Esther, A Sonnet Sequence: XVII
I touched that knee. She did not show surprise,
And the earth had not opened at our feet.
She did not even laugh. Her foolish eyes
Twinkled a moment in her cheeks, then set
Like fog--bound stars for ever from my sight.
And at a signal from the little woman,
Who clung to me still, a chorus left and right
Of laughter rose Homeric and inhuman,
Drowning all further sense in one wild roar.
I heard the spotted girl with leopard lips
Complain that she was hungry as before,
And all the world was merged in an eclipse,
Darkening the air around and overhead,
And then I broke away and turned and fled.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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Related quotes
Wild Tiger Woman
She sparkle like my jean
She more than seventeen
Seems keen in other words
She must have been
A former beauty queen
Now shes a naughty girl
Chorus
Wild wild wild tiger woman
(wild wild wild wild)
You move me very fast
But can you last another day
Get out of the way
Wild wild tiger woman
(wild wild wild wild)
You gonna break youre little fall
They call her the wild tiger woman
Tied to the bed
Tied to the bed
Shes waitin to be fed
No pay to sir aday (? )
Cant see an ounce of reason in her head
Dont laugh and turn away
Chorus
Need another girl to come and grab her by the tail
As I was hoping that the ground would open up and take me in
Life is so obscene and the remarks that go unseen
Are being diminished to the earth
Ill never find another girl
All in the race
Such a friendly face
Seems clean and upper-class
Young indecisive
Minds are in a maze
She lose me very fast
Chorus
song performed by by Electric Light Orchestra
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Secret Stalker
The long-limbed leopard stared ahead
With longing in his eyes,
For he observed the prey that fled
From him in great surprise.
The creature panicked suddenly,
Its heartbeat oh so swift,
Chased by the leopard up a tree,
Its mighty weight to lift.
They prey was light upon its feet,
The branches to traverse,
The leopard wasn't quite so neat...
Things went from bad to worse...
The prey went through the lush green leaves
As if it didn't care,
The leopard lingered like all thieves
Who sense when to beware...
The prey was gone, he knew not how,
So he turned round displeased
To make his way across the bough
Because the hunt had ceased...
Through gritted teeth, he slowly made
His way back down to earth...
'Next time, ' he vowed, 'I'll make the grade!
I'll run for all I'm worth! '
Denis Martindale, copyright, November 2010.
The poem is based on the magnificent painting
by Stephen Gayford called 'Secret Stalker'.
More Stephen Gayford poems here:
denis-martindale-dot-blogspot-dot-com
poem by Denis Martindale
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The Doer Of Good
It was night-time and He was alone.
And He saw afar-off the walls of a round city and went towards the
city.
And when He came near He heard within the city the tread of the
feet of joy, and the laughter of the mouth of gladness and the loud
noise of many lutes. And He knocked at the gate and certain of the
gate-keepers opened to Him.
And He beheld a house that was of marble and had fair pillars of
marble before it. The pillars were hung with garlands, and within
and without there were torches of cedar. And He entered the house.
And when He had passed through the hall of chalcedony and the hall
of jasper, and reached the long hall of feasting, He saw lying on a
couch of sea-purple one whose hair was crowned with red roses and
whose lips were red with wine.
And He went behind him and touched him on the shoulder and said to
him, 'Why do you live like this?'
And the young man turned round and recognised Him, and made answer
and said, 'But I was a leper once, and you healed me. How else
should I live?'
And He passed out of the house and went again into the street.
And after a little while He saw one whose face and raiment were
painted and whose feet were shod with pearls. And behind her came,
slowly as a hunter, a young man who wore a cloak of two colours.
Now the face of the woman was as the fair face of an idol, and the
eyes of the young man were bright with lust.
And He followed swiftly and touched the hand of the young man and
said to him, 'Why do you look at this woman and in such wise?'
And the young man turned round and recognised Him and said, 'But I
was blind once, and you gave me sight. At what else should I
look?'
And He ran forward and touched the painted raiment of the woman and
said to her, 'Is there no other way in which to walk save the way
of sin?'
And the woman turned round and recognised Him, and laughed and
said, 'But you forgave me my sins, and the way is a pleasant way.'
And He passed out of the city.
And when He had passed out of the city He saw seated by the
roadside a young man who was weeping.
And He went towards him and touched the long locks of his hair and
said to him, 'Why are you weeping?'
And the young man looked up and recognised Him and made answer,
'But I was dead once, and you raised me from the dead. What else
should I do but weep?'
poem by Oscar Wilde
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Afraid Of Love
You stole my heart the moment you came to town
I said hello but you were gone when I turned around
You cant get away, cant get away, even if you try now
I wanna tell you but the words just cant be found
I like the way you move and just the way you are
I cant take anymore, cos girl, youre pushin too hard
You cant get away, cant let you go, whats a boy to do now
You got me askin myself how I survived this far
Chorus:
I gotta get away from you, girl
cos Ive never been afraid of love til I met you
Never thought a girl could make me feel the way you do
Never been afraid of - never been afraid of love til I met you
Ooh, yes you say
(instrumental break)
Cant be something that you never ever had
When I stop and think about you, it makes me laugh
You took me by surprise, I saw it in your eyes, I never had a chance, girl
Now that I see what you are, it doesnt hurt so bad
Chorus
song performed by by Toto
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Obliterated
Some say the world will end in fire
Some say in ice
your lives full of desire
your world turned over twice
i am yet what i am
none cares or knows
The world is lost
in a long forgotten snow
Earth like a raisin in the sun
drying up tears running down its face
Tomorrow ill be at the edge of the earth
a cross traveling overhead
protecting my place of birth
THe flick flick fire licking at edges
A tick tick of bombs hiding in hedges
let it be forgotten the earth turned to ashes
let it be forgotten earth enveloped in trashes
into the nothingness of scorn and noise
who will procure me
Into the land of girls and boys
who will secure me
i remember sounds like that from my childhood
laughter from no cause
i remember towns full of people
from my childhood
bustling with no pause
A wins that wips at my face
a kin that sips at my place
we belong
we belong
Twinkle twinkle little star
Do you see earth from so far
twinkle twinkle little earth
do you see a stars rebirth
My eyes are open
my eyes are shut
i see a trail of tiny duck
my feet are cold
my hands are clammy
i miss my little dog named sammy
what earth once was
is no more my birth once done
is practiced more
so why is it earth has left
No cries are heard
upon a breast
poem by Alexis Gallagher
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The Father
The evening found us whom the day had fled,
Once more in bitter anger, you and I,
Over some small, some foolish, trivial thing
Our anger would not decently let die,
But dragged between us, shamed and shivering
Until each other's taunts we scarcely heard,
Until we lost the sense of all we said,
And knew not who first spoke the fatal word.
It seemed that even every kiss we wrung
We killed at birth with shuddering and hate,
As if we feared a thing too passionate.
However close we clung
One hour the next hour found us separate,
Estranged, and Love most bitter on our tongue.
To-night we quarrelled over one small head,
Our fruit of last year's maying, the white bud
Blown from our stormy kisses and the dead
First rapture of our wild, estranging blood.
You clutched him: there was panther in your eyes,
We breathed like beasts in thickets, on the wall
Our shadows in huge challenge seemed to rise,
The room grew dark with anger. Yet through all
The shame and hurt and pity of it you were
Still strangely and imperishably dear,
As one who loves the wild day none the less
That breaks in bitter hands the buds of Spring,
Whose cold hand stops the breath of loveliness,
And drives the wailing ghost of beauty past,
Making the rose, — even the rose, a thing
For pain to be remembered by at last.
I said: 'My son shall wear his father's sword.'
You said: 'Shall hands once blossoms at my breast
Be stained with blood?' I answered with a word
More bitter, and your own, the bitterest
Stung me to sullen anger, and I said:
'My son shall be no coward of his line
Because his mother choose'; you turned your head
And your eyes grew implacable in mine.
And like a trodden snake you turned to meet
The foe with sudden hissing… then you smiled,
And broke our life in pieces at my feet,
'Your child?' you said: 'Your child?'
poem by Muriel Stuart
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Christmas Eve
Glitter twinkled at my fingertips.
As if the angles themselves had sent
songbirds. Singing softly.
The Christmas lights became stars
as the sun sunk into sleep.
The smell of cold and gumbo
clung to the air as we huddled on the floor.
Paper was torn as each pair of hands
opened their box of Mystery.
I shed a silent tear
when I tore my silver paper
and undid my blue ribbon
and found an empty box.
I closed it gently. Thanked the donor.
Turned to see a strange child
sitting on the floor
beside me.
Her clear blue eyes stared
at the empty tree.
Emotionless.
I touched her thick fire hair.
She did not blink.
I put my box in her hands.
She smiled at me,
kissed my cheek,
left.
The box safe in her soft palms.
Never to be seen again.
poem by Zoe Guillory
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Where The Wild Roses Grow
Word and music by: nick cave
They call me the wild rose
But my name is elisa day
Why they call me it I do not know
For my name is elisa day
From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one
As she stared in my eyes and smiled
For her lips were the colour of the roses
That grew down the river, all bloody and wild
When he knocked on my door and entered the room
My trembling subsided in his sure embrace
He would be my first man, and with a careful hand
He wiped at the tears that ran down my face
Chorus
On the second day I brought her a flower
She was more beautiful than any woman Id seen
I said, do you know where the wild roses grow
So sweet and scarlet and free?
On the second day he came with a single red rose
Said: will you give me your loss and your sorrow?
I nodded my head, as I lay on the bed
He said, if I show you the roses will you follow?
Chorus
On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he stood smiling above me with a rock in his fist
On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow
And she lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief
As I kissed her goodbye, I said, all beauty must die
And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth
Chorus
song performed by by Kylie Minogue
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Esther, A Sonnet Sequence: XIX
I fled the booth with feelings as of Cain,
Yet laughing at my own bewilderment.
My cheeks had blushed till it was physical pain,
And my eyes smarted. Through my head there went
The little woman's last appealing word
Bidding me stop, in tones that smote afresh.
And 'twixt my finger and thumb there throbbed and stirred
The semblance of that monstrous pound of flesh,
The knee that I had handled. With it too
The jet beads of the little woman's skirt,
Where I had held her, left an impress new
And touched my conscience to a deeper hurt.
I was ashamed of all with shame intense,
My youth, my frailty, and my innocence.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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Now!
Out of your whole life give but a moment!
All of your life that has gone before,
All to come after it, -- so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present, condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection's endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense,
Merged in a moment which gives me at last
You around me for once, you beneath me, above me --
Me, sure that, despite of time future, time past,
This tick of life-time's one moment you love me!
How long such suspension may linger? Ah, Sweet,
The moment eternal -- just that and no more --
When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core,
While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!
poem by Robert Browning
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Lover's Gifts LXX: Take Back Your Coins
Take back your coins, King's Councillor. I am of those women you
sent to the forest shrine to decoy the young ascetic who had never
seen a women. I failed in your bidding.
Dimly day was breaking when the hermit boy came to bathe in
the stream, his tawny locks crowded on his shoulders, like a
cluster of morning clouds, and his limbs shining like a streak of
sunbeam. We laughed and sang as we rowed in our boat; we jumped
into the river in a mad frolic, and danced around him, when the sun
rose staring at us from the water's edge in a flush of divine
anger.
Like a child-god, the boy opened his eyes and watched our
movements, the wonder deepening till his eyes shone like morning
stars. He lifted his clasped hands and chanted a hymn of praise in
his bird-like young voice, thrilling every leaf of the forest.
Never such words were sung to a mortal woman before; they were like
the silent hymn to the dawn which rises from the hushed hills. THe
women hid their mouths with their hands, their bodies swaying with
laughter, and a spasm of doubt ran across his face. Quickly came
I to his side, sorely pained, and, bowing to his feet, I said,
"Lord, accept my service."
I led him to the grassy bank, wiped his body with the end of
my silken mantle, and, kneeling on the ground, I dried his feet
with my trailing hair. When I raised my face and looked into his
eyes, I thought I felt the world's first kiss to the first woman,
-Blessed am I, blessed is God, who made me a woman. I heard him say
to me, "What God unknown are you? YOur touch is the touch of the
Immortal, your eyes have the mystery of the midnight."
Ah, no, not that smile, King's Councillor, -the dust of
worldly wisdom has covered your sight, old man. But this boy's
innocence pierced the mist and saw the shining truth, the woman
divine....
The women clapped their hands, and laughed their obscene
laugh, and with veils dragged on the dust and hair hanging loose
they began to pelt him with flowers.
Alas, my spotless sun, could not my shame weave fiery mist to
cover you in its folds? I fell at his feet and cried, "Forgive me.
" I fled like a stricken deer through shade and sun, and cried as
I fled, " Forgive me. " The women's foul laughter pressed me like
a cracking fire, but the words ever rang in my ears, " What God
unknown are you?"
poem by Rabindranath Tagore
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Ways
hey mrs fields, why do you look so sad
is the whole world gone mad or is it still a strawberry-cake
how i wish to kiss your sweet, sweet lips
to share your blissfulness
it made me feel like floating on a cloud
im talking to you soon
theres so much left to say
on a crystal winters day...
and the snowflakes outside show a million ways
show a million days in their dance
and the wind blows them on and carries them away
into anywhere from moment to moment
hey mrs grey, tell me what would you say
if i turned on the sun and poured all the colours down on you
would you smile and say its alright
i can see the light at the end of the tunnel
and then wed face the sky, sitting side by side
going very far to a distant star...
and the snowflakes outside...
i can tell by the sound of your voice
and i can tell by the look of your eyes
there must be something goin wrong in your life
but please, please believe me, baby, im by your side
theres so much left to do, so much left to say in a million ways
theres so much to be seen, so much to be touched, so much to be loved
take my hand and come out to play ..
theres so much left to do
for me and for you...
theres so much to be loved
please, come back
dont walk into the dark
hey mrs fields, why do you look so sad
is the whole world gone mad or is it still a strawberry-cake
how i wish to kiss your sweet, sweet lips
to share your blissfulness
it made me feel like living anew
im talking to you soon
theres so much to be done
when the winters gone...
and the snowflakes outside...
theres so much left to do, so much left to say in a million ways
theres so much to be seen, so much to be touched, so much to be loved
take my hand and come out to play...-acap
song performed by by Alphaville
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Wayfarers
Still the white stars burn overhead,
The green earth swings upon her way:
Where are the voices of the dead,
The hearts of Yesterday?
Drawn by what strange, mysterious power,
From what dream world and magic sky
Came they to laugh on earth an hour,
To weep, to toil, to die?
And whither gone? On what wild flight
By planet pale and sceptred star?
What realms of sorrow or delight
Now wander they afar?
Pale Wayfarers, whose noiseless tread
Is near me as I seem to see
The mighty generations dead,
And all that yet shall be!
Are Past and Future, then, a breath
That one vast Present makes its own?
The Angel, Birth, the Shadow, Death,
Each guards a world unknown.
Wayfarers all, we know not whence
We came, nor whitherwards we go.
Deep in our hearts a haunting sense
That somewhere we shall know.
Still the white stars burn overhead,
The green earth swings upon her way:
Where are the voices of the dead,
The hearts of yesterday?
poem by George Essex Evans
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The Brassiere Factory
Is the governor falling
From a great height?
Arm in arm we fled the brassiere factory,
The motion-boat stayed on the shore!
I saw how round its bottom was
As you walked into southern France—
Upon the light hair of an arm
Cigar bands lay!
I kissed you then. Oh is my bar
The insect of your will? The water rose,
But will the buffalo on
The nickel yet be still?
For how can windows hold out the light
In your eyes!
Darling, we fled the brassiere factory
In forty-eight states,
Arm in arm,
When human beings hung on us
And you had been arrested by the cloths
Were used in making, and I said, “The Goths
Know such delight,” but still we fled, away
Into a dinner atmosphere
From all we knew, and fall asleep this day.
O maintenance men, with cruel eyes,
Then arm in arm we fled the listless factory!
The music changed your fingers’ ends to pearl,
I punched you, you foolish girl,
For thanks to the metronome we got out alive, in the air
Where the sun filled us with cruelty!
There’s what to do
Except despair, like pages! and laugh
Like prawns, about the sea!
Oh arm in arm we fled the industry
Into an earth of banks
And foolish tanks, for what bare breasts might be.
“The Brassiere Factory” from The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 2006 by Kenneth Koch.
poem by Kenneth Koch
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Hungry Eyes
Hungry eyes
Ive been meaning to tell you
Ive got this feelin that wont subside
I look at you and I fantasize
You are mine tonight
Now Ive got you in my sights
With these hungry eyes
One look at you and I cant disguise
Ive got hungry eyes
I feel the magic between you and i
I want to hold you so hear me out
I want to show you what loves all about
Darlin tonight
Now Ive got you in my sights
With these hungry eyes
One look at you and I cant disguise
Ive got hungry eyes
I feel the magic between you
And Ive got hungry eyes
Now Ive got you in my sights
With these hungry eyes
Now did I take you by surprise
I need you to see
This love was meant to be
Ive got hungry eyes
One look at you and I cant disguise
Ive got hungry eyes
I feel the magic between you
And Ive got hungry eyes
Now Ive got you in my sights
With those hungry eyes
Did I take you by surprise
With my hungry eyes
song performed by by Eric Carmen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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As Soon As I Touched Him
He came to me like a bright idea
Shining like the sun
And the way his eyes burned into mine
I knew he must be the one
Oh, he drew me in like a magnet does
So I couldnt pull away
But the kind of lovin that I gave to him
Im not ashamed to say
1st chorus:
Oh, as soon as I touched him
Soon as I touched him
I felt like a woman
And the feelin made me close my eyes
I was born again
An I heard myself cryin
Like a new born baby cries
He told me what I meant to him
Swore that I was sent to him
All my lovin went to him
Now hes gone, oh, hes gone
Now I hide myself from the light of day
So no one else can see
A part of him that I cant forget
Thats growin deep inside of me
2nd chorus:
Oh, as soon as I touched him
Soon as I touched him
I felt like a woman
And the feelin made me close my eyes
I was born again
An I heard myself cryin
Like our new born baby cries
Fade:
Repeat 1st chorus
song performed by by Dolly Parton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Thought I Was A Child
Its such a clever innocence with which you do your sorcery
As if somehow the years just bow and let that young girl go free
I thought I was a child until you turned and smiled
I thought I knew where I was going until I heard your laughter flowing
And came upon the wisdom in your eyes
Surprise--
Ive spent my whole life running round
Chasing songs from town to town
Thinking Id be free so long as I never let love slow me down
So lonely and so wild until you turned and smiled
By now I should have long been gone
But here I am still looking on
As if I didnt know which way to run
Its such a clever innocence with which you show myself to me
As if you know how it feels to never be who you wanted to be
I thought I was a child until you turned and smiled
I thought that I was free but Im just one more prisoner of time
Alone within the boundaries of my mind
I thought I was a child
song performed by by Jackson Browne
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dead Men's Love
There was a damned successful Poet;
There was a Woman like the Sun.
And they were dead. They did not know it.
They did not know their time was done.
They did not know his hymns
Were silence; and her limbs,
That had served Love so well,
Dust, and a filthy smell.
And so one day, as ever of old,
Hands out, they hurried, knee to knee;
On fire to cling and kiss and hold
And, in the other's eyes, to see
Each his own tiny face,
And in that long embrace
Feel lip and breast grow warm
To breast and lip and arm.
So knee to knee they sped again,
And laugh to laugh they ran, I'm told,
Across the streets of Hell . . .
And then
They suddenly felt the wind blow cold,
And knew, so closely pressed,
Chill air on lip and breast,
And, with a sick surprise,
The emptiness of eyes.
poem by Rupert Brooke (1911)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Explorer
Dearest, when I left your side,
I stood a moment, hesitating,
And plunged. The boiling tide
Of darkness took me, and down I went
Swift as a bird with folded wing,
And upward sent
The bubbles of my vital breath
That shuddered from my secret deeps
To freedom and light;
Then, dimly, on my sight
Opened the still abode of living death.
Amid the mire,
In which invisibly sightless horror creeps,
Sat, each intent on his own woe,
The host that burns with inward fire,
Crowded like monuments of memorial stone
Beneath a pitchy sky
Where even the flash of tempest dare not show,
Yet each of them alone;
And each was I.
II
Breathless I struggled up,
As if the gloom had arms to clutch at me
And drag and hold,
Until the daylight’s gold
Shook faintly above my dizzy head
And parted suddenly, that I might see
The sky, a sheltering cup
Of hopeful azure, and your eyes of blue,
One promise and yet two
Of harbouring bliss;
And your lips parted and said,
“Shall not we twain
Find joy upon joy on earth
Together and see,
In the kinship of all that has birth
From the mutual reach of desire,
A joy beyond this,
A fire at the heart of the fire?”
And we clung till our spirit was free
As the flame of a kiss.
III
So we soared and the earth fell away, and the region of night
Was melted in limitless day of ineffable light
Till the myriad souls of the dead were united as we,
Themselves, and yet merged in the spread of an infinite sea
The joy that is life, and around us, below and above,
The One that all lovers have found, our eternity, Love.
poem by John Le Gay Brereton
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Sight For Sore Eyes
Goin downtown, goin down, goin down
neath the city, eatin ground round
Underground is pretty gritty
I turned the screw she held the light
Thats when I knew she was a
Sight for sore eyes
She was a sight for sore eyes
Playin no fair, sleepin under stairs
Downtowns a pity, takin fair square
Under where its pretty gritty
I turned the screw, she held the knife
Oh, holy jesus, shes a sight for sore eyes
Sight for sore eyes
Shes a nitty grutty
Turnin in style, walk a mile for your titty
Naked foul while under there
Under where its pretty gritty
Hey, dont you know people
Shes a love lust hussy
She left, oh she rust me
Dear old girl
She was a sight for sore eyes
But she was sittin pretty
A sight for sore eyes
She was a nitty gritty
Sight for sore eyes
Peeled back and parted
Even at the start it was delight or demise
I feel like a leopard king
Sight for sore eyes
She was a sight for sore eyes
song performed by by Aerosmith
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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