This Body
this body's not my home...
just a nest, frayed and tattered.
a tumbledown shack,
weathered by the years.
a cup stained by use.
a fire gone to embers,
a prayer lost in the din.
the sound of the hawk's wings
in a sky no one can touch.
bury it, or not! i dont care!
you can burn it on a pyre,
or leave it for the wolves.
i cannot take it with me,
have no use for name or identity.
the bird upon leaving the cage
doesnt come back for the cage!
the ego dies and dissolves
back into the matter of timelessness.
no stone, no preacher, no sadness,
when you've given it all it is finished.
a soft rain begins to fall...
this body is not my home!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Our Bird In Your Cage
we have this bird
we both own it and love it and care for it
our bird
and you have this cage
that you only own
golden, new and strong and as you say it
so reliable
that when our bird is in that cage
it will be safe
and cannot escape
we feed this bird together
and give it water and birdseeds
and a place of twigs and swing
where the bird can play
and perch upon
like it is on a tree
days and years
we keep this bird in your cage
and we see it is dying
and wanting to be free
yet you say, this sickness is just temporary
time heals what has wounded it
and shall forget the power of its wings
days and more years
we keep this bird in your cage
and i have not listened at all
to the sad song of that bird
her waning chirps
her weakened wings
her way of losing hold to the dreams of its wings
today we see this bird is dead
but you have no sadness at all
you say, you will buy another bird
again to be kept in your cage
i could have told you
i am the bird in your cage and i too have forgotten the power of
my wings
i could have told you, i have long died
and have forgotten what freedom is, what love is, what i am
in the first place. How can i ever tell you?
you are my cage.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Tommorows Dream
A cage of my own, this cage is my home,
And oh so alone am i.
From above all around helpless to the sound
Of my brothers cry.
Just leave us alone, we dont want to moan,
Only if you make us.
Smashed on the lock until Ive had to, drop.
Tried to get my message through.
Off goes another with anothers brother,
My arms try to bend across to a friend.
You cant burn me with your laser beam,
Its pointed at you and tomorrows dream.
Youll burn my body quietly set free,
And Ill cry for you as I sway from my tree.
Id give you my brain nothing you would gain,
Its misery seeps from you.
When leaving my cage I am in a rage
Because I know what youre up to.
When you walk away remember next day,
Not a second Ive slept, awake Ill have kept.
When I reappear, dont look on in fear
My hands could kill
But they never will.
You cant burn me with your laser beam,
Its pointed at you and tomorrows dream.
Youll burn my body quietly set free,
And Ill cry for you as I sway from my tree.
song performed by by Madness
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Tomorrows Dream
A cage of my own, this cage is my home,
And oh so alone am i.
From above all around helpless to the sound
Of my brothers cry.
Just leave us alone, we dont want to moan,
Only if you make us.
Smashed on the lock until Ive had to, drop.
Tried to get my message through.
Off goes another with anothers brother,
My arms try to bend across to a friend.
You cant burn me with your laser beam,
Its pointed at you and tomorrows dream.
Youll burn my body quietly set free,
And Ill cry for you as I sway from my tree.
Id give you my brain nothing you would gain,
Its misery seeps from you.
When leaving my cage I am in a rage
Because I know what youre up to.
When you walk away remember next day,
Not a second Ive slept, awake Ill have kept.
When I reappear, dont look on in fear
My hands could kill
But they never will.
You cant burn me with your laser beam,
Its pointed at you and tomorrows dream.
Youll burn my body quietly set free,
And Ill cry for you as I sway from my tree.
song performed by by Madness
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A caged bird`s plea
In the cage for years,
this cage my home,
a wingless bird
forgotten how to fly
You have cut my wings Oh! man
in the cage let me be,
my folks are away, know not where
do not set me free
poem by Dr Madhavi Grace
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Degrees Of Unfreedom...
1. caught
a bird inside your hand
2.released
inside a cage and hangs
on a beam
at the side of the road
3.well feed with
grains
4. starts to sing
inside the cage
5. feathers fall
and unlearned
flights
6. so many thoughts
about bird-lands
7.death
8. no one sees
the spirit getting
out of the body
of the bird
9. into another plane
another cage
10. back to one
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Send My Body
Well that judge he found me guilty of wrong doing
And he sentenced me to hang in mid July
He look down at me and said you're lifes a ruin
If I were you I'd break right down and cry
But nobody seems to care that I ain't guilty
'Cause I never did the things they said I've done
But I guess they're gonna have to hang somebody
And It's lookin' like I'm goin to be the one
Chorus:
So send my body home on a freight train
And don't worry none that I don't go first class
Send my body home on a freight train
So everyone can see me when I pass
And don't worry none about no fancy funeral
It don't matter how they lay me down
Just see they bury me out by mama's apple tree
And send my body back to my home town
--- Instrumental ---
My mama was one damn hard workin' woman
She tried to raise us kids without a pa
The last thing that she said she was on her dying bed
Was son don't get in trouble with the law
Whenever my time comes to meet my maker
I'm going to try to do my very best
I'm going try to stand and take it like a man
When they ask if I have one request
Chorus:
I'll just say .....
Send my body home on a freight train
And don't worry none that I don't go first class
Send my body home on a freight train
So everyone can see me when I pass
And don't worry none about no fancy funeral
'Cause it don't matter how they lay me down
Just See they bury me out by mama's apple tree
And send my body back to my home town
Yes, just see they bury me out by mama's apple tree
And send my body back to my home town...
song performed by by Randy Travis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A bird escaping finally from its cage
Let me not speak about
This bird that finally finds a way
Out of its cage
New to its freedom
It whirls and circles the skies
A tryst with the wind
A feast with the sun
A dive to the sea
A rising up to the limitless
Space around it
Let me not speak about its
Final regret
Its wanting to be back in the cage
Again
Because for a time
It thinks again
It is really its home
Forever
The bird shall soon ask you
To open the cage
To spend its nights there
All its lifetime
Soon it will have the courage to say it
Freedom sometimes
Home it is not
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Cage in the Bird
he was out of the cage
as he was treated as a bird
and he sings
to the sky
but then he had loved the cage so well
and the hands of the master
that feed him
that every morning listens to his song
he had missed sorely so well
and so back into that cage
he flies in
for the master had left it all open
he sings again
concluding that the cage must also
be the home
for freedom
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Song Is Not Sad....
he once was a wild bird
who lives in no one's forest
always in flight
to an endless journey, until
he was caught in the cage of
civilization
where he was taught to sing
and what to sing
and when to sing the
prescribed songs
he had always been a sad black bird
for years and years and years
until he gets freed because the lock is
finally broken and the rails all turn to dust
because of rust
when he goes outside with his wings
he does not like it anymore
he forgets what he was once in the wild
he comes back
constructs and reconstructs his cage
exactly as it was once
given to him by force of circumstance
locks himself in
and then begins to sing again
do not tell me that it did not happen to you
the song is not sad.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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One Chance
We have one chance.
One chance to get everything right.
We have one chance, one chance.
And if we're lucky we might.
My friends, my habits, my family,
they mean so much to me.
I just don't think that it's right.
I've seen so many ships sail in,
just to head back out again and go off sinking.
I'm just a box in a cage. I'm just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box in a cage.
Didn't mean to laugh, didn't know I had.
Didn't know the better part of what you said
cuz in your head you are not home.
Didn't get the joke. Didn't mean to poke another,
just to save myself
from some something something or another one.
Well walk home.
I'm just a box in a cage. I'm just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box in a cage.
We have one chance,
one chance to get everything right.
My friends, my habits, my family,
they mean so much to me.
I just don't think that it's right.
I've seen so many ships sail in,
just to head back out again and go off sinking.
song performed by by Modest Mouse
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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VI
The tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.
They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, "O my love, let us fly to wood."
The cage bird whispers, "Come hither, let us both live in the
cage."
Says the free bird, "Among bars, where is there room to spread
one's wings?"
"Alas," cries the cage bird, "I should not know where to sit
perched in the sky."
The free bird cries, "My darling, sing the songs of the
woodlands."
The cage bird says, "Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of
the learned."
The forest bird cries, "No, ah no! songs can never be taught."
The cage bird says, "Alas for me, I know not the songs of the
woodlands."
Their love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing
to wing.
Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to
know each other.
They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, "Come closer, my
love!"
The free bird cries, "It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of
the cage."
The cage bird whispers, "Alas, my wings are powerless and dead."
poem by Rabindranath Tagore from The Gardener (1913)
Submitted by Silvia Velea
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A Woman Trapped In A Man's Body
ariel suggests that a poem should be written
about a woman trapped in a man's body,
and sometimes one may spell this kind of
trap as a tragedy as mostly projected by
those that claim that the happiest gay is
a dead one. I suppose it is just a matter
of how one sees the best that happens
when one is there. A trap can be a cage,
and to some a cage is a safe home for the
bird who does not bother taking the risk
of flying anymore. A woman loves a man,
and try thinking Ariel, how happy would a
woman be staying inside a man's body?
she makes love to him day and night long.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Coming Home
Ive not been home
For so many years
And I did not regret being gone
Please tell me when did we talk
And when did we show
That we do care for something called love
Oh no, dont you despair now
Im as grown up as can be
Cant you forget everything
And this time listen to me
Im coming home - home
Im coming home - why dont you help me
Im coming home - home
Im coming home - why dont you love me
Its time to remember
What weve done together
I guess it is more than we know
And we should be open
And turn back the wheels
As far as we can go
I know I am your son
And everything else dont seem real
I want you back like never before
I cant take another goodbye
Im coming home - home
Im coming home - please, cant you be there
Im coming home - home
Im coming home - please, dont you leave me
Whats dones done - Im your son
Ive been hurt by your lies
I want peace after all
Thats why I want you to let me come home
Im coming home - home
Im coming home - lets fight together
Im coming home - home
Im coming home - Ive so much to tell you
Home - Im coming home
Im coming home - time heals the scars of the past
Im coming home
Im coming home - to be by your side
Im coming home - Im coming home
Im coming home - Ive so much to tell you
Im coming home - Im coming home,............
song performed by by U. D. O.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Send My Body Home On A Freight Train
Well that judge he found me guilty of wrong doing
He sentenced me to hang in mid-july
He look down at me and said you are a ruin
If I were you Id break right down and cry
But nobody seems to care that I aint guilty
I never did the things they said Ive done
But it looks like theyre gonna to hang somebody
And its lookin like Im goin to be the one
Chorus,
(so just) send my body home on a freight train
And dont worry none that I dont go first class
Send my body home on a freight train
So everyone can see me when I pass
And dont worry none about no fancy funeral
It dont matter how they lay me down
See they bury me out by mamas apple tree
And just send my body back to my home town
Verse 2
My mama was one damn hard workin woman
She tried to raise us kids without a pa
The last thing that she said she was on her dying bed
Was boy dont get in trouble with the law
Well whenever my time comes to meet my maker
Im going to try to do my very best
Im going to stand and take it like a man
When they ask if I have one request
Ill say .....(repeat chorus)
song performed by by Randy Travis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Cuckoo Clock
The cuckoo flew out of the clock
and landed on the arm chair.
It looked me in the eye and said,
“I’m not going back in there!
People expect too much of me,
going back and forth all day.
I’m not going back inside.
No! Never! No way.
The clock’s none stop ticking
has made my head feel sore
Calling ‘cuckoo’ 24-7 it’s too much,
I’m not doing it any more.
I want to breathe the fresh air,
and feel the rain and sun.
I want to be able to fly around
and enjoy proper cuckoo fun.
I should be leaving my eggs
here, there, and everywhere.
Eating lots of juicy worms,
and being free without a care.
What do you mean I’m not real
and I’m only made of wood?
Of course I am; I call out ‘cuckoo’
like every cuckoo should.
Just put me on the windowsill
and I’ll show you how I can fly.
Why..? I can’t move my wings,
no matter how much I try.
And I can’t call out ‘cuckoo’,
my ‘cuckoo’ cry has gone.
My head and body won’t move,
and my wings won’t open.
Oh dear, what am I to do?
I’m just a piece of wood.
I’ve been shaped like a bird
and my paint job’s not so good.
I’ve a spring sticking out my bottom
and my feathers aren’t feathers at all.
I haven’t a sound to call my own,
and when I try to fly I fall…
Will you please put me back in the clock?
It’s the only place I can call my home.
I’ll be happy to remind you of the time,
and I promise never again to moan.
poem by Orlando Belo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Tame Bird Was In A Cage
THE tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.
They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, 'O my love, let us fly to the wood.'
The cage bird whispers, 'Come hither, let us both live in the cage.'
Says the free bird, 'Among bars, where is there room to spread one's wings?'
'Alas,' cries the caged bird, 'I should not know where to sit perched in the sky.'
The free bird cries, 'My darling, sing the songs of the woodlands.'
The cage bird sings, 'Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of the learned.'
The forest bird cries, 'No, ah no! songs can never be taught.'
The cage bird says, 'Alas for me, I know not the songs of the woodlands.'
There love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing to wing.
Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to know each other.
They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, 'Come closer, my love!'
The free bird cries, 'It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of the cage.'
The cage bird whispers, 'Alas, my wings are powerless and dead.'
poem by Rabindranath Tagore
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Woman Trapped In A Man's Body (2)
ariel suggests that a poem should be written
about a woman trapped in a man's body,
and sometimes one may spell this kind of
trap as a tragedy as mostly projected by
those that claim that the happiest gay is
a dead one. I suppose it is just a matter
of how one sees the best that happens
when one is there. A trap can be a cage,
and to some a cage is a safe home for the
bird who does not bother taking the risk
of flying anymore. A woman loves a man,
and try thinking Ariel, how happy would a
woman be staying inside a man's body?
he makes love to her day and night long.
and she caresses him without any tong.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Stargazer
High noon
Oh Id sell my soul for water
Nine years worth
Of breakin my back
Theres no sun in the shadow of the wizard
See how he glides
Why hes lighter than air
Oh I see his face
Where is your star
Is it far, is it far, is it far
When do we leave
I believe, yes, I believe
* in the heat and the rain
With whips and chains
Just to see him fly
So many die
We built a tower of stone
With out flesh and bone
Just to see him fly
Dont know why
Now where do we go
Hot wind moving fast across the desert
We feel that our time has arrived
The world spins while we put his wing together
A tower of stone to take him straight to the sky
Oh I see his face
Where is your star
It is far, is it far, is it far
When do we leave, yeah
I believe, I believe
*
All eyes see the figure of the wizard
As he climbs to the top of the world
No sound as he falls instead of rising
Time standing still
Then theres blood on the sand
Oh I see his face
Where was your star
Was it far, was it far
When did we leave
We believe, we believe, we believe
In the heat and rain
With whips and chains
To see him fly
So many die
We built a tower of stone
With out flesh and bone
To see him fly
But why, it dont rain
With all our chains,
Did so many die
Just to see him fly
Look at my flesh and bone
Now look, look, look, look
Look at this tower of stone
I see a rainbow rising
Look there on the horizon
And Im coming home
Coming home, Im coming home
Time is standing still
He gave me back my will
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Going home
Im going home
My eyes are bleeding
And my heart is weeping
We still hope, we still hope, oh
Take me back
He gave me back my will
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Going home
Im going home
My eyes are bleeding
And my heart is weeping
We still hope, we still hope, oh
Take me back, take me back
Back to my home, oh, oh...
song performed by by Rainbow
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Tastes (Dreaming)
i went for years without dreaming,
or at least so i thought.
i wake up with tastes,
so simple that i'd forgotten.
the whisper of the rain,
weaves a web around my soul.
and there are voices in the shadows,
shadows that build small fires.
perhaps prayer is a form of memory,
a language we no longer understand.
and the body, a cage, or just a shell,
for a bird with broken wings!
then love, the body plowed,
the spirit bursts in bloom.
i taste like grapes,
too long fermented...
you taste like ashes,
and me!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Whose Footsteps Will Haunt Your Sleep?
it's easy to bury the pen,
to break the glass vase
that held the light.
will you then burn the book,
and wipe your shoes at the door?
is it easy to forget the address?
some graves are best unmarked you say...
let the preacher say a few words.
and it's back to home and the dinner dishes,
things that must be done.
what's too painful we walk away from,
and name our victories by our needs.
but on that day when spring arrives,
will you recognize a bud on the limb?
will the sound of wings bring back memories?
will you fall to your knees and weep?
and whose face will you see when
you cry out to god?
whose footsteps will haunt your sleep?
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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