard
Leonardo Bessie Smith
Fidel Castro Jackson Pollock
Gaudi Milton Munch and Berg
Belà Bartók Henri Rousseau
Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns
Lukas Cranach Shostakovich
Kropotkin Ringo George and John
William Burroughs Francis Bacon
Dylan Thomas Luther King
H. P. Lovecraft T. S. Eliot
D. H. Lawrence Roland Kirk
Salvatore Giuliano
Andy Warhol Paul Uzanne
Kafka Camus Ensor Rothko
Jacques Prévert and Manfred Mann
Marx Dostoevsky
Bakunin Ray Bradbury
Miles Davis Trotsky
Stravinsky and Poe
Danilo Dolci Napoleon Solo
St John of the Cross and
The Marquis de Sade
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Rimbaud Claes Oldenburg
Adrian Mitchell and Marcel Duchamp
James Joyce and Hemingway
Hitchcock and Bunuel
Donald McKinlay Thelonius Monk
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Matthias Grunewald
Philip Jones Grifths and Roger McGough
Guillaume Apollinaire
Cannonball Adderley
René Magritte
Hieronymus Bosch
Stéphane Mallarmé and Alfred de Vigny
Ernst Mayakovsky and Nicolas de Stael
Hindemith Mick Jagger Durer and Schwitters
Garcia Lorca
and
last of all
me.
poem by Adrian Henri
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Without You
Without you every morning would feel like going back to work after a holiday,
Without you I couldn't stand the smell of the East Lancs Road,
Without you ghost ferries would cross the Mersey manned by skeleton crews,
Without you I'd probably feel happy and have more money and time and nothing to do with it,
Without you I'd have to leave my stillborn poems on other people's doorsteps, wrapped in brown paper,
Without you there'd never be sauce to put on sausage butties,
Without you plastic flowers in shop windows would just be plastic flowers in shop windows,
Without you I'd spend my summers picking morosley over the remains of train crashes,
Without you white birds would wrench themselves free from my paintings and fly off dripping blood into the night,
Without you green apples wouldn't taste greener,
Without you Mothers wouldn't let their children play out after tea,
Without you every musician in the world would forget how to play the blues,
Without you Public Houses would be public again,
Without you the Sunday Times colour suppliment would come out in black-and-white,
Without you indifferent colonels would shrug their shoulders and press the button,
Without you they's stop changing the flowers in Piccadilly Gardens,
Without you Clark Kent would forget how to become Superman,
Without you Sunshine Breakfast would only consist of Cornflakes,
Without you there'd be no colour in Magic colouring books,
Without you Mahler's 8th would only be performed by street musicians in derelict houses,
Without you they'd forget to put the salt in every packet of crisps,
Without you it would be an offence punishable by a fine of up to £200 or two months' imprisonment to be found in possession of curry powder,
Without you riot police are massing in quiet sidestreets,
Without you all streets would be one-way the other way,
Without you there'd be no one to kiss goodnight when we quarrel,
Without you the first martian to land would turn round and go away again,
Without you they'd forget to change the weather,
Without you blind men would sell unlucky heather,
Without you there would be
no landscapes/no stations/no houses
no chipshops/no quiet villages/no seagulls
on beaches/no hopscotch on pavements/no night/no morning/
there'd be no city no country
Without you.
poem by Adrian Henri
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High & Dry
two jumps in a week i bet you think that's pretty clever don't you
boy.
flying on your
motorcycle.
watching all the ground beneath you
drop.
you'd kill yourself for recognition.
kill yourself to
never
ever
stop.
you broke another mirror.you're turning into something you are not.
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry
drying up in conversation
you will be the one who cannot talk.
all your insides fall to pieces.
you just sit there
wishing
you
could
still
make
love.
they're the ones who'll hate you when you think you've got the world
all sussed out.
they're the ones who'll spit at you.
you will be the one
screaming
out.
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry
it's the best thing that you ever had.
The best thing you've had is gone away.
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry
song performed by by Radiohead
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dancing With Charlie
Charlie was a loser till that sunny day
No-one saw him leaving as he sailed away
Treated like a sinner, no-one gave a damn
Till charlie threw two sixes
Now hes got them in his hand
Now theyre waiting in line to go dancing with charlie
They wanna be seen dancing with charlie
No-one seems to know how
No-one seems to care
Doesnt really matter just as long as you are there
Party in the moonlight, free drinks at the bar
You can bet whats in your pocket that charlie wont be far
Now theyre waiting in line to go dancing with charlie
They wanna be seen dancing with charlie
Charlie bought a jet plane, charlie rides the sky
Friends appear from nowhere, charlie gets them high
Big d was a gambler with everything to lose
Charlie didnt have anything
So he didnt have to choose
And theyre waiting in line to go dancing with charlie
They wanna be seen dancing with charlie
And theyre standing in line to go dancing with charlie
They wanna be seen dancing with charlie
song performed by by Chris Rea
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Notorious Scribbler's property
-Notice of sale at public Auction-
Notice is hereby given that the following mentioned property will be sold at Public Auction on the 30th of November,2009 at or after8.30 A.M.
The sale will be conducted at Lower depths, Happy ending Road, Missing Island, Zip 12345.
The Manor in the thick jungle
A skeleton of a Dinosaur
Clothing, furniture and other household items.
Abandoned stable and Cocoa fields
A brass kennel (Who slept there on full moon days when he was drunk)
A Library without books(The books already sold in rough climates)
A boat without oars and a large World Map that highlighted his lonely journeys.
His unfinished novel titled as 'The Abortion rights and a poor Eunuch'
dedicated to a Homeless.
*To Louis Armstrong for his beautiful song 'What a Wonderful World'
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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Hangover
Written by dewey bunnell, 1980
Found on alibi.
Whos that knockin on my door this mornin
Cant they see Im dead
There aint nothin left to do this mornin
cept to make it to my bed
I was out till all hours
Raisin cain once again
I dont care about the hours
Only how much did I spend
cause I got a hangover
I wont make it through the day
I got a hangover
So just leave me where I lay
I started slow after sundown
I tiptoed right up till ten
Then after while I went downtown
It was the beginning of my end
Now I got a hangover
I wont make it through the day
I got a hangover
So just leave me where I lay
Oh, how am I gonna stake my claim on the future
When I cannot lift my head
Oh, I aint nothin but a drunken loser
And my livers overfed
cause I got a hangover
I wont make it through the day
cause I got a hangover
So just leave me where I lay
Now I got a hangover
I wont make it through the day
cause I got a hangover
So just leave me where I lay
So just leave me where I lay
song performed by by America
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Death Married Death In Death
Death looks at a flower, screaming I am beautiful
look here I am, come eat me, alone.
Death hovers, smiling, never waiting, walking always
by, knowing that,
any thing that touches it will also soon, never die.
Death is love, love is death, why are you both, death
is your pet pink pig, and two flying pearls.
Death is a dry cracked nipple, sleeping, holding on
to the flesh untill it falls off.
Death is a bullet fixed, never moving, why does the
world move you through it.
Death is a voice always quite, sounding alarms to
walk across the street knowing you look while you
come running.
Death is a woman, who is crazy, thinking the world is
spinning into her coffee.
Death to all men who think they can save the woman
by marring death and eating her sandwich.
Death fingered you, you loved it, now you finger me,
leaving my bee exposed on the flower, you buzzed.
Death's own flower is always sweet and poignant on me..
It is always open for you to smell..............
and it's red alarms, you ignored...
still here now it comes, alone....to see you as one....
poem by Is It Poetry
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Charlie Parker Loves Me
Silent as a willow tree
This road moves like a, a river to me
Sun goes down on Wisdom Street
Break the glass and throw away the key
Somewhere out where the fates collide (collide)
Cigarettes and candlelight
I sit here in the lone cafe
So stripped away (oh, oh)
So stripped away
Ah, huh
Huhhuh
Oh, ah, oh, ah
Everybody knows
I'm your street corner Romeo
Everybody knows
You're my Juliet in rags
And Charlie Parker loves me
Sit with me forever more
Is the draft too cold when they open door
Seem to me whenever you're drunk
And we'll drift away, drift away (drift away)
Ah, huh
Huhhuh
Oh, ah, oh, ah
Everybody knows (everybody)
I'm your street corner Romeo (oh, yeah)
Everybody knows
You're my Juliet in rags
And Charlie Parker loves me (ooh)
I feel your heart beat underneath my skin
Like a New Orleans night
But the rain can't get in
So red-hot dig the beat up underneath a cool, cool night
And the glass moonlight of spring
Everybody knows (ooh)
I'm your street corner Romeo (oh, yeah)
Everybody knows (know, yeah)
You're my Juliet in rags
Everybody knows (everybody knows)
I'm your street corner Romeo, yes, I am
(Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Everybody knows (yeah)
You're my Juliet in rags
And Charlie Parker loves me (ooh)
Everybody knows
(I'm listenin' to ya, Charlie)
I'm your street corner Romeo
(Bird is fly high tonight)
Everybody knows
Everybody knows
Charlie Parker loves me
Everybody knows [yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah]
(Fly away, Charlie)
I'm your street corner Romeo
(I'm listenin' to ya, Charlie) [oh, yeah-eh]
Everybody knows
(Everybody, everybody knows)
You're my Juliet in rags
And Charlie Parker loves me
Charlie Parker loves me
Charlie Parker loves me
song performed by by Rod Stewart
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Death Comes Easy
Death comes easy someone said
Let me go screaming at the top of my lungs.
What do you want from me? ; still screaming.
In a low deep voice, I want your soul.
Trying to move but I'm stuck
I'm looking around, all i see is BLACK! ! !
Crying please please let me go
No you belong to me
Who are you? Why do you want me?
He answers again,
You don't know me, but I know you.
Leave me the hell alone! Let me go!
I feel myself kicking in my sleep
I know what you did and what you thought about,
How? Just let me go please.
I came to make your wish come true.
No No! Just leave me alone.
I feel myself waking up,
Finally I'm awake
Sweating and crying, thinking to myself I'm,
I'm Free
poem by Chelseacrazylove Page
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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From the moment I leave my house or my hotel room, the public owns me. The public made Alice Cooper and I can't imagine ever turning my back on my fans.
quote by Alice Cooper
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Love For Sale (extended Mix)
I was born in a house with the television always on
Guess I grew up too fast
And I forgot my name
We're in cities at night and we got time on our hands.
So leave the driving to us.
And it's the real thing.
And you're rolling
In the blender
With me.
And I can love you
Like a color
TV.
Now love is here
C'mon and try it
I got love for sale
Got love for sale
And now love is here
C'mon and try it
Got love for sale,
Got love for sale.
You can put your lipstick all over my designer jeans.
I'll be a video for you.
If you turn my dial.
You can cash my check if you go down to the bank
You get two for one
For a limited time.
Push my button...
The toast pops up
Love and money
Gettin' all
Mixed up
And now love is here
C'mon and try it.
I got love for sale
Got love for sale
Love is here
C'mon and try it
I got love for sale
I got Love
Love
Love
Love
Love
Love
Love
Love
song performed by by Talking Heads
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Fragments Picked To Bits
Fragments picked to bits,
Leave bits of fragments picked...
With a wish when witnessed,
Those fragments picked to bits...
Had more potential when left to sit,
Alone.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Why Me My Angel
My Angel has brought me great trouble.
In and out of Hospital I go.
With sadness and burns and soft tissue scars heartburn and dread as we leave this mess with crying and screaming.
With Sorrow, sadness and death of sick sick people and horrible horrible feelings that will, leave you screaming with great fear so think how lucky you are that your not one of them but its a shame one of them is me.
poem by Catherine smith
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In The Field Of Absence
in the field of absence
i may find you
as a flower
or a a worm
of someone else
as i stare
at the clouds
asking who owns you
and who owns me
finally i nod
at all the leaves
meeting me
someone owns
you
the western wind
no one owns me
as i decide
to fly east
where the wind
is as soft as silk
i have grown
a pair of wings
you ask
what for?
i am flying away.
you ask
why?
i have no answer
but it is this
why that moves
everything
inside me
i ask too: why?
it keeps on moving
it is silent
it is bitter
it is as deep as a
black river.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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A cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering.
quote by William S. Burroughs
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Touch Me Not
lock me in the dominion of your command, transgress my
spirit that is gone, limit my voice to shout the truth and leave
drops of tears to my Fatherland, let my strength drags my
immortal soul for through eternity i will free the nation from
the bondage of cruelty
the light has not stop in the whisper of the wind, the
minute leave to say for the waiting death has its prey, in the
road to step the heaven is always open for me, of where my
vacuum soul is waiting to be free, swallowed like a lion in the
dungeon that cave my heart through out the day
hold my hand my dear brother, the dawning wave capture
the sand and as the bird fly my blooming eye flies; in the
wings of an eagle, the moment of a day reach my rendition,
and ever shall i go in the end it is my way, tears cupped my
emotion, bucket my blood in the country i love
only i found the tore of my tears, swings the luminous flag
in every sun it comes, always forward and never surrender
in the soil the race will live, and in the beacon of our hearts
the nation will stand, bring the tambourine that rejoice and
the cymbals that dance in the celebration of jubilation, the
land return, nay! my days were gone leave no pain, thy
heaven best my soul refresh
i am gone, in every moment i depart, yet! in each day
you'll be laughed in the heart i remain to stay for death i live,
leaves no regret in the flag i hold, my country fears no unfold
and let every breathe fly in each spirit the nation will lives
Forever be Free..............
“ a tribute to the 2009 Philippines Independence “
poem by Antonio Liao
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Leave Those Cranky People Alone
It is best to leave those cranky alone.
It pays to leave those cranky people alone.
Leave those cranky people,
Seeking nothing but an evil.
You,
Just...
Leave those cranky people alone!
When you answer your telephone,
To stop a constant ringing.
Just leave those cranky people alone.
And all you hear is whining,
With a blues heard singing.
Just,
Leave those cranky people alone.
It pays to leave those cranky people alone.
It is best to leave those cranky...
Alone.
Don't condone it.
Leave those people alone.
Don't you try to own it!
Leave those people alone.
Don't,
Condone it.
Leave those people alone.
Don't you try to even own it!
Leave those people alone.
When nothing but complaints,
Drop out of their mouths.
Just,
Leave those cranky people alone.
It is best to leave those cranky alone.
It pays to leave those cranky...
Alone.
Keep your mind freed from heating.
Leave those people alone.
Don't you dare accept their beating.
Leave those people alone.
When you feel a headache brewing,
And you don't know what to do.
Hey..
Leave those cranky people alone!
In the morning when the Sun comes,
Shining on you bright!
Don't you turn away to get it out of your sight,
No!
Leave those cranky people alone.
Yes!
You've got to leave those cranky people alone.
Yes! Yes!
Leave those cranky people alone.
Yes!
You've got to leave those cranky people alone.
Yes! Yes!
Leave those cranky people alone!
In the morning when the Sun comes,
Shining on you bright!
Don't you turn away to get it out of your sight,
No!
Leave those cranky people alone.
Yes!
You've got to leave those cranky people alone.
Yes! Yes!
Leave those cranky people alone.
Yes!
You've got to leave those cranky people alone.
Yes! Yes!
Leave those cranky people alone!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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A Fresh Endeavour
So now I've taken leave of life,
I thought you'd like to know, I still
Possess a mind in love, oh wife;
A soulful eye to catch a show of
Silent beauty – ever yours;
An ear to pick the metaphors
Of tonal dance in words you say,
Grasp a thought in verse you pray
Inside your head, bemused of mind,
Softly mournful, intertwined with
Understanding tears.
I'll drift a whisper o'er to you
To tell that I am quietly calm;
Keeping time till your adieu
To flesh, upon the carol of a
Psalm of consummation. Now!
A fresh endeavour – we're forever
One together, resting yonder,
Cross our open plane of blue.
Copyright Mark R Slaughter 2009
death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death
death death death death death death death
poem by Mark R Slaughter
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High And Dry
Two jumps in a week
I bet you think that's pretty clever don't you boy
Flying on your motorcycle
Watching all the ground beneath you drop
You'd kill yourself for recognition
Kill yourself to never ever stop
You broke another mirror
You're turning into something you are not
Don't leave me high
Don't leave me dry
Don't leave me high
Don't leave me dry
Drying up in conversation
You will be the one who cannot talk
All your insides fall to pieces
You just sit there wishing you could still make love
They're the ones who'll hate you
When you think you've got the world all sussed out
They're the ones who'll spit at you
You will be the one screaming out
It's the best thing that you ever had
Best thing that you ever ever had
It's the best thing that you ever had
Best thing you ever had is gone away
song performed by by Radiohead
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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241st Chorus
And how sweet a story it is
When you hear Charley Parker
tell it,
Either on records or at sessions,
Or at offical bits in clubs,
Shots in the arm for the wallet,
Gleefully he Whistled the
perfect
horn
Anyhow, made no difference.
Charley Parker, forgive me-
Forgive me for not answering your eyes-
For not having made in indication
Of that which you can devise-
Charley Parker, pray for me-
Pray for me and everybody
In the Nirvanas of your brain
Where you hide, indulgent and huge,
No longer Charley Parker
But the secret unsayable name
That carries with it merit
Not to be measured from here
To up, down, east, or west-
-Charley Parker, lay the bane,
off me, and every body
poem by Jack Kerouac
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