If You can Keep your Cheese - after Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your cheese while few about you
are holding onto theirs', all envy ease.
If none can get your goat nor cow could doubt you
your scent which, heaven sent, can tell true bries
from gorgonzola, parmesan without you
planning for house mouse contingencies,
or short supply where larder rats may scout to
grind, compromise the tasty rind most please.
If by a whisker cheshire follows trout to
provide fit end for sweet delicacies,
or cheddar meat meal follows leaves no gout to
blur enjoyment, taste buds' harmonies.
If desert heat no threat presents, no pout too
in winter's cold where lizard's blood would freeze,
If neither flood nor drought can mar, throughout you
may triumph over blue mould colonies.
If all kowtow, if none would ever flout you
remembering to bow before ‘big cheese'...
if hole in one you score in club you clout to
take golden trophy - competition flees.
If all above's accomplished taste devout, true,
while others fail to prove their expertise,
your's is the world, which elsewhere's up the spout, few
can make their time your rhyme's real_I_tease!
IF - A Writers' Guild Gild Guile Guide
If you can form and not make norms your master,
conformity, performance formal, flame.
If you inform, share, [fl]airing, flow far faster,
yet let not copyright bind tight to shame.
If you treat critic's inconstructive blaster
with humour, beat him at his game's lame claim,
take not to hea[r]t his tumour, bandage, plaster
half-heartedly, pretend [s]he never came.
If you can couple energy creative
well in advance of others in your field,
without confusing nominative, dative,
rei[g]n arguments through cogency revealed
in context, in a manner innovative,
code palimpsests from all but s[t]age concealed,
If trust in self is never compensative
reaction used when you refused to yield.
If you can link great ends with small beginnings,
and yet not brag, nor tag each copy sold,
If dialogue's more vital than piled winnings,
to trim the quill where will won't be short-sold,
If, ignorance ignored, your story's spinnings
creates a pot no Potter has outsold,
yet you can fi[e]nd the flaw, to fresh beginnings
return to steer towards horizons bold.
If you can write without cash motivation,
self-righteousness avoiding like the plague,
create consensus round an innovation
embraced by all without appearing vague,
If you can span from logic to emotion
set constant course from vested interests clear,
If you can ban all untoward commotion,
while conscience clings to all that it holds dear,
If you can set the good within you flowing
without the itch to pitch beyond kitsch brink,
If you can give the nod and wink while knowing
that mental states aren't always in the pink,
If you use inner kinks to keep on growing
without denying others' right to think,
If you continue for tomorrow sowing
refusing using methods now that stink.
If you can lead lead soldiers Caxton crafted
without kowtow before cold compromise,
If neither editor nor public shafted
the output that your inner soul supplies,
If you can improvise, provide redrafted
communication keyed to catalyze,
you'll find to your surprise that you have rafted
alone on conscious stream your just dream buys.
Writers' Real Mirror Reflection Reel
With inside out, and out, surprised, inside,
When penning verse whose end may, too, begin it,
When rhyming reel with real can coincide
Your's is the world and everything that's in it.
If you can write without cash motivation,
Self-righteousness avoiding like the plague,
Create consensus round an innovation
Embraced by all without appearing vague.
If you can scan, span logic to emotion
Set constant course from vested interests clear,
If you can ban all untoward commotion,
While conscience clings to all that it holds dear,
If rhymes may improvise, spurn prose redrafted,
Communication key to catalyze,
You'll find to your surprise that you have rafted
On stream it seems when wit reverse dream tries.
On stream it seems when wit reverse dream tries
You'll find to your surprise that you have rafted
Communication key to catalyze.
If rhyme may improvise, spurn prose redrafted
While conscience clings to all that it holds dear,
If you can ban all untoward commotion,
Set constant course from vested interests clear.
If you can scan span logic to emotion
Embraced by all without appearing vague,
Create consensus round an innovation,
Self-righteousness avoiding like the plague,
If you can write without cash motivation,
Your's is the world and everything that's in it
When rhyming reel with real can coincide
When penning verse whose end may, too, begin it,
With inside out, and out, surprised, inside!
Cropped Apologies to Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your crops when all the nation
rails, vain assailing creepy crawly bugs,
If you can thrive when most lives' reputation
is knocked for skittles, stumped by snails and slugs,
If you can sow, show though you stay surrounded
by failing harvests sere upon the stem,
where hopes unfounded, speculations grounded,
face farmers who through jealousy condemn.
If greenhouse gases can't delay your planting,
with fallow Brussels' edicts all ignored,
If CO² you compensate by chanting
an incantation to the heavens poured.
If snail trails slip upon your sensor networks,
if nano tech protects your fields' high yield
which on the Futures markets harvests net perks
that from the tax collector stay concealed.
If you can fight Monsanto's sterile sowing,
deny blight warnings, nor fear climate change,
if cash in hand exceeds debts most's greed's owing,
if you're the early bird with worms in range,
If you free farm through seasons, thank your maker
from man's pollution, safe solution find,
yours is the race, you, ace, may need pacemaker
for luck can turn, earn bridges burned behind.
Advice to an Applicant
If you can back your boss and keep on smiling,
while toning down his brash absurdities,
if, having watched the man manhandle filing,
you rearrange the folders pretty please,
if coy and charming, beautiful, beguiling,
anticipating all contingencies,
you manage new accounts, contacts redialling,
correct crass spelling, cover vagaries...
If you can keep your head while he's resiling,
evolve successful counter-strategies,
if ‘mum's the word', discrete, ignoring tyling,
from busy-bodies safe when he agrees.
If you can spend your time in reconciling
his intellectual inanities,
never upset his fragile ego, heiling
whene'er he feels the need, or profits sneeze...
If Windows easy comes, while modem dialing
to DSL migration's not a tease,
if firewall free from viruses hostiling
you clean can keep, recalling password keys,
if the above you show him recompiling
the data lost when he lacks expertise, -
yet know your place as cypher, never riling,
remembering to bow before ‘big cheese'...
If you can stand him publicly reviling
your good ideas, then claim them his with ease,
can watch while rival's ruin he's compiling
so coldly that a lizard's blood would freeze.
If when betrayed by his ambitious wiling
you triumph through innate abilities,
ignoring basic scheming, baser guiling,
you seize the precious point he never sees! ...
If you won't blush when, rash, he'll rush, exiling
your intuitions as freak fantasies,
but confidently while free-time he's whiling,
circumvent his incapacities.
Surpassing him in brains, tact, versatiling,
you never strive to swap your salaries,
but both feet on the ground, still patient, smiling,
can counteract his incoherencies...
If you are sure his image needs restyling,
select the suits that suit down to the tees,
if you are ever ready camomiling,
or sprinkling sugar, creaming, coffee, teas,
if you can trick his wayward infantiling
and censure not his immaturities,
ignore his clumsy tries at fond defling,
yet fondled, tactful, rise from off his knees...
If you take three degrees while reconciling
your private life to further Ph.D.'s,
if you can children bear without work piling
and keep them free from trouble and disease,
if you can spring his quick promotion - vile thing -
and play the game of happy families...
Your's is the job, the rest's cosmetic styling,
Oh prized princess and pride of... secret'ries!
A l'assistante de l'Indirection
Si tu peux supporter de voir tes dossiers
démolis sans souffler mot et puis reclasser,
si tu sais appuyer partout ton PDG
sans sceptique rester quant à ses qualités...
Si tu souris, beauté, sans être emmerdante,
si vive mais jamais surprise, impatiente,
le soutenant quand des contresens fous l'enchantent,
ses lubies supporter sans paroles tranchantes...
Si tu sais sans délais t'adapter au progrès,
les autres anticiper, sans jamais hésiter,
bien le préparer avec de bons conseils,
des envieux protéger ton patron hébété...
Très expérimentée, mais sans prendre de l'age,
compréhensive aider avec ses rattrapages
sans pourtant mériter accéder aux voyages
‘d'études' et aux congrès, - ces minables volages!
Si tu sais lui montrer se servir du clavier,
aux réseaux si primés vite se connecter,
de l'Internet cliquer sur l'intranet branché,
son PC débugger sans jamais se broncher...
Si sa peur du souris, du clic-clic, du mulot
tu peux sans interdits dépasser au boulot,
à ses flagrants délits trouver tout ce qu'il faut,
si tu ses buts poursuis en soufflant le bon mot...
Si tu sais compenser l'orthographe qu'il perd,
scanner, penser, noter, téléphoner, tout faire,
son planning programmer, sans être trop mémère,
le soutenir, si gaie, quand son coeur désespère...
Si tu peux accoucher à l'heure du dîner,
tes enfants élever tous en bonne santé,
ton patron remplacer - ronronnant au soleil -
sans pour autant rêver qu'on t'accorde sa paye.
Si tu sors d'H.E.C. sans prétendre à la gloire,
Sciences Po, c'est fait, sans en faire une histoire,
ou Enarque tu es, faisant dans ton pouvoir
le tout pour manier les re(i) nes du Pouvoir.
Lors mieux qu'homme d'affaires, ou chef de cabinet
mieux que tous ces experts si souvent égarés,
tu seras à tout faire une bonne rêvée,
mieux que mère, sacrée ASSISTANTE tu es!
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on';
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Rudyard Kipling 1865_1936
Biff! The same father to the same son, now grown up.
If you can keep your job when all about you
Are losing theirs (by cutting down of screw) :
If you can keep yourself - for, make no doubt you
Won't get allowance, just for you to blue.
If you can make a heap by all your winnings
Risked on outsiders backed at Kempton Park,
Don't think that you will always get your innings
And kiss your boss's daughter in the dark.
If you should risk promotion, aught should tempt ye,
Eyeing the safe when all the staff have gone,
And, jemmying it open, find it empty,
And hear the watchman growl to you, ‘Hold on! '
If you should fill the unforgiving ‘minutes'
With names of all the people you have ‘done, '
Yours is the gaol, and everything that's in ti,
And, what is more, you'll get six months, my son.
Rachel Ferguson Nymphs and Satires 1932
A London Sparrow's IF
If you c'n keep alive when li'l bleeders
Come arter t' wi' catapults an' stones;
If you c'n grow up unpertickler feeders,
An' live on rugidge, crumbs, an' ‘addock bones;
If you c'n nest up in the bloomin' gutters,
An' dodge the blinkin' tabby on the tiles;
Nip under wheels an' never git the flutters,
Wear brahn an' no bright-coloured fevver-styles;
If you ain't blown b'nippers (Cor, I'd skin ‘me!) :
Stop y'r shells nah, warm-like, under me;
Yous is the eggs an' everyfink ‘at's in ‘em -
An' when they ‘atch, yor be cock-sparrers, see?
J A LINDON
If You can Keep Your Man
If You can Keep Your Man when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
Avert a break-up when he starts to doubt you,
Without behaving like a tart or shrew;
If you can bake a cake or change a nappy,
Although you've got a good Redbrick degree,
And yet can say you're reasonably happy
When other graduate wives dropp in for tea;
If you can lose yourself in ‘To the Lighthouse',
Yet, changing books, seek first the Thriller shelf,
If you can laugh at Mrs. Mary Whitehouse,
But sometimes wince at Wednesday Plays yourself;
If you stand up for Women's Liberation,
Think sex equality long overdue,
Yet purr when men evince consideration
And in a bus or train stand up for you;
If you can be a protest march frequenter,
But sometimes think the marchers a bit queer,
Yet, spite of everything, stay left of centre,
Oh, well, who knows? You may be right, my dear.
Stanley Sharpless
If You Can Crush
If you can crush, when all your chums are cribbing,
The urge that beckons you to do the same;
Can keep your tongue from telling tales or fibbing,
And can, when others err, take all the blame.
If you can nurse a crush on dear Miss Withers,
Yet bully off with just one silent tear;
Be resolute when even Matron dithers,
And weld the House together with a cheer.
If you can foil the fiendish Russian spy-ring,
Who've ‘got a hold' upon the Head (the swine!)
And by example selfless and inspiring,
Can make those ghastly Juniors toe the line.
If you while staying virgo quite intacta,
Can scoff at those who label you a prude;
And, when you leave, can know you've never slacked or
(Except to Ma'moiselle) been flip or rude.
If you can scale such pinnacles of virtue
And earn your teachers' praises as ‘a brick',
The truth, dear girl, (I do so hate to hurt you) -
The simple truth, dear Daphne, is you're thick!
Martin Fagg
IF
If you can stand the Quest and all her antics
When all around you turn somersaults upon her deck;
And go aloft when no one has told you
And not fall down and break your blooming neck;
If you can work like Wild and also like Wuzzles
Spend a convivial night with some old bean,
And then come down and meet the Boss at breakfast
And never breathe a word of where you've been.
If you can fill the port and starboard bunkers
With fourteen tons of coal; and call it fun;
Yours is the ship and everything that's in it
And you're a marvel; not a man my son.
Ernest H Shackleton
(28 July 2007)
poem by Jonathan Robin

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
IF - A Writers’ Guild Gild Guile Guide
If you can form and not make norms your master,
conformity, performance formal, flame.
If you inform, share, [fl]airing, flow far faster,
yet let not copyright bind tight to shame.
If you treat critic’s inconstructive blaster
with humour, beat him at his game’s lame claim,
take not to hea[r]t his tumour, bandage, plaster
half-heartedly, pretend [s]he never came.
If you can couple energy creative
well in advance of others in your field,
without confusing nominative, dative,
rei[g]n arguments through cogency revealed
in context, in a manner innovative,
code palimpsests from all but sage concealed,
If trust in self is never compensative
reaction used when you refused to yield.
If you can link great ends with small beginnings,
and yet not brag, nor tag each copy sold,
If dialogue’s more vital than piled winnings,
to trim the quill where will won’t be short-sold,
If, ignorance ignored, your story’s spinnings
creates a p[l]ot no Potter has outsold,
yet you can fi[e]nd the flaw, from fresh beginnings
return to steer to clear horizons, bold.
If you can write without cash motivation,
self-righteousness avoiding like the plague,
create consensus round an innovation
embraced by all without appearing vague,
If you can span from logic to emotion
set constant course from vested interests clear,
If you can ban all untoward commotion,
while conscience clings to all that it holds dear,
If you can set the good within you flowing
without the itch to pitch beyond kitsch brink,
If you can give the nod and wink while knowing
that mental states aren’t always in the pink,
If you use inner kinks to keep on growing
without denying others’ right to think,
If you continue for tomorrow sowing
refusing using methods now that stink.
If you can lead lead soldiers Caxton crafted
without kowtow before cold compromise,
If neither editor nor public shafted
the output that your inner soul supplies,
If you can improvise, provide redrafted
communication keyed to catalyze,
you’ll find to your surprise that you have rafted
on stream 'twill seem alone your own dream buys.
poem by Jonathan Robin

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Rudyard Kipling Parody - Writers' Real Mirror Reflection Reel
With inside out, and out, surprised, inside!
When penning verse whose end may, too, begin it,
When rhyming reel with real can coincide
Yours is the world and everything that’s in it
If you can write without cash motivation,
Self-righteousness avoiding like the plague,
Create consensus round an innovation
Embraced by all without appearing vague.
If you can scan, span logic to emotion
Set constant course from vested interests clear,
If you can ban all untoward commotion,
While conscience clings to all that it holds dear,
If rhymes may improvise, spurn prose redrafted,
Communication keyed to catalyze,
You'll find to your surprise that you have rafted
On stream it seems when wit reverse dream tries
----
On stream it seems when wit reverse dream tries
You'll find to your surprise that you have rafted
Communication keyed to catalyze,
If rhyme may improvise, spurn prose redrafted
While conscience clings to all that it holds dear.
If you can ban all untoward commotion,
Set constant course from vested interests clear.
If you can scan span logic to emotion
Embraced by all without appearing vague,
Create consensus round an innovation,
Self-righteousness avoiding like the plague,
If you can write without cash motivation,
Your's is the world and everything that’s in it
When rhyming reel with real can coincide
When penning verse whose end may, too, begin it,
With inside out, and out, surprised, inside!
poem by Jonathan Robin

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Advice to an Applicant - Parody Rudyard KIPLING – If
If you can back your boss and keep on smiling,
while toning down his brash absurdities,
if, having watched the man manhandle filing,
you rearrange the folders pretty please,
if coy and charming, beautiful, beguiling,
anticipating all contingencies,
you manage new accounts, contacts redialling,
correct crass spelling, cover vagaries...
If you can keep your head while he’s resiling,
evolve successful counter-strategies,
if ‘mum’s the word’, discrete, effective tyling,
from busy-bodies safe when he agrees.
If you can spend your time in reconciling
his intellectual inanities,
never upset his fragile ego, heiling
whene’er he feels the need, or profits sneeze...
If Windows easy comes, while modem dialing
to DSL migration’s not a tease,
if firewall free from viruses hostiling
you clean can keep, recalling password keys,
if the above you show him recompiling
the data lost when he lacks expertise, -
yet know your place as cypher, never riling,
remembering to bow before ‘big cheese’...
If you can stand him publicly reviling
your good ideas, then claim them his with ease,
can watch while rival’s ruin he’s compiling
so coldly that a lizard’s blood would freeze.
If when betrayed by his ambitious wiling
you triumph through innate abilities,
ignoring basic scheming, baser guiling,
you seize the precious point he never sees! ...
If you won’t blush when, rash, he’ll rush, exiling
your intuitions as freak fantasies,
but confidently while free-time he’s whiling,
circumvent his incapacities.
Surpassing him in brains, tact, versatiling,
you never strive to swap your salaries,
but both feet on the ground, still patient, smiling,
can counteract his incoherencies...
If you are sure his image needs restyling,
select the suits that suit down to the tees,
if you are ever ready camomiling,
or sprinkling sugar, creaming, coffee, teas,
if you can trick his wayward infantiling
and censure not his immaturities,
ignore his clumsy tries at fond defling,
yet fondled, tactful, rise from off his knees...
If you take three degrees while reconciling
your private life to further Ph.D.’s,
if you can children bear without work piling
and keep them free from trouble and disease,
if you can spring his quick promotion – vile thing –
and play the game of happy families...
Your’s is the job, the rest’s cosmetic styling,
the prized princess and pride of... secret’ries!
21 Februrary 1990 & 23 May 2005
poem by Jonathan Robin

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
poem by Rudyard Kipling

Submitted by Silvia Velea
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
Cropped Apologies to Rudyard Kipling
If you can fight Monsanto’s sterile sowing,
deny blight warnings, nor fear climate change,
if cash in hand exceeds debts most's greed's owing,
if you’re the early bird with worms in range.
If you stay steady when winds may be blowing
subarctic currents shiveringly strange,
if you can soar above false walls while knowing
true sharing's bliss which cheaps deep love's exchange.
If you can fly your kite despite snow falling
avoiding kites' and kittyhawks' harsh call,
if you won't compromise with inner calling,
nor flash your feathers - pride before the fall.
If you can weather frost or luck appalling,
tail waggle far from gaggling geese, nor stall
friends' search for perch beyond the masses mawling,
refusing vested interests' greedy gall.
If you can keep your crops when all the nation
rails, vain assailing creepy crawly bugs,
If you can thrive when most lives' reputation
is knocked for skittles, stumped by snails and slugs,
If you can sow, show though you stay surrounded
by failing harvests sere upon the stem,
where hopes unfounded, speculations grounded,
face farmers who through jealousy condemn.
If greenhouse gases can't delay your planting,
with fallow Brussels' edicts all ignored,
If CO² you compensate by chanting
an incantation to the heavens poured.
If snail trails slip upon your sensor networks,
if nano tech protects fields' fullest yield
which on the Futures markets harvests net perks
which from the tax collector are concealed.
If you resist the urge to emigration,
and stand your ground around world vision wide,
if neither outside show nor occupation
contradict the worth that's found inside,
if neither dissipation, narrow nation,
priorities are held, if you abide
in peace with self, nor fear self-revelation,
your's is free flight, by day and night hopes ride.
If day by day you grow more give than taker,
remembering each offspring's offsprings, kind,
if all return to nest at rest, God's acre
in harmony despite the daily grind.
If you farm through the seasons, thanking maker
from man's pollution, safe solution find,
yours is the race, you, ace, may need pacemaker
for luck can turn, earn bridges burned behind.
(c) Jonathan Robin 23 November 2007 revised and expanded 2 February 2009
Parody Rudyard Kipling - IF
for previous version see below
Cropped Apologies to Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your crops when all the nation
rails, vain assailing creepy crawly bugs,
If you can thrive when most lives' reputation
is knocked for skittles, stumped by snails and slugs,
If you can sow, show though you stay surrounded
by failing harvests sere upon the stem,
where hopes unfounded, speculations grounded,
face farmers who through jealousy condemn.
If greenhouse gases can't delay your planting,
with fallow Brussels' edicts all ignored,
If CO² you compensate by chanting
an incantation to the heavens poured.
If snail trails slip upon your sensor networks,
if nano tech protects your fields providing yield
which on the Futures markets harvests net perks
which from the tax collector are concealed.
If you can fight Monsanto’s sterile sowing,
deny blight warnings, nor fear climate change,
if cash in hand exceeds debts most's greed's owing,
if you’re the early bird with worms in range,
If you free farm through seasons, thank your maker
from man's pollution, safe solution find,
yours is the race, you, ace, may need pacemaker
for luck can turn, earn bridges burned behind.
23 November 2007
poem by Jonathan Robin

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Eyes Without A Face
Im all out of hope
One more bad dream could bring a fall
When Im far from home
Dont call me on the phone
To tell me youre alone
Its easy to deceive
Its easy to tease
But hard to get release
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Got no human grace your eyes without a face.
I spend so much time
Believing all the lies
To keep the dream alive
Now it makes me sad
It makes me mad at truth
For loving what was you
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Got no human grace your eyes without a face.
When you hear the music you make a dip
Into someone elses pocket then make a slip.
Steal a car and go to las vegas oh, the gigolo pool.
Hanging out by the state line,
Turning holy water into wine
Drinkin it down
Im on a bus on a psychedelic trip
Reading murder books tryin to stay hip.
Im thinkin of you youre out there so
Say your prayers.
Say your prayers.
Say your prayers.
Now I close my eyes
And I wonder why
I dont despise
Now all I can do
Is love what was once
So alive and new
But its gone from your eyes
Id better realise
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Got no human grace your eyes without a face.
Such a human waste your eyes without a face
And now its getting worse.
song performed by by Billy Idol

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Eyes Without A Face
I'm all out of hope. One more bad break could bring a fall.
When I'm far from home don't call me on the phone to tell me you're alone
It's easy to deceive. It's easy to tease. But hard to get release.
(Les yeux sans visage) Eyes without a face.
(Les yeux sans visage) Eyes without a face.
(Les yeux sans visage) Eyes without a face.
Got no human grace your eyes without a face.
I spend so much time believing all the lies to keep the dream alive.
Now it makes me sad. It makes me mad at truth for lovin' what was you.
(Les yeux sans visage) Eyes without a face.
(Les yeux sans visage) Eyes without a face.
(Les yeux sans visage) Your eyes without a face.
Got no human grace your eyes without a face.
(Les yeux sans visage) Eyes without a face.
(Les yeux sans visage) Eyes without a face.
(Les yeux sans visage) Your eyes without a face.
Got no human grace your eyes without a face.
Such a human waste your eyes without a face.
And now it's getting worse. Yeah.
song performed by by Scooter from Encore (Live & Direct)

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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La laide
Femmes, vous blasphémez l'amour, quand d'aventure
Un seul rebelle insulte à votre royauté.
Ah ! C'est un pire affront qu'en silence elle endure,
La jeune fille à qui la marâtre nature
A dénié sa gloire et son droit : la beauté !
L'amour ne luit jamais dans l'oeil qui la regarde ;
Elle pourrait quitter sa mère sans périls.
La laide ! On ne la voit jamais que par mégarde ;
Même contre un désir sa disgrâce la garde,
Pourquoi les jeunes gens l'accompagneraient-ils ?
Les jeunes gens sont fats, libertins et féroces.
La laide ! Pourquoi faire et qu'en ont-ils besoin ?
Ils la criblent entre eux de quolibets atroces,
Et c'est un collégien que, dans les bals de noces,
On charge de tirer cette enfant de son coin.
Pauvre fille ! Elle apprend que jeune elle est sans âge ;
Soeur des belles et née avec les mêmes voeux,
Elle a pour ennemi de son coeur son visage,
Et, tout au plus, parmi les compliments d'usage,
Un bon vieillard lui dit qu'elle a de beaux cheveux.
Depuis que j'ai souffert d'une forme charmante,
Je voudrais de mon mal près de toi me guérir,
Enfant qui sais aimer sans jamais être amante,
Ange qui n'es qu'une âme et n'as rien qui tourmente !
Pourquoi suis-je trop jeune encor pour te chérir ?
poem by Rene Francois Armand Prudhomme

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Only Leaves!
Will there be fruits without flowers?
Will there be flowers without leaves?
But in my garden only leaves grow
Without flowers and fruits ever!
Selfish growth will mar healthy society!
It will be like westward rush for gold
Where everyone fights with gun to kill
One another along with joy and fun ever!
Competition sans cooperation kills joy!
Animal lust cannot sustain divine love
Making joy bloom as flowers in garden
To make joy rule life forever in bliss!
Life sans good company as desert sans oasis is
Stock piling of wealth sans none to share joy!
poem by Ramesh T A

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Les Gens Sans Importance
Paroles et musique : Yves Duteil
(c) 1981 by les ditions de l'critoire
Capo II
Ce sont des gens sans importance
Avec des gestes quotidiens
Qui font renatre l'esprance
Et le bonheur entre leurs mains
Ce sont des gens sans artifices
Qui vous sourient quand ils sont bien
Et vont cacher leurs cicatrices
Parmi les fleurs de leurs jardins
Ils ont le coeur un peu fragile
Et la pudeur de leurs chagrins
Leur donne un doux regard tranquille
Un peu lointain
Ce sont des gens sans importance
Et qui parfois ne disent rien
Mais qui sont l par leur silence
Quand ils sont loin
Moi j'ai le coeur en plein Dcembre
L'ami Pierrot s'en est all
En emportant mes chansons tendres
Et ton pass
Et tous les mots sans importance
Qui rsonnaient dans la maison
Mais qui sont lourds de son absence
Dans ma chanson
C'est peut-tre ceux-l qu'on pense
Quand la mort vient rder pas loin
En emportant notre insouciance
Un beau matin
tous ces gens sans importance
Avec lesquels on est si bien
Qui font renatre l'esprance
Et sans lesquels on n'est plus rien
song performed by by Yves Duteil

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Âme! être, c'est aimer...
Âme ! être, c'est aimer.
Il est.
C'est l'être extrême.
Dieu, c'est le jour sans borne et sans fin qui dit : j'aime.
Lui, l'incommensurable, il n'a point de compas ;
Il ne se venge pas, il ne pardonne pas ;
Son baiser éternel ignore la morsure ;
Et quand on dit : justice, on suppose mesure.
Il n'est point juste ; il est. Qui n'est que juste est peu.
La justice, c'est vous, humanité ; mais Dieu
Est la bonté. Dieu, branche où tout oiseau se pose !
Dieu, c'est la flamme aimante au fond de toute chose.
Oh ! tous sont appelés et tous seront élus.
Père, il songe au méchant pour l'aimer un peu plus.
Vivants, Dieu, pénétrant en vous, chasse le vice.
L'infini qui dans l'homme entre, devient justice,
La justice n'étant que le rapport secret
De ce que l'homme fait à ce que Dieu ferait.
Bonté, c'est la lueur qui dore tous les faîtes ;
Et, pour parler toujours, hommes, comme vous faites,
Vous qui ne pouvez voir que la forme et le lieu,
Justice est le profil de la face de Dieu.
Vous voyez un côté, vous ne voyez pas l'autre.
Le bon, c'est le martyr ; le juste n'est qu'apôtre ;
Et votre infirmité, c'est que votre raison
De l'horizon humain conclut l'autre horizon.
Limités, vous prenez Dieu pour l'autre hémisphère.
Mais lui, l'être absolu, qu'est-ce qu'il pourrait faire
D'un rapport ? L'innombrable est-il fait pour chiffrer ?
Non, tout dans sa bonté calme vient s'engouffrer.
On ne sait où l'on vole, on ne sait où l'on tombe,
On nomme cela mort, néant, ténèbres, tombe,
Et, sage, fou, riant, pleurant, tremblant, moqueur,
On s'abîme éperdu dans cet immense coeur !
Dans cet azur sans fond la clémence étoilée
Elle-même s'efface, étant d'ombre mêlée !
L'être pardonné garde un souvenir secret,
Et n'ose aller trop haut ; le pardon semblerait
Reproche à la prière, et Dieu veut qu'elle approche ;
N'étant jamais tristesse, il n'est jamais reproche,
Enfants. Et maintenant, croyez si vous voulez !
poem by Victor Hugo

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Satan and God
Sans sound, silence is not there.
Sans darkness, light is not there
Sans man, woman has no value.
Sans Satan, the God has no role.
24.12.2009
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

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To the Muse
Resign the rhapsody, the dream,
To men of larger reach;
Be ours the quest of a plain theme,
The piety of speech.
As monkish scribes from morning break
Toiled till the close of light,
Nor thought a day too long to make
One line or letter bright:
We also with an ardent mind,
Time, wealth, and fame forgot,
Our glory in our patience find
And skim, and skim the pot:
Till last, when round the house we hear
The evensong of birds,
One corner of blue heaven appear
In our clear well of words.
Leave, leave it then, muse of my heart!
Sans finish and sans frame,
Leave unadorned by needless art
The picture as it came.
poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Les fleurs du clair accueil au long de la muraille
Les fleurs du clair accueil au long de la muraille
Ne nous attendent plus quand nous rentrons chez nous,
Et nos étangs soyeux dont l'eau plane s'éraille
Ne se prolongent plus sous les cieux purs et doux.
Tous les oiseaux ont fui nos plaines monotones
Et les pâles brouillards flottent sur les marais.
O ces deux cris : automne, hiver ! hiver, automne !
Entends-tu le bois mort qui choit dans la forêt ?
Notre jardin n'est plus l'époux de la lumière
D'où l'on voyait les phlox vers leur gloire surgir ;
Nos violents glaïeuls sont mêlés à la terre
Et longuement s'y sont couchés pour y mourir.
Tout est sans force et sans beauté ; tout est sans flamme
Et passe et fuit et penche et croule sans soutien ;
Oh ! donne-moi tes yeux qu'illumine ton âme
Pour y chercher quand même un coin du ciel ancien.
C'est en eux seuls qu'existe encor notre lumière,
Celle qui recouvrait tout le jardin jadis
A l'heure où s'exaltait l'orgueil blanc de nos lys
Et l'ascendante ardeur de nos roses trémières.
poem by Emile Verhaeren

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Ce qui dure
Le présent se fait vide et triste,
Ô mon amie, autour de nous ;
Combien peu de passé subsiste !
Et ceux qui restent changent tous.
Nous ne voyons plus sans envie
Les yeux de vingt ans resplendir,
Et combien sont déjà sans vie
Des yeux qui nous ont vus grandir !
Que de jeunesse emporte l'heure,
Qui n'en rapporte jamais rien !
Pourtant quelque chose demeure :
Je t'aime avec mon coeur ancien,
Mon vrai coeur, celui qui s'attache
Et souffre depuis qu'il est né,
Mon coeur d'enfant, le coeur sans tache
Que ma mère m'avait donné ;
Ce coeur où plus rien ne pénètre,
D'où plus rien désormais ne sort ;
Je t'aime avec ce que mon être
A de plus fort contre la mort ;
Et, s'il peut braver la mort même,
Si le meilleur de l'homme est tel
Que rien n'en périsse, je t'aime
Avec ce que j'ai d'immortel.
poem by Rene Francois Armand Prudhomme

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Rencontre
Passant mêle à ta vie l'orgueil et la bonté
Surmonte l'ennemi et bois à sa santé
Honore ton outil sans le laisser inerte
Brise-le par amour au moment de ta perte
Et méprise ceci Jouir sans en pleurer
La vigne sans ivresse et le champ sans ivraie
poem by Guillaume Apollinaire

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L'amour maternel
Fait d'héroïsme et de clémence,
Présent toujours au moindre appel,
Qui de nous peut dire où commence,
Où finit l'amour maternel ?
Il n'attend pas qu'on le mérite,
Il plane en deuil sur les ingrats ;
Lorsque le père déshérite,
La mère laisse ouverts ses bras ;
Son crédule dévoûment reste
Quand les plus vrais nous ont menti,
Si téméraire et si modeste
Qu'il s'ignore et n'est pas senti.
Pour nous suivre il monte ou s'abîme,
A nos revers toujours égal,
Ou si profond ou si sublime
Que, sans maître, il est sans rival :
Est-il de retraite plus douce
Qu'un sein de mère, et quel abri
Recueille avec moins de secousse
Un coeur fragile endolori ?
Quel est l'ami qui sans colère
Se voit pour d'autres négligé ?
Qu'on méconnaît sans lui déplaire,
Si bon qu'il n'en soit affligé ?
Quel ami dans un précipice
Nous joint sans espoir de retour,
Et ne sent quelque sacrifice
Où la mère ne sent qu'amour ?
Lequel n'espère un avantage
Des échanges de l'amitié ?
Que de fois la mère partage
Et ne garde pas sa moitié !
Ô mère, unique Danaïde
Dont le zèle soit sans déclin,
Et qui, sans maudire le vide,
Y penche un grand coeur toujours plein !
poem by Rene Francois Armand Prudhomme

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Amour Jamais
Amour
Jamais
Si cel nest pas pour de vrai
Toujour
Oui mais
Cest trop facile lheure quil est
Jte connais peine
Et dj tu me fais de la peine
Cest un peu trop tôt
Mieux revenir zro
Amour
Qui sait
Combien cet amour va durer
Un jour
Ou des
Eternits cest cque jvoudrais
Quand moi je taime
Peut tre un peu plus que moi-mme
Tu te crois le plus beau
Cest l o tu as tout faux
Amour amour amour jamais
Une seule condition que ce soit jamais
Amour amour amour toujours
Que ça dure jusquau dernier jour
Amour
O.k.
Sans le corps et sans âme cest
Lamour
One way
Ce ne sont que des sens insenss
Quand moi je taime
Peut tre un peu plus que moi-mme
Tu te crois le plus beau
Cest l o tu as tout faux
Amour amour amour jamais
Une seule condition que ce soit jamais
Amour amour amour toujours
Que ça dure jusquau dernier jour
song performed by by Vanessa Paradis

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet- Things Change In Life
The more we climb, the more we leave behind;
To gain virtues, we must give up vices;
Each stage, we must maintain our peace of mind;
Good deeds, more temptations sure entices.
The more we climb, the fear of fall is more;
So, reinforce yourself at every stage;
Effort is more to open heavier door;
Sometimes, life's challenges, we must engage.
Sans sacrifice, great feats can't be achieved;
Sans risks and challenges, we can't do things;
Sans analgesics, pain can't be relieved;
Sans struggle, Life not much advancement brings.
The state of mind must change from woe to joy;
We ought to change some day to man from boy.
poem by John Celes

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Aux champs
Je me penche attendri sur les bois et les eaux,
Rêveur, grand-père aussi des fleurs et des oiseaux ;
J'ai la pitié sacrée et profonde des choses ;
J'empêche les enfants de maltraiter les roses ;
Je dis : N'effarez point la plante et l'animal ;
Riez sans faire peur, jouez sans faire mal.
Jeanne et Georges, fronts purs, prunelles éblouies,
Rayonnent au milieu des fleurs épanouies ;
J'erre, sans le troubler, dans tout ce paradis ;
Je les entends chanter, je songe, et je me dis
Qu'ils sont inattentifs, dans leurs charmants tapages,
Au bruit sombre que font en se tournant les pages
Du mystérieux livre où le sort est écrit,
Et qu'ils sont loin du prêtre et près de Jésus-Christ.
poem by Victor Hugo

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