The Blindman's Song
I am blind, you outsiders. It is a curse,
a contradiction, a tiresome farce,
and every day I despair.
I put my hand on the arm of my wife
(colorless hand on colorless sleeve)
and she walks me through empty air.
You push and shove and think that you've been
sounding different from stone against stone,
but you are mistaken: I alone
live and suffer and howl.
In me there is an endless outcry
and I can't tell what's crying, whether its my
broken heart or my bowels.
Are the tunes familiar? You don't sing them like this:
how could you understand?
Each morning the sunlight comes into your house,
and you welcome it as a friend.
And you know what it's like to see face-to-face;
and that tempts you to be kind.
poem by Rainer Maria Rilke
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Related quotes
The Song Of The Blindman
I am blind, you out there -- that is a curse,
against one's will, a contradiction,
a heavy daily burden.
I lay my hand on the arm of my wife,
my grey hand upon her greyer grey,
as she guides me through empty spaces.
You move about and stir, and imagine
your sounds differing from stone to stone.
But you are mistaken: I alone
live and suffer and complain, for
in me is an endless crying,
and I do not know whether it is
my heart that cries or my bowels.
Do you recognize these songs? You never sang them,
not quite with this intonation.
For you every morning brings its new light
warm through your open windows.
And you have the feeling from face to face
that tempts you to be indulgent.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
poem by Rainer Maria Rilke
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For All People
Be kind to the unkind
the sun shines on us all
seek my face upon yours
from this morning onward
Sing the tune of the heart
both eyes and ears a pair
let hearts and minds compare
you then will understand
We all suffer and howl
walking with colours shed
crying in varied keys
so long for coming peace
We push and shove against
hurling stones onto bones
tired of having to grow
through mistakes of knowing
Causes are blinding all
be you there to despair
each night returns in sleep
each day for all to keep
`
poem by Frederick Kesner
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Blind Love
Words and music by tom waits
Now youre gone
And its hotels and whiskey and sad luck days
And I dont care if they miss me
I never remember their names
They say if you get far enough away
Youll be on your way back home
Well Im at the station
And I cant get on the train
Must be blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
Oh blind love
Blind love
Stone blind love
Stone blind love
Well the streets turning blue
The dogs are barking and the night has come
And its tears that are falling
From these brown eyes now
And I wonder where you are
And I whisper your name
(I whisper your name)
And the only way to find you
Is if I close my eyes
And find you with my blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
Oh blind love
Blind love
Stone blind love
Stone blind love
Oh its blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
The only kind of love is stone blind love
Oh blind love
Blind love
Stone blind love
song performed by by Bob Seger
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black. I don't want them to see that my face is white. I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless.
quote by Marian Anderson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A World View From The Wounded And The Oppressed
i have a stone
in my hand
i do not have to polish it
since i have to throw it against the world
The world is a big face
The stone is thrown straight to its pair of eyes
That is why it is blind
it is deaf
and i do not have to throw another stone
to perfect
its indifference
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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This House Is Empty Now
(costello/bacharach)
These rooms play tricks upon you
Remember when they were always filled with laughter
But now theyre quite deserted
They seem to just echo voices raised in anger
Maybe you will see my face
Reflected there on the pane
In the window up above for long
In broken home
Yet this house is empty now
Theres nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how am I supposed to live without you
These walls were lined with pictures
Remember the glass we charged in celebration
But now I fill my life up
With all that I can to deaden this sensation
Do you recognize the face
Fixed in that fine silver frame
Were you really so unhappy there
You never said
So this house is empty now
Theres nothing I can do to make you want to stay
So tell me how am I supposed to live without you
Oh, if I could just become forgetful
When night seems endless
Does the extinguished candle care
About the darkness
Its funny how the memory
Will bring you so close then make you disappear
Meanwhile all our friends must choose
Who they will favour, who they will lose
Hang the garland high, or close the door
Or throw away the key
This house is empty now
Theres no one living here
You have to care about
This house is empty now
Theres nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how am I supposed to live without you
This house is empty now
This house is empty now
Theres nothing I can do
This house is empty now
This house is empty now
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When Push Comes To Shove
Shaking in the forest, what have you to fear?
Here there may be tigers, to punch you in the ear.
With gloves of stainless steel, bats carved out of bricks
Knock you down and beat you up and give your ass a kick.
When push comes to shove, youre afraid of love.
Shaking in the desert, now wherefore do you cry?
Here there may be rattlesnakes, to punch you in the eye.
With shotguns full of silver and bullets made of glass
String barbed wire at your feet, that will not let you pass.
When push comes to shove, youre afraid of love.
When push comes to shove, when push comes to shove,
Youre afraid of love, when push comes to shove.
Shaking in the bedroom, covers on your head,
Are you still in fear of the hand beneath the bed?
Grabbing at the handle, scratching at the door,
Maybe its mystery killer you saw on channel four.
When push comes to shove, youre afraid of love.
Shaking in the garden, the fear within you grows,
Here there may be roses, to punch you in the nose.
Put my arms around you, love you til you cry,
Wrap you in your sweet perfume and squeeze you til you die.
When push comes to shove, youre afraid of love.
When push comes to shove, when push comes to shove,
Youre afraid of love, when push comes to shove.
song performed by by Grateful Dead
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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This House Is Empty Now (feat. Burt Bacharach)
These rooms play tricks upon you
Remember when they were always filled with laughter?
But now they're quite deserted
They seem to just echo voices raised in anger
Maybe you will see my face
Reflected there on the pane
In the window of our poor
Forlorn and broken home
Still this house is empty now
There's nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how
Am I supposed to live without you?
These walls were lined with pictures
Remember the glass we charged in celebration?
But now I fill my life up
With all that I can to deaden this sensation
Do you recognize the face
Fixed in that fine silver frame
Were you really so unhappy then?
You never said
So this house is empty now
There's nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how
Am I supposed to live without you?
Oh, if I could just become forgetful
When night seems endless
Does the extinguished candle care
About the darkness?
It's funny how my memry
Will bring you so close then make you disappear
Meanwhile all our friends must choose
Who they will favour, who they will lose
Hang the garland high or close the door
And throw away the key
This house is empty now
There's no one living here
You have to care about
This house is empty now
There's nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how
Am I supposed to live without you?
This house is empty now
There's no one living here
You have to care about
This house is empty now
There's nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how
Am I supposed to live without you
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Einstein, Nicholas, My Fantastic Wife And Our Dog On The Beach At Home
a stone
a relative stone
a meteoric stone
a Newtonian stone
a photoelectric stone
a stone from Manhattan
a thermodynamic stone
one stone
a son
in my life
in my wife
a sun
alone
poem by Nicolas Grenier
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When You treat Me like that
My sweet heart cried out her heart
She said I break her heart
When I treat her like that
She said I made her sad when she caught me on the act
I never knew I could break a heart
Not that of my sweet heart
Now she is parking out of my house.
What can a man do to mend
A broken heart?
I am now alone, all alone in my empty
House, and my empty heart
Or should i say, my broken heart.
It is difficult, very difficult to live
Without her in my heart and my house
These days I drink, day in, day out
I try to forget my sweet heart,
But when I'm sober, there she is, right here in my heart
Her last words to me, 'You break my heart when you treat me lile that, I cant live like that'
She parked and left my house
Now here I am drinking my life out
Here I am crying my heart out.
my sweet heart has broken my heart
When she treat me like that.
poem by Efe Benjamin
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Have You A Friend?
Have you a friend you truly love?
And does this friend love you?
For in this world of push and shove
We need someone that’s true
Have you a friend who’d understand?
The foolish things you‘ve done
Who’s always there to lend a hand
Until your battle’s won
A friend who values what you do
Listens to what you say
Who’ll help in life your goals pursue
Who’s with you all the way
Have you a friend who loves to give?
Who loves to love and care
Who lives the way you ought to live
And how you ought to share
Have you a friend who’ll tell no lies?
When seeing things were wrong
Would take your hand and criticise
In hope you’d change your song
Have you a friend who would agree
To walk with you life’s road
And though your faults are plain to see
Would help to bear your load
Have you a friend who’d take your blame
Who in your place would die
And on the gallows bless you name
Whispering prayers on high
Have you a friend in Jesus Christ
Who all these things portraits
Who for our sins was sacrificed
So we could learn His ways
poem by Michael P. Johnson
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The Silence Of Stone (revised)
take a stone,
from the beginning it was
a stone in form
and color and smell
and stone to stone
it shall be stone
unless you take it
in your hand
and keep it warm
in the hold of your palm
and take it home with you
you talk to it
and then it becomes
beyond itself
now
it is not just a stone
but your beloved
your lover
you will discover
that its silence also speaks
in tongues
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Existence First, Then Essence
take a stone,
from the beginning it was
a stone in form
and color and smell
and stone to stone
it shall be stone
unless you take it
in your hand
and keep it warm
in the hold of your palm
and take it home with you
you talk to it
and then it becomes
beyond itself
now
it is not just a stone
but your beloved
your lover
you will discover
that its silence also speaks
in tongues
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The Statue
I take you looking at the statue
the smile is yours and the stone is you
the stone is simple and the smile is playful
the smile is stolen and the stone is fallen
I ask you to stand and smile like that until
thinking you stone, time has forgotten you.
They say but really I forget
however picturesque
however figurative
whether so often and so quizzical
whoever it was crying in another voice ...
Let us sit like tailors. At least 1 am sure of this:
man or woman or beast I recall no face.
The night is kind so please to bend your arm
hide your head in the hollow of your arm
nobody will take you unawares, nobody
and nobody will take you unprepared
for time it is now to step out of time
and sleep will come as easy as kiss my hand
and you will find sleep kind.
Sleep has few terrors if we sleep like you
it is a cooling shower that falls on you
the water running through mirrors noiselessly
dreaming in doing things you dreamt to do.
But now all brawn Colossus straightens up
and stammers in the language of birds
and the sea goes mincing back into the sunset
strange to have lived so long upon this planet
daylight and moonlight, all the fun in the world.
poem by Kenneth Allott
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The Tin-Whistle Player
'Tis long since, long since, since I heard
A tin-whistle played,
And heard the tunes, the ha'penny tunes
That nobody made!
The tunes that were before Cendfind
And Cir went Ireland's rounds
That were before the surety
That strings have given sounds!
And now is standing in the mist,
And jigging backward there,
Shrilling with fingers and with breath,
A tin-whistle player!
He has hare's eyes, a long face rimmed
Around with badger-grey;
Aimless, like cries of mountain birds
The tunes he has to play
The tunes that are for stretches bare,
And men whose lives are lone
And I had seen that face of his
Sculptured on cross of stone,
That long face, in a place of graves
With nettles overgrown.
poem by Padraic Colum
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Looking For That Blackstone
the black stone is not significant
there is nothing in it that makes you be amazed
it is round and not as shiny as your gem
the diamond that glitters in your hand
the black stone when put beside
become nothing,
but it is my black stone
my silence lives there
my rage is kept there
even my love is there
how can you understand
what i am when the black stone
my essence you do not mind
it is round like the truth
it is hard and harsh like all realities
it is silent like the night
it buries itself somewhere
that place where you have never been to
it is a mere black stone
it is mine alone
i am that
black stone, but you never want to remember
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Welcome To The Jungle
Welcome to the jungle, jim
Welcome to the jungle, jim
Welcome to it, jim
Welcome to the jungle, anne
Welcome to the jungle, dan
Welcome to it, john
Think youre gonna like
I think youre gonna like it
Once youve given the jungle a chance
Think youre gonna like it
Once youve given it a chance
In the jungle
In the jungle
In the jungle
Now you will be with me
Put your hand in my hand
Lift up the rock and see all the things
That share the jungle with us
Welcome to the
Welcome to the
Trees
Trees
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face
Didnt really like
I didnt really like
The last time when you pushed me in the face
Didnt really like
The last time when you pushed my face
In the jungle
In the jungle
In the jungle
Now you will be with me
Put your hand in my hand
Lift up the rock and see all the things
That live in the jungle with us
Put your hand near the bug
We are so much like them
See how the bug reacts to your hand
In the same way as I do
Notes
The dial-a-song version has substantial differences:
Welcome to the jungle, jim
Welcome to the jungle, jim
Welcome to it, jim
Welcome to the jungle, anne
Welcome to the jungle, dan
Welcome to it, john
Think youre gonna like
I think youre gonna like it
Once youve given the jungle a chance
Think youre gonna like it
Once youve given it a chance
In the jungle
In the jungle
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle, diane
I think youre gonna like your brown safari hat
Welcome to the trees
Welcome to the trees
Welcome to the jungle, diane
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face
Didnt really like
I didnt really like
The last time when you pushed me in the face
Didnt really like
The last time when you pushed my face
In the jungle
In the jungle
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle, pierre
I think youre gonna like your brown safari hat
Welcome to the trees
Welcome to the trees
And welcome to the jungle, pierre
Jungle, jungle
Jungle, jungle
Jungle, jungle, jungle, jungle
Jungle, jungle, jungle, jungle
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face again
Push me in the face
Didnt really like
I didnt really like
The jungle once youve given it a chance
Didnt really like it
Once youve given it a chance
In the jungle
In the jungle
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle, diane
Im glad you didnt like your brown safari hat
Welcome to the trees
Welcome to the trees
And welcome to the jungle, diane
song performed by by They Might Be Giants
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Stone Exchange
She knocked and entered
I have a gift for you
What he said
You can't do
In her hand was
A stone
Was she going to throw it
Who knows
She was so unpredictable
With that she smiled
And said this is it
A stone
A simple stone
Purple brown and grey
She placed it on the table
I took it out of my heart
Our hearts
For us
And every morning since
They exchanged stones
From their hearts
Soon they had
A little pile
Of freedom
poem by Harriet James
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You Are A Stone Hearted
You are a stone hearted
that so my heart is bleeding
with your one hit
What my fragile heart will understand
harshness of your heart and
what your heart will understand
delicacy of my heart
My heart is more placid
than petal of any flower
Your heart is stone
that can overcome high tides of oceans
No fire can burn your heart
because you are a stone hearted
My heart can fuse with your little love
that so I hug without any care
or dare for life and death
My heart is a flower
Your heart is a stone
As a stone I worship your heart
offer my flower heart
Either you love or kick off
But my heart is made to adore you only.
poem by Ramesh Rai
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The Threshold Stone
WHEN I went to live in the little house,
That stands on the hilltop alone,
What touched me most of all
Was neither roof nor wall,
But the smooth, worn face of its old threshold stone.
For when I entered that little house,
With its four rooms cool in the heat,
And its windows clean and bright,
There it lay, new-washed and white,
With its tale of the coming and the going of feet.
Then I lost count of time in that little house,
And the world and its things all about,
And I hearkened there, alone,
To the footfalls on that stone,
Of the young coming in and the old going out.
And the folk that had dwelt in that little house,
They were mute, spectre-mute, at my side —
The young man, strong and bold,
And the grey man, wise and old,
And the little, pinched woman and the new-made bride.
Oh, often in haste to that little house
Came love in the night-time alone,
And dallied there a while,
With a little, wistful smile,
And with feather-weight feet on the old threshold stone.
And men hurried home to that little house
When the round of the daytime was o'er
With its worry, heat and noise,
And kissed their girls and boys,
And the patient little mothers that waited at the door.
Though I dwell now no more in that little house
That stands on the hilltop alone,
Yet this I got from it —
This human story writ
On the smooth, worn face of its old threshold stone.
Though they take stone from stone in that little house,
Making litter of all it has been.
Yet they shall not destroy
All the grief, all the joy,
All the youth, all the love that its threshold has seen.
poem by Roderic Quinn
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