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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Dirty Little Secret
Let me know that I've done wrong
When I've known this all along
I go around a time or two
Just to waste my time with you
Tell me all that you've thrown away
Find out games you don't wanna play
You are the only one that needs to know
I'll keep you my dirty little secret
(Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret
(Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)
My dirty little secret
Who has to know
When we live such fragile lives
It's the best way we survive
I go around a time or two
Just to waste my time with you
Tell me all that you've thrown away
Find out games you don't wanna play
You are the only one that needs to know
I'll keep you my dirty little secret
(Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret
(Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)
My dirty little secret
Who has to know
The way she feels inside (inside)
Those thoughts I can't deny (deny)
These sleeping dogs won't lie (won't lie)
And now I try to lie
It's eating me apart
Trace this life out
I'll keep you my dirty little secret
(Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret
(Just another regret)
I'll keep you my dirty little secret
(Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret
(Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)
My dirty little secret
Dirty little secret
Dirty little secret
Who has to know
Who has to know
song performed by by All American Rejects
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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[H]our Glass - 1899 - after Richard Seymour - The Hour Glass
Toon's climb, boon's dread, boom's rhyme soon sped,
life's little dream theme tale
dew's wed with glue wed to cue clue thread -
though seeming strong, so frail.
Till naught's in store to add to more,
Time's ebbing sands fall fast;
Fate syphons for_age metaphor,
forgotten mirage past.
Billed for arrears, filled, empty years,
emotions' vain commotion,
birth earthed blame's biers; berthed fame's career's
proverbial dropp in ocean.
With wave goodbye, grave severed tie
hung on some sunbeam stalling
beyond last sigh what stays? Vain cry,
culled empty echo calling.
Love lost, love won with one-to one,
true faithfulness through trust,
find once begun through time have run
to often turn rust dust.
Nor fears, nor tears, resist Time's shears,
nor all we hope and dream
remains, soon unstained mirror clears,
wipes slate of great, small, steam.
As variation on a theme
some karmic call, some mortal,
rum sliver stream glum shivers - gleam
in void, avoid death's portal.
What's life? ‘brief candle', shadow mocked,
from infant's first cry, chortle,
through code adopt to blocks unlock,
to last laugh coda shortfall.
For age or forage
The Hour Glass
Of hours to come and hours long sped
The never-ending tale
Hangs on a slender running thread -
So strong and yet so frail.
The less is added to the more,
The ebbing sands run fast;
Time drains the future's dwindling store
And gives it to the past.
Not all our tears and prayers, alas!
Not all we hope and dream
Shall e'er invert that measured glass
And turn the golden stream.
Richard Surgis Seymour
(28 August 2009)
poem by Jonathan Robin
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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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She
she (tous les visages de l'amour)
(charles aznavour and herbert kretzmer)
She
May be the face i can't forget
A trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price i have to pay
She may be the song that summer sings
May be the chill that autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day.
She
May be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell
She may be the mirror of my dreams
A smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell
She who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud
No one's allowed to see them when they cry
She may be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
That i'll remember till the day i die
She
May be the reason i survive
The why and wherefore i'm alive
The one i'll care for through the rough and ready years
Me i'll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes i've got to be
The meaning of my life is
She, she, she
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Words From A Husband To A Wife (Envelope Couplet Sestets)
Spend your time with me until the night end
as we attend a party at the house of a friend
smile and talk to me as if I am someone else
laugh merrily at the jokes our host tells,
while you dance with me where the stairs bend,
spend your time with me until the night end.
Spend your time with me until the night end
smile coyly while a drink I recommend,
treat me like a stranger you have just met
while our eyes are just on each other set,
let your glance shy before mind descend,
spend your time with me until the night end.
Spend your time with me until the night end
even if our friends do not really comprehend
why we are different from our old stances
why we are romancing in all our glances
while like some strangers we together blend,
spend your time with me until the night end.
Spend your time with me until the night end
as if life on a moment do depend
while you act just like a brand new lover,
as if our feelings we did rediscover,
as if we met only on a godsend,
spend your time with me until the night end.
Spend your time with me until the night end,
friendly greet the old smiling reverend
while we proudly walk past to our dinner
as if we are just two love-struck sinners,
while our unfamiliarity we do pretend,
spend your time with me until the night end.
poem by Gert Strydom
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As I Grow Older
Though many fond memories have I-many made in this very place,
I must bid a fond adieu still, because time's wend shan't erase
The pain caused, nor the scars ne'er to be seen!
It goes without saying: what an unmitigating heartbreak it has been!
The time lapsed from the attendant events, now numbers years-
Alas, nights pass yet, where I may fill a chalice with my tears!
I spend days afeared, 'looking over my shoulder';
NO! I shan't allow its lasting, as I grow older!
Many, many times, the Sun has risen and the Sun has, again, set-
Since that wretched day causal to the theft of the peace I may never again get!
I have been 'gone' so long, I barely know who I used to be-
A shell of my former self stands in the mirror now before me!
I yearn for my post-traumatic life to truly begin-
I long to look the 'real' me in the mirror once again!
Maurice Harris,9 June 2010
poem by Maurice Harris
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Tears
Our love girl is going through changes
I don't know if I'm alive dead dying
Or just a little jaded
Someone throw me a line
You know I need it I need it bad
Lost in a maze of my own making
No way out that I can find
Send home your hard working jury
I'm going down this time
You better believe it yes you had
So if you hear me crying
Or talking in my sleep
Don't be afraid
It's just the hours that I keep
We gotta love to last for a million years
A love that could never fade
Through the tracks of your tears
All I can do is hope that you will see me fall
Do your best to smash my picture on your wall
Forgive me baby
Absolve me my dear
I've seen the future in the tracks of your tears
I've seen the future in the tracks of your tears
Of your tears
All those tears
I cast a shorter shadow with every passing day
no time to think I'm just fading away
Some kind of magic in all your hopes and fears
Shows me the future through the tracks of your tears
song performed by by The Stone Roses from Second Coming
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Love, Hope, and Faith
We live tomorrow
the dreams of today
Our hopes of the future
gives us faith along the way
Love is the river
of this wakened state
Its never out of time
its never too late
It gives us life
as it flows through our lives
It tears through confusion
loneliness and strife
Love cuts a clear path
through the test of time
You can see where it has been
and watch it unwind
Free as a river
that you can’t control
You can’t even say
where it might flow
Hope is a power
that cant be taken away
It can pull you through
even the toughest of days
Hope can keep you going
when everything else fails
It keeps you company
on the loneliest of trails
Faith is ever daring
in the face of defeat
It can bring you courage
that nothing can beat
Faith is never doubting
in yourself or your beliefs
Holding on to what you know
when content is just a dream
Faith can give you strength
to face what the future brings
Combined with hope and love
you only need the three of these
Love is like a River
Hope is like a dream
Faith is just believing
with nothing to be seen
So dream of tomorrow
and love for today
Hope with all your heart
Let faith show you the way
poem by Rusty Gibson
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Tears
Our love, girl, is going through changes
I dont know if Im alive, dead, dying or just a little jaded
Someone throw me a line
You know I need it, I need it bad
Lost in a maze of my own making
No way out that I can find, send home your hard working jury
Im going down this time
Youd better believe it, yes, you had
So if you hear me crying, or talking in my sleep
Dont be afraid, its just the hours that I keep
We gotta love to last for a million years
A love that could never fade through the tracks of your tears
All I can do is hope that you will see me fall
Do your best to smash my picture on your wall
Forgive me baby, absolve me, my dear
Ive seen the future in the tracks of your tears
Ive seen the future in the tracks of your tears
Of your tears, of your tears
I cast a shorter shadow with every passing day
No time to think Im just fading away
Some kind of magic in all your hopes and fears
Show me the future through the tracks of your tears
song performed by by Stone Roses
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Crown of Years
Years grow and gather--each a gem
Lustrous with laughter and with tears,
And cunning Time a crown of years
Contrives for her who weareth them.
No chance can snatch this diadem,
It trembles not with hopes or fears,
It shines before the rose appears,
And when the leaves forsake her stem.
Time sets his jewels one by one.
Then wherefore mourn the wreaths that lie
In attic chambers of the past?
They withered ere the day was done.
This coronal will never die,
Nor shall you lose it at the last.
poem by Robert Fuller Murray
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The Song That Didn't Rhyme
Wrote a song, it was wrong from it's very first conception
Seemed I struggled on every line
It wasn't fast, wasn't pretty, wasn't serious or witty
The song that didn't rhyme
The band couldn't wing it, the singer couldn't sing it
The drummer's always out of time
The DJ's were offended, my union card suspended
Billboard declared it a crime
The melody blows in a key that no one can find
The lyrics don't flow but I can't get it out of my mind
A three minute waste of your time
On a song that didn't rhyme
It was bland, it was boring, all the groupies they were snoring
The first time we played it live
All the record guys got fired, the president retired
But somehow the song survived
The melody blows in a key that no one can find
The lyrics don't flow but I can't get it out of my mind
The melody blows in a key that no one can find
The lyrics don't flow but I can't get it out of my mind
A three minute waste of your time
No redeeming value of any kind
But thanks for the twelve ninety nine
On a song that didn't rhyme
song performed by by Alice Cooper
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Broken Social Environment
Another day for me
Another time to spend
Another space to fill
Another memory to remember
I can smell different air
See the ocean through my window
The sun shines brighter than ever
Like the only thing in the dark that glows
So much hopes for the future
So little we have done for
Just in a light of mystery
Drowned like a stone for glory
And the stars are watching through space and time
Ghosts of our past dwelling in sub-lights and lines
Should have something better to tell to our children
But nothing grows here except hatred and violence
Another day for us
Another time to waste
Another space is getting worse
Another memory to be encased
poem by Alexander Foald
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Killing Time
Everybodys going somewhere
See how they stand in line
All complaining their lives are unfair
Too bad for them, too bad for mine
(its the killing time) from now till then
(killing time), not knowing when
Theyre watching me, Im watching them
Standing by the empty mine
(killing time)
Its a killing time
I know it well
Killing time
Until the bell
Too late to change, too soon to tell
And in between, the killing time
(killing time) giving me hell
Up above the stars still shine
Through the poverty and grime
Of the empty streets below
Killing time, nowhere to go
(killing time)
Tell me, brother whats the plan?
Will I be a working man?
And occupy my idle mind
Or kill the time I knew so well
(killing time) giving me hell
Still I can smile at what I see
Soap operas full of vanity
So much wealth and property
Side by side with petty crime
Is that all lifes meant to be?
Commercials full of luxuries
A man has one, a cat has nine
And in between its killing time
(killing time)
Its a killing time
I know it well
Too late to change
Too soon to tell
Still I can smile at what I find
Waiting round and killing time
Bite the bullet
Help me through it
These lunatics will take my mind
Why cant life be more sublime
Than all of this waste and killing time
Killing time
I know it well
Its the killing time
song performed by by Kinks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dust to Dust We Go
DUST TO DUST WE GO
Dawn saw fame borne away to flame no more
Undone our time, light's boon, for dust bests fun -
Sun's one hour rhyme, - night's soon sure, rust rests run.
Torn core, aims shorn, waylays true name so poor.
Thorn store shames born day's plays, few claim crow - chore
Once spun power mimes fight, loon scores crust, jest done.
Dunce - shun tower chimes' rite, noon whores' lust, gest stun.
Unpure frame, worn, frays, pays - too tame, shows flaw.
Scorn pour, lame mourn, praise phase new, game grows bore,
Turns tunnel dower, limelight’s floor just crest dun.
Won shone flower rimes, trite croon caw bust, Quest? none!
End: forlorn blame gaze stays acclaim, slows roar.
Glory for soul, some say life sends gold key,
Or we poor, sole, dumb pray strife ends, goal flee.
28 April 2009 Acrostic Sonnet DUST TO DUST WE GO
robi03_1887_robi03_0000 AQS_CDZ
NOTES:
Rhyme ABBA ABBA ABBA CC
most syllables in A lines rhyme with corresponding syllables in other A lines
most syllables in B lines rhyme with corresponding syllables in other B lines
final couplet all syllables rhyme
poem by Jonathan Robin
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My Next Thirty Years
(track 12 - time 3:37)
(phil vassar)
I think Ill take a moment, celebrate my age
The ending of an era and the turning of a page
Now its time to focus in on where I go from here
Lord have mercy on my next thirty years
Hey my next thirty years Im gonna have some fun
Try to forget about all the crazy things Ive done
Maybe now Ive conquered all my adolescent fears
And Ill do it better in my next thirty years
My next thirty years Im gonna settle all the scores
Cry a little less, laugh a little more
Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear
Figure out just what Im doing here
In my next thirty years
Oh my next thirty years, Im gonna watch my weight
Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late
Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers
Maybe Ill remember my next thirty years
My next thirty years will be the best years of my life
Raise a little family and hang out with my wife
Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear
Make up for lost time here, in my next thirty years
In my next thirty years
song performed by by Tim McGraw
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Memory of You
I was empty an hollow inside
My dreams crushed my hopes apart
Then you came into my life
Like a candle in the darkness
I learned all i know from you
I found the path of like
Now a years end has come
And just that quick you walked back out
I try to hold my emotions inside
As you hold me in your arms
For the last time
The tears just flood the ground below
I know i may never see you again
I leave today in tears and with the memory of you
The memory of you well in my soul
Locked forever inside my heart
Time so fast life changes every hour
Just know ill always carry that memory
Of you inside me
And forever it will live
poem by Kerrie Maurer
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A Banaba Leaf
this banaba leaf falls from its branch
a child gathers it
and hands it to me
and i keep it
on top of my study
each day i look at it
like it is something so different
from the rest of the leaves
time shrinks it
time browns it
until its cells begin
to show its veins
until it turns to thread
crumpled pieces
until it turns to dust
until it becomes like the sands
of the shore
nothing lasts
in such a short time
the leaf returns to ash
on its last day
i gather what remains are there
on my palm
outside i sprinkle the leaf that
returns to dust
to air back to the empty space
back to the nothingness
our place of final destination
the world is hungry for this
dusts and sands
death to everything living
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Hope
I want for you to share my life.
Always be here to beat the strife.
It's all been meaningless without you.
I haven't known where to go or what to do.
Empty inside although I've tried.
To find another and live a lie.
My love for you I said had died.
Deep inside I'm not that blind.
It's never stoped.
The pain is dropped.
I want you here to plant the crops.
Of endless love that does not flop.
So be with me and we'll both see.
A final end of insanity.
With hope and care all time to spare.
To spend in love that is truly fair
poem by Michael McParland
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Because You Never Talk to Me...
all that is left of me will be
bones suffering takes the flesh and breaks
the nerves the sad times long
enough shall mellow these
bones into powder decently turning
later into a hundred or more
dusts then you shall
identify with me for dust
too is your final destiny
everything you are shall be dust too
you too shall mellow
now is the best time to talk
in the common ground of our final existence
but it will be too late
the strong wind by then
has blown us all away
scattered specks
lacking the specifics....
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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No Class Today
White snow stained black
The wound's closed
But hardly healed
Hands start frozen
Listening the air
That sounds like girl's chirp and boy's bark
No class today, children
No daily exam and calculation
I give you time to think
Before you're too old to regret
The years not going back
Leave it empty room
The world contaminated
And you inherite that
My tears fall
You lost in war
All the shout, shout, shout
No class today, my child
No another laugh and cry
I give us time to remember
The innocence soul's gone
By release you tomorrow
No class today, children
No peaceful boring day
I give my time to prepare
Smile good bye next morning
poem by Maria Sudibyo
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