View Your Town
If you're lucky to live in a street in town,
Then stand quite still, glance up and down,
And you will find there, a storybook,
Lines of words wherever you look.
And in this story are characters, who
Are from real life, like me and you.
The young Assistant at the library.
The Chiropodist who dwells at No 3
Bert the Butcher, with his cheery grin,
And Derek, the lad who empties your bin.
The Postman with his trolley full of mail,
Miss Watson, who always creeps like a snail,
The Pattersons who inhabit No 5,
You certainly know that they're alive.
Ralph the Builder's at No 10,
Works quite hard with his son Ben,
And at No 12, Maggie dyes your hair,
Any colour you like, that's if you dare.
Mr Packer is her next door neighbour,
All his life he has voted 'Labour',
Runs the local Boy Scout group,
Bad back, which makes his shoulders stoop.
There's Tom who runs the 'Red Lion' pub,
Serves some really great pub grub,
Rabinder the new tenant at No 6,
Has already started to chat and mix,
And the District Nurse down at No 9,
Does a marvellous job with the iodine.
Such characters, such friends, each one,
Some are quite serious, some are fun,
But all could be there in you storybook,
So view your town, and take a look,
And see the treasures that can be found,
Right under your nose, on your own home ground.
poem by Ernestine Northover
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
First Impressions
They say that first impressions
should be lasting ones
by which we build
people’s characters from.
Do not believe it, that’s wrong.
I’ve known people
who were smiles at the start,
but once you got to know them
wouldn’t hesitate
to stab you in the back,
and others whom the first impressions
were so very wrong,
but as you got to know them,
you really found out how good they were.
The story I am about to relate
illustrates the second point so well.
It is the true story
of a very dear friend of mine.
It all started about three years ago
in the Western town I belong to.
Maggie turned up one day,
a single girl with a married man.
Some looked on her with suspicion,
especially after her man friend
left her alone again.
Slowly she was looked upon
as a bit of a tart
because of her friendliness
towards some of the men.
At our annual Christmas party that year,
she seemed to be throwing herself at every man.
Now that first impression
would put off a lot of people
and they would have been wrong.
She helped out around the town,
in the eating-house with afternoon teas.
When someone’s car broke down who lived near her,
she would bring them to the town
and take them back home again.
Slowly she integrated into
the family of the town.
Her unconventional entrance
and first impression was soon forgotten.
She attended our church
whenever she could.
Respect for her began to grow
as the months passed by.
Maggie began to become
a pillar of our little town.
She wears a smile for everyone she meets
and laughs sincerely at funny things said.
Her story is far from over.
Last month on my birthday,
tragedy struck our town
and two dear friends of mine
were struck down.
One passed away and the other
is in hospital for a considerable stay.
The later is Irish who was widowed
just over a year ago and left to bring up
three young sons on his own.
As town-folk, we’ve tried
to help him the best we could.
Now he is in hospital,
but who was going to look after his sons.
It was then Maggie stepped forward
and said the lads could stay with her
while Irish was recovering.
The three boys who were a wild bunch
have tamed a bit under the guiding hand
of this loving surrogate mum.
I saw them together last Saturday
laughing and joking just like a real family.
Maggie has the highest admiration
and respect from everyone in our town.
So the next time you meet someone
take a little time before you judge their character.
This story is still continuing
it’s a story without end,
at least for now.
It proves once again how friendship
can overcome any adversity.
8 July 2008
This poem is dedicated to Maggie
And all the others like her out there in the world today.
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Ghost Town
This town is becoming like a ghost town;
Many of our local shops are closing down.
Once upon a time, this town was really hopping,
But now people go elsewhere for their shopping.
The life from our town has been sucked out,
And nowadays there is hardly anyone about.
Local people go to other towns and cities:
That it has ended up this way, is a real pity.
The town's population is rapidly growing,
But trade in our shops is rapidly slowing.
Many units stand empty for years and years:
Owners found the rents were just way too dear.
We need some life breathed back into town;
We need to turn this situation back around.
Of help for new businesses, we need much more,
So that our town can be the place it was before.
poem by Angela Wybrow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Young Man's Town
You wake up one morning and it's passed you by.
You don't know when and you don't know why.
You feel like an old memory hangin' round.
And man, you've gotta face it, it's a young man's town.
You knew this day was comin' all along.
So why bitch and moan and say they done you wrong?
Just teach 'em what you know an' pass it on down,
'Cause man, you gotta face it, it's a young man's town.
Chorus:
It's a young man's town,
Full of young man's dreams.
And all God's children
Gotta learn to spread their wings.
Sometimes you gotta stand back,
And watch 'em burn it to the ground,
Even though you built it,
It's a young man's town.
You always seem to be the last to know.
Man, that's just the way that the story goes.
There's nothin' you can do when the fields have turned brown.
Man, you gotta face it, it's a young man's town.
Chorus:
It's a young man's town,
Full of young man's dreams.
And all God's children
Gotta learn to spread their wings.
Sometimes you gotta stand back,
And watch 'em burn it to the ground,
Even though you built it,
It's a young man's town.
Sometimes you gotta stand back,
And watch 'em burn it to the ground.
Even though you built it,
It's a young man's town...
song performed by by Vince Gill
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Young Man's Town
You wake up one morning and it's passed you by.
You don't know when and you don't know why.
You feel like an old memory hangin' round.
And man, you've gotta face it, it's a young man's town.
You knew this day was comin' all along.
So why bitch and moan and say they done you wrong?
Just teach 'em what you know an' pass it on down,
'Cause man, you gotta face it, it's a young man's town.
Chorus:
It's a young man's town,
Full of young man's dreams.
And all God's children
Gotta learn to spread their wings.
Sometimes you gotta stand back,
And watch 'em burn it to the ground,
Even though you built it,
It's a young man's town.
You always seem to be the last to know.
Man, that's just the way that the story goes.
There's nothin' you can do when the fields have turned brown.
Man, you gotta face it, it's a young man's town.
Chorus:
It's a young man's town,
Full of young man's dreams.
And all God's children
Gotta learn to spread their wings.
Sometimes you gotta stand back,
And watch 'em burn it to the ground,
Even though you built it,
It's a young man's town.
Sometimes you gotta stand back,
And watch 'em burn it to the ground.
Even though you built it,
It's a young man's town...
song performed by by Vince Gill
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Storybook Of You
Out of sight, out of mind
It doesnt hold true, in my storybook of you
Turn a page back in time
Thats all I can do
In my storybook of you
First in love
Then afraid
Somehow every story must come to an end
Oh, it happened too soon
In my storybook of you
Out of sight, out of mind
It doesnt hold true, in my story book of you
Of you...
song performed by by Monkees
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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0099 The Reading
The EX IT sign in the Town Hall Theatre
was lit by gas. A smell you never quite forget.
It serves to pin the memories of those other times.
The sister of the junior mistress at the local school
was here to give her reading: 'Scenes from Shakespeare';
whole scenes and all the characters.
Imagine.
But she had a very special voice.
Oh who can know
the where and when
that life may give its life to life
and give it full, and give it whole?
And who may know
how many years
before the fruits
burst in the soul?
Or what the lights
and where the sounds
and what they speak,
and where the whole?
The performance ended.
As the lights came on,
the audience were still for - seconds? -
as if they had forgotten they were not already at home;
then walked out into
the rainy darkness of the seaside town,
past the gaslit EXIT sign;
the sea a distant seethe and roar
and some were changed for life.
So, poetry.
.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Mirror Image
How many times when reading a book,
do we identify with the characters within?
Their traits they have we share,
their loves and heartaches
their lives go through somehow mirror our own.
It’s as if the author was writing about us.
As though he has put us under a microscope
and then writing down everything, he saw.
However, we know this isn’t so
because he or she has written
segments of their own life
and by accident they happen to mirror ours.
Every writer will tell you
that they have their characters under control.
Having written numerous novels,
I know the characters take on a life of their own
and do what they want to do.
We become their instrument as they guide us on our way.
We end up writing what they want us to say.
To every writer his characters are real,
they live, breathe and feel.
The more you write about them,
the more alive they become.
So the next time you pick up a book
and the characters seem real,
they probably are to the author
who looks after them.
24 September 2008
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Lucky Town
House got too crowded clothes got too tight
And I dont know just where Im going tonight
Out where the skys been cleared by a good hard rain
Theres somebody callin my secret name
Im going down to lucky town
Going down to lucky town
I wanna lose these blues Ive found
Down in lucky town
Down in lucky town
Had a coat of fine leather and snakeskin boots
But that coat always had a tread hangin loose
Well I pulled it one night and to my surprise
It led me right past your house and on over the rise
Im going down to lucky town
Down to lucky town
Im gonna lose these blues Ive found
Down in lucky town
Down in lucky town
I had some victory that was just failure in deceit
Now the jokes comin up through the soles of my feet
I been a long time walking on fortunes cane
Tonight Im steppin lightly and feelin no pain
Well heres to your good looks baby now heres to my health
Heres to the loaded places that we take ourselves
When it comes to luck you make your own
Tonight I got dirt on my hands but Im building me a new home
Down in lucky town
Down in lucky town
Im gonna lose these blues Ive found
Down in lucky town
song performed by by Bruce Springsteen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Purple
I think I'm coming round
Coming round to way of thinking
Trying to find the ground
Somewhere new to stop us slipping
Always , always straight back down
Kicking out the fool
Theres no sense in us going under
Holding on to you
Trying to swim but we're treading water
Always , always straight back down
I think that you're the one , the colour never runs
A hand that heals me over , over today
You take away the grey , bring the colour as it fades
A hand that heals me over
Comfort in the sound
Lift the world from off you shoulders now
Lying on the ground ,
Staring up at a face that haunts you
Always , always straight back down
I think that you're the one , the colour never runs
A hand that heals me over , over today
You take away the grey , bring the colour as it fades
A hand that heals me over
Always , always straight back down
I think I'm coming round
Coming round to way of thinking
Always , always straight back down
I think that you're the one , the colour never runs
A hand that heals me over , over today
You take away the grey , bring the colour as it fades
A hand that heals me over ... again
I think that you're the one , the colour never runs
A hand that heals me over , over today
You take away the grey , bring the colour as it fades
A hand that heals me over
song performed by by Feeder
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Behind The Door
Behind the door of every house,
In every street, in every town
A story is unfolding
A story is unfolding of love and hate
The most of us wait of hopes and fears
Of smiles and tears of dreams
That lies a moldering
Behind the door of every house,
In every street, in every town
The stage is set for playing
The stage is set for playing
And I call crime and punch your mime
Sweet romance, a rich will dance
Characters are playing
Behind the door of every house,
In every street, in every town
The people are a waiting
The people are a waiting
To bare and die, the years go by
The wedding spree the cruelty
And still they go on mating
And to the one the only one
Remember when the need of man
Is greater again
The prayers take off ascending
All filled of love to the one above
Asking for asking for asking for asking for
A happy ending a happy ending a happy ending
song performed by by Cher
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Part of the success of the show is that the audience sees themselves in the characters, becomes the characters. The more they inhabit the characters, the more they see.
quote by Bebe Neuwirth
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Zimbabwe Rose
She brought such colour to our town her and her flowery clothes
With her dark and wavy curling hair the dark Zimbabwe rose
Her smile lit up the dullest day the warmth in her hello
And she will make many new friends where ever she will go.
A young woman in her early twenties her beauty I recall
And I a male of average height beside her did seem small
Yet she was not conceited and she was free of guile
And how her white teeth glittered each time that she did smile.
The Autumn weather here for her too cold she missed the warm sunshine
And for her home in Africa Zimbabwe's rose did pine
She went back to her Homeland we miss her happy face
And the Town now without her seems much a duller place.
She missed her family and friends and her Homeland far away
And the weather far too cold for her so here she did not stay
She brought such colour to our Town her and her flowery clothes
And we who knew her miss her so the dark Zimbabwe Rose.
poem by Francis Duggan
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Actress
She uses her innocence as a shield
Hoping no one will ever see past it
See inside her story, once upon a time
For girl-next-door-beautifuls everywhere
She asked him
To her surprise, he refused
It broke her heart like a mirror
with her real face on the other side feeling pain
All I can say is
She's an actress
A great actress
She asks them how their day was
And gives them a grin
She teaches her "philosophy"- Think Win-Win
Yeah, right
But beyond that cheer is something called fear
of being on the outside of life
Beyond that joy is something that boy
left when he walked away
Leaving her in the dark
If she's an actress, she's the best
Or is she being real? Maybe she's happy that it
Happened, but if she's happy,
He's the one that's heartbroken
Walking away cause he saw it was a dare
A dare for herself, but he's wrong
She's an actress
A great actress
She revolves her life around him
When he refused, he broke her heart
Her real girl-next-door life
She failed girl-next-door-beautifuls
Thanks to him
She's an actress
He started a new life for her by refusing
If her philosophy was Think Win-Win,
he would have said yes
He would have said yes
She's an actress
A great actress
The Road to Roundabout
Some say that Guy of Warwick
The man that killed the Cow,
And brake the mighty Boar alive
Beyond the bridge at Slough;
Went up against a Loathly Worm
That wasted all the Downs,
And so the roads they twist and squirm
(If a may be allowed the term)
From the writhing of the stricken Worm
That died in seven towns.
I see no scientific proof
That this idea is sound,
And I should say they wound about
To find the town of Roundabout,
The merry town of Roundabout,
That makes the world go round.
Some say that Robin Goodfellow,
Whose lantern lights the meads
(To steal a phrase Sir Walter Scott
In heaven no longer needs),
Such dance around the trysting-place
The moonstruck lover leads;
Which superstition I should scout
There is more faith in honest doubt
(As Tennyson has pointed out)
Than in those nasty creeds.
But peace and righteousness (St John)
In Roundabout can kiss,
And since that's all that's found about
The pleasant town of Roundabout,
The roads they simply bound about
To find out where it is.
Some say that when Sir Lancelot
Went forth to find the Grail,
Grey Merlin wrinkled up the roads
For hope that he would fail;
All roads lead back to Lyonesse
And Camelot in the Vale,
I cannot yield assent to this
Extravagant hypothesis,
The plain, shrewd Briton will dismiss
Such rumours (Daily Mail).
But in the streets of Roundabout
Are no such factions found,
Or theories to expound about,
Or roll upon the ground about,
In the happy town of Roundabout,
That makes the world go round.
poem by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Her Town Too
Shes been afraid to go out
Shes afraid of the knock on her door
Theres always a shade of a doubt
She can never be sure
Who comes to call
Maybe the friend of a friend of a friend
Anyone at all
Anything but nothing again
It used to be her town
It used to be her town, too
It used to be her town
It used to be her town, too
Seems like even her old girlfriends
Might be talking her down
Shes got her name on the grapevine
Running up and down
The telephone line
Talking bout
Someone said, someone said
Something bout, something else
Someone might have said about her
She always figured that they were her friends
But maybe they can live without her
It used to be her town
It used to be her town, too
It used to be her town
It used to be her town, too
Well, people got used to seeing them both together
But now hes gone and life goes on
Nothing lasts forever, oh no
She gets the house and the garden
He gets the boys in the band
Some of them his friends
Some of them her friends
Some of them understand
Lord knows that this is just a small town city
Yes, and everyone can see you fall
Its got nothing to do with pity
I just wanted to give you a call
It used to be your town
It used to be my town, too
You never know till it all falls down
Somebody loves you
Somebody loves you
Darling, somebody still loves you
I can still remember
When it used to be her town, too
It used to be your town
It used to be my town, too
song performed by by James Taylor
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I don't think he's permanently affected me except in the sense that I miss him. I miss being him. Or trying to be him. He is one of a gallery of characters that have had an impact on my career and therefore my life.
quote by Derek Jacobi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Still Breathing
Home
It's not brick or stone
A comfort in the fire light
not in that sense anyway
Dreams
If only I had known
That these things always seem
So much clearer at a distance
I'm walking out of this town
I'm never going back there
I'm never going back there
I'll burn the place to the ground
I'm never going back there
I'm never going back there again
Words
Only could break that ring
You know the words still sting
So much harder than the blows ever did
Hearts
Though it's hard and violent
My head is cool and quiet
As the Ashes that fall from the sky
I'm walking out of this town
I'm never going back there
I'm never going back there
I'll burn the place to the ground
I'm never going back there
I'm never going back there again
Now
I know this shattered feeling
Trampled I'm still breathing
I'm just waiting for a good day
I'm walking out of this town
I'm never going back there
I'm never going back there
I'll burn the place to the ground
I'm never going back there
I'm never going back there again
song performed by by Duran Duran
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Take Your Guns To Town
On the eastern highway we ride
Windshield wipers disperse the rain from the sky
Whats left is ivy and vine
All the letters Id sent back home
Never express the idea of how a young man
Can be so far from home
Take your guns to town
Dont take your guns to town
Take your guns to town
Dont take your guns to town
Stumble down main street alone
Just gotten home with my hand on the phone
I was drinking alone on the quilted (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? )
Take your guns to town
Dont take your guns to town
Take your guns to town
Dont take your guns to town
song performed by by Whiskeytown
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Just An Ordinary Fellow
His life revolves around work his mates and football
But his wife and children he seldom does talk of at all
Each evening after work he calls to the pub
Or else to the bar-room of the Football Club.
In his early to mid thirties he is well liked in the town
To have kicked five goals in the local Grand Final is his one claim to renown
And though his team did not win the flag he earned his local fame
With a best on ground display on a beaten side he made for himself a name.
His wife takes care of the children a boy of four and a girl of three
She is not well known in the town few as down to earth as she
So different from her husband she's never seen at the pub
And she is not a member of any local club.
He is a well liked character and in the town well known
And the local people say of him he is one of our own
Not a bad husband and father though better than him not hard to find
Just an ordinary fellow in his own way he is kind.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Love Comes From The Other Side Of Town
(Fred J. Freiling)
When things get bad at home, you don't feel like being alone,
And you find yourself inclined to look around.
For the feelings we once shared are just no longer there,
And love comes from the other side of town.
Where love means just an hour with your stand in,
And not an empty house where love just has been.
Since everything we've built with love was not on solid ground,
Now love comes from the other side of town.
The life I'm livin' now just don't seem right somehow,
But it's the best way to get by that I've found.
There's no love left at home, we're both just hangin' on,
And love comes from the other side of town.
Where love means just an hour with your stand in,
And not an empty house where love just has been.
Since everything we've built with love was not on solid ground,
Now love comes from the other side of town.
Love comes from the other side of town
song performed by by George Strait
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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