Swans
Night is over the park, and a few brave stars
Look on the lights that link it with chains of gold,
The lake bears up their reflection in broken bars
That seem too heavy for tremulous water to hold.
We watch the swans that sleep in a shadowy place,
And now and again one wakes and uplifts its head;
How still you are -- your gaze is on my face --
We watch the swans and never a word is said.
poem by Sara Teasdale
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
The Two Swans
There's a big park just close to where we live —
Trees in a row
And shaggy grass whereon the dead leaves blow.
And in the middle round a great lagoon
The fair yachts sail
In loveliness that makes the water pale.
Last night I went to walk along the road
Beside the park
And feel the kisses of the wintry dark.
It's the best place to watch the evening come
For mists are there
And lights and shadows and the lake is fair
And last night looking up I saw two swans
Fly overhead
With long black necks and their white wings outspread.
Above the houses citywards they went,
An arrowy pair
In secret — white and black and dark and fair.
poem by Lesbia Harford
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The Black Swan
When the swans turned my sister into a swan
I would go to the lake, at night, from milking:
The sun would look out through the reeds like a swan,
A swan's red beak; and the beak would open
And inside there was darkness, the stars and the moon.
Out on the lake, a girl would laugh.
"Sister, here is your porridge, sister,"
I would call; and the reeds would whisper,
"Go to sleep, go to sleep, little swan."
My legs were all hard and webbed, and the silky
Hairs of my wings sank away like stars
In the ripples that ran in and out of the reeds:
I heard through the lap and hiss of water
Someone's "Sister . . . sister," far away on the shore,
And then as I opened my beak to answer
I heard my harsh laugh go out to the shore
And saw - saw at last, swimming up from the green
Low mounds of the lake, the white stone swans:
The white, named swans . . . "It is all a dream,"
I whispered, and reached from the down of the pallet
To the lap and hiss of the floor.
And "Sleep, little sister," the swan all sang
From the moon and stars and frogs of the floor.
But the swan my sister called, "Sleep at last, little sister,"
And stroked all night, with a black wing, my wings.
poem by Randall Jarrell
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Swans
Two swans sit alone on a lake
Looking so peaceful,
Poised on the tranquil waters.
The air around them is calm,
A gentle breeze wafting,
Gliding through their white feathers.
They are caressed by the pine scents
And the delicate balance
Of their surroundings.
The sky above is blue,
Almost cloudless and clear,
But a few pillows float overhead.
The trees stand tall beside the lake,
Watching the swans
Swim on the surface.
They swim majestically,
Beautifully,
In the recreational park.
Under their webbed feet,
Abandoned garbage sifts—
The collected lost trinkets of lazy people.
Twenty feet from the lake,
There is a parking lot
Filled with automobiles
With rust crusting on the hood
And near the synthetic rubber tires.
The people that own the cars
Are feeding the geese bleached white Wonder bread.
They leave their Coke bottles
And Doritos bags on the ground,
Ready to be carried away by the wind.
The swans watch the people.
Later, one of them
Will stick its neck
Into the plastic hole
Of a Coke bottle container
And choke
And choke
And choke
And choke.
It will die.
The other swan will watch,
Helpless and screaming,
Unable to do anything.
Some people will watch,
In awe,
Some excited.
poem by Tim Stensloff
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A November Night
There! See the line of lights,
A chain of stars down either side the street --
Why can't you lift the chain and give it to me,
A necklace for my throat? I'd twist it round
And you could play with it. You smile at me
As though I were a little dreamy child
Behind whose eyes the fairies live. . . . And see,
The people on the street look up at us
All envious. We are a king and queen,
Our royal carriage is a motor bus,
We watch our subjects with a haughty joy. . . .
How still you are! Have you been hard at work
And are you tired to-night? It is so long
Since I have seen you -- four whole days, I think.
My heart is crowded full of foolish thoughts
Like early flowers in an April meadow,
And I must give them to you, all of them,
Before they fade. The people I have met,
The play I saw, the trivial, shifting things
That loom too big or shrink too little, shadows
That hurry, gesturing along a wall,
Haunting or gay -- and yet they all grow real
And take their proper size here in my heart
When you have seen them. . . . There's the Plaza now,
A lake of light! To-night it almost seems
That all the lights are gathered in your eyes,
Drawn somehow toward you. See the open park
Lying below us with a million lamps
Scattered in wise disorder like the stars.
We look down on them as God must look down
On constellations floating under Him
Tangled in clouds. . . . Come, then, and let us walk
Since we have reached the park. It is our garden,
All black and blossomless this winter night,
But we bring April with us, you and I;
We set the whole world on the trail of spring.
I think that every path we ever took
Has marked our footprints in mysterious fire,
Delicate gold that only fairies see.
When they wake up at dawn in hollow tree-trunks
And come out on the drowsy park, they look
Along the empty paths and say, "Oh, here
They went, and here, and here, and here! Come, see,
Here is their bench, take hands and let us dance
About it in a windy ring and make
A circle round it only they can cross
When they come back again!" . . . Look at the lake --
Do you remember how we watched the swans
That night in late October while they slept?
Swans must have stately dreams, I think. But now
The lake bears only thin reflected lights
That shake a little. How I long to take
One from the cold black water -- new-made gold
To give you in your hand! And see, and see,
There is a star, deep in the lake, a star!
Oh, dimmer than a pearl -- if you stoop down
Your hand could almost reach it up to me. . . .
There was a new frail yellow moon to-night --
I wish you could have had it for a cup
With stars like dew to fill it to the brim. . . .
How cold it is! Even the lights are cold;
They have put shawls of fog around them, see!
What if the air should grow so dimly white
That we would lose our way along the paths
Made new by walls of moving mist receding
The more we follow. . . . What a silver night!
That was our bench the time you said to me
The long new poem -- but how different now,
How eerie with the curtain of the fog
Making it strange to all the friendly trees!
There is no wind, and yet great curving scrolls
Carve themselves, ever changing, in the mist.
Walk on a little, let me stand here watching
To see you, too, grown strange to me and far. . . .
I used to wonder how the park would be
If one night we could have it all alone --
No lovers with close arm-encircled waists
To whisper and break in upon our dreams.
And now we have it! Every wish comes true!
We are alone now in a fleecy world;
Even the stars have gone. We two alone!
poem by Sara Teasdale
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Every Morning's Mourning.
Watch you sleep
Dream and roll over
avoid the monsters
and the light
Watch you sleep
Watch you sleep
when the noise
of fifteen
floors above you
crashes in
and wraps you deeper
in your sheets
Watch you sleep
Watch you sleep
through every squeak
and smash and ping
as I serenade you
with my awake
and my breakfast
Watch you sleep
Watch you sleep
with a half-turned
smile on your face
an exposed and naked leg
your hair escaping you
like spilling starlight
Watch you sleep
Watch you sleep
when I kiss
the tiniest sample
of skin on your cheek
and know you wake
when I'm gone
and am gone
until again you sleep
When you wake
Watch you wake
Watch you sleep
poem by Q.R. Gibson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Hunchback in the Park
The hunchback in the park
A solitary mister
Propped between trees and water
From the opening of the garden lock
That lets the trees and water enter
Until the Sunday sombre bell at dark
Eating bread from a newspaper
Drinking water from the chained cup
That the children filled with gravel
In the fountain basin where I sailed my ship
Slept at night in a dog kennel
But nobody chained him up.
Like the park birds he came early
Like the water he sat down
And Mister they called Hey mister
The truant boys from the town
Running when he had heard them clearly
On out of sound
Past lake and rockery
Laughing when he shook his paper
Hunchbacked in mockery
Through the loud zoo of the willow groves
Dodging the park keeper
With his stick that picked up leaves.
And the old dog sleeper
Alone between nurses and swans
While the boys among willows
Made the tigers jump out of their eyes
To roar on the rockery stones
And the groves were blue with sailors
Made all day until bell time
A woman figure without fault
Straight as a young elm
Straight and tall from his crooked bones
That she might stand in the night
After the locks and chains
All night in the unmade park
After the railings and shrubberies
The birds the grass the trees the lake
And the wild boys innocent as strawberries
Had followed the hunchback
To his kennel in the dark.
poem by Dylan Thomas
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Poetics 6....
in april
the firetrees are blooming
beside
a very calm lake
where some swans
make
a show
we take our
seat
on a bench
watch
the world glowing
with beauty
the two of us
isolated from the thought
of
the nuclear leak
in Fugushima
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Think...........
broken bottles, broken glass,
everywhere scattered on the grass.
once it was spiky and green,
wind was blowing,
moving grass in the stream can be clearly seen.
upon the mountain through the trees,
blows a sweet, soft breeze.
think what will happen if trees be tear,
there will be no loin, no tiger no any bear.
no place for birds to make a nest
where could running deer be take a rest.
no place for hiding nuts,
squirrels are homeless,
sparrow finding space in the huts.
see clouds seem as teddy bears,
see rabbits, peacocks roaming without fears.
watch and catch the stars at night,
stars will not be as bright.
with in few or someday,
everything not be in same way.
blue water, floating high waves,
no dolphin, no star fish to be gaze, ,
in human there is wealthy race,
time will come we won't have even a single standing place.
it is time to awareness be raised,
for saving environment plan must be traced..........
The eyes of impressionism
Saints.
Like swans, gliding untroubled so it seems
to us, lazing on the river bank
of a Seurat summer Sunday afternoon,
gliding over the surface of the waters
as love perhaps, on that first day;
they as floating symbols
of the beauty beyond beauty;
their work, invisible to us who watch
Painters.
Like waterlilies, resting in perfection
on the surface of the waters
as love rests, sure of their own beauty;
painting just the sunlight
falling on things, moving on
more slowly than we see;
the depth of the waters
in the painter’s mind and heart;
his work invisible to us who watch
his dabbing at the canvas
as a dabchick bobs in the water, his mind
moving as time moves;
for him, sitting at the canvas,
always time present,
in the water-garden already on his palette
Cataracts.
How far a word from
the stillness around him as he sits,
his beard a little yellow from the nicotine,
seeing the waterlilies as if for the first time,
but each year the water seems to tell
more about time itself… like Proust;
where is time going in this painting?
Eyes.
Cataracts, yes; but perhaps over time
they too have sought to serve him,
become themselves, impressionists,
presenting him with images
prepared like canvasses are prepared;
gently watering inner gardens
between the eyes and mind
yes, that’s Monsieur Monet over there;
don’t disturb him; but if you stand
a little way behind him, you just may
enter the stillness around him,
enter the stillness of his mind,
see with his eyes, that work
invisible to those of us who watch
which swans and saints and artists know.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Brave New World
Dying swans twisted wings, beauty not needed here
Lost my love, lost my life, in this garden of fear
I have seen many things, in a lifetime alone
Mother love is no more, bring this savage back home
Wilderness house of pain, makes no sense of it all
Close this mind dull this brain, messiah before his fall
What you see is not real, those who know will not tell
All is lost sold your souls to this brave new world
A brave new world, in a brave new world
A brave new world, in a brave new world
In a brave new world, a brave new world
In a brave new world, a brave new world
Dragon kings dying queens, where is salvation now
Lost my life lost my dreams, rip the bones from my flesh
Silent screams laughing here, dying to tell you the truth
You are planned and you are damned in this brave new world
A brave new world, in a brave new world
A brave new world, in a brave new world
In a brave new world, a brave new world
In a brave new world, a brave new world
A brave new world, in a brave new world
A brave new world, in a brave new world
In a brave new world, a brave new world
In a brave new world, a brave new world
Dying swans twisted wings, bring this savage back home
song performed by by Iron Maiden
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Walk In The Park
A walk in the park is a pleasure to do,
When a visit to one is long overdue,
To take the dogs too, is really great,
For the exercise is just first rate.
The peacefulness can be very strange,
For quietness is such a change
From all the traffic rushing by,
The decibels get really high.
We have to live with constant noise,
That often takes away the joys
And contentment, that a walk can give us.
We've got to count is as a real plus.
There's a lake where you can hire a boat,
And two or more can go afloat,
And meander, with the water calm,
With oars a dipping, what sheer balm.
At the end of the lake, the ducks you'll meet,
And geese and swans, with their webbed feet,
All gather hoping to be fed,
With slivers of cake and slices of bread.
There are tennis courts and a golf course too,
You can do most anything you want to do,
For children, roundabouts and swings,
Seesaws, slides, gosh, there's lots of things.
A small cafe where you can sit,
And enjoy a coffee and rest for a bit,
And watch the birds that gather round,
Robins and bluetits, ready to scrounge.
For any titbits that you might drop,
They're very brave, and will sit atop,
The railings right next to your chair,
As long as with them, your fare you share.
The flowers are a joy to view,
The colours bright with the morning dew,
Red, yellow, purple, pink and peach,
Lifting their heads the sun to reach.
A walk in the park takes away the strain,
Of working, which we have to go back to again,
But as long as we take just a little time out
To relax, that to me is what life's all about.
poem by Ernestine Northover
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Hold Hands and Blow Bubbles
Tomorrow I will wake to see you lying next to me and I will watch you sleep.
I will gently touch your face to wake you and cover you with kisses.
Tomorrow will be the first time we truly get to spend time alone together.
We can stay in bed as long as we want and watch the birds outside eat and play.
Tomorrow we will go for a walk in the park, hold hands and blow bubbles.
We will wash the car in the driveway and end up covered in soap and water.
Tomorrow you will hide the remote while I make your morning coffee.
We will make a dozen sack lunches and go down town and hand them out.
Tomorrow we will kiss every time one of us says ‘Um'.
We will have pie for lunch and skip dessert.
Tomorrow in the morning we will tell every person we meet what the current time is, in Afghanistan.
In the evening we will thank everyone we meet.
Tomorrow we will save water and take a bath together, with extra bubbles, planes and boats.
We will lie on a blanket and stare at the stars and tell one another stories.
Tomorrow night we will thumb wrestle to see who will be the outside spoon.
I will whisper in your ear, kiss your neck and caress you until you fall sleep.
Tomorrow night while you dream I will whisper all of my plans, desires and secrets to you while you sleep.
It be the first of the greatest days of our lives.
Today, I will search for you.
poem by Ronald Ragan
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Nightfall (A Lullaby)
One by one the lights go down
Soon there will be nothing left to see
Night is here
One by one the stars come out
And with the moon will watch us from above
Night is here
Lay your head down to rest
Leave the weary world behind
Close your eyes, don't think twice
There will always be tomorrow
One by one the lights go down
Until there's nothing left to do but dream
Night is here
One by one the stars come 'round
To mark the way and guide us through our dreams
Night is here
Night is here
Night.... is...... here....
poem by Sonya Florentino
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If there is one thing worse than being an ugly duckling in a house of swans, it's having the swans pretend there's no difference.
quote by Teena Booth
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Great Escape
ft. Azure Ray
I'll use a lock that has no key
Aren't you in chains
That no one else can see
Let the water creep over your face
I'll send it in waves
Just to watch you perform the great escape
How long can you hold your breath
While you hold mine again and wait
Just to watch you perform the great escape
I'll pull your arms tight behind you back
Use myself as weight
And wonder while you fade
How long can you hold your breath
While you hold mine again and wait
Just to watch you perform the great escape
song performed by by Moby from 18
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Leaving Me
wake up in the middle of the night
the air is so heavy my head's screwed on too tight
and in the glow of the christmas lights i watch you sleep
the hands on the cigarette clock are just
time ticking away this love i've got
there's no way to make it stop before you wake
i know you're leaving me
this is not the way that i was brought up to believe that it would be
i know you're leaving me
i'm running round in circles trying to figure out
just who i'm supposed to be
we go down to prospect park
to watch the light become the dark
and i don't think i've ever been this scared
outside as the yellow moon rises
i know this time it won't surprise us
but that don't mean that i will be prepared
i know you're leaving me
this is not the way that i was brought up to believe that it would be
i know you're leaving me
i'm running round in circles trying to figure out
just who i'm supposed to be
i'm so tired of writing sad songs
but my mind's on misery
and i know there's time until you're gone
but i can't let it be
i can't let it be
song performed by by Zox
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Great Escape (feat. Azure Ray)
I'll use a lock that has no key
Bind you with chains
That no one else can see
Let the water creep over your face
I'll send it in waves
Just to watch you perform the great escape
How long can you hold your breath?
While you hold mine, I'll come and wait
Just to watch you perform the great escape
I'll pull your arms tight behind your back
Use myself as weight
And wonder while you fade
How long can you hold your breath?
While you hold mine, I'll come and wait
Just to watch you perform the great escape
song performed by by Moby
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A thought after Yeats
When youth was life and life was youth
and life was love and love was life,
I thought love came and went;
its coming, overwhelming; and its going,
death of spirit; then, as if
the wild white swans had flown away
and left the waters of the heart’s lake cold.
But now I know it’s not like that:
love that, guarded, never flies from here in heart
to where it will, may grow dark, cold and miserly;
ungiven every livelong day
it turns to rags and dry old bones,
confiscated in the heart.
Better now, be with those wild white swans
which on a dark cold icy winter’s day
gather at the water’s edge to stretch
for yesterday’s warm loaf still fresh;
then turn, swim, lift strong wings and fly
one knows not where, and may not ask;
watch them then, into the distance;
hear the flap of wings grow into silent air;
pause still a little while;
then turn, one’s living breath
white in that winter air;
then back to warmth of home and love and peat fire
glowing in the hearth of heart renewed.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I Watch You Sleeping
This song appears on three albums, and was first released on the flower that shattered the stone album, and has also been released on the stonehaven sunrise and the john denver collection - take
Ome, country roads albums.
I watch you sleeping little angel face
And on behalf of the human race
Welcome to this crazy place
I watch you sleeping innocent and free
I dont know what your dreams may be
You dont know what you mean to me
You have never heard thunder
You have never seen the rain
But you can still feel the wonder
You can still feel the pain
And sometimes you look at me
So wise and so sure
I could easily believe you have been here before
I watch you sleeping little angel face
And on behalf of the human race
Welcome to this crazy place
I wont be here forever
But as long as Im around
I promise you I will never let you down
To help make a world you can feel worthy of
I will teach you to fly on the wings of my love
I watch you sleeping brave and unaware
You dont know yet so you dont care
I want you to know its hard out there
I watch you sleeping little angel face
And on behalf of the human race
Welcome to this crazy place
I watch you sleeping
I watch you sleeping
I watch you sleeping
I watch you sleeping
I watch you sleeping
I watch you sleeping
Words and music by mike batt
song performed by by John Denver
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Chauffeur
(originally done by duran duran)
Out on the tar plains the glides are moving
All looking for a new place to drive
You sit beside me so newly charming
Sweating dew drops glisten freshing your side
The sun slips down bedding heavy blind
The front of your dress all shadowy lined
And the drowning engine throbs in time
With your beating heart
Sing blue silver
Way down the lane away living for another day
The aphids swarm up in the drifting haze
Swim seagull in the empty sky on towards that western isle
My envied lady holds you fast in her gaze
And watch as lovers part I feel you smiling
What glass splinters lie so deep in your mind
To tear out from your eyes with a word to stiffen brooding lies
But Ill only watch you leave me further behind
song performed by by Deftones
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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