[rainbowdash]

As there is no Stevens as of yet, I feel obligated to post some I know by heart
(I'm absolutely absolutely crazy about his work.)
Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches Tigers
In red weather.

The Emperor of Ice Cream
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

and part II of Le Monocle de Mon Oncle
A red bird flies across the golden floor.
It is a red bird that seeks out his choir
Among the choirs of wind and wet and wing.
A torrent will fall from him when he finds.
Shall I uncrumple this much-crumpled thing?
I am a man of fortune greeting heirs;
For it has come that thus I greet the spring.
These choirs of welcome choir for me farewell.
No spring can follow past meridian.
Yet you persist with anecdotal bliss
To make believe a starry connaissance.

AND, to account for my other favorite poet/lyricist Yoni Wolf, these are the lyrics to Act Five.
There is no grace in act five
Only the nerves, insect-like twitches
Involuntary bowel movements, and confusion
A snail in salt doesn't fall asleep
With a half-smile
Like grandma from the after-school special
It twists and contorts
It jerks and writhes for some time
Like a living severed limb on fire

All the people who taught me card tricks are dying
I've been trying
To get my pop-pop's good looks from old snapshots
And all the people who taught me crad tricks are dying
I've been trying
To steal my grandfather's handsome from old photographs

Even if the world is saved
And the couples kiss before the credits list
There will be more than a lifetime of death
In the scrambled signal snow that's left
When the black intake runs out
The invisible frame's death tacked to your movie reel
Far outweigh the reel itself

All the people who taught me card tricks are dying
I've been trying
To get my poppa's good looks from old snapshots
And all the people who taught me crad tricks are dying
I've been trying
To steal my grandfather's handsome from old photographs

There is no grace in act five

A circus tent and all the folding chairs fit in an old coffin
For travel
A circus tent and all the folding chairs fit in an old coffin
For travel

[queenofnerds]

Thought I saw you in the battleship
but it was only a look a like
She was nothing but a vision trick
Under the warning light
She was close, close enough to be your ghost
But my chances turned to toast
When I asked her if I could call her your name

I thought I saw you in the rusty hook
Huddled up in wicker chair
I wandered up for a closer look
And kissed who ever was sitting there

She was close, and she held me very tightly
Till I asked awfully politely, please
Can I call you her name

And I elongated my lift home,
Yeah I let him go the long way round
I smelt your scent on the seatbelt
And kept my shortcuts to myself

I thought I saw you in the parrots beak
Messing with the smoke alarm
It was too loud for me to hear her speak
And she had a broken arm

It was close, so close that the walls were wet
And she wrote it out in letraset
No you can't call me her name

Tell me where's your hiding place
I'm worried I'll forget your face
And I've asked everyone
And I'm beginning to think I imagined you all along

I elongated my lift home
Yeah I let him go the long way round
I smelt your scent on the seatbelt
And kept my shortcuts to myself

I saw your sister in the cornerstone
On the phone to the middle man
When I saw that she was on her own
I thought she might understand
She was close, well you couldn't get much closer
She said I'm really not supposed to but yes,
You can call me anything you want

[rainbowdash]

Arctic Monkeys!
That's the only song I've ever listened to by them.

[rainbowdash]

He came riding fast like a phoenix out of fire flames
He came dressed in black with a cross bearing my name
He came bathed in light and the splendor and glory
I can't believe what the lord has finally sent me

He said dance for me, fanciulla gentile
He said laugh awhile, I can make your heart feel
He said fly with me, touch the face of the true God
And then cry with joy at the depth of my love

'Cause I've prayed days, I've prayed nights
For the lord just to send me home some sign
I've looked long, I've looked far
To bring peace to my black and empty heart

My love will stay 'till the river bed run dry
And my love lasts long as the sunshine blue sky
I love him longer as each damn day goes
The man is gone and heaven only knows

'Cause I've cried days, I've cried nights
For the lord just to send me home some sign
Is he near? is he far?
Bring peace to my black and empty heart
So long day, so long night
Oh Lord, be near me tonight
Is he near? is he far?
Bring peace to my black and empty heart.

[Weirdelves]

And in my dreams
You're alive and you're crying
As your mouth moves in mine
Soft and sweet
Rings of flowers round your eyes
And I'll love you
For the rest of your life
(When you're ready)

[queenofnerds]

So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright
Oh, and that's alright with me

[dwaink]

"I inherited a dark wood where I seldom go. But a day will come when the dead and the living trade places. The wood will be set in motion. We are not without hope. The most serious crimes will remain unsolved in spite of the efforts of many policemen. In the same way there is somewhere in our lives a great unsolved love. I inherited a dark wood, but today I’m walking in the other wood, the light one. All the living creatures that sing, wriggle, wag, and crawl! It’s spring and the air is very strong. I have graduated from the university of oblivion and am as empty-handed as the shirt on the clothesline."

[Jordan~]

"No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool."

- T S Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

[rainbowdash]

"III.
Is it for nothing, then, that old Chinese
Sat tittivating by their mountain pools
Or in the Yangtse studied out their beards?
I shall not play the flat historic scale.
You know how Utamaro's beauties sought
The end of love in their all-speaking braids.
You know the mountainous coiffures of Bath.
Alas! Have all the barbers lived in vain
That not one curl in nature has survived?
Why, without pity on these studious ghosts,
Do you come dripping in your hair from sleep?

IV.
This luscious and impeccable fruit of life
Falls, it appears, of its own weight to earth.
When you were Eve, its acrid juice was sweet,
Untasted, in its heavenly, orchard air.
An apple serves as well as any skull
To be the book in which to read a round,
And is as excellent, in that it is composed
Of what, like skulls, comes rotting back to ground.
But it excels in this, that as the fruit
Of love, it is a book too mad to read
Before one merely reads to pass the time."
—more from Le Monocle de mon Oncle by Wallace Stevens

[queenofnerds]

The unending amends you've made
are enough for one life.
Be done.
I believe in innocence, little darling.
Start again.
I believe in everyone.
I believe, regardless.
I believe in everyone.

And

The phantom of love
moves among us at will.
Each phantom-limb lost,
has got an angel
(so confused,
like the wagging bobbed-tail
of a bulldog):
kindness, kindness prevails.

Kindness prevails!
Ties and rails fall into line,
bearing kindness.
Where will you go, if not here?
What will you say,
when you write to us?

This is a world of terrible hardship,
everywhere,
and I search for words
to set you at ease.
But there, in the looking-glass,
a kite is soaring,
stilling my warring heart
and my trembling knees.

Cos part of me is just a big hippy and I can't help but love.
EDIT:All of me is a big pussy hippy. Sorry.

[Jordan~]

I was gonna post the "kindness prevails" bit of Esme a few days ago.

I didn't even notice that I'd already posted the Prince Hamlet bit from Prufrock in the first post. Every time I read that poem I get excited by the knowledge that that bit's coming up.

"I never did lose a battle,
but I'm feeling further from the end of war:
deplored, ignored and rarely ever self-assured.
Why does it seem the ones that have everything
have nothing inside, nothing inside?

I don't sleep anymore. I gave it up,
coz what we do is not enough,
and now they're calling out our bluff.
Have you done a single thing for someone else,
or do you take, take take, till your belly is stuffed?

How long do you think you can go before you lose it all?
Before they call your bluff and watch you fall?
I don't know, but I'd like to think I had control
at some point but I let it go and lost my soul.
Sit tight, but the revolution's years away.
I'm losing faith and I'm running low on things to say,
so I guess I have no choice but to regurgitate
the tired anthem of a loser and a hypocrite.

Oh! To have died that night! I realized it wouldn't last.
Our days were numbered and the reaper tipped the hourglass.
The final mayday of our sinking ship had come and passed.
Oh! To the west, you don't know what it is you're running from
and everybody's laughing loud.
Your last chance to make your mother and your father proud."

The whole of Streetlight Manifesto's A Moment of Violence, which is perfect for getting pumped to go on a protest.

"Look around, little brother, can you tell me what you see?
You're a big boy now, so take responsibility.
You never had it hard, but now it's getting tough,
so you whine, whine, whine and you say you've had enough.
You say I'm full of shit, that I'm a hypocrite.
I shouldn't talk when I can't take the advice that I give.
Well, maybe you're right, but open your eyes:
The main difference here is that I try, try, try."

From Streetlight Manifesto's 1234, 1234. Always makes me feel a bit better about myself.

"It was dark out. I was half-dead.
I saw a star fall into the sky,
like a chunk of thrown coal,
as if god himself spat
like a cornered rat."

From Have One On Me, of course. I'm surprised I didn't post this sooner, because it's about my favourite thing she's ever written (and by extension, that anyone's ever written). A star falling into the sky like a chunk of thrown coal, god himself spitting like a cornered rat... Guuuh...

[Weirdelves]

[Jordan~]

The way she sings, "It was dark out. I was half dead." - the words don't do that line justice; when she sings it, it's like someone shouting it in distress made music. It makes me think of Lola Montez sitting backstage after a show in Castlemaine, clutching a bottle of wine and drowning her sorrows, sobbing her reminiscences of when she was beloved to the King of Bavaria to her stagehand. Then there's those four lines of dense, layered imagery that so concisely turn everything the wrong way around - a star, reduced to a lump of burning coal, falls upwards and the supreme being is a terrified rat lashing out at its assailants, all in a cinder drifting by a carriage or a shooting star (I'm not able to decide which). In the face of her terror as she's forced to flee, parted from Ludwig forever, even god is only a ragged rat fighting for survival, even the stars are only glowing embers chucked carelessly across the sky or gobs of spit from the mouth of that frightened god-rat. It's just perfect.

[queenofnerds]

Meanwhile, I will raise my own glass
to how you made me fast
and expendable,
and I will drink to your excellent health,
and your cruelty.
Will you have one on me?


I had a dream you came to me,
said
You shall not do me harm anymore,
and with your knife,
you evicted my life
from its little lighthouse
on the seashore.

[thismiserablevillage]

This is such a good idea for a thread ... Aside from Joannic verses I think I'd have to go with this section of Kate (and Anna) McGarrigle's 'Talk to me of Mendocino':

"And it's onto South bend Indiana
Flat out on the western plains
Rise up over the Rockies and down on into California
Out to where but the rocks remain

And let the sun set on the ocean
I will watch it from the shore
Let the sun rise over the redwoods
I'll rise with it till I rise no more"

... so beautiful, especially with those high, lonesome harmonies in the recording.

And 'Prayer Before Birth' by Loius MacNeice I think is one of the most perfect things ever written. Here is the last stanza:

"I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me."

[queenofnerds]

Love, hold my hand
Help me see with the dawn
That those that have left
Are not gone
But they carry on
As stars looking down
As nature's sons
And daughters of the heavens
You will not ever be forgotten by me
In the procession of the mighty stars
Your name is sung and tattooed now on my heart
Here I will carry, carry, carry you

Forever

You have touched my life
So that now
Cathedrals of sound are singing, are singing
The waves have come to walk with you
To where you will live in the land of you,
Land of you
You will not ever be forgotten by me
In the procession of the mighty stars
Your name is sung and tattooed now on my heart
Here I will carry, carry, carry you
Here I will carry, carry, carry you

Forever.

So beautiful

[queenofnerds]

Velociraptor!
He’s gonna find ya!
He’s gonna kill ya!
He’s gonna eat ya!
You’re on the outskirts
Of his kingdom
So keep your head down!
Veloci– Velociraptor

[queenofnerds]

I trust you, if it's already been done, undo it,
It takes two, it's up to me and you, to prove it,
All the rainy nights, even the coldest days,
you're moments ago, but seconds away,
The principal of Nature, it's true but, it's a cruel world,

[queenofnerds]

4 in a row!!!

Job's coffin looks down At the day you shut your power down You must out-create that distructive tendency Let your fire starter hear the fury.
Sister it's time to bring it back on line.

Thank you Tori point well made

[Weirdelves]

'he was a kind, unhurried man / with a heavy lip and a steady hand'

'it is terribly good to carry water and chop wood / streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed'

it really amazes me how she can conjure such a complete image of a lover with only a few choice words.