Notes From Dante's House Of Metaphors
along the alley
leading to the living room of your house
you put a very
fragile jar
it is empty
i walk casually there upon
your invitation
and i trip upon it
and it rolls away from us
i run to hold it back
not wanting it broken
i catch it and give it back to you
and you smile
we drink to something left
unbroken
we feast on things retained
we choose the flowers that
we have grown in the garden
we keep the silence
of long years still unforgotten
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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Gasoline Alley Bred
Woman, get your head out of curlers.
Time get your butt out of bed.
Get down your hats and baggage, my child.
Going back home,
going back to the homestead.
I'm a-gonna heat me some water,
and put a shine upon my shoes.
Telephone my ma,
Keep the room above Joe's
'Cause we're coming back,
coming back to the homestead.
Everything is packed,
getting back to the homestead.
This time, this time we'll stay.
I know that we could have made it;
we had ideas in our heads.
And I wish somehow
we could have saved it
but we're Gasoline Alley bred.
Yet the years haven't really been wasted,
and I know it in my head.
We did good for the life that we've tasted
'cause we're Gasoline Alley, Gasoline Alley bred
Woman, you can really believe it,
I did everything a man could do.
Breaking my back just to make us a dime.
That won't mean a damn
when no one wants to know you.
Woman, I know how you're feeling.
I've seen the hurt upon your face.
How many time do you think that I've cried?
Knowing every day that your heart was getting broken,
holdin' back your pride til you were nearly chokin'
Oh let's get away.
chorus
Gasoline Alley, Gasoline Alley Bred
Gasoline Alley, Gasoline Alley Bred
Gasoline Alley, Gasoline Alley Bred
Gasoline Alley, Gasoline Alley Bred
song performed by by Hollies

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The House with Nobody in It
Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.
I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.
This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.
If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.
Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.
But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.
So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.
poem by Joyce Kilmer

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Walk Casually Into The Sun
As I walk along my chosen path I know there is work to be done.
As I walk casually into the sun
As I stare at the marquis that bares my name I wonder how long will my show run
As I walk casually into the sun
As I ponder each step and charted course to my next action I ponder, have I yet begun?
As I walk casually into the sun
As the road gets rocky does this mean a rocky road or just loose pebbles undone
As I walk casually into the sun
As I look down at my feet and then at the sky, I think where am I what have I become
As I walk casually into the sun
As a boy I was a wimpy kid knowing it did not feel right, myself, I would not shun
As I walk casually into the sun
As greatness goes, it is not always great, . Greatness always is, I am the one
As I walk casually into the sun
As a man the plan was always this, to be great you must do what you love
As I walk casually into the sun
As I am in the now I know this, be great for those you love only then will you rise above.
As I walk casually into the sun
poem by Vincent Tinto

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Visiting Something Previous
you take a trip
back to the place where meaning was once
there. An empty room that you left.
Now someone lives there and he does not know your name,
there will be a brief introduction
of who you are and what you do for a living
and he will ask why you have come back
you say that you are just passing by
you are looking for the word
the spark in your heart
somewhere on the study table
or on the book shelf
a poem, some little notes on the wall,
there is nothing there anymore
exept the scent of the nearby comfort room
beside your room
that stink that made you leave
it was that which made you pass by
as you were telling the new tenant.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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Gasoline Alley
(rod stewart, ron wood)
I think I know now whats making me sad
Its a yearnin for my own back yard
I realize maybe I was wrong to leave
Better swallow up my silly country pride
Going home, running home
Down to gasoline alley where I started from
Going home, and Im running home
Down to gasoline alley where I was born
When the weathers better and the rails unfreeze
And the wind dont whistle round my knees
Ill put on my weddin suit and catch the evening train
Ill be home before the milks upon the door
Going home, running home
Down to gasoline alley where I started from
Going home, and Im running home
Down to gasoline alley where I was born
But if anything should happen and my plans go wrong
Should I stray to the house on the hill
Let it be known that my intentions were good
Id be singing in my alley if I could
And if Im called away and its my turn to go
Should the blood run cold in my veins
Just one favor Ill be asking of you
Dont bury me here, its too cold
Take me back, carry me back
Down to gasoline alley where I started from
Take me back, wont you carry me home
Down to gasoline alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to gasoline alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to gasoline alley where I started from
Take me back, carry me back
Down to gasoline alley where I started from
song performed by by Rod Stewart

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In Memoryt Of Saretta Deakin
_Who Died on October 25th_, 1899.
THERE was a day,
A horrible Autumn day,
When from her home, the home she made for ours
And that day made a nightmare of white flowers
And folk in black who whispered pityingly,
They carried her away;
And left our hearts all cold
And empty, yet with such a store to hold
Of sodden grief the slow drops still ooze out,
And, falling on all fair things, they wither these.
Tears came with time--but not with time went by.
And still we wander desolate about
The poor changed house, the garden and the croft,
Warm kitchen, sunny parlour, with the soft
Intolerable pervading memories
Of her whose face and voice made melodies,
Sweet unforgotten songs of mother-love--
Dear songs of all the little joys that were.
We see the sun, and have no joy thereof,
Because she gathered in her dying hands
And carried with her to the fair far lands
The flower of all our joy, because she went
Out of the garden where her days were spent,
And took the very sun away with her.
The cross stands at her head.
Over her breast, that loving mother-breast,
Close buds of pansies purple and white are pressed.
It seems a place for rest,
For happy folded sleep; but ah, not there,
Not there, not there, our hardest tears are shed,
But in the house made empty for her sake.
Here, in the night intolerable, wake
The hungry passionate pains of Love still strong
To fight with death the bitter slow night long.
Then the rich price that poor Love has to pay
Is paid, slow drop by drop, till the new day
With thin cold fingers pushes back night's wings,
And drags us out to common cruel things
That sting, and barb their stings with memory.
O Love--and is the price too hard to give?
Thine is the splendour of all things that live,
And this thy pain the price of life to thee--
The sacrament that binds to the beloved,
The chain that holds though mountains be removed,
The portent of thine immortality.
So, in the house of pain imprisoned, we
Endure our bondage, and work out our time,
Nor seek from out our dungeon walls to climb--
Bondsmen, who would not, if we could, be free.
Thank God, our hands still hold Love's cord--and she--
Do not her hands still clasp the cord we hold,
Drawing us near, coiling bright fold on fold,
Till the far day when it shall draw us near
To the sight of her--her living hands, her dear
Tired face, grown weary of watching for our face?
And we shall hold her, in the happy place,
And hear her voice, the old same voice we knew--
'Ah! children, I am tired of wanting you!'
Or, in some world more beautiful and dear
Than any she ever even dreamed of here,
Where time is changed, does she await the day
She longed for, and so little a while away,
When all the love we watered with our tears
Shall bloom, transplanted by the kindly years?
Dreaming through her new garden does she go,
Remembering the old garden, long ago,
Tending new flowers more fair than those that grow
In this sad garden where such sad flowers blow;
And, fondly touching bud and leaf and shoot,
Training her flowers to perfect branch and root,
Does she sometimes entreat some darling flower
To wait a little for its opening hour?
Can you not hear her voice: 'Ah, not to-day,
While my dear flowers, my own, are far away.
Be patient, bud! to-morrow soon will come:
Ah! blossom when my little girl comes home!'
But now. But here.
The empty house, the always empty place--
The black remembrance that no night blots out,
The memories, white, unbearable, and dear
That no white sunlight makes less cruel and clear?
The resistless riotous rout
Of cruel conquering thoughts, the night, the day?
Love is immortal: this the price to pay.
Worse than all pain it would be to forget--
On Love's brave brow the crown of thorns is set.
Love is no niggard: though the price be high
Into God's market Love goes forth to buy
With royal meed God's greatest gifts and gain,
Love offers up his whole rich store of pain,
And buys of God Love's immortality.
poem by Edith Nesbit

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Unbroken
(holly lamar, annie roboff)
How I ever lived and breathed before you loved me, I dont recall
If I walked around at all, it was in bits and pieces
Of a jagged heart
You kissed me and every piece went back in place, every pain got erased
You held me up to the light
No one ever left me out in the rain
Cold words still remain unspoken
And I never got lost, spent years in the dark
Youre here, now my hearts unbroken
When I see your smile fill my soul again
Im unbroken
If I doubted the power of love, baby now I understand
I thank God for every day I wake up to the soft touch
Of your magic hands
In this world sometimes the only thing thats real is the way you make me feel
Babe, the changes day and night
I swear its life
No one ever left me out in the rain
Cold words still remain unspoken
And I never got lost, spent years in the dark
Youre here, now my hearts unbroken
When I see your smile fill my soul again
Im unbroken
I still see the night, I fell into your eyes
And when we made love it felt like the first time
No one ever left me out in the rain
Cold words still remain unspoken
And I never got lost, spent years in the dark
Youre here, now my hearts unbroken
When I see your smile fill my soul again
Im unbroken
When I see your smile fill my soul again
Im unbroken
Im unbroken, oh yeah
Im unbroken
No one ever left me out in the rain
Cold words still remain unspoken
And I never got lost, spent years in the dark
Youre here, now my hearts unbroken
When I see your smile fill my soul again
Im unbroken
song performed by by Tim McGraw

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To Marcy
just this afternoon as i drive my car
back home from the office
as usual, i see you too walk alone
the sidewalk of the mall
your shoulder droops and there
are wrinkles on your forehead
you look on the path and never look back
neither do you look forward
it is just looking down perhaps finding
your own way of taking the silence
your hands are empty still
slowly, you take the sorrows
sipping what sadness is left
in the air
i accelerated the car not wanting to see some more
of you
not wanting to see more of myself too
in you
we're inside the same world
love inside a vacuum
poem by Jerlyn Eguia

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Long Way Back Home
From the railhead to the boatyard
From the factory to the farm
From the mines to the millhouse
Ive weathered the storm
From the bar room to the bedpost
Ive wasted my days
All I have is my drink
And the time left to think
While time slips away
Just look at my face
As you tell me goodbye
Youll see what Im after
By the look in my eye
Just walk away
And leave me alone
Its a long way back home
Now in case you should ask me
What it is that Ive done
Well I say Im a soldier
Who once had a son
But my son doesnt know me
Thats his right to choose
Oh say can you see
My best friend is me
Im a friend I could use
Just look at my face
As you tell me goodbye
Youll see what Im after
By the look in my eye
Just walk away
And leave me alone
Its a long way back home
Now the pages have faded
The story grows cold
And the plot falls to ashes
Like the ruins of old
Those rats in my rafters
Theyre after my shoes
And anything else
They can find on the shelf
Ive said they could use
Just look at my face
As you tell me goodbye
Youll see what Im after
By the look in my eye
Just walk away
And leave me alone
Its a long way back home
Its a long way back home
song performed by by Gordon Lightfoot

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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How Far
There's a boat, I could sail away
There's the sky, I could catch a plane
There's a train, there's the tracks
I could leave and I could choose to not come back
Oh never come back
There you are, giving up the fight
Here I am begging you to try
Talk to me, let me in
But you just put your wall back up again
Oh when's it gonna end
[Chorus:]
How far do I have to go to make you understand
I wanna make this work so much it hurts, but I just can't
Keep on giving, go on living with the way things are
So I'm gonna walk away
And it's up to you to say how far
There's a chance I could change my mind
But I won't, not till you decide
What you want, what you need
Do you even care if I stay or leave
Oh, what's it gonna be
[Chorus]
Out of this chair, or just across the room
Halfway down the block or halfway to the moon
How far do I have to go to make you understand
I wanna make this work so much it hurts, but I just can't
Keep on giving, go on living with the way things are
So I'm gonna walk away
And it's up to you to say
YeahI'm gonna walk away
And it's up to you to say how far
song performed by by Martina Mcbride

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Alexandrines
There is a house that most of all on earth I hate.
Though I have passed through many sorrows and have been
In bloody fields, sad seas, and countries desolate,
Yet most I fear that empty house where the grasses green
Grow in the silent court the gaping flags between,
And down the moss-grown paths and terrace no man treads
Where the old, old weeds rise deep on the waste garden beds.
Like eyes of one long dead the empty windows stare
And I fear to cross the garden, I fear to linger there,
For in that house I know a little, silent room
Where Someone’s always waiting, waiting in the gloom
To draw me with an evil eye, and hold me fast—
Yet thither doom will drive me and He will win at last.
poem by Clive Staples Lewis

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In this house of pain
In this house of pain
We’re nothing but slaves
Giving into such desires
Will it bring us any pleasure?
Weeping for a lover lost
She’ll cast her own spell
Deprived by all
Depleting the life of everyone that has betrayed her
Hidden in the shadows is where she will feel alive
In this house
Is nothing but sinners?
In this house
Is nothing but broken promises?
In this house
Is where you left me for dead?
Walking through the fogged trees
Blind to all
The songs of old
Are here for the comfort of all.
Beneath the garden of secrets
Hides a lonely heart
Calling to her lover
From which she had to part.
I am alone again.
Alone with my thoughts
That I am left to ponder upon
I am alone again.
This sadness is overwhelming
And all I can do is give in
Does my heart still beat the same?
Or does it die along with you
These thoughts seem to keep me sane
Yet I’m still waiting for more
These memories seem to play a game
And in the end
I’m here to give in
In this house
Is nothing but heartache?
In this house
Is nothing but tears?
In this house
Is where you left me broken?
The feelings seem to fade
The laughter was lost long ago
But I would give everything up
Just to have it all back
In this house
Was when I first fell in love with you?
In this house is were I gave my heart to you
In this house was where i was lost to you.
This will be our doing
This will be our destruction
Swept up in such blissful dreams
Scarcely unaware
This is the house
Were we will rot forever?
poem by Teigan Klippel

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Rockville
Looking at your watch a third time waiting in the station for a bus
Going to a place that's far, so far away and if that's not enough
Going where nobody says hello, they don't talk to anybody they don't know
You'll wind up in some factory that's full time filth and nowhere left to go
Walk home to an empty house, sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend
I don't care if you're not here with me
'Cause it's so much easier to handle
All my problems if I'm too far out to sea
But something better happen soon
Or it's gonna be too late to bring you back
It's not as though I really need you
If you were here I'd only bleed you
But everybody else in town only wants to bring you down and
That's not how it ought to be
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long
song performed by by REM

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
Looking at your watch a third time waiting in the station for a bus
Going to a place that's far so far away and if that's not enough
Going where nobody says hello they don't talk to anybody they don't know
You'll wind up in some factory that's full time filth and nowhere left to go
Walk home to an empty house sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend
I don't care if you're not here with me
'Cause it's so much easier to handle
All my problems if I'm too far out to sea
But something better happen soon
Or it's gonna be too late to bring you back
It's not as though I really need you
If you were here I'd only bleed you
But everybody else in town only wants to bring you down and
That's not how it ought to be
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long
song performed by by REM

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Sadness of The Empty Home
The light flickers on
Illuminates the empty hallway
The thud, click of a door in closing
Brings a silence to the room
A heavy sigh escapes
A look to the mirror sees only
Tired eyes looking back
A bag lain upon the small table
The light turned back off
On route to yet another room
Light creeps through the window
Allowing enough to see
The sound of a running tap
Filling the kettle for a final drink
Keys thrown upon a side
The clatter of cups and spoons
Then further silence
Now the creaking of a staircase
Another door opened
Another light flicked on
The curtains drawn to the world
Drink set beside the bed
The silence of the empty home
Fills the heart with loneliness
A television switched into life
Nothing worth watching
Just a sound there to fill
The silence and the sadness
Of the empty home
poem by Matthew Holloway

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Invitation
I received your invitation;
sorry I will not be there.
After loving you for so long,
it would be too much to bear.
As the invitation slips through my fingers,
I remember how your love slipped away,
so I am sending back you invitation,
the invitation for your wedding day.
I don’t think you will miss me,
as he will be holding you tight.
I will only bring back bad memories
and you wouldn’t want them tonight,
so I am sending back your invitation,
the invitation for your wedding day.
For my dearest darling
it is the only and best way.
(Written in the 1960’s exact date unknown)
poem by David Harris

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The Hollow Nature Of Being
WALL I:
inside an empty room lies an empty box
and in that box is a four walled inside room within-
on each of the four walls is a mirror reflecting
the deep desertion of the next
and distant within each wall is another
echoing & spiraling back into infinite repetition
with nothing or no one except the physical entities
bearing back upon each other.
WALL II:
an empty room in an empty house
the house itself has no physical attributes because it
was built in a barren field-
there are no animals, no trees,
no beings of any kind
roaming around the house whose image cannot be
imagined,
at best, know that this house in fact
“housed” the room in question,
as any house might any room.
WALL III:
such a barren field stretches to all four corners
carrying itself out beyond the periphery
curling back in on the other side,
and walking in any direction will bring one back to the
beginning-
the barren field that reveals the empty house that
encapsulates the empty room is the most integral point of
reference within the endless flat plain of grass.
WALL IV:
endless flat plains of grass flowing out in all directions covering
the circumference of the area around the empty house residing in
the middle of the plain wherein
the inside of the empty house holds the
empty room & in the
room,
the four mirrored walls reveal only the replication of the
others,
spiraling into infinite repetition-
there is no feeling
no sound
no communication of any kind
woven with the thread of human fiber.
poem by Andrew Delapruch

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Back Alley Sally
Back Alley Sally,
When you gonna come my way?
It's over here, bouncin' baby,
I been waitin' for you night and day
You got a crew all shook up,
How long's it gonna take for you to give it up?
Back Alley Sally, I can play your game
Back Alley Sally, I know I'm just a crazy fool
I have never never met a woman
Awoman quite like you
You got, I swear you got those crazy eyes,
Kind-a like to take a man by surprise
Back Alley Sally, I love to watch you move
Well I know you like to tease and show your stuff
Oo, baby, I'm callin' your bluff
Come a little closer, let's get on down
We'll drink my whiskey, tear up the town
Back Alley Sally, tell me what you want to do
I got to be back up
I got to leave here soon
You got, I swear you got those crazy eyes,
Kind-a like to take a man by surprise
Back Alley Sally, I love to watch you move
Well I know you like to tease and show your stuff
Oo, baby, I'm callin' your bluff
Now don't think I'm just messin' around,
You're the cream of the crop,
You're my kind of gal.
Back Alley Sally, is that the kind of game you play,
I got to pay your price if I want you to stay.
Back Alley Sally,
I got to pay your price if I want you to stay.
song performed by by 38 Special

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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If It Were You
Theres a time when the heart can no longer give in
You try to stand up and fight
Youve known pain for so long and you know whats gone wrong
But you cant make it right
Another broken heart is all youre feeling
How can you go on
But the memories of the times there was love in your eyes
Keep leading me on
(chorus)
If it were you
Would you hold on and hope that it might
Bring back the dreams we once knew
Or just give up forever that part of your life
Tell me what would you do
If it were you
You can never take back all youve given in love
No matter how hard you try
Once its over and done you just have to let go
Though a part of you died
Another waste of time is all thats left now
But life must go on
All the nights that we spent, never thought they would end
Why cant they go on
(chorus)
If it were you
Would you hold on and hope that it might
Bring back the love we once knew
Or just give up forever that part of your life
Tell me what would you do
If it were you
If it were you
Tell me what would you do
If it were you
Over and over I go back through time
Didnt we promise our love till we die
Asking you deep down inside
Did we really try
Another broken heart is all thats left
But life must go on
All the nights that we spent, never thought they would end
Why cant they go on
(chorus)
song performed by by Chicago

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Will Buy You A New Life
Here is the money that I owe you
Yes so you can pay the bills
I will give you more
When I get paid again
I hate those people who love to tell you
Money is the root of all that kills
They have never been poor
They have never had the joy of
a welfare Christmas
(yeah) I know we will never look back (yeah)
You say you wake up crying
Yes and you don't know why
You get up and you go lay down inside
My baby's room
Yeah I guess I'm doing okay
I moved in with the strangest guy
Do you believe he actually
Thinks that I am really alive?
I will buy you a garden
Where your flowers can bloom
I will buy you a new car
Perfect shiny and new
I will buy you that big house
Way up in the west hills
I will buy you a new life
(yes I will)
I know all about that other guy
The handsome with athletic thighs
I know about all the times before
with that obsessive little rich boy
They might make you think you're happy
Yeah maybe for a minute or two
They can't make you laugh
No they can't make you feel
The way that I do
I will buy you a garden
Where your flowers can bloom
I will buy you a new car
Perfect shiny and new
I will buy you that big house
Way up in the west hills
I will buy you a new life
I know we can never look back
Will you please let me stay the night
No one will ever know
I will buy you a garden
Where your flowers can bloom
I will buy you a new car
Perfect shiny and new
I will buy you that big house
Way up in the west hills
I will buy you a new life
I will buy you a new life
song performed by by Everclear

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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