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Elvis transcends his talent to the point of dispensing with it altogether.

quote by Greil Marcus
Added by Lucian Velea
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Elvis, Be True

Everyones talking bout elvis
cause it seems like the thing that we do
Elvis is walking around listlessly
Seems he cant even die if he wanted to
Its a bad business to be in
You dont get thanked and you dont get paid
Its a hard world to be in with
And to end with, and to think about leaving behind
Exhuming the body in memphis
Waiting five hours to get into graceland
Is this anybodys idea of a good time or a good joke?
Airport biographies are usually true
Fame and fortune took its toll
Hes not the king of rock and roll anymore
Hes just a junkie redneck
Pull the sheet over your head
Fold your arms across your chest
Lie back in bed, you can call folks constantly tomorrow
Ohhh, everyones talking bout elvis
cause it seems like a thing that we do
Elvis is living too fat and slow now
To care what we say about him
Picking up hitchhiking elvises
Christening babies at the foot of his grave
He was watching tv and laughing to himself
Just had to tell someone how he did it
Elvis, be good to me
Elvis, be true
Elvis, I love you
Elvis, be true
Elvis, be near me
Elvis, be mine
Elvis, come back to me
Please, elvis, be fine
Everythings coming up roses
Everythings coming up elvis
Everythings coming up roses
Everythings coming up elvis
Elvis
Elvis
Elvis
Elvis, be true

song performed by Liz Phair
Added by Lucian Velea
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Velvet Elvis

My life, it used to be incomplete
till I saw what I was looking for at a drive-in swap meet
My life it wont be the same again
Now Im proud to say the king lives on inside my den
Oh, its all I live for, its all I need
My velvet elvis
My velvet elvis
My velvet elvis means the world to me
Although he may not be worth much dough
He means much more to me than some old rembrandt or van gogh
Check out those sideburns, theres nothing greater
You can tell that hes no velvet elvis imitator
Oh, its all I live for, its all I need
My velvet elvis
My velvet elvis
My velvet elvis
Oh, now you cant you see
My velvet elvis
My velvet elvis
My velvet elvis means the world to me
In my own private graceland
In my own little shrine to the king
I dont want nothin else
No, I dont need anything
Dont need no lava lamp
Dont need no soap on a rope
No pictures of mexican kids with those really big eyes
Or dogs playing poker
When Im at home watching my tv
I know the king is always looking down on me
He looks so handsome, he stands so tall
So glad hes big enough to cover up that hole in the wall
(velvet elvis) hes so fuzzy
(velvet elvis) hes so great
(velvet elvis) never ages
(velvet elvis) never puts on weight
(velvet elvis) look at those rhinestones
(velvet elvis) hes just so fine
(velvet elvis) you can look but dont touch now
(velvet elvis) cause hes mine all mine

song performed by Weird Al Yankovic
Added by Lucian Velea
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Hidden Talent

Written by gerry beckley, 1998
Found on human nature.
Just like a person from another world
My eyes can see inside you, little girl
I see things that you dont want to see
I see things youre trying to hide from me
Im just trying to make you understand
All the ways you can affect this man
From the moment that you came in touch
With the power there to burn so much
Youve got hidden talent (yeah)
I bet youre gonna find some hidden talent, oh
You know your past is whats been bugging you
If youre ready girl ... do what you gotta do
Look for your life between the lines
Bad directions and poor designs
Youve got hidden talent (hidden talent, yeah)
I bet youre gonna find some hidden talent, oh
Hidden talent (hidden talent, yeah)
Check it out you ... got it, hidden talent, oh
With the advantage of perspective i
See theres more to you than meets the eye
But now the time must come to spread your wings and fly
Yeah (hidden talent) yeah
Hidden talent (hidden talent, yeah)
I bet youre gonna find some hidden talent, oh
Hidden talent (hidden talent, yeah)
Check it out ... you got it, hidden talent, oh
Hidden talent (hidden talent, yeah)
Affair without warning
Hidden talent, mmm (mmm)
Hidden talent (hidden talent, yeah)
I bet youre gonna find some hidden talent, oh
(fade)

song performed by America
Added by Lucian Velea
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Hallucinating Elvis

(lebon, rhodes, cuccurrullo)
I was hallucinating
I was hallucinating
I was hallucinating elvis
Hawaii to las vegas
Special treatment all the way
Hallucinating elvis
Missing eighteen hours
Losing oxygen to the brain
Lyin on the floor
Theres a limit
How much more I can take
Rhinestone inside my shoe
Coz Im turning into you now
I was hallucinating
I was hallucinating
I was hallucinating
Elvis
I was hallucinating
I was hallucinating
I was hallucinating
Elvis
Fbi are tapping the kings phone
74 hes trapped in his home
Hidden camera, two way mirror walls
Walkie talkie, kung fu
Then the president calls
I was hallucinating elvis
Hawaii to las vegas
Special treatment all the way
Hallucinating elvis
Missing eighteen hours
Losing oxygen to the brain
Who ever has to know
Tune in to my show
What you see aint what you get
Shootin movies and thetv set
Elvis elvis elvis elvis
Elvis elvis elvis elvis

song performed by Duran Duran
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Hey Elvis

Hey elvis wont cha come back home
I left a message on your code-a-phone
I tried to reach ya but I cant get through
Hey elvis where the hell are you?
Somebody saw you at the shopping mall
Somebody said they heard that southern draw
Hey elvis is it really true
Were all waitin for a sign from you
Everybody knows about your pink cadilac
Everybodys wonderin when youre comin back
Everbodys waitin just to hear ya sing
Hey elvis, youre still the king
Hey elvis wont cha come back soon
Nobodys rockin in the jungle room
Come december dont know what well do
Be a blue christmas without you
Everybody knows about your pink cadilac
Everybodys wonderin when youre comin back
Everbodys waitin just to hear ya sing
Hey elvis, youre still the king
Love me tender - dont be cruel
Return to sender - stuck on you
Its now or never - suspicious minds
Hey elvis arent ya lonesome tonight
Hey elvis cant ya see
They need you back in memphis, tennessee
Theyre makin records but theres nothin new
Nobody ever done it quite like you
Everybody knows about your pink cadilac
Everybodys wonderin when youre comin back
Everbodys waitin just to hear ya sing
Hey elvis, youre still the king
Everybody knows about your lisa marie
Everybody knows about tcb
Everybodys waitin just to hear ya sing come back to memphis,
Elvis - youre still the king

song performed by Bryan Adams
Added by Lucian Velea
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Your Face Among Many, A Blossom

Your face among many, a blossom.
Let it go. Let it go. Let it go.
The sun can't understand why it can't
open the buds of the parking meters.
Some people worry they don't have talent.
Given a name, who isn't a masterpiece?
A perfect self-portrait of what they're becoming?
Talent, the worst superstition of all.
That lullaby you sing to your voodoo doll
at bedtime, to let her know she's special
when, in fact, she's blind. Talent.
That estranged mix of an eclipse and an oilslick
that isn't sure of its standing in life.
Sensible shoes wishing they had wings on their heels.
The redundant navigator of mountain streams
that would have found their own way to the river
all by themselves. You ask if I think you have talent.
To me that's like a flower asking
if I think it will ever come to bloom,
a star wondering if it's shining or not,
a sea uncertain of its own waves and weather.
And I say, your eyes do, your ears do, your mouth has,
these birch-trees, those starlings, that tree, those rocks,
these rags of last year's flowers do, but not you.
On the day of creation when God exhausted herself
using up the leftovers of her inspiration
so as not to let anything go to waste, she pinched the noses
of a few sacred clowns and instead of
breathing life into their lungs, she opened their throats
and poured a special esoteric elixir of talent,
the mother of all oceanic love potions
that ever played favourites with a select few
among everyone she'd ever given birth to,
out of her mouth into theirs, such that like her
all they had to do, they were so talented,
was give the word. Say be. And it was.
Because the moment you ask if you have something,
you've already lost it. Like space or time or mind,
talent isn't possessed. It's made manifest spontaneously.
Do you see the ruby throated hummingbirds
in a last duel with the thorns
of the locust trees in blossom,
one drawing blood, the other, first honey?
Behind every river making its way to the sea
stands the cornerstone of a mountain
buried under an avalanche
it brought down upon itself
like the winter solstice
between the dolmens of Stonehenge,
just as every dropp of water is a lost key,

[...] Read more

poem by Patrick White
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Calling Elvis

Calling elvis
Is anybody home
Calling elvis
Im here all alone
Did he leave the building
Or can he come to the phone
Calling elvis
Im here all alone
Well tell him I was calling just to wish him well
Let me leave my number
Heartbreak hotel
Oh love me tender
Baby dont be cruel
Return to sender
Treat me like a fool
Calling elvis
Is anybody home
Calling elvis
Im here all alone
Did he leave the building
Can he come to the phone
Calling elvis
Im here all alone
Why dont you go get him
Im his biggest fan
You gotta tell him
Hes still the man
Long distance baby
So far from home
Dont you think maybe you could put him on
Well tell him I was calling just to wish him well
Let me leave my number
Heartbreak hotel
Oh love me tender
Baby dont be cruel
Return to sender
Treat me like a fool
Calling elvis
Is anybody home
Calling elvis
Im here all alone
Did he leave the building
Or can he come to the phone
Calling elvis
Im here all alone

song performed by Dire Straits
Added by Lucian Velea
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No Point

J. spinks
This aint working out
Its not worth the time I spent on it
When Ive been next to you
Its not the way you want it
And all I wanna do
Is get away and as far away from it
Theres no point cos Im not winning
Theres no point going back to the beginning
Theres no point to keep on waiting
Theres no point in talking it over
Theres no point in getting any closer
If it was up to you
Wed go around in circles forever
Theres nothing left to do
I go around - around in you
Ive tried to see it through
All Ive seen is the stormy weather
Theres no point in still pretending
Theres no point cos this is never ending
Theres no point in keep on trying
Theres no point to carry on lying
Theres no point acting like children
Theres no point cos this time Im gone
Theres no point in talking it over
Theres no point in getting any close
Theres no point in still pretending
Theres no point cos this is never ending
Theres no point in keep on trying
Theres no point to carry on lying
Theres no point in talking it over
Theres no point in getting any closer
Theres no point cos Im not winning
Theres no point going back to the beginning
Theres no point in hesitating
Theres no point tonight
Theres no point at all

song performed by Outfield
Added by Lucian Velea
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Elvis Imitators

By: steve goodman, michael smith
1981
-- spoken:
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. Id like to do this next song especially for you. and for the king.
Well....
I walk up to the mike and and then I shake my hips
I take a deep breath and put a snare on my lips
See me on the street you wouldnt know my name
But imitating elvis is my claim to fame
So when you put my imitation name in lights
Therell be imitation good rockin tonight
Cuz Im an an elvis imitator and I just cant stop
Imitating elvis from the bottom to the top
Imitate the way he talked, the way he smiled
I throw away my scarf and make the crowd go wild
This imitation elvis may not be the king
But baby Im the next best thing
Singing viva las vegas and the g.i. blues
Wont you love me tender in my blue suede shoes
Well let me be your teddy bear, if you must
Oh baby please surrender, cause I need your touch
Well if you feelin lonely, need a place to dwell
Come on down to imitation heartbreak hotel
Chorus:
Were gonna rock (rock rock rock)
Ooooh were gonna rock (rock rock rock)
Ooooh were gonna rock (rock rock rock)
Ooooh were gonna rock (rock rock rock)
Yeah my gold lamee cape and my sequined suit
Pompadou haircut and my high-heeled boots
Imitating elvis is the only way
I can make it through my imitation day
I know this rocking music cant be denied
cause I was imitating him before he died
Well Im an an elvis imitator and I just cant stop
Imitating elvis from the bottom to the top
I imitate the way he walked, the way he smiled
I throw away my scarf and make the crowd go wild
This imitation elvis may not be the king
But baby Im the next best thing
Chorus:
Yeah rock (rock rock rock)
Ooooh were gonna rock (rock rock rock)
Ooooh were gonna rock (rock rock rock)
Ooooh were gonna rock (rock rock rock)
Well baby ... its the next ... best thing
-- spoken:
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen
Viva las vegas
Viva las vegas

song performed by Jimmy Buffett
Added by Lucian Velea
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“Old Miss” (A Travelers Impression)

Stepping off a late flight to Memphis,
we made our way through the stony-silence
of a nearly empty terminal…a far cry from
other big city airports (“I like it here already! ”)

Met by family at the security gate and after baggage claim
we soon were driving south. Our final destination,
Saltillo, Mississippi, a small town near Tupelo,
birthplace of Elvis Presley.

The darkness of night prevented us from seeing
the landscape, this would have to wait until tomorrow.
We awakend to the cooing of mourning doves and our
adventure in the “Deep South” was about to unfold.

The next few days were a plethora of people and events;

It was late May with daytime temperatures in the mid eighties.
It cooled down nicely after sunset. The humidity
was comfortable, nothing like expected.

The people;
A gumbo of friendly black & white folk that seem to live
harmoniously with each other, unlike the racism of 50 years ago.
I never tired of hearing people speak their wonderful southern drawl.
There was a sense of permanence, especially among the African
Americans, a noble race, made unique over hundreds
of years and generations of mixed blood.

The land;
What struck me most about the landscape was the endless sea of green
of many verieties of leafy and conifer trees, concealing vast fields planted with cotton and soybeans.

A ribbon road known as the “Natchez Trace” a two-lane highway that snakes through a seemingly endless countryside.
A unique place of beauty, meticulously maintained
by the State of Mississippi.

Elvis;
After a workout at an excellent gym built and maintained by a local
hospital, we were off to visit the house where Elvis was born
and the museum and chapel that honor him,
Delivered by a mid-wife in a tiny two room house, Elvis Aaron Presley was born
January 8,1935 to Vernon & Gladys Presley. Sadly, Elvis’s twin brother was still born.
Vernon was a sharecropper living in a house built with with own hands and a loan from his landlord. The house had no running water or indoor toilet. They heated and cooked with a kitchen woodstove and stored their perishable food in an icebox. All the family slept in the same bed or on floor mats.
After finding fame and fortune, Elvis once said,
“No amount of money will help me forget, growing up poor”

The hardware store still stands where Elvis bought his first guitar.

Alas, “The King has left the room”

[...] Read more

poem by Ray Lucero
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VIII. Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis, Pauperum Procurator

Ah, my Giacinto, he's no ruddy rogue,
Is not Cinone? What, to-day we're eight?
Seven and one's eight, I hope, old curly-pate!
—Branches me out his verb-tree on the slate,
Amo-as-avi-atum-are-ans,
Up to -aturus, person, tense, and mood,
Quies me cum subjunctivo (I could cry)
And chews Corderius with his morning crust!
Look eight years onward, and he's perched, he's perched
Dapper and deft on stool beside this chair,
Cinozzo, Cinoncello, who but he?
—Trying his milk-teeth on some crusty case
Like this, papa shall triturate full soon
To smooth Papinianian pulp!

It trots
Already through my head, though noon be now,
Does supper-time and what belongs to eve.
Dispose, O Don, o' the day, first work then play!
—The proverb bids. And "then" means, won't we hold
Our little yearly lovesome frolic feast,
Cinuolo's birth-night, Cinicello's own,
That makes gruff January grin perforce!
For too contagious grows the mirth, the warmth
Escaping from so many hearts at once—
When the good wife, buxom and bonny yet,
Jokes the hale grandsire,—such are just the sort
To go off suddenly,—he who hides the key
O' the box beneath his pillow every night,—
Which box may hold a parchment (someone thinks)
Will show a scribbled something like a name
"Cinino, Ciniccino," near the end,
"To whom I give and I bequeath my lands,
"Estates, tenements, hereditaments,
"When I decease as honest grandsire ought."
Wherefore—yet this one time again perhaps—
Shan't my Orvieto fuddle his old nose!
Then, uncles, one or the other, well i' the world,
May—drop in, merely?—trudge through rain and wind,
Rather! The smell-feasts rouse them at the hint
There's cookery in a certain dwelling-place!
Gossips, too, each with keepsake in his poke,
Will pick the way, thrid lane by lantern-light,
And so find door, put galligaskin off
At entry of a decent domicile
Cornered in snug Condotti,—all for love,
All to crush cup with Cinucciatolo!

Well,
Let others climb the heights o' the court, the camp!

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Getting To The Point

Its out of control (out of control)
And theres nothing I can do now
Out of control (out of control)
Spinning softly through the blue now
And look beyond these walls
As the meaning starts to dawn
Its getting to the point
Getting to the point.
Its out of control (nothing I can do)
Like a fire that keeps on burning
And nobody knows (what Im going through)
And the thoughts just keep returning
And all you had to say
Was that you were gonna stay
Its getting to the point
Getting to the point.
Chorus:
Its getting to the point
Where nobody can stop it now
Its getting to the point
Of no return
And all that I can do
Is stand and watch it now
Watch it burn, burn, burn
Its getting to the point
Where reasons are forgotten
Its getting to the point
Where no one knows
And all that I can do
Is say Im sorry
But thats the way it goes...
Getting to the point.
Forever
Is a long, long way
Forever
Takes your breath away
Id like to talk about it, try to understand
Its getting to the point
Getting to the point.
Repeat chorus
Its getting to the point (getting to the point)
Getting to the point (getting to the point)
Its getting to the point (getting to the point)
Getting to the point.

song performed by Electric Light Orchestra
Added by Lucian Velea
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Bigger Than Elvis

Come, lets talk just you & me
For once just let me be.
The little boy you used to know.
Relive that summers bliss.
Cause they came no more like this.
Those were the days,
The days when love was still in style.
All I ever dreamed Id be
Is what you are to me.
Bigger than elvis.
And for all the missing years,
A memory reappears.
Bigger than elvis.
I saw you on tv.
The king, you were to me.
Could you feel me watching you?
At times my heart got mad,
Only heros are allowed
To run free, that they could come back inside of me.
All I ever dreamed Id be,
Is what you are to me.
Bigger than elvis.
And for all the missing years,
A memory reappears.
Bigger than elvis.
We know the sadness of goodbyes
Must be the one thats bringing tears to your childs eyes.
Oh, from now on Ill walk with you
Making music like you do.
Would you believe I always knew?
You were never hard to take
In some mysterious way
Bigger than elvis
And for all the missing years
Your memory reappears
Bigger than elvis.
Now Ive found the missing years,
Forgotten all my tears.
Ive found the missing years.

song performed by Chicago
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I Throw My Toys Around (feat. Elvis Costello)

(E. Costello, C. O' Riordan)
I've got no time for fairy stories
I'm not a little girl
So you can leave me all alone
And turn off the lights as well
If you are frightened
Then listen
But I don't think you'd like it
Such a nice kid
Nobody's lookin' now
I'll throw my toys around
Somebody's being very bad
I wonder who it can be
Somebody's gonna get in trouble
I know it isn't me
I'm just a little angel
But you don't know what I've done
When your back's turned
Nobody's lookin' now
(nobody's lookin')
I'll throw my toys around
(with Elvis:)
Pick up those building blocks
Chop off the baby's locks
Swing dolly by the hair
Put down that teddy bear
Slam dunk a happy clown
I throw my toys around
I've got no time for bedtime stories
I'm not a little child
Everything makes me furious
And everything makes me wild
If you are frightened then whistle
And I'll come runnin' you
As you boo hoo
Nobody's lookin' now
(nobody's lookin')
I'll throw my toys around
Nobody's lookin' now
(nobody's lookin')
I'll throw my toys around
(Elvis -) I throw my toys around
(Gwen -) I'll throw my toys around
(Elvis -) I throw my toys around
(Gwen -) I'll throw my toys around
(Elvis -) I throw my toys around
(Gwen -) I'll throw my toys around
(Elvis -) I throw my toys around
(Gwen -) I'll throw my toys around
(Elvis -) I throw my toys around

[...] Read more

song performed by No Doubt
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... Mmmmmm Skyscraper I Love You

Thirty thousand feet above
Beautiful thing
Beautiful thing
Mmm skyscraper I love you
Thirty thousand feet above the earth...its a beautiful thing
Youre a beautiful thing
Thirty thousand feet above the earth...its a beautiful thing
Everybodys a beautiful thing
Mmm skyscraper I love you
Mmm skyscraper I love you
And I see elvis
Elvis
I see porn dogs sniffing the wind
Sniffing the wind for something new
Porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent they can do
Porn dogs sniffing the wind
Sniffing the wind for something new
Porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent for me and you
Will you be my big plaything
My total big disorientator
Will you be my big plaything
My ninja power
My number cruncher
Yes yes yes no yes yes
Yes yes yes yes no no
And I see elvis
And I hear God on the phone
Mmm skyscraper I love you
I see porn dogs sniffing the wind
Sniffing the wind for something new
Porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent that they could do
Porn dogs sniffing the wind
Sniffing the wind for something new
Porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent for me and you
The city is a whore tonight
And I see God talking
Elvis
God talking
Pornfest pork fat jesus christ night light
Elvis fresh meat and a little whipped cream
Pornfast cornfat jesus christ night ride
Elvis fresh meat and a little whipped cream
Thirty thousand feet above the earth
Thirty thousand feet above the earth
Beautiful thing
Youre a beautiful thing
Thirty thousand feet above
The beautiful earth
Mmm skyscraper I love you
Like I feel you

song performed by Underworld
Added by Lucian Velea
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Mmm Skyscraper I Love You

Thirty thousand feet above the earth.
Youre a beautiful thing. mmm skyscraper I love you.
Thirty thousand feet above the earth.
Its a beautiful thing. and youre a beautiful thing.
Thirty thousand feet above the earth.
Its a beautiful thing. everybodys a beautiful thing.
And I see elvis. elvis. I see
Porn dogs sniffing the wind. sniffing the wind for something new.
Porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent they can do.
Porn dogs sniffing the wind. sniffing the wind for something new.
Porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent for me and you.
Will you be my big plaything. my total big disorientator.
Will you be my big plaything. my ninja power. my number cruncher.
Yes. yes. yes. no. yes. yes.
And I see elvis. and I hear God on the phone. I see
Porn dogs sniffing the wind. sniffing the wind for something new.
Porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent that they could do.
Porn dogs sniffing the wind. sniffing the wind for something new.
Porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent for me and you.
The city is a whore tonight. and I see God talking
Elvis. God talking.
Pornfest pork fat jesus christ night light.
Elvis fresh meat and a little whipped cream.
Pornfast cornfat jesus christ night ride.
Elvis fresh meat and a little whipped cream.
Thirty thousand feet above the earth.
Thirty thousand feet above the earth.
Beautiful thing. youre a beautiful thing.
Thirty thousand feet above the beautiful earth.
Like I feel you.

song performed by Underworld
Added by Lucian Velea
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A Shrine To Elvis

She asked me if I had the time
To see her lounge-room Elvis shrine
In her 30's – kinda cute
We drove to her place in my ute
The house was on an acre block
Fibro front porch parking lot
Her daughter – young and tartly bland
Was pregnant from a one night stand
Her son – now twenty - moved away
When the drugs consumed him and they say
He’d hit his mum a hundred times
For objecting to his cocaine lines
But Elvis’ shrine stood resolute
With pics of Elvis in gold suits
He is my hero she then said
While inviting me into her bed
He was a man that knew his way
I'd sleep with him most any day
But now he is in lame’d heaven
You must do this – so please pretend
And croon his songs while we make love
Me on my back while up above
Resplendent on my ceiling tiles
Is more of Elvis and his style
I looked close at the Elvis shrine
His hair his pout – this look not mine
I asked her why she loved The King
She softly said that anything
Was better than the life she led
So when with men within her bed
She had to dream that it was him
Who hugged her kissed her slid within
A mirror ball then caught my eye
While hound-dog played on her hi fi
I felt like a human sacrifice
A feeling i found none too nice
At this I drove off in the night
Something didn’t seem quite right
I look like Buddy Holly see
Not like her Elvis – that ain’t me.

poem by David Keig
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Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society

Epigraph

Υδραν φονεύσας, μυρίων τ᾽ ἄλλων πόνων
διῆλθον ἀγέλας . . .
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἔτλην τάλας πόνον,
. . . δῶμα θριγκῶσαι κακοῖς.

I slew the Hydra, and from labour pass'd
To labour — tribes of labours! Till, at last,
Attempting one more labour, in a trice,
Alack, with ills I crowned the edifice.

You have seen better days, dear? So have I —
And worse too, for they brought no such bud-mouth
As yours to lisp "You wish you knew me!" Well,
Wise men, 't is said, have sometimes wished the same,
And wished and had their trouble for their pains.
Suppose my Œdipus should lurk at last
Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline,
And, latish, pounce on Sphynx in Leicester Square?
Or likelier, what if Sphynx in wise old age,
Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads,
And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, —
Jealous that the good trick which served the turn
Have justice rendered it, nor class one day
With friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware,—
What if the once redoubted Sphynx, I say,
(Because night draws on, and the sands increase,
And desert-whispers grow a prophecy)
Tell all to Corinth of her own accord.
Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake,
Who finds me hardly grey, and likes my nose,
And thinks a man of sixty at the prime?
Good! It shall be! Revealment of myself!
But listen, for we must co-operate;
I don't drink tea: permit me the cigar!
First, how to make the matter plain, of course —
What was the law by which I lived. Let 's see:
Ay, we must take one instant of my life
Spent sitting by your side in this neat room:
Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh!
Here's paper on the table, pen and ink:
Give me the soiled bit — not the pretty rose!
See! having sat an hour, I'm rested now,
Therefore want work: and spy no better work
For eye and hand and mind that guides them both,
During this instant, than to draw my pen
From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus —
Which I at last reach, thus, and here's my line
Five inches long and tolerably straight:

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poem by Robert Browning (1871)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Point Blank

Do you still say your prayers little darlin do you go to bed at night
Prayin that tomorrow, everything will be alright
But tommorows fall in number in number one by one
You wake up and youre dying you dont even know what from
Well they shot you point blank you been shot in the back
Baby point blank you been fooled this time little girl thats a fact
Right between the eyes baby, point blank right between the pretty lies that
They tell
Little girl you fell
You grew up where young girls they grow up fast
You took what you were handed and left behind what was asked
But what they asked baby wasnt right you didnt have to live that life,
I was gonna be your romeo you were gonna be my juliet
These days you dont wait on romeos you wait on that welfare check and on all the pretty things that you cant ever have and on all the promises
That always end up point blank, shot between the eyes
Point blank like little white lies you tell to ease the pain
Youre walkin in the sights, girl of point blank
And its one false move and baby the lights go out
Once I dreamed we were together again baby you and me
Back home in those old clubs the way we used to be
We were standin at the bar it was hard to hear
The band was playin loud and you were shoutin somethin in my ear
You pulled my jacket off and as the drummer counted four
You grabbed my hand and pulled me out on the floor
You just stood there and held me, then you started dancin slow
And as I pulled you tighter I swore Id never let you go
Well I saw you last night down on the avenue
Your face was in the shadows but I knew that it was you
You were standin in the doorway out of the rain
You didnt answer when I called out your name
You just turned, and then you looked away like just another stranger waitin to get blown away
Point blank, right between the eyes
Point blank, right between the pretty lies you fell
Point blank, shot right through the heart
Yea point blank, youve been twisted up till youve become just another part of it
Point blank, youre walkin in the sights
Point blank, livin one false move just one false move away
Point blank, they caught you in their sights
Point blank, did you forget how to love, girl, did you forget how to fight.
Point blank they must have shot you in the head
Cause point blank, bang bang baby youre dead.

song performed by Bruce Springsteen
Added by Lucian Velea
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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!

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