Ships that Pass in the Night
Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing;
I look far out into the pregnant night,
Where I can hear the solemn booming gun
And catch the gleaming of a random light,
That tells me that the ship I seek
is passing, passing.
My tearful eyes my soul's deep hurt are glassing;
For I would hail and check that ship of ships.
I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud,
My voice falls dead a foot from mine own lips,
And but its ghost doth reach that vessel, passing, passing.
O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing,
O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the dark!
Is there no hope for me? Is there no way
That I may sight and check that speeding bark
Which out of sight and sound is passing, passing?
poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Related quotes
Passing Through
I saw jesus on the cross on a hill called calvary
Do you hate mankind for what they done to you?
He said, talk of love not hate, things to do - its getting late.
Ive so little time and Im only passing through.
Passing through, passing through.
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue,
Glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.
I saw adam leave the garden with an apple in his hand,
I said now youre out, what are you going to do?
Plant some crops and pray for rain, maybe raise a little cane.
Im an orphan now, and Im only passing through.
Passing through, passing through ...
I was with washington at valley ford, shivering in the snow.
I said, how come the men here suffer like they do?
Men will suffer, men will fight, even die for what is right
Even though they know theyre only passing through
Passing through, passing through ...
I was with franklin roosevelts side on the night before he died.
He said, one world must come out of world war two (ah, the fool)
Yankee, russian, white or tan, he said, a man is still a man.
Were all on one road, and were only passing through.
Passing through, passing through ...
(lets do it one more time)
Passing through, passing through ...
song performed by by Leonard Cohen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Passing Ship
A passing ship
I have found the open ocean
Give me no lip
The waves roll by as I pass on
A snulit sea
On the first day of april
How fresh the wind
Will you miss me when Im gone
How many words
How many songs still unwritten
How many ships
Of the line have come and gone
In the good old days
May they never be forgotten
They had heavy wind
Or they had no wind at all
A passing ship
It is midnight on the ocean
Had a real long trip
I have been at sea all winter
When my ship came in
I was givin up the ghost
I think I should be
Leavin those passing ships alone
When the sea runs high
The sea runs wild and Im unsteady
And I think of you
In the warmth of your home and family
When love is true
There is no truer occupation
And may this gale
Blow us to the ones we love
Another day
Another ocean
Give me no lip
But stand aside as I pass on
A sunlit sea
On the last day of october
How fresh the wind
Will you miss me from now on
I guess I should be
Leavin passing ships alone
song performed by by Gordon Lightfoot
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Over Our Heads
I don't think you love me
Confusion settling in
I don't think I'll be staying
Around here, anymore
There's no question that I love you
But I'm living in my own time
And here I am debating
Whether I'm wrong, or right
Who am I
To make a judgement of
Your life
I'm only
Passing by
Passing by
All the promises I gave you
Helped me to survive
And all the times I wished you'd save me
You were the love of my life
Who am I
To make a judgement of
Your life
I'm only
Passing by
Passing by
Who am I
To make a judgement of
Your life
I'm only
Passing by
Passing by
Who am I
To make a judgement of
Your life
I'm only
Passing by
Passing by
I'm only passing by ...
song performed by by Zero 7
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Passing away, saith the World
Passing away, saith the World, passing away:
Chances, beauty and youth, sapp'd day by day:
Thy life never continueth in one stay.
Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to grey
That hath won neither laurel nor bay?
I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May:
Thou, root-stricken, shalt not rebuild thy decay
On my bosom for aye.
Then I answer'd: Yea.
Passing away, saith my Soul, passing away:
With its burden of fear and hope, of labour and play,
Hearken what the past doth witness and say:
Rust in thy gold, a moth is in thine array,
A canker is in thy bud, thy leaf must decay.
At midnight, at cockcrow, at morning, one certain day
Lo, the Bridegroom shall come and shall not delay:
Watch thou and pray.
Then I answer'd: Yea.
Passing away, saith my God, passing away:
Winter passeth after the long delay:
New grapes on the vine, new figs on the tender spray,
Turtle calleth turtle in Heaven's May.
Though I tarry, wait for Me, trust Me, watch and pray.
Arise, come away, night is past and lo it is day,
My love, My sister, My spouse, thou shalt hear Me say.
Then I answer'd: Yea.
poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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Roundel
She's passing fair; but so demure is she,
So quiet is her gown, so smooth her hair,
That few there are who note her and agree
She's passing fair.
Yet when was ever beauty held more rare
Than simple heart and maiden modesty?
What fostered charms with virtue could compare?
Alas, no lover ever stops to see;
The best that she is offered is the air.
Yet- if the passing mark is minus D-
She's passing fair.
poem by Dorothy Parker
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Lilywhite
Back up on the mended road
I pause
Taking time to check the dial
And the lilywhite
I never knew her name
But shell be passing my way sometime again.
I raise my hand and touch the wheel
Of change
Taking time to check the dial
Thank the lilywhite
I never knew her name
But shell be passing my way sometime again.
But shell be passing my way sometime again.
song performed by by Cat Stevens
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Passing by
passing by
when I saw your face
I knew
I will be passing by
again and again
like this
untill you will notice me
...passing by.
poem by Marites C. Cayetano
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O death, rock me on sleep
O death! rock me on sleep,
Bring me on quiet rest;
Yet pass my guiltless ghost
Out of my careful breast:
Toll on the passing bell,
Ring out the doleful knell,
Let the sound of my death tell,
For I must die,
There is no remedy,
For now I die.
My pains who can express?
Alas! they are so strong,
My dolor will not suffer strength
My life for to prolong:
Toll on the passing bell, etc.
Alone, in prison strong,
I wail my destiny,
Wo worth this cruel hap that I
Should taste this misery:
Toll on the passing bell, etc.
Farewell my pleasures past,
Welcome my present pain;
I feel my torments so increase
That life cannot remain.
Cease now the passing bell,
Rung is my doleful knell,
For the sound my death doth tell,
Death doth draw nigh,
Sound my end dolefully,
For now I die.
poem by Anne Boleyn (1536)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Stardust
Ah high flyin highway mist
Tran
-ce-
(s)
-lucent
i
q
u
i
d of
S(s) P(p) A(a) C (c) E(e)
stardusts orange vapor: : : :
...now receding...off...towards some faraway
fiery conquest …
the horizons invisible duel
Roadside window passing reflections
like a double edge sword of silk and flame
over the old corn row country road
Love's unseen aura penetrating
skies stained in the bloodshed's wake
(opaline trails of light)
beauty's opus of endless passing
illuminating over the old orb of
oceanic onus and
triumphant bliss....inner emptiness
passing winds pass through
a passing window of a passing car
full of sweet sorrowful
passing passengers
passing land passing faces
passing through the beautiful
void of imaginary places
one
with
all
such
ness
true
self
beyond
individual
senses
(
(nonexistence
only
consciousness
aware of
it-
-self)
(non-)
material
dream
a
n
d
thought
(Un)
Born
passing through
the solid world of
sperm and womb
Transgressing boundary lines -
Entering a state of absolute
(nothing)
ness
poem by Gregory Allen Uhan
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Passing The Time
By ginger baker and mike taylor
It is a cold winter,
Away is the songbird.
And gone is her traveller,
She waits at home.
The sun is on holiday,
No leaves on the trees.
The animals sleep
While cold north wind blows.
The snowflakes are falling,
The roof a white blanket.
Theres ice on the window pane,
She waits alone.
She sits by the fireside,
The room is so warm.
Her children are sleeping,
She waits in their home.
Passing the time.
Passing the time.
Everything fine.
Passing the time, drinking red wine.
Passing the time, drinking red wine.
Passing the time, drinking red wine.
Passing the time, everything fine.
Passing the time, drinking red wine.
Passing the time, everything fine.
Passing the time, wine and time rhyme.
Passing the time.
It is a long winter,
Away is the summer.
She waits for her traveller
So far from home.
She sits by the fireside,
The room is so warm.
Theres ice on the window,
Shes lonely alone.
song performed by by Cream
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Passing The Time
By ginger baker and mike taylor
It is a cold winter,
Away is the songbird.
And gone is her traveller,
She waits at home.
The sun is on holiday,
No leaves on the trees.
The animals sleep
While cold north wind blows.
The snowflakes are falling,
The roof a white blanket.
Theres ice on the window pane,
She waits alone.
She sits by the fireside,
The room is so warm.
Her children are sleeping,
She waits in their home.
Passing the time.
Passing the time.
Everything fine.
Passing the time, drinking red wine.
Passing the time, drinking red wine.
Passing the time, drinking red wine.
Passing the time, everything fine.
Passing the time, drinking red wine.
Passing the time, everything fine.
Passing the time, wine and time rhyme.
Passing the time.
It is a long winter,
Away is the summer.
She waits for her traveller
So far from home.
She sits by the fireside,
The room is so warm.
Theres ice on the window,
Shes lonely alone.
song performed by by Eric Clapton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Silent Pages
Another passing moment
writes a line in the firmament
And the passing days
Write their own verse of phrases
Another passing year
Writes another stanza,
Of an episode
Whether an elegy or an ode
Every passing generation
a new chapter adds to the collection
Every passing age,
filling another volume of pages
Every thought and deed
known or hid,
that lived and living lives articulate,
hath but no exact duplicate;
a draft manuscript,
a record accurate and fair
without corrections, to keep
in a great library somewhere
A labor in quiet, silent and solemn
the never ending book of poems
being written without hands
and the imprints thereof burned
forever into memories
and left as evidence or legacies
For posterity?
Or to present one day?
The silent words may not always rhyme
Nor make sense
But then musical chimes
of a million spheres
make as much sense…
singin’ in the universe
…but then only to the author
or the composer
alone, perhaps?
poem by Lyre Bleus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Scattered Horizons
Across scattered horizons we sail
Upon this shattered vessel of ours
Passing away the memories of our failings
Passing away the hours
For they are ours as any others
They are ours as we are lovers
Of our time upon this plain.
poem by David Lacey
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Passing Away
THE SPIRIT of beautiful faces,
The light on the forehead of Love,
And the spell of past visited places,
And the songs and the sweetness thereof;
These, touched by a hand that is hoary;
These, vext with a tune of decay,
Are spoiled of their glow and their glory;
And the burden is, “Passing away!
Passing away!”
Old years and their changes come trooping
At nightfall to you and to me,
When Autumn sits faded and drooping
By the sorrowful waves of the sea.
Faint phantoms that float in the gloaming,
Return with the whispers that say,
“The end which is quiet is coming;
Ye are weary, and passing away!
Passing away!”
It is hard to awake and discover
The swiftness that waits upon Time;
But youth and its beauty are over,
And Love has a sigh in its rhyme.
The Life that looks back and remembers,
Is troubled and tired and gray,
And sick of the sullen Decembers,
Whose burden is, “Passing away!
Passing away!”
We have wandered and wandered together,
And our joys have been many and deep;
But seasons of alien weather
Have ended in longings for sleep.
Pale purpose and perishing passion,
With never a farewell to say,
Die down into sobs of suppression;
The burden is, “Passing away!
Passing away!”
We loved the soft tangle of tresses,
The lips that were fain and afraid.
And the silence of far wildernesses,
With their dower of splendour and shade!
For faces of sweetness we waited,
And days of delight and delay,
Ere Time and its voices were mated
To a voice that sighs, “Passing away!
Passing away!”
O years interwoven with stories
Of strong aspirations and high,
How fleet and how false were the glories
That lived in your limited sky!
Here, sitting by ruinous altars
Of Promise, what word shall we say
To the speech that the rainy wind falters,
Whose burden is, “Passing away!
Passing away!”
poem by Henry Kendall
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In the spirit of Rumi - 35 - Three answers
I asked the passing strangers
in the fine street of the wise,
‘Tell me about your Self itself’
The first man said to me
‘It is like a rose garden
planted around a fountain –
it is always beautiful,
changing, yet unchanging;
it is the very centre
of my peace and rest…’
The second man said to me
‘It is like a treasure house of riches –
full of more sparkling, deep-coloured jewels
than anyone’s imagination
could ever begin to describe;
as beautiful as anything
in heaven or on earth…’
The third man said to me
‘It is like a mine of gold and silver
where you only have to dig
and there is always more to find…’
To the first man I said
‘You are indeed blest,
O noble sir… and must have earned yourself
this great honour…tell me,
do you invite every passing stranger
to walk and sit in that garden with you? ’
He said
‘Yes; I am a poet.’
To the second man I said
‘You are indeed blest,
O noble sir… and must have earned yourself
this great honour… tell me,
do you invite every passing stranger
into your treasure house, saying,
take all you need -
to make rich their life, too? ’
He said
‘Yes; I am a poet.’
To the third man I said
‘You are indeed blest,
O noble sir… and must have earned yourself
this great honour… tell me,
do you invite every passing stranger
to come and dig whenever he so needs? ’
He said
‘Yes; I am a poet.’
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Passing Strangers 2
A candle flickers shining bright,
a homeward beacon in the night
for wayward passing strangers
on their lingering flight.
The flame holds out a welcome
with its warm beckoning light
for any passing stranger
that may have lost their way.
The candle never fades and dies,
but remains an eternal light
for all passing strangers
to grasp as a homeward light.
23 July 2010
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Better Life
(lyrics by arnold)
(music by roberts, arnold, harrell & henderson)
Im about to be on the floor
Again, surely youre gonna
Find me here
Im about to sleep until the end
Of time, drug I take gonna wake
My fear right now
Im passing away on to the
Better life
Im passing away on
To the better
Im about to see just how far i
Can fly, surely your gonna
Break my fall
Im about to run as fast as i
Can, head long into that wall
This time
Im passing away on to the
Better life
Im passing away on
To the better
On to the better life
On to the better
Im about to be on the floor
Again, surely youre gonna
Find me here
Im about to sleep until the
End of time, drug I take
Gonna wake my
Fear right now
Im passing away on to the
Better life
Im passing away on
To the better
Im passing away on to the
Better life
Im passing away on
To the better
song performed by by 3 Doors Down
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Standing Still
Cuttin through the darkest night
In my two headlights
Im trying to keep it clear
But Im losing it here
To the twilight
Theres a dead end to my left
Theres a burning bush to my right
You arent in sight
You arent in sight
Do you want me
Like I want you?
Chorus
Or am I standing still?
Beneath the darkened sky
Or am I standing still?
With the scenery flying by
Or am I standing still?
Out of the corner of my eye
Was that you that passed me by?
Mothers on a stoop
Boys in souped-up coupes
On this hot summer night
Between fight and flight
Is the blind mans sight
And the choice thats right
I roll the window down
Feels like Im gonna drown
In this strange town
I feel broken down
I feel broken down
Do you need me
Like I need you?
Chorus
Sweet sorrow is the call tomorrow
Sweet sorrow is the call tomorrow
Do you love me
Like I love you?
Chorus
Oh, youre passing me by
Passing me by
Do you need me like I need you to?
Do you want me like I want you?
Or are you passing me by?
Or am I standing still?
song performed by by Jewel
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Passing Moon
I'm all here and now I sit before the future reader's of this
meaningless text, for all it says is that I am here
no stronger than you, no weaker or finer or smaller
but just here, as a human, as a mind who cannot
sleep through the thoughts, sleep through the day
that has occurred, for a day that has occurred is already gone
not passing me through this moment, but gone
for good.
Passed us all in a span of eternity
was it worth it to think of a passing day, when today is the
day passing us all when yesterday is now passing our minds
wasting away I say, however, more and more I feel it's useless
However honesty is taken, i know now that it is here, it is
capable of doing torturous and amazing things but in the end
honesty is the best because nothing gets left out
and here I am, honestly saying, that today will soon be gone
and for once I can see through the glass and the flesh and the light
to say what I feel because the night will soon be gone and we must
not ever waste this away, I Love You my darling.
poem by Christopher Michael McGarry
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Life Is Just A Passing Parade
When I was a little boy
I was raised down south in mexico
Nothing ever happened that was new to me
Then one day we saw circus posters on the wall
Suddenly, all my friends and i
We heard a sound
It was loud
Music all around us seemed to make us free
Life is just a passing paradise
Life is just a passing paradise
Everybody started dancing
I never saw so many people having so much fun
Now Im living in this country
And I have got myself a steady job
I keep seeing people happy everywhere
All I get to do is play my guitar
Come on! everybody get together, have some fun
Come on! everybody get together, have some fun
Life is just a passing paradise
Life is just a passing paradise
Everybody started dancing
I never saw so many people having so much fun
song performed by by Santana
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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