On Browning’s Sordello
“SORDELLO'S story,” the Sphinx yawned and said,
“Who would has heard.” Is that enough? Who could,
'Twere not amiss to add, has understood:
Who understood perhaps has profited.
For my part I could tell a tale instead
Of one who, dreaming of no likelihood
Even that the “Book” was going to end for good,
Turned the last page, and lo the book was read.
poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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It's All Understood
Everyone laughed at her joke
As if they'd never even heard it before
And maybe they were truly amused
But every word that she spoke was a bore
And maybe it's because they had seen
The previews on the TV screen
Well this part is good and that's well understood
So you should laugh if you know what I mean
But it's all relative
Even if you don't understand
Well it's all understood
Especially when you don't understand
Then it's all just because
Even if we don't understand
Then lets all just believe
Everyone knows what went down
Because the news was spread all over town
And fact is only what you believe
And fact and fiction work as a team
It's almost always fiction in the end
That content begins to bend
When context is never the same
And it's all relative
Even if we don't understand
And it's all understood
Especially when we don't understand
Then it's all just because
Even if we don't understand
Then lets all just believe
I was reading a book
Or maybe it was a magazine
Suggestions on where to place faith
Suggestions on what to believe
But I read somewhere
That you've got to beware
You can't believe anything you read
But the good Book is good
And it's all understood
So don't even question
If you know what I mean
But it's all relative
Even if you don't understand
Well it's all understood
Especially when you don't understand
And it's all just because
Even if we don't understand
Then lets all just believe
But there you go once again
You missed the point and then you point
Your fingers at me
And say that I said not to believe
I believe
I guess
I guess it's all relative
song performed by by Jack Johnson from Brushfire Fairytales

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Procrastination At 6 A.m.
the book is open
page 103 is waiting
to be read and to be
understood yet
you are into something
more that pleases your hands
it is the action now and not
the contemplation
it is the moving on with
what the lips shall utter
to make you understand what
is losing and what is regaining
what is it to decompose and
retake the composure
you do not read between the
lines of a fusing self
the book closes upon itself
showing you the face of the
trunk, solid, stoic, and
bland.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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I read a book
I read a book
Not to enhance my looks
I read a book
Maybe to avoid being a crook
I read a book
Not just to learn how to cook
I read a book
To ascertain how to defend my rights
Not just to acquire knowledge
Reading a book I pledge,
Is one of the roads to the light
I read a book
To understand how a kings territory
Is defended with pieces such as the rook
I read a book
So there will be no questions asked
When I count correctly what you took
I read a book
So that I play not ignorant
Now on life I’ve a different outlook
I read a book
So if I come up with all the right answers
I will know for sure it is not merely a fluke
Copyright 2006 - Sylvia Chidi
poem by Sylvia Chidi

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Listen, Learn, Read On
In ages past when spells were cast
In a time of men in steel
When a man was taught no special thing
It was all done by feel
So listen, so learn, so read on
You gotta turn the page, read the book of taliesyn
Hear the song of lovely joan
Her sound so sweet and clear
In the courtroom of the king
Among children and the peers
So listen, so learn, so read on
You gotta turn the page, read the book of taliesyn
now hear ye the words of taliesyn,
On the foaming beach of the ocean,
In the day of trouble,
I shall be of more service to thee
Than three hundred salmon...
The hare he bounds across the page
Past castles white and fair
Past dreaming chessmen on their boards
With a fools mate as a snare
So listen, so learn, so read on
You gotta turn the page, read the book of taliesyn
three times I have been born
I know this from meditation...
The bird he flies the distance
From pages two to six
Past minstrels in their boxes
To the waters of the styx
So listen, so learn, so read on
You gotta turn the page, read the book of taliesyn
Dont take the pictures lightly
Listen to their sound
For from their coloured feeling
Experience is found
So listen, so learn, so read on
You gotta turn the page, read the book of taliesyn
all the sciences of the world are collected in my breast,
For I know what has been, what is now,
And what hereafter will occur...
song performed by by Deep Purple

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Music Is Philosophy
MUSIC IS PHILOSOPHY
Music is philosophy that's understood
without a need to read the book.
While Judaism is the Jews' religion, statehood
won't fully let them off the hook.
John Maseng in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal,5/25-31, writes about a production of Osvaldo Golijov's "Ainadamar, " an opera that tells the story of Garcia Lorca's life, and his death at the hand of the Falangists, through the eyes of his mistress, the actress Margarita Xirgu. The opera is being produced by the Long Beach Opera Company. Golijov told Maseng:
Jewish music is a point of view, it's a way of experiencing the world that at is translated into the music…There is something about music that transcends any need for explanation. I always feel that music is a sort of philosophy that's understood without a need to read the book. Not all music is universal, but all good music is universal."
5/28/12 #10336
poem by Gershon Hepner

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Those Words
What made you think about that, don’t ruin your life
You need to focus on the things always changing
Always moving
Banished to the back of my mind,
Best philosophy I’ve heard in my life
Those words are part
Of a book I’ve never read
A song I’ve never sung
A dream I’ve never dreamed
Part of a cloud I’ve never been to
Sailin’ on cloud nine
And I wish, I wish it was mine
There’s a girl
Miss Original Girl
She turns gray into silver
I don’t know why you can hate her
She doesn’t realize what it must be like to be me
Take her away from the best things that I am dreaming
About
But I guess those words are part
Of a book I’ve never read
A song I’ve never sung
A dream I’ve never dreamed
Part of that cloud I’ve never been to
Sailin’ on cloud nine
And I wish, I wish it was mine
I wish it was forever mine
The best day on my lips tastes like candy
When you taste it it’s a whole different story
People don’t live like this, they
Don’t all sound the same
No one’s ever worried about my hiding, where I might be
And I’m wishing
Still wishing
Still dreaming but
I have hoped, I have failed
I have dreamed, I have fallen
I have wished, I have retreated
I have tried, I have collided
I have done it, I have succeeded
But I still know through this fog
I know those words are part
Of a book I’ve never read
Never even looked at
A song I’ve never sung for you
A dream I’ve never dreamed
At least in this lifetime
Part of that same cloud I’ve never been to
Ever in my life
Now I’m sailin’ on cloud nine
And I think back to the time
When I wished, I wished, I dreamed that it was mine
And now it is forever mine
The Storyteller's Word
In a decent book, I can lose myself,
For, at least, a good couple of hours.
A well told story, for young or old,
My mind will quite hungrily devour.
I’ve always loved a real page turner:
A story, which, is totally compelling.
Sometimes, there’s a story, true or invented,
Which, simply, deserves, and needs telling.
Sometimes, a person in a book,
To me, can feel like a true friend;
You share their life and adventures,
And feel rather sad, when it all ends.
A story can stir up a mixture of emotions:
I’ve cried tears, and gasped with surprise.
I’ve found myself completely captivated,
As a story unfolds before my very eyes.
A good story, has the ability to transport you,
To different places, and to different times.
You just never know where you may end up,
When you sit and read those immortal lines.
Stories should never be kept locked away:
With others, they should be readily shared.
There is no other past-time, known to man,
With which, reading a book, can quite compare.
Whether a story is based on a person’s life,
Or whether, it has been quite purely invented,
A story can make such an impact upon you,
That, forever, in your memory, it is cemented.
I’ve always adored a really well written story,
Regardless of, by whom, or when, it was written.
Snuggled up, with a book held in your hands,
It is so easy, to become completely smitten.
A story can make you lose all track of time,
When, in a book, you are totally immersed.
I love reading a story, and really drinking it in;
For reading books, I’ve developed a real thirst.
There are many stories, the world over,
Which, are still waiting to be heard.
Nothing on earth, is quite so powerful,
As the power of the storyteller’s word.
poem by Angela Wybrow

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The End Of The Chapter
Ah, yes, the chapter ends to-day;
We even lay the book away;
But oh, how sweet the moments sped
Before the final page was read!
We tried to read between the lines
The Author's deep-concealed designs;
But scant reward such search secures;
You saw my heart and I saw yours.
The Master,--He who penned the page
And bade us read it,--He is sage:
And what he orders, you and I
Can but obey, nor question why.
We read together and forgot
The world about us. Time was not.
Unheeded and unfelt, it fled.
We read and hardly knew we read.
Until beneath a sadder sun,
We came to know the book was done.
Then, as our minds were but new lit,
It dawned upon us what was writ;
And we were startled. In our eyes,
Looked forth the light of great surprise.
Then as a deep-toned tocsin tolls,
A voice spoke forth: 'Behold your souls!'
I do, I do. I cannot look
Into your eyes: so close the book.
But brought it grief or brought it bliss,
No other page shall read like this!
poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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By passing me you pass yourself
I seek you; you skip me.
I pursue; you elude.
I am page one and you page two,
Our eyes not meeting each other.
Pride in your lips; wet are my eyes.
Having understood of you,
I have understood that
You aren’t yet understood.
Having gone past me,
You have gone past yourself.
06.11.2006
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

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The Black Widow Bride
He looked into her eyes, and asked her why she was so engrossed in the book, instead of him.
The young bride, upon her wedding bed replied, 'to read a book, is to step into a world beyond the ordinary.
You open a world where imagination, fantasy, and even pain become one with you.
You can feel as though you are a part of the world in which you have magically fallen into.
It has accepted, and possessed you in every way.
Your mind can take you anyplace, anywhere, at anytime.
You can become one with the Medieval period, romantic fantasy, comical adventure, and total horrific terror.
So grab a book, and live the life you've only now have been dreaming about. She looked at her now sleeping husband, turned the cover of her book over, and thought about how much he looked like the dashing man on the cover of her romantic adventure book.
She kissed him upon his forehead, and plunged the knife deep into his flesh.
poem by Velmar Pewee Hale Johnson

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Read Me Like a Book
You wish to read me like a book?
Good.
You will find each piece to fit.
Very little of it will be misunderstood.
I am not a one dimensional quick read at all.
I lay it on the line.
You will find I wont allow anyone,
To sit and pick my mind.
I don't waste that kind of time.
Unless,
Of course...
You are divorced from that as well?
Hmmm...
You wish to read me like a book?
Good.
You have no idea how much I wish,
To get you hooked.
Craving to salivate.
Drooling!
Each chapter has been crafted,
With some sentiment and pain.
You will find some sorrow and regret.
And some expression of heartache left.
You will discover blemishes and flaws,
With attempts to have them corrected.
Notice I admit imperfection...
With self reflection I don't neglect.
Or regret it is you I wish to impress.
No games of tit for tat I play.
I say what I mean.
Not what you wish to hear me say.
And none of it is from mumbled lips.
I want each word read you 'read' conveyed!
I want what I say in your mind to stay.
You wish to read me like a book?
Good.
But you will never comprehend...
How long this process took.
Flip through each page,
As if you seek definition.
You will discover I am not perfect.
But freed by a peace...
To solict your complete and total admission.
Willing to show you mended scars.
You wish to read me like a book?
Good.
I knew you were coming!
That's why it is already open.
Take your time.
I want you to find me an easy read.
Hopefully to collaborate on new chapters.
Together,
You and me.
You wish to read me like a book?
Good.
Take me with your eyes.
Hold me in your hands.
And bring me close to your heart!
There we are.
Touching!
That's how I like it.
Do you?
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

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(Inspiration Poem) A Book Never Read
Living by the fire
Living to admire
Living down to the wire
Still the wheels don't turn
I think it is because I want it
Urn for it
The beautiful almighty
I will not pray
Not as long as I live day by day
How much does my soul really weigh?
How many sins can be forgiven?
The fog will eventually choke you out
Whine and pout all you want
It won't make a dent in my steel cage
Because it was built from pure rage
If Its not a stage
What am I going through?
Its just another page of my book never read
Words as stale as the food I was fed
Maybe it was how many times I have been dropped on my head
I plead guilty to an unwritten destiny
I lied to myself in a mirror straight to my very own face
Memories erased
It's just another page of my book never read
I can't be lead astray
Especially if I'm willing
It's not much different then stealing
A moral yeng then yang
A oh so perfect harmony
Keeping things on a even keel
Always questioning what is real
It's just another page of my book never read
I hold on so tight to my comfy bed
Such a beautiful night
The stars are glistening oh so bright
I turn off the lights
Sleep for the dreams of a tomorrow
We are all living on borrowed time
So I ask again where's mine?
A question that continues to go unanswered
Draw your own conclusion
It's another one of the deep dark mysterious illusions
It's just another page of my book never read
It's as if every word has never been said
It's just another page of my tattered and torn book that will be never read
poem by Ace Of Black Hearts

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The Love Sonnets Of Proteus. Part IV: Vita Nova: CXIII
TO ONE WITH HIS SONNETS
This is the book. For evil and for good,
What my life was in it is written plain.
These are no dreams, but things of flesh and blood,
The past that lived and shall not live again.
This is the book. I dare not bid you read.
Too much of my poor soul you would unlock.
Your own soul, if it tender were, might bleed.
I could not bear that you should only mock.
My life lies here. And yet in vain, dear heart,
The tale is told. One page it yearns to see,
One play where one best actor should find part.
But that, alas for love! shall never be.
Yet, if a sign you seek between these lines,
One hidden lies for you, a sign of signs.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

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On A Young Poetess’s Grave
UNDER her gentle seeing,
In her delicate little hand,
They placed the Book of Being,
To read and understand.
The Book was mighty and olden,
Yea, worn and eaten with age;
Though the letters look’d great and golden,
She could not read a page.
The letters flutter’d before her,
And all look’d sweetly wild:
Death saw her, and bent o’er her,
As she pouted her lips and smil’d.
And weary a little with tracing
The Book, she look’d aside,
And lightly smiling, and placing
A Flower in its leaves, she died.
She died, but her sweetness fled not,
As fly the things of power,—
For the Book wherein she read not
Is the sweeter for the Flower.
poem by William Cosmo Monkhouse

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Read A Book
Und wenn ich einen Wunsch frei htte
Ich wnschte wrden wir verstehen
Alle Schatten hinter uns lassen
nur weies Licht vor uns zu sehen
No hate, no fight hearts killing
I wish no trouble anymore
There's nothing more to tell about
There's nothing left to be decided
Just read a book
So, read a book about love (reaching love)
Read a book, read a book about love
Und wenn du einen Wunsch frei httest
Ich wnschte, wrdest du verstehen
Nur weies Licht vor uns zu sehen
And if we just should be together
oh, we could feel so warm an tight
All we need is only two of us
to show the world that we've decided to
read a book
to read a book about love (reaching love) ...
Take a look about yesterday
I guess you know
that you're here to stay
Read a book, ...
Read a book, read a book about love (rep many times)
Read a book, ... (rep till fade)
song performed by by Falco

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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
When liberty valance came to town
The women folk would hide
Theyd hide
When liberty valance walked around
The men would step aside
Because the point of a gun
Was the only law that liberty understood
When it came to shooting
Straight and fast
He was mighty good
From out of the east a stranger came
A law book in his hand
A man the kind of man
The west would need to ease a troubled land
Because the point of a gun
Was the only law that liberty understood
When it came to shooting
Straight and fast
He was mighty good
Many a man would face his gun
And many a man would fall
The man who shot liberty valance
He shot liberty valance
He was the bravest of them all
Now the love of a woman can make a man
Stay on when he should go
Stay on
Just trying to build a peaceful life
Where love is free to go
But the point of a gun
Was the only law that liberty understood
When it came to shooting
Straight and fast
He was mighty good
Alone and afraid she prayed that hed
Return that fateful night
That night
When nothing she said could keep her man
From going out to fight
But the point of a gun
Was the only law that liberty understood
When the final showdown came to pass
A law book was no good
Out in the sun two shots rang out
The shots made liberty fall
The man who shot liberty valance
He shot liberty valance
He was the bravest of them all
song performed by by James Taylor

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Fall In Line
Ive read the book
Ive been the film
Ive heard the song
Now I live the life
You come from across the sea
And you shudder when you listen to me
But I know Im all right
Because I am american
I know my sitcoms
I stay informed
They smile at me on my tv
They make me feel so good
Theyd come to me if they only could
Ive read the book
song performed by by Information Society

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The Hands Of A Teacher
Optimism,
Optimism perished from the face of my earth
And then you came along, came along and swept me away,
She kissed me, as we stood on the edge,
The night made the day as we made for the bridge
It started raining hard, and I saw we may live to regret
No I never really understood
No I never really understood why,
Because Ive never been given,
Never been given two tries,
No I never really understood,
Understood why...
Pessimism,
Pessimism perished from the face of my earth,
And then you came along, came along and swept me away,
Did you miss me? did you miss me as we walked
Through the pain, attached the chain so you could
See me again
I started asking myself, did I teach you right?
No I never really understood
No I never really understood why,
Because Ive never been given,
Never been given two tries,
No I never really understood,
Understood why...
Understood why...
You came to me, you broke the bonds,
You set me free
And then the love that you promised me
Came a tumblin tumblin tumblin down
Into my hands...
No I never really understood
No I never really understood why,
Because Ive never been given,
Never been given two tries,
No I never really understood,
Understood why...
So teacher teach me...
song performed by by Live

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Lost In A Book
SHHH!
don't bother me
I'm lost in a book
mixed up with
the complicated plots
and outrageous characters
when i'm lost in a book
I don't have to think
about my life
I'll get stuck in
a fantasy world
and never
have to come back
home again
one book
after another
I read, read, read
different places
different people
a new world
I start fresh
each time
I open up a new book
when i'm lost in a book
I am safe
no one can hurt me
I'm happy
when I'm lost
in a book
poem by Annie Janine

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The one book necessary to be understood by a divine, is the Bible; any others are to be read, chiefly, in order to understand that.
quote by Francis Lockier

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