The Clay
When I cast my slough of clay
Put it quietly away.
Let no bloom untimely fade
Where my empty heart is laid.
Ask no folk to crowd around
With an air of woe profound.
Those who love me know that I
Cannot in a coffin lie.
Let them go where'er they will,
Dreaming of me living still.
Let no formal words be said
Customary for the dead.
Plant no stone above the pit:
Let the grass run over it.
poem by John Le Gay Brereton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Stone
The days have passed, nights are gone,
I'm still in love with a stone,
The seasons changed, the clay too came,
I still hold it with no moan,
The clay comes to me in so many shapes,
Wants me to hold it, whatever it may take,
But clay can hurt me, clay may fake,
Even if it's clay, I have a heart it can break,
The season may change,
The clay may go,
Slowing my heart beat,
All time low,
Stone is hard,
Stone is black,
Stone is emotionless,
Doesn't stab at back,
The clay, the stone, both make me die,
But if a stone does, even the clay may cry...
and I'll never ask why...
It's better to live with a stone,
not clay,
Clay is soft, but it hurts,
which is not the stone's way.....
poem by Apurva Jain
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Lamp Lit Darkness In shadow Night
solo singer sang her soul songs
she sang opera upon life stage
all spell cast audience sat silently
listened silently sitting settled in chairs
listened to words in notes voice rapture
after success show was song sung over
an audience rose left slowly silent still
living echo of vibrant voice words enthrill
heard rosaceae heart opened bloomed
like life bloom song of vital rich red rose
later only I watched petal bloom free soul
after singer had cast off her formal shoes
to run barefoot in soft mist falling rain
to run through fresh puddles soft forming
in lamp lit mist darkness in shadow night
your soul free you ran bliss like a young girl
you ran vision race my heart also shared
could not contain in bound clay soul feeling
light shadow light shadow race you run
through night through many nights memory
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Ancient Holy Words Console The Living
Beautiful words holy compassion,
funerals are not just for the dead,
they are also to help and console
the living in family formal respect.
To aid to support the living who must
live carry on continue in community.
Heartfelt words console, rich memories,
time helps heal hearts which give love.
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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You Can Do Magic
I never believed in things that I couldnt see
I said if I cant feel it then how can it be
No, no magic could happen to me
And then I saw you
I couldnt believe it, you took my heart
I couldnt retrieve it, said to myself
Whats it all about
Now I know there can be no doubt
You can do magic
You can have anything that you desire
Magic, and you know
Youre the one who can put out the fire
You know darn well
When you cast your spell you will get your way
When you hypnotize with your eyes
A heart of stone can turn to clay
Doo, doo, doo ...
And when the rain is beatin upon the window pane
And when the night it gets so cold, when I cant sleep
Again you come to me
I hold you tight, the rain disappears
Who would believe it
With a word you dry my tears
You can do magic
You can have anything that you desire
Magic, and you know
Youre the one who can put out the fire
You know darn well
When you cast your spell you will get your way
When you hypnotize with your eyes
A heart of stone can turn to clay
Doo, doo, doo ...
And if I wanted to
I could never be free
I never believed it was true
But now its so clear to me
You can do magic
You can have anything that you desire
Magic, and you know
Youre the one who can put out the fire
You know darn well
When you cast your spell you will get your way
When you hypnotize with your eyes
A heart of stone can turn to clay
Doo, doo, doo ...
Youre the one who can put out the fire
Youre the one who can put out the fire
Youre the one who can put out the fire ...
song performed by by America
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Love Took The Cup
Love took the cup
and drank it up.
It's empty now for me.
Love climbed the hill
fulfilled God's will
and suffered there for me.
Love cried out loud
before the crowd.
Laid down His life for me.
Love bowed His head
until He was dead
so that I might go free.
The Dead Flower Bed
The Dead Flower Bed
The Dead Flower Bed
A Flower Loves
Eye saw the flower bed as eye walked bye it looked so empty after storm has come, on close inspection there was three plants still thriving there in hopefullness and love, whiteflower looking all better, one purple flower plant blossoming, and a forelorn dandylion
without seeds but steadfast in his love in the center of the flower bed between the daughter and his love, after bad weather gone.
Love remains the flowers fade but love still stays even inside the dead flower bed. A flower loves.
poem by Charles Hice
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What do we plant when we plant a tree?
What do we get when we plant the tree?
We plant the ship which will cross the sea;
We plant the pencils to scribble our notes,
We plant the ballots to cast our votes;
We plant the paper in which we read,
The news that o'er wooden poles we speed,
We plant the piles to erect our docks;
We plant the rayon for shirts and socks.
What do we plant when we plant a tree?
We plant the houses for you and me;
We plant the rafters, the shingles, the floors,
We plant the studding, the lath, the doors,
The beams and siding, all the parts that be;
We plant the house when we plant the tree,
We plant the barrel, the box, the crate;
In which to ship all sorts of freight.
What do we plant when we plant a tree?
A thousand things that we daily see,
We plant the spire that out-towers the crag,
We plant the staff for our country's flag;
We plant the shade from the hot sun free,
We plant all these when we plant the tree.
poem by Henry Abbey
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Coffin Car
Coffin car, shes riding a coffin car.
People watching her with tender eyes,
Friends whispering in kindly words,
Children running, waving hands,
Telling each other, how pretty she is.
Coffin car, she likes to ride a coffin car.
Friends making ways for the first time,
People throwing kisses for the first time,
Showering flowers, ringing bells,
Telling each other, how nice she is.
Coffin car, shes riding a coffin car.
Wives showing tears for the first time,
Husband taking their hats off for the first time,
Crushing their handkerchiefs, rubbing their nose,
Telling each other, how good she is.
Half the world is dead anyway,
The other half is asleep.
And life is killing her,
Telling her to join the dead.
So evry day, she likes to ride a coffin car,
A flower covered coffin car,
Pretending she was dead.
song performed by by Yoko Ono
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Coffin Car
Coffin car, shes riding a coffin car.
People watching her with tender eyes,
Friends whispering in kindly words,
Children running, waving hands,
Telling each other, how pretty she is.
Coffin car, she likes to ride a coffin car.
Friends making ways for the first time,
People throwing kisses for the first time,
Showering flowers, ringing bells,
Telling each other, how nice she is.
Coffin car, shes riding a coffin car.
Wives showing tears for the first time,
Husband taking their hats off for the first time,
Crushing their handkerchiefs, rubbing their nose,
Telling each other, how good she is.
Half the world is dead anyway,
The other half is asleep.
And life is killing her,
Telling her to join the dead.
So evry day, she likes to ride a coffin car,
A flower covered coffin car,
Pretending she was dead.
song performed by by Yoko Ono
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Man - A Macrocosm Of Nature's Intelligence
this hair
on its own
is no life
this stone
solitary
on the floor
is no life
the air on
the wind
is no life
let it steal
into the man
and the plant
a whole world
starts to churn
and soil with
the stone too
start becoming life
into the plant
into the man
the sun on
its own is no life
take him out
everything
stops to glow
the tree, man and
sun, stone....
this hair
on its own
is dead
throw in the man
throw in the plant
and the air
and the sun
and the stone
everything
starts
to grow
nature seeps,
breathes
through each
and everything
jigsaw puzzle
the man himself
a macrocosm
of its intelligence
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Lassitude
I laid me down beside the sea,
Endless in blue monotony;
The clouds were anchored in the sky.
Sometimes a sail went idling by.
Upon the shingles on the beach
Grey linen was spread out to bleach,
And gently with a gentle swell
The languid ripples rose and fell.
A fisher-boy, in level line,
Cast stone by stone into the brine:
Methought I too might do as he,
And cast my sorrows on the sea.
The old, old sorrows in a heap
Dropped heavily into the deep;
But with its sorrow on that day
My heart itself was cast away.
poem by Mathilde Blind
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Sestina
I have come, alas, to the great circle of shadow,
to the short day and to the whitening hills,
when the colour is all lost from the grass,
though my desire will not lose its green,
so rooted is it in this hardest stone,
that speaks and feels as though it were a woman.
And likewise this heaven-born woman
stays frozen, like the snow in shadow,
and is unmoved, or moved like a stone,
by the sweet season that warms all the hills,
and makes them alter from pure white to green,
so as to clothe them with the flowers and grass.
When her head wears a crown of grass
she draws the mind from any other woman,
because she blends her gold hair with the green
so well that Amor lingers in their shadow,
he who fastens me in these low hills,
more certainly than lime fastens stone.
Her beauty has more virtue than rare stone.
The wound she gives cannot be healed with grass,
since I have travelled, through the plains and hills,
to find my release from such a woman,
yet from her light had never a shadow
thrown on me, by hill, wall, or leaves’ green.
I have seen her walk all dressed in green,
so formed she would have sparked love in a stone,
that love I bear for her very shadow,
so that I wished her, in those fields of grass,
as much in love as ever yet was woman,
closed around by all the highest hills.
The rivers will flow upwards to the hills
before this wood, that is so soft and green,
takes fire, as might ever lovely woman,
for me, who would choose to sleep on stone,
all my life, and go eating grass,
only to gaze at where her clothes cast shadow.
Whenever the hills cast blackest shadow,
with her sweet green, the lovely woman
hides it, as a man hides stone in grass.
poem by Dante Alighieri
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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So Few Words
That so few words could cut so deeply
That words alone could so offend
Cast not aside my love so cheaply
For wounds of passion seldom mend
That so few words could cause such pain
That words alone could make a man cry
And doubt if he will ever love again
Or ever have the courage to even try
That so few words could tear us apart
That words alone could a love destroy
Cast a shadow of despair on my heart
And take away all my love's joy
That so few words could end a love
That words alone could cause such tears
Falling like the heaviest rains from above
Losing you was one of my greatest fears
poem by Harry J. Couchon Jr
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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In Your Hands
In the silence of my being
Never empty
Because you are here
Though i cannot
Touch you physically
Your spirit
Warms me dear
Through the early dawn
And into the later
Of the day
Empty is this room
Of stone
But your wishes
I will obey
I kindle up
My tired bones
And clear
My weary green eyes
Lay down upon
My empty bed
And imagine you
By my side
With the twilight
And the dusk
And soon
The ebony
Of the night
I grab the pillow
Next to me
And hold it
As if you, so tight
I manage to make
It through
Day after weary day
Dreaming of you
And your green eyes
Returning i
To you
An uncreated lump of clay!
poem by Theodora Onken
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Vixit
Nurse not your grief, nor make obsequious moan
When I have shed this flesh I love so well,
Nor slowly toll the dull heart-bruising knell,
Nor carve my name in customary stone;
But let the generous earth reclaim her own
And my usurious profit who can tell?
Dash tears aside, let joy resume her spell;
Stars glitter where the storm is overblown.
Because I have lived I would not have one say:
“Here long ago a man of such a name
Was left to moulder in his pit of clay.”
Let only love remember how I came
And built an earthen altar in my day
And lit thereon a comfortable flame.
poem by John Le Gay Brereton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Satin In A Coffin
You were laying on the carpet
like you're satin in a coffin.
You said, "Do you believe what you're sayin'?"
Yeah right now, but not that often.
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
God I sure hope you are dead.
Well you disappeared so often
like you dissolved into coffee.
Are you here right now
or are there probably fossils under your meat?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
God I sure hope you are dead.
Now the blow's been softened,
since the air we breathe's our coffin.
Well now the blow's been softened,
since the ocean is our coffin.
Often times you know our laughter
is your coffin ever after.
And you know the blow's been softened,
since the world is our coffin.
Well now the blow's been softened
since we are our own damn coffins.
Well everybody's talkin' about their short lists.
Everybody's talkin' about death.
You were laying on the carpet
like you're satin in a coffin.
You said, "Do you believe what you're sayin'?"
Yeah right now, but not that often.
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
God, I sure hope you are dead.
song performed by by Modest Mouse
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Dead
I see them crowd on crowd they walk the earth
Dry, leafless trees no Autumn wind laid bare,
And in their nakedness find cause for mirth,
And all unclad would winter's rudeness dare;
No sap doth through their clattering branches flow,
Whence springing leaves and blossoms bright appear;
Their hearts the living God have ceased to know,
Who gives the spring time to th'expectant year;
They mimic life, as if from him to steal
His glow of health to paint the livid cheek;
They borrow words for thoughts they cannot feel,
That with a seeming heart their tongue may speak;
And in their show of life more dead they live
Than those that to the earth with many tears they give.
poem by Jones Very
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Somewhere in my heart
I never thought that I would fall
I cant stop dreaming of you
Don’t know how to stop thinking of you
I miss you in each day of my life
And wanting you to be here right by my side
I never asked for this feeling
A love that grows deep inside of me
Like a sun that bloom in my life
Like a flowers that bloom in spring
As wide like an ocean and stream
Could it be so beautiful
Could it be so wonderful
That somewhere in my heart
There’s a magic of love
Could it be true
Or Could I’ll be wrong
That somewhere in my heart
There was me and you
Somewhere here in my heart
I dreaming of you
As thoughts of you made me blush
In the passing clouds I felt a rush
Suddenly I felt I’m in love
How I hate what you have done
For this feeling I felt in my heart
Constantly you’re in my mind
And it’s such ashamed
Cause my heart is on the ground….
poem by Cheryl Aldea
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Love in Words
Naive little things, words,
yet so effective when strung together
breathing romance
and fading loneliness
between the lines
with words in pastel strokes
joined in just the right way.
A writer's thoughts
whether fact or fiction
become another's hopes,
and the words find their way
to a reader's heart as surely
as petals dropped in a forest
mark the way home again.
I love you's bloom, only to fade
by truths revealed in even more words.
Can we fall in love through poetry?
I believe we can,
through the pure naivete of words.
Faith
Catch me if i fall
I'm losing hold
I can't just carry on this way
And every time
I turn away
Lose another blind game
The idea of perfection holds me
Suddenly i see you change
Everything at once
The same
But the mountain never moves
Rape me like a child
Christened in blood
Painted like an unknown saint
There's nothing left but hope
Your voice is dead
And old
And always empty
Trust in me through closing years
Perfect moments wait
If only we could stay
Please
Say the right words
Or cry like the stone white clown
And stand forever
Lost forever in a happy crowd
No one lifts their hands
No one lifts their eyes
Justified with empty words
The party just gets better and better
I went away alone
With nothing left
But faith
song performed by by Cure
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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