Sonnet XXVI: Though Dusty Wits
Though dusty wits dare scorn astrology,
And fools can think those lamps of purest light
Whose numbers, ways, greatness, eternity,
Promising wonders, wonder do invite,
To have for no cause birthright in the sky,
But for to spangle the black weeds of night:
Or for some brawl, which in that chamber high,
They should still dance to please a gazer's sight;
For me, I do Nature unidle know,
And know great causes, great effects procure:
And know those bodies high reign on the low.
And if these rules did fail, proof makes me sure,
Who oft fore-judge my after-following race,
By only those two stars in Stella's face.
poem by Philip Sidney
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God Is The Light
God is the Light
How great the wonders of the heavens
And the timeless beauty of the night
How great then how great the Creator?
And its stars like priceless jewels
Far beyond the reach of kings
Bow down for the shepherd guiding him home.
But how many eyes are closed
To the wonder of this night?
Like pearls, hidden, deep beneath a dark
Stream of desires.
But like dreams vanish with the call to prayer
And the dawn extinguishes night here too are signs.
God is the Light - God is the Light
How great the beauty of the Earth and the creatures
Who dwell on her.
How great then how great the Creator?
As it's mountains pierce the clouds
High about the lives of men
Weeping rivers for thousands of years.
But how many hearts are closed
To the wonders of this sight?
Like birds on a cage, asleep with closed wings
But as work stops with the call to prayer
And the birds recite here too are signs
God is the Light God is the Light
How great the works of man and the things he makes
How great then how great the Creator?
Though he strives to reach the heavens
He can barely survive
The wars of the world he lives in.
Yet, how many times he's tried,
Himself to immortalise?
Like his parents before him in the Garden of Eden
But like the sun sets with the call to prayer
And surrenders to the night here too are signs
God is the Light Everlasting
God is the Light Everlasting
song performed by by Cat Stevens
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We procured from an Indian a weasel perfectly white except the extremity of the tail which was black: great numbers of wild geese are passing to the south, but their flight is too high for us to procure any of them.
quote by Meriwether Lewis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet: On Greatness
Greatness is not a thing, much like an art;
Some man turns great if on it he stumbles;
His greatness ceases, if he thinks, he's great;
Great is he truly who tho' great, humbles.
Greatness is not true greatness, self-proclaimed;
Greatness is not what world showers on us;
Greatness is neither got by being claimed.
Greatness is not achieved by making fuss.
Greatness could come if world decides to give;
Greatness will stay if God blesses our work;
Such greatness, God-destined comes while men live;
Greatness can grow even without much luck.
Greatness doesn't come to everyone on earth;
Some men are made great; some are great by birth.
poem by John Celes
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Going To The Top
Oh, when you're going to the top
And you have no time to stop
Then you have to travel light
Yes, you'd better go by night
Cos it's not a pretty sight
When youre going to the top
And you're never going to stop
You won't let nobody block
Your way to the top
And no bodies then may fall
Old friends up against the wall
Can't let feelings in the way
As if you had some anyway
Some will have to move aside
True intents you'll always hide
Wagging tongues may call you snide
You may not know who's on your side
When you're going to the top
When you're going to the top
La-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la
Still, you've heard it all before
I don't want to be a bore
So I'll just be on my way
Maybe we will meet one day
Probably won't have much to say
If I see you passing by
Cos you're going much too high
And you may well never stop
Cos you're going to the top
La-la-la-la
La-la-la-la
You could let it go tonight
Watch it all fade out of sight
There's still some time to mend your ways
Don't you know it's love that pays?
Oh, yeah
Maybe we will meet one day
Probably won't have much to say
So I'll just say toodle-oo
And the best of luck to you
When I see you passing by
When you're going much too high
When you're going to the top
When you're going to the top
When you're going to the top
When you're going to the top
Like the stars up in the sky
Shining up all night
Like a king upon his throne
Everything his own
Like the stars up in the sky
Shining up a
song performed by by Madness
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Electric Light
When the great Bulwer's pen did trace
The history of the coming race
His hero to us he hath unfurled
The glories of his new found world.
This bold traveller be did venture
Far below our world's centre ;
He entered through an ancient mine
And to us doth new world define.
Once all was discord and fierce jars,
Continuous engaged in wars
Till they discovered great vrill power,
Then wars did cease from that same hour.
Mighty bolts from it were hurled ;
Would soon have laid waste the world ;
So for world's preservation
At once they stopped desolation.
All wars by them are now despised
Unfit for nation civilized ;
Their peaceful glories they do sing
And fly on artificial wing.
Great blazing artificial light
It ever burns both day and night,
For they have neither sun nor moon,
But radient, always 'tis high noon.
When we beheld the glorious sight,
High in the air did shine so bright ;
It seemed that it could banish night,
Great refulgent electric light.
But after all, 'tis children's play,
Compared with the great orb of day,
Or when the moon it doth shine bright,
And stars do beautify the night.
poem by James McIntyre
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Differntial perceptions
The stars look down indifferently.
The earth is bathed in pale moonlight.
The night is passing peacefully
or so it seems apparently.
Believers in astrology
who are convinced that they are right.
Say stars affect our destiny,
I do not see how that could be
They’re too remote, too far away
Those twinkling beacons in the night
to influence effectively
each person individually.
Astronomy, astrology
two systems which are opposite.
One proven scientifically
The other believed fervently
I accept the reality
of the bright stars I see at night
I can’t accept astrology
and offer no apology
Although you may think differently
It is your choice, you have the right.
What proof have you to offer me
which will stand up to scrutiny?
1-Sep-07
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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Backyard Brawl
Got a cut on my thigh, got a nail in my eye
And I'm bleedin' all over the wall
Got a barbed wire bat and a dude on the mat
Ain't getting up soon at all
Got a head full of rage and a belly full of hate
I'm the neighborhood legend that just can't wait
For the backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Don't matter who you are, don't matter what color
Brown or white'll do
But if you're yellow you'll be covered in red
A whole lotta black and blue
Jump off the trailer in a pile full o' guys
Scratching and kicking and pulverized
For the backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Only got six teeth but three of those
Are sharp enough to bite off your nose
At the backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
Another backyard brawl
Backyard brawl
[Spoken:]
You think you're so tough
You talkin' to me?
You're mine
Come on, let's go
Come on stitches...
song performed by by Alice Cooper
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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0162 Greatness
How great is greatness? asks my questing soul:
scenting behind that quest, eternity;
that dark which, studied, lights the dazzling whole
and brings to finite thought, infinity;
as when great singers sing, all hearts can sing;
great dancers give us sense that all can dance;
great actors speak for all of us; we think
to know all painted greatness at one glance:
we know already, greatness' unfenced whole,
we know that boundless place, the human heart;
Creation is no secret to our soul;
all being sings its song in every part.
How glorious those sages who can see
in everything that lives, totality!
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Christianity And Paganism
ROME. TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.
Then face to face the New Faith and the Old,
The new Faith promising endless reign
Beyond the catacombs and martyr's pain;
The mystic doctrines sacraments enfold
The scorn of learning, the contempt of gold.
The Old Faith, fancy's foundling, faith of heart,
Lighting small lamps to Lares, by the art
Of potter or of sculptor bought and sold.
This is the day of Triumph: lo, this hour
Titus the conqueror enters, raised on high
The sacredest of Trophies borne to-day
By brutal soldiers, from them gone the power:
Yet over all the wide world goes the cry,
Awake! ye blind, arise, go hence away!
poem by William Bell Scott
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Couplets on Wit
I
But our Great Turks in wit must reign alone
And ill can bear a Brother on the Throne.
II
Wit is like faith by such warm Fools profest
Who to be saved by one, must damn the rest.
III
Some who grow dull religious strait commence
And gain in morals what they lose in sence.
IV
Wits starve as useless to a Common weal
While Fools have places purely for their Zea.
V
Now wits gain praise by copying other wits
As one Hog lives on what another sh---.
VI
Wou'd you your writings to some Palates fit
Purged all you verses from the sin of wit
For authors now are so conceited grown
They praise no works but what are like their own.
poem by Alexander Pope
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Psalm 147 part 1
The Divine nature, providence, and grace.
Praise ye the Lord; 'tis good to raise
Our hearts and voices in his praise;
His nature and his works invite
To make this duty our delight.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem,
And gathers nations to his name;
His mercy melts the stubborn soul,
And makes the broken spirit whole.
He formed the stars, those heav'nly flames;
He counts their numbers, calls their names;
His wisdom's vast, and knows no bound,
A deep where all our thoughts are drowned.
Great is our Lord, and great his might;
And all his glories infinite:
He crowns the meek, rewards the just,
And treads the wicked to the dust.
PAUSE.
Sing to the Lord, exalt him high,
Who spreads his clouds all round the sky;
There he prepares the fruitful rain,
Nor lets the drops descend in vain.
He makes the grass the hills adorn,
And clothes the smiling fields with corn;
The beasts with food his hands supply,
And the young ravens when they cry.
What is the creature's skill or force,
The sprightly man, the warlike horse,
The nimble wit, the active limb?
All are too mean delights for him.
But saints are lovely in his sight,
He views his children with delight;
He sees their hope, he knows their fear,
And looks, and loves his image there.
poem by Isaac Watts
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Grounded
The afternoon breeze
rushes through the top of my big tree;
its canopy sways and sings in hushed tones
as the declining sun ignites
its outermost leaves
with green fire.
Through swaying limbs
I see brilliant summer sky
promising stars beyond
if only I can rise high enough
to achieve black space;
but I’ve never been there, never risen
beyond this illusionary, flat world
that confines my sight.
Never have I ascended that pillar of flame,
pressed deeply against the astronaut’s contoured seat,
breathing noisily in helmeted glass,
as computers glow reassuringly in darkness,
promising that everything will work,
and orbit will be achieved.
No, my space journeys are all interior.
Earth-bound, I am firmly cradled in my deep, leather chair,
and only through my high, arched window
view the nightly dance of wind and tree,
of moon and rising stars.
Envious, I hear excited starlings, one to another,
tell stories of daring flight
through the good sky, high
above this green,
firm earth.
poem by Steven Federle
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Love Raign O'Er Me
Only love
Can make it rain
The way the beach
Is kissed by the sea
Only love
Can make it rain
Like the sweat of lovers
Layin' in the fields
Love
Reign o'er me
Love
Reign o'er me
Rain on me
Rain on me
Only love
Can bring the rain
That makes you yearn
To the sky
Only love
Can bring the rain
That falls like tears
From all high
Love
Reign o'er me
Rain on me
Rain on me
Love
Reign o'er me
Rain on me
Rain on me
On the dry and dusty road
The nights we spent apart alone
I need to get back home
To cool cool rain
I can't sleep and I lay and I think
The night is hot and black as ink
Woo Oh God I need a drink
Of cool cool rain
Love
Reign o'er me
Rain over me
Over me
Over me
Love
Reign o'er me
On me
Love...
song performed by by Who
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Day
I wanna die some days
I wanna breathe some days
I wanna dream someday
I wanna be someday
How do u live life by letting all go
How do u move not knowing where to
Like grains of wheat that make a dough
My pieces need be bonded so
How does the seed you sow
Hurt you like an arrow born from a bent bow
From high to low
Grown grass I mow
Weeds like thorns must leave
Snakes in the garden do deceive
A daughter of eve
Let my lonely heart grieve
Came, saw, not quite conquered
Still streams hear my heart ponder
Of many have I grown fonder
Yet all seem from me to wander
Leaving me here laying in wonder
Taking all I've seen, I have nothing left to squander
Happiness is hollow
Where it goes I follow
Though behind me pursues sorrow
Its pursuit makes me want tomorrow
Hope makes my heart mellow
And keeps me from six feet below
Greatness lies within my line of sight
What my heart lacks in light
My will makes up for in fight
When my hands fail in might
And my body quakes in fright
My spirit takes flight
I wanna cry one day
And let it all out that day
And fail no more no day
I wanna laugh one day
And fall in love that day
And cry no more no day
I wanna be great one day
And be who I am that day
And wear a mask no day
I wanna feel one day
And hurt no more that day
And hurt no one no day
I wanna live one day
And make my life count that day
And rest in peace someday.
poem by Jenim Dibie
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The Lady's Yes
"Yes !" I answered you last night ;
" No !" this morning, Sir, I say !
Colours, seen by candle-light,
Will not look the same by day.
When the tabors played their best,
Lamps above, and laughs below —
Love me sounded like a jest,
Fit for Yes or fit for No !
Call me false, or call me free —
Vow, whatever light may shine,
No man on your face shall see
Any grief for change on mine.
Yet the sin is on us both —
Time to dance is not to woo —
Wooer light makes fickle troth —
Scorn of me recoils on you !
Learn to win a lady's faith
Nobly, as the thing is high ;
Bravely, as for life and death —
With a loyal gravity.
Lead her from the festive boards,
Point her to the starry skies,
Guard her, by your truthful words,
Pure from courtship's flatteries.
By your truth she shall be true —
Ever true, as wives of yore —
And her Yes, once said to you,
SHALL be Yes for evermore.
poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1844)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Sonnet XXIII: The Curious Wits
The curious wits seeing dull pensiveness
Bewray itself in my long settled eyes,
Whence those same fumes of melancholy rise,
With idle pains, and missing aim, do guess.
Some that know how my spring I did address,
Deem that my Muse some fruit of knowledge plies:
Others, because the Prince my service tries,
Think that I think state errors to redress.
But harder judges judge ambition's rage,
Scourge of itself, still climbing slipp'ry place,
Holds my young brain cativ'd in golden cage.
Oh Fools, or over-wise, alas the race
Of all my thoughts hath neither stop nor start,
But only Stella's eyes and Stella's heart.
poem by Philip Sidney
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The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. That is part of the penalty for greatness, and every great man understands it; and understands, too, that it is no proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure continously without resentment.
quote by Elbert Hubbard
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Mama
Mama’s face
is smooth and pale as tea-rose leaves.
That ivory oval of aunt Gem
you sucked the miniature off
had black black hair like mama.
Pit-it-ty-pat,
Mama walks so fast,
street lamps jig
without bending a leg…
lights in the windows
play twinkling tunes
on crimson and blue
bottles like bubbles
big as balloons…
Faster and faster…
and pink light spurts
over cakes doing polkas
in little white shirts,
with cake-princesses
in flounced white skirts.
Pit-pat—
mama walks slower…
slower and… slower…
Eyes… lamps… stars…
acres and acres of stars…
bells… and sleepily
flapping feet….
You’re glad mama walks slow.
It’s nice to be carried along
up high near the stars
that look at you with a grave, great look.
Every night
mama sings you to sleep.
When she sings, O for the light of thine eyes Dolores,
there’s a castle on a cliff
and the sea roars like lions.
It leaps at the castle
and the cliff knocks it down
but always the sea
shakes its flattened head
and gets up again.
The castle has no roof
so the rain spins silvery webs in it,
and Dolores’ face
floats dim and beautiful
the way flowers do when they are drowned.
Step by white step
she goes up the castle stairs,
but the stair goes up into the sky
and the sky keeps going up too,
and none of them ever get there.
When mama sings Ba ba black sheep,
the stars seem to shine through her voice
so everything has to be still,
and when she has finished singing
her song goes up off the earth,
higher and higher…
till it is only as big as a tiny silver bird
with nothing but moonlight around it.
poem by Lola Ridge
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Face The Face
Weve got to face the face
You must have heard the cautionary tales
The dangers hidden on the cul-de-sac trails
>from wiser men who have been through it all
And the ghosts of failures spray-canned up on the wall
Weve got to judge the judge
Got to find the finds
Weve got to scheme the schemes
Have to line the lines
We must stake the stakes
And show the shown
We must take the takes
And know the known
Try to place the place
Where we can face the face
Face the face-got to
Face the face
You must have tried and the defied belief
Maybe found futility in insular grief
I need your hunger just as you need mine
A million appetites can swallow up time
Weve got to fool the fools
And plan the plans
We must rule the rules
Got to stand the stands
We must fight the fight
And fall the falls
We must light the light
And call the calls
We must race the race
So we can face the face
New york! chicago!
London and glasgow!
Keep looking!
Keep on cooking
Keep on looking
Gotta stay on this case
Study the pix
Watch the fix
Weve got to find the face
Try to place the place where we can face the face
song performed by by Who
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet: The Full Moon Will Be Back Again!
A one-third moon is seen in clouded sky!
With yellow light within a misty veil;
The havoc-play of rain-clouds though not high!
But in a trice, the moon’s light will prevail.
And every day, the moon is getting small;
Some gazer’s eyes are sad and almost cry;
But soon the full-moon appears like a ball!
Its splendid light illuminates night sky!
In life on earth, both joys and grief befall;
This mixture makes our earthly stay wholesome;
The vagaries of Nature affect all;
We ought to take things as and when they come.
All things in Nature will change as per law;
Yet, God’s creation is without a flaw!
poem by John Celes
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