The Gamblers
Life's a jail where men have common lot.
Gaunt the one who has, and who has not.
All our treasures neither less nor more,
Bread alone comes thro' the guarded door.
Cards are foolish in this jail, I think,
Yet they play for shoes, for drabs and drink.
She, my lawless, sharp-tongued gypsy maid
Will not scorn with me this jail-bird trade,
Pets some fox-eyed boy who turns the trick,
Tho' he win a button or a stick,
Pencil, garter, ribbon, corset-lace —
His the glory, mine is the disgrace.
Sweet, I'd rather lose than win despite
Love of hearty words and maids polite.
"Love's a gamble," say you. I deny.
Love's a gift. I love you till I die.
Gamblers fight like rats. I will not play.
All I ever had I gave away.
All I ever coveted was peace
Such as comes if we have jail release.
Cards are puzzles, tho' the prize be gold,
Cards help not the bread that tastes of mold,
Cards dye not your hair to black more deep,
Cards make not the children cease to weep.
Scorned, I sit with half shut eyes all day —
Watch the cataract of sunshine play
Down the wall, and dance upon the floor.
Sun, come down and break the dungeon door!
Of such gold dust could I make a key, —
Turn the bolt — how soon we would be free!
Over borders we would hurry on
Safe by sunrise farms, and springs of dawn,
Wash our wounds and jail stains there at last,
Azure rivers flowing, flowing past.
God has great estates just past the line,
Green farms for all, and meat and corn and wine.
poem by Vachel Lindsay
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Dead, Jail, Or Rock 'n Roll
When I was a kid all I wanted to be
Was the meanest dude on the meanest machine
Now I'm going to wrong way on a one-way street
I never fit this society
I don't really mind
Doing my own time
The three choices I ever came to find
Were:Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
I ain't looking for trouble but it's looking for me
The law of the jungle is protecting me
Lose sleep man stay out of your bed
You might wind up in jail if you lose your head
In death I might find
True peace of mind
But while I'm alive
Free choice is mine
It's either:Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
I don't really mind
Doing my own time
The three choices I ever came to find
Were either:Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
song performed by by Warrant
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dead, Jail, Or Rock 'n Roll
When I was a kid all I wanted to be
Was the meanest dude on the meanest machine
Now I'm going to wrong way on a one-way street
I never fit this society
I don't really mind
Doing my own time
The three choices I ever came to find
Were:Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
I ain't looking for trouble but it's looking for me
The law of the jungle is protecting me
Lose sleep man stay out of your bed
You might wind up in jail if you lose your head
In death I might find
True peace of mind
But while I'm alive
Free choice is mine
It's either:Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
I don't really mind
Doing my own time
The three choices I ever came to find
Were either:Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
Dead, Jail or Rock'n'Roll
song performed by by Warrant
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Two Birthday Card Greetings!
1)
Some birthday cards are humurous
With jokes that make you smile,
Others are cute, with kittens on,
Or cherubs that beguile.
Some have flowery greetings,
Some, sentimental verse.
Some poke fun at someone's age,
While others - well, they're worse!
But my favourite kind of card is one
That comes straight from the heart.
No wit or soppy message. Just -
Happy birthday, you old f...! ! ! !
2)
Some cards are huge and colourful,
With greetings bright and cheerful.
Others are sweet or touching
And can make you feel quite tearful.
There are funny cards with jokes in,
Enough to make you titter.
Home-made cards, pricey cards
And ones all covered in glitter.
Some can be rather age-ist,
Making fun out of getting old.
While others contain messages
That are worth much more than gold.
Some cards are sentimental,
The rhymes inside quite corny,
But not this one - it simply reads:
Happy Birthday, love from Dawnie
poem by Dawn Ferrett
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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To My Friend
we meet again
and we play this game of cards
we talk about something else
some misfortunes
longings
regrets as you shuffle the cards
for another
game today
we drink
not on the same glass
we do not clink
the edges anymore
like the excitements of
past marriages
the kiss
for the bride
that the guests did ask
the throwing of the bouquet
the biting of the garter
the slicing of the
cake
& the dance and the
merrymaking of the night
till morning
my friend, i have laid all my cards
on the table
no aces, no kings
just the numbers
and i will be losing to you again
but it does not matter
what matters most
is this meeting
of our present
and future
your hands your smile
the comfort of a second home
a life extended for another turn
a hum
a whistle a brush of friendship
that must last
for my lifetime
thank you very much.
poem by Antonio Liao
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Rancho Deluxe Main Title
Rancho deluxe main title
By: jimmy buffett
1975
A rustlers daydream, thoughts of jail
Dustclouds rising, tearing down the trails
Got our plans made, to make a few bucks
Buy a spread called rancho deluxe
No were not outlaws, or common thieves
Just a few aces, with cards up our sleeves
Weve gotta gamble, gotta take a chance
Want to see the whole show, and not just one dance
Yeah we got to try and find a way
Were gonna laugh, were gonna drink, were gonna play
Just bouncin around the mountains day to day
Oh crazy mountain, they named you well
White men and red men, stories we heard tell
song performed by by Jimmy Buffett
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Babylon
Forever, youll be remembered as the one who played it cool
Whenever they speak your name theyll say its you who broke the golden rule
But heres what I really want to know
Did you see the writing on the wall
Chorus:
Babylon
How long can this foolish magic carry on
Babylon
Who will love you when the fantasy of youth is gone
Babylon is it true that your streets were paved with gold
And did you play beneath the stars
Babylon did you know it would all come down to
How you played the dealers cards
Remember how you loved the laughter
A kingdom on the rise
Crys in the night would turn you to song
And when they call ooh you sang along
Heres what I really want to know
Did you see the writing on the wall
Babylon
How long will this foolish magic carry on
Babylon
Who will love you when the fantasy of youth is gone
Babylon is it true that your streets were paved with gold
And did you play beneath the stars
Babylon did you know it would all come down to
How you played the dealers cards
Its over you rate two pages in some book
Your legacy
Lost in the night and still you sing your song
For those who will take heed
Heres what I really want to know
Did you see the writing on the wall
Babylon
How long will this foolish magic carry on
Babylon
Who will love you when the fantasy of youth is gone
Babylon is it true that your streets were paved with gold
And did you play beneath the stars
Babylon did you know it would all come down to
How you played the dealers cards...
song performed by by Starship
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Jtr
I drink you up,
For every drop of you is sacred.
Every drop I drink you up.
You fill my cup,
The way you laugh.
Eyes of a child,
Lean on me, you fill me up,
You make me love,
So unconditionally,
Generous to me, you give me love
And break my heart.
Slip, you fall, I pick you up and dust you off,
You break my heart.
Rain, rain, rain down on me,
Again and again,
Rain down on me.
Take all you want,
And only hope can i, you wont deny,
Your love for me, my love.
No, dont cry, if its too high,
I lift you up, well make it, make it.
When I was oh so tired,
You come along to wake me,
Time and time again and again,
With a smile you save me child oh, oh, oh...
Rain, rain, rain down on me,
Again and again,
Rain down on me.
Look, we play our cards,
And I question by the grace of what,
We play our cards at all.
Come fill me up, oh, fill me love when Im empty.
When Im all dried up
No, dont cry, if its too high,
Ill lift you up, well make it, make it.
Oh, I was so so tired,
You come along to wake me, wake me.
Time and time, again and again,
With a smile you save me child.
Oh, oh, oh...
Rain, rain, rain down on me,
Again and again,
Rain down on me.
Rain, rain down on me...
song performed by by Dave Matthews Band
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Since I’ve Been In Jail
Since I've been in jail
the world has turned around the sun ten times
And if you ask the earth, it will say:
'It's not worth mentioning,
a microscopic time.'
And if you ask me, I will say:
'It's ten years of my life.'
I had a pencil
the year I came to jail.
It wore out in a week from writing.
And if you ask the pencil, it will say:
'A whole life.'
And if you ask me, I will say:
'It's nothing, a mere week.'
Osman who was jailed for murder
completed a seven-year stretch and left
since I've been in jail.
He wandered around outside for a while,
and then got jailed again for smuggling.
He served a six-month term and left again,
and yesterday a letter came saying he's married
and a child will be born in the spring.
Now they're ten years old
the children who fell from their mothers' womb
that year I came to jail,
And the colts of that year who had long thin shaky legs
have long since become docile broad-rumped mares.
But the olive shoots are still shoots
and they're still children.
New squares have opened up in my distant city
since I've been in jail.
And our family
is living in a house I've never seen
on a street I don't know.
The bread was pure white, like cotton,
the year I came to jail.
Later it was rationed out,
And we here on the inside beat one another
for a piece of black crust the size of a fist.
Now it's free again,
But brown and tasteless.
The year I came to jail
The Second One had just begun.
The ovens in Dachau Camp were not yet lit,
The atom bomb was not yet hurled upon Hiroshima.
Time flowed like the blood of a child with his throat cut.
Later that chapter was officially closed,
Now American dollars are talking about a Third.
But in spite of everything, the days have brightened
since I've been in jail,
And about half of them
'put their heavy hands on the pavement
and on the edge of darkness
straightened up.'
Since I've been in jail
the world has turned around the sun ten times.
And again I repeat with the same passion
what I wrote for them
the year I came to jail:
'They
whose number is as great
as ants on the earth
fish in the water
birds in the sky
are fearful and brave
ignorant and learned
and they are children,
And they
who destroy and create
it is only their adventure in these songs.'
And for the rest,
for example, my lying here for ten years,
it's nothing...
poem by Nazim Hikmet
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Somebody's game
the way
they play cards
flipping back
forward
our existence
a pack of cards
a queen,
a blackjack,
a spade,
between
the cards
a million
million years
we are tossed
up, down,
down, up
somebody's plan
anxiety to be winners
we live out
in a sea
tossed, thrown,
flipped,
nilly willyly
someone's
gamble
in blood and tears
in between
a bagful of suspense
puzzled
the beginning
the end
is there one?
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Love Is So Hard, Life Is So Simple
Love is so hard
For whom?
For the ones that lost a loved one
By a murder
And for the criminal
Life is easy
Because all he does is seat in jail
While we pay to keep him in jail
But to be honest it is better to have a murder in jail
Than in the streets
Does the murder have any simpathy for the person he killed?
No
poem by Aldo Kraas
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Holloway Jail
They took my baby, to holloway jail,
They took my baby, down holloway jail,
She was a lady, when she went in,
Now shes in jail, and its giving me hell.
She was succeeding in the city,
She was just beginning to excel,
Then a spiv named frankie simes
Led her to a life of crime,
And led her on the downward trail.
Frankie came home late from work one evening,
The c.l.d. were hot on his trail,
Frankie promised everything,
And then he went and turned her in,
She went and took the rap for him,
Now shes impaled in holloway jail.
They took my baby, down holloway jail,
They took my baby, to holloway jail,
There aint no pity, there aint no bail,
And she assures me that its living hell.
She was young and ever so pretty,
Now she looks so old and pale,
She never sees the day,
She wastes her life away,
Sitting in that prison cell.
They took my baby to holloway jail,
They took my baby, down holloway jail,
She was a lady when she went in,
Now shes in jail, and its giving me hell.
Shes impaled, in holloway jail.
song performed by by Kinks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Scam Reader
Who are you to tell me what tomorrow will bring
acting like you’re the next best thing.
Reading your tarot cards and interpreted by a fool,
she purposely said wrong things which where cruel.
Speaking French and acting you speak English no,
that’s ____ I think you should know.
Half of what you said wasn’t even true,
starting off with a contradiction how stupid of you.
Now if you were a true psychic you wouldn’t need your cards,
you could give me a reading in the dark.
So do your act with a French girl that believes your lies,
lies that you use to control and hypnotize.
And for Candy who says she’s my friend,
she had this planned right to the end.
What a carnival game you guys play,
well I have the last thing to say.
“I’m a gypsy lady and I have been around the block,
stick your cards up your _______ and then try to talk.
Written by Christina Sunrise on June 2,2011
www.purplepoems.com www.christinasunrise.com
www.puppetpoems.com
poem by Christina Sunrise
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The Chase
In every game, there is a chase
whether it is in cards or love.
In cards we chase the suits
hoping lady luck will play your way.
In love, you chase the hand
of your maiden fair
hoping when you find her
love will be there.
Whether you win or lose
the case for the things we want
is the most thrilling thing of all.
25 February 2011
poem by David Harris
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No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.
quote by Samuel Johnson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To Get That Money
to get that money
make that money
steal that money
go to jail.
to get that jewelry
make that money
steal that jewelry
go to jail
banker man,
understand
steal that money
go to jail.
wallstreet man
understand,
steal that money
go to jail.
mr. thief
it's my belief
steal that money
go to jail.
mr. crime
I ain't lyin'
steal that money
go to jail.
poem by Richard Jarboe
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I Play
I play some card to hand over
So that the game finishes always.
The cards are fully proper
And nobody lies too much.
I lose a game when it is absurd,
I love the game that I have consulted
With open arms, the arms are long.
I play some cards to finish the game,
It is gaming always on the world,
It is rich how we obey the world.
poem by Naveed Akram
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Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
At play
Play that you are mother dear,
And play that papa is your beau;
Play that we sit in the corner here,
Just as we used to, long ago.
Playing so, we lovers two
Are just as happy as we can be,
And I'll say "I love you" to you,
And you say "I love you" to me!
"I love you" we both shall say,
All in earnest and all in play.
Or, play that you are that other one
That some time came, and went away;
And play that the light of years agone
Stole into my heart again to-day!
Playing that you are the one I knew
In the days that never again may be,
I'll say "I love you" to you,
And you say "I love you" to me!
I love you!" my heart shall say
To the ghost of the past come back to-day!
Or, play that you sought this nestling-place
For your own sweet self, with that dual guise
Of your pretty mother in your face
And the look of that other in your eyes!
So the dear old loves shall live anew
As I hold my darling on my knee,
And I'll say "I love you" to you,
And you say "I love you" to me!
Oh, many a strange, true thing we say
And do when we pretend to play!
poem by Eugene Field
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True Wealth Held In Hands
cards are played out upon gamble green table
cards kept passed tabled cards are all retained
like life chances taken forsaken what remains?
cheaters takers complainers purpose is aim ruled same
winners losers all played out in card cane greed game
chips are down in game romance legends claim fame
compassion love are only chips life value held in hand
all acts of kindness are stepping stones to promised land
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Winner Take All
Written by dennis deyoung, charles lofrando
Lead vocals by james young
Youve got to be strong
If youre going to make it baby
Youve got to stand tall
If youre going to survive
So just take my hand
And Ill show you how to feel alive
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Winner take all
Thats the way I play it
Playing my cards as the world goes by
Winner take all
Thats the way that I get high
You live your own life
Always needing someone baby
Then I appear to answer your call
Together I know
We can ride the highway past them all
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Winner take all
Thats the way I play it
Playing my cards as the world goes by
Winner take all
Thats the way that I get high
High high
Winner take all
Thats the way I play it
Playing my cards as the world goes by
Winner take all
Thats the way that I get high
song performed by by Styx
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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