The Fallen Spire [A Flemish Village]
THE spire is gone, that slept for centuries,
Mirrored among the lilies, calm and low:
And now the water holds but empty skies,
Through which the rivers of the thunder flow.
The church lies broken near the fallen spire:
For here, among these old and human things,
Death sweeps along the street with feet of fire,
And goes upon his way with moaning wings.
On pavements by the kneeling herdsmen worn
The drifting fleeces of the shells are rolled
Above the Saints a village Christ forlorn,
Wounded again, looks down upon his fold.
And silence follows fast: no evening peace,
But leaden stillness, when the thunder wanes,
Haunting the slender branches of the trees,
And settling low upon the listless plains.
poem by Herbert Asquith
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Related quotes
Signes of an apocalypse
Midnight's wings
Raven's Flight
the moon wanes
this sweet night
everyting lies ahead
while nothing lies behind
the sounds of silence,
the stillness of noise,
Calm of the fight,
violence of peace,
obliderated in an instant,
by the sign of the beast
poem by Jake Caranto
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Fallen, Empty, And Broken
fallen soldier
fallen sky
fallen angel
from on high
fallen heartache
fallen soul
fallen man
losing control
empty bed
empty arms
empty dreams
empty heart
empty wallet
empty hands
cant take nothin'
from an empty man
broken promises
broken vows
broken spirit
wont allow
broken fences
broken lives
broken tomorrows
broken nights
fallen, empty, and broken
every road is the same
bent, bruised, and shaken
still numb from the pain
now you dont answer
when i call out your name
fallen, empty, and broken
walking in the rain...
fallen, empty, and broken...
poem by Eric Cockrell
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The Coming Of War
Strong from the hills it comes, and flowing
rivers;
Swift from the waters of the rising seas;
Swift on the chilling heart that waits and quivers
With a terror of hideousies.
Behind grey mist it comes, and creeping cloud
That licks the fading earth with foetid breath.
From plains it comes, and silent lakes – a shroud
That holds unloosed the damned brigades of
death.
It sweeps and passes. Everything is dead-
Broken with foulness-ravished as it bled!
A blow, a weeping! Then a silence lies.
Faint bells low-tinkling from the bloody sod
Rise from the depths of heart, and touch the skies,
And murmur at the very stairs of God.
poem by Leon Gellert
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A Recusant
THE CHURCH stands there beyond the orchard-blooms:
How yearningly I gaze upon its spire!
Lifted mysterious through the twilight glooms,
Dissolving in the sunset’s golden fire,
Or dim as slender incense morn by morn
Ascending to the blue and open sky.
For ever when my heart feels most forlorn
It murmurs to me with a weary sigh,
How sweet to enter in, to kneel and pray
With all the others whom we love so well!
All disbelief and, doubt might pass away,
All peace float to us with its Sabbath bell.
Conscience replies, There is but one good rest,
Whose head is pillowed upon Truth’s pure breast.
poem by James Thomson
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Monk (1)
and in the half-light of the abbey church,
candles flickering,
a kneeling stillness
for years of days
prayer
so that to be is to pray
to pray is to be and
to be is to love and
to love is to understand for
there are no questions
when silence holds all answers
candles flickering,
a kneeling stillness
poem by Michael Shepherd
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The Trees, The River, The Skies And The Sea
the trees that we cut, the rivers that we pollute,
the sea that we abuse, the skies that we cut from our sights,
the explosions, the wars, the blunders
that man inflicted on his world
this is felt and everything destroyed once wriggled in pain
on this misery. what have we done? what have all these creatures
and landscapes done to deserve our cruelty
and insensitivity?
we may be gone at the end, when they take the vengeance
the sea opens up and swallows everything
the skies spit fire and thunder
the trees all die and the land fumes all the lava hidden underneath
we will lose every breath
and they may rejoice about our deaths and dissolution
there will be peace
but there will be no more meaning
for in truth, whatever we do, on these miserable events
they all exist and have meaning
because it is still we who give them, their meanings too.
why can't we live in harmony? the sea, the trees, the land, the clouds,
the skies, the rivers, they all want to embrace us
we belong to them
and they to us.
let us stop this cruelty, they are all our allies, our lovers.
as they worship us, we too must worship them.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Like The Rain
I never liked the rain until I walked through it with you
Every thunder cloud that came was one more I might not get through
On the darkest day theres always light and now I see it too
But I never liked the rain until I walked through it with you
I hear it falling in the night and filling up my mind
All the heavens rivers come to light and I see it all unwind
I hear it talking through the trees and on the window pane
And when I hear it I just cant believe I never liked the rain
Like the rain I have fallen for you and I know just why you
Liked the rain always calling for you Im falling for you now
Just like the rain
When the cloud is rolling over thunder striking me
Its as bright as lightning and I wonder why I couldnt see
That its always good and when the flood is gone we still remain
Guess Ive known all along I just belong here with you falling
Like the rain I have fallen for you and I know just why you
Liked the rain always calling for you, Im falling for you now
Just like the rain I have fallen for you
Im falling for you know just like the rain
And when the night falls on our better days
And were looking to the sky
For the winds to take us high above the plains
I know that well find better ways to look into the eye
Of the storms that will be calling
Forever well be falling
Like the rain I have fallen for you, and I know just why you
Like the rain always calling for you, Im falling for you now just
Like the rain I have fallen for you and I know just why you
Like the rain always calling for you, Im falling for you now just
Like the rain I have fallen for you and I know just why you
Like the rain always calling for you, Im falling for you now just
Like the rain
Like the rain
Like the rain
Like the rain
Like the rain
Like the rain
song performed by by Clint Black
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Yattendon
Among the woods and tillage
That fringe the topmost downs,
All lonely lies the village,
Far off from seas and towns.
Yet when her own folk slumbered
I heard within her street
Murmur of men unnumbered
And march of myriad feet.
For all she lies so lonely,
Far off from towns and seas,
The village holds not only
The roofs beneath her trees:
While Life is sweet and tragic
And Death is veiled and dumb,
Hither, by singer's magic,
The pilgrim world must come.
poem by Sir Henry Newbolt
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Black Thunder
black thunder/ broken pieces, tired eyes.
church bells silent ringing, crow feet scarred pillows.
small children walking, without tongues praying,
wagon wheels bogged down in sand.
black thunder/ second hand lives, worn out lies.
dead soldiers mournful singing, borrowed tomorrows.
blind mouths moving, talking without saying,
unlit rooms forged by fugitive hands.
black thunder/ pregnant women without faces.
waves lapping orphan feet, ships lost in the storm.
refugee stars lost in unmarked skies,
an old tree dying rotting on the ground.
black thunder/ families disappearing without traces.
trash blown deserted streets, old men waiting to be born.
molded crucifixes, covered with flies,
clouds chant scriptures without a sound.
(guns silent weeping,
angels prayerful sweeping.
dreams born dying, dreams unfolding,
looking without seeing, touching without holding.)
black thunder/ hungry barefoot ghosts whisper.
priests covered in blood, empty windows open.
tiny infinities wrapped in colored matchsticks,
nowhere standing lost by the road.
black thunder/ brothers burying virgin sisters.
dialogue without talking, homeless heroes smoking.
ants' prophecies well hidden, time worn bricks,
strangers huddled against the cold.
black thunder/ salvation starved borrowed clothes.
smoke charred walls, forever dripping to the floor.
flesh tokens paid, lifetimes yet unforgiven,
candles dressed in cemetery suits.
black thunder/ nobody cares, nobody knows.
horses stomping stalls, doors open to doors.
while the dead barter for the living,
with bayonets and religious boots....
black thunder!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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An Evening
TO break the stillness of the hour
There is no sound, no voice, no stir;
Only the croak of frogs,—the whirr
Of crickets hidden in leaf and flower.
The clear-cut outlines of a spire
Spring from a mass of eucalypt
Sharply against the sky,—still tipped
With one last gleam of lingering fire.
So solemnly the shadows creep;
On dovelike wings Night flutters down;
Lights twinkle in the little town;
The valley lies in quiet sleep.
So comes the dark, so fades the light,
On all those leagues of tossing sea
That lie between my home and me,
And glimmer to the stars all night.
And so, belovèd, silently
In thine own land the shadows fall
On grassy lawn, and garden-wall,
On shining sand, and troubled sea,—
On paths thy feet shall never tread,—
On fields thine eyes shall never see,—
And on thy new home, strange to me,
That silent City of the Dead!
Yea, stillness rests, O Tried and True,
On hand and heart, on lips and eyes!
On thee eternal silence lies,
On thee is utter darkness too.
We lost too much in losing thee,
Yet we who knew and loved thee best,
Wish thee an everlasting rest,
Night came on thee so quietly.
Peace with the Shadows! Peace to all
Who work and weep, who pray and wait;
Till we and thou are one with Fate,
And on us too, the Night shall fall!
poem by Dora Wilcox
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Dark & Long
Thunder thunder lightning ahead...long
Kiss you kiss you dark and long
Thunder thunder lightning ahead
Thunder thunder lightning
Thunder thunder lightning ahead
Now I kiss you dark and long
Thunder thunder lightning ahead...long
Kiss you kiss you dark and long...long
Me Im just a waitress she said
I went and bought a new head she said
I look at you I believe in you she said
Screaming into the eye of the lens
I want to smash it up
I want to break it down
I want a wall of tears...to wash away
Thunder thunder lightning ahead
Thunder thunder lightning
Thunder thunder lightning ahead
Now I kiss you dark and long
Filled with tainted girls and motel frills
What a laugh
You was done up there mate
Thunder thunder lightning ahead
I could kiss you dark and long
Thunder thunder lightning ahead
Now I kiss you dark and long
Shout your love
The stars are black
The church is sweet
My skin is hot
Thunder thunder lightning ahead
Now I kiss you dark and long
Shout your love
song performed by by Underworld
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Siberia
The night-wind drives across the leaden skies,
And fans the brooding earth with icy wings;
Against the coast loud-booming billows flings,
And soughs through forest-deeps with moaning sighs.
Above the gorge, where snow, deep fallen, lies—
A softness lending e'en to savage things—
Above the gelid source of mountain springs,
A solitary eagle, circling, flies.
O pathless woods, O isolating sea,
O steppes interminable, hopeless, cold,
O grievous distances, imagine ye,
Imprisoned here, the human soul to hold?
Free, in a dungeon,—as yon falcon free,—
It soars beyond your ken, its loved ones to infold!
poem by Florence Earle Coates from Poems (1898)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Death-Bed
He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped
Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls;
Aqueous like floating rays of amber light,
Soaring and quivering in the wings of sleep.
Silence and safety; and his mortal shore
Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death.
Someone was holding water to his mouth.
He swallowed, unresisting; moaned and dropped
Through crimson gloom to darkness; and forgot
The opiate throb and ache that was his wound.
Water—calm, sliding green above the weir.
Water—a sky-lit alley for his boat,
Bird- voiced, and bordered with reflected flowers
And shaken hues of summer; drifting down,
He dipped contented oars, and sighed, and slept.
Night, with a gust of wind, was in the ward,
Blowing the curtain to a glimmering curve.
Night. He was blind; he could not see the stars
Glinting among the wraiths of wandering cloud;
Queer blots of colour, purple, scarlet, green,
Flickered and faded in his drowning eyes.
Rain—he could hear it rustling through the dark;
Fragrance and passionless music woven as one;
Warm rain on drooping roses; pattering showers
That soak the woods; not the harsh rain that sweeps
Behind the thunder, but a trickling peace,
Gently and slowly washing life away.
He stirred, shifting his body; then the pain
Leapt like a prowling beast, and gripped and tore
His groping dreams with grinding claws and fangs.
But someone was beside him; soon he lay
Shuddering because that evil thing had passed.
And death, who'd stepped toward him, paused and stared.
Light many lamps and gather round his bed.
Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.
Speak to him; rouse him; you may save him yet.
He's young; he hated War; how should he die
When cruel old campaigners win safe through?
But death replied: 'I choose him.' So he went,
And there was silence in the summer night;
Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.
Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.
poem by Siegfried Sassoon
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Comes Death (A song)
'Out the window lies the future,
where we can see, but never reach her.' - P.N.
All the world is hopeless,
All the sights been seen
all the land is bought up
all the dreams been dreamed
The end comes to everything
to every time - to every place
comes death on wings of fire
cones death on wings of dark
All the years are fruitless
all the work's been done
all the curses lifted
all the prizes won
The end comes to everything
to every dream - to all that's green
comes death with eyes of fire
comes death with eyes of dark
All the difference taken
all the people same
all that's war is broken
all this peace is lame
The end comes to everything
to every war - to every peace
comes death with thoughts of fire
comes death with thoughts of dark
All the gold is rusted
all the cities gone
all the wind is hollow
all the lights left on
The end comes to everything
to every story - every theme
comes death on tireless mission
comes death with darkened peace
poem by Poet Dragon
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Danger Threatens,
Danger threatens.
The thunder grumbles distantly.
A storm is brewing in the hills
The rain that’s falling heavily
Will fill the streamlets and the rills
Which they in turn increase the flow
of the rivers far below
In surging torrents which increase
in power and disturb the peace.
Of riverside communities
Who fear the probabilities?
that the sudden flash floods may bring.
Oblivious to everything
Except their wild rush to the sea.
The sounds of thunder fade and die.
We see again a clear blue sky.
We can relax the worst has passed
Although the rivers still flow fast.
They’ve stayed within their boundaries.
Unlike the flash floods of the past.
Which devastated properties.
And forced inhabitants to flee.
To seek safety on higher ground.
When thunder grumbles distantly.
We see it as a warning sound.
We’ve learnt from past experience.
We can remember vividly.
What the wild waters running free.
Can do and have done previously.
Wednesday,04 January 2012
http: // blog.myspace.com/poeticpiers
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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The Lost Rivers
Far down from the thunder
And rush of the street,
Flow Westbourne and Tyebourne
And Effra and Fleet,
'Neath blue skies and grey skies
Once freely that ran -
Lost rivers of London,
Forgotten of man.
Do they ever remember
Where night is like day,
Red leaves of October
And green leaves of May;
The sunshine and starshine,
The rain and the dew,
The gold of the kingcup,
The kingfisher's blue?
Do they think of the flurry
And rush of the weirs,
The mill-wheel that scattered
Drops from it like tears,
The sun-dappled shallows,
The dusk of the pool
Whose fishes bade urchins
Play truant from school?
Do they dream about cresses
And catkins in spring,
And beds of green rushes
Where reed-warblers sing,
Of willow-herb blowing
And swallows that weave,
Where the dragonfly glistens,
Their mazes at eve?
Deep under the bustle
And rush of the street
Flow Westbourne and Tyebourne
And Effra and Fleet,
In darkness and silence
Forlornly they run,
Lost rivers of London,
Forgetting the sun.
poem by Cicely Fox Smith
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The Abduction
During the early hours of a September night
a storm blew in, whist everyone slept tight.
A clap of thunder chased a lightening flash,
a gust of wind turned a bedroom window’s latch.
The rain was unforgiving, falling heavy, hard and fast,
lightening lit up the sky, as again the thunder crashed.
Into the bedroom a beam of light from the heavens shone,
which lifted and carried away a boy, as he slept on.
Up into the clouds he was taken by this impenetrable beam,
out of the storm into a silent place, with lights of green.
His sleep was disturbed by a change of noise and light,
as his half opened eyes saw shapes like ghosts in the night.
Believing he was dreaming he once again closed his eyes
content he was safe in his bed until the morning sun rise.
Barely awake he found himself lying on a hard dusty ground,
beneath a mauve sky, with no sun or moon, or clouds around.
A haunting stillness and silence added to his anxious fears,
confusion, panic, and loneliness soon followed with tears.
He decided that he was still asleep facing a dream’s unreality
and wouldn’t accept reality until he awoke in normality.
poem by Orlando Belo
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The Evening Stillness
A lonely evening on a lakeside
I stole a chunk of stillness.
Carried it through a clinking city
Stored it in the heart’s corner
Where no noise could touch it!
The stillness has grown a goliath -
Endures night’s coolness and day’s warmth
Camouflages the thunder inside….
No more the evening stillness on a lakeside!
poem by Pradip Chattopadhyay
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Dark & Long
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
long.
kiss you kiss you dark and long.
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
bright lights shine. bright lights shine.
thunder thunder lightning.
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
now i kiss you dark and long.
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
long.
kiss you kiss you dark and long.
long.
me im just a waitress she said.
i went and bought a new head she said.
i look at you. i believe in you she said.
screaming into the eye of the lens.
i want to smash it up.
i want to break it down.
i want a wall of tears to wash away.
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
thunder thunder lightning.
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
now i kiss you dark and long.
filled with tainted girls and motel frills.
what a laugh.
you was done up there mate.
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
i could kiss you dark and long.
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
now i kiss you dark and long.
shout your love. the stars are black.
the church is sweet. my skin is hot.
thunder thunder lightning ahead.
now i kiss you dark and long.
shout your love.
song performed by by Underworld
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Fire In The Thunder
just talked to you on the phone
and i couldn't help but to feel
the old flames stirring in my heart
for what i once felt for you
a firestorm has broken loose
and no one is around to control it
i could hear the thunder echo
like it did before
back when there used to be
fire in the thunder
a fire so hot and passionate
that could easily loose control
and rage war within my heart
for the place where you belong
then the thunder steps in
to make its presence known
and i quake with fear and passion
everytime you come close
for you brought the memories back
and the pain along with
isn't it better
to just stay happy with your wife
oh how i can feel
that fire coursing through my veins
i shouldn't want you so
yet this fire is saying yes
please come quickly
to put out this
fire in the thunder
poem by Grace Hays
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