Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.
Richard Lovelace in To Althea from Prison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Stone Walls
Written by - Jim Croce
It's been too many years inside this prison
Too many years just for one little fight
He got what was comin'
And I think I served enough time
I'm goin' home tonight
That stone looks mighty cold
And the guard that walks that wall
Is just waitin' to get a convict in his sights
But if I can clear the top
You can bet I'll never stop
Cause I'm goin' home tonight
Chorus:
Because stone walls do a prison
Make iron bars a cage
Any man who says they don't
Never been inside
Cause in time the bars get closer
And at night the walls grow tighter
Do you feel like there's a shackle around your mind?
Now those guards are on my tail
I can hear those sirens wail
But I know that I'll get away and that I'll be alright
Cause I'd rather live on the run
Stand free in the morning sun
Then to spend another lonely prison night
Chorus
song performed by by Jim Croce
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Home Song
I read within a poet's book
A word that starred the page:
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage!"
Yes, that is true; and something more
You'll find, where'er you roam,
That marble floors and gilded walls
Can never make a home.
But every house where Love abides,
And Friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home-sweet-home:
For there the heart can rest.
poem by Henry Van Dyke
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A World Cagged
our world is like a prison
but without iron bars
we are cagged in here
killing all the stars
no walls to obstruct our view
no concrete floors to walk on
no chains to hide you
only a box that cant be seen
we must live in this cage
till we die of old age
when we join the stars
and leave the world of bars
poem by Brandon Brooks
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Iron Bars Of Mine
I stand behind these old iron bars,
To see the things, that I can see
I see a world that is changing everyday,
A world, that will not wait for me.
Behind these iron bars where I must lay,
Behind these bars where I must stay.
In this world where I am alone
Its a world that I helped build,
I make not the laws for how I live,
Time for me, she is held still.
As tomorrow is the same as it is today,
And today is the same, as yesterday.
Behind these bars, its where I am
It is the place where I sit and lie,
My destiny for me has already been chose,
For this is the place where I will die.
When the youth of mine turns into old,
When the dewdrops of dreams turn into snow.
The world that I made out of iron and stone
Where freedom and life is locked away
Where life is a waste, and living a haste,
It is where myself alone will forever stay.
Days and years for me, I have no care.
My only solitude, is sleep and prayer.
My day for me; she will someday come
When from my bars I am allowed to leave,
I will welcome that day with open arms and hope,
As those iron bars, will close behind me..
And for that day I will constantly pray,
As I leave those bars, for the bars of my a grave.
Randy L. McClave
poem by Randy McClave
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Roses Growing In Our Own Prison Walls
this is the situation,
soon you will find
you live in prison walls,
and those who see you
tell you
you have no God.
perhaps they say that
since they see no
icons on our walls
we bow not
to sunsets
we make no wooden
crosses
oh, let us tell them
we've grown roses in our prison walls
on the fertile grounds
of our heart
we speak to God
in our poetry
with all the silence and
gentleness
and patience of the
snail
we have gone beyond
wood, and stone,
and images,
we have passed through
all these walls
man-made as they are,
we have jumped over the
fences of
the flesh, and they who use
their eyes
in the middle of their own
human light
do not see
we, have, only,
hearts.
we, are, pure,
hearts.
we, are, love,
solitude,
in privacy with
our God.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Walls
Walls of stone and walls of brick,
Some walls thin and some walls thick,
Walls so high and walls so low,
Walls to hide and walls to show.
Walls quite short and walls quite tall,
Some walls, last well, some walls fall,
Walls for comfort, walls of hate,
Walls for security, walls ornate.
Some as a barricade, some to support,
Walls of wood and walls of iron wrought,
Walls as a barrier, walls to enclose,
Some are to sit on, some to lean and doze.
Walls we build ourselves, these aren't good,
Walls for privacy, walls that have stood,
So many years through weather foul or fine,
Walls, that are yours, walls that are mine.
Brick by brick they are built to last,
Whether built now or in the past,
They shelter us from so many things,
And shield us from whatever this life brings.
poem by Ernestine Northover
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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To Althea From Prison.
I.
When love with unconfined wings
Hovers within my gates;
And my divine ALTHEA brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lye tangled in her haire,
And fetterd to her eye,
The birds, that wanton in the aire,
Know no such liberty.
II.
When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying THAMES,
Our carelesse heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty griefe in wine we steepe,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deepe,
Know no such libertie.
III.
When (like committed linnets) I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetnes, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my King.
When I shall voyce aloud, how good
He is, how great should be,
Inlarged winds, that curle the flood,
Know no such liberty.
IV.
Stone walls doe not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Mindes innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedome in my love,
And in my soule am free,
Angels alone that sore above
Enjoy such liberty.
poem by Richard Lovelace
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A Criminal Mind
I Lyrics and Words by Lawrence Gowan
from his album Strange Animal
You've seen my hands are steady
You've seen my face before
Soon you can take your last look
And they'll close the door
I stand accused before you
I have no tears to cry
And you will never break me
Until the day I die
A criminal mind was all I
All I've ever known
They've tried to reform me
Cause I'm made of cold stone
My criminal mind is all I
All I've ever had
Ask one who's known me
If I'm really so bad...
I am
I've spent my life behind these steel bars
I've paid my debt in time
But being brought to justice
That was my only crime
I don't regret action
I'd do the same again
These prison walls secure me
And I'm numb to pain
A criminal mind was all I
All I've ever known
They've tried to reform me
But I'm made of cold stone
My criminal mind is all I
All I've ever had
Ask one who's known me
If I'm really so bad...
I am
Before you hand me over
Before you read my sentence
I'd like to say a few words
Here in my own defense
Some people struggle daily
They struggle with their conscience 'til the end
I have no guilt to haunt me
I feel no wrong intent
A criminal mind is all I
All I've ever known
Don't try to reform me
Cause I'm made of cold stone
My criminal mind is all I
All I've ever had
Ask one who's known me
If I'm really so bad...
I am
Oh I am
Oh I am
I'm made of cold stone
Made of cold stone
I'm just like these prison walls
A criminal mind
song performed by by Styx
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My Ribs Melting Under The Glowing Weight Of A Swollen Blue Flame!
Yet for tonight I wish I was in the candles wax,
my ribs melting under the glowing weight of a swollen blue flame.
nestling into a warm plash! While sending my perfumed thoughts
my smokey dreams to play around in my desolate screams
in my dumb glum bleak creaking prison,
to escape loudly into the chill streets of night like late started bloc parties
to escape by way of splintered stone walls and innocent iron bars!
The whimsy cadences of the sparkling speckling snow translated
via my sharp piano key fingers,
to chase the blue blue blues away.
Only in the red red ready day would I harden again and put my body together.
poem by Jerome Moore
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Invisible Bars
It's not prison bars in front of my face
that take my freedom away.
It's people that want to control the world
that won't let my freedom stay.
It's not a cage that traps me inside
and won't allow me to fly.
It's the powerful ones that always hide
just waiting for me to die.
7 billion bodies now on this earth
and most of them aren't free.
It's a tragic play for most of us
that turned into a comedy.
But then the stage was always set
before we came to this place
to take my freedom away from me
with invisible bars before my face.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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Inside A Cage
he is inside a cage
and he does not really want to be inside the cage forever
the cage however is different
it is not locked and no one guards it
he is free to go out and get in anytime
this cage of his choice
he wants to get out of this cage for good
he just can't
he loves to be caged somehow
despite the protest of his reason
he goes out to free himself but only after a while
he gets inside the cage again
in fact he is more inside it and locking himself in it even
he loves what this cage can provide him
his sense of privacy his taste for an enclosure
his genes his sense of wanting to be alone
his beloved prison where he keeps his sins
it is where his ecstasies are hatched and grown
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Sometimes 2
Sometimes walls are comforting and secure
while other walls seem like a prison make.
Sometimes places hold a comfort zone
while others hold an alien atmosphere.
Sometimes we feel not wanted
while other times we feel like home.
Sometimes we feel trapped by circumstance
and all the time we want to be free.
Sometimes a break is not a break
but just our prison walls make.
It is then we wish we were far away
in the comfort of our home.
16 September 2010
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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VI
The tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.
They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, "O my love, let us fly to wood."
The cage bird whispers, "Come hither, let us both live in the
cage."
Says the free bird, "Among bars, where is there room to spread
one's wings?"
"Alas," cries the cage bird, "I should not know where to sit
perched in the sky."
The free bird cries, "My darling, sing the songs of the
woodlands."
The cage bird says, "Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of
the learned."
The forest bird cries, "No, ah no! songs can never be taught."
The cage bird says, "Alas for me, I know not the songs of the
woodlands."
Their love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing
to wing.
Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to
know each other.
They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, "Come closer, my
love!"
The free bird cries, "It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of
the cage."
The cage bird whispers, "Alas, my wings are powerless and dead."
poem by Rabindranath Tagore from The Gardener (1913)
Submitted by Silvia Velea
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Midsummer Dream
I dreamed of Paradise Garden;
sunlight sliding down
from an infinite sky
through cedar trees to emerald lawns;
oriental poppies six feet high,
Indian butterflies gliding by
through multilayered shades of blue.
Olympian Apollo’s statue
holds a fountain in his hands,
which swirls and mists, sparkles and cools,
cascading down to deep green pools,
where red carp flash on silver sands.
Gazing round I find,
beyond the mirror of my mind,
past flowering trees and shrubberies,
how all around
this fertile ground
the garden is confined
within a fence of iron bars,
which stretches high
to arch across and make a canopy
between me and the sky.
The falcons, hawks and eagles
which circle round are kept at bay
and cannot swoop to seize as prey
the song birds that sing here all day.
Beyond the bars, a crawling multitude
swarms to and fro insatiably
but cannot find its way
into my garden solitude.
Heavens! I thought, the truth is clear to me!
That restless swarming world
is a prison shut in by iron bars.
Only I, in my garden, am completely free!
poem by Brian Taylor
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Two Roads
Two roads have gone
To the same direction:
One is full of stone
With two parallel bars of iron
Where I've never ridden on.
Other is carpeted by stone
And full of busy horn
Where competition is common.
Through this one I've gone
To my direction.
poem by Riffat Samad
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The Tame Bird Was In A Cage
THE tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.
They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, 'O my love, let us fly to the wood.'
The cage bird whispers, 'Come hither, let us both live in the cage.'
Says the free bird, 'Among bars, where is there room to spread one's wings?'
'Alas,' cries the caged bird, 'I should not know where to sit perched in the sky.'
The free bird cries, 'My darling, sing the songs of the woodlands.'
The cage bird sings, 'Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of the learned.'
The forest bird cries, 'No, ah no! songs can never be taught.'
The cage bird says, 'Alas for me, I know not the songs of the woodlands.'
There love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing to wing.
Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to know each other.
They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, 'Come closer, my love!'
The free bird cries, 'It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of the cage.'
The cage bird whispers, 'Alas, my wings are powerless and dead.'
poem by Rabindranath Tagore
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The parrot
Cage in like in a prison
it walks up and down
and looks at itself in the mirror
and it gets food and water
and the days pass
and water and food it gets
and in its prison it has to stay
and it remembers the green woods
and the odours of bananas
and berries and nuts
and the blue sky
that is open and free
and streams
where the most delicious water flows.
It calls to its mate
and ask for salvation
and nobody and nothing comes
and out of the humdrum
it starts to imitate sounds
and its people
take it out of its cage
and scratches its head
and cuts its wings
and bring delicacies,
but back to its prison
it must go en its serve it sentence
until it dies.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Carve Away The Stone
Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson
You can roll that stone
To the top of the hill
Drag your ball and chain
Behind you
You can carry that weight
With an iron will
Or let the pain remain
Behind you
Chip away the stone
(sisyphus)
Chip away the stone
Make the burden lighter
If you must roll that rock alone
You can drive those wheels
To the end of the road
You will still find the past right
Behind you
The weight of the load
Try to put the sins of the past night
Behind you
Carve away the stone
(sisyhpus)
Carve away the stone
Make a graven image
With some features of your own
You call roll the stone
To the top of the hill
You can carry that weight
With an iron will
You can drive those wheels
To the end of the road
You can try to deny
The weight of the load
Roll away the stone
(sisyhpus)
Roll away the stone
If you could just move yours
I could get working on my own
song performed by by Rush
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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No One Knows My Plan
In my prison cell I think these words
I was careless
I can see that now
I must be silent
Must contain my secret smile
I want to tell you
You my mirror
You my iron bars
When I made a shadow on my window shade
They called the police and testified
But theyre like the people chained up in the cave
In the allegory of the people in the cave by the greek guy
No one understands
No one knows my plan
Why the dancing, shouting
Why the shrieks of pain
The lovely music
Why the smell of burning autumn leaves
No one understands
No one knows my plan
Why the dancing, shouting
Why the shrieks of pain
The lovely music
Why the smell of burning autumn leaves
In my prison cell I bide my time
Always thinking
Always busy cooking up an angle
Working on the tiny blueprint of the angle
Sketching out the burning autumn leaves
No one understands
No one knows my plan
I must be silent, must contain my secret smile
I want to tell you
You my mirror
You my iron bars
No one understands
No one knows my plan
song performed by by They Might Be Giants
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Vision
In midst of Natures bounty I espied
Aside a stream, a gilded gleaming cage.
Its tenant was a lifeless bird inside.
Engrossed in thought in view of deaths image
I deemed the death from thirst beside water.
Within the cage were dual empty basins
The one for food, and of course, the other.
It’s like a wealthy man who’s locked within
His iron safe, amid his heaps of gold.
And perishing within this house of ease
Of hunger pangs and thirst as time unfolds.
Then suddenly a strangest vision seized
My weary eyes, the cage became the bones
Of Man, the bird, his prisoned heart of stone.
poem by Albert Ahearn
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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