To Her Portrait
This that you see, the false presentment planned
With finest art and all the colored shows
And reasonings of shade, doth but disclose
The poor deceits by earthly senses fanned!
Here where in constant flattery expand
Excuses for the stains that old age knows,
Pretexts against the years' advancing snows,
The footprints of old seasons to withstand;
'Tis but vain artifice of scheming minds;
'Tis but a flower fading on the winds;
'Tis but a useless protest against Fate;
'Tis but stupidity without a thought,
A lifeless shadow, if we meditate;
'Tis death, tis dust, tis shadow, yea, 'tis nought.
poem by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
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Homage to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz-Sonnet 145
Sonnet 145
The thing of it is, you see
this brightly colored deceit
displaying all the many charms of art
a cunning deception of hints and hues
this mystery hidden in a riddle
disguised as an epigram which
sheer flattery duels attempting to evade
its stark horror and false syllogisms
each dawn vanquishing its vanities
triumphing over age and oblivion
with forgiveness and forgetfulness
The thing of it is, you see
Contrivance, vanity, artifice
delicate kisses stranded in the wind
failed joint defenses against our fate
a one way journey, a terrible mistake
a decrepit frenzy, more rightly viewed
as a corpse, some dust, a shadow
best perhaps as mere nothingness
The thing of it is, you see
We are all illegitimate
And have no standing
When it comes to this…
poem by Liberatore Suffoletta
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Valentines Day
She was the color of tv
Her mouth curled under like a metal snake
Although holy wood was sad
Theyd remember this as valentines day
Flies are waiting
In the shadow of the valley of death
In the shadow of the valley of death
Slit our wrists and send us to heaven
The first flower after the flood
I saw that pregnant girl today
She didnt know that it was dead inside
Even though it was alive
Some of us are really born to die
Flies are waiting
In the shadow of the valley of death
In the shadow of the valley of death
Slit our wrists and send us to heaven
The first flower after the flood
In the shadow of the valley of death
In the shadow of the valley of death
song performed by by Marilyn Manson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet 53: What is your substance, whereof are you made
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Since everyone hath, every one, one shade,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new.
Speak of the spring, and foison of the year;
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
The other as your bounty doth appear,
And you in every blessèd shape we know.
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for constant heart.
poem by William Shakespeare
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Valentine's Day
She was the color of TV
her mouth curled under like a metal snake
although Holy Wood was sad
they'd remember this as Valentine's day
flies are waiting
In the Shadow of the Valley of Death
In the Shadow of the Valley of Death
slit our wrists and send us to heaven
the first flower after the flood
I saw that pregnant girl today
she didn't know that it was dead inside
even though it was alive
some of us are really born to die
flies are waiting
In the Shadow of the Valley of Death
In the Shadow of the Valley of Death
slit our wrists and send us to heaven
the first flower after the flood
In the Shadow of the Valley of Death
In the Shadow of the Valley of Death
song performed by by Marilyn Manson from Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet XIII: Letters and Lines
To the Shadow
Letters and lines we see are soon defac'd,
Metals do waste and fret with canker's rust,
The diamond shall once consume to dust,
And freshest colors with foul stains disgrac'd;
Paper and ink can paint but naked words,
To write with blood of force offends the sight;
And if with tears I find them all too light,
And sighs and signs a silly hope affotds,
O sweetest shadow, how thou serv'st my turn,
Which still shalt be, as long as there is sun,
Nor, whilst the world is, never shalt be done,
Whilst moon shall shine or any fire shall burn;
That everything whence shadow doth proceed
May in my shadow my love's story read.
poem by Michael Drayton
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Accepting To Protect False Beliefs
The telling of lies told and sold,
To deny in a hiding of one's insecurities...
Does not prevent,
An increasing mental instability...
As witnessed by those,
Not only experiencing buyer's remorse...
But shows the ones who have lied,
Responsible for much that has gone...
Misunderstood most of their lives,
While fighting against denials.
And today...
There is no way of escaping,
With a possibility on either side of truth...
To correct relationships destroyed to redo,
By accepting to protect false beliefs as done.
Or can fix to mend anyone's heart broken,
Of those victimized who have forgiven.
Since they will never be able to erase in time,
From their minds...
The effects of what has happened to them.
Accepting to protect,
False beliefs...
Doesn't shadow,
A truth that's known.
Accepting to protect,
False beliefs...
Doesn't shadow,
A truth that's known.
Accepting to protect,
False beliefs...
Doesn't shadow,
A truth that's known...
To keep those from being aware,
With a clearing of polluted air.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Shadow Of The West
Written by lindsey buckingham.
Dancing ever changing desert sand
I was burned by the touch of her hand
The setting of the sun scares me to death
Im a shadow
Shadow
Shadow of the west
Once upon a time I was strong and proud
Everything that the law would allow
But more and more
I feel less and less
Im a shadow
Shadow
Shadow of the west
Memories like shadows scorched in the sand
Im alone, a lonely man
The setting of the sun scares me to death
Im a shadow
Shadow
Shadow of the west
song performed by by Lindsey Buckingham
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Race prejudice is not only a shadow over the colored it is a shadow over all of us, and the shadow is darkest over those who feel it least and allow its evil effects to go on.
quote by Pearl S. Buck
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Shadow Me
Shadow me oh my
Dark emotion.
Shadow me all the way!
Shadow me to rock
In cradle heart,
To sway and just to sway!
Shadow me as a
Shady love tree,
In my hot, scorching day!
Shadow me must in,
Middle of night,
Like a gleaming pure ray!
Shadow me, shadow,
My foggy love,
Shadow wild me to tame.
Shadow to follow
My every step,
Shadow me in each poem!
poem by Nilakshi Das
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Shade and Shadow Dark and Night
Shade and Shadow
Dark and Night
Demons move
Beyond your sight
Moving slow
Cross the ground
Never do they make a sound
Shade and Shadow
Dark and Night
A murder has
Taken to flight
Stirring up the
Cold dead air
Does it matter?
Do you care?
Shade and Shadow
Dark and Night
Thoughts fill your mind
You think you might
These toughts they
Circle in your head
More and more you
Wish your dead
Shade and Shadow
Dark and Night
Capitulate
Give up the fight
It's too much effort
To go on
You're going
Going going gone
poem by Anonymous Ghurl
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Whithin Another Man's Shadow
Is not the same
To be in the Shadow,
Than to be the Shadow itself…
For you can move away from the Shadow
Towards the light
But, the shadows could not do
The same,
For it no longer will be the shadow…
Now it is painful and hard for me
To convince myself
That it is NOT what I thought
It could be…
Worse than anything else,
Is to share another man's shadow..
Why should I pay for another man's sins?
It wouldn't be right
And I don't deserve it..
Now I realize,
That everything was just a game
With the shadow and the light
And I caught in between…
Now, obviously, one path remains
For me to take:
The light anytime,
Then,
Definitely I will be
A free Man…
However, wondering
who my shadow
One day may be?
Since you are
Already somebody's else...
©All Rights Reserved-2009
poem by Romeo Della Valle
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Death
Why should man's high aspiring mind
Burn in him with so proud a breath,
When all his haughty views can find
In this world yields to death?
The fair, the brave, the vain, the wise,
The rich, the poor, the great, and small,
Are each but worm's anatomies
To strew his quiet hall.
Power may make many earthly gods,
Where gold and bribery's guilt prevails,
But death's unwelcome, honest odds
Kick o'er the unequal scales.
The flattered great may clamours raise
Of power, and their own weakness hide,
But death shall find unlooked-for ways
To end the farce of pride,
An arrow hurtled eer so high,
From een a giant's sinewy strength,
In Time's untraced eternity
Goes but a pigmy length;
Nay, whirring from the tortured string,
With all its pomp of hurried flight,
Tis by the skylark's little wing
Outmeasured in its height.
Just so man's boasted strength and power
Shall fade before death's lightest stroke,
Laid lower than the meanest flower,
Whose pride oer-topt the oak;
And he who, like a blighting blast,
Dispeopled worlds with war's alarms
Shall be himself destroyed at last
By poor despised worms.
Tyrants in vain their powers secure,
And awe slaves' murmurs with a frown,
For unawed death at last is sure
To sap the babels down.
A stone thrown upward to the sky
Will quickly meet the ground agen;
So men-gods of earth's vanity
Shall drop at last to men;
And Power and Pomp their all resign,
Blood-purchased thrones and banquet halls.
Fate waits to sack Ambition's shrine
As bare as prison walls,
Where the poor suffering wretch bows down
To laws a lawless power hath passed;
And pride, and power, and king, and clown
Shall be Death's slaves at last.
Time, the prime minister of Death!
There's nought can bribe his honest will.
He stops the richest tyrant's breath
And lays his mischief still.
Each wicked scheme for power all stops,
With grandeurs false and mock display,
As eve's shades from high mountain tops
Fade with the rest away.
Death levels all things in his march;
Nought can resist his mighty strength;
The palace proud, triumphal arch,
Shall mete its shadow's length.
The rich, the poor, one common bed
Shall find in the unhonoured grave,
Where weeds shall crown alike the head
Of tyrant and of slave.
poem by John Clare
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The Cool Waves Of Moon
nothing more to say you now
shed the shadow of moon
and our seasons may come and go
then I know the loom spin the web of cool waves around us
and might light it shade to them
you might bring peace on us
a light may bring peace on earth
the god your love will shine on us
the seasons come and go
but
your cry and shadow of sorrows
may never change
Thy god you come here for the change for them
when we spin light of change..
the cool waves of spirits
shadow of moon...
but nothing to say you shed the shadow of moon here
poem by Thampi KEE
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Light And Shadow
the shadow hides itself
behind the body
away from light that
stabs it to
death
'too much light' says the
shadow
' amidst this heat
i shall perish' the shadow
fears
the body is there
as shield
and protects the shadow
from extinction
'not too dark' warns the shadow
i must be in the middle
somewhere
where light makes love
with absence
the shadow to its fullness
plays
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Debussy
My shadow glides in silence
over the watercourse.
On account of my shadow
the frogs are deprived of stars.
The shadow sends my body
reflections of quiet things.
My shadow moves like a huge
violet-colored mosquito.
A hundred crickets are trying
to gild the glow of the reeds.
A glow arises in my breast,
the one mirrored in the water.
poem by Federico García Lorca
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In My Advancing Years
And,
In my advancing years...
Those struggles I feared,
Are memories of my past.
I ask and I've kept,
That peace of mind once out of my reach.
I desire more to explore,
A life now I've allowed to teach.
Instead of a search I keep,
In continued excuses met to refuse...
A life given to me.
And one I discovered I like,
In my advancing years.
And,
In my advancing years...
Tears that once flowed,
For those I miss so much in my life.
Today,
I've come to realize my life should be lived...
And not to fight,
Against...
The acceptance of surprises.
And I should stop sitting on a fence
In those disguises to hide.
In my advancing years,
I've learned to dance...
Until the music stops.
And I'm no longer here...
To hear as clear as I do now.
With ears that will be silenced.
And I should not wait,
Or anticipate the outcome.
But I will instill adventure.
In my advancing years uncensored.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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My Shadow In Vain
Stroll to the cafe
My God how time flies
I close up my brain
And another friend dies
I feel like a mirror
Feel like nothing is mine
I could go back to crying
But now dying seems fine
So I hang from the ceiling
Or I sit on the air
Or rot in a corner
Until somebody cares
Faces at random
I quote people I knew
Id love to be like me
If I could feel like you
Here am i, more roche five than pain
Here am i, just me and my walls to blame
Here am i, I really dont feel quite sane
Here am i, still searching for my shadow in vain
Lock my door I only think in black and white
Ill even try to look ashamed
Moving out of central
Somebody knows me well
Says hell spill the whole story
He may be lying I cant tell
Meet me inside
Ill keep my head to the floor
And one hand on the handle
Of the mad/sane door
Here am i, more roche five than pain
Here am i, just me and my walls to blame
Here am i, I really dont feel quite sane
Here am i, still searching for my shadow in vain
Lock my door I only think in black and white
Ill even try to look ashamed
My shadow in vain
My shadow in vain
My shadow in vain
My shadow in vain
My shadow in vain...
song performed by by Gary Numan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My Shadow
Hey there shadow
What's it feel like to be the shadow of me?
Following me around
Head facing down
Got no way of saying
Exactly how you're feeling
In the dark, all the time
What's on your mind?
The shadow
Shadow of me
You're the only one
Who does exactly as i do
Capture every movement
Memorise my fear
You're forever here
By my side
The shadow
Shadow of me
poem by Lucy Vernezze
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Shadows Thinning Out
you all know
that the shadow thins out at noontime
at high noon
the shadow and the body become one
there is no more speculation
about why the shadow and the body are different
on extreme light
you see the truth casting no shadows of doubt
something false flashes not shadow
at this moment
such thing happens on the power of the stare
when an eye looks straight to another eye
when the other sobs into a cry
then the telling of the true story begins.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Sonnet VI
What art thou, Life? The shadow of a dream:
The past and future dwell in thought alone;
The present, ere we note its flight, is gone;
And all ideal, vain, fantastick, seem.
Whence is thy source! And whither dost thou tend!
So short thy period, and thy form so frail;
Poor prisoner! pent in Death's surrounding vale,
Born but to breathe, to suffer, and to end.
Why, Shadow, bring'st thou on thy raven wing
Dark trains of grief, and visions of the night,
Rather than graces, robed in purple light,
Elysian flowers, and love's unclouded spring;
Since sad, or gay, whatever be thy theme,
Death surely ends at once the dreamer and the dream!
poem by Brooke Boothby
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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