Grey Hours: Naples
There are some hours when I seem so indifferent; all things fade
To an indifferent greyness, like that grey of the sky;
Always at evening-ends, on grey days; and I know not why,
But life, and art, and love, and death, are the shade of a shade.
Then, in those hours, I hear old voices murmur aloud,
And memory forgoes desire, too weary at heart for regret;
Dreams come with beckoning fingers, and I forget to forget;
The world as a cloud drifts by, or I drift by as a cloud.
poem by Arthur Symons
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Train Song
I try to recall what it was you said to me just then
But this train keeps on rocking me back to sleep
And i fear come tomorrow i won't even remember your name
I'd make myself remember
Make myself recall
But these promises and these vows i made you now
Seem to have no voice at all
The color of the canyons
When first it was said i love you
But these colors and these canyons
Now all seem silly and small
I don't understand at all
How these colors in my memory just fade
Into such a pale shade of grey
And cold rails remind me of your cold feet
And my eyes expect to see you behind every door
But when i shut my eyes
I can't even recall what it is that you wore
My god was that only yesterday
I can't even remember your face
I feel so far away
I make myself remember
Make myself recall
But these promises and these vows i made you now
Seem to have no voice at all
The color of the canyons
When first it was said i love you
But these colors and these canyons
Now all seem silly and small
I don't understand at all
How these colors in my memory just fade away
Into such a pale shade of grey
*i say to myself my god i used to love him
I wanted to share with him my womb and my world
But now i stare at him as though through a glass wall
I say i used to love him but now i feel nothing for him at all
My god how could this be
Won't you please explain this to me
Now sleep sings to me in a sweet and urgent voice
And i fear that i have no choice but to forget these flowers
These daisies you gave me, the offerings you made me
The vows that we swore by, swearing we'd be together
Always and forever, the children we named and now we'll never have
And i know i'm supposed to meet you
I don't even think i'll remember your name tomorrow
I make myself remember
Make myself recall
But these promises and these vows i made you now
Seem to have no voice at all
The color of the canyons
When first it was said i love you
But these colors and these canyons
Now all seem silly and small
I don't understand at all
How these colors in my memory just fade away
Into such a pale shade of grey
song performed by by Jewel
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Saint Cloud
Soft spread the southern sumer night
Her veil of darksome blue;
Ten thousand stars combined to light
The terrace of Saint Cloud.
The evening breezes gently sigh'd,
Like breath of lover true,
Bewailing the deserted pride
And wreck of sweet Saint Cloud.
The drum's deep roll was heard afar,
The bugle wildly blew
Good-night to Hulan and Hussar
That garrison Saint Cloud.
The startled Naiads from the shade
With broken urns withdrew
And silenced was that proud cascade,
The glory of Saint Cloud.
We sate upon its steps of stone,
Nor could its silence rue
When waked, to music of our own,
The echoes of Saint Cloud.
Slow Seine might hear each lovely note
Fall light as summer dew
While through the moonless air they float
Prolong'd from fair Saint Cloud.
And sure a melody more sweet
His waters never knew,
Though music's self was wont to meet
With Princes at Saint Cloud.
Nor then, with more delighted ear,
The circle round her drew,
Than ours, when gather'd round to hear
Our songstress at Saint Cloud.
Few happy hours poor mortals pass-—
Then give those hours their due,
And rank among the foremost class
Our evenings at Saint Cloud.
poem by Sir Walter Scott
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Let Me Not Forget
If it is not my portion to meet thee in this life
then let me ever feel that I have missed thy sight
---let me not forget for a moment,
let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams
and in my wakeful hours.
As my days pass in the crowded market of this world
and my hands grow full with the daily profits,
let me ever feel that I have gained nothing
---let me not forget for a moment,
let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams
and in my wakeful hours.
When I sit by the roadside, tired and panting,
when I spread my bed low in the dust,
let me ever feel that the long journey is still before me
---let me not forget a moment,
let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams
and in my wakeful hours.
When my rooms have been decked out and the flutes sound
and the laughter there is loud,
let me ever feel that I have not invited thee to my house
---let me not forget for a moment,
let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams
and in my wakeful hours
poem by Rabindranath Tagore
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The Final Painting
The white cloud passed over the land
there is sea always round the land
the sky is blue always above the cloud
the cloud in the blue continues to move
- nothing is limited by the canvas or frame -
the white cloud can be pictured like any
other clouds or like a fist of wool
or a white fur rose
The white cloud passes a shadow across
the landscape and so there is a passing greyness
The grey and the white both envelop
the watcher until he too is drawn into the picture
It is all a journey from a room through a door
down stairs and out into the street
The cloud could possess the house
The watchers have a mutual confidence
with the approaching string of white clouds
It is beyond spoken words what they are
silently mouthing to the sky
There was no mystery in this - only the firm
outline of people in overcoats on a hillside
and the line of clouds above them
The sky is blue The cloud white with touches
of grey - the rest - the landscape below -
can be left to the imagination
The whole painting quietly dissolved itself
into its surrounding clouds
poem by Lee Harwood
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April
April is a cruel time
Even though the sun may shine
And world looks in the shade as it slowly comes away
Still falls the april rain
And the valleys filled with pain
And you cant tell me quite why
As I look up to the grey sky
Where it should be blue
Grey sky where I should see you
Ask why, why it should be so
Ill cry, say that I dont know
Maybe once in a while Ill forget and Ill smile
But then the feeling comes again of an april without end
Of an april lonely as they come
In the dark of my mind I can see all too fine
But there is nothing to be done when I just cant feel the sun
And the springtimes the season of the night
Grey sky where it should be blue
Grey sky where I should see you
Ask why, why it should be so
Ill cry, say that I dont know
I dont know
song performed by by Deep Purple
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You Will Forget Me
You will forget me. The years are so tender,
They bind up the wounds which we think are so deep,
This dream of our youth will fade out as the splendour
Fades from the skies when the sun sinks to sleep,
The cloud of forgetfulness, over and over
Will banish the last rosy colours away,
And the fingers of time will weave garlands to cover
The scar which you think is a life-mark today.
You will forget me. The one boon you covet
Now above all things will soon. seem no prize,
And the heart, which you hold not in keeping to prove it
True or untrue, will lose worth in your eyes.
The one drop to-day, that you deem only wanting
To fill your life-cup to the brim, soon will seem
But a valueless mite; and the ghost that is haunting
The aisles of your heart will pass out with the dream.
You will forget me, will thank me for saying
The words which you think are so pointed with pain.
Time loves a new lay, and the dirge he is playing
Will change for you soon to a livelier strain.
I shall pass from your life, I shall pass out forever,
And these hours we have spent will be sunk in the past.
Youth buries its dead, grief kills seldom or never
And forgetfulness covers all sorrows at last.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Like memory
Love me like a memory
Never let me go
Hold me close forever
Let those feelings flow
Don’t look back at yesterday
You will only find the past
Love me in the here and now
We will truly make it last
Love me like a memory
I will love you from the heart
A love that’s ever lasting
Existing from the start
Love me like each heartfelt smile
That you will send my way
Love me more tomorrow
Precious moments in our day
Love me like a memory
Never with regret
The world looks bright and cheery
This heart will not forget
I promise that I will love you
Every moment of each day
A memory ongoing
It will not fade away
Love me like a heartbeat
A pulse that never ends
Arms wrapped around each other
Where we started out as friends
Love me like a memory
Our future appears so bright
I will love you every moment
Every day and every night
poem by William Lindenmuth
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Death Of A Teacher
Thirteen years older
but hardly wiser
I return to my past
to find you
six months dead.
Still alive in this head
is memory of you
and our infamous
three days and nights
sustaining on
sunflowerseeds
and moonshine.
as we pissed the
hours & days
away
till I gave up
and went home
alone
to the biggest
hangovers ever.
You died
an alcoholic at
fourtyfive, and I
wonder at the
caurse of your
excessive
indifferent
recklessness.
Did someone
break your heart,
or did you just
loose faith in life
or yourself?
We toasted to
Night & Day
Black & White
Life & Death
Us & Them
This ones to
You.
poem by Carsten Thomsen
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Cloud 8
(tony martin/byron hill)
I hear em laughing on cloud 9
In a world so happy just above mine
No ones leaving like you left me
They got each other got all they need, but
Here on cloud 8
A lotta nothings going on
Im just drifting day to day
Out here on my own
While up on cloud 9
I hear em party all the time
They dont hear my heart break
Down here on cloud 8
We almost made it up where they are
But losing your love
Brought me down hard
Now Im just hanging, just getting by
Where expectations arent that high, but
Here on cloud 8
A lotta nothings going on
Im just drifting day to day
Out here on my own
While up on cloud 9
I hear em party all the time
They dont hear my heart break
Down here on cloud 8
While up on cloud 9
I hear em party all the time
They dont hear my heart break
Down here on cloud 8
They dont hear my heart break
Down here on cloud 8
song performed by by John Michael Montgomery
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When Evening Shadows Fall
When evening shadows fall,
She hangs her cares away
Like empty garments on the wall
That hides her from the day;
And while old memories throng,
And vanished voices call,
She lifts her grateful heart in song
When evening shadows fall.
Her weary hands forget
The burdens of the day.
The weight of sorrow and regret
In music rolls away;
And from the day's dull tomb,
That holds her in its thrall,
Her soul springs up in lily bloom
When evening shadows fall.
O weary heart and hand,
Go bravely to the strife--
No victory is half so grand
As that which conquers life!
One day shall yet be thine--
The day that waits for all
Whose prayerful eyes are things divine
When evening shadows fall.
poem by James Whitcomb Riley
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Life of a Cloud
Warming thermals whisper as they rise,
To tell us they are soon to bring to view
In cooler air aloft before your eyes:
A gentle wisp to counterpoint the blue.
Powder puffs emerge to grant her grace
That further bloom as would for stately tree, and
Yield a sight that calls for our embrace:
Another cloud anew above the lea.
Cruising forth, she yearns for ageless life.
O how her hopes will soon be dashed in vain,
For up there in the cold she courts her strife,
To fade away as drops of closing rain.
Scant and lacy speak her living span,
And fair among us could be brought to mourn,
But she was there to populate her clan:
From fallen tears, new daughters will be born.
Copyright © Mark R slaughter 2010
A cloudy sky
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sky cloud sky cloud sky cloud sky
sky cloud sky cloud sky cloud sky
sky cloud sky cloud sky cloud sky
sky cloud sky cloud sky cloud sky
sky cloud sky cloud sky cloud sky
sky cloud sky cloud sky cloud sky
sky cloud sky cloud sky cloud sky
poem by Mark R Slaughter
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An Old Colonist's Reverie
Dustily over the highway pipes the loud nor'-wester at morn,
Wind and the rising sun, and waving tussock and corn;
It brings to me days gone by when first in my ears it rang,
The wind is the voice of my home, and I think of the songs it sang
When, fresh from the desk and ledger, I crossed the long leagues of sea
'The old worn world is gone and the new bright world is free.'
The wide, wild pastures of old are fading and passing away,
All over the plain are the homes of the men who have come to stay
I sigh for the good old days in the station whare again;
But the good new days are better
I would not be heard to complain;
It is only the wind that cries with tears in its voice to me
Of the dead men low in the mould who came with me over the sea.
Some of them down in the city under the marble are laid,
Some on the bare hillside in the mound by the lone tree shade,
And some in the forest deeps of the west in their silence lie,
With the dark pine curtain above shutting out the blue of the sky.
And many have passed from my sight, whither I never shall know,
Swept away in the rushing river or caught in the mountain snow;
All the old hands are gone who came with me over the sea,
But the land that we made our own is the same bright land to me.
There are dreams in the gold of the kowhai, and when ratas are breaking in bloom
I can hear the rich murmur of voices in the deeps of the fern-shadowed gloom.
Old memory may bring me her treasures from the land of the blossoms of May,
But to me the hill daisies are dearer and the gorse on the river bed grey;
While the mists on the high hilltops curling, the dawn-haunted
haze of the sea,
To my fancy are bridal veils lifting from the face of the land of the free.
The speargrass and cabbage trees yonder, the honey-belled flax in its bloom,
The dark of the bush on the sidings, the snow-crested mountains that loom
Golden and grey in the sunlight, far up in the cloud-fringed blue,
Are the threads with old memory weaving and the line of my life
running through;
And the wind of the morning calling has ever a song for me
Of hope for the land of the dawning in the golden years to be.
poem by David McKee Wright
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I Forget
All my doctors and friends
Have concocted these theories
Weary of seeing me day after day
On the edge of my bed
Leery of living
My laughter on hold
My sadness on stay
And it's been this way for quite a while
Yes, I forget how to smile
I'd like to rely on my old game and yet
Even that I forget
It's not there, I regret
Couldn't get up today
I pretended a fever
Any excuse but the truth will do
I don't lie very well
No I'm not a deceiver
But I can't bring myself to admit that I'm blue
And it's been this way
For quite a while
Yes, I forget how to smile
I'd like to rely on my old game and yet
Even that I forget
It's not there, I regret
The clock and the calendar
Both an assault
Time goes so slow
It must be my fault
I act like I'm okay
When I'm not okay at all
I forget what to do
I forget what it all means
Don't remember if love ever really felt good
I forget to be here
And not in-between
I'd put on a good show
If only I could
And it's been this way for quite a while
Yes, I forget how to smile
I'd like to rely on my old game and yet
Even that I forget
It's not there, I regret
I forget
song performed by by Carly Simon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Solatium
Comes the broken flower -
Comes the cheated maid -
Though the tempest lower,
Rain and cloud will fade!
Take, O maid, these posies:
Though thy beauty rare
Shame the blushing roses,
They are passing fair!
Wear the flowers till they fade;
Happy be thy life, O maid!
O'er the season vernal,
Time may cast a shade;
Sunshine, if eternal,
Makes the roses fade:
Time may do his duty;
Let the thief alone -
Winter hath a beauty
That is all his own.
Fairest days are sun and shade:
Happy be thy life, O maid!
poem by William Schwenck Gilbert
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An Old Colonist's Reverie
Dustily over the highway pipes the loud nor'-wester at morn,
Wind and the rising sun, and waving tussock and corn;
It brings to me days gone by when first in my ears it rang,
The wind is the voice of my home, and I think of the songs it sang
When, fresh from the desk and ledger, I crossed the long leagues of sea --
"The old worn world is gone and the new bright world is free."
The wide, wild pastures of old are fading and passing away,
All over the plain are the homes of the men who have come to stay --
I sigh for the good old days in the station whare again;
But the good new days are better -- I would not be heard to complain;
It is only the wind that cries with tears in its voice to me
Of the dead men low in the mould who came with me over the sea.
Some of them down in the city under the marble are laid,
Some on the bare hillside in the mound by the lone tree shade,
And some in the forest deeps of the west in their silence lie,
With the dark pine curtain above shutting out the blue of the sky.
And many have passed from my sight, whither I never shall know,
Swept away in the rushing river or caught in the mountain snow;
All the old hands are gone who came with me over the sea,
But the land that we made our own is the same bright land to me.
There are dreams in the gold of the kowhai, and when ratas are breaking
in bloom
I can hear the rich murmur of voices in the deeps of the fern-shadowed gloom.
Old memory may bring me her treasures from the land of the blossoms of May,
But to me the hill daisies are dearer and the gorse on the river bed grey;
While the mists on the high hilltops curling, the dawn-haunted
haze of the sea,
To my fancy are bridal veils lifting from the face of the land of the free.
The speargrass and cabbage trees yonder, the honey-belled flax in its bloom,
The dark of the bush on the sidings, the snow-crested mountains that loom
Golden and grey in the sunlight, far up in the cloud-fringed blue,
Are the threads with old memory weaving and the line of my life
running through;
And the wind of the morning calling has ever a song for me
Of hope for the land of the dawning in the golden years to be.
poem by David McKee Wright
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Iceland First Seen
Lo from our loitering ship a new land at last to be seen;
Toothed rocks down the side of the firth on the east guard a weary wide lea,
And black slope the hillsides above, striped adown with their desolate green:
And a peak rises up on the west from the meeting of cloud and of sea,
Foursquare from base unto point like the building of Gods that have been,
The last of that waste of the mountains all cloud-wreathed and snow-flecked and grey,
And bright with the dawn that began just now at the ending of day.
Ah! what came we forth for to see that our hearts are so hot with desire?
Is it enough for our rest, the sight of this desolate strand,
And the mountain-waste voiceless as death but for winds that may sleep not nor tire?
Why do we long to wend forth through the length and breadth of a land,
Dreadful with grinding of ice, and record of scarce hidden fire,
But that there 'mid the grey grassy dales sore scarred by the ruining streams
Lives the tale of the Northland of old and the undying glory of dreams?
O land, as some cave by the sea where the treasures of old have been laid,
The sword it may be of a king whose name was the turning of fight;
Or the staff of some wise of the world that many things made and unmade,
Or the ring of a woman maybe whose woe is grown wealth and delight.
No wheat and no wine grows above it, no orchard for blossom and shade;
The few ships that sail by its blackness but deem it the mouth of a grave;
Yet sure when the world shall awaken, this too shall be mighty to save.
Or rather, O land, if a marvel it seemeth that men ever sought
Thy wastes for a field and a garden fulfilled of all wonder and doubt,
And feasted amidst of the winter when the fight of the year had been fought,
Whose plunder all gathered together was little to babble about;
Cry aloud from thy wastes, O thou land, "Not for this nor for that was I wrought.
Amid waning of realms and of riches and death of things worshipped and sure,
I abide here the spouse of a God, and I made and I make and endure."
O Queen of the grief without knowledge, of the courage that may not avail,
Of the longing that may not attain, of the love that shall never forget,
More joy than the gladness of laughter thy voice hath amidst of its wail:
More hope than of pleasure fulfilled amidst of thy blindness is set;
More glorious than gaining of all thine unfaltering hand that shall fail:
For what is the mark on thy brow but the brand that thy Brynhild doth bear?
Love once, and loved and undone by a love that no ages outwear.
Ah! when thy Balder comes back, and bears from the heart of the Sun
Peace and the healing of pain, and the wisdom that waiteth no more;
And the lilies are laid on thy brow 'mid the crown of the deeds thou hast done;
And the roses spring up by thy feet that the rocks of the wilderness wore:
Ah! when thy Balder comes back and we gather the gains he hath won,
Shall we not linger a little to talk of thy sweetness of old,
Yea, turn back awhile to thy travail whence the Gods stood aloof to behold?
poem by William Morris
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To The Flower Upon The Hill
O lonely flower, do not despair.
Though Sun has beat down on you,
all will be okay.
Send forth your roots, please,
and search for a drink,
because the Cloud shall see your efforts
and open the Celestial Ocean.
Worry not, little one, for soon you shall grow.
All of your woes will fade away.
O arrogant one, humble yourself!
Do not let the Inane Weed dry you in his drought.
Face toward the Shade of the Tree and seek refuge
from the sands around you.
Let not the Spider spin his webs on you.
Let the Starlight flood you forever.
Don't give in to the Aphids of treason.
Remember the Eyes that love you.
Forget not the Butterflies refreshed by you.
Let the Shadow of your Comet fade to nil.
Please do not let your ethereal petals fall.
Thrive in the Sea of Rains.
Remember the Cloud, the Tree looking after you in your youth.
Grow taller than the First Trees,
grows stronger than the Magnetars!
poem by Soren Valentine
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Waiting
A YOUNG fair girl among her flowers,
And, as to blossoms born in May,
Her morrows still brought sunnier hours
Than made up sunny yesterday.
She did but wait: 'Hope is so sweet;
We love so well, my love and I;
The hours that come, the hours that fleet,
End all in one glad by and by.'
A pale worn woman, scarcely sad,
But tired, like those who, too long pent,
Forget the joy they have not had
Of the free winds, and droop content.
She did but wait: 'Ah, no, to me
The silent hope is never dead;
What are the days that are to be
But part of the dear days long fled?'
He came: 'The wealth we need is mine;
And now?' 'Alas!' she said, 'in vain.
The love I love is noway thine,
I wait who never comes again.
Oh, for my lover of old days,
We two from all the world apart!
I must go lone on earth's bleak ways,
He is not now save in my heart.'
He wed another. She, alone,
Patient and weary, toiled for bread.
And bygone still was never gone,
The silent hope was never dead.
She did but wait: 'I have the past;
The new days live the old days o'er,
And there abides until the last
The by and by that was before.'
poem by Augusta Davies Webster
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In order to understand life it is not only necessary not to be indifferent to men, but not to be indifferent to flocks, to trees. One should be indifferent to nothing.
quote by Remy de Gourmont
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Grey World
Grey nights in the wind,
And the grey-faced dead.
Grey hairs in my head,
And grey eyes in my mind.
Grey mists in the morn,
And grey waves that rave,
Grey mould on my grave,
And grey eyes forlorn.
Grey clouds in the sky,
And the grey world asleep,
Grey ghosts that sigh,
And grey eyes that weep.
poem by Leon Gellert
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