Right across the country from me
(after Dorothy Parker, for A)
Right across the country from me
is the place that you call home,
a place where my spirit at times roam,
where you live in a kind of tranquillity.
Sometimes I do not know
how to put my feelings in words, to express
my utter loneliness
and at break of day and its end the horizon glows
in the place where you dwell
and under others skies
the day begins and dies
while of my thoughts I want you to tell
but maybe it's much better
not to say anything,
not even to make your telephone ring
and never to write a letter.
[Reference: "Hearthside" by Dorothy Parker.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
The Small Hours
(after Dorothy Parker)
No more the joys, of jubilant poems come back;
and at this end of day
I see the wide world that’s turning black
and nowhere in it there’s any grey.
Far too sad is the sheer loneliness
while the skyline glows
before darkness suddenly flourish
and painful it is to know
that another solitary day will come
with time in it moving much too slow
before I will return to an empty home
and I am like a leave that in the wind blows
with my life a falling, twisting
kind of thing.
[Reference: “The small hours” by Dorothy Parker.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker [Controversy Music, ASCAP - 1987]
--------------
Dorothy was a waitress on the promenade
She worked the night shift
Dishwater blonde, tall and fine
She got a lot of tips
Well, earlier I'd been talkin' stuff
In a violent room
Fighting with lovers past
I needed someone with a quicker wit than mine
Dorothy was fast
Well, I ordered - "Yeah, let me get a fruit cocktail, I ain't 2 hungry"
Dorothy laughed
She said "Sounds like a real man 2 me"
Kinda cute, U wanna take a bath?
(do you wanna, do you wanna, bath)
I said "Cool, but I'm leaving my pants on" (she say)
"Cuz I'm kind of going with someone"
She said "Sounds like a real man 2 me"
"Mind if I turn on the radio?"
"Oh, my favorite song" she said
And it was Joni singing "Help me I think I'm falling"
(Ring)
The phone rang and she said
"Whoever's calling can't be as cute as U"
Right then I knew I was through
(Dorothy Parker was cool)
My pants where wet, they came off
But she didn't see the movie
Cuz she hadn't read the book first
Instead she pretended she was blind
An affliction brought on by a witch's curse
Dorothy made me laugh (ha ha)
I felt much better so I went back
2 the violent room (tell us what U did)
Let me tell U what I did...
I took another bubble bath with my pants on
All the fighting stopped
Next time I'll do it sooner
This is the ballad of Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
Well
Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
Well
song performed by by Prince
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
Dorothy was a waitress on the promenade
She worked the night shift
Dishwater blonde, tall and fine
She got a lot of tips
Well, earlier Id been talkin stuff
In a violent room
Fighting with lovers past
I needed someone with a quicker wit than mine
Dorothy was fast
Well, I ordered - yeah, let me get a fruit cocktail, I aint 2 hungry
Dorothy laughed
She said sounds like a real man 2 me
Kinda cute, u wanna take a bath?
(do you wanna, do you wanna, bath)
I said cool, but Im leaving my pants on (she say)
Cuz Im kind of going with someone
She said sounds like a real man 2 me
Mind if I turn on the radio?
Oh, my favorite song she said
And it was joni singing help me I think Im falling
(ring)
The phone rang and she said
Whoevers calling cant be as cute as u
Right then I knew I was through
(dorothy parker was cool)
My pants where wet, they came off
But she didnt see the movie
Cuz she hadnt read the book first
Instead she pretended she was blind
An affliction brought on by a witchs curse
Dorothy made me laugh (ha ha)
I felt much better so I went back
2 the violent room (tell us what u did)
Let me tell u what I did...
I took another bubble bath with my pants on
All the fighting stopped
Next time Ill do it sooner
This is the ballad of dorothy parker
Dorothy parker, dorothy parker, dorothy parker
Dorothy parker, dorothy parker, dorothy parker
Well
Dorothy parker, dorothy parker
Well
song performed by by Prince
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Dilemma
If I were mild, and I were sweet,
And laid my heart before your feet,
And took my dearest thoughts to you,
And hailed your easy lies as true;
Were I to murmur "Yes," and then
"How true, my dear," and "Yes," again,
And wear my eyes discreetly down,
And tremble whitely at your frown,
And keep my words unquestioning
My love, you'd run like anything!
Should I be frail, and I be mad,
And share my heart with every lad,
But beat my head against the floor
What times you wandered past my door;
Were I to doubt, and I to sneer,
And shriek "Farewell!" and still be here,
And break your joy, and quench your trust-
I should not see you for the dust!
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Story
"And if he's gone away," said she,
"Good riddance, if you're asking me.
I'm not a one to lie awake
And weep for anybody's sake.
There's better lads than him about!
I'll wear my buckled slippers out
A-dancing till the break of day.
I'm better off with him away!
And if he never come," said she,
"Now what on earth is that to me?
I wouldn't have him back!"
I hope
Her mother washed her mouth with soap.
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
For A Sad Lady
And let her loves, when she is dead,
Write this above her bones:
"No more she lives to give us bread
Who asked her only stones."
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Threnody
(after Dorothy Parker)
Jacarandas flower in the street,
and maybe for you my feelings did not matter
while the trees’ scent hangs pervasive and sweet
my life is broke as if our love does shatter.
Maybe our separation is a blessing
and I wipe the tears away,
while it feels as if all meaning is missing
and the sun is bright at the beginning of day.
Outside birds in those trees are whistling
and there’s tightness in my breast
from our painful parting
and in my own city I feel like a guest
that has overstayed his welcome
while I am lost without a home.
[Reference: Threnody by Dorothy Parker.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Thought For A Sunshiny Morning
It costs me never a stab nor squirm
To tread by chance upon a worm.
"Aha, my little dear," I say,
"Your clan will pay me back one day."
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Solace
There was a rose that faded young;
I saw its shattered beauty hung
Upon a broken stem.
I heard them say, "What need to care
With roses budding everywhere?"
I did not answer them.
There was a bird, brought down to die;
They said, "A hundred fill the sky-
What reason to be sad?"
There was a girl, whose lover fled;
I did not wait, the while they said,
"There's many another lad."
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
To Newcastle
I met a man the other day-
A kindly man, and serious-
Who viewed me in a thoughtful way,
And spoke me so, and spoke me thus:
"Oh, dallying's a sad mistake;
'Tis craven to survey the morrow!
Go give your heart, and if it break-
A wise companion is Sorrow.
"Oh, live, my child, nor keep your soul
To crowd your coffin when you're dead...."
I asked his work; he dealt in coal,
And shipped it up the Tyne, he said.
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Dramatists
A string of shiny days we had,
A spotless sky, a yellow sun;
And neither you nor I was sad
When that was through and done.
But when, one day, a boy comes by
And pleads me with your happiest vow,
"There was a lad I knew--" I'll sigh,
"I do not know him now."
And when another girl shall pass
And speak a little name I said,
Then you will say, "There was a lass-
I wonder is she dead."
And each of us will sigh, and start
A-talking of a faded year,
And lay a hand above a heart,
And dry a pretty tear.
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Outside the spring is blossoming
(after Dorothy Parker)
Outside the spring is blossoming
while a myriad of birds sing,
later in the afternoon
it might be raining
but it matters not,
even the summer days that I have got
are far too quickly passing
and some are cold and others hot.
There’s a new lady that I might adore
waiting at my front door
and I wonder what will be
her impression of me?
I see her sparkling eyes and shining hair
while she looks lovely and fair,
if she stays or leaves, such things have happened before,
she will be only one more.
[Reference: “The new love” by Dorothy Parker.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Healed
Oh, when I flung my heart away,
The year was at its fall.
I saw my dear, the other day,
Beside a flowering wall;
And this was all I had to say:
"I thought that he was tall!"
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
They Part
And if, my friend, you'd have it end,
There's naught to hear or tell.
But need you try to black my eye
In wishing me farewell.
Though I admit an edged wit
In woe is warranted,
May I be frank? . . . Such words as "-"
Are better left unsaid.
There's rosemary for you and me;
But is it usual, dear,
To hire a man, and fill a van
By way of souvenir?
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Autumn Valentine
In May my heart was breaking-
Oh, wide the wound, and deep!
And bitter it beat at waking,
And sore it split in sleep.
And when it came November,
I sought my heart, and sighed,
"Poor thing, do you remember?"
"What heart was that?" it cried.
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
On Cheating The Fiddler
"Then we will have tonight!" we said.
"Tomorrow- may we not be dead?"
The morrow touched our eyes, and found
Us walking firm above the ground,
Our pulses quick, our blood alight.
Tomorrow's gone- we'll have tonight!
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Cherry White
I never see that prettiest thing-
A cherry bough gone white with Spring-
But what I think, "How gay 'twould be
To hang me from a flowering tree."
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Thomas Carlyle
Carlyle combined the lit'ry life
With throwing teacups at his wife,
Remarking, rather testily,
"Oh, stop your dodging, Mrs. C.!"
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
He said that everyone will have a house
(after Ena Murray)
He said that everyone will have a house
who believe in Him and in His words
and keenly I want to live in a place,
even if I stumble in my inability.
A place where it's always summer,
where a garden stretches out for hectares,
where all of my animals, now missing to death,
will move in with me,
where one day I would pick
rose on rose or any other flower
and even if at times you blush,
I would embrace you nurturing
and still I wonder
if I would also admire you there?
[Reference: "Roosknop vir ‘n engel" ("Rosebud for an angel") by Ena Murray.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Sonnet For The End Of A Sequence
So take my vows and scatter them to sea;
Who swears the sweetest is no more than human.
And say no kinder words than these of me:
"Ever she longed for peace, but was a woman!
And thus they are, whose silly female dust
Needs little enough to clutter it and bind it,
Who meet a slanted gaze, and ever must
Go build themselves a soul to dwell behind it."
For now I am my own again, my friend!
This scar but points the whiteness of my breast;
This frenzy, like its betters, spins an end,
And now I am my own. And that is best.
Therefore, I am immeasurably grateful
To you, for proving shallow, false, and hateful.
poem by Dorothy Parker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!