I Did Not Build This House
I did not build this house alone
Upon foundations of folly
Wood floors have split and groan
Knotty planks creep
Out the front door
Beyond walls stretched
Over mossy stone
I did not build this house alone
The symbiots fed it
As they were nourished
Engorged like an unborn child
Who stretches and kicks it
Then, vacates it for a while
This house whose pathways
Were fed by blood and breath
Humming and pumping
Beating and strumming
Dancing the rhythm of life
and death.
I did not build this house
It has morphed and grown
Then alas, has shrunk again
as now I am alone.
Betsy Schreiber © 2009
poem by Betsy Schreiber
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
To Build A House
to build a house, a beautiful one,
i just do not need land and nails
not just wood, and grass
not just beams and roofs, for they
are but necessities, projections of
the house upon a hill
of the mind,
to build a house, one needs the soul
of the home,
the words of memories, the gutters
of our emotions,
unlike you, my house requires the fences
and walls
keeping away the ill winds
of publicity, the rumors of who i was,
a slope, the steep one, inclined
towards no other
than the whiteness of the sky
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Building A Big House
you build a big house
with one thought, a wish
that something may last forever
like love, like the finest wood
like a relationship,
or say
(let me say it this way)
a marriage, like strong stairs
inviting attention to society
that no one is leaving
like a door closing behind
a sigh,
but a house with time falls
pillars collide, and floors go
termite eaten to the ground
doors fall out from the hinges
that hold them it their frames,
nothing lasts forever
i know,
i build a house because i know
what love is
i want to give it shelter and warmth
like those rooms
a glow like those living rooms
a nice dinner
like the kitchen and the dining tables.
i do not think beyond my body
that turns to dust
i know
i do not utter beyond my words, i know,
no words can withstand the
lures of the niceties of a lie.
i know
i build the house because we are here
and there is nothing
worth doing
there is no snow and ski is irrelevant.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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We Build
we build new windows
framed with strong wood and carved
with flowers and birds
we build new doors
we let the vines grown their tendrils again
we watch and we keep on building some more
new floors and ceilings that know how to sing
chairs that are learning how to embrace our hips
we begin to see new clouds
we busy ourselves to make life click and tick and pick up
from where we think we ought to have died
we refuse this call for dissolution
there are meanings coming up
for new beginnings
we build a new house simply because we are uncertain
beyond these broken pillars.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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House of fire (Lyrics)
House of fire
House of fire, yeah
Let's build a house of fire, baby
Not one of wood or stone
Walk thru my door of desire, baby
Come on in and make it your home
Don't need a window to watch you, baby
Don't need no roof overhead
Don't need no key to unlock ya, baby
I'll use my lovin'instead
I won't tire
Take me higher
Building a house of fire, baby
Buildin'it with our love
We are buildin'a house of fire every time we touch
House of fire
House of fire
We ain't gotta pay rent now, baby
No landlord to throw us out
I want to play in your garden, baby
When you want it give me a shout
I won't tire
Take me higher
Building a house of fire, baby
Buildin'it with our love
We are building a house of fire every time we touch
We are building this house together, baby
Standing on solid ground
We are building a house of fire
That you can't tear down
Brick by brick the flames get higher
Build it strong with our desire
Building a house of fire, baby
Building it with our love
We are building a house of fire every time we touch
We are building this house together, baby
Standing on solid ground
We are building a house of fire
That you can't tear down
Building a house of fire, baby
Building it with our love
We are building a house of fire every time we touch
poem by Satan's Sibling
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The Monument Of All Our Wrongs
i build a house
no one likes it.
the house is empty
i put some chairs.
someone comes and
says, this house is
lonely, it needs
a sound
it is boring and needs
a paint
i put a tree beside
its stairs
i grow another
fence
i put a lone bulb
on a post
and leave the house
for good
that is what the
house is made
there is always
missing
something is
always wrong
this is the house
of regret
it is the monument
of all our wrongs.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The Simplest Reason I Can Give You
i wish to build a house
away from here
i have stored the necessary
colors of the paints
on the walls of my mind
i wish to stay in that house
alone
i will be in the company
of paper and
pen
i will fence it
it will be high
simply because
our house is not
my home
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The cause of the efforts
You build your child, draining your blood.
You build your house with debts on heads.
What for? To show how big you are.
And how effective your seeds are.
09.07.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Inland
People that build their houses inland,
People that buy a plot of ground
Shaped like a house, and build a house there,
Far from the sea-board, far from the sound
Of water sucking the hollow ledges,
Tons of water striking the shore,—
What do they long for, as I long for
One salt smell of the sea once more?
People the waves have not awakened,
Spanking the boats at the harbour's head,
What do they long for, as I long for,—
Starting up in my inland bed,
Beating the narrow walls, and finding
Neither a window nor a door,
Screaming to God for death by drowning,—
One salt taste of the sea once more?
poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
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I Have To Build...
i have to build a tree house,
i have to build a table,
i have to build a new house,
cant i get a break.
i have to fix the tree house,
i have to fix the table,
i have to fix the new house,
seriusly, cant i have a break!
poem by Shaikha Alansari
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Build
Clambering men in big bad boots
Dug up my den, dug up my roots
Treated us like plasticine town
They built us up and knocked us down
From meccano to legoland
Here they come with a brick in their hand
Men with heads filled up with sand
Its build
Its build a house where we can stay
Add a new bit everyday
Its build a road for us to cross
Build us lots and lots and lots and lots and lots
Whistling men in yellow vans
They can and drew us diagrams
Showed us how it all worked it out
And wrote it down in case of doubt
Slow, slow, quick, quick, quick
Its wall to wall and brick to brick
They work so fast it makes you sick
Its build
Its build a house where we can stay
Add a new bit everyday
Its build a road for us to cross
Build us lots and lots and lots and lots and lots
Its build
Down with sticks and up with bricks
In with boots and up with roots
Its in with suits and new recruits
Its build
song performed by by Housemartins
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My Foundations
A house is nothing
Without its foundations.
Just as much as
I am without my foundations.
Foundations hold everything together.
Safe, intact and ready for anything,
Ready for renovations,
Or in my case changes,
Ready for tornadoes,
Or in my case challenges,
Ready for earthquakes,
Or in my case very down days,
Foundations make things ready for life.
Without foundations
A house cannot be built,
Without a house.
A couple cannot make a family,
Without a family,
A home cannot be made,
And to me home is everything,
With my foundations,
I wouldn't have grown up in Guelph,
Without my foundations,
I wouldnt have had a perfect childhood,
Without my foundations,
I wouldn't have travelled across the world,
Without my foundations,
I wouldn't be who I am now,
Without my foundations,
My life wouldn't have so much love,
Without my foundations,
I would be nothing,
Just like a house is
Without its foundations.
I am proud and grateful,
To call my foundations,
My mother
And most of all my father.
poem by Music Galore
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Good Carpenters
I mourn a dead friend, like myself, a good carpenter.
-Pablo Neruda about César Vallejo
I looked at the book.
'It will stand,' I thought.
Not a palace
built by a newspaper czar,
nor a mud hovel
that the sea will soften,
but a good house of words
near the sea
with everything plumb.
That is the most I can ask.
I have cut the wood myself
from my own forests,
I have sanded it smooth
with the grain.
I have left knotholes
for the muse to whistle through
-old siren that she is.
At least the roof does not leak.
& the fireplace is small
but it draws.
The wind whips the house
but it stands.
& the waves lick
the pilings
with their tongues
but at least they do not suck me
out to sea.
The sea is wordless
but it tries to talk to us.
We carpenters are also translators.
We build with sounds, with whispers & with wind.
We try to speak the language of the sea.
We want to build to last
yet change forever.
We want to be as endless as the sea.
& yet she mocks us
with her barnacle & rust stains;
she tells us what we build will also fall.
Our words are grains of sand,
our walls are wood,
our windowpanes are sprayed with solemn salt.
We whisper, as we build, 'Forever please,'
-by which we mean at least for thirty years.
poem by Erica Jong
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The Houses
1898 -- A Song of the Dominions
'Twixt my house and thy house the pathway is broad,
In thy house or my house is half the world's hoard;
By my house and thy house hangs all the world's fate,
On thy house and my house lies half the world's hate.
For my house and thy house no help shall we find
Save thy house and my house -- kin cleaving to kind;
If my house be taken, thine tumbleth anon.
If thy house be forfeit, mine followeth soon.
'Twixt my house and thy house what talk can there be
Of headship or lordship, or service or fee?
Since my house to thy house no greater can send
Than thy house to my house -- friend comforting friend;
And thy house to my house no meaner can bring
Than my house to thy house -- King counselling King.
poem by Rudyard Kipling
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Melancholic....
I have my own dreams
i keep them in my house
and no one sees them
every night i look at all
these dreams of mine
my treasure, my gold
they do not glitter anymore
i have my own rusty dreams
and i keep them inside my house
there they all turn to powder
to dust, to nothing
one night i am tired of all these dreams
put them all inside a box
and throw them all to the sea
and then the sea has all my dreams
now i have my house without dreams
it is an empty house
proud with nothing but myself alone
i am the dream of this house
it's only dream
soon the house shall be gone
soon i shall be too gone
someone shall build another house
another dream......
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Stranger
Look at me baby, tell me what you see
Am I the one you love or am I your enemy
You can turn your head, I can wash my hands
But Ive got to know where you stand
cause sometimes I feel like a stranger in my house
And I wonder whos lying with me
Im seeing ghosts walking round in the hallways
And they look like we used to be
When I look in the mirror I see
A stranger in my house
A stranger in my house
We built this house of love, it was safe inside these walls
But if love isnt living here, this house will surely fall
Weve got to scream, weve got to fight
Do anything to make it alright
We can scream it
Got to work it out and find the book of love
We can shout it out
Got to open up and shed a little blood
Its raining on the outside but the house has sprung a leak
I can take it, you can hit me
I can turn the other cheek
Got to do anything we got to do baby, baby look at where weve been
We can build it up, we can tear it down
But weve got to start again
song performed by by Rick Springfield
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I'll build you a house!
You lady so bewitching, is your charm,
You lady, disarmed is me, your arrow, my heart is struck
As weaver birds do their houses, on tree tops
As ants make, colonies, for their queens,
As my ancestors, spear in blood they had dipped,
That, their grand sons, would build houses, for their loved ones
So, I'll build you a house, my queen,
Where my ancestors had pointed, with their walking sticks
A place with tall grass where marks were made with sticks
We'll watch the sunsets, and bless the rising moon.
I'll build you a house, my queen!
poem by Charles Jagongo Ogola
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Never To Be Heard From Again!
gonna lay down my pen,
and pick up a hammer.
gonna build a house big enough
to house all the homeless.
gonna build a bridge
over the chasm of need.
then i'm gonna lay down my hammer,
and pick up the cookpot.
gonna fill it with enough food
to feed all the hungry.
gonna build a fire
that both lights the way
and warms...
gonna talk, and listen,
and really hear!
gonna show them how to plant,
and how to work the fields.
gonna work side by side,
and know every man's name.
gonna take everything
that i've seen and felt,
and lay it like an offering
on the path to tomorrow.
then i'm gonna put on my hat,
and walk out the door...
never to be heard from again!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Not Finished
A perfect night
the stars are sparkling bright
staring into the sky,
the little house in the creek
sits nestled under the tall mossy tree
the house aged by nature...beautiful
as the rain starts to pour
the tall mossy tree protects the house and its front door
the mossy tree bears the weight of the sky
as the house is kept dry
more clouds swarm in recklessly
lightning cracks as it sets fire to the tall mossy tree
the tree stands strong....
but i doesn't know if it can last long
as the rain runs down the tree's trunk and roots
like tears
poem by Wandering Scarlet
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The Cities Of White Men
Those men build many houses:
They dig the earth, and they build;
They cut down the trees, and they build;
They work always - building.
From the elevation of the mountainside
I behold the clouds:
The clouds build many beautiful houses in the sky:
They build, and they tear down;
They build, and they dissolve. . . .
The cities of white men,
They are not beautiful like the cloud cities;
They are not vast, like the cloud cities. . . .
A wind-swept teepee
Is all the house I own. . .
poem by Anonymous Americas
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House Of Jazz
Humdinger
Bell ringer
Got a nasty stinger
To slow you down
Mud slinger
Gold digger
Who point the finger
And do you down
Kickin' and a fightin' on a TV show
Lightin' blindin' in the middle of the road
Are you comin' in
Are you comin' in
I said come into the house of
Come into the house of
Come into the house of jazz
Come into the house of
Come into the house of
Come into the house of jazz
Ball stripper
Big tipper
Got a slap 'n' tickler
To make you growl
Spitin' and bitin' on a TV show
Tightenin' frightenin' givin' out a load
Are you comin' in
Are you comin' in
I said come into the house of
Come into the house of
Come into the house of jazz
Come into the house of
Come into the house of
Come into the house of jazz
Are you comin' in
Come on in
Are you comin' in
Are you comin' in
I said come into the house of
Come into the house of
Come into the house of jazz
Come into the house of
Come into the house of
Come into the house of jazz
Are you comin' in
Are you comin' in
I said into the house of jazz
Come into the house of
Come into the house of
Come into the house of jazz
The house of jazz
song performed by by AC/DC from Stiff Upper Lip
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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