A World Too Wide for His Shrunk Shank after William Shakespeare Jacques Seven Ages of Man
Alas! What hope remains? The Welfare State,
Wrought through the years of blood, sweat, toil and tears,
Of suffering and strife, to some appears
Refuted by ‘f[r]ee' enterprise whose weight
Leaves little budget elbow room. We wait.
Death bides its time an extra span. Each nears
The century where ‘threescore' once brought fears
Of death. Yet western world's extended date,
Or lease on life means at a triple rate
We claim or pay for benefits. Few cheers
In underemployment's rise. One hears
Demands for health-care, pensions, but, too late
Empty promises most hollow find,
too few for bluff fall, most fear future blind.
poem by Jonathan Robin
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Fragile Sum
Do we remember twice two hundred years
Ago the flow through which our genes descend?
None trace the way their ancestors would wend,
Spend time and rhyme before their vale of tears.
Life’s strife is trifle, rifled hopes and fears,
A fragile sum, soon dumb, blind to its end.
But ever Man will energy expend
In self-destruction, waste, hastes till Time clears
Memory’s slate – too late regret appears.
Empty our shell when race turns final bend: -
Dust through and into dust. We apprehend
Uncertain future. Here, today, Time wears.
TEMPus fugit, “why and wherefore” we
Shan’t find, behind bland smile we've lost hope's key.
poem by Jonathan Robin
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Mark R. Slaughter
Just like the dahlia
Death comes in all its beauty
And so I stroke her petals
Push my feet root-deep
Into the composted soil
As weary clouds unite
Coalesce
Darken through the greys
In preparation
Incontinence prevails
Lachrymose in empathy
They cry for me
Sharing tears
Mortality brings
As twilight closes
I rot
(They fade)
To be the plant
(They'll water)
I, denomination Mark R. Slaughter
Struggle thro' my fantasy
To seal the state of mind
That I of soul
Remain eternal
Back on the windowsill
A daffodil stretches
From a bulbous foot
Flirts like a ballerina
STOPS
Wonders of the world
My cat hears the brassy thoughts
From yellow trumpet
Pricks up his ears
Iridescent eyes
Focussed on the future
I'll wait
For his appraisal
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2012
A Trail of Death
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poem by Mark R Slaughter
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It's Death Again
It's Death again - He's always there -
Watching, waiting - e'er the stare!
Every time I look behind
Or reach to pull the window blind,
I catch a glimpse of grubby hood -
A little clue to where he stood;
The glint of light that caught the scythe.
Perhaps if I could pay a tithe…
But O! no use, he'll never go.
The adamant phantom; don't you know
He will but wait until it's time
For me to hear His fateful chime? -
The toll that claims my destiny,
To Hail: 'You're next, it has to be…'
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
The Reign of Death
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poem by Mark R Slaughter
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Death, My Dear Old Friend
Can you tell me
what it feels like,
to be afraid of death?
I do not know
what it's like
to fear death.
Death,
I am not scared.
Why should I be?
I am nothing
If I die
Nothing would change
NO tears would be shed
No one would care
No one would notice
So why should I fear death?
Others don't value my life
And I certainly don't
People think I'm happy!
They believe this mask I wear!
They believe all my bullsh*t!
I have no fear
Death is my friend!
And I welcome him with open arms!
So can you tell me
What is fear?
What is death?
Why should I fear death?
Why should I care?
Am I even important?
poem by David Zhukov
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Your World
The warmest day of all my life
You came to me, I held you in my hands
And something changed forever
I want you for a better time
To know the beauty of our Mother Earth
Cherish her forever
Never felt in such a hurry
So little time, so much to do
I lie awake and dream the dreams I'll share with you
This is your world now
No one can chase all your fears away
This is your world now
Trust in your heart to lead the way
I still recall a day so clear
I saw the future in my mother's eyes
Filled with tears of sorrow
The years roll by, the times do change
The truth around us harder to disguise
As we face tomorrow
So many promises were made me
So little hope remains alive
I only pray the dreams I leave you will survive
This is your world now
No one can chase all your fears away
Fight for your world now
Trust in your heart to find the way
You'll see what I'm saying / When you're on your own
The war that you're facing / Isn't yours alone
I am a man in search of reasons
Though I am still as much to blame
It's up to me to leave you more than just my name
This is your world now
No one can chase all your fears away
Fight for your world now
Trust in your heart to lead the way
This is your world now
I want to chase all your fears away
Fight for your world now
I know that somehow you'll find your way
song performed by by Richard Marx
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Lost
Find out, care for them.
Fear the spawn, fear lies dead.
Believe you come with me.
You'll soon know, god destroys lives.
Call for, my future.
In the graves, souls find rest.
The search for lives fortune.
We find you, find your remains.
Find out, care for them.
Fear the spawn, fear lies dead.
You'll suffer here we go.
We're dead, the sights we're in for.
Why wage, tortured lives.
Through life's, burning sun.
Torture is, torn hearts.
Death for, death is for the opposed.
Set back, you face pain.
And fight, wolves pack run.
You face pain.
You face pain.
Your soul just lost time.
Lost time.
Why wage, tortured lives.
Through life's, burning sun.
Torture is, torn hearts.
Death for, death for opposed.
Set back, you face pain.
And fight, bad wolves run.
Death to, all this war of lies.
Watch out, your soul just lost time.
Your soul just lost time.
Lost time.
For those, butchered hearts.
Take the fears, squeeze fast.
Sign on to refuel.
The touch of your face, is sealed.
song performed by by Obituary
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Days Go By
Sit down, sit back and watch the days go by
Are you ever gonna live before you die
And when things fall apart
The world has come undone
Leave it all behind
Leave the loneliness alone
You wait forever blind
So come on and leave the years
When you watched the days go by
Come on and leave the fears
That you were afraid to find
'Cause while you wait inside
The days go by
So all the memories fade
And the days go by
Forget the lonely yesterdays in mind
I know it's never gonna be the way you like
I know you don't wanna think about the endlessness you find
You wait forever blind
So come on and leave the years
When you watched the days go by
Come on and leave the fears
That you were afraid to find
You're waiting for your time (waiting for your time)
All these days gone wrong
Who broke your fall
What a way to learn
So come on and leave the years
When you watched the days go by
Come on and leave the fears
That you were afraid to find
Time is passing by (time is passing by)
So come on and leave the years
When you watched the days go by
Come on and leave the fears
That you were afraid to find
'Cause while you wait inside
The days go by
song performed by by Lifehouse
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The World is with Me
The world is with me, and its many cares,
Its woes--its wants--the anxious hopes and fears
That wait on all terrestrial affairs--
The shades of former and of future years--
Forboding fancies and prophetic tears,
Quelling a spirit that was once elate.
Heavens! what a wilderness the world appears,
Where youth, and mirth, and health are out of date;
But no--a laugh of innocence and joy
Resounds, like music of the fairy race,
And, gladly turning from the world's annoy,
I gaze upon a little radiant face,
And bless, internally, the merry boy
Who "makes a son-shine in a shady place."
poem by Thomas Hood
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5. Pension in a State
Has anybody seen it
Through wages it was paid
To be there for retirement
Each payment duly made
Told I would be quite cosy
With a pension from the state
And when I got to sixty-five
I’d get the going rate
They took a little extra
Called SERPS to put on top
Then told us all we could opt out
And SERPS would have to stop
Each time they’ve tried to change it
We end up getting less
And now they try to tell us all
Our pensions in a mess
They just have one solution
We must now work forever
They’ve squandered all our pensions
By trying to be clever
poem by David Threadgold (2008)
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Twentieth Century Fox
Well, shes fashionably lean, and shes fashionably late
Shell never wreck a scene, shell never break a date
But shes no drag, just watch the way she walks
Shes a twentieth century fox, shes a twentieth century fox
No tears, no fears, no ruined years, no clocks
Shes a twentieth century fox, oh yeah
Shes the queen of cool, and shes the lady who waits
Sent to manless school, it never hesitates
She wont waste time, on elementary talk
cause shes a twentieth century fox, shes a twentieth century fox
Got the world locked up, inside a plastic box
Shes a twentieth century fox, oh yeah
Twentieth century fox, oh yeah
Twentieth century fox
Shes a twentieth century fox
song performed by by Doors
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Death means Love means
Death means freedom
Love means pain
Which would you choose?
Death means rest peacefully
Love means restless motion
Which would be comfortable?
Death means life
love means death to the heart
Which one would you want?
Death means everlasting happiness
Love means confusion
Which would be more rich?
Death means rejoice with loved ones
Love means losing someone
Which would be better?
Death means peaceful dreams for forever
Love means fear of nightmares
Which would you perfer?
poem by Desserray Whitcomb
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Striving For Suffering
It is not achievements or goals or trophies
Or accolades or awards or the end itself
For which we strive, we as humans think that
Is what we desire, but
What we really seek is adversity and suffering
We all desperately long for it
Yo may at first think it strange or untrue
But in fact it is what we all yearn for, even you
Simply getting a trophy or award means nothing
IT is the work, the blood, sweat, and tears
That we all really desire, it's that something
There's a voice inside everyone hears
Pushing them to do more, to achievement,
but that achievement is wrought in suffering
Empowered by the pain and time, as if heaven-sent
It is only in the trial that we can have triumph
Only in adversity we can make the jump
From mundane normalcy to achievement, thus it is
Truly the pain itself that separates normalcy
From triumph it is not the trophy or the end
But the means that got you there.
poem by David Knox
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Fears For Fears
Death promises nothing for me
And I don't expect nothing from death
Either than pain and sorrows
Fears for fears
Live in me
When I walk late at night on the road
Because I never know what can happen to me
But I believe that God is always on my side
Fears for fears
I will never trust the promises of a lazy man
Fears for fears
I will drink the one
With my food
So that I can give gheers to my God
Fears for fears
I don't fear the thunder or lightning
Fears for fears
The pond is home to all ducks
Because all the ducks lives in the pond
Swimming away
Fears for fears
What more can I give to God
Than myself
Fears for fears
The paths are not clear of the snow
In the winter
In the city where I live
Fears for fears
The harbour is so quiet during the winter
Because no boats are in the harbour during the winter
And everything sleeps away in the harbour
Also the night comes early during the winter months
But summer is different
Because the light shines all day
Fears for fears
Our bodies are made of water
And we need water to survive in this heat
poem by Aldo Kraas
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It's All Because of Death
Why we are separated from our love ones?
Why we all have to die?
Why did you leave me alone in this hurtful world?
After all your promises dat you will be there,
for my wedding day, my graduation at the university.
Today I'm suffering because of death.
Today I have no father who will guide, protect, provide for me.
Today I don't have a home.
why death?
I'm living with my aunt she abuse me.
I have to obey everything she says, my feelings doesn't maater.
I don't have a say.
Why did you take my dad?
Death have no shame.
Why didn't you let me be a man before you take him?
You did the same thing to my mother when she gave birth to me.
She never had a chance to hold me in her arms.
I hate you death!
You took everything from me.
Sometimes I go to school empty stomach.
I'm living a life wit' no joy, no peace, no happiness
I'm a slave to her and her kids.
They treat me so...... bad, so... cruely....so less human.
I cry day night.
Saying why death?
but nobody answer me.
I'ts all because of death.
Death caused me suffering.
All I have is hatred in my heart.
IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF DEATH.
from a broken heart.
poem by Hopewell Syprien
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Life's Slacker
The saddest sort of death to die
Would be to quit the game called life
And know, beneath the gentle sky,
You'd lived a slacker in the strife.
That nothing men on earth would find
To mark the spot that you had filled;
That you must go and leave behind
No patch of soil your hands had tilled.
I know no greater shame than this:
To feel that yours were empty years;
That after death no man would miss
Your presence in this vale of tears;
That you had breathed the fragrant air
And sat by kindly fires that burn,
And in earth's riches had a share
But gave no labor in return.
Yet some men die this way, nor care:
They enter and they leave life's door
And at the end, their record's bare—
The world's no better than before.
A few false tears are shed, and then,
In busy service, they're forgot.
We have no time to mourn for men
Who lived on earth but served it not.
A man in perfect peace to die
Must leave some mark of toil behind,
Some building towering to the sky,
Some symbol that his heart was kind,
Some roadway where strange feet may tread
That out of gratitude he made;
He cannot bravely look ahead
Unless his debt to life is paid.
poem by Edgar Albert Guest
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Sad Wings Of Destiny
Mournful, yet grand is the destiny of man. Believing he can look destiny in the eye, without so much as flinching. And only after having swallowed the seeds of fate, did he find, they grew into hate. Making what was once water to the faithful, turn to nothing more, than blood, before the eyes of an unbeliever. Of all that man has been, or in his vanity, may come to believe, destiny, after having granted his wishes, also gave him more than he perceived. For only by the work of his own two hands, could such suffering be achieved. Leading him to fight against his destiny, even though, he had no hope of victory. Like pantomimes of white, on a background of black, his destiny, appears as a silken thread, lost in an endless labyrinth of time. Never knowing, only death transforms life into a destiny, for only death has no need for time. Having denied love, he sealed his fate. Unable to find the meaning and never seeing the truth of life, that it may only be found with another, but not alone. Fear, merely encouraged his ignominy and transported him to the nether world, where he will at last, take his final flight, on the sad wings of destiny
poem by Eric Paeplow
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Which are You?
There are two kinds of people on earth to-day;
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.
Not the sinner and saint, for it's well understood,
The good are half bad, and the bad are half good.
Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man's wealth,
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.
Not the humble and proud, for in life's little span,
Who puts on vain airs, is not counted a man.
Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years
Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.
No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean,
Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.
Wherever you go, you will find the earth's masses,
Are always divided in just these two classes.
And oddly enough, you will find too, I ween,
There's only one lifter to twenty who lean.
In which class are you? Are you easing the load,
Of overtaxed lifters, who toil down the road?
Or are you a leaner, who lets others share
Your portion of labor, and worry and care?
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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One state retiree, 49 years old, paid, over the course of his entire career, a total of $124,000 towards his retirement pension and health benefits. What will we pay him? $3.3 million in pension payments over his life and nearly $500,000 for health care benefits - a total of $3.8m on a $120,000 investment.
quote by Chris Christie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Joy's Magic
Joy's is the magic sweet,
That makes Youth's pulses beat,
Puts music in young feet,
The old heart hears, the sad heart hears, that 's near it:
And Joy's the pleasant pain,
That holds us, heart and brain,
When Old Age, sound and sane,
With memories nears, long memories nears the spirit.
Joy's is the witchery rare,
That on the face of Care
Puts smiles; and rapture where
Love holds her breath, her heart's wild breath, to still her:
And Joy it is that plays
On Time's old lute of days
As Life goes on her ways
With thoughts of Death, gray thoughts of Death, that chill her.
poem by Madison Julius Cawein
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Death is a Threat
Death is a threat.
That almost everyone fears.
But to every beginning.
There must be an end.
Even worse is when you know.
what others don’t.
Something like Death.
How do you take it?
What can you do?
How you do you live your life
until your time is due.
Forgive all your enemies.
Take each day as it comes.
If you are in a position to,
Accept your fate.
And pray before it is too late.
Death is a threat.
We hate to relent.
It visits us randomly.
There is no perceptual structure.
Don't try to analysis it for that is mental torture.
Treasure each day as you live.
Love is what you should strive to find.
Death is a threat.
To our every day life’s.
It can turn our whole world upside down.
Destinies forcefully change overnight.
Sometimes for bad or for something very right.
Your best friend leaves for ever.
Your life long dreams die when you thought never.
But it is all a test.
During which your strength manifest.
Better, don’t let Death know when you are expecting it.
Or for death that will be a treat.
© Sylvia Chidi- 17 October 2005
poem by Sylvia Chidi
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