How to Die
Dark clouds are smouldering into red
While down the craters morning burns.
The dying soldier shifts his head
To watch the glory that returns;
He lifts his fingers toward the skies
Where holy brightness breaks in flame;
Radiance reflected in his eyes,
And on his lips a whispered name.
You’d think, to hear some people talk,
That lads go West with sobs and curses,
And sullen faces white as chalk,
Hankering for wreaths and tombs and hearses.
But they’ve been taught the way to do it
Like Christian soldiers; not with haste
And shuddering groans; but passing through it
With due regard for decent taste.
poem by Siegfried Sassoon
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What A Wonderful World
I see skies of blue, and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of the people passing by
I see friends shaking hands, saying, "how do you do?"
But they're really saying, "I love you"
I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more, than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Oh yeah
song performed by by LeAnn Rimes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In A Soldier...You Will Find...
In a soldier...
Loyalty and strength you see.
In a soldier...
Discipline, bravery.
In a soldier...
A world that is free.
In a soldier..
Sacrifice, so the world can be free.
In a soldier...
No compromise.
In a soldier...
Courage in his eyes.
In a soldier...
A special bond.
In a soldier...
Iraq, Viet-Nam.
In a soldier...
Sad, drooped eyes.
In a soldier...
Pain, when a buddy dies.
In a soldier...
Terrible places.
In a soldier...
Tough, grim faces.
In a soldier...
Stories untold.
In a soldier...
Action makes him old.
In a soldier...
Dark, frightening nights.
In a soldier...
Missing his lovely wife.
In a soldier...
Memories of a decent life.
In a soldier...
Scars deep in the mind.
In a soldier...
An exploding mine.
In a soldier...
The thrill of leaving war.
In a soldier...
No more pains anymore.
In a soldier...
No more tears.
In a soldier...
Leaving war, after a long, trying year.
poem by Philip Lore
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Day dawn
All yesterday the thought of you was resting in my soul,
And when sleep wandered o'er the world that very thought she stole
To fill my dreams with splendour such as stars could not eclipse,
And in the morn I wakened with your name upon my lips.
Awakened, my beloved, to the morning of your eyes,
Your splendid eyes, so full of clouds, wherein a shadow tries
To overcome the flame that melts into the world of grey,
As coming suns dissolve the dark that veils the edge of day.
Cool drifts the air at dawn of day, cool lies the sleeping dew,
But all my heart is burning, for it woke from dreams of you;
And O! these longing eyes of mine look out and only see
A dying night, a waking day, and calm on all but me.
So gently creeps the morning through the heavy air,
The dawn grey-garbed and velvet-shod is wandering everywhere
To wake the slumber-laden hours that leave their dreamless rest,
With outspread, laggard wings to court the pillows of the west.
Up from the earth a moisture steals with odours fresh and soft,
A smell of moss and grasses warm with dew, and far aloft
The stars are growing colourless, while drooping in the west,
A late, wan moon is paling in a sky of amethyst.
The passing of the shadows, as they waft their pinions near,
Has stirred a tender wind within the night-hushed atmosphere,
That in its homeless wanderings sobs in an undertone
An echo to my heart that sobbing calls for you alone.
The night is gone, beloved, and another day set free,
Another day of hunger for the one I may not see.
What care I for the perfect dawn? the blue and empty skies?
The night is always mine without the morning of your eyes.
poem by Emily Pauline Johnson
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The Morning Breaks Out
the morning breaks out in beauty
and I say hello to the storms
to the clouds and the blue
to the shore to the sea
the morning breaks out in love
and I say hello to the hearts
to the faces and the smiles
to the hands and to the eyes
the morning breaks out in wonder
and I say hello to the child
to the young to the old
to the living and the dead
the morning breaks out in hope
and I say hello to the horizon line
drawing the instinct pre-nature soul
within whose wisdom I'll daily dwell
poem by Miroslava Odalovic
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After A Lecture On Shelley
ONE broad, white sail in Spezzia's treacherous bay
On comes the blast; too daring bark, beware I
The cloud has clasped her; to! it melts away;
The wide, waste waters, but no sail is there.
Morning: a woman looking on the sea;
Midnight: with lamps the long veranda burns;
Come, wandering sail, they watch, they burn for thee!
Suns come and go, alas! no bark returns.
And feet are thronging on the pebbly sands,
And torches flaring in the weedy caves,
Where'er the waters lay with icy hands
The shapes uplifted from their coral graves.
Vainly they seek; the idle quest is o'er;
The coarse, dark women, with their hanging locks,
And lean, wild children gather from the shore
To the black hovels bedded in the rocks.
But Love still prayed, with agonizing wail,
'One, one last look, ye heaving waters, yield!'
Till Ocean, clashing in his jointed mail,
Raised the pale burden on his level shield.
Slow from the shore the sullen waves retire;
His form a nobler element shall claim;
Nature baptized him in ethereal fire,
And Death shall crown him with a wreath of flame.
Fade, mortal semblance, never to return;
Swift is the change within thy crimson shroud;
Seal the white ashes in the peaceful urn;
All else has risen in yon silvery cloud.
Sleep where thy gentle Adonais lies,
Whose open page lay on thy dying heart,
Both in the smile of those blue-vaulted skies,
Earth's fairest dome of all divinest art.
Breathe for his wandering soul one passing sigh,
O happier Christian, while thine eye grows dim,--
In all the mansions of the house on high,
Say not that Mercy has not one for him!
poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
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When Your Smouldering Round Bullet Pierce My Fragile Heart?
My tall brother soldier!
If your rusty gun is a guitar
Then people won't die in vain
and they listen to your
melodious voice!
But your rough fingers
The Warlords,
they trained you purposely
for the trigger
and not for strings?
My little brother soldier!
When your smouldering round bullet
pierce my fragile heart
Do you hear that
painful dying song of your father's voice?
to the Irish poet William Butler Yeats!
nimal dunuhinga
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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The Comrades
The angels walk with men in the red ruin and rain,
White and gold, as of old, without spot or stain.
Our warriors fought and died, the white lords by their side.
The angels walk with men.
God doth not forget in the battle, the retreat;
The heart of Love's above the dying and the slain.
There's a ladder to the skies and, armed from Paradise,
The angels walk with men.
Foot-soldiers, cavaliers, the flame on their spears,
They sweep fast in haste o'er the bloody plain.
What ill shall betide us with the winged knights beside us?
The angels walk with men.
Golden-mailed, lance in arm, they ride on the storm --
Michael and a poor soldier are comrades twain!
Oh, in the noise of battle, the red roar and the rattle,
The angels walk with men!
poem by Katharine Tynan
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Enceladus. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The Second)
Under Mount Etna he lies,
It is slumber, it is not death;
For he struggles at times to arise,
And above him the lurid skies
Are hot with his fiery breath.
The crags are piled on his breast,
The earth is heaped on his head;
But the groans of his wild unrest,
Though smothered and half suppressed,
Are heard, and he is not dead.
And the nations far away
Are watching with eager eyes;
They talk together and say,
'To-morrow, perhaps to-day,
Euceladus will arise!
And the old gods, the austere
Oppressors in their strength,
Stand aghast and white with fear
At the ominous sounds they hear,
And tremble, and mutter, 'At length!'
Ah me! for the land that is sown
With the harvest of despair!
Where the burning cinders, blown
From the lips of the overthrown
Enceladus, fill the air.
Where ashes are heaped in drifts
Over vineyard and field and town,
Whenever he starts and lifts
His head through the blackened rifts
Of the crags that keep him down.
See, see! the red light shines!
'T is the glare of his awful eyes!
And the storm-wind shouts through the pines
Of Alps and of Apennines,
'Enceladus, arise!'
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Soldier Going To The War
Soldier going to the war--
Will you take my heart with you,
So that I may share a little
In the famous things you do?
Soldier going to the war--
If in battle you must fall,
Will you, among all the faces,
See my face the last of all?
Soldier coming from the war--
Who shall bind your sunburnt brow
With the laurel of the hero,
Soldier, soldier--vow for vow!
Soldier coming from the war--
When the street is one wide sea,
Flags and streaming eyes and glory--
Soldier, will you look for me?
poem by Richard Le Gallienne
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What A Wonderfull World
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.
I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.
song performed by by Louis Armstrong
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Olney Hymn 66: I Will Praise The Lord At All Times
Winter has a joy for me,
While the Saviour's charms I read,
Lowly, meek, from blemish free,
In the snowdrop's pensive head.
Spring returns, and brings along
Life-invigorating suns:
Hark! the turtle's plaintive song
Seems to speak His dying groans!
Summer has a thousand charms,
All expressive of His worth;
'Tis His sun that lights and warms,
His the air the cools the earth.
What! has autumn left to say
Nothing of a Saviour's grace?
Yes, the beams of milder day
Tell me of his smiling face.
Light appears with early dawn,
While the sun makes haste to rise;
See His bleeding beauties drawn
On the blushes of the skies.
Evening with a silent pace,
Slowly moving in the west,
Shews an emblem of His grace,
Points to an eternal rest.
poem by William Cowper
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I Will Praise the Lord at All Times
Winter has a joy for me,
While the Saviour's charms I read,
Lowly, meek, from blemish free,
In the snowdrop's pensive head.
Spring returns, and brings along
Life-invigorating suns:
Hark! the turtle's plaintive song
Seems to speak His dying groans!
Summer has a thousand charms,
All expressive of His worth;
'Tis His sun that lights and warms,
His the air the cools the earth.
What! has autumn left to say
Nothing of a Saviour's grace?
Yes, the beams of milder day
Tell me of his smiling face.
Light appears with early dawn,
While the sun makes haste to rise;
See His bleeding beauties drawn
On the blushes of the skies.
Evening with a silent pace,
Slowly moving in the west,
Shews an emblem of His grace,
Points to an eternal rest.
poem by William Cowper
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Food For Thought
Ivory madonna dying in the dust,
Waiting for the manna coming from the west.
Barren is her bosom, empty as her eyes,
Death a certain harvest scattered from the skies.
Skin and bones is creeping, does'nt know he's dead.
Ancient eyes are peeping, from his infant head.
Politician's argue sharpening their knives.
Drawing up their bargains, trading baby lives.
(chorus)
Ivory madonna dying in the dust,
Waiting for the manna coming from the west.
Hear the bells are ringing, christmas on it's way.
Hear the angels singing, what is that they say?
Eat and drink rejoicing, joy is here to stay.
Jesus son of mary is born again today.
(chorus)
Ivory madonna dying in the dust,
Waiting for the manna coming from the west.
Ivory madonna dying in the dust,
Waiting for the manna coming from the west.
song performed by by Ub40
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What A Wonderful World (feat. Stevie Wonder)
(George Weiss / Bob Thiele)
(feat. Stevie Wonder)
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day and the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"
I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"
I hear my babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever ever know
And I think to myself, it's a wonderful world
I think to myself, what a wonderful world
What a wonderful world
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
song performed by by Rod Stewart
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What A Wonderful World
(feat. Stevie Wonder)
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day and the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"
I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"
I hear my babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever ever know
And I think to myself, it's a wonderful world
I think to myself, what a wonderful world
What a wonderful world
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
song performed by by Rod Stewart
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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She Moves On
I feel good
Its a fine day
The way the sun hits off the runway
A cloud shifts
The plane lifts
She moves on
But feel the bite
Whenever you believe that
Youll be lost and love will find you
When the road bends
And the song ends
She moves on
I know the reason i
Feel so blessed
My heart still splashes
Inside my chest, but she
She is like a top
She cannot stop
She moves on
A sympathetic stranger
Lights a candle in the middle of the night
Her voice cracks
She jumps back
But she moves on
She says ooh my storybook lover
You have underestimated my power
As you shortly will discover
The I fall to my knees
Shake a rattle at the skies
Im afraid that Ill be taken
Abandoned, forsaken
In her cold coffee eyes
She cant sleep now
The moon is red
She fights a fever
She burns in bed
She needs to talk so
We take a walk
Down in the maroon light
She says maybe these emotions are
As near to love as love will ever be
So I agree
Then the moon breaks
She takes the corner thats all she takes
She moves on
She says ooh my storybook lover
You have underestimated my power
As you shortly will discover
Then I fall to my knees
I grow weak, I go slack
As if she captured the breath of my
Voice in a bottle
And I cant catch it back
But I feel good
Its a fine day
The way the sun hits off the runway
A cloud shifts
The plane lifts
She moves on
song performed by by Paul Simon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sailing
(gavin sutherland)
Producer for bonnie: steve hackett
Recorded in 1990 as a charity single against the repatriation of the vietnamese boat people. lyrics taken from careful listening.
I am sailing, i am sailing
Far away, across the sea
I am sailing, stormy waters
To be near you, to be free
I am flying, i am flying
Like a bird, across the sky
I am flying, passing high clouds
To be near you, to be free
Can you hear me? can you hear me?
Through the dark night, far away
I am dying, forever trying
To be with you, who can say?
We are sailing, we are sailing
Far away, across the sea
We are sailing, stormy waters
To be near you, to be free
To be near you, to be free
To be near you, to be free
To be near you, to be free
To be near you, to be free
I am flying, i am flying
Like a bird, across the sky
I am flying, passing high clouds
To be near you, to be free
Oh lord, to be near you
To be free
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Through the dark night
Far away
I am dying, forever trying
To be with you, who can say
To be with you, who can say
song performed by by Bonnie Tyler
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What A Wonderful World
I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.
The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do
Theyre really sayin......i love you.
I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
Theyll learn much more.....than Ill never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
(instrumental break)
The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are there on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do
Theyre really sayin...*spoken*(I ....love....you).
I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
*spoken*(you know their gonna learn
A whole lot more than Ill never know)
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself .......what a wonderful world.
song performed by by Louis Armstrong
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What A Wonderful World
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see em bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue, clouds of white
The bright blessed days, and dark sacred nights
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow
Are so pretty in the sky
Its also on the faces
Of people goin by
I see friends shakin hands
Sayin, how do you do?
Fairies sayin, I love you.
I hear babies cry, and I watch em grow
Theyll learn much more than Ill ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
I think to myself, what a wonderful world
song performed by by Flaming Lips
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Falling Asleep
Voices moving about in the quiet house:
Thud of feet and a muffled shutting of doors:
Everyone yawning. Only the clocks are alert.
Out in the night there’s autumn-smelling gloom
Crowded with whispering trees; across the park
A hollow cry of hounds like lonely bells:
And I know that the clouds are moving across the moon;
The low, red, rising moon. Now herons call
And wrangle by their pool; and hooting owls
Sail from the wood above pale stooks of oats.
Waiting for sleep, I drift from thoughts like these;
And where to-day was dream-like, build my dreams.
Music ... there was a bright white room below,
And someone singing a song about a soldier,
One hour, two hours ago: and soon the song
Will be ‘last night’: but now the beauty swings
Across my brain, ghost of remembered chords
Which still can make such radiance in my dream
That I can watch the marching of my soldiers,
And count their faces; faces; sunlit faces.
Falling asleep ... the herons, and the hounds....
September in the darkness; and the world
I’ve known; all fading past me into peace.
poem by Siegfried Sassoon
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