Grief
The pale white of the moon
Alights over the soft, grey stone.
The sky is bleeding all hues of
Red, yellow and a blazing orange.
My nightly mourning through,
I lay a crimson rose at the cross
Of a woman taken before her time.
Dark shadows follow my heavy heart
As I slowly make my departure
Along stark avenues of floral templars.
'Be vigilant, brave guards' I whisper,
Pulling my hands across their cracked barks.
'Allow none to disturb the sacred place
Where my stilled heart lies.'
It is no longer the scarlet blood
That flows through my inmost being,
Such vibrancy has been lost.
I took a knife and now a mere hole
Disperses gravity throughout me,
The forces keeping me tied to this world.
My voice breaks the silence as I start to sing,
'To the altar of cursed love, my life, I bring.'
poem by Liam O'Brien
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Templars Of Steel
The hands of time have brought you here
To make a change, to break down the walls
You are the ones and you are the only
Trying to live by your own goals
And you all cry for freedom
Raise your fists to the sky
Let your voice speak for the revolution
All join forces with all the powers that you feel
Let your heart beat for the revolution
Led by the templars of steel
Lets spread the word of the sole survivors
With metal pounding inside their souls
The fire burns, and it will forever
Blaze for the ones who stands strong
And you all cry for freedom
With your fists in the sky
Let your voice speak for the revolution
All join forces with all the powers that you feel
Let your heart beat for the revolution
Led by the templars of steel
You are the templars of steel
Oh, oh, oh ...
Let your voice speak for the revolution
All join forces with all the powers that you feel
Let your heart beat for the revolution
Led by the templars of steel
Let your voice speak for the revolution
All join forces with all the powers that you feel
Let your heart beat for the revolution
Led by the templars of steel
You are the templars of steel
song performed by by Hammerfall
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Guardian and BloodRose
BloodRose,
Rose of my love,
My love for Dark moon,
Dark as my heart,
Black as my soul,
And gave me my rose.
The rose of blood,
With petals soft and black,
Never as a rose so beautiful,
Grown not in light,
But under a dark moon lit sky.
Guardian,
Yes a guardian of BloodRose,
With teeth long and sharp,
Claws hard as diamonds,
Scales as dark as night.
My dear sweet guardian,
Guardian black as my heart,
Fire in your eyes,
Shadows in your soul,
A dragon of the dark moon.
A single rose,
With petals so fare,
As dark as my heart,
I now hold in my hand,
The rose of blood.
You are my darkness,
Fear of this love,
This love for you,
Love for darkness,
The cold shadows in my heart
That makes me yearn for you.
Now as you lay dying,
I hold a single rose,
The rose you gave me,
And as I hold it tight,
The thorns slice my hand,
Covered with blood,
My blood.
I have one fear,
The fear of death,
Symbol of my lost love,
Rose as dark as me,
Laying in a pool of blood,
Blood from me.
As I lay dying,
I remember my name,
BloodRose,
I am the rose of blood,
And I died of my own creation.
A creation of perfect beauty,
Petals dark black,
Thorns like small daggers,
Grown from my love,
My love for a dragon,
A dragon as dark as my heart.
Even in my death,
I think of you,
And the rose you gave me,
The rose that killed me,
The Rose of Blood.
poem by Nicolette Gonzalez
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Yellow Rose
She came in my dreams last night,
She left a yellow rose and a love note on pillow next to me,
As always the inscription read,
'we are friends for ever and in the eternity'.
Since a rose is a rose,
why the red rose shines in the glory of love?
why the white roses remind us of our departed souls?
and why the yellow rose shines the rays of friendship in all of us?
Like sunshine bursting through grey clouds,
The aura of friendship emanates from its golden petals,
The frozen dew drops on its soft satin petals,
glorifies tears on my cheeks in the times of sadness,
Its mere presence and the fragrance,
fills my heart with the scent of warmth and affection.
Yellow rose you are perfection in creation,
I wonder why you have to wither away in time,
With every falling petal, a heart is broken,
with every withered yellow rose, a token of eternal friendship is lost.
poem by Jay P Narain
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Every Second Someone Breaks A Heart
(richard brossman)
Its a dangerous world we live in
Crime is everywhere
Theres always some sad story going down
You can read it in the paper
You can see it on the air
Its an evil epidemic going round
But nobody seems to notice
The saddest crime of all
Oh just how many times a day
Someone takes their love away
And the national statistics
Never put it in the chart
But every second someone breaks a heart
Theres a woman out there somewhere
Who feels she lost her life
But her man just shot her world down
And it hurts
Theres a guy who just got taken
And it cuts him like a knife
Some girl stole his heart and left him
Without a world
They dont call it a crime of passion
But it kills you just the same
Its murder when a true love dies
Right before your very eyes
And as soon as one is over
Another one will start
Every second someone breaks
Every second someone breaks a heart
If youve got someone who loves you
Be careful all the time
Do you know where your love is tonight
Cause theres always someone trying
To find the perfect crime
And you never know just when
Theyll strike
So you better watch your woman
And you better watch your man
Cause no ones safe when loves at stake
Anybodys heart can break
And the next time that it happens
Youre not the losing part
Every second someone breaks a heart
Every second someone breaks a heart
Every second someone breaks a heart
song performed by by Reba Mcentire
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Grief Promise Me To Leave ' Part 2
“”After three months of lying and illusions””
GRIEF PROMISE ME TO LEAVE ' PART 2’
My heart: come back to me grief
My grief: I’m not grief any more I developed to MISERY
My heart: whatever just come?
My misery: I’m coming my friend
My heart: you were right
My misery: as I told you before but you won't believe me
My heart: I believe in you now
My misery with a 'happy tone': tell me what's happened
My heart: what should I tell you! ? I’m stupid.... I’m foolish
My misery: I agree cause every one think in his heart he is big idiot and you are idiot
My heart: she destroyed my soul
My misery: like always
My heart: I don't want that any more
My misery: what do you want?
My heart: I wanna death
My misery: not in your hand, it's our life happiness & sadness
My heart: but my life always painful, what should I do, may I blame the fate or what?
My misery: no, blame your self? You were so nice toy in other hands you are idiot, so blame yourself.
My heart: she lied to me, she gave me hope, life and happiness in months and toke it from me in a little moments.
My misery: that's because of your kindness, and there is no place for you in this world.
My heart: you are the only one who can understand me well.
My misery: I know that cause we borne together.
'My misery thinking'
My misery: you shouldn't keep moving in your life
My heart: I know! ?
My heart: I just wanna the honest from her not anything else
My misery: you won't get it
My heart: she thought me a little nice toy in her hands
My misery: with all my regret, you were and you will still always
‘My heart thinking about ending his misery’
‘My heart saw a knife near from him, he carry it to suicide and end his cruel life’
My misery ' with happy voice ': what you doing?
My heart: I can't be idiot anymore, cause I believed in something silly doesn’t existed ' love '.
My misery: you are right.
My heart: I’m sorry for keeping you away from me.
My misery: its ok, as I told you before, something from me will still inside you.
My heart: you are my faithful friend.
My misery: we had borne together.
‘My heart I s going to suicide now’
My misery: any last words?
my heart: before I leave this life forever I want you promise me that you will never go to live in her heart ever, cause she make me live in the most beautiful illusion I’ve seen.
My misery: do you know that you are stupid?
My heart: I know cause she kept telling me this word.
My misery: ok I promise you but you have to end your life now
My heart: ok i will
‘When my heart tried to stick the knife in his heart’
‘The 'happiness whisper' came to him in hurry again but she barely breathing’
Happiness whisper: what you doing? Are you crazy?
My heart: yes I’m crazy cause I loved someone in crazy way but, she failed me, and the misery controlling me forever.
My misery: let him rest of his cruel life.
‘Happiness whisper trying to convince misery to make him not killing him self’
My heart: it's too late, that's my choice.
‘Happiness whisper started to vanish’
Happiness whisper: you don't deserve that, you are good heart
My heart: forgive me I’m not belonged to this world
‘The happiness whisper start crying and after a while she vanished’
‘My misery was standing and waiting’
My heart: goodbye and don't forget what you promised me don't forget
my heart stick the knife in the center and he begin bleeding to death, his tears freeze on his eyeball, he begin trembling, his color turned from the puce to the dark blue, and then he is died.
The misery: it was his end but, it was the beginning for other broken hearts so be careful cause I’m coming.........
poem by Damn Angel
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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At Her Door
OPEN! Open! Open!
I am here at your door outside;
The sea's blue tide flows speedily,
And ebbs a thin red tide.'
The woman rose from her warm white bed,
Threw back her hair and smiled;
The ears of scorn heard the words of love,
And the wind and the words were wild.
'Wake! Awake! Awake!
And hearken the woe outside;
The moon is hid in cloudiness;
Calleth and calleth the tide.'
The woman stood in the silence still
As a thing men carve from stone.
Her eyes burned largely in the dark,
And the smile, like a stain, stayed on.
'Listen! Listen! Listen!
Hear you the rain to-night?
A warm dark rain is falling too,
And I grow ghostly-white.'
The woman took three steps and bowed;
The smile waned from her lip;
She heard the dripping of the rain
And a soft thick other drip.
'Open! Open! Open!
I die in the dark alone.
My voice goes up in weariness
Against your heart of stone.'
The moon to a cloud-cleft stealing
Gazed down on the yearning tide;
The woman opened the streaming door
And stood in the rain outside.
Silence! Stillness! She whispers,
'Ah, Love, that death should be!'
He sighed, 'Your lips are loveliness!'
And she sobbed, 'Woe is me!'
The woman pressed his dead white face
With her face as deadly white:
The moon drew in behind a cloud,
And the tide moaned through the night.
poem by Roderic Quinn
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Red Mist
SHE thinks aloud as she sits alone,
And the magpies call in the evening grey —
Oh, sorrow to her with the heart of stone
Who stole my lover away, away!
There is no peace in the light of the moon,
And little enough in the shine of the sun;
And it's grieving and grieving that darkens the noon,
And troubles me sore till the salt tears run.
There's Joyce with the red cheeks says to me,
Herself as gay as a crowned young queen:
'It's pale you are, and it's sick, maybe;
And what is it ails your heart, Noreen?'
At that I say, with a laugh in my voice
(For grief is an ill, dark thing to show):
'It's you with your tricks and your capers, Joyce,
And the imp in your eyes that makes me so.'
There's one and another from near and far
Who come with their kind, sweet neighbour-speech;
'It's sick you look, and it's pale you are;
And what have you done with your bloom of the peach?'
I sit and listen, but may not tell;
As an actor plays, I play my part;
It's little they'd care (as my heart knows well),
If they but knew the hurt of my heart.
And even Joyce, who is kind as kind,
Would make a jest of my pain, perchance;
For a feather afloat on an idle wind
Means more to the world than a spoiled romance.
If I were a man I would do so much —
Be brave, make light of my weight of care,
Bring ease to my mind with a master-touch,
And find fit food for my heart elsewhere.
Yet soft and shy as a cooing dove
(For that he thought me, and thinks me yet)
I cannot rest for remembering love,
Nor dream of a time when I may forget.
I think of his kisses that warmed like wine
When the low night-winds in the pine trees played,
And the lilies, white in the white moonshine,
A startling light in the garden made.
I think of his voice in those honeyed hours,
And wonder if words are flowers sometimes,
All scent and colour — are chiming flowers
That thrill the blood with their magic chimes
And then, the thought of the Other comes,
Her wiles and wonder and luring lies,
And the blood in my ears is a throb of drums,
And a red mist glimmers before my eyes.
And I go to the place where the thing lies hid,
And its blade takes fire at my burning touch;
And I say to myself: 'If the world were rid
Of three lives more, would it matter much?
'Would it matter much in the big world's sight
If the sorry farce to the end were played.
And three ghosts trod through the Outer Night —
The Loved, the Lover, the Love Betrayed?
'If one that suffers and two that sing
Were made cold clay, were it well or ill?'
And I grasp the haft of the jewelled thing,
And stand in the lamplight pale and still.
And then I shudder, and sob and sink,
And lie, eyes hid, with the light turned low,
Like one who stands on an awful brink,
Wild-eyed, and trembling, and breathing slow;
And then comes Joyce with her joyous cries:
'Come out in the night, come dance with me!'
And I smooth my hair and I soothe my eyes —
But I know what the end of it all shall be.
poem by Roderic Quinn
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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At Night When The World Is Sleeping
at night when the world is sleeping
i have learned to sing inside the chamber of my heart
i have become this nightingale
a black nightingale singing the songs of the full moon
at night i have become this bleeding heart
blood dripping on the floor of the house
at night i beg the moon to listen
to the songs of the black nightingale
i beg the moon
to see the blood from my heart dripping
i beg the floor to understand and for a time being
when sadness and mourning reigns in the house of my body
to keep this bleeding heart
like sands on the floor of its hands.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Got To Let It Go
All my life-time plans,
I got em in my hands.
Balancing my fate upon a wire.
Got to let it go.
Everywhere I turn I see
Theres nowhere left to go.
All my dreams are far,
Too much for me to hold.
Still I hate to drop them,
Werent they from you?
What did I do?
You are the one that can see,
Into the heart of me.
Am I really giving up tomorrow?
Got, got, got to let it go.
This is gonna hurt a little,
Still its right I know.
Got to let it --
Even though I fear
Too much of me might show,
I cant wait any longer for it,
Ive had enough!
Ill give it up!
Lord, heres my heart,
Ive been keeping it from you,
And I got to let it go.
Holding on just breaks me, worry,
Got to let it go,
Come and take it from me, hurry,
Got to let it go.
Go to let it -- got to let it go.
Got to give up all of my control!
Holding on too tight,
Where do I lose sight?
Wheres the lamb that seems to bring frustration,
Go to let it go.
The best of dreams can turn to nightmares,
When my heart takes hold.
How long must I learn?
This lessons getting old,
Ive got to catch a clearer vision,
Im in your hands!
Youre in command!
Lord, heres my heart (heres my heart, heres my heart)
Ive been keeping it (keeping it, keeping it) from you!
And I got to let it go.
Holding on just breaks me, worry,
Got to let it go.
Come and take it from me, hurry,
Got to let it go.
Oh, Ive got to let it go.
Got to give up all of my control!
Lord, heres my heart (heres my heart, heres my heart)
Ive been keeping it (keeping it, keeping it) from you!
And I got to let it go.
Holding on just breaks me, worry,
Got to let it go.
Come and take it from me, hurry,
Got to let it go.
Oh, Ive got to let it go.
Got to give up all of my control!
Lord, heres my heart (heres my heart, heres my heart)
Ive been keeping it (keeping it, keeping it) from you!
And I got to let it go.
Holding on just breaks me, worry,
Got to let it go.
Come and take it from me, hurry,
Got to let it go.
Oh, Ive got to let it go.
Got to give up all of my control!
song performed by by Amy Grant
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dark Places.
Black faces dark shadows
Cold places tall gallows
Grey mornings harsh view
Start mourning lost you
Missed person sad times
Pains worsen lost rhymes
Heart slowing tears flow
Just knowing she'll go
Long evenings lone stare
Strange feelings don't care
Heart aching can't place it
Life breaking must face it
Solitary, momentary silence
Scary times akin an act of violence
Time won't heal, life won't forget
Just don't feel, avoid the regret.
poem by Dave James
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Silver Lily
The nights have grown cool again, like the nights
Of early spring, and quiet again. Will
Speech disturb you? We're
Alone now; we have no reason for silence.
Can you see, over the garden-the full moon rises.
I won't see the next full moon.
In spring, when the moon rose, it meant
Time was endless. Snowdrops
Opened and closed, the clustered
Seeds of the maples fell in pale drifts.
White over white, the moon rose over the birch tree.
And in the crook, where the tree divides,
Leaves of the first daffodils, in moonlight
Soft greenish-silver.
We have come too far together toward the end now
To fear the end. These nights, I am no longer even certain
I know what the end means. And you, who've been
With a man--
After the first cries,
Doesn't joy, like fear, make no sound?
poem by Louise Gluck
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Curse
I am cursed and I know it,
Every time when you look in my eyes you can see how sad I am,
I need to find myself,
There are curses forces between us,
My hands are full of blood that no one can’t see,
Seeing you makes wanna choke,
Seeing you makes me sick,
You keep on slipping away,
The further you slip the further I don’t remember you,
I do declare war on you,
You made me realize how worthless you are to me,
What can I do make you see how much I despite you with every beat of my heart,
You cursed me the day I ever met you,
I curse you the next girl kisses breaks your heart as you did mine.
poem by Jennifer Rondeau
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Transparent Rose
Transparent Rose
In my heart lies a Vase
With 5 roses
5 roses all for you
With five different colors
All to show you what you mean to me
The First Rose
The yellow Rose
The yellow rose is the rose for you from me
To let you know you’re my friend, my best friend
That is a way to show you I’ll be always there for you
The Second Rose
The Blue Rose
The blue rose is to show you
With all my heart what you mean to me
With this rose I show you
There is no battle that I won’t fight for you there is no ocean big enough that can separate my love from you
There is no mountain high enough that I can’t climb for you
With this rose is the beginning of my love to you
The Third Rose
The Red Rose
Within this rose lies all the love I have for you
All the caring
All the loving
I will give to you
This rose show you how you should be treated
I will always romance your heart just to see you smile
Like an Angel
The Fourth Rose
The White Rose
With this rose I show you
All the passion that lies in my heart
All the tenderness I have towards you
All the love that I will show you each time I have and can
With all my strength and love
My heart cries for you
The Fifth Rose
A Rose that has no color
A rose that is undying
A rose that you can see trough and that there is nothing to hide
A rose so pure and true
That all that lies in it is you
So perfectly, so preciously
A girl that is so pure of heart like an angel
This Rose is a Transparent Rose
With this rose I show you all that I am
With this rose I show you I have nothing to hide
Here you can see your reflection that lies in my heart
A love so deeply living in me
I love you with all my heart
And there is no way that these roses will die
Your love is the water to keep them alive
poem by Carlos Wever
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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5 Roses
Transparent Rose
In my heart lies a Vase
With 5 roses
5 roses all for you
With five different colors
All to show you what you mean to me
The First Rose
The yellow Rose
The yellow rose is the rose for you from me
To let you know you’re my friend, my best friend
That is a way to show you I’ll be always there for you
The Second Rose
The Blue Rose
The blue rose is to show you
With all my heart what you mean to me
With this rose I show you
There is no battle that I won’t fight for you there is no ocean big enough that can separate my love from you
There is no mountain high enough that I can’t climb for you
With this rose is the beginning of my love to you
The Third Rose
The Red Rose
Within this rose lies all the love I have for you
All the caring
All the loving
I will give to you
This rose show you how you should be treated
I will always romance your heart just to see you smile
Like an Angel
The Fourth Rose
The White Rose
With this rose I show you
All the passion that lies in my heart
All the tenderness I have towards you
All the love that I will show you each time I have and can
With all my strength and love
My heart cries for you
The Fifth Rose
A Rose that has no color
A rose that is undying
A rose that you can see trough and that there is nothing to hide
A rose so pure and true
That all that lies in it is you
So perfectly, so preciously
A girl that is so pure of heart like an angel
This Rose is a Transparent Rose
With this rose I show you all that I am
With this rose I show you I have nothing to hide
Here you can see your reflection that lies in my heart
A love so deeply living in me
I love you with all my heart
And there is no way that these roses will die
Your love is the water to keep them alive
poem by Ricky Baker
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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To Hear Your Voice
To hear you voice, brings warmth
the soft tone and the sexy accent
the elegant sound of words together
make the heart pitter patter
your whisper brings goosebumps of love
from a father to hear you talk reminds me
of how your voice cares, like your beauty
to call and hear your voice brings joy of love
picturing you near and by my side
how comfort you voice makes me
to hear you sing is a angel from heaven
the laughter is joy of humor we make
the tears brings crackles to your sound
breaks my heart to it so.
saying I Love You returns your smiles
whisper to me how you feel
I need to hear the voice of love and joy
sweet voice of yours make the world turn
poem by Michael Peterson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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In a Lonesome Burial-Place
In a lonesome burial-place
Crouched a mourner white of face;
Wild her eyes--unheeding
Circling pomp of night and day--
Ever crying, "Well away,
Love lies a-bleeding!"
And her sighs were like a knell,
And her tears for ever fell,
With their warm rain feeding
That purpureal flower, alas!
Trailing prostrate in the grass,
Love lies a-bleeding.
Through the yews' black-tufted gloom
Crimson light fell on the tomb,
Funeral shadows breeding:
In the sky the sun's light shed
Dyed the earth one awful red--
Love lies a-bleeding.
Came grey mists, and blanching cloud
Bore one universal shroud;
Came the bowed moon leading,
From the infinite afar
Star that rumoured unto star--
Love that lies a-bleeding.
poem by Mathilde Blind
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Scar
A grey day in February
Some flecks of white, but mostly brown
Purple surprises riding in on a nerve
Begins to excite you before it settles down
It's after the knives and the sutures and needles
I'm left with an arrow that points at my heart
I call it the seat of my sentimental sorrow
Gone seems to be one of the sum of my parts
And the night is cold
As the coldest nights are
There's a wise woman
She comes from an evening star
She says: Look for the signs
You won't have to look far
Lead with your spirit and follow
Follow your scar
A man I knew once said he wanted to see me
I said I'd been sick but was on the mend
I told him a few of the overall details
He said: That's too bad
And he's never called me again
What a gift in disguise that poor little puppy
So scared of misfortune and always on guard
A big man will love you
Even more when you're hurtin'
And a really big man
Loves a really good scar
Cause the dawn breaks
And it's breaking your heart
There's a wise woman
She sits at the end of the bar
She says: Look for the signs
You won't have to look far
Lead with your spirit and follow
Follow your scar
A grey day in February
Some flecks of white, but mostly brown
The world has tilted but
The world has expanded
And the world has turned
My world upside down
Cause the night is warm and all full of stars
There's a wise woman
She's moved right into my heart
She says: Look for the signs
You won't have to look far
Lead with your spirit and follow
Follow
Follow your scar
English translation of Gaelic:
Run with the red deer
And sing with the wind
The magic lasts
And meaning will follow
The scar is God given
As a sign for your life
Strength from your ancestors
And through your own mouth
Strength from memory
Like a tree on the wind
Show me your scar
And I will make it better
song performed by by Carly Simon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dark Angel, Faith's Angel
i was lost and alone, as I always am,
no one's around me nor understands
no one seems to care
I am waiting til it comes
they say its okay
and love me in some way
But just when I trust to love,
they forget what they say
i held the knife so close
as tears fall mixed with blood with purpose
began to fall slowly and lose
like a crazy crying dead rose
i put the knife away and tried to wipe the blood,
that ran faster than I can describe.
an angel tapped my back
i saw him with wide open heart
thank you angel, my dear angel love
you took me out of the dark
and bring back my soul
you are angel, you are my all
- i love u my dark angel -
poem by Tough Angel fly purple butterfly fly
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Harmonizing The Chaos
how many heads do you have now?
five. yes five more faces.
the mouths have become your problem.
they do not seal their lips and you
crave for the silence of the crabs.
the teeth gnash, they are afraid of the
ash. the gums, yes the gums are weak
and they are not spitting out what the tongue
has been keeping.
silence. you issue the order.
they wait for the words from your heart.
they keep on waiting.
they are looking for love like you.
but there isn't any, and so they keep their
own chaos now. the tongue is licking
every part of your body and the eyes
are busy with the pictures of two shadows
making love against the light.
the hands are gentle and they start to caress
the roots of your loneliness.
love, love, love, the lips begin to whisper.
the heart wakes up from a deep slumber
and now it assumes the role
of the storyteller.
once upon a time...
and now they begin to listen again.
once upon a time, there lived a very lonely princess
and there was this prince riding on a white horse
from the castle in the sky............
the princess turned to stone
because the prince never kissed her.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Dawendine
There's a spirit on the river, there's a ghost upon the shore,
They are chanting, they are singing through the starlight evermore,
As they steal amid the silence,
And the shadows of the shore.
You can hear them when the Northern candles light the Northern sky,
Those pale, uncertain candle flames, that shiver, dart and die,
Those dead men's icy finger tips,
Athwart the Northern sky.
You can hear the ringing war-cry of a long-forgotten brave
Echo through the midnight forest, echo o'er the midnight wave,
And the Northern lanterns tremble
At the war-cry of that brave.
And you hear a voice responding, but in soft and tender song;
It is Dawendine's spirit singing, singing all night long;
And the whisper of the night wind
Bears afar her Spirit song.
And the wailing pine trees murmur with their voice attuned to hers,
Murmur when they 'rouse from slumber as the night wind through them stirs;
And you listen to their legend,
And their voices blend with hers.
There was feud and there was bloodshed near the river by the hill;
And Dawendine listened, while her very heart stood still:
Would her kinsman or her lover
Be the victim by the hill?
Who would be the great unconquered? who come boasting how he dealt
Death? and show his rival's scalplock fresh and bleeding at his belt.
Who would say, "O Dawendine!
Look upon the death I dealt?"
And she listens, listens, listens--till a war-cry rends the night,
Cry of her victorious lover, monarch he of all the height;
And his triumph wakes the horrors,
Kills the silence of the night.
Heart of her! it throbs so madly, then lies freezing in her breast,
For the icy hand of death has chilled the brother she loved best;
And her lover dealt the death-blow;
And her heart dies in her breast.
And she hears her mother saying, "Take thy belt of wampum white;
Go unto yon evil savage while he glories on the height;
Sing and sue for peace between us:
At his feet lay wampum white.
"Lest thy kinsmen all may perish, all thy brothers and thy sire
Fall before his mighty hatred as the forest falls to fire;
Take thy wampum pale and peaceful,
Save thy brothers, save thy sire."
And the girl arises softly, softly slips toward the shore;
Loves she well the murdered brother, loves his hated foeman more,
Loves, and longs to give the wampum;
And she meets him on the shore.
"Peace," she sings, "O mighty victor, Peace! I bring thee wampum white.
Sheathe thy knife whose blade has tasted my young kinsman's blood to-night
Ere it drink to slake its thirsting,
I have brought thee wampum white."
Answers he, "O Dawendine! I will let thy kinsmen be,
I accept thy belt of wampum; but my hate demands for me
That they give their fairest treasure,
Ere I let thy kinsmen be.
"Dawendine, for thy singing, for thy suing, war shall cease;
For thy name, which speaks of dawning, Thou shalt be the dawn of peace;
For thine eyes whose purple shadows tell of dawn,
My hate shall cease.
"Dawendine, Child of Dawning, hateful are thy kin to me;
Red my fingers with their heart blood, but my heart is red for thee:
Dawendine, Child of Dawning,
Wilt thou fail or follow me?"
And her kinsmen still are waiting her returning from the night,
Waiting, waiting for her coming with her belt of wampum white;
But forgetting all, she follows,
Where he leads through day or night.
There's a spirit on the river, there's a ghost upon the shore,
And they sing of love and loving through the starlight evermore,
As they steal amid the silence,
And the shadows of the shore.
poem by Emily Pauline Johnson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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