The Cheery Herald of Despair
The community of Astronomers
mourns a colleague rare:
Brian Marsden, late of Cambridge,
The Cheery Herald of Despair.
His group tracked rocks
that threaten shocks
to Earth’s Blue biosphere.
He would be first to sound alarms
when asteroids’ ventured near.
His work for the Smithsonian
Tracked wanderers in the sky.
He Predicted paths for comets
Calculating their flybys.
Working with a shoestring budget
And a small but gallant crew.
When others wondered what was up
He wondered not- he knew.
When objects near were cause for fear
He’d brief the tabloid press.
- “Just a near miss, but next time round
- It’s anybody’s guess.”
poem by John F. McCullagh
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Related quotes
Before Action
We always had to do our work at night.
I wondered why we had to be so sly.
I wondered why we couldn't have our fight
Under the open sky.
I wondered why I always felt so cold.
I wondered why the orders seemed so slow,
So slow to come, so whisperingly told,
So whisperingly low.
I wondered if my packing-straps were tight,
And wondered why I wondered……Sound
went wild………
and order came…… I ran into the night,
wondering why I smiled.
poem by Leon Gellert
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The Need Not To Be Repossessed
Why can't you accept where those boundaries are?
Why must you treat yourself to a round of disrespecting me?
When you have clearly,
Tracked yourself uninvited...
Into my zone.
As peace and I were sharing some alone time.
You've come to me as if I pay you rent.
And I don't have the sense to know you own it.
MY 'space'.
And you came today to collect,
Another argument?
One I'm going to sit to listen and condone?
Why can't you accept where those boundaries are?
Why must you treat yourself to a round of disrespecting me?
When you have clearly,
Tracked yourself uninvited...
Into my zone.
As peace and I were sharing some alone time.
There is not a rule I obey,
Without first going into consultation with God.
And I would not be surprised if you found that odd.
Not an eyebrow would quickly lift upon you admitting this.
Possessing a need to control,
Is your issue.
And the need 'not' to be repossessed,
Is mine!
Why can't you accept where those boundaries are?
Why must you treat yourself to a round of disrespecting me?
When you have clearly,
Tracked yourself uninvited...
Into my zone.
As peace and I were sharing some alone time.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Quiet Kind
I've never really written a poem
no reason to
But today feels like a day for words
the quiet kind
I wondered if i should tell
you know, about me
what i think
i thought about the
snow, and the night when
we were forever
i wondered if you knew
if you saw right through me
if i was a mystery
or if you never even looked
i thought about what comes next
i wondered if you wondered
if there was something
more
or if we just turned to
dust
and nothing is left
but you
but me
i thought about you today.
I Listened To The Learned Cosmologist
I LISTENED TO THE LEARNED COSMOLOGIST
I listened to the learned cosmologist
Explain how we are not really the center of anything-
Not Space not Time not even our own special creation on earth-
I listened to the learned cosmologist
Tell us we live in an obscure corner of the Galaxy
Just one small circling clod of a humdrum sun -
I listened to him tell us we should learn to be humble
For we are not the leader or the ruler or the purpose
Of the world.
I listened to the learned cosmologist
And I wondered why the love of a few on this earth
Makes me feel there is home and happiness
Special blessing in my life -
I wondered why what will be at the end of the end of the end
Seems to mean so much less to me
Than what will be in the brief time I am here-
I listened to the learned cosmologist-
And knew somewhere in me and on this earth and in this universe
There are other worlds
Than the ones he is describing
And we to each and every one we love are
More than all the suns and the distances
However small and insignificant we ultimately be.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Low Budget
Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but well all survive
I just got to learn to economize
Im on a low budget
Im on a low budget
Im not cheap, you understand
Im just a cut price person in a low budget land
Excuse my shoes they dont quite fit
Theyre a special offer and they hurt me a bit
Even my trousers are giving me pain
They were reduced in a sale so I shouldnt complain
They squeeze me so tight so I cant take no more
Theyre size 28 but I take 34
Im on a low budget
What did you say
Im on a low budget
I thought you said that
Im on a low budget
Im a cut price person in a low budget land
Im shopping at woolworth and low discount stores
Im dropping my standards so that I can buy more
[quality costs, but quality wastes,
So Im giving up all of my expensive tastes.
Caviar and champagne are definite nos,
Im acquiring a taste for brown ale and cod roes ]
Low budget sure keeps me on my toes
I count every penny and I watch where it goes
Were all on our uppers were all going skint
I used to smoke cigars but now I suck polo mints
Im on a low budget
What did you say
Yea Im on a low budget
I thought you said that
Im on a low budget
Im a cut price person in a low budget land
Im on a low budget
Low budget
Low budget
Art takes time, time is money
Moneys scarce and that aint funny
Millionaires are things of the past
Were in a low budget film where nothing can last
Moneys rare theres none to be found
So dont think Im tight if I dont buy a round
Im on a low budget
What did you say
Yes Im on a low budget
I thought you said that
Im on a low budget
Im a cut price person in a low budget land
Im on a low budget
Say it again
Low budget
One more time
Low budget
[i look like a tramp, but dont write me off,
Ill have you all know, I was once a tough
At least my hair is all mine, my teeth are my own,
But everything else is on permanent loan.
Once all my clothes were made by hand,
Now Im a cut price person in a low budget land.
Im on a low budget
Ill have you all know
Were on a low budget
Im on a low budget]
song performed by by Kinks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Mystery Of A Year
A little while, a year agone,
I knew her for a romping child,
A dimple and a glance that shone
With idle mischief when she smiled.
To-day she passed me in the press,
And turning with a quick surprise
I wondered at her stateliness,
I wondered at her altered eyes.
To me the street was just the same,
The people and the city's stir;
But life had kindled into flame,
And all the world was changed for her.
I watched her in the crowded ways,
A noble form, a queenly head,
With all the woman in her gaze,
The conscious woman in her tread.
poem by Archibald Lampman
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Miss The Lights
(intro) walking tall, full of tedious charm,
The smoothest (? ? ? ) in (? ? ? )
The mission boys all cross their palms
Dont you know who I am
I guess you miss the lights? huh!
I guess you miss the fame
I guess you miss everybody
Hanging onto your name
Little caesar is prince of the city
? ? ?
In this town theres no pity
This man stands alone
I guess you miss the lights - ha!
I guess you miss the fame
I guess you miss everybody
Hanging onto your name
Sometimes when youre all alone
And the blue turns to gray
Better get down on those pinky knees,
And you start to pray
I guess you miss the lights - ha!
I guess you miss the fame
I guess you miss everybody
Kiss-kissing your name
(instrumental)
A glimmering ? , a twilight star
And so much love for show,
A returning wave from the gallery bar
And share the afterglow
I guess you miss the lights
I guess you miss the fame
I guess you miss everybody
Hanging onto your name
Ha!
I guess you miss the lights
I guess you miss the fame, haha!
I guess you miss everybody
Hanging onto your name
(fade out music and chorus)
I guess you miss the lights
I guess you miss everybody
Kiss-kissing your name
song performed by by Ufo
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Where are you?
When coldrain fell
i wondered
Where are you?
Every dropp that soaked me and....
As you touched me at first
When the wind blew cold
Antartic
I wondered
Where are you?
I as so mild as you got me
When all the beauty hit me
So powerfull
I wondered
Where are you?
I am so wind, so rain and beauty
of when you loved me!
poem by Mirna Morgan
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Tracked Or Not
There's nothing like the feeling of being tracked.
And those doing it are not in camouflage.
This they want known.
Your back is being watched and this they want shown.
There's nothing more remembered than the acts of disrespect.
The kind that is delivered with a laughing one gets.
And as difficult as it is,
To continue one's life with a head up and positive...
This has to be done,
As if scriptured and quoted from biblical myth!
Those who are challenged are done so above and beyond,
All feeling and emotion felt...
By the ones who enjoy being antagonists.
Some are born just to appreciate being just that...
Grief givers.
Tracked or not...
One's duty is to avoid becoming subdued,
By those who wish to make what they do obvious...
As to stop any forward advancement.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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I started graduate school in 1971, I started working at the Smithsonian in the festival in 1972. I went full-time at the Smithsonian in 1974. And I got my doctorate in 1975.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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God of Misery
Misery and disease marry the soil and vegetable,
Many finds result from soil and garden, worms and snails,
That result, that deploy their forces armed in ways known to man.
I shall work again, cultivate the garden as a curtain is folded neatly,
The culture has a crowning achievement.
Grotesque and ugly, watchers of the night sky raise their anger
At the old comets and asteroids hitting the world as danger.
Grinding, depriving and dissolving the diseased soil,
Many old comets design danger, making use of the soil
By hitting too fast, and last of all the planet is hurt.
Misery is actually too powerful a danger,
That meteors are faster every year,
In a fit of rage is the god of asteroids.
poem by Naveed Akram
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They Went Home (Terzanelle) (In Answer To Maya Angelou)
They visited her when the wife was not around,
they found her house antiseptic clean,
tracked her down where ever she was to be found,
while she was full of passion like a nymphomaniac Herculean
all kinds of men knew her lips,
they found her house antiseptic clean,
knew the shape of her legs and hips
but some was treated better still,
all kinds of men knew her lips,
and they visited one night or more to get a thrill
before they went home to the sweet wife,
but some was treated better still,
before they went to a loving family and a clear-cut life
they experienced her really intimately
before they went home to the sweet wife
and everyone that were visiting her left separately.
They visited her when the wife was not around,
they experienced her really intimately
tracked her down where ever she was to be found.
[Reference: They went home by Maya Angelou.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Mass Extinctions In Earth's History?
Wham bam life is virtually annihilated by an unexplained mass
extinction event first of several mass extinctions in Earth history?
What space time opera clears stage restarts weaves new life forms?
Scientists postulate increasingly look up to space
to explain seemingly clockwork mass extinctions
repeating happening since beginning of living time?
Is earth getting periodically belted by rogue space rocks asteroids?
Comets or is collision of passing neutron stars happening in space?
Too close for comfort to ensure survival of most capsule earth life?
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Quail's Nest
I wandered out one rainy day
And heard a bird with merry joys
Cry 'wet my foot' for half the way;
I stood and wondered at the noise,
When from my foot a bird did flee--
The rain flew bouncing from her breast
I wondered what the bird could be,
And almost trampled on her nest.
The nest was full of eggs and round--
I met a shepherd in the vales,
And stood to tell him what I found.
He knew and said it was a quail's,
For he himself the nest had found,
Among the wheat and on the green,
When going on his daily round,
With eggs as many as fifteen.
Among the stranger birds they feed,
Their summer flight is short and low;
There's very few know where they breed,
And scarcely any where they go.
poem by John Clare
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Now You Dont
Guess who I saw today at our favorite round the way,
So in love, and so caught up that they didnt see me,
There in the candlelight, magic sparkled in their eyes,
For desert, sexin her at the table.
I was shocked, I was so surprised,
Took some time to realize,
Cos everything was spinning turning upside down.
I was stunned I was so confused
Wondered what to do, and so I followed their next move,
Cos it was you know who.
[chorus:]
You never saw me when you kissed tonight,
You never noticed with your eyes shut tight,
You never saw me through the window steam,
Never knew I caught you schemin.
Thought that you were creepin out of sight,
Thought that you could get it on all night,
Never saw me till I hit the lights,
Now you see me now you dont.
Guess who I saw today, where we always slipped away,
In the ride, hot inside, all the windows foggin up,
From their heavy breath, makin love in silhouette,
Didnt stop, till they got to your driveway.
I was shocked, I was so surprised,
Took some time to realize,
Cos everything was spinning, turning upside down.
I was stunned I was so confused,
Wondered what to do, and so I followed their next move,
Cos it was you know who.
[chorus:]
Dont care if youre on your knees,
Dont matter what you plead,
Take a look at what you had right here,
And watch it disappear, baby.
(now you see me, now you dont, now you dont [x2])
[chorus: (x2)]
song performed by by Velvet Empire
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Naughty Little Comet
There was a little comet who lived near the Milky Way!
She loved to wander out at night and jump about and play.
The mother of the comet was a very good old star;
She used to scold her reckless child for venturing out too far.
She told her of the ogre, Sun, who loved on stars to sup,
And who asked no better pastime than in gobbling comets up.
But instead of growing cautious and of showing proper fear,
The foolish little comet edged up nearer, and more near.
She switched her saucy tail along right where the Sun could see,
And flirted with old Mars, and was as bold as bold could be.
She laughed to scorn the quiet stars who never frisked about;
She said there was no fun in life unless you ventured out.
She liked to make the planets stare, and wished no better mirth
Than just to see the telescopes aimed at her from the Earth.
She wondered how so many stars could mope through nights and days,
And let the sickly faced old Moon get all the love and praise.
And as she talked and tossed her head and switched her shining trail
The staid old mother star grew sad, her cheek grew wan and pale.
For she had lived there in the skies a million years or more,
And she had heard gay comets talk in just this way before.
And by and by there came an end to this gay comet's fun.
She went a tiny bit too far-and vanished in the Sun!
No more she swings her shining trail before the whole world's sight,
But quiet stars she laughed to scorn are twinkling every night.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Time Turns
Music by 10,000 maniacs - lyrics by mary ramsey & john lombardo
I saw time turn
So much there to unlearn,
You were envy you wouldnt say
You tore heart strings that sorry day
Dark light hid the tears one
For each of the years
Love has reasons
Reason never knows
Time turns over
Love overflows
I should have spoken
Sooner on that sorry day
Your arms are open
And I wondered why
Wondered why
Five years passed to the day
Time heals some people
Say when you hurt the ones
I love youre also hurting
Me and time turns over
Turning you from me
I thought youd never reach me
On that sorry day
Your arms were open wide
And I wondered why
song performed by by 10000 Maniacs
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Random Thoughts
In the hot summer morning light,
I stood looking from a great height.
And to my right there was a pack,
Of dogs, barking for a snack.
And on the road to Naukuchiatal,
There lay a dead man.
But I guess I was mistaken,
For he woke up and smiled.
What is death I wondered?
Pain, sadness, oblivion?
Or
Relief, bliss, happiness?
In a clearing nearby,
There were some rabbits snowy white.
He neared and made a noise,
Thinking they might like.
But ran away the rabbits shy,
Thinking any moment they might die.
What is life I wondered?
Prejudice, inequality, discrimination?
Or
Fame, power, pleasure?
Thoughts keep coming and going,
And so do people.
But each has in mind what he's supposed to do.
Obstacles come and go,
Never fear them for you can find a way out.
It is true, any time now we might die,
And yet, anytime now we might perceive a moment of joy.
poem by Anushna Satapathy
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Mint Car
The sun is up
i'm so happy I could scream
and there's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be
than here with you
it's perfect
it's all I ever wanted
Almost can't believe that it's for real
i really don't think it gets any better than this
vanilla smile
and a gorgeous strawberry kiss!
birds sing we swing
clouds shift by and everything is like a dream
It's everything I wished...
never guessed it got this good
wondered if it ever would
really didn't think it could
do it again?
i know we should!!!
The sun is up
i'm so fizzy I could burst!
you wet through and me headfirst
into this it's perfect
It's all I ever wanted
ow! it feels so big it almost hurts!
never guessed it got this good
wondered if it ever would
really didn't think it could
do it some more?
i know we should!!!
it will always be like this
forever and ever
never guessed it got this good
Wondered if it ever would
Really didn't think it could
do it all the time?
i know that we should!!!
song performed by by Cure
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Collision
Space, made of the pulsing endless vastness of the human imagination
Stars glow, comets fly, rocks drift all of this is silent as it happens in each galaxy
Quite soundless work taking it’s time
Everything must be perfect, efficient
When something foreign or new touches this space all of the workers
Must now create harmony and must accommodate the friend or intruder
If this foreign friend feels right like it must belong space will keep it
If it is an intruder planning to destroy comets fly to battle and attack
The white comets must protect its red rocks and absent sun
Then one faithful day space began to pulse faster as a foreign
Friend came into contact
The friend felt warm, soft, new, and inviting
It was another galaxy
It began pulsing as they became closer and closer
We fly away from these pink and red galaxies into the bodies of two people
Then further and further until we see them begin their new journey
A touch
A kiss
In the night
As the stars glow, comets fly, and rocks drift soundlessly and forever
Written: January 21,2010
poem by Ryan Collins
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