Nefarious War
Last year we fought by the head-stream of the Sang-kan,
This year we are fighting on the Tsung-ho road.
We have washed our armor in the waves of the Chiao-chi lake,
We have pastured our horses on Tien-shan's snowy slopes.
The long, long war goes on ten thousand miles from home,
Our three armies are worn and grown old.
The barbarian does man-slaughter for plowing;
On this yellow sand-plains nothing has been seen but
blanched skulls and bones.
Where the Chin emperor built the walls against the Tartars,
There the defenders of Han are burning beacon fires.
The beacon fires burn and never go out,
There is no end to war!—
In the battlefield men grapple each other and die;
The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven,
While ravens and kites peck at human entrails,
Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees.
So, men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass,
And the generals have accomplished nothing.
Oh, nefarious war! I see why arms
Were so seldom used by the benign sovereigns.
Related quotes
We Fought for - South of the Walls
Died for - North of the Ramparts’(to an old tune)
We fought for Mulberry Springs
Die now for Garlic River.
Wash our swords in Parthian Seas,
Feed our mounts on T’ien Shan snows.
Thousands of miles to and fro.
The Three Armies tired and old.
These Huns kill instead of ploughing,
Sow white bones in desert sand.
Ch’in built the Great Wall.
Han keeps the bright beacons.
These fires never die.
These wars never end.
Hand to hand we fight and fail,
Horses screaming to the skies.
Kites and crows pick at our flesh
Perch on dead trees with our dead.
We paint the grasses red,
Because our General had a plan.
The sword I say’s an evil thing.
A wise man keeps it from his hand.
In The Distance
On a lonely hillside,
there stands a cabin
with a lamp in the window
to show someone is there.
In the distance it is a beacon
that points to my cosy home.
When my working day is through
and I walk back along the miles,
I can see that lamp burning.
That welcoming beacon
beckoning to me there in the distance.
My love waits for me there
after my work is done
with my slippers near the fire.
The miles never seem that long
with that beacon in the distance
waiting to welcome me home.
1 March 2011
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Advent of Spring
The city has fallen: only the hills and rivers remain.
In Spring the streets were green with grass and trees.
Sorrowing over the times, the flowers are weeping.
The birds startled my heart in fear of departing.
The beacon fires were burning for three months,
A letter from home was worth ten thousand pieces of gold.
I scratch the scant hairs on my white head,
And vainly attempt to secure them with a hairpin.
Old Couple's Departure
The four outskirts are not yet safe and quiet,
I am old, but have no peace.
All my sons and grandsons died in battle;
it's no use to keep my body alone in one piece.
Throwing away my walking stick, I walk out the door.
The other soldiers are saddened, pitying me.
I'm lucky to still have all my teeth
but I regret the marrow has dried in my bones.
Wearing a soldier's helmet and armor,
I salute my officers before departure.
My old wife is lying in the road weeping.
The year is late and her clothes thin.
Though I know at heart this is our death-farewell,
her shivering in cold still hurts me.
I know I will never come back,
yet hear her out when she says, "Eat more!"
The city wall around Earth Gate is very strong,
and the Xingyuan ferry is hard for the enemy to cross,
so the situation is different from the siege of Ye City,
and I will have some time before I die.
In life we part and we rejoin;
we have no choice, young or old.
I recall my young and strong days,
and walk about with long sighs.
War has spread through ten thousand countries
till beacon fires blaze from all the peaks.
So many corpses that grass and trees stink like fish,
rivers and plains dyed red with blood.
Which land is the happy land?
How can I linger here!
I abandon my thatched house
and feel my liver and lungs collapse.
Bullroarer
In the desert in the dry
Before the breaking of the rain
The temperature in the shade
Had reached a hundred and ten again
In the desert in the dry
On the overland telegraph line
Dont take the law into your own hands
Dont go looking for a fight
Ive heard the bullroarers
In the desert in the dry
Sun sits so high
Long days mile and the
Radio crackles and the bones bleached white
Its a knock-em-down storm
See the tin roof shake
Wild dog howls and the long grass
Whistles and the tall trees break
Ive seen the wild horses
Ive heard the bullroarers
Ive seen the wild horses
Shifting sands and broken plans
Lead me on to my homeland
song performed by by Midnight Oil
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Airly Beacon
Airly Beacon, Airly Beacon;
Oh, the pleasant sight to see
Shires and towns from Airly Beacon,
While my love climbed up to me!
Airly Beacon, Airly Beacon;
Oh, the happy hours we lay
Deep in fern on Airly Beacon,
Courting through the summer's day!
Airly Beacon, Airly Beacon;
Oh, the weary haunt for me,
All alone on Airly Beacon,
With his baby on my knee!
poem by Charles Kingsley
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Long Year Gone
Worn and tired
wind blown
Waves have come
waves have gone
Storm calmed and
Long washed ashore.
Long year gone and no reprise yet a break in year
Still sun rises and
falls
But we're still here!
poem by Almedia Knight Oliver
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Long Time Gone
Well I been gone a long time
The time has passed us by
And I know it won't be long 'till I get home
I see your smilin' face, well I just can't erase
All those good ol' happy days when we were 'lone.
Well I'm comin' through the mountains
On my way back home
I see that snow fallin' on that good old mountain ground
And I know it won't be long, I'm in your lovin' arms
We'll live together and things 'll be better for you
a' you and me, a' can't cha see?
Woman, I been a long time gone
To be a thousand miles from home
I know I've done you wrong
And I know it won't be long,
I'm in your lovin' arms
Woman, been a long, I been a long time gone.
When I hit that mountain road
I got five miles left to go.
I smell that good old mountain air and old and pine trees
And as she stood alone with a pretty white dress on,
I felt that good old mountain air blowin' up a breeze.
Woman, I been a long time gone
To be a thousand miles from home
I know I've done you wrong
And I know it won't be long,
I'm in your lovin' arms
Woman, been a long, I been a long time gone.
song performed by by 38 Special
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Visit to Qiantang Lake in Spring
Gushan temple north Jiating west
Water surface first flat cloud base low
Several places early orioles fight warm tree
Every house new swallows peck spring mud
Disordered flowers gradually almost confuse person eye
Light grass able hide horse hoof
Most love lake east go not enough
Green poplar shade in white sand causeway Gushan Temple is to the north, Jiating pavilion west,
The water's surface now is calm, the bottom of the clouds low.
In several places, the first orioles are fighting in warm trees,
By every house new swallows peck at spring mud.
Disordered flowers have grown almost enough to confuse the eye,
Bright grass is able now to hide the hooves of horses.
I most love the east of the lake, I cannot come often enough
Within the shade of green poplars on White Sand Embankment.
Long Way From Home
There's a black Siberian
Look a white guy in the sun
Miles away from where the quest begun
From the ice to the sand
Nations moved across the land
Ever since time designed the man
Someday to return
To the place of my birth
I'm a long way from home
But I know where I belong
It's a long way I know
But the heart will still carry me home
Firewater in the blood
Took away the livelihood
Giving thanks every single year
Who the hell
Owns this land?
Is it God or is it man?
With the blood we draw the line again
I'm called to return
To the place of my birth
I'm a long way from home
But I know where I belong
It's a long way I know
But the heart will still carry me home
I'm a long way from home
But I know where I belong
It's a long way I know
But the heart will still carry me home
song performed by by Asia
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Reedy River
Ten miles down Reedy River
A pool of water lies,
And all the year it mirrors
The changes in the skies,
And in that pool's broad bosom
Is room for all the stars;
Its bed of sand has drifted
O'er countless rocky bars.
Around the lower edges
There waves a bed of reeds,
Where water rats are hidden
And where the wild duck breeds;
And grassy slopes rise gently
To ridges long and low,
Where groves of wattle flourish
And native bluebells grow.
Beneath the granite ridges
The eye may just discern
Where Rocky Creek emerges
From deep green banks of fern;
And standing tall between them,
The grassy she-oaks cool
The hard, blue-tinted waters
Before they reach the pool.
Ten miles down Reedy River
One Sunday afternoon,
I rode with Mary Campbell
To that broad, bright lagoon;
We left our horses grazing
Till shadows climbed the peak,
And strolled beneath the she-oaks
On the banks of Rocky Creek.
Then home along the river
That night we rode a race,
And the moonlight lent a glory
To Mary Campbell's face;
And I pleaded for our future
All through that moonlight ride,
Until our weary horses
Drew closer side by side.
Ten miles from Ryan's Crossing
And five miles below the peak,
I built a little homestead
On the banks of Rocky Creek;
I cleared the land and fenced it
And ploughed the rich, red loam,
And my first crop was golden
When I brought my Mary home.
Now still down Reedy River
The grassy she-oaks sigh,
And the water-holes still mirror
The pictures in the sky;
And over all for ever
Go sun and moon and stars,
While the golden sand is drifting
Across the rocky bars
But of the hut I builded
There are no traces now.
And many rains have levelled
The furrows of the plough;
And my bright days are olden,
For the twisted branches wave
And the wattle blossoms golden
On the hill by Mary's grave.
poem by Henry Lawson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Sand & The Sea
-artist: nat king cole
-peak billboard position # 23 in 1955
-words and music by hal hester and barry parker
If I find peace of mind in the sand and the sea
Theres a hope in my heart that youll soon be with me
Theres a prayer that I share with the sand and the sea
And it cries come to me, come to me.
As my eyes search the skies from the edge of the shore
You are here in my arms for a moment or more
Then a tear rushes down to the sand and the sea
And it cries come to me, come to me.
But as long as theres sand, as long as theres sea
As long as theres time Ill wait hopefully
As long as theres heaven up above
Let the sand and the sea bring my love to me
But as long as theres sand, as long as theres sea
As long as theres time Ill wait hopefully
As long as theres heaven up above
Let the sand and the sea bring my love to me
song performed by by Nat King Cole
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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One Year In Heaven
One year in heaven,
One year you've been there,
So far away,
Someday I'll see you in the air,
One year in heaven,
I miss you so much,
Smile down upon me,
And show me your love.
One year in heaven,
It seems like so long,
Since the last time I saw you,
And then you were gone,
One year in heaven,
You left earth to soon,
But I know they need you,
More then I do,
One year in heaven,
I'm alone on the earth,
I miss your sweet kisses,
And all that you're worth,
One year in heaven,
Is God really there?
Why did he take you,
As I cried in despair.
One year in heaven,
I still see your face,
The day that you took,
The last breath you would take,
One year in heaven,
Why did you die,
I know God needed you,
But still I cry.
One year in heaven,
Soon I'll be there,
So wait by the gate,
Please, this do swear,
One year in heaven,
To me it is long,
But you have no pain,
From this earth you have gone.
One year in heaven,
It's so hard to move on,
I'll send you a prayer,
And sing you a song,
One year in heaven,
Life's not the same,
Since you left this world,
I'm living in a daze.
One year in heaven,
You watch from above,
Sit there and smile,
And send me your love,
One year in heaven,
You may think it's just a day,
But this world is so different,
Since God took you away
poem by Michele Weston
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Moon over Mountain Pass
A bright moon rising above Tian Shan Mountain,
Lost in a vast ocean of clouds.
The long wind, across thousands upon thousands of miles,
Blows past the Jade-gate Pass.
The army of Han has gone down the Baiteng Road,
As the barbarian hordes probe at Qinghai Bay.
It is known that from the battlefield
Few ever live to return.
Men at Garrison look on the border scene,
Home thoughts deepen sorrow on their faces.
In the towered chambers tonight,
Ceaseless are the women's sighs.
Born In The U. S. A.
Born down in a dead mans town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog thats been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.
I was born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the u.s..a....
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said son if it was up to me
Went down to see my v.a. man
He said son, dont you understand
I had a brother at khe sahn
Fighting off the viet cong
Theyre still there, hes all gone
He had a woman he loved in saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
Im ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run aint got nowhere to go
Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., Im a long gone daddy in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., Im a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a.
song performed by by Bruce Springsteen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Camp Fires of the Past
A thousand, thousand camp fires every night,
in ages gone, would twinkle to the dark
from crest and valley in the rolling bush,
from mulga scrub and mallee scrub, from dunes
of Central sand, from gaps in straggling ranges,
from gibber plains and plains of iron-wood,
through leaves and in the open, from the mangroves
by shore of Carpenteria, from rocks
and beaches of the Bight.....for countless aeons,
a thousand, thousand camp fires burned each night,
and, by the fires, the Old Men told their tales
which held their listeners spellbound.... Every night
among the fires men chanted to the beat
of stick and boomerangs and clap of hands,
or drone-and-boom of didgeridoo, the songs
rising and falling, trailing, quickening,
while eyes gleamed bright, through smoke drift, bodies shone
and dusked in fitful glow amid the shadows.......
poem by Rex Ingamells
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A Warm And Welcoming Light
The light in your window
shines bright every night,
like a warm and welcoming
beacon light,
but I cannot see it.
I am too far away
locked in a prison
for the crimes that I have done.
One day when they release me
home, I am going to run,
to the warm and welcoming
beacon light in your window.
I promise when I get there
I will never leave again,
no more crimes will I commit.
Every bird builds a nest
as cosy and snug as can be.
So I built a home for us
where a fire burns
to make it
warm and welcoming
like a home should be.
I ask myself the question
how long will it be
before I can lay down
in the green grass of my home.
The answer comes back,
but not the one that I want to hear.
It will be many more years
before you can go home.
So I sit in my jail cell
waiting for that day,
when I can again breath
the clear free fresh air,
come running up the path
to see you at the door.
Come to my sweet home
and stay forever more.
22 April 2008
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Robbing the Tomb
The year was bad, the crops were burnt,
The dragon turned his back,
The River Wei was almost dry
The earth was brown, and cracked,
The peasant army, risen up
Destroyed the House of Chin,
Set fire to all their palaces,
Their army turned and ran.
But we were left with nothing since
The death of Chin Shi Huang,
That first and greatest Emperor
Who'd ruled across the land,
He lay within his tomb up there
Hid deep within Mount Li,
And left us all with nothing but
A distant memory.
So Wang and Tong, my neighbours
With both Zheng and Shao along,
Had thought about the riches that
Lay underneath the ground,
They'd murdered all the builders and
The architects, the slaves,
So no-one could reveal the plans
Of Chin Shi Huang-ti's grave.
The ruling class were weak, had fled,
We thought this was our chance,
Why shouldn't we be rich, we thought,
We'd fought with sword and lance,
We'd long defended Chin Shi Huang
So now we should be paid,
The riches of the tomb lay there
Down where his corpse was laid.
'You know the penalty for this, '
Said Shao, 'we'll lose our heads,
If anyone should get to hear
That we've disturbed the dead.'
'We're going to die soon anyway, '
Croaked Zheng, 'you'd rather starve?
I'd risk my head for just one ring...'
The rest of us just laughed.
'What if his ghost has roamed abroad
To rage and roar at us?
Down in that ghostly sepulchre
Where he was laid in trust? '
'No man survived to see beneath
Those workings that were done,
They buried all his concubines
And workmen, every one! '
'I'd face a thousand ghosts, ' said Tong,
'A ghost can't do you harm,
'I hope you're sure of that, ' said Wang,
Who blanched in his alarm.
'Of course they can't, we'll get to work
The moon is full tonight,
We'll tunnel down, lie low by day,
Work while the moon is bright! '
It took us just a week to find
The steps to take us in,
The air was musty, smelt of death
The death knell of the Chin.
Then Shao had lit a candle, and
Cried out, a note of fear,
We stood and stared agape at horses,
And each charioteer.
And lines of archers, infantry,
That glared us in the gloom,
A whole division of the Chin
Had filled that darkened room,
But soldiers, made of pottery,
They stood as if in death,
To wait for Chin Shi Huang to rise,
To take a mortal breath.
We made our way between the rows
An army from the past,
And every face was different there,
A grim, unsmiling mask,
There must have been a thousand, or
Ten thousand, who could tell,
The army of an Emperor to
Breach the gates of hell!
Eventually we found a way
To tunnel through the walls,
Some passages led out of there
Deep down into the halls,
Where concubines were lain, asleep,
The beauties of the land,
But when Shao touched a tender cheek
The flesh was yellow sand.
So down, and deeper down we went,
The tomb must lie below,
We had no thought for safety, we
Just wandered anyhow,
And then a twang had sounded, as
A bolt took cousin Zheng,
Straight through the skull, the crossbow
That he'd tripped, was meant for him.
He died before he hit the floor,
Then other bolts flew yet,
The traps for plunderers like us
The Emperor had set,
One took Shao, entered at the throat
And pinned him to the wall,
His eyes had glazed, and then he died,
He couldn't even fall.
That left just me and Tong and Wang,
To crawl along the floor,
We came to heavy cedar doors
We knew we'd found the core,
The pictographs said 'Don't come in,
Or you will feel the curse,
Of Emperor Chin Shi Huang, your sin
Will drive your pauper's hearse! '
Tong kicked the door in with his boot,
Then ducked, and fell instead,
A blade came snaking to the floor
And Tong had lost his head!
It rolled unknowing down a stair
And landed, staring up,
From diamonds, rubies, sapphires,
And gem encrusted cups.
The coffin was magnificent,
A massive copper sheath,
And round about, such artefacts
That gleamed, beyond belief,
Wang couldn't stop, he crawled right down
And over Tong's dead form,
I screamed a warning, turned and ran,
And cursed that I'd been born!
I never saw Wang Bin again,
I made my way outside,
I slunk back home and hid for weeks,
I'd lost face, and my pride!
As Wang went down those chamber steps
I just wished that I'd hid,
For as Wang reached the jewels, I saw
The coffin raise its lid!
15 January 2010
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A War To End All Wars, But Wasn’t
They not only fought the enemy,
but fought the elements as well.
They fought for their country
in lands far from home.
They fought rain, mud and the enemy
in trenches stained with blood
from those who had fallen there before.
They fought on and on
while the Generals watched
the slaughter from far away.
For their mistakes men died
by the score across the battlefield.
Their blood would stained the land
then and forever more.
Then came the gas
like a creeping mist across the battlefield
that silenced all in its wake.
It made no distinction to young or old,
just poisoned all it touched.
Their contorted bodies rotted where they fell.
They said this was a war to end all wars, but it wasn’t.
Almost twenty years later
men from different countries gathered to fight another war
and again in the trenches men fell.
The mechanics had changed;
machines became more prevalent across the battlefield,
still men died for small victories in the tide of war.
3 July 2008
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Long Distance
Spent last winter playing in the sand
With the prisoners of the motherland
Damn hotel is feeling like a cell
And even paradise can be so cruel
Sitting by the swimming pool
Trying to keep my head together
In that hot australia weather
Three days to kill and my per diems getting low
cause I spent all my money calling long distance
Calling long distance, such a long way from home
Am I talking to long distance, can you put me through?
Twelve thousand miles but Ive got not resistance,
Long distance, long distance, long distance, long distance
Now the road hogs face is turning red
Larrys still asleep in bed
Romeo he cant get no head at all
And the doctor looks on so annoyed
You disappoint me, mr. boyd
And the electric dwarf wishes he was six foot tall
Now romeos patience is wearing thin
Cmon baby, let me in
Its five a.m. and Ive been creeping round the hall
Got no resistance calling long distance
You sound so close but your such a long way from home
Am I talking to long distance, can you put me through?
Twelve thousand miles but Ive got not resistance,
Long distance, long distance, long distance, long distance
Still no points for my merrymen,
Except ricard, he just scored ten
Now road hogs getting drunk again
And I only get to hold my pen
Instead of what I love to hold the most.
I feel so lonesome I could cry
Count the hours as they roll by
Its day time now
I think Ill make a call
Hello long distance, calling long distance
You sound so close but youre such a long way from home
Youre such a long way from home
Have to admit I got no resistance to the red light on the wall
The message said I got a call,
Long distance, long distance, long distance, long distance
song performed by by Kinks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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