The Party
The obscene hostess, mincing in the hall,
Gathers the guests around a crystal ball.
It is on the whole an exciting moment;
Mrs. Lefevre stares with her one good eye;
A friendly abdomen rubs against one’s back;
“Interesting,” a portly man is heard to sigh.
A somewhat unconvincing oriental leers
Redundantly; into the globe he peers,
Mutters a word or two and stands aside.
The glass grows cloudy with sulphorous fumes;
Beads rattle, latecomers giggle near the door.
A scene forms in the glass; silence invades the rooms.
The oriental glances up, conceals surprise
At such immediate success. Our eyes
Stare at the planes that fill the swelling globe,
Smoke-blue; blood, shelltorn faces. Suddenly a drum
Begins its steady beat, pursues us even here:
Death, and death again, and all the wars to come.
poem by Weldon Kees

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Related quotes

A Glass Of Wine
'What's in a glass of wine?'
There, set the glass where I can look within.
Now listen to me, friend, while I begin
And tell you what I see-
What I behold with my far-reaching eyes,
And what I know to be
Below the laughing bubbles that arise
Within this glass of wine.
There is a little spirit, night and day,
That cries one word, for ever and alway:
That single word is 'More!'
And whoso drinks a glass of wine, drinks him:
You fill the goblet full unto the brim,
And strive to silence him.
Glass after glass you drain to quench his thirst,
Each glass contains a spirit like the first;
And all their voices cry
Until they shriek and clamor, howl and rave,
And shout 'More!' noisily,
Till welcome death prepares the drunkard's grave,
And stills the imps that rave.
That see I in the wine:
And tears so many that I cannot guess;
And all these drops are labelled with 'Distress.'
I know you cannot see.
And at the bottom are the dregs of shame:
Oh! it is plain to me.
And there are woes too terrible to name:
Now drink your glass of wine.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Disingenuousness
Here lies another box for nature,
Carbon ready;
Black to eyes down here,
Where death is at its job.
Up there you’ll hear a rhythmic sob
Or two from living yet-to-dies –
A humming lacrimoso –
It all but cleans the eyes:
Forget it –
The dismal show of grief –
Life is only chemistry –
Our stay is only brief.
It’s we who hype it up!
Diaphragms jerk again;
The jet monotone of hearses
Feeds the disingenuousness
Of undertakers –
They seem to stare at something up ahead –
For them, it’s in the blood,
To taxi off the dead.
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2011
The March of Death
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Death death death death death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death death death death death
poem by Mark R Slaughter

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The Luck Of Edenhall
Of Edenhall, the youthful Lord
Bids sound the festal trumpet's call;
He rises at the banquet board,
And cries, 'mid the drunken revellers all,
'Now bring me the Luck of Edenhall!'
The butler hears the words with pain,
The house's oldest seneschal,
Takes slow from its silken cloth again
The drinking-glass of crystal tall;
They call it The Luck of Edenhall.
Then said the Lord: 'This glass to praise,
Fill with red wine from Portugal!'
The graybeard with trembling hand obeys;
A purple light shines over all,
It beams from the Luck of Edenhall.
Then speaks the Lord, and waves it light:
'This glass of flashing crystal tall
Gave to my sires the Fountain-Sprite;
She wrote in it, If this glass doth fall,
Farewell then, O Luck of Edenhall!
''T was right a goblet the Fate should be
Of the joyous race of Edenhall!
Deep draughts drink we right willingly:
And willingly ring, with merry call,
Kling! klang! to the Luck of Edenhall!'
First rings it deep, and full, and mild,
Like to the song of a nightingale
Then like the roar of a torrent wild;
Then mutters at last like the thunder's fall,
The glorious Luck of Edenhall.
'For its keeper takes a race of might,
The fragile goblet of crystal tall;
It has lasted longer than is right;
King! klang!-with a harder blow than all
Will I try the Luck of Edenhall!'
As the goblet ringing flies apart,
Suddenly cracks the vaulted hall;
And through the rift, the wild flames start;
The guests in dust are scattered all,
With the breaking Luck of Edenhall!
In storms the foe, with fire and sword;
He in the night had scaled the wall,
Slain by the sword lies the youthful Lord,
But holds in his hand the crystal tall,
The shattered Luck of Edenhall.
On the morrow the butler gropes alone,
The graybeard in the desert hall,
He seeks his Lord's burnt skeleton,
He seeks in the dismal ruin's fall
The shards of the Luck of Edenhall.
'The stone wall,' saith he, 'doth fall aside,
Down must the stately columns fall;
Glass is this earth's Luck and Pride;
In atoms shall fall this earthly ball
One day like the Luck of Edenhall!'
poem by Johann Ludwig Uhland

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The Luck of Edenhall. From The German Of Uhland
Of Edenhall, the youthful Lord
Bids sound the festal trumpet's call.
He rises at the banquet board,
And cries, 'mid the drunken revellers all,
'Now bring me the Luck of Edenhall!'
The butler hears the words with pain,
The house's oldest seneschal,
Takes slow from its silken cloth again
The drinking glass of crystal tall;
They call it The Luck of Edenhall.
Then said the Lord, 'This glass to praise,
Fill with red wine from Portugal!'
The graybeard with trembling hand obeys;
A purple light shines over all,
It beams from the Luck of Edenhall.
Then speaks the Lord, and waves it light:
'This glass of flashing crystal tall
Gave to my sires the Fountain-Sprite;
She wrote in it,
If this glass doth fall,
Farewell then, O Luck of Edenhall!
''Twas right a goblet the Fate should be
Of the joyous race of Edenhall!
Deep draughts drink we right willingly:
And willingly ring, with merry call,
Kling! klang! to the Luck of Edenhall!'
First rings it deep, and full, and mild,
Like to the song of a nightingale
Then like the roar of a torrent wild;
Then mutters at last like the thunder's fall,
The glorious Luck of Edenhall.
'For its keeper takes a race of might,
The fragile goblet of crystal tall;
It has lasted longer than is right;
King! klang!--with a harder blow than all
Will I try the Luck of Edenhall!'
As the goblet ringing flies apart,
Suddenly cracks the vaulted hall;
And through the rift, the wild flames start;
The guests in dust are scattered all,
With the breaking Luck of Edenhall!
In storms the foe, with fire and sword;
He in the night had scaled the wall,
Slain by the sword lies the youthful Lord,
But holds in his hand the crystal tall,
The shattered Luck of Edenhall.
On the morrow the butler gropes alone,
The graybeard in the desert hall,
He seeks his Lord's burnt skeleton,
He seeks in the dismal ruin's fall
The shards of the Luck of Edenhall.
'The stone wall,' saith he, 'doth fall aside,
Down must the stately columns fall;
Glass is this earth's Luck and Pride;
In atoms shall fall this earthly ball
One day like the Luck of Edenhall!'
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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The Beat
Drum, drum, hear the drum
beating its beat
for what's to come.
It beats like your heart
a steady boom.
It slows sometimes
and then will resume.
And when the drum beats
can't be heard
and your heart no longer
can be stirred,
the silence reaches where you are
because the drum beat
is too far.
poem by Edwina Reizer

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Crystal Ball
Well, Ive heard it, Ive heard it all
Ive heard it all before
I dont need no gypsy
I dont need no crystal ball
Since you started messin round on me darlin
Now the phones ringing off the wall
And everybody says its so
I got a broken heart comin and they want me to know
And Ive heard it all
I dont need a crystal ball.
I got a lady across the hallway
I got another one way across town
All the people at your birthday party
You should hear the way theyre puttin me down?
It seems the whole worlds out to spy
Its like the cia meets the fbi
And Ive heard it all
I dont need a crystal ball
Well Ive heard it all
I dont need a crystal ball
Well Ive heard it all
It aint no surprise to me
I dont watch no television
I dont read the daily news
Im afraid if I listen to the radio
Ill hear about the latest things you do
I dont want no explanation
Nothin you could say could be a revelation
And Ive heard it all
I dont need a crystal ball.
song performed by by Utopia

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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An August Midnight
I
A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
On this scene enter--winged, horned, and spined -
A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;
While 'mid my page there idly stands
A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands . . .
II
Thus meet we five, in this still place,
At this point of time, at this point in space.
- My guests parade my new-penned ink,
Or bang at the lamp-glass, whirl, and sink.
"God's humblest, they!" I muse. Yet why?
They know Earth-secrets that know not I.
poem by Thomas Hardy

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Glass War
Glass war, glass war, glass war, glass war, it's a glass war
Glass war, glass war, it's a glass war
Glass war, glass war
It's a glass war
Cause you can see right through the poisen
It's a glass war
Cause we all know the activeties
It's a glass war
Cause it's made of smoke and mirrors
It's a glass war
It's a glass war
It's a glass war
Cause only poor men are dyin in the
Gas war
Cause we know why it was started
It's an ass war
Cause the president's an asshole
It's an ass war
It's a glass war
It's a gas war
Cause the starters are all victims of the
Glass war
The slogan men were starters of the
Last war
Now the southern men are starters of the
Glass war
It's a Glass War
It's a Glass war
And the shards are gunna start another glass war
And the shards are gunna start another glass war
And the shards are gunna start another glass war
And the shards are gunna start another glass war
And the shards are gunna start another glass war
It's a glass war
It's a glass war
song performed by by NOFX

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Free But In Prison
I know that we are
Lab rats... Ginny pigs
We are people who are being tested
Experimented with
For what might happen in the future
Or will happen
For they are in the past
As the full moon rises
Up into a black starry sky
The moon is as if it was the end of a funnel
Where the light shines brightly
As if we are looking into another universe
For there is their flaw
For nothing is perfect
Not even the future we live in
We think were free and we are
In our country
In our world
In our universe
We are
We are free
But as they look down
To the clear glass globe
That fits securely in their hands
They laugh
For we call it earth
But all we are lab rats
That think were free
But really are
Imprisoned
In a glass globe that we call
“The land of the free”
Ha ha how free can we really be
Yet some people still believe
That we are the only life forms
Out there
But the truth is that
We are held imprison
By someone else’s power
poem by Mrs. Cynosure

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Loneliness and Cries
How can the sky be so irreverently blue?
There shall never be a heavenly hue
that will ever fill my eyes.
For all the skies have been replaced
with sullen forms of cloudy shapes
that form, preventing any escapes
from loneliness and cries.
How can roses be so irreverently red?
When to me their vibrancy is completely dead.
Rather that their thorn prick my heart
and allow my withering blood depart.
For all the velvety touch they give
should not be present while I live
with loneliness and cries.
How can the grass be so irreverently green?
There shall never be a verdant scene
that will awaken my eyes again.
For all the grass that grows outside
is a dried up patch where I reside.
And there's no fleeing this emotional scene
of loneliness and cries.
poem by Edwina Reizer

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The Eye
The Atlantic is a stormy moat; and the Mediterranean,
The blue pool in the old garden,
More than five thousand years has drunk sacrifice
Of ships and blood, and shines in the sun; but here the Pacific--
Our ships, planes, wars are perfectly irrelevant.
Neither our present blood-feud with the brave dwarfs
Nor any future world-quarrel of westering
And eastering man, the bloody migrations, greed of power, clash of
faiths--
Is a speck of dust on the great scale-pan.
Here from this mountain shore, headland beyond stormy headland
plunging like dolphins through the blue sea-smoke
Into pale sea--look west at the hill of water: it is half the
planet:
this dome, this half-globe, this bulging
Eyeball of water, arched over to Asia,
Australia and white Antartica: those are the eyelids that never
close;
this is the staring unsleeping
Eye of the earth; and what it watches is not our wars.
poem by Robinson Jeffers

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Overheard on a Salmarsh
Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?
Green glass, goblin. Why do you stare at them?
Give them me.
No.
Give them me. Give them me.
No.
Then I will howl all night in the reeds,
Lie in the mud and howl for them.
Goblin, why do you love them so?
They are better than stars or water,
Better than voices of winds that sing,
Better than any man's fair daughter,
Your green glass beads on a silver ring.
Hush, I stole them out of the moon.
Give me your beads, I want them.
No.
I will howl in the deep lagoon
For your green glass beads, I love them so.
Give thme me. Give them.
No.
poem by Harold Monro

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It's Death Again
It's Death again - He's always there -
Watching, waiting - e'er the stare!
Every time I look behind
Or reach to pull the window blind,
I catch a glimpse of grubby hood -
A little clue to where he stood;
The glint of light that caught the scythe.
Perhaps if I could pay a tithe…
But O! no use, he'll never go.
The adamant phantom; don't you know
He will but wait until it's time
For me to hear His fateful chime? -
The toll that claims my destiny,
To Hail: 'You're next, it has to be…'
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
The Reign of Death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
Death death death death death death death
poem by Mark R Slaughter

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Www.
At night, I sit in this darkened room
And stare at the hollow screen,
The World-Wide Web is a crystal ball
Of tides, and hopes, and dreams,
Though the world goes on outside my door
And time, it flows like the sea,
I have no truck with reality
When the web washes over me.
For I dredge the depths with a grappling hook
And I haul my catch on board,
Then I read the thoughts of a million minds
That were left on the furthest shore,
While the colours swirl and the lights go dim
And the sounds fade from without,
I float in the mass of cyberspace
'Til the light of the moon goes out.
Then emails beat at my cyber door
To ask if I'll let them in,
I cast my net for the viruses,
And choke the Recycle bin,
I stare at faces I've never seen
That float on a cyber wave,
Which disappear as the next comes near
For two are never the same.
But one returns, and it stares at me
And I see the limpid eyes,
Like pools in deep lagoons offshore
Where the mermaid lives and dies,
While the lips are full of promises
As false as the deepest sin,
I reach on out to the screen, but find
That the screen won't let me in.
Then night on night, like a dread parade
Those pictures come again,
From some lost ancient URL
Long gone from the world of men,
I search and Google in cyberspace
In hopes that you're somewhere there,
But all I have are those limpid eyes
And the bands in your dark brown hair.
One night, I'll leap right through the screen
And swim to your blue lagoon,
I'll take bright garlands of pretty flowers
To gladden the cyber gloom,
We'll live forever behind the screen
And our faces will go online,
For the stares of the grim night dwellers
Who are surfing the Web, World-Wide.
10 June 2008
poem by David Lewis Paget

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Prelude
BY sunny market-place and street
Wherever I go my drum I beat,
And wherever I go in my coat of red
The ribbons flutter about my head.
I seek recruits for wars to come -
For slaughterless wars I beat the drum,
And the shilling I give to each new ally
Is hope to live and courage to die.
I know that new recruits shall come
Wherever I beat the sounding drum,
Till the roar of the march by country and town
Shall shake the tottering Dagons down.
For I was objectless as they
And loitering idly day by day;
But whenever I heard the recruiters come,
I left my all to follow the drum.
poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Baby Blue You've Got You
All the guests are gone
Silence on the glass brims
Their laughter will fade out
Their footsteps will be swallowed
By clear night sky
You can close the door
There they are no more
You can say ‘That’s it.’
They won’t care a bit.
All whispers are taken
Silence on the glass brims
Growing into dark
When the lights turn off
Window panes stand broken
You can close them down
They will give no sound
You’ll say ‘It’s ok.’
Try sleep for the day.
poem by Miroslava Odalovic

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Death, Death And Death
I see the death everyday
Death in relations
Death in religion and faith
Death of man in man
Everyday, everywhere, every moment
Death, death and death.
I experience the death around me
Millions and billions of ceremonies
The smoke on maps of mankind
Death in temple and streets
Death in clubs and parties
Death, death and death.
I foresee the death of humanity
Harassment, discrimination and hatred
Death in purity and sacredness
Death in broken mirrors and home
Death in king, death in masses
Death, death and death.
poem by Abhimanyu Kumar.s

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A Good Poem Never Ends
ahh, i have seen and felt
the words of that poem
that never ends,
the moment
you put the last breath
like death
it simply breathes upon itself
a new life
for another beginning
it shifts its meanings
to another soul
another place
and time
at the other side
of this globe
the reader that glances
only for a while
comes back and asks
am i there?
are you talking to me?
am i part of you?
are we not together in this?
are you myself?
how come that we feel
the same
angst?
the same joys?
this bliss?
and so, the words escape and fly away
like birds and build a nest
on the next tree nearby
where another lonely soul
is taking shelter
in his solitude,
for in truth a good poem
never dies.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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I Met Death
I was waiting, watching one day
When Death came along, looking
As if there was something he wanted to say
His hair was as black as the sky at night
And in the wind it blew like smoke
He had come a long way in his worn black cloak
So I invited him in and I did say
If you’d like to you can stay
But Death said:
“I’m only passing through
For the clock’s hands they say
They are ticking the seconds of my life away”
And I answered,
Thinking I’d misunderstood
As Death’s dark black eye gleamed under his dark black hood
“If your Death, how can you die? ”
You see, Death didn’t seem the kind to lie.
And Death wasn’t phased at all,
“No longer Death I may become,
Or so says He if I don’t complete
The most horrible, horrible, feat.
“The most horrible feat? ”
I had to say
Could it be so horrible,
That Death couldn’t say?
“Death, ” said Death, “is the horrible feat.”
And then he faded away, like smoke into the blue, blue sky
But I think, before he left, I might have seen him cry.
I had never in my life, seen Death again
Until the night I stood outside in the rain
When he said, “I’m sorry miss, but this is good bye.”
And I found out what it’s like to die.
So we went, and parted, to each our own way,
But one more time I want to heard Death say, “I’m sorry miss, -“
Marking the end of the day
poem by Jinny Tikanus

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Pool Hall Richard
(rod stewart, ron wood)
Sweatin hard, I didnt get a shower
All I did was stand around and get too hot
Knowin all the people walkin on my side
Losin all my money and Im killin time
Ol bill he come a-runnin like hes gettin some
Makes you kind of jealous but it sure is fun
I dont mind but he wants my lady too
You know the crowd gets bigger
As the word goes round
Pool hall king was playin back in town
Minnesota fats standin up at the back
Tryin to hide himself in a plastic mack
You ought to hear the silence
When the kid walks in
His reputations bigger than gasoline
I dont mind but hes tryin to fill my lady too, ha ha
Pool hall richard
Youre far too wicked we know, ha
Pool hall richard
Kid youre wicked, we know
You broke my heart
Same as you ... could ever do
With your yellow carnation
And your pink satin shoe
You make me jealous, but I worship you
One day soon Im gonna beat you clean
Wipe that smile right off your chin
Everybody gonna drive from miles around
Cuein up to see me take away your crown
Then youll never never ever take my lady then
Get out
Pool hall richard
Youre far too wicked we know, ha
Pool hall richard
Kid youre wicked, we know
You broke my heart
Same as you ... could ever do
Dig this
Bam goes the brown, thats another one down
Know they play much better when the sun goes down
Bang goes the green, youre so obscene
Your hands are dirty but your scent is clean
Bam goes the blue, lock away your cue
The pool hall king is hustlin you
Bam goes the 8-ball, didnt see it spin at all
This kid can play, oh yeah
Bam goes the brown, ooh another one down
Know they play much better when the sun goes down
Bang goes the green, youre so obscene
Your hands are dirty, your scent is clean
Damn the pink, one more to sink
Gonna beat you someday
cause youre makin me sick
Down on the black, at the back of the pack
Aw, you nearly missed, you aint so hot
Pool hall richard
Kid youre wicked, we know
You broke my heart
Same as you ... could ever do
Youre breakin my heart
But youre stealin my tart, no no no
Shut up
song performed by by Rod Stewart

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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