Rubens' Innocents
IF all those tumbling babes of heaven,
Plump cherubim with blown cheeks,
Could vault in these warm skies, or leaven
Our starry silent mountain-peaks—
O painter of chub-faced, shining-thighed
Fat Ganymedes of God—what noise
Would churn between the clouds and stride
Far downward from those rose-mouthed boys!
Down to our spires their lusty whooping,
Fanfares of Paradise, would speed,
Far down to dark-faced clergy stooping
Round altars of their doleful creed;
And God, whose wings of silver sweep
Like metal afire on heaven's rim,
Would daze them with a twinkling peep
Of those young moon-stained cherubim—
Then, for a trice, their skies might sparkle,
And some gold ichor splash amid
Those most respectable, patriarchal
Purveyors of stale pardons, hid
Behind their old cathedral closes
From this unguessed, unguessable God,
Shining before their learned noses
Down roads that Peter Rubens trod.
poem by Kenneth Slessor
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A Little Litany
When God turned back eternity and was young,
Ancient of Days, grown little for your mirth
(As under the low arch the land is bright)
Peered through you, gate of heaven--and saw the earth.
Or shutting out his shining skies awhile
Built you about him for a house of gold
To see in pictured walls his storied world
Return upon him as a tale is told.
Or found his mirror there; the only glass
That would not break with that unbearable light
Till in a corner of the high dark house
God looked on God, as ghosts meet in the night.
Star of his morning; that unfallen star
In that strange starry overturn of space
When earth and sky changed places for an hour
And heaven looked upwards in a human face.
Or young on your strong knees and lifted up
Wisdom cried out, whose voice is in the street,
And more than twilight of twiformed cherubim
Made of his throne indeed a mercy-seat.
Or risen from play at your pale raiment's hem
God, grown adventurous from all time's repose,
Or your tall body climed the ivory tower
And kissed upon your mouth the mystic rose.
poem by G.K. Chesterton
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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A Little Litany
When God turned back eternity and was young,
Ancient of Days, grown little for your mirth
(As under the low arch the land is bright)
Peered through you, gate of heaven--and saw the earth.
Or shutting out his shining skies awhile
Built you about him for a house of gold
To see in pictured walls his storied world
Return upon him as a tale is told.
Or found his mirror there; the only glass
That would not break with that unbearable light
Till in a corner of the high dark house
God looked on God, as ghosts meet in the night.
Star of his morning; that unfallen star
In that strange starry overturn of space
When earth and sky changed places for an hour
And heaven looked upwards in a human face.
Or young on your strong knees and lifted up
Wisdom cried out, whose voice is in the street,
And more than twilight of twiformed cherubim
Made of his throne indeed a mercy-seat.
Or risen from play at your pale raiment's hem
God, grown adventurous from all time's repose,
Or your tall body climbed the ivory tower
And kissed upon your mouth the mystic rose.
poem by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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Surrender Paradise
Tropical breeze caressing me, sweet fragrant air enticing me
Starlight skies are offering their love to me
I surrender to you, paradise
Heaven and earth are becoming as one shining light on their world
Open your heart, spread your wings, take a chance for the flight of your life.
Warm summer nights, the twinkling of stars
Gardenia blooms, whispering love
Moonlight playing up and down a drifting waterfall
I surrender to you, paradise
Crystal blue sea, white sandy beach
Sunset commands a rainbow array
All the birds in wonderland are singing perfect harmony
I surrender to you, paradise
Heaven and earth are becoming as one shining light on their world
Open your heart, spread your wings, take a chance for the flight of your life.
Secrets of love are lurking beyond
Rapture me now, your passion is mine
Sun-kissed waves are frolicking along the familiar shore
I surrender to you, paradise
Butterflies are fluttering atop a stream
I surrender to you, paradise
Moonlight playing up and down a drifting waterfall
I surrender to you paradise
I surrender, my love
When you want me, you need me, Ill always be here
Giving my love to you, paradise
song performed by by Gloria Estefan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Silver Is Metal Used To Kill Demon Souls
gold gold is the fever metal
for the love of gold shining in their eyes
men resort to violent base morals
gold lust will turn men's
hearts to savage beasts
gold is not a beautiful metal
of salvation
curse of death men's
gold haunts
generations of men
silver silver is redemption metal
thirty pieces of silver payment
price for betrayal of prophet Christ
in blood of Christ
silver is granted power over evil
silver is metal
used to kill demon souls
silver not gold
is salvation metal
with power to slay evil
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Cathedral Spires
They have blown away the daylight hours we had
Left a leagcy, a deadly aftermath
We cannot exist in godforsaken lands
As we spiral down into oblivion
Breathing the fumes of fires that they ignite
Losing ground and we are all just losing sight
We shall never see another setting sun
Time to rise up and ascend, the end has come
No more willpower
Choked by hell fire
Darkness above
Blackening out the sun
Gripped by steel claws
Corrosion eating us
So before were all devoured
Time to rise up and retire
In cathedral spires
Watching as the world expires
From up amongst the clouds
In cathedral spires
No names
No graves
No prayers
Can save us
Ashes to dust
Doomsdays upon us now
It cannot be stopped
Genocide all is lost
Oh! were so tired
Time to rise up and conspire
In cathedral spires
Watching as our world expires
From up above the clouds
In cathedral spires
Jaws of corruption
Swallow us as one
Consuming every nation
Evoke resistance getting none
Complete disintegration
No good to defend
There can be but one outcome
We are no more - ascend
Vaporized fury
Offers no sanctuary
Oh! were so tired
Time to rise up and retire
In cathedral spires
Watching as the world expires
From up amongst the clouds
In cathedral
In cathedral spires
Oh! were so tired
Watching the world expire
Time that we retire
Up in cathedral spires
Oh! were so tired
Watching the world expire
Time that we retire
Up in cathedral spires
Oh! were so tired
Watching the world expire
Time that we retire
Up in cathedral spires
Oh! were so tired
Watching the world expire
Time that we retire
Up in cathedral spires
song performed by by Judas Priest
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Rubens' Hell
VENUS with rosy-cloven rump
And rings of straw-bright flying hair
Looks in the glass that slaves are plying
Not for her own face floating there,
But for the sly and curious gaze
Of Rubens, through the keyhole prying.
Warm flesh of gods, by light embayed,
And drifting daemon-bones within
That sweep like music up and down
To pouts and cups of ivory skin,
Firm-valleyed croup, and swagging arm
In whose embankment bracelets drown—
Do you remain, you strokes of paint,
With Venus mocked and Rubens dead
And Beauty sold for an antique
And microscopes raised up instead?
Still are your old adherents true;
Rubens is there, if he could speak.
Rubens is there in your high room,
Rubens it is who blows his breath
To fix you laughing in the glass,
Who keeps a castle here from death
While schools go out and fashions fall
And microscopes and movements pass.
This castle-keep of joys conceived
But never sucked is Rubens' hell,
Is Rubens' limbo, cut and won
From darkness. Here he comes to dwell.
Man's heaven is the place he builds
By thoughts imagined and things done.
Some choose a paradise of gas,
And some, by pious deeds below,
The heavenly butter-hatch for flunkeys;
Who dream of nought to nothing go.
Therefore I'd sooner Rubens' hell
Than go to heaven with the donkeys.
poem by Kenneth Slessor
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Pan at Lane Cove
SCALY with poison, bright with flame,
Great fungi steam beside the gate,
Run tentacles through flagstone cracks,
Or claw beyond, where meditate
Wet poplars on a pitchy lawn.
Some seignior of colonial fame
Has planted here a stone-cut faun
Whose flute juts like a frozen flame.
O lonely faun, what songs are these
For skies where no Immortals hide?
Why finger in this dour abode
Those Pan-pipes girdled at your side?
Your Gods, and Hellas too, have passed,
Forsaken are the Cyclades,
And surely, faun, you are the last
To pipe such ancient songs as these.
Yet, blow your stone-lipped flute and blow
Those red-and-silver pipes of Pan.
Cold stars are bubbling round the moon,
Which, like some golden Indiaman
Disgorged by waterspouts and blown
Through heaven's archipelago,
Drives orange bows by clouds of stone . . .
Blow, blow your flute, you stone boy, blow!
And, Chiron, pipe your centaurs out,
The night has looped a smoky scarf
Round campanili in the town,
And thrown a cloak about Clontarf.
Now earth is ripe for Pan again,
Barbaric ways and Paynim rout,
And revels of old Samian men.
O Chiron, pipe your centaurs out.
This garden by the dark Lane Cove
Shall spark before thy music dies
With silver sandals; all thy gods
Be conjured from Ionian skies.
Those poplars in a fluting-trice
They'll charm into an olive-grove
And dance a while in Paradise
Like men of fire above Lane Cove.
poem by Kenneth Slessor
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The Moon-Path
The full, clear moon uprose and spread
Her cold, pale splendor o'er the sea;
A light-strewn path that seemed to lead
Outward into eternity.
Between the darkness and the gleam
An old-world spell encompassed me:
Methought that in a godlike dream
I trod upon the sea.
And lo! upon that glimmering road,
In shining companies unfurled,
The trains of many a primal god,
The monsters of the elder world;
Strange creatures that, with silver wings,
Scarce touched the ocean's thronging floor,
The phantoms of old tales, and things
Whose shapes are known no more.
Giants and demi-gods who once
Were dwellers of the earth and sea,
And they who from Deucalion's stones,
Rose men without an infancy;
Beings on whose majestic lids
Time's solemn secrets seemed to dwell,
Tritons and pale-limbed Nereids,
And forms of heaven and hell.
Some who were heroes long of yore,
When the great world was hale and young;
And some whose marble lips yet pour
The murmur of an antique tongue;
Sad queens, whose names are like soft moans,
Whose griefs were written up in gold;
And some who on their silver thrones
Were goddesses of old.
As if I had been dead indeed,
And come into some after-land,
I saw them pass me, and take heed,
And touch me with each mighty hand;
And evermore a murmurous stream,
So beautiful they seemed to me,
Not less than in a godlike dream
I trod the shining sea.
poem by Archibald Lampman
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Starry, Starry Skies
Starry, starry skies
that fill my searching eyes
so distant and so far from me
and yet I feel so close to thee.
Each one that twinkles in the night
brings to me sweet heaven's light.
Oh that I could travel far
and finally touch one shiny star
But I can only stop and stare
and wonder how and why and where.
Wondering, never knowing
how it is you're always glowing
My
Starry, starry skies.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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A Fairy Tale
All things grew upwards, foul and fair:
The great trees fought and beat the air
With monstrous wings that would have flown;
But the old earth clung to her own,
Holding them back from heavenly wars,
Though every flower sprang at the stars.
But he broke free: while all things ceased,
Some hour increasing, he increased.
The town beneath him seemed a map,
Above the church he cocked his cap,
Above the cross his feather flew
Above the birds and still he grew.
The trees turned grass; the clouds were riven;
His feet were mountains lost in heaven;
Through strange new skies he rose alone,
The earth fell from him like a stone,
And his own limbs beneath him far
Seemed tapering down to touch a star.
He reared his head, shaggy and grim,
Staring among the cherubim;
The seven celestial floors he rent,
One crystal dome still o'er him bent:
Above his head, more clear than hope,
All heaven was a microscope.
poem by G.K. Chesterton from The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Paradise: In A Symbol
Golden-winged, silver-winged,
Winged with flashing flame,
Such a flight of birds I saw,
Birds without a name:
Singing songs in their own tongue
(Song of songs) they came.
One to another calling,
Each answering each,
One to another calling
In their proper speech:
High above my head they wheeled,
Far out of reach.
On wings of flame they went and came
With a cadenced clang,
Their silver wings tinkled,
Their golden wings rang,
The wind it whistled through their wings
Where in Heaven they sang.
They flashed and they darted
Awhile before mine eyes,
Mounting, mounting, mounting still
In haste to scale the skies—
Birds without a nest on earth,
Birds of Paradise.
Where the moon riseth not,
Nor sun seeks the west,
There to sing their glory
Which they sing at rest,
There to sing their love-song
When they sing their best:
Not in any garden
That mortal foot hath trod,
Not in any flowering tree
That springs from earthly sod,
But in the garden where they dwell,
The Paradise of God.
poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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Carolina In My Mind
(Taylor)
In my mind I'm going to Carolina. Can't you see the sunshine,
can't you just feel the moon shining?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind and I'm going to Carolina in my mind.
Karen she's a silver sun, you best walk her way and watch it shine,
watch her watch the morning come.
A silver tear's appearing now, I'm crying, ain't I? I'm going to Carolina in my mind.
There ain't no doubt it no one's mind that loves the finest thing around,
whisper something soft and kind.
And hey, babe, the sky's on fire, I'm dying, ain't I? I'm going to Carolina in my mind.
In my mind I'm going to Carolina. Can't you see the sunshine,
can't you just feel the moon shining?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind and I'm going to Carolina in my mind.
Dark and silent late last night, I think I might have heard the highway call.
Geese in flight and dogs that bite.
Signs that might be omens say I'm going. I'm going, I'm going to Carolina in my mind.
With a holy host of others standing round me, still I'm on the dark side of the moon.
and it seems like it goes on like this forever, you must forgive me if it's up and
In my mind I'm going to Carolina. Can't you see the sunshine,
can't you just feel the moon shining?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind and I'm going to Carolina in my mind,
in my mind I'm going to Carolina.
Can't you see the sunshine, can't you just feel the moon shining?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind and I'm going to Carolina in my mind.
song performed by by John Denver
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Daydream
Shining in the silver moon,
Crystal ships are sailing to the sea.
Dreams the joys of pearls and gold,
And our angels wings in flight unfold.
Fly, fly by my window,
Flyin so free, yeah.
Yes, they fly, fly by my window.
Yes, those bright diamonds a-once were stone,
Rollin down a silver stream.
Yes, those bright diamonds a-once were stone.
Sail on a silver wings of fire,
Sailing dreams beyond the silver moon.
In silver clouds that fly so high,
Live the dreams you search,
But cant find.
(chorus)
song performed by by Journey
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Carolina In My Mind
In my mind Im going to carolina
Cant you see the sunshine
Cant you just feel the moon shining
Aint it just like a friend of mine
It hit me from behind
And Im going to carolina in my mind
Karen shes a silver sun
You best walk her way and watch it shining
Watch her watch the morning come
A silver tear appearing now Im crying aint i
Im going to carolina in my mind
There aint no doubt it no ones mind
That loves the finest thing around
Whisper something soft and kind
Hey babe the skys on fire Im dying well aint i
Im going to carolina in my mind
In my mind Im going to carolina
Cant you see the sunshine
Cant you just feel the moon shining
Aint it just like a friend of mine
To hit me from behind
And Im going to carolina in my mind
Dark and silent late last night
I think I might have heard the highway calling
Geese in flight and dogs that bite
Signs that might be omens say I going going
Im going to carolina in my mind
Now with a holy host of others standing round me
Still Im on the dark side of the moon
And it seems like it goes on like this forever
You must forgive me
If Im up and going to carolina in my mind
In my mind Im going to carolina
Cant you see the sunshine
Cant you just feel the moon shining
Aint it just like a friend of mine
To hit me from behind
And Im going to carolina in my mind
Going to carolina in my mind
Going to carolina in my mind
song performed by by Indigo Girls
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There Are White Flowers In Her Hair
There are white flowers in her hair,
blue-white stars when she laughs
in her eyes shining like rainbows,
with a own innocent beauty
with the coming of spring in the air
between the blooming flowers,
in rainbows shining like her eyes,
she finds where the prettiest flowers grow,
she is bounded to loveliness,
she notices roses that are dark like blood
in her eyes shining like rainbows,
but in her cheeks there is a gloss.
Delighted she stands at corn fields
clouds dark and white,
in rainbows shining like her eyes
there is somewhere a pot of gold.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Heaven they say!
Heaven they say is the place to be
Up in the skies all I can see
are abstract clouds of glorious seas
Heaven they say is a promised dream
An unseen paradise to me it seems
Which we see only in our dreams
Heaven they say is home
Every inch of it I wish to roam
Heaven they say is the promised land
For the righteous if you understand
Heaven they say is forever
It is forever and after and not never
But I say!
Heaven is the ultimate reward
From the Almighty Lord
Copyright 2005 - Sylvia Chidi
poem by Sylvia Chidi
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Almost Paradise
I thought that dreams belonged to other men
'Cause each time I got close
They'd fall apart again
I feared my heart would beat in secrecy
I faced the nights alone
Oh, how could I have known
That all my life I only needed you?
Whoa
Almost paradise
We're knockin' on heaven's door
Almost paradise
How could we ask for more?
I swear that I can see forever in your eyes
Paradise
It seems like perfect love's so hard to find
I'd almost given up
You must have read my mind
And all these dreams I saved for a rainy day
They're finally coming true
I'll share them all with you
'Cause now we hold the future in our hands
Whoa
Almost paradise
We're knockin' on heaven's door
Almost paradise
How could we ask for more?
I swear that I can see forever in your eyes
Paradise
And in your arms salvation's not so far away
It's getting closer
Closer every day
It's almost paradise
We're knockin' on heaven's door
Almost paradise
How could we ask for more?
I swear that I can see forever in your eyes
Paradise
Whoa
Almost paradise
We're knockin' on heaven's door
Almost paradise
How could we ask for more?
I swear that I can see forever in your eyes
Paradise
Paradise
Paradise
song performed by by Loverboy
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Influence
The fervent, pale-faced Mother ere she sleep,
Looks out upon the zigzag-lighted square,
The beautiful bare trees, the blue night-air,
The revelation of the star-strewn deep,
World above world, and heaven over heaven.
Between the tree-tops and the skies, her sight
Rests on a steadfast, ruddy-shining light,
High in the tower, an earthly star of even.
Hers is the faith in saints' and angels' power,
And mediating love--she breathes a prayer
For yon tired watcher in the gray old tower.
He the shrewd, skeptic poet unaware
Feels comforted and stilled, and knows not whence
Falls this unwonted peace on heart and sense.
poem by Emma Lazarus
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Sweets by Air
I can make a personal delivery
How, you ask?
Well, you could meet
I will spread my wings and fly halfway
Just to meet with you
You can do the same
Yes, you are an angel
So spread your wings
We will meet on the highest mountain peaks
Before handing over the sweets
We have to soar, the skies together
Be realistic?
All we think of, is a possibility
Just close your eyes
And see us, soar the skies together
Two friends together
Holding hands as we hover
In clear blue skies
Miles apart
Yet living in each other's hearts
poem by Persian Khushi
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The Earth’s Shame
Name not his deed: in shuddering and in haste
We dragged him darkly o'er the windy fell:
That night there was a gibbet in the waste,
And a new sin in hell.
Be his deed hid from commonwealths and kings,
By all men born be one true tale forgot;
But three things, braver than all earthly things,
Faced him and feared him not.
Above his head and sunken secret face
Nested the sparrow's young and dropped not dead.
From the red blood and slime of that lost place
Grew daisies white, not red.
And from high heaven looking upon him,
Slowly upon the face of God did come
A smile the cherubim and seraphim
Hid all their faces from.
poem by G.K. Chesterton from The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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