Lyrics/Poetry That Means a Lot to You

[Cast No Shadow]

I know we have our "What are you listening to" thread, but I personally don't watch all the videos in that, but I do love reading poetry and lyrics. I find words to be beautiful, and I love hearing lovely, lyrical ones.

Maybe that's just me, hehe!

What are your favourite lyrics/poetry?

I love the last three lines of William Yeats' poem, "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven".

"But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

And I love the lyrics from "These Streets" by Orlando Seale and the Swell.

"Flames, thirsty little flames,
Lick two red lips,
She has sharp white teeth
And other shameless tricks
Meet, oh they have barely met
And then they mate,
Licentious strangers watch them wriggle,
Like a bag of snakes".

It's so sordid, but beautifully described!

I also love, "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams" by O'Shaughnessy.

And for a long time I've loved,
"So if you care to find me, look to the western sky, as someone told me lately, everyone deserves a chance to fly. And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free, to those who'd ground me, take a message back from me! Tell them how I am defying gravity, I'm flying high and defying gravity, and soon I'll match them in renown, and nobody in all of Oz, no wizard that there is or was, is ever gonna bring me down!" I find it empowering.

 

[Living Dead Boy]

"Three Days" by Jane's Addiction

Three days was the morning.
My focus three days old.
My head, it landed
To the sounds of cricket bows...

I am proud man anyway...
Covered now by three days...

Three ways was the morning.
Three lovers, in three ways.
We knew when she landed,
Three days she'd stay.

I am a proud man anyway...
Covered now by three days...

We saw shadows of the morning light
the shadows of the evening sun
till the shadows and the light were one.

Shadows of the morning light
the shadows of the evening sun
till the shadows and the light were one...

True hunting is over.
No herds to follow.
Without game, men prey on each other.
The family weakens by the bite we swallow...

True leaders gone,
Of land and people.
We choose no kin but adopted strangers.
The family weakens by the length we travel...

All of us with wings...
All of us with wings...
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!

Erotic Jesus lays with his Marys.
Loves his Marys.
Bits of puzzle,
Fitting each other.

All now with wings!

Oh my Marys!
Never wonder...
Night is shelter
For nudity's shiver...

All now with wings...


...If you didnt know what that song's about, it's about the lead singer's three day drug and sex binge with his ex girlfriend and her friend. Jane's Addiction has beautiful, multi-layered lyrics.

 

[white avenger]

This has been one of my favorite poems since I was a kid, dreaming of one day having a horse of my own.



THE ARAB'S FAREWELL TO HIS HORSE
By Caroline Norton (1808-1877)
My Beautiful! My Beautiful! That standest meekly by,

With thy proudly arch'd and glossy neck, and dark and fiery eye,

Fret not to roam the desert now, with all thy winged speed;

I may not mount on thee again,--thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!

Fret not with that impatient hoof,--snuff not the breezy wind-

The farther that thou fliest now, so far am I behind:

The stranger hath thy bridle-rein,--thy master hath his gold,

Fleet-limb'd and beautiful, farewell; thou'rt sold, my steed, thou'rt sold.
Farewell! Those free, untired limbs full many a mile must roam

To reach the chill and wintry sky which clouds the stranger's home;

Some other hand, less fond, must now thy corn and bread prepare.

The silky mane I braided once must be another's care!

The morning sun shall dawn again, but never more with thee

Shall I gallop through the desert paths, where we were wont to be;

Evening shall darken on the earth and o'er the sandy plain

Some other steed, with slower step, shall bear me home again.
Yes, thou must go! The wild, free breeze, the brilliant sun and sky,

Thy master's home-from all of these my exiled one must fly;

Thy proud dark eye will grow less proud, thy step become less fleet,

And vainly shalt thou arch thy neck, thy master's hand to meet.

Only in sleep shall I behold that dark eye, glancing bright;

Only in sleep shall hear again that step so firm and light;

And when I raise my dreaming arm to check or cheer thy speed,

Then must I, starting, wake to feel-thou'rt sold, My Arab steed!
Ah! Rudely then, unseen by me, some cruel hand may chide,

Till foam-wreaths lie, like crested waves, along thy panting side:

And the rich blood that's in thee swells, in thy indignant pain,

Till careless eyes, which rest on thee, may count each started vein.

Will they ill use thee? If I thought-but no, it cannot be-

Thou art so swift, yet easy curb'd, so gentle, yet so free;

And yet, if haply, when thou'rt gone, my lonely heart should yearn,

Can the hand which casts thee from it now command thee to return?
Return! Alas! My Arab steed! What shall thy master do

When thou, who wast his all of joy, hast vanish'd from his view?

When the dim distance cheats mine eye, and through the gathering tears

Thy bright form, for a moment, like a false mirage appears;

Slow and unmounted shall I roam, with weary step alone

Where, with fleet step and joyous bound, thou oft hast borne me on;

And sitting down by that green well, I'll pause and sadly think,

"It was here he bow'd his glossy neck when last I saw him drink!"
When last I saw thee drink!-Away! The fever'd dream is o'er,--

I could not live a day and know that we should meet no more!

They tempted me, my beautiful!-for hunger's power is strong,--

They tempted me, my beautiful! But I have loved too long.

Who said that I had given thee up? Who said that thou wast sold?

Tis false,--'tis false! My Arab steed! I fling them back their gold!

Thus, thus, I leap upon thy back and scour the distant plains;

Away! Who overtakes us now shall claim thee for his pains!

 

[hazzard]

there are so many poems and lyrics i love...but some poems that immediately came to mind upon reading this:

"ulysses" by alfred lord tennyson. specifically these lines (although i love the whole thing):

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
the sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be that we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are---


and then "vixen" by w.s. merwin:


Comet of stillness princess of what is over
high note held without trembling without voice without sound
aura of complete darkness keeper of the kept secrets
of the destroyed stories the escaped dreams the sentences
never caught in words warden of where the river went
touch of its surface sibyl of the extinguished
window onto the hidden place and the other time
at the foot of the wall by the road patient without waiting
in the full moonlight of autumn at the hour when I was born
you no longer go out like a flame at the sight of me
you are still warmer than the moonlight gleaming on you
even now you are unharmed even now perfect
as you have always been now when your light paws are running
on the breathless night on the bridge with one end I remember you
when I have heard you the soles of my feet have made answer
when I have seen you I have waked and slipped from the calendars
from the creeds of difference and the contradictions
that were my life and all the crumbling fabrications
as long as it lasted until something that we were
had ended when you are no longer anything
let me catch sight of you again going over the wall
and before the garden is extinct and the woods are figures
guttering on a screen let my words find their own
places in the silence after the animals



i'll have to post later with some lyrics! pretty much anything by bob dylan.

 

[zobothehobo]

Dear John - Taylor Swift

Long were the nights when
My days once revolved around you
Counting my footsteps
Praying the floor won’t fall through, again
My mother accused me of losing my mind

But I swore I was fine

You paint me a blue sky
And go back and turn it to rain
And I lived in your chess game
But you changed the rules everyday
Wonderin’ which version of you I might get on the phone, tonight
Well I stopped pickin’ up and this song is to let you know why

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone

Don't you think I was too young

To be messed with
The girl in the dress

Cried the whole way home, I should've known.

Well maybe it’s me
And my blind optimism to blame
Or maybe it’s you and your sick need
To give love and take it away

And you'll add my name to your long list of traitors who don't understand
And I'll look back in regret how I ignored when they said

'Run as fast as you can’

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone

Don't you think I was too young

To be messed with
The girl in the dress

Cried the whole way home

Dear John, I see it all now it was wrong
Don’t you think nineteen’s too young
To be played by your dark, twisted games
When I loved you so, I should've known.

You are an expert at sorry
And keeping the lines blurry
Never impressed by me acing your tests
All the girls that you run dry have tired lifeless eyes
Cause you burned them out

But I took your matches
Before fire could catch me
So don’t look now
I’m shining like fireworks
Over your sad empty town

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone

Don't you think I was too young

To be messed with
The girl in the dress

Cried the whole way home

I see it all now that you're gone

Don't you think I was too young

To be messed with
The girl in the dress

Wrote you a song, you should’ve known.

You should’ve known
Don’t you think I was too young
You should’ve known.

 

[Firefly]

My dearest friend, if you don't mind
I'd like to join you by your side
Where we can gaze into the stars
And sit together, now and forever
For it is plain as anyone could see
We're simply meant to be

 

[BuffyElevated]

The words to "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas mean a lot to me... That song came out right as my grandmother was dying of cancer and it spoke to me about letting go of the little things that you think matter so much, and enjoy the "little wonders" of life, because you never know when they'll be taken away.

Let it go,
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in,
Let your clarity define you
In the end
We will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain

Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And i don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by,
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain

All of my regret
Will wash away some how
But i can not forget
The way i feel right now

In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away but these small hours
These small hours, still remain,
Still remain
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These little wonders still remain

 

[NY State of Mind]

NY State of Mind - Nas

Rappers I monkey flip them with the funky rhythm
I be kicking musician, inflicting composition
Of pain i'm like Scarface sniffing cocaine
Holding a M-16, see with the pen I'm extreme
Now bulletholes left in my peepholes
I'm suited up in street clothes
Hand me a nine and I'll defeat foes
Y'all know my steelo with or without the airplay

I keep some E&J, sitting bent up in the stairway
Or either on the corner betting Grants with the Celo champs
Laughing at baseheads, trying to sell some broken amps
G-Packs get off quick, forever niggas talk shit
Remeniscing about the last time the Task Force flipped
Niggas be running through the block shooting
Time to start the revolution, catch a body head for Houston
Once they caught us off guard, the Mac-10 was in the grass and
I ran like a Cheetah with thoughts of an assassin

Pick the Mac up, told brothers back up, the Mac spit
Lead was hitting niggas, one ran, I made him backflip
Heard a few chicks scream my arm shook, couldn't look
Gave another squeeze heard it click yo, my shit's stuck
Try to cock it, it wouldn't shoot now I'm in danger
Finally pulled it back and saw three bullets caught up in the chamber
So now I'm jetting to the building lobby
And it was filled with children probably, couldn't see as high as I be
So what you saying? It's like the game ain't the same

Got younger niggas pulling the triggers bringing fame to they name
And claim some corners, crews without guns are goners
In broad daylight, stickup kids, they run up on us
Four-fives and gauges, Macs in fact
Same niggas'll catch a back to back, snatching your cracks in black
There was a snitch on the block getting niggas knocked
So hold your stash until the coke price drop
I know this crackhead, who said she got to smoke nice rock

And if it's good she'll bring you customers and measuring pots
But yo, you gotta slide on a vacation
Inside information keeps large niggas erasing and they wives basing
It drops deep as it does in my breath
I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined
I think of crime, when I'm in a New York state of mind

Be having dreams that I'm a gangster, drinking Moets holding Tecs
Making sure the cash came correct then I stepped
Investments in stocks, sewing up the blocks
To sell rocks, winning gunfights with mega cops
But just a nigga, walking with his finger on the trigger
Make enough figures until my pockets get bigger
I ain't the type of brother made for you to start testing
Give me a Smith & Wesson, I'll have niggas undressing
Thinking of cash flow, buddah and shelter

Whenever frustrated I'm a hijack Delta
In the PJ's, my blend tape plays, bullets are strays
Young bitches is grazed each block is like a maze
Full of black rats trapped, plus the Island is packed
From what I hear in all the stories when my peoples come back, black
I'm living where the nights is jet black
The fiends fight to get crack, I just max, I dream I can sit back
And lamp like Capone, with drug strips sewn
Or the legal luxury life, rings flooded with stones, holmes

I got so many rhymes I don't think i'm too sane
Life is parallel to Hell but I must maintain
And be prosperous, though we live dangerous
Cops could just arrest me, blaming us, we're held like hostages
It's only right that I was born to use mics
And the stuff that I write, is even tougher than dice
I'm taking rappers to a new plateau, through rap slow
My rhyming is a vitamin, Hell without a capsule
The smooth criminal on beat breaks

Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes
The city never sleeps, full of villains and creeps
That's where I learned to do my hustle, had to scuffle with freaks
I'm a addict for sneakers, twenties of buddah and bitches with beepers
In the streets I can greet you, about blunts I teach you
Inhale deep like the words of my breath
I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
I lay puzzled as I backtrack the earlier times
Nothing's equivalent, to the New York state of mind

 

[Taake]

Edgar Allan Poe's "Alone"

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.

Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:

From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,

From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

 

[Firefly]

Puscifer - The Humbling River

Nature, nurture, heaven, and home,
Sum of all, and by them, driven.
To conquer every mountain shown,
But I've never crossed the river.

Braved the forests, braved the stone,
Braved the icy winds and fire.
Braved and beat them on my own,
Yet I'm helpless by the river.

Angel, angel, what have I done?
I've face the quakes, the wind, the fire.
I've conquered country, crown, and throne.
Why can't I cross this river?

Angel, angel, what have I done?
I've face the quakes, the wind, the fire.
I've conquered country, crown, and throne.
Why can't I cross this river?

Pay no mind to the battles you've won,
It'll take a lot more than rage and muscle.
Open your heart and hands, my son,
Or you'll never make it over this river.

It'll take a lot more than words and guns,
A whole lot more than riches and muscle.
The hands of the many must join as one,
And Together we'll cross the river.

It'll take a lot more than words and guns,
A whole lot more than riches and muscle.
The hands of the many must join as one,
And together we'll cross the river.

Nature, nurture, heaven, and home,
(It'll take a lot more than words and guns)
Sum of it all, and by them, driven.
(A whole lot more than riches and muscle)
To conquer every mountain shown,
(The hands of the many must join as one)
And together we'll cross the river.

Braved the forest, braved the stone.
(It'll take a lot more than words and guns)
Braved the icy winds and fire.
(A whole lot more than riches and muscle)
Braved and beat them on my own,
(The hands of the many must join as one)
And together we'll cross the river.

And Together we'll cross the river...

And Together we'll cross the river...
(Nature, nurture, heaven, and home)

And Together we'll cross the river
And Together we'll cross the river
(Nature, nuture, heaven, and home)

And Together we'll cross the river....
And Together we'll cross the river....

 

[kittenpoker]

Heh, this is probably cheating but honestly this bit of going through the motions keeps circling my head

I just want to see if this is really me
and I just want to feel
alive


I'll be back with a non buffy thing later. 🙂

 

[Living Dead Boy]

"Jane Says" by Jane's Addiction

Jane says
I'm done with Sergio
He treats me like a ragdoll
She hides
The television
Says I don't owe him nothing,
But if he comes back again
Tell him to wait right here for me
Or just
Try again tomorrow
I'm gonna kick tomorrow
Gonna kick tomorrow

Jane says
Have you seen my wig around?
I feel naked without it
She knows
They all want her to go
But that's O.K. man
She dont like them anyway
Jane says
She's goin away to spain
When she gets my money saved
I'm gonna start tomorrow
I'm gonna kick tomorrow
Gonna kick tomorrow

She gets mad
Starts to cry
She takes a swing but
She cant hit
She don't mean no harm
She just don't know
What else to do about it

Jane goes
To the store at 8:00
She walk up on St. Andrews
She waits
And gets her dinner there
She pulls her dinner
From her pocket
Jane says
I've never been in love
I don't know what it is
Only knows if someone wants her
I want them if they want me
I only know they want me

She gets mad
And she starts to cry
She takes a swing man
She cant hit!
She don't mean no harm
She just dont know
What else to do about it

Jane says
Jane says


I know, another Jane's Addiction song but I just love them. They write some amazing lyrics.

 

[Joshua]

It's like you're screaming, and no one can hear
You almost feel ashamed
That someone could be that important
That without them, you feel like nothing
No one will ever understand how much it hurts
... You feel hopeless; like nothing can save you
And when it's over, and it's gone
You almost wish that you could have all that bad stuff back
So that you could have the good

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

What are your favourite lyrics/poetry?

My next tattoo is going to be a lyric, but I can't decide on just one. Here are what I've narrowed my choices down to;

In a world full of nothing
Though it's not love
It means something
-Depeche Mode

Well there is no resolution
When the revolution's dead
-Hanson

Since I was born I started to decay.
Now nothing ever ever goes my way
-Placebo

When you can't get through it
You can listen to it
-Hanson

There's nothing but bones beneath my skin

There are still rules to break
And this music is a place to hide
-Hanson

Well I know five years is a long time and that times change
But I think that you'll find people are basically the same

I've read more than a hundred books
Seeing love mentioned many thousand times
But despite all the places I've looked
It's still no clearer
I'm still no nearer

Be responsible
Respectable
Stable but gullible
Concerned and caring
Help the helpless
But always remain
Ultimately selfish

I don't want to start
Any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God's
Got a sick sense of humour
And when I die
I expect to find Him laughing
-Depeche Mode

No Hell below us
Above us only sky
-John Lennon

Don't go and lose your face
at some stranger's place
and don't forget to breathe
and pay before you leave
-Placebo

As for poetry, I really like many of Victorian poets, like Tennyson and Arnold.

 

[wickedtiger86]

Here's some Dylan lyrics:

From "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to

Particularly that last bit there. It is not he or she or them or it that I belong to. For reals.

And from "Mr. Tambourine Man"

Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow



Actually there is usually a part in most of his songs that really hits how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking about life. Pretty amazing.

 

[wickedtiger86]

Here's some Dylan lyrics:

From "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to

Particularly that last bit there. It is not he or she or them or it that I belong to. For reals.

And from "Mr. Tambourine Man"

Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow



Actually there is usually a part in most of his songs that really hits how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking about life. Pretty amazing.

 

[Ripper666]

CASSIE's poem:

I sit alone at my window sill Trees crackle, sunshine blares... ...and children laugh like death their sharp happiness is a knife to me? One jealous snake on a window sill? They will be here, trees and sun and children with canes and pruney skin when I am but a memory a laugh in the trees of time. I sit alone and try to love them I sit alone, a snake I sit alone and try to love them I sit alone and laugh.

Remeber it's from "help" Buffy season 7

 

[This Year's Girl]

I think the whole book Extremly loud and incredibly close is amazing. So much insight in that book.

---------- Post added at 07:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:30 PM ----------

Cast No Shadow agrees: I really don't mean this in a patronising way but you're so cute! I love all your posts. I want to smush your cheeks. (In a non weird way).

Lol, awwww, that's sweet of you! You can smush my cheeks anytime! Now that sounds wierd... 😀