A Builder's Lesson
'HOW shall I a habit break?'
As you did that habit make.
As you gathered, you must lose;
As you yielded, now refuse.
Thread by thread the strands we twist
Till they bind us neck and wrist;
Thread by thread the patient hand
Must untwine ere free we stand.
As we builded, stone by stone,
We must toil unhelped, alone,
Till the wall is overthrown.
But remember, as we try,
Lighter every test goes by;
Wading in, the stream grows deep
Toward the center's downward sweep;
Backward turn, each step ashore
Shallower is than that before.
Ah, the precious years we waste
Leveling what we raised in haste;
Doing what must be undone
Ere content or love be won!
First across the gulf we cast
Kite-borne threads, till lines are passed,
And habit builds the bridge at last!
poem by John Boyle O'Reilly
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Related quotes
Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it.
quote by Horace Mann
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Eve- Song
I span and Eve span
A thread to bind the heart of man;
But the heart of man was a wandering thing
That came and went with little to bring:
Nothing he minded what we made,
As here he loitered, and there he stayed.
I span and Eve span
A thread to bind the heart of man;
But the more we span the more we found
It wasn't his heart but ours we bound.
For children gathered about our knees:
The thread was a chain that stole our ease.
And one of us learned in our children's eyes
That more than man was love and prize.
But deep in the heart of one of us lay
A root of loss and hidden dismay.
He said he was strong. He had no strength
But that which comes of breadth and length.
He said he was fond. But his fondness proved
The flame of an hour when he was moved.
He said he was true. His truth was but
A door that winds could open and shut.
And yet, and yet, as he came back,
Wandering in from the outward track,
We held our arms, and gave him our breast,
As a pillowing place for his head to rest.
I span and Eve span,
A thread to bind the heart of man!
poem by Dame Mary Gilmore
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Beneath The Heights...
Beneath the heights
Flying along the tracks of floating rain clouds
My kite flies not caring for me ever.
Behind the kite my thread trails.
My hands hold it ever.
When the clouds begin to rain my kite sways
But as the sky clears he smiles.
I am not seen by him still.
Beneath my kite my thread shudders.
My hands hold it ever.
Above the heaven`s zenith
He flies, he alone flies.
Far down in the earth`s nadir
I stand alone holding my thread.
Beneath me the tremor begins...
poem by M.d Dinesh Nair
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Love Hanging By A Thread
I'm not yet in love
For it is hanging by a thread,
But soon it will break
And my love, it will shed
With it broken I will fall
Until I hit the ground,
Only then will I be running
Destination...lovebound.
I hope she understands
My feelings for her,
Will she accept them
I know not for sure.
But there it is hanging
By a thread so thin,
Hiding in the dark
So secret and dim.
Waiting to be unlocked
From my heart with a key,
Only then will my love
Be released and set free.
Until then I dream of her
As I lie there in my bed,
Waiting for the break
Of love hanging by a thread.
poem by Adam McKim
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Broken Thread
Broken Thread
Waking early I hear myself breathing
Covered up in my hand me down hand me down
Hiding under my patchwork freezing
With my wedding dress calling me, calling me
I dress myself in dis-function
Do I drown you in sympathy, sympathy
You could be my winter messiah
Scarred around and around me....around me
Cause im stiched up like an angel chord, I'm fixed up
They try to run and hide somehere in there defense
And now want to hand me down again.....
On a broken thread
On a broken thread
I choose to set you on fire
No-more wearing and tearing me, tearing me
Your still my only desire
And now it seems like your leaving me, freeing me, healing me.
Cause im stiched up like an angel chord, I'm fixed up
They try to run and hide somehere in there defense
And now want to hand me down again.....
They try to run and hide somehere in there defense
And now want to hand me down again.....
On a broken thread
On a broken thread
On a broken thread
On a broken thread
On a broken thread
song performed by by Natalie Imbruglia
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Old Army Blanket
Coarse and ruff quite often thread bare
The soldier did not seem to care
Let the enemy try to take if he dare;
Coarse and ruff quite often thread bare
Driving rain or snow wearing his blanket
Coarse and ruff quite often thread bare.
Being a soldier he could expect no better fare,
Coarse and ruff, quite often thread bare
His fight done, read over with a prayer
Wrapped in the old grey Army blanket
Coarse and ruff quite often thread bare.
He did his duty few could compare,
Coarse and ruff, quite often thread bare
poem by Derrick Fernie
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Her Only Bad Habit Is Me
We walk hand in hand
through our world today.
We will walk that way forever,
if bad habits don’t get in the way.
Now she has only one bad habit,
and that habit is me.
If I do something wrong,
she does not see my failing there.
She would rather go on loving,
the man she chose to care.
Now my bad habit shine like a beckon,
but she does not really care.
So though we wander with love,
through to the sunset somewhere.
I think of how lucky I am,
with everything I see.
So glad she has only one bad habit,
and that habit is me.
14 June 2007
poem by David Harris
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We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that's the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread.
quote by Paul Auster
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Thread
Something is very gently,
invisibly, silently,
pulling at me-a thread
or net of threads
finer than cobweb and as
elastic. I haven't tried
the strength of it. No barbed hook
pierced and tore me. Was it
not long ago this thread
began to draw me? Or
way back? Was I
born with its knot about my
neck, a bridle? Not fear
but a stirring
of wonder makes me
catch my breath when I feel
the tug of it when I thought
it had loosened itself and gone.
poem by Denise Levertov
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An Invisible Thread
An invisible thread
Of understanding
Connects and binds
The two of us
As none other thing
Would do
It hangs on mutual
Love and affection
Care and confidence
The thread may tangle
It may loosen
However,
It will never break
Selfless purity
In our relationship
Shall make it stronger
Day by day
poem by Nirantar Dr.Rajendra Tela
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A Noiseless Patient Spider
A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.
poem by Walt Whitman
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Single Thread
Life is but a single thread
that stretches into infinity.
If the thread is ever broken
life then drifts away,
lost to the eons of eternal night.
There is no mending the thread
that is once severed,
no going back to recover.
Gone forever the control
it drifts endlessly away
into a greater light
than the one we know.
26 November 2009
poem by David Harris
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A Habit I Can't Break
(B. Owens)
Loving you isn't good for me
You keep my tears flowing
If I left you I couldn't stay gone
So there's no use in going
Loving you is a habit I can't break
I haven't found a way yet
But I've been trying
To stop loving you but I can't wait
There's no use in lyin'
Loving you is a habit I can't break
Loving you is a habit I can't break
I've been loving you much too long now
To change the way I feel
So I might as well get used to these heartaches
Loving you is a habit I can't break
song performed by by Dolly Parton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Breakdown
Lead vocal: allan clarke
I breakdown in the middle and lose my thread
No one can understand a word that I say
When I break down just a little and lose my head
Nothing I try to do can work the same way
Any time it happened Id get over it
With a little help from all my friends
Anybody else could see whats wrong with me
But they walk away and just pretend
When I breakdown
I breakdown in the middle and lose my thread
No one can understand a word that I say
When I break down just a little and lose my head
Nothing I try to do can work the same way
Where are all the friends who used to talk to me
All they ever told me was good news
People that Ive never seen are kind to me
Is it any wonder Im confused
When I break down, when I break down
Freedom, freedom, we will not obey
Freedom, freedom, take the wall away
Freedom, freedom, we will not obey
Freedom, freedom, take them all away
song performed by by Alan Parsons Project
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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His Bargain
Who talks of Plato's spindle;
What set it whirling round?
Eternity may dwindle,
Time is unwound,
Dan and Jerry Lout
Change their loves about.
However they may take it,
Before the thread began
I made, and may not break it
When the last thread has run,
A bargain with that hair
And all the windings there.
poem by William Butler Yeats
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Threads Of Truth
Threads what are gossamer threads of truth?
Where do they lead among all those entangled byways?
Who can separate all the knots all the strings
to find that one straight path to an elusive absolute truth?
Is there ever only one ultimate truth that outshines
all others amist the crowds of unending misconceptions?
Does God ever leave a thread of truth that might
speak for him as a guiding symbol of absolute fact?
A thread that represents his divine absolute authority?
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Refrain
Of all the songs which poets sing
The ones which are most sweet
Are those which at close intervals
A low refrain repeat;
Some tender word, some syllable,
Over and over, ever and ever,
While the song lasts,
Altering never,
Music if sung, music if said,
Subtle like some golden thread
A shuttle casts,
In and out on a fabric red,
Till it glows all through
With the golden hue.
Oh! of all the songs sung,
No songs are so sweet
As the songs with refrains,
Which repeat and repeat.
Of all the lives lived,
No life is so sweet,
As the life where one thought,
In refrain doth repeat,
Over and over, ever and ever,
Till the life ends,
Altering never,
Joy which is felt, but is not said,
Subtler than any golden thread
Which the shuttle sends
In and out in a fabric red,
Till it glows all through
With a golden hue.
Oh! of all the lives lived,
Can be no life so sweet,
As the life where one thought
In refrain doth repeat,
"Now name for me a thought
To make life so sweet,
A thought of such joy
Its refrain to repeat."
Oh! foolish to ask me. Ever, ever
Who loveth believes,
But telleth never.
It might be a name, just a name not said,
But in every thought; like a golden thread
Which the shuttle weaves
In and out on a fabric red,
Till it glows all through
With a golden hue.
Oh! of all sweet lives,
Who can tell how sweet
Is the life which one name
In refrain doth repeat?
poem by Helen Hunt Jackson
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Do not leave me
Do not leave me in this world without you.
You are woven through the fabric of my life.
If you abandon me I will unravel
slowly,
thread
by thread,
until I am nothing but holes.
How then will I continue when so much of me is missing?
poem by Diana Rosser
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Habit
Habit
I'm not going back the fact of bring in place with temptation all around, that shakes my body thee expressions on my face I don't won't to touch and taste but I do it anyway.
Can I say,
conviction took place on my inside and I'm feeling a little weak and I close my eyes to take sneak peek wants again at my habit. That stands in front it's like kryptonite crippling me, my heart and soul saying no, my flash saying yes! ! ! ! ! I need some help to get out of this mess my habit.
It became a test I was about to fell I was under it's spell to become slave to what I see, that habit that be calling me.
poem by Clarence Williams
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Thread sofetly
thread softly my love.
thread softly my sweet
for you have made my life complete.
in you i can see all the love that is meant to be.
you have captured my heart and soul.
you have captured everything that i hold.
in you i finally see-that our love is meant to be.
so thread softly my sweet
for my heart is beneath your feet.
poem by Louis Rams
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