The Vain Spell
THE house sleeps dark and the moon wakes white,
The fields are alight with dew;
'Oh, will you not come to me, Love, to-night?
I have waited the whole night through,
For I knew,
O Heart of my heart, I knew by my heart,
That the night of all nights is this,
When elm shall crack and lead shall part,
When moulds shall sunder and shot bolts start
To let you through to my kiss.'
So spake she alone in the lonely house.
She had wrapped her round with the spell,
She called the call, she vowed the vow,
And the heart she had pledged knew well
That this was the night, the only night,
When the moulds might be wrenched apart,
When the living and dead, in the dead of the night,
Might clasp once more, in the grave's despite,
For the price of a living heart.
But out in the grave the corpse lay white
And the grave clothes were wet with dew;
'Oh, will you not come to me, Love, to-night,
I have waited the whole night through,
For I knew
That I dared not leave my grave for an hour
Since the hour of all hours is near,
When you shall come to the hollow bower,
In a cast of the wind, in a waft of the Power,
To the heart that to-night beats here!'
The moon grows pale and the house sleeps still
Ah, God! do the dead forget?
The grave is white and the bed is chill,
But a guest may be coming yet.
But the hour has come and the hour has gone
That never will come again;
Love's only chance is over and done,
And the quick and the dead are twain, not one,
And the price has been paid in vain.
poem by Edith Nesbit
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Vain Death
ALL the first night she might not weep
But watched till morning came,
And when she slept at dawn, she heard
The dead man call her name.
The second night she watched and wept
And called on death for grace,
And when she slept before the dawn
She saw the dead man’s face.
The third night through she laughed as one
That knows her way to bliss,
And in the instant ere she slept
She felt the dead man’s kiss.
She rose and faced the flickering fire
(And oh, but she was fair!),
Like a wild witch behind her danced
The shadow of her hair.
She took her penknife from its sheath,
The tender blade she kissed,
And by the firelight’s dying leap
She bared her little wrist.
And where the vein ran large and blue
She cut, once and again,
Yet ere she swooned from life, she knew
Her death had been in vain.
For while life thundered in her ears,
Ere yet her pulse might fail,
Far off across the kindless night
She heard the dead man’s wail,
And knew her doom was one with theirs
That kill the life God gave,
And that she might not leave this earth
Her soul alive to save,
But ay must dwell within that house
As in a living grave,
While he for whom she died might ne’er
Win to her in that place,
But must for ever make his moan
Ranging in agony alone
The trackless void of space
poem by Archibald Thomas Strong
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Night After Night
by Bob Dylan
Night after night you wander the streets of my mind.
Night after night don't know what you think you will find.
No place to go, nowhere to turn,
Everything around you seems to burn, burn, burn.
And there's never any mercy night after night.
Night after night
Night after night
Night after night some new plan to blow up the world.
Night after night another old man kissing some young girl.
You look for salvation, you find none.
Just another broken heart, another barrel of a gun,
Just another stick of dynamite night after night.
Night after night
Night after night
Night after night you drop dead in your bed,
Night after night another bottle finds a head.
Night after night I think about cutting you loose
But I just can't do it, what would be the use?
So I just keep a holding you tight night after night.
Night after night
Night after night
Night after night
Night after night
song performed by by Bob Dylan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Finding
From the candles and dumb shadows,
And the house where love had died,
I stole to the vast moonlight
And the whispering life outside.
But I found no lips of comfort,
No home in the moon's light
(I, little and lone and frightened
In the unfriendly night),
And no meaning in the voices. . . .
Far over the lands and through
The dark, beyond the ocean,
I willed to think of you!
For I knew, had you been with me
I'd have known the words of night,
Found peace of heart, gone gladly
In comfort of that light.
Oh! the wind with soft beguiling
Would have stolen my thought away;
And the night, subtly smiling,
Came by the silver way;
And the moon came down and danced to me,
And her robe was white and flying;
And trees bent their heads to me
Mysteriously crying;
And dead voices wept around me;
And dead soft fingers thrilled;
And the little gods whispered. . . .
But ever
Desperately I willed;
Till all grew soft and far
And silent . . .
And suddenly
I found you white and radiant,
Sleeping quietly,
Far out through the tides of darkness.
And I there in that great light
Was alone no more, nor fearful;
For there, in the homely night,
Was no thought else that mattered,
And nothing else was true,
But the white fire of moonlight,
And a white dream of you.
poem by Rupert Brooke (1909)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Night Watchman
For the past three months,
I have been buried ina grave without a name on;
Because, nobody knew my name.
One day in the night,
A watcman heard a noise from one of the graves;
And he did what was right.
He came closer to the grave side which seems to make a sound and,
Started to dig around it to be very sure of what he was hearing;
Until finally he saw me and pulled me out!
Yes, i am now alive and back to life;
And i do have the hope to live again,
So thanks to the night watcman!
Thank you Sir,
For you've saved my life;
And the roses around my grave will always remember you.
Thank you Sir,
For being there for me;
When, many thought that i was dead and gone.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Such A Night
(words & music by lincoln chase)
It was a night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
The moon was bright oh how so bright
It was it really was such a night
The night was alight with stars above
Oo-oo when she kissed me
I had to fall in love
Oh it was a kiss oo-oo what a kiss
It was it really was such a kiss
Oh how she could kiss oh what a kiss
It was it really was such a kiss
Just the thought of her lips
Sets me afire
I reminisce and Im filled with desire
But Id gave my heart to her in sweet surrender
How well I remember, Ill always remember
Oh, what a night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
Came the dawn and my heart and her love
And the night was gone
But Ill never forget the kiss
The kiss in the moonlight
Oo-oo such a kiss, such a night
It was a night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
Came the dawn and my heart and her love
And the night was gone
But Ill never forget the kiss
The kiss in the moonlight
How well I remember, Ill always remember
That night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
When we kissed I had to fall in love
But Id gave my heart to her in sweet surrender
How well I remember, Ill always remember
Oh that night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
When we kissed I had to fall in love
Well shes gone, gone, gone
Yes shes gone, gone, gone
Came the dawn, dawn, dawn
And my love was gone
But before that dawn
Yes before that dawn and before that dawn
Oo-oo, oo-oo, oo-oo, oo-oo, oo-oo
Such a night
song performed by by Elvis Presley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Love Bites
When you feel safe
When you feel warm
Thats when I rise
Thats when I crawl
Gliding on mist
Hardly a sound
Bring the kiss
Evils abound
In the dead of night love bites
Into your room
Where in deep sleep
There you lie still
To you I creep
Then I descend
Close to your lips
Across you I bend
You smile as I sip
Now you are mine
In my control
One taste of your life
And I own your soul
Softly you stir
Gently you moan
Lusts in the air
Wake as I groan
In the dead of night love bites
Love bites you
Invites you
To feast in the night
Excites you
Delights you
It drains you to white
Love bites
You knew at first sight
Youd enjoy my attack
That with my first bite
Thered be no turning back
So come in my arms
I strike any hour
I will return
To trap and devour
In the dead of night love bites
song performed by by Judas Priest
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Bride.
Her bridal dawn! her heart was fed
Last night with eerie food,
As, one by one, her lovers dead
Came in the solitude,
And shared the last sad feast with her
In Beauty's grave, as if it were
To-morrow, white and cold,
The ghost of all that she had been
Would pass away for e'er, as e'en
Their dreams had died of old.
Each, with his sigil of despair,
Moved in the eerie room,
For all were cognisant (as e'er
All are beyond the tom
That one night more the virgin tie
Which had bound them would be put by,
As she felt passion's stir
Throb in her maidenhood, until
All that she was, for good and ill,
Became a dream to her.
And so with mystic eyes and ears
They came to say good-bye,
Who had been her bright girlhood's peers
And knew e'en love must die —
That it must be a shadow, too,
As life had long been in the blue
And golden light above;
And as each pledged her in the dim
Remoteness, there came over him
The last desire of love.
poem by Robert Crawford
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Such A Night (1964)
It was a night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
The moon was bright oh how so bright
It was it really was such a night
The night was alight with stars above
Oo-oo when she kissed me
I had to fall in love
Oh it was a kiss oo-oo what a kiss
It was it really was such a kiss
Oh how she could kiss oh what a kiss
It was it really was such a kiss
Just the thought of her lips
Sets me afire
I reminisce and Im filled with desire
But Id gave my heart to her in sweet surrender
How well I remember, Ill always remember
Oh, what a night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
Came the dawn and my heart and her love
And the night was gone
But Ill never forget the kiss
The kiss in the moonlight
Oo-oo such a kiss, such a night
It was a night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
Came the dawn and my heart and her love
And the night was gone
But Ill never forget the kiss
The kiss in the moonlight
How well I remember, Ill always remember
That night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
When we kissed I had to fall in love
But Id gave my heart to her in sweet surrender
How well I remember, Ill always remember
Oh that night oo-oo what a night
It was it really was such a night
When we kissed I had to fall in love
Well she's gone, gone, gone
Yes she's gone, gone, gone
Came the dawn, dawn, dawn
And my love was gone
But before that dawn
Yes before that dawn and before that dawn
Oo-oo, oo-oo, oo-oo, oo-oo, oo-oo
Such a night
song performed by by Elvis Presley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dreaming of My Deceased Wife on the Night of the 20th Day of the First Month
Ten years living and dead have drawn apart
I do nothing to remember
But I can not forget
Your lonely grave a thousand miles away...
Nowhere can I talk of my sorrow --
Even if we met, how would you know me
My face full of dust
My hair like snow?
In the dark of night, a dream: suddenly, I am home
You by the window
Doing your hair
I look at you and can not speak
Your face is streaked by endless tears
Year after year must they break my heart
These moonlit nights?
That low pine grave?
poem by Su Shi
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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All That I Owe the Fellows of the Grave
All that I owe the fellows of the grave
And all the dead bequeathed from pale estates
Lies in the fortuned bone, the flask of blood,
Like senna stirs along the ravaged roots.
O all I owe is all the flesh inherits,
My fathers' loves that pull upon my nerves,
My sisters tears that sing upon my head
My brothers' blood that salts my open wounds
Heir to the scalding veins that hold love's drop,
My fallen filled, that had the hint of death,
Heir to the telling senses that alone
Acquaint the flesh with a remembered itch,
I round this heritage as rounds the sun
His winy sky, and , as the candles moon,
Cast light upon my weather. I am heir
To women who have twisted their last smile,
To children who were suckled on a plague,
To young adorers dying on a kiss.
All such disease I doctor in my blood,
And all such love's a shrub sown in the breath.
Then look, my eyes, upon this bonehead fortune
And browse upon the postures of the dead;
All night and day I eye the ragged globe
Through periscopes rightsighted from the grave;
All night and day I wander in these same
Wax clothes that wax upon the ageing ribs;
All night my fortune slumbers in its sheet.
Then look, my heart, upon the scarlet trove,
And look, my grain, upon the falling wheat;
All night my fortune slumbers in its sheet.
poem by Dylan Thomas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Night-Night (Children)
Night-night moon
Night-night stars
Night-night noisy
trucks and cars.
Night-night sand box
Night-night toys
Night-night other
girls and boys.
Night-night mom
Night-night dad
Night-night Boogie Man
who's not bad.
It's time to go to sleep now,
most all my night nights said.
Night-night blankie
Night-night bed.
A Red Rose
You have sent to me a red rose
Through this letter a flower
It is my heart not a rose
My dear darling, I am writing
To let you know
That your heart is more then worthy of me
There is so much love
Hidden in this letter
Like the countless numer of pearls
In the ocean
If I was nearby
You would have kissed me
Through your letter
You sent me a rose
It was your heart
Did I share my dreams
When I was falling asleep
Dreaming of you
I had so many
Having fun and laughing
While whispering to me
And holding me tight
It was so full of passion
I needed it and wanted it
Just your love for me
In my dreams you came
You do every night
There was loneliness
For the two of us
Now I woke up
The dream could not be mine
I will not let you be lonely
Baby don't worry
I am the happist
Girl in the world
I will bring music
Our love is growing stronger
Day by day
Never forget it, neither will I
I taught you to love
Like you did me baby
You sent me a rose
It is your heart
With this letter
Comes your love
Near my heart
I am satisfied
We both are waiting for our eyes to meet
We will both have peace
I have come into your heart
Now into your house as the moon
Lands in our compound
To you I am coming
It won't be long
I will let you know the day and hour
It will be such a night..........
Baby our night is almost here
How shall we meet
I will call you and let you know
To join you I will leave
Then we can meet
Tonight we will be together forever
To me you are looking forward
I will come to you now
In your arms I will be
A letter to you I wrote
Soon you will get it.
I have sent you a rose
Through this letter
It is my heart
poem by Angel Plant
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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At The Last.
The sky grows white with the moon,
And the sea yearns up to the night
As the soul to an unknown height,
Drawn thence by a starry rune.
Only a lost wind strays,
Like the breath of Passion blown
In the vault of the night unknown;
And the heart in me sobs and says:
'After a while we, too,
Shall rest as the stars above,
When we have no more to do
With the dream of life and love.'
O Time! thy feet that run
Over the hills and waves,
Over the cradles and graves,
From the first to the final sun!
Some day thou too shalt cease —
Some way there'll come to thee
Death's white tranquility,
The boon of an awful peace —
When the latest grief shall flow
With the surge that drifts away,
And the Night shall no more go
In her endless chase of Day.
Then shall the worn heart rest,
Then shall the sad Sea yearn
No more for the Moon's return,
Like a bird on its frozen nest
Dead, with her young ones dead
Under her breast on the bough,
Where nothing can wake them now —
Not the Dawn with its golden tread:
Where Death has been good to all,
Good to the mother and young,
And the dreams are beyond recall,
And the songs have all been sung.
So, at the last, to sleep!
So, at the last, to be
Still as the dead still sea!
Never to wake and weep,
Never to know Love's pain,
Never to yearn on for
What is gone for evermore;
To be as we were again
Ere we came o'er the bourne of birth,
Ere we knew of the fading flowers,
Of love and of life on Earth
And the hearts that were not ours!
poem by Robert Crawford
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Voice
Safe in the magic of my woods
I lay, and watched the dying light.
Faint in the pale high solitudes,
And washed with rain and veiled by night,
Silver and blue and green were showing.
And the dark woods grew darker still;
And birds were hushed; and peace was growing;
And quietness crept up the hill;
And no wind was blowing
And I knew
That this was the hour of knowing,
And the night and the woods and you
Were one together, and I should find
Soon in the silence the hidden key
Of all that had hurt and puzzled me -
Why you were you, and the night was kind,
And the woods were part of the heart of me.
And there I waited breathlessly,
Alone; and slowly the holy three,
The three that I loved, together grew
One, in the hour of knowing,
Night, and the woods, and you -
And suddenly
There was an uproar in my woods,
The noise of a fool in mock distress,
Crashing and laughing and blindly going,
Of ignorant feet and a swishing dress,
And a Voice profaning the solitudes.
The spell was broken, the key denied me
And at length your flat clear voice beside me
Mouthed cheerful clear flat platitudes.
You came and quacked beside me in the wood.
You said, 'The view from here is very good!'
You said, 'It's nice to be alone a bit!'
And, 'How the days are drawing out!' you said.
You said, 'The sunset's pretty, isn't it?'
* * * * *
By God! I wish - I wish that you were dead!
poem by Rupert Brooke (1909)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Midsummer Nights
Rain comes down on a misty bay
Light on the water and shes coming my way
To be fair shes only wearing a smile
Ease all my trouble just by driving me wild
And like moon dont function without the night
We come together and shes hanging on tight
She makes me tremble like I never before
Bringing me up to keep me begging for more
In every hour to be, let me satisfy your heart
I can take the lonely days
In return for the midsummer nights.
Chorus:
We know the journey to a better life, better life
And we never to be letting go
You got to learn to be lonely to find
What youre living for
Making love on a midsummer night
I love those midsummer nights.
There may be one fool falling in love with you
You are the vision that Im hanging on to
Any world, any dream you can see
Is yours and mine if we just want it to be
Let me lie in your arms
Let me understand your heart
I can take the lonely days
In return for those midsummer nights.
Chorus:
We know the journey to a better life, better life
And we never to be letting go
You got to learn to be lonely to find
What youre living for
Making love on a midsummer night
I love those midsummer nights.
Making your love to me only
Running forever, Im following you
And Im not afraid
For every hour to be
Let me satisfy your heart
I can take the lonely days
In return for those midsummer nights...
song performed by by Kenny Rogers
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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All Souls
I
A THIN moon faints in the sky o'erhead,
And dumb in the churchyard lie the dead.
Walk we not, Sweet, by garden ways,
Where the late rose hangs and the phlox delays,
But forth of the gate and down the road,
Past the church and the yews, to their dim abode.
For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night,
When the dead can hear and the dead have sight.
II
Fear not that sound like wind in the trees:
It is only their call that comes on the breeze;
Fear not the shudder that seems to pass:
It is only the tread of their feet on the grass;
Fear not the drip of the bough as you stoop:
It is only the touch of their hands that grope -
For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night,
When the dead can yearn and the dead can smite.
III
And where should a man bring his sweet to woo
But here, where such hundreds were lovers too?
Where lie the dead lips that thirst to kiss,
The empty hands that their fellows miss,
Where the maid and her lover, from sere to green,
Sleep bed by bed, with the worm between?
For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night,
When the dead can hear and the dead have sight.
IV
And now that they rise and walk in the cold,
Let us warm their blood and give youth to the old.
Let them see us and hear us, and say: 'Ah, thus
In the prime of the year it went with us!'
Till their lips drawn close, and so long unkist,
Forget they are mist that mingles with mist!
For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night,
When the dead can burn and the dead can smite.
V
Till they say, as they hear us - poor dead, poor dead! -
'Just an hour of this, and our age-long bed -
Just a thrill of the old remembered pains
To kindle a flame in our frozen veins,
Just a touch, and a sight, and a floating apart,
As the chill of dawn strikes each phantom heart -
For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night,
When the dead can hear, and the dead have sight.'
VI
And where should the living feel alive
But here in this wan white humming hive,
As the moon wastes down, and the dawn turns cold,
And one by one they creep back to the fold?
And where should a man hold his mate and say:
'One more, one more, ere we go their way'?
For the year's on the turn, and it's All Souls' night,
When the living can learn by the churchyard light.
VII
And how should we break faith who have seen
Those dead lips plight with the mist between,
And how forget, who have seen how soon
They lie thus chambered and cold to the moon?
How scorn, how hate, how strive, we too,
Who must do so soon as those others do?
For it's All Souls' night, and break of the day,
And behold, with the light the dead are away. . . .
poem by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Within The Midnight Hour
In the midnight hours, my heart
breaks, the fog moves in, wraps
it arms around the morning's
longing wake. The gentle dew
falls from the nights moon, within
the loving fog, my heart
blooms.
The midnight stars fading one
by one, falling from the darkness,
until the night is done. Stars
floating within my sea of tears,
midnight awaiting for my
love to appear.
Gripping the cool night, feeling
alone, lost in the misty fog,
my heart looking for a home.
Crying to the Heaven's, my
universe in pain, moon beams
playing melodies upon my
broken heart strings.
In the midnight hour, your
sweet name I call, the galaxy
crying, losing light as it's stars
fall. Alone in the midnight hour,
my heart, the pain consumes,
within the loving fog, my heart
does bloom.
poem by Ruth warren
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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(Love Me Like You Did) Last Night
Last night, last night, last night, you loved me, how you loved me
Oh, you made me love you last night
Oh how you teased me like you did it, when you did it last night
Pleased me like you did it, when you did it last night
You stole my heart away from me last night
Holding you tight, did it mean as much to you as it meant to me, last night
Were you just lonely, was I just a friend?, did you want me only, or did you pretend?
Was it just one night to hold you tight? then make tonight just like last night
Come on and love me like you did it, when you did it last night
Hold me like you did it when you did it last night
I want you to stay and love me all the way
Say sweet things to me like you said last night, hang on so tight
Now it's alright, just like last night I feel so fine now, you are mine now
Yeah, just like last night, yeah kiss me like you did it
When you did it last night, yeah, touch me like you did it
When you did it last night, ah love me like you did it
When you did it last night, last night
song performed by by Roy Orbison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Awakening
I dreamed that I was a rose
That grew beside a lonely way,
Close by a path none ever chose,
And there I lingered day by day.
Beneath the sunshine and the show'r
I grew and waited there apart,
Gathering perfume hour by hour,
And storing it within my heart,
Yet, never knew,
Just why I waited there and grew.
I dreamed that you were a bee
That one day gaily flew along,
You came across the hedge to me,
And sang a soft, love-burdened song.
You brushed my petals with a kiss,
I woke to gladness with a start,
And yielded up to you in bliss
The treasured fragrance of my heart;
And then I knew
That I had waited there for you.
poem by James Weldon Johnson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Where Does It Go?
As I watch the
Night Sky
I think of you.
The one I grew
Up with,
The one I always
Talked to,
The one I never left.
I watched the sky
On theanniversary
Of you death.
I feel that in times
Nature atunes to
Our emotions.
I watched the
Night sky.
Your death
Was so abrupt
Everyone was
Shocked.
I watch the
Night sky
As all the
Stars cry.
I stand over the
Grave marked as mine.
The sky bleeds
It's crystal
Tears.
Dead in the winter
A death had
Occured,
People cry for
The lost,
They cry for
The pain.
Now they weep
For my soul
For it is lost.
I can't join
The dead for
It wasn't my
Time, but
I can't be
Alive for my
Body is dead.
I'm lost between
Worlds.
I want to
Sleep.
As I stand over the
Grave marked as mine.
The night of the anniversary
Replays every year.
When I return to the
Scene where I wept
Crimson tears
Every night of the anniversary
The story replays,
But no living soul
Can see it.
Wrong conclusions
Drawn by human thoughts
And yet if they could
See what I do,
Then all will be
Explained
As the night of the anniversary
Replays every year.
As I watch the
Night sky
And all the stars
Cry,
As I stand over the
Grave marked as mine,
The night of the anniversary
Replays every year.
I live on.
poem by Sans Serif
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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