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The Hiway

Past the breakers, sliver by you never try you
On the tuffet that you never were afraid of
Anyone that was not you
In the corner, tried to warn her i, i, i
Caught in traffic in the middle of the night
In the middle of the hiway
The hiway
Got your hands in the dirt
Got your head in the grass
You're tryin' to hold on to some of your
Past the test now
You're runnin' outta breath no one behind you
On the subject of religion decision devision
Collision, provision, cold hard television
Collective bargaining and talk radio radio
Your mother your brother your sister your lover
Your father whom art in heaven
Got to be home by eleven if you wanna be a good girl
You got your hands in the dirt
Got your head in the hiway

song performed by Train
Added by Lucian Velea
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Wasteland

Out into the wasteland
Out into the wasteland
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion at all
No religion
Emissionary man amongst the heathen
Cant you see a modern primitive
I came back, Im gonna find,
Im gonna give religion
When there was, no religion at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion, no religion at all
Theres a man in need of resurrection
(no religion)
Cant you see a modern primitive
(no religion)
But Im a man I need my love and
Freedom (no religion)
When there was no freedom at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion at all
Im outta the wasteland
Im into this head man
Im outta the wasteland
No religion, no religion at all
No religion
No religion at all
No religion
No religion at all
In vr land
The future of fun
Tell me what to do
In vr law
Computer crime
Um, so sublime

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song performed by Billy Idol
Added by Lucian Velea
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Running To You

Im comin around
I want you to come
Im comin arou-ound
Just for the fun
Havin a real time
Just taking whats not mine
And Im doin what I want to do
Thats runnin to you
(runnin to you)
(runnin to you)
Thats runnin to you
(runnin to you)
Thats (runnin to you) runnin to you
Youre lookin for someone
Maniacal shots
Youre lookin for someone
All over the top
Im havin a real time
Just reading your head-line
And Im doin just what I want to do
Thats runnin to you
(runnin to you)
(runnin to you) runnin to you
Thats runnin to you
(runnin to you)
(runnin to you)
Youre hopin for someone
That fits in the plan
Youre hopin for someone
Two in the hand
Havin a real time
Just taking whats not mine
And Im doin what I like to do
Thats runnin to you
(runnin to you)
(runnin to you)
A runnin a runnin to you
(runnin to you)
Thats runnin to you
(runnin to you)
Uh thats runnin to you
(runnin to you)
(runnin to you) runnin to you
(runnin to you) runnin runnin runnin to you
Runnin to you
(runnin to you)
I like runnin to you
(runnin to you)
(runnin to you) runnin runnin to you
(runnin to you)

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song performed by Cars
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Runnin'

It's hard to hit a moving target
At least that's what I've been told
If they can't catch you they can't hurt you
You never let them get a hold
So I keep runinn'
I keep right on runnin'
I've always pushed it to the limit
In fact I've pushed it way past that
If you got guts then jump on in it
If not then don't forget your hat
And I keep runnin'
Keep on runnin'
Runnin', runnin', runnin'
Even though I'm cryin'
Runnin', runnin', runnin'
Keep myself from dyin'
Kick back, relax, don't try to fight it
I'm like a time bomb set to blow
Oh babe, you make me so excited
I just can't take it anymore
I might stop cryin'
Feels like I'm flyin'
Runnin', runnin', runnin'
Though it feels like flyin'
Runnin', runnin', runnin'
You make me feel like dyin'
Sail - sail - sail
Sail - sail - sail
Babe, I can't run away from you
But I'm scared to let you know
I never stayed one place long enough
To lose my will to go
Our future's way on up ahead
The past fades somewhere far behind
If we could just inveil our needs
No one could stop us or we'd be flyin'
We could stop runnin'
Stop all this runnin'
Runnin', runnin', runnin'
No more need for cryin'
Runnin', runnin', runnin'
Love feels like just flyin'
Sail - sail - sail
Runnin', runnin', runnin'
No more need for cryin'
Sail - sail - sail
Runnin', runnin', runnin'
Lovemake me feel like flyin'
Sail - sail - sail
Runnin', runnin', runnin'

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song performed by Cher
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You Got Me Runnin

Hang on
Yeah
Ha ha ha ha ha
I dont care too much for your backstabbin and side steppin
Youre all sweet talk, youre all lust
Youre the kind, yeah, I dont trust
I gotta get out, step aside
Before you damage my pride
Let me through dont spoil my view
I gotta get away, away from you
Oh no no never thought Id feel so low
You got me runnin
You got me runnin
I aint gonna hide
And yesterday everything seemed okay
Yeah you better run and hide away
Oh you better hide
Youre out, on the street
But Im back on my feet
I might lose it, so get wise
Stop your usin and your lies
Oh my friend dont stick around
Your time is up, the chips are down
Let me through dont spoil my view
I gotta get away, away from you
You got me runnin (you got me runnin)
You got me runnin (you got me runnin)
You got me runnin (you got me runnin)
You got me runnin, runnin, runnin
Cmon
Whoah
Oh oh oh oh yeah
Runnin and runnin
Runnin
Oh
Watch me run
Runnin, runnin, runnin
You got me runnin (you got me runnin)
You got me runnin (you got me runnin)
You got me runnin (you got me runnin)
You got me runnin (you got me runnin)
Im gettin out (you got me runnin)
You cant say no no more (you got me runnin)
Get out the door (you got me runnin)
You got me runnin

song performed by Def Leppard
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Highway

Past the breakers, sliver by you never try you
On the tuffet that you never were afraid of
Anyone that was not you
In the corner, tried to warn her I, I, I
Caught in traffic in the middle of the night
In the middle of the highway
The highway
Got your hands in the dirt
Got your head in the grass
You're tryin' to hold on to some of your
Past the test now
You're runnin' outta breath no one behind you
On the subject of Religion decision devision
Collision, provision, cold hard television
Collective bargaining and talk radio radio
Your mother your brother your sister your lover
Your Father whom art in Heaven
Got to be home by eleven if you wanna be a good girl
You got your hands in the dirt
Got your head in the HIGHWAY

song performed by Train
Added by Lucian Velea
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The House Of Dust: Complete

I.

The sun goes down in a cold pale flare of light.
The trees grow dark: the shadows lean to the east:
And lights wink out through the windows, one by one.
A clamor of frosty sirens mourns at the night.
Pale slate-grey clouds whirl up from the sunken sun.

And the wandering one, the inquisitive dreamer of dreams,
The eternal asker of answers, stands in the street,
And lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain.
The purple lights leap down the hill before him.
The gorgeous night has begun again.

'I will ask them all, I will ask them all their dreams,
I will hold my light above them and seek their faces.
I will hear them whisper, invisible in their veins . . .'
The eternal asker of answers becomes as the darkness,
Or as a wind blown over a myriad forest,
Or as the numberless voices of long-drawn rains.

We hear him and take him among us, like a wind of music,
Like the ghost of a music we have somewhere heard;
We crowd through the streets in a dazzle of pallid lamplight,
We pour in a sinister wave, ascend a stair,
With laughter and cry, and word upon murmured word;
We flow, we descend, we turn . . . and the eternal dreamer
Moves among us like light, like evening air . . .

Good-night! Good-night! Good-night! We go our ways,
The rain runs over the pavement before our feet,
The cold rain falls, the rain sings.
We walk, we run, we ride. We turn our faces
To what the eternal evening brings.

Our hands are hot and raw with the stones we have laid,
We have built a tower of stone high into the sky,
We have built a city of towers.

Our hands are light, they are singing with emptiness.
Our souls are light; they have shaken a burden of hours . . .
What did we build it for? Was it all a dream? . . .
Ghostly above us in lamplight the towers gleam . . .
And after a while they will fall to dust and rain;
Or else we will tear them down with impatient hands;
And hew rock out of the earth, and build them again.

II.

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poem by Conrad Potter Aiken
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You Keep Runnin' Away

I hear your high-heels clickin' down the boulevard
You got your suitcase in hand, guess you're takin' it hard
You swear you'll never trust another man
Ah, but I know that you will, it's just a question of when
So open up your eyes to the light
You've been far too alone for too many nights, oh
Someday, someway, somewhere, love is gonna find you
Somehow, someone is gonna beg you to stay
But you keep on runnin', you keep runnin'
You keep on runnin' away
I hear it whispered in the neighborhood
At one time you were the best, it was just understood
Then someone came and took you for a fool
The word is out on the street that love is looking for you
So open up your eyes to the light
You've been far too alone for too many nights, oh
Someday, someway, somewhere, love is gonna find you
Somehow, somewhere, don't look now, I'm comin' up behind you
But you keep on runnin', you keep runnin'
You keep on runnin' away
Yes you do baby
So don't be fooled, you got me comin'
I ain't no fool, you keep me runnin'
And I don't know why
No, I don't know why
So open up, don't be afraid, baby
Is there someone standin' in our way
Won't you tell me why
Don't you tell me goodbye, oh
Someday, someway, somewhere, love is gonna find you
Somehow, someone is gonna beg you to stay, baby
Somehow, somewhere, don't look now, I'm comin' up behind you
But you keep runnin', you keep runnin'
You keep on runnin' away
But you keep on runnin', you keep runnin'
You keep on runnin' away
But you keep on runnin', you keep runnin'
You keep on runnin' away
But you keep on runnin', you keep runnin' away
But you keep on runnin', you keep runnin' away
But you keep on runnin', you keep runnin' away
But you keep on runnin', you keep runnin' away

song performed by 38 Special
Added by Lucian Velea
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Canto the Second

I
Oh ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations,
Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain,
I pray ye flog them upon all occasions,
It mends their morals, never mind the pain:
The best of mothers and of educations
In Juan's case were but employ'd in vain,
Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, he
Became divested of his native modesty.

II
Had he but been placed at a public school,
In the third form, or even in the fourth,
His daily task had kept his fancy cool,
At least, had he been nurtured in the north;
Spain may prove an exception to the rule,
But then exceptions always prove its worth -—
A lad of sixteen causing a divorce
Puzzled his tutors very much, of course.

III
I can't say that it puzzles me at all,
If all things be consider'd: first, there was
His lady-mother, mathematical,
A—never mind; his tutor, an old ass;
A pretty woman (that's quite natural,
Or else the thing had hardly come to pass);
A husband rather old, not much in unity
With his young wife—a time, and opportunity.

IV
Well—well, the world must turn upon its axis,
And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails,
And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,
And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails;
The king commands us, and the doctor quacks us,
The priest instructs, and so our life exhales,
A little breath, love, wine, ambition, fame,
Fighting, devotion, dust,—perhaps a name.

V
I said that Juan had been sent to Cadiz -—
A pretty town, I recollect it well -—
'T is there the mart of the colonial trade is
(Or was, before Peru learn'd to rebel),
And such sweet girls—I mean, such graceful ladies,
Their very walk would make your bosom swell;
I can't describe it, though so much it strike,
Nor liken it—I never saw the like:

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poem by Byron from Don Juan (1824)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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III. The Other Half-Rome

Another day that finds her living yet,
Little Pompilia, with the patient brow
And lamentable smile on those poor lips,
And, under the white hospital-array,
A flower-like body, to frighten at a bruise
You'd think, yet now, stabbed through and through again,
Alive i' the ruins. 'T is a miracle.
It seems that, when her husband struck her first,
She prayed Madonna just that she might live
So long as to confess and be absolved;
And whether it was that, all her sad life long
Never before successful in a prayer,
This prayer rose with authority too dread,—
Or whether, because earth was hell to her,
By compensation, when the blackness broke
She got one glimpse of quiet and the cool blue,
To show her for a moment such things were,—
Or else,—as the Augustinian Brother thinks,
The friar who took confession from her lip,—
When a probationary soul that moved
From nobleness to nobleness, as she,
Over the rough way of the world, succumbs,
Bloodies its last thorn with unflinching foot,
The angels love to do their work betimes,
Staunch some wounds here nor leave so much for God.
Who knows? However it be, confessed, absolved,
She lies, with overplus of life beside
To speak and right herself from first to last,
Right the friend also, lamb-pure, lion-brave,
Care for the boy's concerns, to save the son
From the sire, her two-weeks' infant orphaned thus,
And—with best smile of all reserved for him—
Pardon that sire and husband from the heart.
A miracle, so tell your Molinists!

There she lies in the long white lazar-house.
Rome has besieged, these two days, never doubt,
Saint Anna's where she waits her death, to hear
Though but the chink o' the bell, turn o' the hinge
When the reluctant wicket opes at last,
Lets in, on now this and now that pretence,
Too many by half,—complain the men of art,—
For a patient in such plight. The lawyers first
Paid the due visit—justice must be done;
They took her witness, why the murder was.
Then the priests followed properly,—a soul
To shrive; 't was Brother Celestine's own right,
The same who noises thus her gifts abroad.
But many more, who found they were old friends,
Pushed in to have their stare and take their talk

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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XI. Guido

You are the Cardinal Acciaiuoli, and you,
Abate Panciatichi—two good Tuscan names:
Acciaiuoli—ah, your ancestor it was
Built the huge battlemented convent-block
Over the little forky flashing Greve
That takes the quick turn at the foot o' the hill
Just as one first sees Florence: oh those days!
'T is Ema, though, the other rivulet,
The one-arched brown brick bridge yawns over,—yes,
Gallop and go five minutes, and you gain
The Roman Gate from where the Ema's bridged:
Kingfishers fly there: how I see the bend
O'erturreted by Certosa which he built,
That Senescal (we styled him) of your House!
I do adjure you, help me, Sirs! My blood
Comes from as far a source: ought it to end
This way, by leakage through their scaffold-planks
Into Rome's sink where her red refuse runs?
Sirs, I beseech you by blood-sympathy,
If there be any vile experiment
In the air,—if this your visit simply prove,
When all's done, just a well-intentioned trick,
That tries for truth truer than truth itself,
By startling up a man, ere break of day,
To tell him he must die at sunset,—pshaw!
That man's a Franceschini; feel his pulse,
Laugh at your folly, and let's all go sleep!
You have my last word,—innocent am I
As Innocent my Pope and murderer,
Innocent as a babe, as Mary's own,
As Mary's self,—I said, say and repeat,—
And why, then, should I die twelve hours hence? I—
Whom, not twelve hours ago, the gaoler bade
Turn to my straw-truss, settle and sleep sound
That I might wake the sooner, promptlier pay
His due of meat-and-drink-indulgence, cross
His palm with fee of the good-hand, beside,
As gallants use who go at large again!
For why? All honest Rome approved my part;
Whoever owned wife, sister, daughter,—nay,
Mistress,—had any shadow of any right
That looks like right, and, all the more resolved,
Held it with tooth and nail,—these manly men
Approved! I being for Rome, Rome was for me.
Then, there's the point reserved, the subterfuge
My lawyers held by, kept for last resource,
Firm should all else,—the impossible fancy!—fail,
And sneaking burgess-spirit win the day.
The knaves! One plea at least would hold,—they laughed,—
One grappling-iron scratch the bottom-rock

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poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Runnin

One affair wont make a lover,
Kisses never meant that you were givin up your soul.
I want to taste the spice of another,
I wanna taste my life, so, I remember when Im old.
Why Im ...
Im runnin through my lifetime,
You can see it your way and Ill see it mine.
Im runnin through my lifetime,
Ive got to stay out in the race so I dont go out of my mind.
Hunger in the eyes of the teacher,
Today he wants to feel the things his mamma made him hide.
Now its comin out all over that old preacher,
Livin never meant no more than waitin til he dies.
So Im ...
Im runnin through my lifetime,
Im runnin fast, I wont get far behind.
Im runnin through my lifetime,
Ive got to stay out in the race so I dont go out of my mind.
Beware! beware!
Im a friend to those who share me and Im a threat to those who dare me.
Beware! beware!
I can help if you need me and I can run if you try to keep me.
Im runnin through my lifetime,
You can see it your way and Ill see it mine.
Im runnin through my lifetime,
Ive got to stay out in the race so I dont know go out of my mind.
Im runnin, Im runnin, runnin, runnin.
Runnin.
...?
Runnin.
Runnin.
... kisses never meant that I would give you my soul.
Runnin.
Runnin.
... I want to taste the spice.
Runnin.
... I want to taste my life.
Runnin.
So, Ill remember when Im old,
Runnin.
Runnin.
...?
Runnin.
...?
Runnin.
...?
Runnin.
(repeat to fade)

song performed by Grand Funk Railroad
Added by Lucian Velea
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Traffic Jam

Carbon monoxide
Making me choke
No a.c.
And the radios broke
Cars backed up
Far as you can see
Seems like Ive been waiting here for all eternity
Oh, and just in case youre wondering
Ill tell you where I am
Im right here (right here) right here (right here)
Stuck right here in the middle of this...
Traffic jam
I havent moved one inch from this here spot
Traffic jam
The freeways one big parking lot
Traffic jam
My radiators boiling hot
And Im stuck right here in the middle (right here in the middle)
Right here in the middle of a traffic jam
Trapped inside
My automobile
Cobwebs gowin
On the steerin wheel
Now, Im no genius
But one thing I know
I shouldnt have had that bag of bran muffins
An hour and a half ago
Yeah, and if you need to find me
Ill tell you where I am
Im right here (right here) right here (right here)
Stuck smack dab in the middle of this...
Traffic jam
I havent moved one inch from this here spot
Traffic jam
The freeways one big parking lot
Traffic jam
Well, I thought we were movin but I guess were not
cause Im stuck right here in the middle (right here in the middle)
Right here in the middle of a traffic jam
Stuck in the middle of a traffic jam
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper to
Bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper to
Bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper...
Yay-hey!
Theres a yuppie on a cellular phone
Im gonna puke if I here any more
Theres a motorcycle zoomin by me
Watch what happens when I open my door
Now were all goin nowhere fast

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song performed by Weird Al Yankovic
Added by Lucian Velea
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Song of Wink Star

The Song of Wink Star
a happy story for children of all ages
story and text © Raj Arumugam, June 2008

☼ ☼

☼ Preamble

Come…children all, children of all ages…sit close and listen…
Come and listen to this happy story of the stars and of life…
Come children of the universe, children of all nations and of all races, and of all climates and of all kinds of space and dimensions and universes…
Come, dearest children of all beings of the living universe, come and listen to The Song of Wink Star…

Come and listen to this story, this happy story…listen, as the story itself sings to you…

Sit close then, and listen to the story that was not made by any, or written by a poet, or fashioned by grandfathers and grandmothers warming themselves at the fire of burning stars…

O dearest children all, come and listen to the story that lives
of itself, and that glows bright and happy….

Come…children all, children of all ages, come and listen to this happy story, the story so natural and smooth as life, as it sings itself to you….

☼ The Song of Wink Star
a happy story for children of all ages

☼ 1

Night Child, always so light and gentle, slept on a flower.
And every night, before he went to sleep, he would look up at the sky.
He would look at the eastern corner, five o’clock.

And there he would see all the stars in near and distant galaxies that were only visible to the People of Star Eyes.

Night Child was one of the People of Star Eyes. And so he could see the stars. And of all the stars he could see, he loved to watch Wink Star.

Wink Star twinkled and winked and laughed.
Every night Wink Star did that. Winked and laughed.

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poem by Raj Arumugam
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Tamar

I
A night the half-moon was like a dancing-girl,
No, like a drunkard's last half-dollar
Shoved on the polished bar of the eastern hill-range,
Young Cauldwell rode his pony along the sea-cliff;
When she stopped, spurred; when she trembled, drove
The teeth of the little jagged wheels so deep
They tasted blood; the mare with four slim hooves
On a foot of ground pivoted like a top,
Jumped from the crumble of sod, went down, caught, slipped;
Then, the quick frenzy finished, stiffening herself
Slid with her drunken rider down the ledges,
Shot from sheer rock and broke
Her life out on the rounded tidal boulders.

The night you know accepted with no show of emotion the little
accident; grave Orion
Moved northwest from the naked shore, the moon moved to
meridian, the slow pulse of the ocean
Beat, the slow tide came in across the slippery stones; it drowned
the dead mare's muzzle and sluggishly
Felt for the rider; Cauldwell’s sleepy soul came back from the
blind course curious to know
What sea-cold fingers tapped the walls of its deserted ruin.
Pain, pain and faintness, crushing
Weights, and a vain desire to vomit, and soon again
die icy fingers, they had crept over the loose hand and lay in the
hair now. He rolled sidewise
Against mountains of weight and for another half-hour lay still.
With a gush of liquid noises
The wave covered him head and all, his body
Crawled without consciousness and like a creature with no bones,
a seaworm, lifted its face
Above the sea-wrack of a stone; then a white twilight grew about
the moon, and above
The ancient water, the everlasting repetition of the dawn. You
shipwrecked horseman
So many and still so many and now for you the last. But when it
grew daylight
He grew quite conscious; broken ends of bone ground on each
other among the working fibers
While by half-inches he was drawing himself out of the seawrack
up to sandy granite,
Out of the tide's path. Where the thin ledge tailed into flat cliff
he fell asleep. . . .
Far seaward
The daylight moon hung like a slip of cloud against the horizon.
The tide was ebbing
From the dead horse and the black belt of sea-growth. Cauldwell
seemed to have felt her crying beside him,

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poem by Robinson Jeffers
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VII. Pompilia

I am just seventeen years and five months old,
And, if I lived one day more, three full weeks;
'T is writ so in the church's register,
Lorenzo in Lucina, all my names
At length, so many names for one poor child,
—Francesca Camilla Vittoria Angela
Pompilia Comparini,—laughable!
Also 't is writ that I was married there
Four years ago: and they will add, I hope,
When they insert my death, a word or two,—
Omitting all about the mode of death,—
This, in its place, this which one cares to know,
That I had been a mother of a son
Exactly two weeks. It will be through grace
O' the Curate, not through any claim I have;
Because the boy was born at, so baptized
Close to, the Villa, in the proper church:
A pretty church, I say no word against,
Yet stranger-like,—while this Lorenzo seems
My own particular place, I always say.
I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,
With half his body rushing from the wall,
Eating the figure of a prostrate man—
(To the right, it is, of entry by the door)
An ominous sign to one baptized like me,
Married, and to be buried there, I hope.
And they should add, to have my life complete,
He is a boy and Gaetan by name—
Gaetano, for a reason,—if the friar
Don Celestine will ask this grace for me
Of Curate Ottoboni: he it was
Baptized me: he remembers my whole life
As I do his grey hair.

All these few things
I know are true,—will you remember them?
Because time flies. The surgeon cared for me,
To count my wounds,—twenty-two dagger-wounds,
Five deadly, but I do not suffer much—
Or too much pain,—and am to die to-night.

Oh how good God is that my babe was born,
—Better than born, baptized and hid away
Before this happened, safe from being hurt!
That had been sin God could not well forgive:
He was too young to smile and save himself.
When they took two days after he was born,
My babe away from me to be baptized
And hidden awhile, for fear his foe should find,—

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poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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V. Count Guido Franceschini

Thanks, Sir, but, should it please the reverend Court,
I feel I can stand somehow, half sit down
Without help, make shift to even speak, you see,
Fortified by the sip of … why, 't is wine,
Velletri,—and not vinegar and gall,
So changed and good the times grow! Thanks, kind Sir!
Oh, but one sip's enough! I want my head
To save my neck, there's work awaits me still.
How cautious and considerate … aie, aie, aie,
Nor your fault, sweet Sir! Come, you take to heart
An ordinary matter. Law is law.
Noblemen were exempt, the vulgar thought,
From racking; but, since law thinks otherwise,
I have been put to the rack: all's over now,
And neither wrist—what men style, out of joint:
If any harm be, 't is the shoulder-blade,
The left one, that seems wrong i' the socket,—Sirs,
Much could not happen, I was quick to faint,
Being past my prime of life, and out of health.
In short, I thank you,—yes, and mean the word.
Needs must the Court be slow to understand
How this quite novel form of taking pain,
This getting tortured merely in the flesh,
Amounts to almost an agreeable change
In my case, me fastidious, plied too much
With opposite treatment, used (forgive the joke)
To the rasp-tooth toying with this brain of mine,
And, in and out my heart, the play o' the probe.
Four years have I been operated on
I' the soul, do you see—its tense or tremulous part—
My self-respect, my care for a good name,
Pride in an old one, love of kindred—just
A mother, brothers, sisters, and the like,
That looked up to my face when days were dim,
And fancied they found light there—no one spot,
Foppishly sensitive, but has paid its pang.
That, and not this you now oblige me with,
That was the Vigil-torment, if you please!
The poor old noble House that drew the rags
O' the Franceschini's once superb array
Close round her, hoped to slink unchallenged by,—
Pluck off these! Turn the drapery inside out
And teach the tittering town how scarlet wears!
Show men the lucklessness, the improvidence
Of the easy-natured Count before this Count,
The father I have some slight feeling for,
Who let the world slide, nor foresaw that friends
Then proud to cap and kiss their patron's shoe,
Would, when the purse he left held spider-webs,
Properly push his child to wall one day!

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Ill Come Runnin

Its been such a long time
Since I havent seen your face.
Theres a tear on your cheek
Where your smile used to be cause Im going away.
We had such a good time,
Though we knew this day might come.
So when you hold me tonight, squeeze a little tighter
cause in the morning, Ill be gone.
And, I tell you, baby, now, I might be long.
But, Ill come runnin.
Ill come runnin home.
Ill come runnin home to you.
Ill come runnin (Ill come runnin).
Ill come runnin home (Ill come).
Ill come runnin home to you.
Its already 5 am.
We havent got much sleep just yet.
Sun is rising.
I wish I could make time stand still.
I look in your eyes, now, love and I dont know what to say.
The words, the words.
And if you say youll wait me for me, now, I know youll try.
But, Ill come runnin.
Ill come runnin home.
Ill come runnin home to you, you.
I will come runnin home (Ill come runnin).
Ill never leave you alone, girl (Ill come).
Ill always come runnin home to you. you.
I (Ill come runnin) (Ill come)
I will, I will, I will,
I will come home and Ill always come home right to you.
(Ill come runnin)
No matter what I did, no matter what I do. (Ill come)
Ill always. Ill always come runnin home.
Ill always come runnin home to you.
Ill come runnin. Ill come. Ill come runnin. Ill come.

song performed by Hootie & The Blowfish
Added by Lucian Velea
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Give Your Heart To The Hawks

1 he apples hung until a wind at the equinox,

That heaped the beach with black weed, filled the dry grass

Under the old trees with rosy fruit.

In the morning Fayne Fraser gathered the sound ones into a

basket,

The bruised ones into a pan. One place they lay so thickly
She knelt to reach them.

Her husband's brother passing
Along the broken fence of the stubble-field,
His quick brown eyes took in one moving glance
A little gopher-snake at his feet flowing through the stubble
To gain the fence, and Fayne crouched after apples
With her mop of red hair like a glowing coal
Against the shadow in the garden. The small shapely reptile
Flowed into a thicket of dead thistle-stalks
Around a fence-post, but its tail was not hidden.
The young man drew it all out, and as the coil
Whipped over his wrist, smiled at it; he stepped carefully
Across the sag of the wire. When Fayne looked up
His hand was hidden; she looked over her shoulder
And twitched her sunburnt lips from small white teeth
To answer the spark of malice in his eyes, but turned
To the apples, intent again. Michael looked down
At her white neck, rarely touched by the sun,
But now the cinnabar-colored hair fell off from it;
And her shoulders in the light-blue shirt, and long legs like a boy's
Bare-ankled in blue-jean trousers, the country wear;
He stooped quietly and slipped the small cool snake
Up the blue-denim leg. Fayne screamed and writhed,
Clutching her thigh. 'Michael, you beast.' She stood up
And stroked her leg, with little sharp cries, the slender invader
Fell down her ankle.

Fayne snatched for it and missed;

Michael stood by rejoicing, his rather small

Finely cut features in a dance of delight;

Fayne with one sweep flung at his face

All the bruised and half-spoiled apples in the pan,

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poem by Robinson Jeffers
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Tannhauser

The Landgrave Hermann held a gathering
Of minstrels, minnesingers, troubadours,
At Wartburg in his palace, and the knight,
Sir Tannhauser of France, the greatest bard,
Inspired with heavenly visions, and endowed
With apprehension and rare utterance
Of noble music, fared in thoughtful wise
Across the Horsel meadows. Full of light,
And large repose, the peaceful valley lay,
In the late splendor of the afternoon,
And level sunbeams lit the serious face
Of the young knight, who journeyed to the west,
Towards the precipitous and rugged cliffs,
Scarred, grim, and torn with savage rifts and chasms,
That in the distance loomed as soft and fair
And purple as their shadows on the grass.
The tinkling chimes ran out athwart the air,
Proclaiming sunset, ushering evening in,
Although the sky yet glowed with yellow light.
The ploughboy, ere he led his cattle home,
In the near meadow, reverently knelt,
And doffed his cap, and duly crossed his breast,
Whispering his 'Ave Mary,' as he heard
The pealing vesper-bell. But still the knight,
Unmindful of the sacred hour announced,
Disdainful or unconscious, held his course.
'Would that I also, like yon stupid wight,
Could kneel and hail the Virgin and believe!'
He murmured bitterly beneath his breath.
'Were I a pagan, riding to contend
For the Olympic wreath, O with what zeal,
What fire of inspiration, would I sing
The praises of the gods! How may my lyre
Glorify these whose very life I doubt?
The world is governed by one cruel God,
Who brings a sword, not peace. A pallid Christ,
Unnatural, perfect, and a virgin cold,
They give us for a heaven of living gods,
Beautiful, loving, whose mere names were song;
A creed of suffering and despair, walled in
On every side by brazen boundaries,
That limit the soul's vision and her hope
To a red hell or and unpeopled heaven.
Yea, I am lost already,-even now
Am doomed to flaming torture for my thoughts.
O gods! O gods! where shall my soul find peace?'
He raised his wan face to the faded skies,
Now shadowing into twilight; no response
Came from their sunless heights; no miracle,
As in the ancient days of answering gods.

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poem by Emma Lazarus
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The Ghost - Book IV

Coxcombs, who vainly make pretence
To something of exalted sense
'Bove other men, and, gravely wise,
Affect those pleasures to despise,
Which, merely to the eye confined,
Bring no improvement to the mind,
Rail at all pomp; they would not go
For millions to a puppet-show,
Nor can forgive the mighty crime
Of countenancing pantomime;
No, not at Covent Garden, where,
Without a head for play or player,
Or, could a head be found most fit,
Without one player to second it,
They must, obeying Folly's call,
Thrive by mere show, or not at all
With these grave fops, who, (bless their brains!)
Most cruel to themselves, take pains
For wretchedness, and would be thought
Much wiser than a wise man ought,
For his own happiness, to be;
Who what they hear, and what they see,
And what they smell, and taste, and feel,
Distrust, till Reason sets her seal,
And, by long trains of consequences
Insured, gives sanction to the senses;
Who would not (Heaven forbid it!) waste
One hour in what the world calls Taste,
Nor fondly deign to laugh or cry,
Unless they know some reason why;
With these grave fops, whose system seems
To give up certainty for dreams,
The eye of man is understood
As for no other purpose good
Than as a door, through which, of course,
Their passage crowding, objects force,
A downright usher, to admit
New-comers to the court of Wit:
(Good Gravity! forbear thy spleen;
When I say Wit, I Wisdom mean)
Where (such the practice of the court,
Which legal precedents support)
Not one idea is allow'd
To pass unquestion'd in the crowd,
But ere it can obtain the grace
Of holding in the brain a place,
Before the chief in congregation
Must stand a strict examination.
Not such as those, who physic twirl,
Full fraught with death, from every curl;

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poem by Charles Churchill
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