My Morning Jacket

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think;
because although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there
was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than
when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
                                         
A.A. Milne

If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less-

General Eric Shinseki

"I've always been afraid I was going to tap the world on the shoulder for 20 years and when it finally turned around, I was going to forget what I had to say."

Tom Waits

"Sorrow is nothing but worn out joy."

even if love were not what I wanted
love would make love the thing most desired

can we post some of our own?

I've got a couple--I don't know if they're worth reading, but we've never had a poetry corner before---(maybe it's just angst)

ask me if I could string four words together
you'd be lucky if you got four ugly letters
when the pillars of your schooling begin to give way
to the turning of your brain rosy pink to grey
when your mind races with faces and pulls only the name
of every other third cousin...

when all's said and done do our sins get erased?
or merely crossed out so that truth leaves a trace
I'd give a hundred dollars to see the look on the face
of every last person I'd offend and disgrace
to see how much hurt I'd cause--the trouble I'd make
and then to claim my forgiveness and then hear their takes
--I bet I'd catch all hell from those who still cared enough to stay...

and would you consider it a maxim or mathematical mandate
that the love you take is equal to the love that you make?

(i want to know love so true it has taste.)

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Boogers are green,
and so is my throwup.

The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows

The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death

The sun has fallen down
And the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles

It went like this:

The buildings tumbled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair

The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards
Everything washed in a thin orange haze

I said: "kiss me, you're beautiful -
These are truly the last days"

You grabbed my hand and we fell into it
Like a daydream or a fever

We woke up one morning and fell a little further down -
For sure it's the valley of death

I open up my wallet
And it's full of blood

Quoteask me if I could string four words together
you'd be lucky if you got four ugly letters
when the pillars of your schooling begin to give way
to the turning of your brain rosy pink to grey
when your mind races with faces and pulls only the name
of every other third cousin...

when all's said and done do our sins get erased?
or merely crossed out so that truth leaves a trace
I'd give a hundred dollars to see the look on the face
of every last person I'd offend and disgrace
to see how much hurt I'd cause--the trouble I'd make
and then to claim my forgiveness and then hear their takes
--I bet I'd catch all hell from those who still cared enough to stay...

and would you consider it a maxim or mathematical mandate
that the love you take is equal to the love that you make?

(i want to know love so true it has taste.)

Tom, I like your poem. While I confess that I can't claim to understand it, it does make me feel like I'm watching you hover over your own funeral.  And I mean that in a good way. 8-)

Quote

Tom, I like your poem. While I confess that I can't claim to understand it, it does make me feel like I'm watching you hover over your own funeral.  And I mean that in a good way. 8-)

thanks--

i was kind of gettin down about bein a sinner, i think--the bit bout forgiveness is sort of self-explanatory---it's hard to feel like other people would actually believe in it for you when you keep needing it.

thanks for the words, i've got some more that 'll put up soon

When I wrote this, I thought it was so fantastic, the kind of lie-in-your-bed-and-writhe-around-because-you're-so-awesome fantastic.  Now, months (years?) later, I realize, no, I probably just had too much to drink.  But, still, I kind of like it:

I can't hang up.  I don't know what he's saying
But I know it should be good.
I go to sleep with pictures in my head
And I wake with music on my lips.

I keep on listening, thinking this is the time it'll become clear.
But when the sun rises I seem to have forgotten
Why I loved him so much.

I don't know what he's saying,
I never have.
Still it makes me move
To my pillow with my pen out and paper at hand;
The page remains blank.

Pour the wine and wait for tomorrow
It always makes me feel better.
With music on my lips.
(I still don't know what he's saying...)
The page is always blank.

one early spring morning
i walked outside to find
a bear.
nine feet of brown ferocity
nibbling meekly at one of my backyard cedars.
he found me riveted,
my blood emptying into my feet
as if to scream
RUN.
but he caught first scent of the word,
and left me wondering if my fear
was anything more than instinctual ignorance.

and could i not learn a thing or two from my friend,
the bear?
to learn how not to maul, but to nibble?
to run from battles best not fought,
but otherwise easily won?
for the true measure of a man
lies not in sheer power,
but in his tact—
and if only i could learn
to use the same claws that could skin a deer
to nimbly pluck my backyard cedars clean,
then maybe i could begin to learn
why it is that i am so afraid
of bears.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain

Emily Dickinson

" You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind" T. Leary

Quote
The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows

The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death

The sun has fallen down
And the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles

It went like this:

The buildings tumbled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair

The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards
Everything washed in a thin orange haze

I said: "kiss me, you're beautiful -
These are truly the last days"

You grabbed my hand and we fell into it
Like a daydream or a fever

We woke up one morning and fell a little further down -
For sure it's the valley of death

I open up my wallet
And it's full of blood

Thanks for posting this! I love The Dead Flag Blues!

Quote

Quote
The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows

The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death

The sun has fallen down
And the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles

It went like this:

The buildings tumbled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair

The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards
Everything washed in a thin orange haze

I said: "kiss me, you're beautiful -
These are truly the last days"

You grabbed my hand and we fell into it
Like a daydream or a fever

We woke up one morning and fell a little further down -
For sure it's the valley of death

I open up my wallet
And it's full of blood

Thanks for posting this! I love The Dead Flag Blues!

Who wrote that?

Pretty bleak, I'd say  :)

Things that Happen

Sometimes before great events a person will try,
disguised, at his best, not to be a clown:
he feels, "a great event is coming, bow down."
And I, always looking for something anyway,
always bow down.

Once, later than dawn but early,
before the lines of the calendar fell,
one of those events turned an unseen corner
and came near, near, sounding before it
something the opposite from a leper's bell.

We were back of three mountains called
"Sisters" along the Green Lakes trail
and had crossed a ridge when that
one little puff of air touched us,
hardly felt at all.

That was the greatest event that day;
it righted all wrong.
I remember it, the way the dust moved there.
Something had come out of the ground
and moved calmly along.

No one was ahead of us, no one
in all that moon-like land.
Oh, I thought, how hard the world has tried
with its wind, its miles, its blundering
stumbling days, again and again, to find my hand.

~ William Stafford ~

The Summer Day
      
       Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

Quote

QuoteThanks for posting this! I love The Dead Flag Blues!

Who wrote that?

Pretty bleak, I'd say  :)

Here you go Serg  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aLjup934Rk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%E2%99%AFa%E2%99%AF%E2%88%9E

http://www.brainwashed.com/godspeed/deadmetheney/monologues/deadflag.htm

One of my fav poems:

After The Lunch by Wendy Cope

On Waterloo bridge, where we said our goodbyes
The weather conditions brings tears to my eyes,
I wipe them away with a black woolly glove
And try not to notice I've fallen in love.

On Waterloo bridge I am trying to think:
This is nothing. You're high on the charm and the drink.
But the juke-box inside me is playing a song
That says something different. And when was it wrong?

On Waterloo bridge with the wind in my hair
I am tempted to skip. You're a fool. I don't care.
The head does it's best, but the heart is the boss-
I admit it before I'm halfway across.

Quote

Quote

QuoteThanks for posting this! I love The Dead Flag Blues!

Who wrote that?

Pretty bleak, I'd say  :)

Here you go Serg  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aLjup934Rk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%E2%99%AFa%E2%99%AF%E2%88%9E

http://www.brainwashed.com/godspeed/deadmetheney/monologues/deadflag.htm

Well, I thought they only did instrumentals.
Apparently spooky spoken-words as well.

Talking about spoken words, did you see my Lee Hazlewood video in the Youtube thread?

I like all of your contributions so far. So I'm gonna add one.

"You're not a loser kid, but if you keep acting like one, then I don't know. All I'm saying is don't make decisions thinking that you're a low life, make decisions thinking you're a great man, at least a good man. And don't be a goddamn pussy. There's a world out there. If you don't open your eyes you ain't ever gonna see it."

The Fly by Leonard Cohen

In his black armour
the house-fly marched the field
of Freia's sleeping thighs,
undisturbed by the soft hand
which vaguely moved
to end his exercise.

And it ruined my day --
this fly which never planned
to charm her or to please
should walk boldly on that ground
I tried so hard
to lay my trembling knees.

[size=22]"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."[/size] ~Doc

(http://www.mjyoung.net/imgsrc/doc.jpg)

"Buy the ticket, take the ride"

HST

in my new clothing
i feel so different, i must
look like someone else

Basho

"Isn't it funny how a bear likes hunny
Buzz, buzz, buzz
I wonder why he does"
-A.A. Milne

here's one

heaven is somewhere near Nashville
Nashville's over by you
only the honest know Hell's there...
only the lucky can lie

try two makes living less perfect
one's never enough
if i could hold two hands with my one
i'd feel better 'bout calling your bluff

life's remote control
it's got no buttons or strings
love lights a bulb
in the dark of all things

heaven is somewhere near Nashville
Nashville's over by you
only the honest know Hell's here...
only the lucky can lie
only the lucky can lie
only the lucky can lie.

Quotehere's one

heaven is somewhere near Nashville
Nashville's over by you
only the honest know Hell's there...
only the lucky can lie

try two makes living less perfect
one's never enough
if i could hold two hands with my one
i'd feel better 'bout calling your bluff

life's remote control
it's got no buttons or strings
love lights a bulb
in the dark of all things

heaven is somewhere near Nashville
Nashville's over by you
only the honest know Hell's here...
only the lucky can lie
only the lucky can lie
only the lucky can lie.

Is that the one on myspace? My computer at work is being retarded.

All alone at night
I sit here in fear
Wondering what's to become within the next year
Somedays are bright
And someday's are cold
This thing that I hold to
Is getting damn old.

My Oh my how hard can it be
To sit here and think about just ONE HAPPY DREAM.

(J.D., D.P.)

There's a whisper
I would like to breathe into your ear but
I'm too scared to
Get that close to you right now

There are dreams we might have shared and
I still care and I still love you
But you know how
I've been untrue

In the beginning we closed our eyes
Whenever we kissed
We were surprised to
Find so much inside

it is indeed, LEATHER KID

not even a day old

...that which does not kill you...






...will only make you want to kill yourself.

-me

The second last paragraph here: http://rickygervais.com/bestlife.php

Elvis on books: "I like movies but I like books too - real ones (non-fiction) 'cause you can reread parts & think things over."

Shit Elvis, that's like...deep man  ;)

Mostly for DB (Reading boy), but:

Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.


NB - for our US friends, Slough (pronounced at the end like the "lou" in "loud" is probably the least attractive town in the UK.  Think Cleveland on a bad day.

It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead  ;D

Thanks so much for this Mark!!!

The Office & David Brent fans should get a kick from this too.

QuoteIt's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead  ;D

Thanks so much for this Mark!!!

The Office & David Brent fans should get a kick from this too.

Respeck' to the Betjeman massive.  ;)

QuoteRespeck' to the Betjeman massive.  ;)

Another local fav is Ali G. It always makes me laugh when he talks about the John Nike leisure center & Masquerades nightclub etc in Bracknell...I used to 'hang out' at these places  ;D  :-[  

Never doubt
that a small group of
thoughtful, committed individuals
can change the world.
Indeed
it's the only thing
that ever has.

-MARGARET MEAD

The Magnifier

Holds the sun
And still a glass in front of that
And everyday the magnifier watches us burn
Our twists and turns

Every night it takes its breath
We would dream while it rests
But instead we'll study hard at night
Because we know in the morning
The magnifier wants to fight .......


And once again put us through some impassible/impossible test.

-Brian

"No matter how good you are at something there's always
about a million people better at it...the lesson is never try."
-Homer Simpson
(http://blacktomato.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/20/homer_simpson.jpg)

you have to be scared before you can be brave.

my friend told me that as it was told to him by another friend, and is probably from somebody more famous, but who cares, it's really good.

hey Brian, I had a similar one happen last fall:

an ant
under a magnifying glass
and a child discovering
the power of the sun

Quotehey Brian, I had a similar one happen last fall:

an ant
under a magnifying
and a child discovering
the power of the sun

Wow, I like how that makes me think a little more about mine.  Thank you for posting that.  


a child
under a magnifying
and a man discovering
the power of his father

a man
under a magnifying
and a god discovering
the power of his image

a s o/u n
under a magnifying
and an ant discovering
the power of his fear

hmmmmmm


(and i definitely meant to have typed "magnifying glass")

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZQcUS4chhc4

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.                        

Dom Helder Camara

A wiseman speaks when he has something to say, a fool speaks when he has to say something.


Author: ??

QuoteA wiseman speaks when he has something to say, a fool speaks when he has to say something.


Author: ??

All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you...

QuoteAll the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you...

Been listening to Madonna (the kick-ass album, not the rather lame 'artist') lately?

Anyway, this is Pennylane NYC's fault...

"You grow up, you work half a century, you get a golden handshake, you rest a couple of years and you're dead. And the only thing that makes that crazy ride worthwhile is 'Did I enjoy it? What did I learn? What was the point?' That's where I come in. You've seen how I react to people, make them feel good, make them think that anything's possible. If I make them laugh along the way, sue me. And I don't do it so they turn round and go 'Thank you David for the opportunity, thank you for the wisdom, thank you for the laughs.' I do it so, one day, someone will go 'There goes David Brent. I must remember to thank him.'"

Quote

QuoteAll the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you...

Been listening to Madonna (the kick-ass album, not the rather lame 'artist') lately?

No, I was thinking about watching this on DVD again, one of my fav movies!  :)

(http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Watership-Down-Poster-C10134430.jpeg)

Quote

Quote

QuoteAll the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you...

Been listening to Madonna (the kick-ass album, not the rather lame 'artist') lately?

No, I was thinking about watching this on DVD again, one of my fav movies!  :)

(http://www.impawards.com/1978/posters/watership_down.jpg)

Mmm, can't see the picture.
There's a Trail Of Dead song called Prince With A Thousand Enemies, hence the confusion. Maybe it was inspired by the movie.

QuoteMmm, can't see the picture.

I've tried another poster (Watership Down)  :)

I have a couple of &YKUBTTOTD albums but not Madonna...worth buying?

Quote

QuoteMmm, can't see the picture.

I've tried another poster (Watership Down)  :)

I have a couple of &YKUBTTOTD albums but not Madonna...worth buying?

So, the prince is actually a rabbit?

Prince With A Thousand Enemies is a song from their self-titled debut now that I've looked it up. That one sounds like a demo.

'Madonnna' is a really fun record. Pretty raw stuff. But there's no way I'm telling you it's worth buying. Your wife mailed me and told me to stop saying that  ;)

QuoteSo, the prince is actually a rabbit?

It is indeed  ;D

Quote

QuoteSo, the prince is actually a rabbit?

It is indeed  ;D

That's an awesome pitch!
I shall look into it  ;D

Quote"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think;
because although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there
was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than
when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
                                         
A.A. Milne

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

-Wallace Stevens (from "Thirteen Ways Of Looking At A Blackbird")

"You're gonna stand there, ownin' a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistlin' bungholes, no spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker don'ts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistlin' kitty chaser?"

(http://edge.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/754639/80624945.jpg)

-Joe Dirt

I love this one:

QuoteJoan of Arc came back as a little girl in Japan, and her father told her to stop listening to her imaginary friends.

Elvis was born again in a small village in Sudan, he died hungry, age 9, never knowing what a guitar was.

Michelangelo was drafted into the military at age 18 in Korea, he painted his face black with shoe polish and learned to kill.

Jackson Pollock got told to stop making a mess, somewhere in Russia.

Hemingway, to this day, writes DVD instruction manuals somewhere in China. He's an old man on a factory line. You wouldn't recognise him.

Gandhi was born to a wealthy stockbroker in New York. He never forgave the world after his father threw himself from his office window, on the 21st floor.

And everyone, somewhere, is someone, if we only give them a chance.

- I Wrote This For You (http://www.iwrotethisforyou.me/2010/08/truth-is-born-in-strange-places.html)