Recitative
Regard the capture here, 0 Janus-faced,
As double as the hands that twist this glass.
Such eves at search or rest you cannot see;
Reciting pain or glee, how can you bear!
Twin shadowed halves: the breaking, second holds t,
In each the skin alone, and so it is
I crust a plate of vibrant mercury
Borne cleft to you, and brother in the half.
Inquire this much-exacting fragment smile,
Its drums and darkest blowing leaves ignore,-
Defer though, revocation of the tears
That yield attendance to one crucial sign.
Look steadily-how the wind feasts and spins
The brain's disk shivered against lust. Then watch
While darkness, like an ape's face, falls away,
And gradually white buildings answer day.
Let the same nameless gulf beleaguer us-
Alike suspend us from atrocious sums
Built floor by floor on shafts of steel that grant
The plummet heart, like Absalom, no stream.
The highest tower,-let her ribs palisade
Wrenched gold of Nineveh;-yet leave the tower.
The bridge swings over salvage, beyond wharves;
A wind abides the ensign of your will . . .
In alternating bells have you not heard
All hours clapped dense into a single stride?
Forgive me for an echo of these things,
And let us walk through time with equal pride.
poem by Harold Hart Crane
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Related quotes
My Canadian Chronicles 16
The tower stood majestic
against the evening sky.
The idea was to go up to the top
and take some photos of the views
that stretched over Calgary.
The plan was OK;
however, the tower had a platform
with a glass floor you could stand on
and look over 500 feet down at the street below.
Everyone said take a picture over there.
Like the fool I am I looked down
and grabbed the nearest post with white knuckles
as I stepped out on the glass.
I moved slowly forwards,
completely mortified.
Looking down I snapped the photo
of my feet on the glass and the street below.
I got off quicker than I got on,
my knees knocking, heart thumping.
It was so disconcerting
just standing on glass and looking down.
It took me a half an hour to gather my composure.
Now ask me if I would do it again
after the initial shock has left my mind.
The answer would be a resounding,
YES!
12 June 2009
poem by David Harris
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The House Of Dust: Part 01: 07: Midnight; bells toll, and along the cloud-high towers
Midnight; bells toll, and along the cloud-high towers
The golden lights go out . . .
The yellow windows darken, the shades are drawn,
In thousands of rooms we sleep, we await the dawn,
We lie face down, we dream,
We cry aloud with terror, half rise, or seem
To stare at the ceiling or walls . . .
Midnight . . . the last of shattering bell-notes falls.
A rush of silence whirls over the cloud-high towers,
A vortex of soundless hours.
'The bells have just struck twelve: I should be sleeping.
But I cannot delay any longer to write and tell you.
The woman is dead.
She died—you know the way. Just as we planned.
Smiling, with open sunlit eyes.
Smiling upon the outstretched fatal hand . . .'
He folds his letter, steps softly down the stairs.
The doors are closed and silent. A gas-jet flares.
His shadow disturbs a shadow of balustrades.
The door swings shut behind. Night roars above him.
Into the night he fades.
Wind; wind; wind; carving the walls;
Blowing the water that gleams in the street;
Blowing the rain, the sleet.
In the dark alley, an old tree cracks and falls,
Oak-boughs moan in the haunted air;
Lamps blow down with a crash and tinkle of glass . . .
Darkness whistles . . . Wild hours pass . . .
And those whom sleep eludes lie wide-eyed, hearing
Above their heads a goblin night go by;
Children are waked, and cry,
The young girl hears the roar in her sleep, and dreams
That her lover is caught in a burning tower,
She clutches the pillow, she gasps for breath, she screams . . .
And then by degrees her breath grows quiet and slow,
She dreams of an evening, long ago:
Of colored lanterns balancing under trees,
Some of them softly catching afire;
And beneath the lanterns a motionless face she sees,
Golden with lamplight, smiling, serene . . .
The leaves are a pale and glittering green,
The sound of horns blows over the trampled grass,
Shadows of dancers pass . . .
The face smiles closer to hers, she tries to lean
Backward, away, the eyes burn close and strange,
The face is beginning to change,—
It is her lover, she no longer desires to resist,
She is held and kissed.
She closes her eyes, and melts in a seethe of flame . . .
With a smoking ghost of shame . . .
Wind, wind, wind . . . Wind in an enormous brain
Blowing dark thoughts like fallen leaves . . .
The wind shrieks, the wind grieves;
It dashes the leaves on walls, it whirls then again;
And the enormous sleeper vaguely and stupidly dreams
And desires to stir, to resist a ghost of pain.
One, whom the city imprisoned because of his cunning,
Who dreamed for years in a tower,
Seizes this hour
Of tumult and wind. He files through the rusted bar,
Leans his face to the rain, laughs up at the night,
Slides down the knotted sheet, swings over the wall,
To fall to the street with a cat-like fall,
Slinks round a quavering rim of windy light,
And at last is gone,
Leaving his empty cell for the pallor of dawn . . .
The mother whose child was buried to-day
Turns her face to the window; her face is grey;
And all her body is cold with the coldness of rain.
He would have grown as easily as a tree,
He would have spread a pleasure of shade above her,
He would have been his father again . . .
His growth was ended by a freezing invisible shadow.
She lies, and does not move, and is stabbed by the rain.
Wind, wind, wind; we toss and dream;
We dream we are clouds and stars, blown in a stream:
Windows rattle above our beds;
We reach vague-gesturing hands, we lift our heads,
Hear sounds far off,—and dream, with quivering breath,
Our curious separate ways through life and death.
poem by Conrad Potter Aiken
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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A Single Candle/Death Herself
A single flame lights her face
The face of death
A single candle holds her fears
The fears of death
Her hands clasped anrond their souls
The souls of the dead
She feeds of their screams
The screams of the dead
Her legs lay bellow her
Bellow death
Her black gown over her body
The body of death
Her chest rises and falls with her breath
The breath of death
Her cloak drawn over her long flowing jet hair
The face of death
Her eyes unmoved unfeeling
Do you see it?
Do you see the soul of death?
Do you feel it?
Her skin as white as snow as it fades into darkness
The snow of tears
Her cloths as dark as night that swallows the light
The dark we all shall see
Her eyes close as she feels their souls flow
Flow from the dead
She leaves them there to lay in darkness
She steals from the dead
A single candle lights their faces filled with her
Filled with death
They fall into the darkness of her eyes, of her heart
The darkness of death
A single candle shall stay to light their way
Their way through the dark
A single candle holds their past
The pain and trials
A single candle lights her face
The face of death
A single candle holds her fears
The fears of death herself
A single candle
poem by Bethany Maxwell
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Wind Blows And Stops
wind blows and stops
like a cycle of grief and glee
wind when blows brings with it many natural things
and grief, when they come
bring lot of tension, aggression and apprehension
when wind gets tired it stops and move away
leaves a message to come later
when a person has faced lot of sorrows
they are all gone
and leave a message to come later
wind blows and stops
like a cycle of grief and glee
wind blows and brings a new season, a refreshing weather
and glee, when it comes
it brings lot of hopes, aspirations, cheerfulness, exhilaration and jubilation
and when wind and glee have given sufficient happiness
they all are gone
and leave a message that they'll come later
for these all may come and these may go
but life goes on forever.
wind blows and stops
like a cycle of grief and glee
poem by Sudipta Pathak
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The Wind is Blowing
The wind is blowing,
Blowing slow and fast on my skin,
Blowing fast and hard on his skin.
The wind is cold tonight,
Blowing scary in the woods,
Blowing swiftly throw the night.
The wind is warm today,
Blowing hard in town,
Blowing soft in the county.
The wind is cool,
Blowing all the time,
As they say,
The wind is blowing!
poem by Angela M. Maynard
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Love Lost Broken Hearts
Love Lost Broken Hearts
Within the time love is lost
Thrown asunder into the
Wind
Left
Many broken hearts to live
In loneliness
Broken down piece by piece
Weaken just to mourn a love
That was once beautiful
But Now
Just tossed into the wind
Like the petals from the rose
Destined to ride upon the
Wind
Now used and broken
Just
Tears fills the wind
Sobbing echo's into the night
From the broken hearts
Tossed away like broken
Glass
Ancient and old as the lost
Love is trapped
Within time
Within the mind
Love that is lost from time
Back than
Weaken from the fight trying
To hold their lover heart
But
Cannot be regained
Cannot be mended
Spoiled without even a
'Sigh'
From her lover's heart
Just echo's of hurt and tears
From
The painful ruins of love tied
So strong
Being tossed to the wind as
Unwanted paper
Lonely eyes
Lonely hearts
Lonely tears
Just rides and echo's in the
Wind
Crying out for their love
That cannot be found
So desperately in need
To find their place in
The heart of the wind
That holds all their tears
Their fears
Their Pain
That bleeds into the heart
Of the wind
From The Love That Is Lost
And The Broken hearts..
poem by Carolyn Sears
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Building The Bridge
Father to son, husband to wife
Brother to brother, black man to white
Living together, falling apart
Looking for the common ground in every human heart
It all comes down to the two of us
Yeah this is where we start
We are building the bridge
One small stone at a time
With a lot of love
And some help from above
From your heart to mine
Theres a land of justice, cities filled with pride
A mountain of hope, just on the other side
Across a river of indifference, and a valley of despair
Theres a tower of courage, piercing through the air
I have a dream for our children, I want to take them there
And we are building the bridge
One small stone at a time
With a lot of love
And some help from above
From your heart to mine
As we seek out understanding
As we learn to forgive
When we open up our minds
When our words are true and kind
We are building the bridge
song performed by by Reo Speedwagon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Cloudy Day
It is windy today. A wall of wind crashes against,
windows clunk against, iron frames
as wind swings past broken glass
and seethes, like a frightened cat
in empty spaces of the cellblock.
In the exercise yard
we sat huddled in our prison jackets,
on our haunches against the fence,
and the wind carried our words
over the fences,
while the vigilant guard on the tower
held his cap at the sudden gust.
I could see the main tower from where I sat,
and the wind in my face
gave me the feeling I could grasp
the tower like a cornstalk,
and snap it from its roots of rock.
The wind plays it like a flute,
this hollow shoot of rock.
The brim girded with barbwire
with a guard sitting there also,
listening intently to the sounds
as clouds cover the sun.
I thought of the day I was coming to prison,
in the back seat of a police car,
hands and ankles chained, the policeman pointed,
“See that big water tank? The big
silver one out there, sticking up?
That’s the prison.”
And here I am, I cannot believe it.
Sometimes it is such a dream, a dream,
where I stand up in the face of the wind,
like now, it blows at my jacket,
and my eyelids flick a little bit,
while I stare disbelieving. . . .
The third day of spring,
and four years later, I can tell you,
how a man can endure, how a man
can become so cruel, how he can die
or become so cold. I can tell you this,
I have seen it every day, every day,
and still I am strong enough to love you,
love myself and feel good;
even as the earth shakes and trembles,
and I have not a thing to my name,
I feel as if I have everything, everything.
poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca
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Things We Said
By the town where you said you'd still love me
By an ocean just seven miles wide
We could walk across that bridge
Watch the water flow under
Leave all our troubles behind
Well maybe you don't quite remember
Lying there on your living room floor
With your parents over head we went to sneak up into your bed
In the mornings I'd be sneaking out your door
I'd do anything at all to make you happy
Anything at all to see you smile
Well lord knows I tried
But didn't always do right
Take back every tear I made you cry
By the town where you said you'd still love me
By an ocean just seven miles wide
We could walk across that bridge
Watch the water flow under
Leave all our troubles behind
Ah yeah
Five years ago I was much older
Time comes and takes it all away
To have and to hold to death do us part
Leaves me with a thousand things to say
I said sometimes I don't quite remember
What I did to make you leave
With the moon up over head
I lie awake alone in my bed
Without you it's so hard to be me
By the town where you said you'd still love me
By an ocean just seven miles wide
We could walk across that bridge
Watch the water flow under
Leave all our troubles behind
By the town where you said you'd still love me
By an ocean just seven miles wide
We could walk across that bridge
Watch the water flow under
Leave all our troubles behind
song performed by by Nine Days
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Brother, Can You Spare A Dime
Once I built a railroad...made it run
Made it race against time
Once I built a railroad...now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime
Once I built a tower...to the sun
Bricks...rivet...and lime
Once I built a tower...now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime
Once in cocky suits
Gee, we looked swell
Full of that Yankee Doodle-dom
Half a million boots..they went
slogging through Hell
And I..I was a kid with a drum
Say, don't you remember..
They called me Al
It was Al all the time
Say, don't you remember
I'm your pal
Buddy, can you spare a dime.....
song performed by by Tom Jones
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ghost's Parade
Tower of bricks and dark arches shadow,
empty square - ghost's fair
Murmurs, of licking dogs,
chatting at the table floor,
The sunrise silence, at the wind blowing knitter,
at the crows, picking litters.
Shivering doors, keeping warm
chimney chug, roofs of broken tile's
perfume of musk in the air.
Fun fair screams of leaf's blow by wind.
Parade, of charioteers and reins
At the whinny of a forlorn carousel
Horse of trumpets, and ridden drums
poem by Luca Menin
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Bitter Twist
how was your mother with the news?
did she really like me?
i know that i ain't the nicest girl
but tell her i'm trying
pre-chorus:
i'm trying to clean up the
house that i live in and i'm trying to pay off
all the debts i made
and i'm trying to make myself
look pretty with make up
oh lord i try but your mom looks
at me with those evil eyes'cos
chorus 1:
i messed you up in a bitter
twis tonight
hit the floor and put you down
i've always found that
i messed you up in a bitter twist tonight
hit the floor and put you down
i'm changed woman from now
verse 2:
so i dream and my dreams
have always failed
i come across frightening
and you're an achiever with high grades
so why do you like me
pre-chorus 2:
but if your gonna stay i'll be what
you wnat me to be
and if you stick around i'll make you
breakfast right
and just hold on a little bit longer my baby
i tell you now once i was lost
but now i'm found 'cos
chorus 2:
i messed you up in a bitter
twist tonight
hit the floor and put you down
i've always found that
i messed you up in a bitter
twist tonight
hit the floor and put you down
i'm changed woman from....
and now 'cos i messed you up
in a bitter twist tonight
hit the floor and put you down
i've always found that
i messed you up in a bitter twist tonight
hit the floor and put you down
i'm changed woman from now
bridge:
the day that i realized that i did you wrong
tying both your hands and heart
so i could run on
weak girl with a messed up mind
that's what i want breaking down in
desperate heartache
if i could take it back i'd give you-acapo
song performed by by Vanessa Amorosi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Victim 0001, a poem of 9/11
Father Mychal Judge bent down
to the woman on the floor.
His right hand made the cross in sign
like oft he had before.
Above him the North Tower Burned
like South Tower just next door.
The chaplain of the firemen,
Mychal was a Catholic priest.
Born and bred in Brooklyn,
He was no stranger to these streets.
When he heard word about the planes,
his safety he ignored..
He had to go be with his boys
His trust was in the Lord.
The people in the towers had
the choice to burn or fly.
So many that day took the plunge
preferring not to fry.
The raging fires melted steel.
South Tower started to collapse
The Bravest in her stairwells
never heard recall perhaps.
“Sweet Jesus, Make this end now! ”
Some heard Father Mychal cry.
Debris from the South Tower
Like a scythe came flying by.
It was blunt force trauma to the head
laid Father Mychal low.
His friends removed his body
before North tower, too, would go.
Thousands passed that terrible day;
the mighty and the small.
When responders came with body bags
Mychal was first of all.
Zero Zero Zero One
A strange number for a Priest,
who rushed where Angels feared to tread,
not fearful in the least
poem by John F. McCullagh
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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God Is A DJ
[VERSE 1:]
I've been the girl with her skirt pulled high
Been the outcast never running with mascara eyes
Now I see the world as a candy store
With a cigarette smile, saying things you can't ignore
Like Mommy I love you
Daddy I hate you
Brother I need you
Lover, hey "f*** you"
I can see everything here with my third eye
Like the blue in the sky
[CHORUS:]
If God is a DJ
Life is a dance floor
Love is the rhythm
You are the music
If God is a DJ
Life is a dance floor
You get what you're given
It's all how you use it
[Verse 2:]
I've been the girl- middle finger in the air
Unaffected by rumors, the truth: I don't care
So open your mouth and stick out your tongue
You might as well let go, you can't take back what you've done
So find a new lifestyle
A new reason to smile
Look for Nirvana
Under the strobe lights
Sequins and sex dreams
You whisper to me
There's no reason to cry
[CHORUS:]
If God is a DJ
Life is a dance floor
Love is the rhythm
You are the music
If God is a DJ
Life is a dance floor
You get what you're given
It's all how you use it
[BRIDGE:]
You take what you get and you get what you give
I say don't run from yourself, man, that's no way to live
I've got a record in my bag you should give it a spin
Lift your hands in the air so that life can begin
If God Is a DJ... If God
If God is a DJ (life is a dance floor)
Get your ass on the dance floor
[CHORUS (2X):]
If God is a DJ
Life is a dance floor
Love is the rhythm
You are the music
If God is a DJ
Life is a dance floor
You get what you're given
It's all how you use it
song performed by by Pink
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ode To The Old
As a premature spring rain is born to an early March wind, a heavy heart carries unfulfilled dreams within my soul.
Rain falls steadily never to cease or console, as if only to circumvent my actions for a short while, contorting and adding more difficulty as the March wind howls and blows.
The mind wanders and reaches for a tiny fragment of youth as wrought iron rusts and a March wind swirls paying tribute to the Ode to the old.
Nearby trees yield to and fro, struggling to stand tall as the unforgiving wrath carries on.
Once supple hands are now crippled by an unforgiving touch of an ode to the old.
Warning Bells
Warning Bells
Reaching for that bottle, your hand on that throttle,
getting ready to ride without a guide,
down that road, that road to hell.
Wake up before it's too late,
before you reach that gate.
Let go of the hate,
think of your mate.
Looking at life through the bottom of a bottle,
hands shaking,
body quaking.
One of these days you won't be waking.
Don't you hear them Warning Bells?
Shatter that bottle on the floor,
turn around, walk out that door,
do it for you. Listen to them Warning Bells.
Only time will tell if you heard,
heard them bells.
Don't find yourself on the floor, anymore,
turn around say no more, walk out that door.
You're off that road that road to hell.
You've heard them Warning, Warning Bells.
poem by Lucille van OnselenZunckel
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Born On The Wind
(orbison/dees)
Borne on the wind,
Borne on the wind
Between the sunset and the dawn.
So tenderly your memory
Lingers with me on and on
Borne on the wind,
Borne on the wind
You are still with me it seems
A life to live, a love to give,
And you will live in my dreams.
You dont love me,
But you love for me to be in love with you.
You lured me on,led me on
But when I fell you were gone.
Borne on the wind,
Borne on the wind,
Now a song in my heart.
A soft refrain you will remain
To live in my heart again
Borne on the wind,
Borne on the wind,
Borne on the wind.
song performed by by Roy Orbison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Want a Wind
I want a wind
To start in the far-off mountain
To rush down in a raging fury
And fill this dull and silent valley.
I want a wind
To wrap around the gray tree trunks
To rattle the leaves and grass
To whistle by the window’s glass.
I want a wind
To make the pine trees clack together
To tangle the hair of the Barbie girls
To make the dust on the roads to swirl.
I want a wind
To take the litter on the sidewalk away
To blow the mist from the falls my way
To echo throughout this listless day.
I want a wind
To burst through the window and into here
To scatter the papers from their neat piles
To steal my breath and give me smile.
poem by Sophia White
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Double Wide Paradise
(paul thorn/billy maddox)
I dont want to cry
I dont want to walk the floor
This mobile home
Dont feel like home no more
Since you left tell me what else can I do
Just come back home
Forgive me and forget it
This bed I made
Im tired of sleepin in it
Its freezin cold, and baby that aint cool
Im waitin on you
Here at the ponderosa trailer park
There wasnt nothin that could keep us apart
Then I broke your heart, in our
Double wide, double wide, double wide paradise
Come on back to our double wide paradise
Double wide, double wide paradise
I bought a swimmin pool
From the man at sears
He put it together
I filled it up with tears
Cant find no happiness no matter what I do
Just cause I got
The treasures of the world
It dont mean nothin
If I aint got you girl
Inside my castle
I got the king size blues
Im waitin on you
So baby when you get to feelin alone
You know I always leave my porch light on
So you can come back home, to our
Double wide, double wide, double wide paradise
Come on back to our double wide paradise
Double wide, double wide paradise
We can have a second honeymoon
Well throw some ribs on the barbecue
Just like we used to do
Double wide, double wide, double wide paradise
Come on back to our double wide paradise
Double wide, double wide paradise
song performed by by Toby Keith
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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