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Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Added by Lucian Velea
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Dandelion

Settle down now and sit with me
Let me tell you how this all came to be
A yellow flower with your pedals to the air
And flying on paper wings that brought you here
Summer rolls on in the lazy hours
An ether dream way
Of hummingbirds and clouds
Midnight swims in the cool back waves
And you in my arms as it rolls away
Chorus
Little dandelion
Let your heart keep time
Now the clouds are gone
All of your tomorrows shine
Oh oh
All of your tomorrows shine
Oh oh
All of your tomorrows shine
Born of restless night the moon as a pearl
Playing games down inside your soft warm world
Hear my voice I know that you can
You're the fire in my eyes
The sun as a man
Seasons come along and seasons go
And what they'll leave behind
I don't pretend to know
I'm afraid that all I have missed
Will loom very large when the darkness lifts
Chorus
Little dandelion
Let your heart keep time
Now the clouds are gone
All of your tomorrows shine
All of your tomorrows shine
All of your tomorrows shine
I will ride by your side
Wherever you go
I won't run I won't hide
Just letting you know
Chorus
Little dandelion
Let your heart keep time
Now the clouds are gone
All of your tomorrows shine
All of your tomorrows shine
All of your tomorrows shine
All of your tomorrows shine
All of your tomorrows shine
All of your tomorrows shine

song performed by Audioslave
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Tommorows Just Another Day

Trying hard, I thought Id done my best
All my life, I cant get no rest
Some whove closed the door before
Say I cant carry on no more.
I hear them saying
Tomorrows just another day
I hear them saying
And it gets better every day
I hear them saying
Tomorrows just another day
Listened long, tried to take it in
All these facts leave me in the swim
Its down and down there is no up
I think that Ive run out of luck.
I hear them saying
Tomorrows just another day
I hear them saying
And it gets better every day
I hear them saying
Tomorrows just another day
Tomorrows just another... day
Walking now, over covered ground
There is a chance if I move around
I need a moment to reflect
On the friendships I have wrecked.
Why is it i, dont I always try ?
I hear them say
Tomorrows just another day
I hear them say
And it gets better every day
I hear them say
Tomorrows just another day
I hear them say
And it gets better every day
I heard them say
Tomorrows just another day
I hear them say
Tomorrows just another day
Tomorrows just another...
I hear them saying
Tomorrows just another day
I hear them saying
And it gets better every day
I hear them saying
Tomorrows just another day

song performed by Madness
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Tomorrows Gonna Be Another Day

By tommy boyce and steve venet
Im gonna pack up my pain,
I been a keepin in my heart,
Im gonna catch me the fastest train
And make me a brand new start
But thats okay,
Tomorrows gonna be another day,
Hey, hey, hey.
And I dont care what they say
Tomorrows gonna be, tomorrows gonna be,
Tomorrows gonna be another day.
Yay, yay, yay,
Yay, yay, yay.
They say theres a lotta fish,
Swimmin in the deep blue sea,
Im gonna catch me a pretty one
And shell be good to me.
But thats okay,
Tomorrows gonna be another day,
Hey, hey, hey.
And I dont care what they say
Tomorrows gonna be, tomorrows gonna be,
Tomorrows gonna be another day.
Yay, yay, yay,
Yay, yay, yay.
Well, I aint gonna think about ya,
cause it aint no use no more,
Im gonna make it fine without ya,
Just like I did before,
Im on my way.
Tomorrows gonna be another day,
Hey, hey, hey.
And I dont care what they say
Tomorrows gonna be, tomorrows gonna be,
Tomorrows gonna be another day.
Yay, yay, yay,
Yay, yay, yay.
[repeat and fade]

song performed by Monkees
Added by Lucian Velea
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World’s Clarion Call: Stop All Wars; Love Your Brethren!

Wars spread terror;
Wars cause horror;
Wars kill persons;
Wars maim people;
Wars pollute air;
Wars contaminate soil;
Wars destroy buildings;
Wars ravage cities;
Wars ruin countries;
Wars cause hatred;
Wars are expensive;
Wars escalate prices;
Wars create enemies;
Wars generate ill-will;
Wars instill mistrust;
Wars make the poor, poorer;
Wars make the world,
A difficult place to live in;
Don’t waste money on futile wars.

Love settles conflicts;
Love gets friends;
Love converts foes;
Love leads to dialogue;
Love spreads brotherhood;
Love brings lasting peace;
Love leads to progress;
Love is all-encompassing;
Love is the key to human problems;
Love rules the universe;
Love leads to heaven;
Stop the wars and love your brethren;
Science should improve man’s plight;
Unite against human calamities;
Fight diseases, poverty, and illiteracy;
Leaders should give up their ego;
The world should be free of fear;
Peaceful co-existence should bring all near;
Make the earth more habitable for all.
This is the world’s clarion call!
Copyright by Dr John Celes 3-30-2007

poem by John Celes
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Love Wars

Released on cd single have I told you lately, 1993
Cecil womack, linda womack
Love wars, love wars
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
But its taking me under
Since youre not here, oh baby
Its better when its harder to get
But this hide and go seek
Well its making me weep, yeah
(oh we call over now baby)
I promise you to stop boxing you round
So dont scratch my face now
At the end of the eight
We need to get our act together
Take it off the street
Bring it on home and drop them guns on the floor
Stop them
Love wars (no, we dont need no)
Love wars, ha
Talks we had just dont change a thing
They only bring rain
On top of pain, its hurts me
Flashbacks and uncover tracks
From when you left me
With my best friend,
Oh you left me all alone baby
(so sorry babe) hurts so bad
We need to get our act together
Take it off the street
Bring it on home and drop them guns on the floor
Make love in peace
And baby never cheat
Vow to be strong and let the band roll on
No more love wars (we dont need no)
Love wars
Love wars we dont want no
Love wars (I dont want no)
Love wars
We dont need no love wars
Get it off the street (love wars)
We dont need no (no more, no more)
Love wars
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
But its taking me under
Since youre not here, oh baby (oh baby)
I remember losing my head
And calling you things
Like dirty names oh I had ( ) enough (yes you did, boy)
We need to get our act together
And get if off the street

[...] Read more

song performed by Rod Stewart
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Peacefully Delight In Peace

Peacefully delight in peace

Peace be peacefully in peace,
Peacefully to peaceful
Peace seekers on peaceful
Peace missions, who in peaceful peace,
Peacefully ended up peace in peace
Peacefully,

Peacefully, peaceful Peace peacefully in peace is like a peacefully peaceful
Peace piece pinned at a peaceful
Peacefully pitch in Peace, Peered in Peace
Peacefully by every peacefully
Peaceful eye in the name of peace,
Peaceful Peace peacefully in peace peaceful is passed peacefully in Peace, peaceful from peacefully
Peaceful peace believers in peace peacefully to peaceful peace
Peaceful peace seekers,

Peacefully
Peace in peace be peacefully to peaceful
Peace believers of peace who in Peace peacefully peaceful delight in peaceful
Peace.
Peacefully in peaceful peace peacefully delight in peaceful peace peacefully for peace in peace.

poem by Iyamuremye Wilfred
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It Takes A Mind To Stop All Wars

Bloated with promoted poses,
Upheld and exposed.
And...
Picked to be the ones depicted,
To combat and end conflicts.

Images portraying bravery,
Do not end the fears...
Of the ones who have the looks,
But use them to pretend.

It takes a mind to stop all wars.
And not a muscled image given.
Minds will stop all wars,
If the cause is for peace.

It takes a mind to stop all wars.
And not a muscled image given.
Minds will stop all wars,
If the cause is for peace to leave.

Bloated with promoted poses,
Upheld and exposed.
It takes a mind to stop all wars.
And not a muscled image given.
Minds will stop all wars,
If the cause is for peace.

It takes a mind to stop all wars.
And not a muscled image given.
Minds will stop all wars,
If the cause is for peace to leave.

And not a muscled image given,
To give and pretend.
It takes a mind to stop all wars.
And not a muscled image given.
Minds will stop all wars,
If the cause is for peace.

It takes a mind to stop all wars.
And not a muscled image given.
Minds will stop all wars,
If the cause is for peace to leave.

Bloated with promoted poses,
Upheld and exposed.
And...
Picked to be the ones depicted,
To combat and end conflicts...

[...] Read more

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Todays Teardrops

Gene pitney
Todays teardrops are tomorrows rainbows and tomorrows rainbows we will
Share me and you so dry your eyes, little girl, dry your eyes,
And were gonna see skies of blue yeah, yeah, yeah
Had a tough time gettin started, maybe youre just a little downhearted
All you gotta do is a count to 10, baby youll be smiling when,
Todays teardrops are tomorrows rainbows and tomorrows rainbows we will
Share me and you so dry your eyes, little girl, dry your eyes,
And were gonna see skies of blue yeah, yeah, yeah
Instrumental
Key change-
Gonna be just a love of gladness, dont wanna hear nothin bout sadness
Come a little closer come a to me, with each kiss youre gonna see
Todays teardrops are tomorrows rainbows and tomorrows rainbows we will
Share me and you so dry your eyes, little girl, dry your eyes,
And were gonna see skies of blue yeah, yeah, yeah
Todays teardrops are tomorrows rainbows and tomorrows rainbows we will
Share me and you ....

song performed by Roy Orbison
Added by Lucian Velea
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Fourth Book

THEY met still sooner. 'Twas a year from thence
When Lucy Gresham, the sick semptress girl,
Who sewed by Marian's chair so still and quick,
And leant her head upon the back to cough
More freely when, the mistress turning round,
The others took occasion to laugh out,–
Gave up a last. Among the workers, spoke
A bold girl with black eyebrows and red lips,–
'You know the news? Who's dying, do you think?
Our Lucy Gresham. I expected it
As little as Nell Hart's wedding. Blush not, Nell,
Thy curls be red enough without thy cheeks;
And, some day, there'll be found a man to dote
On red curls.–Lucy Gresham swooned last night,
Dropped sudden in the street while going home;
And now the baker says, who took her up
And laid her by her grandmother in bed,
He'll give her a week to die in. Pass the silk.
Let's hope he gave her a loaf too, within reach,
For otherwise they'll starve before they die,
That funny pair of bedfellows! Miss Bell,
I'll thank you for the scissors. The old crone
Is paralytic–that's the reason why
Our Lucy's thread went faster than her breath,
Which went too quick, we all know. Marian Erle!
Why, Marian Erle, you're not the fool to cry?
Your tears spoil Lady Waldemar's new dress,
You piece of pity!'
Marian rose up straight,
And, breaking through the talk and through the work,
Went outward, in the face of their surprise,
To Lucy's home, to nurse her back to life
Or down to death. She knew by such an act,
All place and grace were forfeit in the house,
Whose mistress would supply the missing hand
With necessary, not inhuman haste,
And take no blame. But pity, too, had dues:
She could not leave a solitary soul
To founder in the dark, while she sate still
And lavished stitches on a lady's hem
As if no other work were paramount.
'Why, God,' thought Marian, 'has a missing hand
This moment; Lucy wants a drink, perhaps.
Let others miss me! never miss me, God!'

So Marian sat by Lucy's bed, content
With duty, and was strong, for recompense,
To hold the lamp of human love arm-high
To catch the death-strained eyes and comfort them,
Until the angels, on the luminous side

[...] Read more

poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Aurora Leigh (1856)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Parish Register - Part III: Burials

THERE was, 'tis said, and I believe, a time
When humble Christians died with views sublime;
When all were ready for their faith to bleed,
But few to write or wrangle for their creed;
When lively Faith upheld the sinking heart,
And friends, assured to meet, prepared to part;
When Love felt hope, when Sorrow grew serene,
And all was comfort in the death-bed scene.
Alas! when now the gloomy king they wait,
'Tis weakness yielding to resistless fate;
Like wretched men upon the ocean cast,
They labour hard and struggle to the last;
'Hope against hope,' and wildly gaze around
In search of help that never shall be found:
Nor, till the last strong billow stops the breath,
Will they believe them in the jaws of Death!
When these my Records I reflecting read,
And find what ills these numerous births succeed;
What powerful griefs these nuptial ties attend;
With what regret these painful journeys end;
When from the cradle to the grave I look,
Mine I conceive a melancholy book.
Where now is perfect resignation seen?
Alas! it is not on the village-green: -
I've seldom known, though I have often read,
Of happy peasants on their dying-bed;
Whose looks proclaimed that sunshine of the breast,
That more than hope, that Heaven itself express'd.
What I behold are feverish fits of strife,
'Twixt fears of dying and desire of life:
Those earthly hopes, that to the last endure;
Those fears, that hopes superior fail to cure;
At best a sad submission to the doom,
Which, turning from the danger, lets it come.
Sick lies the man, bewilder'd, lost, afraid,
His spirits vanquish'd, and his strength decay'd;
No hope the friend, the nurse, the doctor lend -
'Call then a priest, and fit him for his end.'
A priest is call'd; 'tis now, alas! too late,
Death enters with him at the cottage-gate;
Or time allow'd--he goes, assured to find
The self-commending, all-confiding mind;
And sighs to hear, what we may justly call
Death's common-place, the train of thought in all.
'True I'm a sinner,' feebly he begins,
'But trust in Mercy to forgive my sins:'
(Such cool confession no past crimes excite!
Such claim on Mercy seems the sinner's right!)
'I know mankind are frail, that God is just,
And pardons those who in his Mercy trust;

[...] Read more

poem by George Crabbe
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Peaceful And Warm

I went driving through my old hometown
It was Thursday the bright sun on the horizon
I was surprised to see no one had burned it down
It seemed so peaceful and warm
Floods of memories came back to me
All the things we got away with when we were younger
And I felt kind of like a refugee
Like a scattered pile of leaves in a storm
Peaceful memory like lights on a Christmas tree
Every hometown should be peaceful and warm
Every father mother sister brother friend of the family
Peaceful and warm
Somehow now and then didn't seem to blend
'Till a farmer plowing his field waved hello
Another working man doing the best he can
I hope he is peaceful and warm
Peaceful memory plows in the green field sea
Every hometown should be peaceful and warm
Every father mother sister brother friend of the family
Peaceful and warm
On the Kansas banks of the Muddy Mo'
I threw rocks in the river and dreamed of running away
In a wind of change only a father knows
In a world so hectic so cold
I guess my old hometown's kinda dead and gone
Miss the sign on I-29 and you blow right by
But it's a place I can go remember where I come from
It will help me keep me peaceful and warm
Peaceful memory the only thing that's free
Take them and try to be peaceful and warm
Every father mother sister brother friend of the family
Peaceful peaceful and warm

song performed by Kansas
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Three Women

My love is young, so young;
Young is her cheek, and her throat,
And life is a song to be sung
With love the word for each note.

Young is her cheek and her throat;
Her eyes have the smile o' May.
And love is the word for each note
In the song of my life to-day.

Her eyes have the smile o' May;
Her heart is the heart of a dove,
And the song of my life to-day
Is love, beautiful love.

Her heart is the heart of a dove,
Ah, would it but fly to my breast
Where love, beautiful love,
Has made it a downy nest.

Ah, would she but fly to my breast,
My love who is young, so young;
I have made her a downy nest
And life is a song to be sung.

1
I.
A dull little station, a man with the eye
Of a dreamer; a bevy of girls moving by;
A swift moving train and a hot Summer sun,
The curtain goes up, and our play is begun.
The drama of passion, of sorrow, of strife,
Which always is billed for the theatre Life.
It runs on forever, from year unto year,
With scarcely a change when new actors appear.
It is old as the world is-far older in truth,
For the world is a crude little planet of youth.
And back in the eras before it was formed,
The passions of hearts through the Universe stormed.

Maurice Somerville passed the cluster of girls
Who twisted their ribbons and fluttered their curls
In vain to attract him; his mind it was plain
Was wholly intent on the incoming train.
That great one eyed monster puffed out its black breath,
Shrieked, snorted and hissed, like a thing bent on death,

[...] Read more

poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Tomorrows Girls

Our town is just like any other
Good citizens at work and play
Normal folks doin business in the normal way
This morning was like any other
Mommies kissing daddies goodbye
Then the milkman screamed
And pointed up at the sky
Chorus:
From sheilus to the reefs of kizmar
From stargate and the outer worlds
Theyre speeding towards our sun
Theyre on a party run
Here come tomorrows girls
Tomorrows girls
You see them on the grass at lunch hour
Soaking up the vertical rays
In their summer dresses
A little smile can really make your day
Their kisses feel like real kisses
And when they cry they cry real tears
But whats left in your arms
When the static clears
Chorus:
Theyre landing on the jersey beaches
Their engines make the white sand swirl
The heat is so intense
Earth men have no defense
Against tomorrows girls
In the cool of the evening
In the last light of the triple sun
I wait by the go-tree
When the days busy work is done
Soon the warm night breezes
Start rolling in off the sea
Yes, at lantern time
Thats when you come to me
Come to me
Our home is just like any other
Were grillin burgers on the back lawn
Some time goes by
We fall asleep with the tv on
I dream about a laughing angel
Then the laugh becomes a furious whine
Look out fellas
Its shredding time
Chorus:
Theyre mixing with the population
A virus wearing pumps and pearls
Lord help the lonely guys
Hooked by those hungry eyes

[...] Read more

song performed by Steely Dan
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All Tomorrows Parties

(reed)
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrows parties
A hand-me-down dress from who knows where
To all tomorrows parties
And where will she go and what shall she do
When midnight comes around
Shell turn once more to sundays clown
And cry behind the door
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrows parties
Why silks and linens of yesterdays gowns
To all tomorrows parties
And what will she do with thursdays rags
When monday comes around
Shell turn once more to sundays clown
And cry behind the door
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrows parties
For thursdays child is sundays clown
For whom none will go mourning
A blackened shroud, a hand-me-down gown
Of rags and silks, a costume
Fit for one who sits and cries
For all tomorrows parties

song performed by Velvet Underground
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The Aeneid of Virgil: Book 7

AND thou, O matron of immortal fame,
Here dying, to the shore hast left thy name;
Cajeta still the place is call’d from thee,
The nurse of great Æneas’ infancy.
Here rest thy bones in rich Hesperia’s plains; 5
Thy name (’t is all a ghost can have) remains.
Now, when the prince her fun’ral rites had paid,
He plow’d the Tyrrhene seas with sails display’d.
From land a gentle breeze arose by night,
Serenely shone the stars, the moon was bright, 10
And the sea trembled with her silver light.
Now near the shelves of Circe’s shores they run,
(Circe the rich, the daughter of the Sun,)
A dang’rous coast: the goddess wastes her days
In joyous songs; the rocks resound her lays: 15
In spinning, or the loom, she spends the night,
And cedar brands supply her father’s light.
From hence were heard, rebellowing to the main,
The roars of lions that refuse the chain,
The grunts of bristled boars, and groans of bears, 20
And herds of howling wolves that stun the sailors’ ears.
These from their caverns, at the close of night,
Fill the sad isle with horror and affright.
Darkling they mourn their fate, whom Circe’s pow’r,
(That watch’d the moon and planetary hour,) 25
With words and wicked herbs from humankind
Had alter’d, and in brutal shapes confin’d.
Which monsters lest the Trojans’ pious host
Should bear, or touch upon th’ inchanted coast,
Propitious Neptune steer’d their course by night 30
With rising gales that sped their happy flight.
Supplied with these, they skim the sounding shore,
And hear the swelling surges vainly roar.
Now, when the rosy morn began to rise,
And wav’d her saffron streamer thro’ the skies; 35
When Thetis blush’d in purple not her own,
And from her face the breathing winds were blown,
A sudden silence sate upon the sea,
And sweeping oars, with struggling, urge their way.
The Trojan, from the main, beheld a wood, 40
Which thick with shades and a brown horror stood:
Betwixt the trees the Tiber took his course,
With whirlpools dimpled; and with downward force,
That drove the sand along, he took his way,
And roll’d his yellow billows to the sea. 45
About him, and above, and round the wood,
The birds that haunt the borders of his flood,
That bath’d within, or basked upon his side,
To tuneful songs their narrow throats applied.
The captain gives command; the joyful train 50

[...] Read more

poem by Publius Vergilius Maro
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Lake Marie

Chorus:
We were standing
Standing by peaceful waters
Standing by peaceful waters
Whoa wah oh wha oh
Whoa wah oh wha oh
Many years ago along the illinois-wisconsin border
There was this indian tribe
They found two babies in the woods
White babies
One of them was named elizabeth
She was the fairer of the two
While the smaller and more fragile one was named marie
Having never seen white girls before
And living on the two lakes known as the twin lakes
They named the larger and more beautiful lake, lake elizabeth
And thus the smaller lake that was hidden from the highway
Became known forever as lake marie
Repeat chorus:
Many years later I found myself talking to this girl
Who was standing there with her back turned to lake marie
The wind was blowing especially through her hair
There was four italian sausages cooking on the outdoor grill
And man, they was ssssssssizzlin
Many years later we found ourselves in canada
Trying to save our marriage and perhaps catch a few fish
Whatever seemed easier
That night she fell asleep in my arms
Humming the tune to louie louie
Aah baby, we gotta go now.
Repeat chorus:
The dogs were barking as the cars were parking
The loan sharks were sharking the narcs were narcing
Practically everyone was there
In the parking lot by the forest preserve
The police had found two bodies
Nay, naked bodies
Their faces had been horribly disfigured by some sharp object
Saw it on the news on the tv news in a black and white video
You know what blood looks like in a black and white video?
Shadows, shadows thats exactly what it looks like
All the love we shared between her and me was slammed
Slammed up against the banks of old lake marie, marie
We were standing
Standing by peaceful waters
Standing by peaceful waters
Whoa wah oh wha oh
Whoa wah oh wha oh
Whoa wah oh wha oh
Whoa wah oh wha oh

[...] Read more

song performed by John Prine
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Golden Age

Long ere the Muse the strenuous chords had swept,
And the first lay as yet in silence slept,
A Time there was which since has stirred the lyre
To notes of wail and accents warm with fire;
Moved the soft Mantuan to his silvery strain,
And him who sobbed in pentametric pain;
To which the World, waxed desolate and old,
Fondly reverts, and calls the Age of Gold.

Then, without toil, by vale and mountain side,
Men found their few and simple wants supplied;
Plenty, like dew, dropped subtle from the air,
And Earth's fair gifts rose prodigal as prayer.
Love, with no charms except its own to lure,
Was swiftly answered by a love as pure.
No need for wealth; each glittering fruit and flower,
Each star, each streamlet, made the maiden's dower.
Far in the future lurked maternal throes,
And children blossomed painless as the rose.
No harrowing question `why,' no torturing `how,'
Bent the lithe frame or knit the youthful brow.
The growing mind had naught to seek or shun;
Like the plump fig it ripened in the sun.
From dawn to dark Man's life was steeped in joy,
And the gray sire was happy as the boy.
Nature with Man yet waged no troublous strife,
And Death was almost easier than Life.
Safe on its native mountains throve the oak,
Nor ever groaned 'neath greed's relentless stroke.
No fear of loss, no restlessness for more,
Drove the poor mariner from shore to shore.
No distant mines, by penury divined,
Made him the sport of fickle wave or wind.
Rich for secure, he checked each wish to roam,
And hugged the safe felicity of home.

Those days are long gone by; but who shall say
Why, like a dream, passed Saturn's Reign away?
Over its rise, its ruin, hangs a veil,
And naught remains except a Golden Tale.
Whether 'twas sin or hazard that dissolved
That happy scheme by kindly Gods evolved;
Whether Man fell by lucklessness or pride,-
Let jarring sects, and not the Muse, decide.
But when that cruel Fiat smote the earth,
Primeval Joy was poisoned at its birth.
In sorrow stole the infant from the womb,
The agëd crept in sorrow to the tomb.
The ground, so bounteous once, refused to bear
More than was wrung by sower, seed, and share.

[...] Read more

poem by Alfred Austin
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Why Do Children Of The Poor

Why do children of the poor die so readily?
By the age of five
they're already disarmed for life.
Is money a gene they're missing?
Or is their suffering
just a diminished immunity to the rest of us?
The gluttons of knowledge
discuss James Joyce in a loud voice
in well-lit universities.
With great nuance and finesse
they enumerate the seven kinds of ambiguity
and the mean diameter of the vowel O
in the context of neo-Chicago Aristotelianism
in the latter plays of Shakespeare
where the commas fall like worms
out of every page of his art
as if he couldn't punctuate
the death-rage in his heart
with the subtler points
of the neo-critical literati.
I think Shakespeare would have seen
the sterling irony
of debating proto-Nostratic linguistics
while living children all around him
can't read their names in their own mother-tongue.
If the same word for oak
was the word we used for door
when we all learned to speak the same language
milennia ago
it's not hard to imagine
given modern advances in communication
that the word for child
that we used way back then
is the root of the word we use for atrocity today.
Why do the children of the poor die so readily?
Nature or nurture?
Is it because the children of the rich
are taught that wealth is longevity
and the children of the poor
who can't read the fine print
bleed to death like expired medical plans?
Why do the rich think that the poor
are the reason their children suffer
and the best thing to do is make orphans of them
by sending the poor of one nation
to war against another
to keep the economy growing
and cut back on the unemployed
like deer culled from a budget in hunting season?
If you're a child born from this womb

[...] Read more

poem by Patrick White
Added by Poetry Lover
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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,—

[...] Read more

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

Written by natalie cole
Have you been to the very top of the highest hill
Where the air is fresh and sweet and the sky is so clear
Looking out on the country side and the view of the villages so far away
There is nothing to feel, nothing to feel
Come with me, wont you take my hand
Lets explore this heaven right here on earth, peaceful living is here
Me and you on this mountaintop with our love we will never stop
cause we both know peaceful living is right here
And here we are in utopia where the sun never seems to go away
And the moon is our friend, hmm
Looking out on a starry night and the sky is like a sleigh for riding on
But you dont need a pin, you dont need a pin
Precious one, youre a joy to me
And I know that theres no place else Id rather be
Peaceful living is here, yeah, yeah
Me and you on this mountain top with our love well never stop
And we both know peaceful living is right right, hoo--
And the moon is our friend, me and you, yeah, yeah, yeah--
Precious one youre a joy to me
And I know that theres no place else Id rather be
Peaceful is living here, oh, me and you on this mountaintop
With our love well never stop cause we both know peaceful living is here
We both know peaceful living is here
We both know peaceful living is right here
La, la, peaceful living, la, la, peaceful living, living, living--
La, la, peaceful living

song performed by Natalie Cole
Added by Lucian Velea
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