Silk-Washing Temple
As the states of Wu and Yue piled plot upon plot,
the silk-washing goddess offered ease;
a pair of laughing dimples turned the prince's head,
and a hundred thousand soldiers let fall their shining spears.
Fan Li, having succeeded, went into retirement;
Wu Xu died for his advice, and his country was wiped out.
And yet, today, by the long river at Zhuji,
there's nothing but a green hill named Zhu Luo.
Related quotes
The Shining Star Around You
I am the shining star around you,
And like a plot size, '100 x 120' in your neighbourhood;
But, i need a lovely house on this plot to rest my muse,
For, the hatred around us today had led many to war! !
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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I always start with characters rather than with a plot, which many critics would say is very obvious from the lack of plot in my films - although I think they do have plots - but the plot is not of primary importance to me, the characters are.
quote by Jim Jarmusch
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Many Noble Men
Many noble men
Many ignoble men....
have stood back to back
And fought in trenches
For some noble cause
And died like fools
To satisfy the warmongers
Who sit in their comfortable palaces
And plot
And plot
And plot.........
How to fill their coffers
How to expand their tents
How to create a holocaust
That will turn respectable, genteel folk
Into brute beasts and killers;
And without emotion
They send,
Many noble men
Many ignoble men...............
To their untimely death.
poem by Enoch John
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One Hundred Thousand Marching
One hundred thousand marching
One hundred thousand men
One hundred thousand heading
To a place and a time when
One hundred thousand dying
One hundred thousand cold
One hundred thousand praying
Forever young and never old
One hundred thousand lives were lost
One hundred thousand felt the pain
One hundred thousand maimed and slaughtered
And yet those armies march again.
poem by David Keig
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Town And Country
Touched by a butterfly on my way home
Flying who knows where
Walking down that dusty road
Without a care
The sun was shining up in the country
And bells were ringing downtown
Clouds were moving slow and lazy
While I was kicking around
And feeling out the town and the country
Feeling out the town and the country
Up on the hill I got a better look
I watched the river run brown (watched the river run brown)
And then I heard those songbirds singing
The country sound
When I got home I sat in my kitchen
And turned the television on (turned the TV on)
The news wasn't good so I didn't listen
I started clicking around
Thinking of the town and the country
I was thinking of the town and the country
Thinking of the town and the country
In the morning everything will be the same
Open up your world (watch the children play)
In the sun or rain
Thinking of the town and the country
A thinking of the town and the country
I was thinking of the town and the country (fade)
song performed by by America
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Town & Country
Written by dewey bunnell and gerry beckley, 1998
Found on human nature.
Touched by a butterfly on my way home
Flying who knows where
Walking down that dusty road
Without a care
The sun was shining up in the country
And bells were ringing downtown
Clouds were moving slow and lazy
While I was kicking around
And feeling out the town and the country
Feeling out the town and the country
Up on the hill I got a better look
I watched the river run brown (watched the river run brown)
And then I heard those songbirds singing
The country sound
When I got home I sat in my kitchen
And turned the television on (turned the tv on)
The news wasnt good so I didnt listen
I started clicking around
Thinking of the town and the country
I was thinking of the town and the country
Thinking of the town and the country
In the morning everything will be the same
Open up your world (watch the children play)
In the sun or rain
Thinking of the town and the country
A thinking of the town and the country
I was thinking of the town and the country (fade)
song performed by by America
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You can't remember the plot of the Dr Who movie because it didn't have one, just a lot of plot holes strung together. It did have a lot of flashing lights, though.
quote by Terry Prachett
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My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about.
quote by Jeffery Deaver
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Phantoms in my dreams
Another river flooded with blood
with thousands of enemy soldiers
wiped out, as if their lives
mattered not to man.
Almost a hundred tanks shot out,
more than three hundred
armoured cars destroyed
and some tanks,
(more than the fingers
on my hands)
just left behind
with the occupants running away
to hide in the veldt
and to this day
the shocking reality
of that battle scenes
are phantoms in my dreams.
poem by Gert Strydom
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This means keeping many trails open at once, inevitably requiring a fairly 'parallel' plot. This plot should be discovered rather than announced, so show, don't tell.
quote by Graham Nelson
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The time has mainly gone on getting Inform into a decent shape for public use. I suppose the plot of 'Curses' makes a sequel conceivable when compared with, say, the plot of 'Hamlet' but none is planned.
quote by Graham Nelson
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Changgan Memories
When first my hair began to cover my forehead,
I picked and played with flowers before the gate.
You came riding on a bamboo horse,
And circled the walkway, playing with green plums.
We lived together, here in Changgan county,
Two children, without the least suspicion.
When I was fourteen, I became your wife,
So shy that still my face remained unopened.
I bowed my head towards the shadowed wall,
And called one thousand times, I turned not once.
At 15 I began to lift my brows,
And wished to be with you as dust with ashes.
You always kept your massive pillar faith,
I had no need to climb the lookout hill.
When I was sixteen, you went far away,
To Yanyudui, within the Qutang gorge.
You should not risk the dangerous floods of May,
Now from the sky, the monkeys cry in mourning.
Before the gate, my pacing's left a mark,
Little by little, the green moss has grown.
The moss is now too deep to sweep away,
And leaves fall in the autumn's early winds.
This August, all the butterflies are yellow,
A pair fly over the western garden's grass.
I feel that they are damaging my heart,
Through worrying, my rosy face grows old.
When you come down the river from Sanba,
Beforehand, send a letter to your home.
We'll go to meet each other, however far,
I'll come up to Changfengsha.
The Stream
The Stream of Consciousness.
A laughing clown filled the heavenly screen, a grin full of malice.
Behind him bearded men were eating children, wine and blood
ran down their chests, they were having the time of their life.
Democracy is great they chanted: freedom to exploit the weak
and poor. They were friendly offered me a child’s soft arm and
thigh, But I shook my head and walked on I had to find my way
home. And there it was shining red on a hill in afternoon light.
The apartment block had no entrance rope hung from windows,
my flat was on the third floor. I tried to climb up it was vital for
me to get home, but half way up I lost the grip, too feeble,
I slid down and my hands burst into flames, I put my hands into
a bucket of water that turned into wine, which I coolly drank.
A fire engine hasted by I tried to hail it to borrow their ladder,
but they had no time to stop so many other fires breaking out.
I walked to the everlasting river, sat on a stone and listened to
Its universal language. Then I let go and became the river.
poem by Oskar Hansen
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Memo To Human Resources
I'll be in the back, and I don't need the help
I'm good here in the back
I'm good all by myself
I'm busy taking stock of all the things that I've forgot (5 4 3 2)
And making mental notes of just exactly where I lost the plot (2 2 2 2)
I stuck around too long feeling sorry for myself
A disinvited guest rifles through the bathroom shelf
I'm searching for some disbelief that I can still suspend (5 4 3 2)
But never mind the furthermore-the plea is self-defense again (2 2 2 2)
Then the people came to talk me down
And I got some advice
Then the people came to talk me down
But I don't need advice-I'm down
Later in my car I considered what you said
I'm good here in my car
I'm good with what you said
And I'd be shouting out to you but I was mighty hoarse
Talk you through the finer points and issues much too small to force
Then the people came to talk me down
And I got some advice
Then the people came to talk me down
But I don't need advice-I'm down
song performed by by They Might Be Giants
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Eland’s River
IT WAS on the fourth of August, as five hundred of us lay
In the camp at Eland’s River, came a shell from De La Rey—
We were dreaming of home faces,
Of the old familiar places,
And the gum-trees and the sunny plains five thousand miles away—
But the challenge woke and found us
With four thousand rifles round us;
And Death stood laughing at us at the breaking of the day.
Hell belched upon our borders, and the battle had begun.
Our Maxims jammed: We faced them with one muzzle-loading gun.
East, south, and west, and nor’ward
Their shells came screaming forward
As we threw the sconces round us in the first light of the sun.
The thin air shook with thunder
As they raked us fore and under,
And the cordon closed around us, as they held us—eight to one.
We got the Maxims going, and the field-gun into place
(She stilled the growling of a Krupp upon our southern face);
Round the crimson ring of battle
Swiftly ran the deadly rattle
As our rifles searched their fore-lines with a desperate menace;
Who would wish himself away
Fighting in our ranks that day
For the glory of Australia and the honour of the race?
But our horse-lines soon were shambles, and our cattle lying dead
(When twelve guns rake two acres there is little room to tread),
All day long we heard the drumming
Of the Mauser bullets humming,
And at night their guns, day-sighted, rained fierce havoc overhead.
Twelve long days and nights together,
Through the cold and bitter weather,
We lay grim behind the sconces, and returned them lead for lead.
They called us to surrender, and they let their cannon lag;
They offered us our freedom for the striking of the flag—
Army stores were there in mounds,
Worth a hundred thousand pounds,
And we lay battered round them behind trench and sconce and crag.
But we sent the answer in,
They could take what they could win—
We hadn’t come five thousand miles to fly the coward’s rag.
We saw the guns of Carrington come on and, fall away;
We saw the ranks of Kitchener across the kopje grey—
For the sun was shining then
Upon twenty thousand men—
And we laughed, because we knew, in spite of hell-fire and delay,
On Australia’s page for ever
We had written Eland’s River—
We had written it for ever and a day!
poem by George Essex Evans
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A Hundred Spells
Turandot, Puccini’s opera, told by stylised illustrations in a book
the heart of an Ice Princess frozen by the Moon Goddess, three
riddles posed to every Prince who wished to be her suitor on pain
of death if he could not get the answers right, beheaded by
imperial gesture of the shimmering beauty
Another Prince intrigued by the Princess, the first riddle: Every
night it soars anew, every day it dies - Hope, he replied; Illusion
said the Princess cold - the second riddle: Dream and the flame
flares anew - It is my blood that burns within with love for you,
answered the Prince - the third riddle: What is ice
that gives you fire - You cast a hundred spells - he sighed, The
answer is Turandot; he won the challenge, but would not marry
her against her will, set her one riddle - Say my name, made
her a gift of it to doom them both if she named him, then she
declared LOVE to be the stranger’s name
Chose to marry the strange Prince who by being brave and
generous won her respect; she despised all others but
feared him, cried her first tears - Conquer you or be
conquered – an enchanting Persian tale from A
Thousand and One Nights
poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Preference
Sometimes we have to stand on our own two feet,
And make our own decisions.
We can take a slice, of some good advice,
But decide on our own intuitions.
No one can live our lives for us,
It is something we alone have to do,
And whether or not, we lose the plot,
We should be determined to see it through.
Suggestions, hints and opinions,
Are all valid and help one decide,
And it's really your preference, that is of the essence,
So at least you can say that you tried.
Sometimes we have to stand on our own two feet,
So courage is what's really required.
But the future's unseen, and there's no way to glean,
If our choices have succeeded or backfired.
We all take a chance when deciding,
Which is the right scheme to pick,
Taking time to work out, what your plan's all about,
Is what you would call, philosophic.
poem by Ernestine Northover
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Grass Cutting
Today a hundred yards of green lawn
along the river promenade,
interspersed with small trees and bushes,
are ready for trimming.
Fifteen men and women
with strimmers, baskets and long-handled brushes
are given the job of creating great clouds
of fine green and brown dust,
interspersed with sitting and laughing
in a circle in the shade,
to give the heat of the day a chance to fade;
a not unpleasant communal occupation.
This would cause a sensation,
or even provoke outrage
in England, where one Council Worker
must do it all on the minimum wage.
www.bamboo-leaves.com
poem by Brian Taylor
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Brain Washing
Ooh-ooh
Old mr. joe, he build a house away
On top of some hill
Old mr. joe knew he had to go, so he
He got right down and wrote bank will
He say now, heres to mother hen
And her chicken, lord have mercy now
Master, will you take a roll in the mud
Like you know you should?
The old barnyard, the old barnyard
Birds and the chick, ooh-wee
Whos got to watch out for brother mongoose
With his top hap and walking-stick?
Its just the poors brain washing
(poors ...) they told me a long time ago,
Its just the poors brain washing, ooh-wee
(poors brain washing) now look at a thing like this
Cinderella and her long lost fellow
In the midnight hour, she lost her silver slipper
Humpty dumpty sat on a wall
While jack and jill had themselves a fall
Its just the poors (... brain washing)
And I dont need it no longer (... washing)
Its just the poors brain washing
Coming through to a poor mans child, ooh-wee, look at this
Little miss muffet she sat on a tuffet
While little red riding hood delivered her grandmoms food
Ooh-wee ooh-wee
Ooh-wee, look at one more thing like this
The cow jumping over the moon
While the dish got jealous, he grabbed the handy spoon
Its just the poors brain washing
And I dont need it no longer, I dont want it no longer
I dont need it no longer (...washing)
And I dont care for no more brain washing (... washing) ...
song performed by by Bob Marley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Back up the Hill
As I walked down to the river today
I met a man with no legs in a chair
we spoke about life and he stood tall in a way
as I walked down to the river
As I walked on I met a blind girl
who gave me directions just over the hill
for someone like me who was lost she could see
as I walked on to the river
Down by the banks I met a small child
whose mother and father had recently died
and he splashed around with a heartful of life
down by the banks of the river
As I looked in the river I saw a young man
a reflection of me if you understand
who thought he would end it as he coudn't cope
as I looked into the river
Considering the people I met on the way
they didn't give up I heard myself say
and though I believed that I'd been through the mill
I laughed at the river, and walked back up the hill.
poem by Charles M. Moore
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