Homer
Homer, thy song men liken to the sea
With all the notes of music in its tone,
With tides that wash the dim dominion
Of Hades, and light waves that laugh in glee
Around the isles enchanted; nay, to me
Thy verse seems as the River of source unknown
That glasses Egypt's temples overthrown
In his sky-nurtured stream, eternally.
No wiser we than men of heretofore
To find thy sacred fountains guarded fast;
Enough, thy flood makes green our human shore,
As Nilus Egypt, rolling down his vast
His fertile flood, that murmurs evermore
Of gods dethroned, and empires in the past.
poem by Andrew Lang
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Related quotes
Night Over Egypt
Wansel / Biggs)
There's a sky in the east
Over pyramids at Giza
Where there once lived a girl
She ruled the world
Then down the nile
He came with a smile
He was the king
She was the queen
Under the moonlight
Your eyes won't believe
What your mind can't concieve
Oooh
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
Incense & myrrh
And girls that swirl
To the music
Nights over Egypt
Women fellahin
Wear veils to been seen
By no one
Take a caravan across
The sudan
Saharan fagade
Is just a mirage
Oasis in the sand
Where life once began
Under the moonlight
Your eyes won't believe
What your mind can't concieve
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
song performed by by Incognito
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nights Over Egypt
(wansel / biggs)
Theres a sky in the east
Over pyramids at giza
Where there once lived a girl
She ruled the world
Then down the nile
He came with a smile
He was the king
She was the queen
Under the moonlight
Your eyes wont believe
What your mind cant concieve
Oooh
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
Incense & myrrh
And girls that swirl
To the music
Nights over egypt
Women fellahin
Wear veils to been seen
By no one
Take a caravan across
The sudan
Saharan fagade
Is just a mirage
Oasis in the sand
Where life once began
Under the moonlight
Your eyes wont believe
What your mind cant concieve
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
song performed by by Incognito
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Recollections of Our Native Valley
Know ye not that lovely river?
Know ye not that smiling river?
Whose gentle flood,
By cliff and wood,
With wildering sound goes winding ever.
Oh! often yet with feeling strong,
On that dear stream my mem'ry ponders,
And still I prize its murm'ring song,
For by my childhood's home it wanders.
Know ye not that lovely river?
Know ye not that smiling river?
Whose gentle flood,
By cliff and wood,
There's music in each wind that blows
Within our native valley breathing;
There's beauty in each flower that grows
Around our native woodlands wreathing.
The memory of our brightest joys
Is dearer than the richest toys,
The present vainly shed around us.
Know ye not that lovely river?
Know ye not that smiling river?
Whose gentle flood,
By cliff and wood,
Oh, sister! when 'mid doubts and fears,
That haunt life's onward journey ever,
I turn to those departed years,
And that beloved and lovely river;
With sinking mind and bosom riven,
And heart with lonely anguish aching,
It needs my long-taught hope in heaven,
To keep that weary heart from breaking.
Know ye not that lovely river?
Know ye not that smiling river?
Whose gentle flood,
By cliff and wood.
poem by Gerald Griffin
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The Loving Cup of the Papyrus
WISE men use days as husbandmen use bees,
And steal rich drops from every pregnant hour;
Others, like wasps on blossomed apple-trees,
Find gall, not honey, in the sweetest flower.
Congratulations for a scene like this!
The olden times are here—these shall be olden
When, years to come, remembering present bliss,
We sigh for past Papyrian dinners golden.
We thank the gods! we call them back to light—
Call back to hoary Egypt for Osiris,
Who first made wine, to join our board to-night,
And drain this loving cup with the Papyrus.
He comes! the Pharaoh's god! fling wide the door-
Welcome, Osiris! See—thine old prescription
Is honored here; and thou shalt drink once more
With men whose treasured ensign is Egyptian.
A toast! a toast! our guest shall give a toast!
By Nilus' flood, we pray thee, god, inspire us!
He smiles—he wills—let not a word be lost—
His hand upon the cup, he speaks:—
'Papyrus!
“I greet ye! and mine ancient nation shares
In greeting fair from Ammon, Ptah, and Isis,
Whose leaf ye love—dead Egypt's leaf, that bears
Our tale of pride from Cheops to Cambyses.
'We gods of Egypt, who are wise with age—
Five thousand years have washed us clean of passion—
A golden era for this board presage,
While ye do keep this cup in priestly fashion.
'We love to see the bonds of fellowship
Made still more sacred by a fine tradition;
We bless this bowl that moves from lip to lip
In love's festoons, renewed by every mission.
'Intern the vessel from profaning eyes;
The lip that kisses should have special merit;
Thus every sanguine draught shall symbolize
And consecrate the true Papyrian spirit.
'For brotherhood, not wine, this cup should pass;
Its depths should ne'er reflect the eye of malice;
Drink toasts to strangers with the social glass,
But drink to brothers with this loving chalice.
'And now, Papyrus, each one pledge to each:
And let this formal tie be warmly cherished.
No words are needed for a kindly speech—
The loving thought will live when words have perished.'
poem by John Boyle O'Reilly
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H2o
Bubbling up
from within
life giving,
quench my thirst.
Gathering in the grotto
spilling over its rim.
Trickle down,
a new begins.
Babbling brook.
Gentle stream.
Rapidly flowing river.
Ragging currents.
Frothy unsettled turbulence.
Under toe from beneath,
take
me
away.
Falling over rocks below.
Finding its way to open waters.
Great lakes
perhaps
beaver ponds.
Tributaries,
watersheds,
over abundance,
flood planes lie ahead.
Sediment washes away
to oceans
vast seas.
Sail upon them to distant shores,
explore the unknown.
Ebbing tide
called forth
mesmerizing moon.
Fathom deep
depths unknown.
Waves crashing ashore,
secluded bay
private lagoon.
Listen,
sirens song
calling.
Lift the Cong shell to your ear,
tell me
what
you
hear.
poem by Gary Kedron
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Lines
Sing me that song again,
That wild, impassioned lay;
The tumult of my throbbing brain
Thy voice shall charm away.
Pour that harmonious flood
Upon my thirsting ear;
'Twill cool the fever of my blood
Those silvery notes to hear.
Sing me that mournful song,
That song of love and woe,
That these full fountains, closed so long,
Once more may overflow.
And while those gentle strings
Thy fairy hand sweeps o'er,
Upon thy music's trembling wings
My fainting soul shall soar.
poem by Anne Lynch Botta from Poems (1848)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Song of Freedom - A Prayer Reflection on Mee Kamocha
When did we leave Egypt
And when did Egypt leave us?
When were the chains of slavery broken
And when did we finally truly feel free?
Freedom came in steps
It was part of the journey
From Egypt to Canaan
Our people took
And we can still take.
Freedom is courage and hope and clear vision
Freedom is walking to places we can’t see
Freedom in knowing that we can find food in the desert
Freedom is feeling safe though our houses are booths.
Freedom is choosing good rules to live by
And freedom is singing our very own song.
So with Moses and Miriam and all those who went with them
With all those before us who brought us to today
We still sing these words, our first words of freedom
'Freedom is having no sovereign but God.”
10/12/2003
poem by Lewis Eron
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This Voice
This voice may resume in finer fashion,
So that sweetness and voices are in the past.
This voice is diviner than most light,
Green and golden is the light of the tree.
May fashion behold a fast lane, the very same.
This voice inherits a flood and fuel,
How did heresy be condemned this way?
Green light is not of the plants, but
White visible light inhales and ignites.
Where do you stay with this very light?
poem by Naveed Akram
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Go Down Moses
Chorus sings:go down moses
Way down in egypt land
Tell all pharaoes to
Let my people go!
Armstrong:
When israel was in egypt land...
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand...
Let my people go!
So the God seyeth: go down, moses
Way down in egypt land
Tell all pharaoes to
Let my people go!
So moses went to egypt land...
Let my people go!
He made all pharaoes understand...
Let my people go!
Yes the lord said go down, moses
Way down in egypt land
Tell all pharaoes to
Let my people go!
Thus spoke the lord, bold moses said:
-let my people go!
if not Ill smite, your firstborns dead
-let my people go!
God-the lord said go down, moses
Way down in egypt land
Tell all pharaoes to
Let my people go!
Tell all pharaoes
To
Let my people go
song performed by by Louis Armstrong
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hermes Trismegistus
Still through Egypt's desert places
Flows the lordly Nile,
From its banks the great stone faces
Gaze with patient smile.
Still the pyramids imperious
Pierce the cloudless skies,
And the Sphinx stares with mysterious,
Solemn, stony eyes.
But where are the old Egyptian
Demi-gods and kings?
Nothing left but an inscription
Graven on stones and rings.
Where are Helios and Hephaestus,
Gods of eldest eld?
Where is Hermes Trismegistus,
Who their secrets held?
Where are now the many hundred
Thousand books he wrote?
By the Thaumaturgists plundered,
Lost in lands remote;
In oblivion sunk forever,
As when o'er the land
Blows a storm-wind, in the river
Sinks the scattered sand.
Something unsubstantial, ghostly,
Seems this Theurgist,
In deep meditation mostly
Wrapped, as in a mist.
Vague, phantasmal, and unreal
To our thought he seems,
Walking in a world ideal,
In a land of dreams.
Was he one, or many, merging
Name and fame in one,
Like a stream, to which, converging
Many streamlets run?
Till, with gathered power proceeding,
Ampler sweep it takes,
Downward the sweet waters leading
From unnumbered lakes.
By the Nile I see him wandering,
Pausing now and then,
On the mystic union pondering
Between gods and men;
Half believing, wholly feeling,
With supreme delight,
How the gods, themselves concealing,
Lift men to their height.
Or in Thebes, the hundred-gated,
In the thoroughfare
Breathing, as if consecrated,
A diviner air;
And amid discordant noises,
In the jostling throng,
Hearing far, celestial voices
Of Olympian song.
Who shall call his dreams fallacious?
Who has searched or sought
All the unexplored and spacious
Universe of thought?
Who, in his own skill confiding,
Shall with rule and line
Mark the border-land dividing
Human and divine?
Trismegistus! three times greatest!
How thy name sublime
Has descended to this latest
Progeny of time!
Happy they whose written pages
Perish with their lives,
If amid the crumbling ages
Still their name survives!
Thine, O priest of Egypt, lately
Found I in the vast,
Weed-encumbered sombre, stately,
Grave-yard of the Past;
And a presence moved before me
On that gloomy shore,
As a waft of wind, that o'er me
Breathed, and was no more.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Prayer In Open D
(emmylou harris)
Theres a valley of sorrow in my soul
Where every night I hear the thunder roll
Like the sound of a distant gun
Over all the damage I have done
And the shadows filling up this land
Are the ones I built with my own hand
There is no comfort from the cold
Of this valley of sorrow in my soul
Theres a river of darkness in my blood
And through every vein I feel the flood
I can find no bridge for me to cross
No way to bring back what is lost
Into the night it soon will sweep
Down where all my grievances I keep
But it wont wash away the years
Or one single hard and bitter tear
And the rock of ages I have known
Is a weariness down in the bone
I use to ride it like a rolling stone
Now just carry it alone
Theres a highway risin from my dreams
Deep in the heart I know it gleams
For I have seen it stretching wide
Clear across to the other side
Beyond the river and the flood
And the valley where for so long Ive stood
With the rock of ages in my bones
Someday I know it will lead me home
song performed by by Emmylou Harris
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Peace River
The Peace River creeps along
From its start in the sand it calls home
That sometimes takes up more below
Than it adds to the flow.
The groove cut deep in ages past
Into the lime-rock's cast
Remains a testament to the way
That Nature refreshes, then takes away.
Sometimes a wild river that knows no bounds
Later just a few scattered ponds
Harboring life which one day
Will again spread when the River has its say.
Once a road for paddlewheel boats
That carried goods up-river to folks
When loaded with coal and necessities
From mines and far away cities.
Then down river the boats did ply
Phosphate ore that man might buy
As an ingredient to benefit all,
Something to makes crops grow tall.
But now the Peace River's flow
Has been claimed by those below
Who've built along Gulf's shore,
And thirst for water, even more.
There are solutions, few
When Winter's drought begins anew
When fish and man alike must find
A place of another kind.
Yet the river lies quiet and waits
For the Summer rains that will create
Again the flood as in times past
When the water moves deep and fast.
The Peace River originates in an area known as the 'Green Swamp, ' a vast mostly unpopulated area of central Florida lying between Tampa and Orlando. The sandy soil (if soil it can be considered to be) accepts summer rainfall while giving up the excess to runoff, and uses the remainder to recharge the shallow limestone/sand aquifer. In the dry season of the year, the aquifer gives up a portion of its burden through springs and seeps to rivers flowing East (Orlando) , West (Tampa) , North (Jacksonville) and South (Charlotte bay) . Southwest Water Management District (Called Swift Mud) will try to 'harness' the Peace river and control its flow. But there's much about the river that they seem not to know (or want to learn) .
poem by Sidi J. Mahtrow
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The River
WHY hurry, little river,
Why hurry to the sea?
There is nothing there to do
But to sink into the blue
And all forgotten be.
There is nothing on that shore
But the tides for evermore,
And the faint and far-off line
Where the winds across the brine
For ever, ever roam
And never find a home.
Why hurry, little river,
From the mountains and the mead,
Where the graceful elms are sleeping
And the quiet cattle feed?
The loving shadows cool
The deep and restful pool;
And every tribute stream
Brings its own sweet woodland dream
Of the mighty woods that sleep
Where the sighs of earth are deep,
And the silent skies look down
On the savage mountain's frown.
Oh, linger, little river,
Your banks are all so fair,
Each morning is a hymn of praise,
Each evening is a prayer.
All day the sunbeams glitter
On your shallows and your bars,
And at night the dear God stills you
With the music of the stars.
poem by Frederick George Scott
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Ocean Song
Sing a little song,
Just an itty bitty ditty,
About the rolling boom
Of the ocean’s lull and gloom.
Sing a little song,
Hum a simple tune,
That reminds you of the sea
And all that she may be.
Sing a little song,
Tap an unknown beat,
To sway the stars above
And steal the ocean from her love.
Sing a little song,
A sweeter melody.
Let’s coax the waves to shore -
Inspiring new lore.
Sing a little song,
Create some fancy notes,
That tempt the moon to land,
And we’ll dance on golden sand.
Sing a little song,
Drum an unheard rhythm,
About the sea’s unending keen
And all that she has seen.
Sing a little song,
A peaceful lullaby,
That speaks of pleasant ages
And soothes the ocean’s rages.
poem by Robin Shuler
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The Living Temple
NOT in the world of light alone,
Where God has built his blazing throne,
Nor yet alone in earth below,
With belted seas that come and go,
And endless isles of sunlit green,
Is all thy Maker's glory seen:
Look in upon thy wondrous frame,--
Eternal wisdom still the same!
The smooth, soft air with pulse-like waves
Flows murmuring through its hidden caves,
Whose streams of brightening purple rush,
Fired with a new and livelier blush,
While all their burden of decay
The ebbing current steals away,
And red with Nature's flame they start
From the warm fountains of the heart.
No rest that throbbing slave may ask,
Forever quivering o'er his task,
While far and wide a crimson jet
Leaps forth to fill the woven net
Which in unnumbered crossing tides
The flood of burning life divides,
Then, kindling each decaying part,
Creeps back to find the throbbing heart.
But warmed with that unchanging flame
Behold the outward moving frame,
Its living marbles jointed strong
With glistening band and silvery thong,
And linked to reason's guiding reins
By myriad rings in trembling chains,
Each graven with the threaded zone
Which claims it as the master's own.
See how yon beam of seeming white
Is braided out of seven-hued light,
Yet in those lucid globes no ray
By any chance shall break astray.
Hark how the rolling surge of sound,
Arches and spirals circling round,
Wakes the hushed spirit through thine ear
With music it is heaven to hear.
Then mark the cloven sphere that holds
All thought in its mysterious folds;
That feels sensation's faintest thrill,
And flashes forth the sovereign will;
Think on the stormy world that dwells
Locked in its dim and clustering cells!
The lightning gleams of power it sheds
Along its hollow glassy threads!
O Father! grant thy love divine
To make these mystic temples thine!
When wasting age and wearying strife
Have sapped the leaning walls of life,
When darkness gathers over all,
And the last tottering pillars fall,
Take the poor dust thy mercy warms,
And mould it into heavenly forms!
poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
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The Moon of Ramadân
The sunset melts upon the Nile,
The stony desert glows,
Beneath heaven's universal smile,
One burning damask rose;
And like a Peri's pearly boat,
No longer than a span,
Look, faint on fiery sky afloat,
The Moon of Ramadân.
Our boat drifts idly with the Stream,
Our boatmen ship the oar;
Vistas of endless temples gleam
On either topaz shore;
And swimming over groves of Palm,
A crescent weak and wan,
There steals into the perfect calm
The Moon of Ramadân.
All nature seems to bask in peace
And hush her lowest sigh;
Above the river's golden fleece
The happy Halcyons fly.
And lost in some old lotos dream,
The pensive Pelican
Sees mirrored in the mazy stream
The Moon of Ramadân.
Black outlined on the golden air
A turbaned Silhouette,
The Mueddin invites to prayer
From many a Minaret.
Our dusky boatmen hear the call,
And prostrate, man on man,
They bow, adoring, one and all,
The Moon of Ramadân.
Where Luxor's rose-flushed columns shine
Above the river's brim,
The priests with incense once, and wine,
Made sacrifice to Him,
The highest god of Thebes, and head
Of all the heavenly clan;
But now the Moslem hails instead
The Moon of Ramadân.
The gods have come, the gods have gone,
Yet wedded to their walls,
Winged with the serpent of the Sun
In mute processionals,
They stride from door to massy door,
Bound nations in their van,
Though Amon's Sun has waned before
The Moon of Ramadân.
Yea, even proud Egypt's proudest king,
Who chastised rebel lands,
And brought his gods for offering
Mountains of severed hands;
Who singly, like a god of War,
Smote hosts that swerved and ran,
Lies low 'neath Allah's scimetar--
The Moon of Ramadân.
And Isis, Queen, whose sacred disk's
Horned splendour crowned her brow,
While fires of flashing Obelisks
Flamed in the Afterglow;
And white-robed priests who served her shrine
Have turned Mahommedan,
And worship Him who wears for sign
The Moon of Ramadân.
The rosy lotos, flower and leaf,
Which wreathed each sacred lake,
With Nature's loveliest bas-relief,
Has followed in their wake;
Yea, with the last true Pharaoh's death,
The lotos leaves, grown wan,
Have changed to lily white beneath
The Moon of Ramadân.
The gods may come, the gods may go,
And royal realms change hands;
But the most ancient Nile will flow,
And flood the desert sands;
And nightly will he glass the stars'
Unearthly caravan,
Nor care if it be Rome's red Mars
Or Moon of Ramadân.
The sunset fades upon the Nile;
The desert's stony gloom,
Receding blankly mile on mile,
Grows silent as a tomb.
All weary wanderers, man and beast,
Hie, fasting, to the Khan,
While shines above their nightly feast
The Moon of Ramadân.
poem by Mathilde Blind
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The Man Beside Me
now we are sailing on a
bamboo raft
floating on a silk river
bound to the other
side
except for the man
with a long bamboo pole
to touch the floor
and push us more
there is this man
beside me murmuring
his face is covered
by the shadow of his
big straw hat
the natives respect
him thinking that he
is god sent
knowing the words of
the mountain gods
who give them rain
after the drought
he chatters the song
of the cicadas
he murmurs the heaves
of the rain
finally he stops and
hands in the silence
of the rocks
that protrude in the
middle of the river
the waters rise
flood rages on
and i begin to hear
another song
of the incoming storm
then we arrive at the other
side of the river
this time we have become
one in the fold of the
fury asking the protection
of the mountain's belly
the morning news shall
tell about two men who
are fuming the seeds of
discontent of the plains
and the city
we have no names here
just coincidences
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The Merri In Flood
The old Merri River in flood waters of brown
Is flowing on bank high on by Warrnambool Town
In and out of Lake Pertobe on it's sea going way
To join the Pacific at famed Lady Bay
The old river that is old even in time
That has inspired the poets and songwriters to rhyme
In the age of the dinosaurs the Merri was old
In full flood the river a sight to behold
In Summer by the banks of the river in the shade of the trees
The Indigenous tribes had their corroborees
Like the Seasons of Nature the people come and go
But the river on down through the flat country flow
In and out of Lake Pertobe and on to the sea
The Merri in flood is a great sight to see.
poem by Francis Duggan
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I Was Born Of Music
I was born of music, with rhythm in my blood.
My tunes are alive, and move like a rivers flood.
I walk down the long path of quivering notes,
And I make music out of legendary quotes.
Music is in my soul, I was born of its power,
It's with me every second, every minute and hour.
It is as if I was created in Cohen's Tower of song
And I feel that if that's so, it's not so wrong.
When I breathe the air that fulfills my life's dreams
What comes out is not all what it truly seems,
I exhale the music from my heart and soul,
And that is what makes my life feel very whole.
I am a river of music that flows through time
I am your love song, your rhythm and your rhyme.
I provide you comfort in your true time of need.
I am the lyrics of all life, for you all to read.
I was born of music, of this I am sure of,
Music, it consumes me, it's my only true love
Put your ear to the ground and listen to the earth
And you will hear and feel where music was birthed
Piano keys of white and black, guitar strings so thin
Drums ready to set the beat, a singer with a grin.
These are all friends of mine, that make my music bright,
These are all friends of mind that make my so life right.
REB (MARCH 2012) God Bless the music of the world, and those that make it.
poem by Rik Bertrand
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New Year’s Eve
Staggering homeward between the stream and the trees the unhappy
drunkard
Babbles a woeful song and babbles
The end of the world, the moon's like fired Troy in a flying
cloud, the storm
Rises again, the stream's in flood.
The moon's like the sack of Carthage, the Bastile's broken, pedlars
and empires
Still deal in luxury, men sleep in prison.
Old Saturn thinks it was better in his grandsire's time but that's
from the brittle
Arteries, it neither betters nor worsens.
(Nobody knows my love the falcon.)
It has always bristled with phantoms, always factitious, mildly absurd;
The organism, with no precipitous
Degeneration, slight imperceptible discounts of sense and faculty,
Adapts itself to the culture-medium.
(Nobody crawls to the test-tube rim,
Nobody knows my love the falcon.)
The star's on the mountain, the stream snoring in flood; the brain-lit
drunkard
Crosses midnight and stammers to bed.
The inhuman nobility of things, the ecstatic beauty, the inveterate
steadfastness
Uphold the four posts of the bed.
(Nobody knows my love the falcon.)
poem by Robinson Jeffers
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