“
She wondered If I had woken up, would I have smelled his sadness, his desperation, and his detachment?
His death, her breath.
He told her once, she remembers, these two words have no other rhyme but each other.
If she could go back, she thinks --
She would open her eyes, instead of her heart.
”
”
Rachel Thompson (Broken Pieces)
“
Otter. Otter. Otter,” I mutter. “Yes, Bear?” he says beautifully. “Don’t lead cows to slaughter,” I say. He arches an eyebrow. “Come again?” I take a deep breath. “I… love you and I know I should’ve told ya soon-a.” His eyes widen slightly. “Wait, what? You… me?” I shake my head. “But you didn’t buy the dolphin-safe tuna.” “Bear, what the hell? Did you just… rhyme?
”
”
T.J. Klune (Bear, Otter, and the Kid (Bear, Otter, and the Kid, #1))
“
Whoever knows he is deep tries to be clear, but whoever wants to seem deep to the crowd tries to be obscure. For the crowd supposes that anything it cannot see to the bottom must be deep: it is so timid and goes so unwillingly into the water.
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs)
“
Because to him, who ponders well,
My rhymes more than their rhyming tell
Of the dim wisdoms old and deep
That God gives unto man in sleep
”
”
W.B. Yeats (When You Are Old: Early Poems and Fairy Tales (Penguin Drop Caps))
“
Astray from a deep sleep chronic as I write by phonics, like insomnia I will always live the onyx night for revealing, and, upon it, still I'll steal the bright light of day right away just to keep building at speeds hypersonic.
”
”
Criss Jami (Healology)
“
There is something quite amazing and monstrous about the education of upper-class women. What could be more paradoxical? All the world is agreed that they are to be brought up as ignorant as possible of erotic matters, and that one has to imbue their souls with a profound sense of shame in such matters until the merest suggestion of such things triggers the most extreme impatience and flight. The "honor" of women really comes into play only here: what else would one not forgive them? But here they are supposed to remain ignorant even in their hearts: they are supposed to have neither eyes nor ears, nor words, nor thoughts for this -- their "evil;" and mere knowledge is considered evil. And then to be hurled as by a gruesome lightning bolt, into reality and knowledge, by marriage -- precisely by the man they love and esteem most! To catch love and shame in a contradiction and to be forced to experience at the same time delight, surrender, duty, pity, terror, and who knows what else, in the face of the unexpected neighborliness of god and beast!
Thus a psychic knot has been tied that may have no equal. Even the compassionate curiosity of the wisest student of humanity is inadequate for guessing how this or that woman manages to accommodate herself to this solution of the riddle, and to the riddle of a solution, and what dreadful, far-reaching suspicions must stir in her poor, unhinged soul -- and how the ultimate philosophy and skepsis of woman casts anchor at this point!
Afterward, the same deep silence as before. Often a silence directed at herself, too. She closes her eyes to herself.
Young women try hard to appear superficial and thoughtless. The most refined simulate a kind of impertinence.
Women easily experience their husbands as a question mark concerning their honor, and their children as an apology or atonement. They need children and wish for them in a way that is altogether different from that in which a man may wish for children.
In sum, one cannot be too kind about women.
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs)
“
New nursery rhymes for new times. Hickory dickory dock my daddy’s nuts from shellshock. Humpty dumpty thought he was wise till gas came along and burned out his eyes. A diller a dollar a ten o’clock scholar blow off his legs and then watch him holler. Rockabye baby in the treetop don’t stop a bomb or you’ll probably flop. Now I lay me down to sleep my bombproof cellar’s good and deep but if I’m killed before I wake remember god it’s for your sake amen.
”
”
Dalton Trumbo (Johnny Got His Gun)
“
From attraction and affection
Cover of perfection
Failure beyond texture to a painful lesson
Everything that was from the start wasn't from the heart
”
”
Criss Jami (Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile)
“
February
Boris Pasternak
It's February. Get ink. Weep.
Write the heart out about it, sing
Another song of February
While raucous slush burns black with spring.
Six grivnas* for a buggy ride
Past booming bells, on screaming gears,
Out to a place where drizzles fall
Louder than any ink or tears
Where like a flock of charcoal pears,
A thousand blackbirds, ripped awry
From trees to puddles, knock dry grief
Into the deep end of the eye.
A thaw patch blackens underfoot.
The wind is gutted with a scream.
True verses are the most haphazard,
Rhyming the heart out on a theme.
*Grivna: a unit of currency.
”
”
Boris Pasternak
“
Mondays taste like split-pea soup,
Tuesdays taste like gobbledygook,
Wednesdays taste like licorice,
Thursdays taste like deep-fried fish,
Fridays taste like the color red,
Saturdays taste like gingerbread,
Sundays taste like chicken breast,
But birthdays! Birthdays taste the best!
Birthdays taste like chocolate cake,
Balloons, presents, and sirloin steak.
”
”
Claudine Carmel (Lucy Lick-Me-Not and the Day Eaters: A Birthday Story)
“
I scooted out of the laundry room and skipped down the hallway, arms flaying around my head like one of the hot pink puppets from the movie Labyrinth. “A scent and a sound, I’m lost and I’m found. And I’m hungry like the wolf. Something on a line, it’s discord and rhyme—whatever, whatever, la la la—Mouth is alive, all running inside, and I’m hungry like the—” Warmth spread down my neck.
“It’s actually, ‘I howl and I whine. I’m after you,’ and not blah or whatever.”
Startled by the deep voice, I shrieked and whipped around. My foot slipped on a section of well-cleaned wood and my butt smacked on the floor.
“Holy crap,” I gasped, clutching my chest. “I think I’m having a heart attack.”
“And I think you broke your butt.” Laughter filled Daemon’s voice.
I remained sprawled across the narrow hallway, trying to catch my breath. “What the hell? Do you just walk into people’s houses?”
“And listen to girls absolutely destroy a song in a matter of seconds? Well, yes, I make a habit out of it. Actually, I knocked several times, but I heard your…singing, and your door was unlocked.” He shrugged.
“So I just let myself in.”
“I can see that.” I stood, wincing. “Oh, man, maybe I did break my butt.”
“I hope not. I’m kind of partial to your butt.” He flashed a smile. “Your face is pretty red. You sure you didn’t smack that on the way down?”
I groaned. “I hate you.
”
”
Jennifer L. Armentrout
“
Fool brother Filip led blind brother Daret
deep into the black cave.
He knew that inside it, the Queen Crab resided
but that didn’t scare him away.
Said blind brother Daret to fool brother Filip,
does Queen Crab no longer reign?
I have heard she is vicious, and likes to eat fishes.
It’s best we avoid her domain.
Answered fool Filip to his brother small,
have I not always kept you safe?
I know what I’m doing, for I’m older than you,
and I’ll never lead you astray.
”
”
Susan Dennard (Windwitch (The Witchlands, #2))
“
Pillows made of stones, Bed of old kings’ bones, Quilt of moss and earth, Deep beneath the turf, Sleeps the faerie child, Dreaming of the wild, Hidden and unknown. —From “Now the Faeries Sleep,” a nursery rhyme originating in Kent, c. 1700.
”
”
Heather Fawcett (Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2))
“
[W]ith a heavy heart, we are biding farewell to those entries that were written in rhyming slang, which utilized Atbash cyphering, and which assumed expert knowledge of American Sign Language and the inner intricacies of the I Ching from its readers.
”
”
Marcus Cutter (Pryce and Carter’s Deep Space Survival Procedure & Protocol Manual)
“
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man . . .” Evie chanted as she played with Stephen in the Challons’ private railway carriage. They occupied one side of a deep upholstered settee, with Sebastian lounging in the other corner. The baby clapped his tiny hands along with his grandmother, his rapt gaze fastened on her face. “Make me a cake as fast as you can . . .”
The nursery rhyme concluded, and Evie cheerfully began again. “Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake—”
“My sweet,” Sebastian interrupted, “we’ve been involved in the manufacture of cakes ever since we set foot on the train. For my sanity, I beg you to choose another game.”
“Stephen,” Evie asked her grandson, “do you want to play peekaboo?”
“No,” came the baby’s grave answer.
“Do you want to play ‘beckoning the chickens?’”
“No.”
Evie’s impish gaze flickered to her husband before she asked the child, “Do you want to play horsie with Gramps?”
“Yes!”
Sebastian grinned ruefully and reached for the boy. “I knew I should have kept quiet.” He sat Stephen on his knee and began to bounce him, making him squeal with delight.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Devil's Daughter (The Ravenels, #5))
“
For I approach deep problems like cold baths: quickly into them and quickly out again. That one does not get to the depths that way, not deep enough down, is the superstition of those afraid of the water, the enemies of cold water; they speak without experience. The freezing cold makes one swift.
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay Science with a Prelude in Rhymes & an Appendix of Songs)
“
Richard stood transfixed for a moment or two, wiped his forehead again, and gently replaced the phone as if it were an injured hamster. His brain began to buzz gently and suck its thumb. Lots of little synapses deep inside his cerebral cortex all joined hands and started dancing around and singing nursery rhymes.
”
”
Douglas Adams
“
Blue is beauty, not truth. “True blue” is a ruse, a rhyme; it’s there, then it’s not. Blue is a deeply sneaky color. Even deep blue is shallow. Blue is glory and power, a wave, a particle, a vibration, a resonance, a spirit, a passion, a memory, a vanity, a metaphor, a dream. Blue is a simile. Blue, she is like a woman.
”
”
Christopher Moore (Sacré Bleu)
“
Sometimes quiet is violent
I find it hard to hide it
My pride is no longer inside
It's on my sleeve
My skin will scream reminding me of
Who I killed inside my dream
I hate this car that I'm driving
There's no hiding for me
I'm forced to deal with what I feel
There is no distraction to mask what is real
I could pull the steering wheel
I have these thoughts, so often I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
I ponder of something terrifying
'Cause this time there's no sound to hide behind
I find over the course of our human existence
One thing consists of consistence
And it's that we're all battling fear
Oh dear, I don't know if we know why we're here
Oh my, too deep, please stop thinking
I liked it better when my car had sound
There are things we can do
But from the things that work there are only two
And from the two that we choose to do
Peace will win and fear will lose
It is faith and there's sleep
We need to pick one please because
Faith is to be awake
And to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive
And I will try with every rhyme
To come across like I am dying
To let you know you need to try to think
I have these thoughts, so often I ought
To replace that slot with what I once bought
'Cause somebody stole my car radio
And now I just sit in silence
”
”
twenty one pilots
“
A is for the angelfish that amble around,
B is for the bay where the barnacles are found
C is for the clownfish in the coral reef
D is for the diver discovering the deep
”
”
Gareth Simmonds (ABC at the Sea: The Rhyming Alphabet Ocean Book)
“
You might see that I am a writer for a reason. In speech and from my mouth we taste the words unseasoned. It's teasing the truth which to my mind reeks of treason.
”
”
Criss Jami
“
What is new, however, is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come again and again.
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs)
“
We are living in an increasingly feminized society. Some people view that as an increasingly civilized society, but it has left our boys with deep desires for honor but few outlets for displaying it appropriately.
”
”
Cindy Rollins (Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey toward Sanctification)
“
Burned?" said Elspeth. "By who?"
"Whom," came a deep voice from above.
Elspeth glanced up to see, sitting on a branch of a maple tree, a large gray owl. "An owl who says whom? Seriously?"
"Only when it's appropriate," said the owl.
”
”
Gerry Swallow (Blue in the Face: A Story of Risk, Rhyme, and Rebellion)
“
The nursery rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me” is a lie that every five-year-old knows in their deep waters. Words hurt, because they are one of the only socially acceptable ways we can attack each other.
”
”
Kory Stamper (Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries)
“
I speak of love that comes to mind:
The moon is faithful, although blind;
She moves in thought she cannot speak.
Perfect care has made her bleak.
I never dreamed the sea so deep,
The earth so dark; so long my sleep,
I have become another child.
I wake to see the world go wild.
”
”
Allen Ginsberg (The Gates of Wrath: Rhymed Poems, 1948-1952)
“
At childhood’s end, the houses petered out
into playing fields, the factory, allotments
kept, like mistresses, by kneeling married men,
the silent railway line, the hermit’s caravan,
till you came at last to the edge of the woods.
It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf.
He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud
in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw,
red wine staining his bearded jaw. What big ears
he had! What big eyes he had! What teeth!
In the interval, I made quite sure he spotted me,
sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me a drink,
my first. You might ask why. Here’s why. Poetry.
The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods,
away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place
lit by the eyes of owls. I crawled in his wake,
my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer
snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both shoes
but got there, wolf’s lair, better beware. Lesson one that night,
breath of the wolf in my ear, was the love poem.
I clung till dawn to his thrashing fur, for
what little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf?
Then I slid from between his heavy matted paws
and went in search of a living bird – white dove –
which flew, straight, from my hands to his hope mouth.
One bite, dead. How nice, breakfast in bed, he said,
licking his chops. As soon as he slept, I crept to the back
of the lair, where a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with books.
Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head,
warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.
But then I was young – and it took ten years
in the woods to tell that a mushroom
stoppers the mouth of a buried corpse, that birds
are the uttered thought of trees, that a greying wolf
howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out,
season after season, same rhyme, same reason. I took an axe
to a willow to see how it wept. I took an axe to a salmon
to see how it leapt. I took an axe to the wolf
as he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat, and saw
the glistening, virgin white of my grandmother’s bones.
I filled his old belly with stones. I stitched him up.
Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone.
Little Red-Cap
”
”
Carol Ann Duffy (The World's Wife)
“
Perhaps you can burrow down into the turf and make from the moss a quilt, as the rhyme goes, but I cannot."*
*Pillows made of stones,
Bed of old kings' bones,
Quilt of moss and earth,
Deep beneath the turf,
Sleeps the faerie child,
Dreaming of the wild,
Hidden and unknown.
--- From "Now the Faeries Sleep," a nursery rhyme originating in Kent, c. 1700.
”
”
Heather Fawcett (Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2))
“
Oh, Fezzik . . . Fezzik . . .” “What . . . ?” “I had such rhymes for you . . . .” “What rhymes? . . .” Silence. The fourth coil was finished. “Inigo, what rhymes?” Silence. Snake breath. “Inigo, I want to know the rhymes before I die—Inigo, I really want to know—Inigo, tell me the rhymes,” Fezzik said, and by now he was very frustrated and, more than that, he was spectacularly angry and one arm came clear of one coil and that made it a bit less of a chore to fight free of the second coil and that meant he could take that arm and bring it to the aid of the other arm and now he was yelling it out, “You’re not going anywhere until I know those rhymes” and the sound of his own voice was really very impressive, deep and resonant, and who was this snake anyway, getting in the path of Fezzik when there were rhymes to learn,
”
”
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
“
Dagger of Love: Long and Distant Memories)
c. 2016
The dagger of love sticks deep in me,
Of loves lost; waves of memory I dimly see,
(Of loving a man so much that she is a goddess to thee).
Grasp for the dagger from my fevered mind,
And pluck the memories like roses to find.
Shadows fleet and so does she,
I embrace nothing; a handful of memory I barely see,
We both come to a room where we could both meet,
And tell each other ‘I love you’ as our grips do fleet.
Memories are two-edged so I must go,
Recollections in a corner forgotten; where silence does grow.
They must go and so do I,
The corners forgotten in my mind.
Their we wait for silence to grow, and she says goodbye and it is so.
For I must rhyme to tell the day,
First of autumn cold, windy and gray.
Farewell my love on another forgotten day,
(May eternity reunite us that we may love on our way).
”
”
Douglas M. Laurent
“
I took to circling unfamiliar words to look up in the dictionary, although I was less scrupulous about decoding pronunciations—deep into my twenties I would know the meaning of words I couldn’t pronounce. There was no system to this, no rhyme or pattern. I was like a young tinkerer in my parents’ garage, gathering up old cathode-ray tubes and bolts and loose wires, not sure what I’d do with any of it, but convinced it would prove handy once I figured out the nature of my calling.
”
”
Barack Obama (A Promised Land)
“
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.
Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?
- Ode to a Nightingale
”
”
John Keats (The Complete Poems)
“
Green in nature is one thing, green in literature another. Nature and letters seem to have a natural antipathy; bring them together and they tear each other to pieces. The shade of green Orlando now saw spoilt his rhyme and split his metre. Moreover, nature has tricks of her own. Once look out of a window at bees among flowers, at a yawning dog, at the sun setting, once think "how many more suns shall I see set," etc., etc. (the thought is too well known to be worth writing out) and one drops the pen, takes one's cloak, strides out of the room, and catches one's foot on a painted chest as one does so. For Orlando was a trifle clumsy.
”
”
Virginia Woolf (Orlando)
“
Cage
It's a tear i want to shed,
For the weathered roses that once was red,
Today it's a decision want to make,
To move on in life ignoring the fate,
It's the promises i want to break,
Because its a nightmare and i want to awake,
It is the poem that don't rhyme,
I don't know how, but things changed with the tides of time,
It's the memories i want to forget,
Now i am tired, no more i can regret,
I'm the one, who feels alone in the crowd,
I want to cry, run and shout out loud,
Please leave me alone, relieve me from the pain,
I am empty now, there is nothing more you can regain,
Look at me and deep into my eyes,
You will find the love that never dies
”
”
Ratish Edwards
“
Cage
It's a tear i want to shed,
For the weathered roses that once was red,
Today it's a decision want to make,
To move on in life ignoring the fate,
It's the promises i want to break,
Because its a nightmare and i want to awake,
It is the poem that don't rhyme,
I don't know how, but things changed with the tides of time,
It's the memories i want to forget,
Now i am tired, no more i can regret,
I'm the one, who feels alone in the crowd,
I want to cry, run and shout out loud,
Please leave me alone, relieve me from the pain,
I am empty now, there is nothing more you can regain,
Look at me and deep into my eyes,
You will find the love that never dies,
”
”
Ratish Edwards
“
The Tull-Toks claim that everything in the universe can be read. Each star is a living text, where the massive convection currents of superheated gas tell an epic drama, with the starspots serving as punctuation, the coronal loops extended figures of speech, and the flares emphatic passages that ring true in the deep silence of cold space. Each planet contains a poem, written out in the bleak, jagged, staccato rhythm of bare rocky cores or the lyrical, lingering, rich rhymes—both masculine and feminine—of swirling gas giants. And then there are the planets with life, constructed like intricate jeweled clockwork, containing a multitude of self-referential literary devices that echo and re-echo without end.
”
”
Ken Liu (Lightspeed Magazine, August 2012)
“
PANOTII LOOKS PUT OUT ABOUT BEING LEFT BEHIND AND dogs my steps as I stow his tack under the deep overhang on the south side of the wizard’s hovel. There’s plenty of grass here, water at the lake, and it’s not that cold yet, despite the shift in seasons. If the rains start before we get back, the horses can take shelter under the overhang. I’m not worried about them wandering off. Not one of them has stepped outside of the large makeshift corral of God Bolt pits since we got here.
“You can’t come with us,” I tell him. “It’ll be cold and slippery. And big monsters will want to eat you.” He tosses his head, snorting. “Really big monsters. There might be Dragons. And the Hydra. And I can’t vouch for the friendliness of the Ipotane toward regular horses.” I blow gently into his nose. Panotii chuffs back. “You’ll be safe here, and if anyone tries to steal you, Grandpa Zeus will throw down a thunderbolt. Boom! No more horse thief.”
“Zeus may have better things to do than babysit our horses,” Flynn says, stowing his own equine gear next to mine.
I glance northward toward the Gods’ mountain home and speak loudly. “In that case, I’m announcing right now that I’ll make an Olympian stink if anything happens to my horse.” Flynn looks nervous and moves away from me like he’s expecting a God Bolt to come thundering down.
“She’s not kidding.” Sunlight glints off Griffin’s windblown hair. Thick black stubble darkens his jaw. He flashes me a smile that brings out the slight hook in his nose, and something tightens in my belly.
I turn back to Panotii and scratch under his jaw. “You’re in charge here.” His enormous ears flick my way. “You keep the others in line.” Panotii nods. I swear to the Gods, my horse nods.
Brown Horse raises his head and pins me with a gimlet stare. I roll my eyes. “Fine. You can help. You’re both in charge.” Apparently satisfied, Griffin’s horse goes back to grazing, shearing the grass around him with neat, organized efficiency. Griffin and Brown Horse were made for each other.
Panotii shoves his nose into my shoulder, knocking me back a step. Taking a handful of his chestnut mane, I stretch up on my toes to whisper into one of his donkey ears. “Seriously, you’re in charge. I’ll bet you can even rhyme.”
Carver and Kato chuckle as they walk past. Griffin bands his arms around my waist from behind, surprising me. “I heard that.
”
”
Amanda Bouchet (Breath of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #2))
“
Ernst of Edelsheim I'll tell the story, kissing This white hand for my pains: No sweeter heart, nor falser E'er filled such fine, blue veins. I'll sing a song of true love, My Lilith dear! to you; Contraria contrariis— The rule is old and true. The happiest of all lovers Was Ernst of Edelsheim; And why he was the happiest, I'll tell you in my rhyme. One summer night he wandered Within a lonely glade, And, couched in moss and moonlight, He found a sleeping maid. The stars of midnight sifted Above her sands of gold; She seemed a slumbering statue, So fair and white and cold. Fair and white and cold she lay Beneath the starry skies; Rosy was her waking Beneath the Ritter's eyes. He won her drowsy fancy, He bore her to his towers, And swift with love and laughter Flew morning's purpled hours. But when the thickening sunbeams Had drunk the gleaming dew, A misty cloud of sorrow Swept o'er her eyes' deep blue. She hung upon the Ritter's neck, S he wept with love and pain, She showered her sweet, warm kisses Like fragrant summer rain. "I am no Christian soul," she sobbed, As in his arms she lay; "I'm half the day a woman, A serpent half the day. "And when from yonder bell-tower Rings out the noonday chime, Farewell! farewell forever, Sir Ernst of Edelsheim!" "Ah! not farewell forever!" The Ritter wildly cried, "I will be saved or lost with thee, My lovely Wili-Bride!" Loud from the lordly bell-tower Rang out the noon of day, And from the bower of roses A serpent slid away. But when the mid-watch moonlight Was shimmering through the grove, He clasped his bride thrice dowered With beauty and with love. The happiest of all lovers Was Ernst of Edelsheim— His true love was a serpent Only half the time!
”
”
John Hay (Poems)
“
One finds oneself surprisingly supplied with information. Outside the undifferentiated forces roar; inside we are very private, very explicit, have a sense indeed, that it is here, in this little room, that we make whatever day of the week it may be. Friday or Saturday. A shell forms upon the soft soul, nacreous, shiny, upon which sensations tap their beaks in vain. On me it formed earlier than on most. Soon I could carve my pear when other people had done dessert. I could bring my sentence to a close in a hush of complete silence. It is at that season too that perfection has a lure. One can learn Spanish, one thinks, by tying a string to the right toe and waking early. One fills up the little compartments of one’s engagement book with dinner at eight; luncheon at one-thirty. One has shirts, socks, ties laid out on one’s bed.
But it is a mistake, this extreme precision, this orderly and military progress; a convenience, a lie. There is always deep below it, even when we arrive punctually at the appointed time with our white waistcoats and polite formalities, a rushing stream of broken dreams, nursery rhymes, street cries, half-finished sentences and sights—elm trees, willow trees, gardeners sweeping, women writing—that rise and sink even as we hand a lady down to dinner. While one straightens the fork so precisely on the table-cloth, a thousand faces mop and mow. There is nothing one can fish up in a spoon; nothing one can call an event. Yet it is alive too and deep, this stream. Immersed in it I would stop between one mouthful and the next, and look intently at a vase, perhaps with one red flower, while a reason struck me, a sudden revelation.
”
”
Virginia Woolf (The Waves)
“
Many people approach Tolstoy with mixed feelings. They love the artist in him and are intensely bored by the preacher; but at the same time it is rather difficult to separate Tolstoy the preacher from Tolstoy the artist—it is the same deep slow voice, the same robust shoulder pushing up a cloud of visions or a load of ideas. What one would like to do, would be to kick the glorified soapbox from under his sandalled feet and then lock him up in a stone house on a desert island with gallons of ink and reams of paper—far away from the things, ethical and pedagogical, that diverted his attention from observing the way the dark hair curled above Anna's white neck. But the thing cannot be done : Tolstoy is homogeneous, is one, and the struggle which, especially in the later years, went on between the man who gloated over the beauty of black earth, white flesh, blue snow, green fields, purple thunderclouds, and the man who maintained that fiction is sinful and art immoral—this struggle was still confined within the same man. Whether painting or preaching, Tolstoy was striving, in spite of all obstacles, to get at the truth. As the author of Anna Karenin, he used one method of discovering truth; in his sermons, he used another; but somehow, no matter how subtle his art was and no matter how dull some of his other attitudes were, truth which he was ponderously groping for or magically finding just around the corner, was always the same truth — this truth was he and this he was an art.
What troubles one, is merely that he did not always recognize his own self when confronted with truth. I like the story of his picking up a book one dreary day in his old age, many years after he had stopped writing novels, and starting to read in the middle, and getting interested and very much pleased, and then looking at the title—and seeing: Anna Karenin by Leo Tolstoy.
What obsessed Tolstoy, what obscured his genius, what now distresses the good reader, was that, somehow, the process of seeking the Truth seemed more important to him than the easy, vivid, brilliant discovery of the illusion of truth through the medium of his artistic genius. Old Russian Truth was never a comfortable companion; it had a violent temper and a heavy tread. It was not simply truth, not merely everyday pravda but immortal istina—not truth but the inner light of truth. When Tolstoy did happen to find it in himself, in the splendor of his creative imagination, then, almost unconsciously, he was on the right path. What does his tussle with the ruling Greek-Catholic Church matter, what importance do his ethical opinions have, in the light of this or that imaginative passage in any of his novels?
Essential truth, istina, is one of the few words in the Russian language that cannot be rhymed. It has no verbal mate, no verbal associations, it stands alone and aloof, with only a vague suggestion of the root "to stand" in the dark brilliancy of its immemorial rock. Most Russian writers have been tremendously interested in Truth's exact whereabouts and essential properties. To Pushkin it was of marble under a noble sun ; Dostoevski, a much inferior artist, saw it as a thing of blood and tears and hysterical and topical politics and sweat; and Chekhov kept a quizzical eye upon it, while seemingly engrossed in the hazy scenery all around. Tolstoy marched straight at it, head bent and fists clenched, and found the place where the cross had once stood, or found—the image of his own self.
”
”
Vladimir Nabokov (Lectures on Russian Literature)
“
One does not only wish to be understood when one writes; one wishes just as surely not to be understood. It is by no means necessarily an objection to a book when anyone finds it incomprehensible.
Perhaps that was part of the author's intention — he didn't want to be understood by just 'anybody'.
Every nobler spirit and taste selects his audience when he wants to communicate; in selecting it, he simultaneously erects barriers against 'the others'.
All subtler laws of a style originated therein: they simultaneously keep away, create a distance, forbid 'entrance', understanding, as said above — while they open the ears of those whose ears are related to ours.
And let me say this amongst ourselves and about my own case: I want neither the inexperience nor the liveliness of my temperament to keep me from being understandable to you, my friends — not the liveliness, as much as it forces me to deal with a matter swiftly in order to deal with it at all.
For I approach deep problems such as I do cold baths: fast in, fast out. That this is no way to get to the depths, to get deep enough, is the superstition of those who fear water, the enemies of cold water; they speak without experience.
Oh, the great cold makes one fast! And incidentally: does a matter stay unrecognized, not understood, merely because it has been touched in flight; is only glanced at, seen in a flash? Does one absolutely have to sit firmly on it first?
At least there are truths that are especially shy and ticklish and can't be caught except suddenly — that one must surprise or leave alone.
Finally, my brevity has yet another value: given the questions that occupy me, I must say many things briefly so that they will be heard even more briefly.
For, as an immoralist, one needs to avoid corrupting innocents — I mean, asses and old maids of both sexes to whom life offers nothing but their innocence; even more, my writing should inspire, elevate, and encourage them to be virtuous.
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs)
“
I’m sure we can manage to tolerate each other’s company for one meal.”
“I won’t say anything about farming. We can discuss other subjects. I have a vast and complex array of interests.”
“Such as?”
Mr. Ravenel considered that. “Never mind, I don’t have a vast array of interests. But I feel like the kind of man who does.”
Amused despite herself, Phoebe smiled reluctantly. “Aside from my children, I have no interests.”
“Thank God. I hate stimulating conversation. My mind isn’t deep enough to float a straw.”
Phoebe did enjoy a man with a sense of humor. Perhaps this dinner wouldn’t be as dreadful as she’d thought. “You’ll be glad to hear, then, that I haven’t read a book in months.”
“I haven’t gone to a classical music concert in years,” he said. “Too many moments of ‘clap here, not there.’ It makes me nervous.”
“I’m afraid we can’t discuss art, either. I find symbolism exhausting.”
“Then I assume you don’t like poetry.”
“No . . . unless it rhymes.”
“I happen to write poetry,” Ravenel said gravely.
Heaven help me, Phoebe thought, the momentary fun vanishing. Years ago, when she’d first entered society, it had seemed as if every young man she met at a ball or dinner was an amateur poet. They had insisted on quoting their own poems, filled with bombast about starlight and dewdrops and lost love, in the hopes of impressing her with how sensitive they were. Apparently, the fad had not ended yet.
“Do you?” she asked without enthusiasm, praying silently that he wouldn’t offer to recite any of it.
“Yes. Shall I recite a line or two?”
Repressing a sigh, Phoebe shaped her mouth into a polite curve. “By all means.”
“It’s from an unfinished work.” Looking solemn, Mr. Ravenel began, “There once was a young man named Bruce . . . whose trousers were always too loose.”
Phoebe willed herself not to encourage him by laughing. She heard a quiet cough of amusement behind her and deduced that one of the footmen had overheard.
“Mr. Ravenel,” she asked, “have you forgotten this is a formal dinner?”
His eyes glinted with mischief. “Help me with the next line.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I dare you.”
Phoebe ignored him, meticulously spreading her napkin over her lap.
“I double dare you,” he persisted.
“Really, you are the most . . . oh, very well.” Phoebe took a sip of water while mulling over words. After setting down the glass, she said, “One day he bent over, while picking a clover.”
Ravenel absently fingered the stem of an empty crystal goblet. After a moment, he said triumphantly, “. . . and a bee stung him on the caboose.”
Phoebe almost choked on a laugh. “Could we at least pretend to be dignified?” she begged.
“But it’s going to be such a long dinner.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Devil's Daughter (The Ravenels, #5))
“
Many Americans are justifiably frightened by what is happening to our country. But protecting our democracy requires more than just fright or outrage. We must be humble and bold. We must learn from other countries to see the warning signs - and recognize the false alarms. We must be aware of the fateful missteps that have wrecked other democracies. And we must see how citizens have risen to meet the great democratic crises of the past, overcoming their own deep-seated divisions to avert breakdown. History doesn't repeat itself. But it rhymes. The promise of history, and the hope of this book, is that we can find the rhymes before it is too late.
”
”
Steven Levitsky (How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future)
“
Ode to Charlie
THE DOG OF A LIFETIME
We got a pup named Charlie
One year at Christmastime.
He changed our lives completely
So I’ll share this dog rhyme.
His ears were long and dangly,
His legs were short and fat,
His naps were almost constant,
’Cept when he chased the cat.
I dressed him up in outfits,
In dresses, shirts, and jeans,
In boots and leather loafers--
The dapp’rest pup I’d seen!
He started working cattle
With Ladd and all the crew.
He thought this was his purpose.
Oh, if he only knew!
That he was just a Bassett
And bred for not so much.
But Charlie rose above it
And learned that cowdog touch.
But man, that short dog syndrome…
He thought he was in charge
And ruled the other doggies
His bravado, always large!
But deep down, all he wanted
Were tummy rubs all day
And sausage, ham, and burgers
And bacon, I would say.
He snored just like an engine,
His breath was not so great,
His ears were always crusty
From hanging in his plate.
But Charlie Boy was perfect
And loyal through and through.
He knew what we were thinking,
He sensed what we would do.
We thought he’d live forever
But cancer came and stayed,
Then left with our dear Charles
And left us all dismayed.
And yet, we feel so lucky
He got to be our friend.
We have a million memories
Right up until the end.
We loved you, Charlie, you were the best
We never will forget you
And the very second we get to Heaven…
We’re coming straight to get you!
”
”
Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Come and Get It! Simple, Scrumptious Recipes for Crazy Busy Lives)
“
To Allah belongs all that is in the East and the West,
He knows what is buried deep within your chest,
Put your trust in Allah and let Him take care of the rest.
”
”
Walead Quhill (Getting to Know Muhammad : a Rhyming Verse Novel, About the Life and Struggles of the Prophet Muhammad, for Teenagers and Young Adults. (Islamic Book Series For Kids))
“
Love when I am dead, I shall not be very far,
I will peep in at your window, a faint white star,
Or when the wind arises - see the cedar tips -
They'll be my ghost-like fingers seeking for your lips,
I'll wrest the coffin lid and speed me from my lair,
You'll feel the aura of my presence steal softly through your hair.
Forgotten, unforgetting - for you I cannot die,
Nor you for me - We've drunk too deep Love's Immortality
”
”
Gabriela Cunninghame Graham (Rhymes from a World Unknown)
“
Esmeralda wrinkled her nose, realizing what her big transmogrifying spell had actually done. Trevelyan scented the fumes. “Smog?” His brow furrowed, piecing it together. “Log. Hog. Grog. …Smog.”
“But still not a single frog.” She muttered.
His mouth curved, as he finally recognized what was happening with the rhymes. Something glinted deep in his eyes. Some kind of spark. “Regardless, the army was soundly defeated… as if you’d wielded a flog.” He offered in false commiseration.
“Oh, shut up.”
“Why, it was a spell worthy of any blog. Everyone watching was agog!”
“Shut up, Trev.
”
”
Cassandra Gannon (Happily Ever Witch (A Kinda Fairytale, #6))
“
The Enlightenment, finally, invented progressive 'history' as an inner-worldly purgatory in order to develop the conditions of possibility of a perfected 'society'. This provided the required setting for the aggressive social theology of the Modern Age to drive out the political theology of the imperial eras. What was the Enlightenment in its deep structure if not an attempt to translate the ancient rhyme on learning and suffering - mathein pathein - into a collective and species-wide phenomenon? Was its aim not to persuade the many to expose themselves to transitional ordeals that would precede the great optimization of all things?
”
”
Peter Sloterdijk (You Must Change Your Life)
“
Why is it that I have to rhyme
to show what happens deep inside?
to tell the thoughts that here reside
it feels like a huge waste of time
When we speak out we only whine
theologians tend to misguide
tell us to smile and nod with pride
they always say pain fades with time
So don the mask, wear the facade
stick with the norm and don't speak out
heaven forbid you make a stand
You wouldn't want to seem too odd
we're suffering from a creative drought
what's wrong with a little contraband?
”
”
Anonymous
“
Never Trust A Shepherdess
Never trust a shepherdess
Although she may look pretty
Beneath her lacy frilly dress
A heart beats without pity.
There’s furtive tales of Miss Bo Peep
Told behind closed doors
And just what happened to her sheep
Upon those silent moors
They never did return, you see
Though many tried to find them
They disappeared in mystery
Complete with tails behind them.
Dark doings lurk in hill and dale
Untold in nursery rhymes
‘Tis best that we should draw a veil
Across these rural crimes.
Don’t think of cruelty in the grass
Don’t think of woolly plight
Don’t think those thoughts that will not pass
Or let you sleep at night
So do not think of Miss Bo Peep
Or of that crook she wields
Or of those dark deeds buried deep
In England’s pleasant fields.
Unknowing we can only guess
The horrors that went down
Beware the Wicked Shepherdess
Who stalks Old London Town.
”
”
Lee Leon
“
Hopkins’s real mission was the development of biochemistry as an experimental discipline, with its own methodology and way of seeing the world. It was vibrant and fun. The lab’s journal, Brighter Biochemistry, included compilations of verse (Haldane wrote an annual report in rhyming couplets), exam questions from the future, cartoons and cautionary tales, such as laments for ‘Jane who had no bacteriological technique and so perished miserably’ and ‘Belinda who broke everything and left the laboratory under lamentable circumstances.’ Don’t be fooled by their irreverence. These were serious minds at play, and Hoppy’s laboratory nurtured some of the most imaginative and original scientists of their generation, including a number who went on to win Nobel prizes.
”
”
Nick Lane (Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death)
“
Our territory was too small and poor to maintain a standing army to monitor the wall with Prythian, and we villagers could rely only on the strength of the Treaty forged five hundred years ago. But the upper class could afford hired swords, like this woman, to guard their lands bordering the immortal realm. It was an illusion of comfort, just as the markings on our threshold were. We all knew, deep down, that there was nothing to be done against the faeries. We’d all been told it, regardless of class or rank, from the moment we were born, the warnings sung to us while we rocked in cradles, the rhymes chanted in schoolyards. One of the High Fae could turn your bones to dust from a hundred yards away. Not that my sisters or I had ever seen it.
”
”
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1))
“
Let us engage in a mental experiment by way of trying to construct proverbial wisdom out of the relationship between terrestrial life, its pleasures, and it’s Beyond. If one says, ‘Forget about the afterlife, about the Elsewhere, seize the day, enjoy life fully here and now, it’s the only life you’ve got!’ it sounds deep. If one says exactly the opposite (‘Do not get trapped in the illusory and vain pleasures of earthly life; money, power, and passions are all destined to vanish into thin air—think about eternity!’), it also sounds deep. If one combines the two sides (‘Bring eternity into your everyday life, live your life on this earth as if it is already permeated by Eternity!’), we get another profound thought. Needless to say, the same goes for its inversion: ‘Do not try in vain to bring together eternity and your terrestrial life, accept humbly that you are forever split between Heaven and Earth!’ If, finally, one simply gets perplexed by all these reversals and claims: ‘Life is an enigma, do not try to penetrate its secrets, accept the beauty of its unfathomable mystery!’ the result is no less profound than its reversal: ‘Do not allow yourself to be distracted by false mysteries that just dissimulate the fact that, ultimately, life is very simple—it is what it is, it is simply here without reason and rhyme!’ Needless to add that, by uniting mystery and simplicity, one again obtains a wisdom: ‘The ultimate, unfathomable mystery of life resides in its very simplicity, in the simple fact that there is life.’ This tautological imbecility points towards the fact that a Master is excluded from the economy of symbolic exchange—not wholly excluded, since he occupies a special, exceptional place in it. For the Master, there is no ‘tit for tat,’ since, for him, tit is in a way already its own tat.
”
”
Slavoj Žižek
“
Lift up your head and recognize; the changing clouds and darkening skies. Lift up your hands and you can feel; the change of seasons is now hear. No thing that lives remains the same; rhythms, rhymes and deep refrains. Gather round and this recite; for all the world to hear. The King of Day & Lord of night has conquered all my fear!
”
”
Michael A Dalton
“
Much of what I read I only dimly understood; I took to circling unfamiliar words to look up in the dictionary, although I was less scrupulous about decoding pronunciations—deep into my twenties I would know the meaning of words I couldn’t pronounce. There was no system to this, no rhyme or pattern. I was like a young tinkerer in my parents’ garage, gathering up old cathode-ray tubes and bolts and loose wires, not sure what I’d do with any of it, but convinced it would prove handy once I figured out the nature of my calling.
”
”
Barack Obama (A Promised Land: The powerful political memoir from the former US President)
“
Heart’s revolt
I remember her song,
I remember her soft breathing rhymes,
She lies within me just like the water to the ocean does belong,
She is the wonder of my past that her memories carry into my present times,
I think of her in all my heart’s appropriateness,
I feel her still everywhere and in everything,
In my mind’s every thought and in its wakefulness,
And in my dreams she still appears as the most beautiful thing,
I am facing an eviction of different kind,
I am voluntarily surrendering all feelings that do not bear her hints,
Although my mind is least pliant and it doesn't want to unwind,
Although my heart throbs for me, deep in its chambers it only her feelings mints,
I helplessly watch my own mind and heart in this act of revolt,
I face them both in the clamor of day and the silence of nights,
And I feel their enormous bolt,
And now, I am used to them both, and now; we three have become the sources of our own secret delights,
I may be a traveler on the highway of life,
I may be seeking what we all seek from it,
But when you realise a pliable mind and a pliant heart do not represent the fullness of life,
You fall in love with her, and the feeling grows deeper, until the feeling becomes a part of you and you become a part of it!
”
”
Javid Ahmad Tak (They Loved in 2075!)
“
In Ephesians 2:10, Paul uses the Greek word poiema, which literally means God’s poetry. When poiema is translated as “handiwork” or “workmanship” it misses the following important point. Poetry in scripture does not rhyme sounds; it follows the Hebrew pattern and rhymes thoughts. This means that as God’s poetry, our thoughts can rhyme with our Heavenly Father’s. That is amazing! How can it work? We know that as we become intimate with someone, we begin to finish each other’s sentences and thoughts. In a deep, authentic, mutual-mind state, we actually don’t know where our thoughts stop and the other person’s thoughts begin. This is exactly what can happen between God and us too. A mutual-mind state with God results in an emulation of His character and heart; we are showing the world the poet behind the poetry. As our mutual-mind state becomes stronger, we are able to live out our purpose of being created for good works.
”
”
E. James Wilder (Joyful Journey: Listening to Immanuel)
“
In the silent cloister of the self, where intentions bloom profound,
Like whispers of thoughts, soft as breezes ‘mongst leaves found.
Nurturing, they do, the seeds of purpose, ever so deep,
In this sacred communion, secrets of being, quietly they keep.
Echoes ancient, resonate through the corridor of time,
“As you sow, so shall you reap,” in rhythmic, eternal rhyme.
A truth ageless, a guiding star in the night’s deep sweep,
Teaching us, in the mind’s garden, what we sow, we’re destined to reap.
For in this fabric, woven of dreams and thoughts so bright,
Lies the landscape of our lives, bathed in inner light.
Each seed of thought, a promise, in the soul’s keep,
On this journey we traverse, sow with care, for ‘tis what we’ll reap.
”
”
Kevin L. Michel (The 7 Laws of Quantum Power)
“
Jack."
"Last name?"
"Let's leave it at Jack," he said.
"Unfortunately, the online form insists on a last name before it will allow me to move to the next page." I held up the tablet to show him the screen. "How about Jack Spratt? Jack Frost? Jack Sparrow? Jack Horner? Do you have a beanstalk? Do you kill giants? Have you built a house? Are you nimble?"
"How about something not fantasy-based?" With a soft chuckle, he moved closer to study the screen.
"Jack Dawson? Jack Skellington?" I tried to ignore the heat of his body, the warm breath across my cheek. "Jack-Jack Parr? Jack Torrance? Jack Pearson? Jack Reacher? Jack Ryan?"
His laughter, deep and rich, filled the room. "You know your Jacks."
"I like movies. I'll watch anything so long as I'm not watching it alone. Sharing snarky comments is all part of the fun."
"I think doing anything with you would be fun." His smile made me smile. I couldn't stop it. Were we flirting? Was that a flirting smile? Was I flirting with a thief?
”
”
Sara Desai (To Have and to Heist)
“
Such strange dreams, in which I seemed to be different people in different ages, in different places and different times. I was in woods, and in houses, apartments and airplanes and busses, and there was no rhyme or reason to any of it, but I always heard the same words. Always thought the same words, too—no magic. How silly—I was always told, whoever I seemed to be in these dreams, to never use my magic for anything. To stay away from them as far as I could. And in the dreams I felt the magic, too, like an ache, a throbbing deep inside my chest. I felt it like it was mine, and those words were always in the back of my mind—no magic, no magic, no magic.
”
”
D.N. Hoxa (The Elysean Academy of Darkness and Secrets (The Holy Bloodlines Book 2))
“
We all knew, deep down, that there was nothing to be done against the faeries. We'd all been told it, regardless of class or rank, from the moment we were born, the warnings sung to us while we rocked in cradles, the rhymes chanted in schoolyards. One of the High Fae could turn your bones to dust from a hundred yards away. Not that my sisters or I had ever seen it.
But we still tried to believe that something- anything- might work against them, if we ever were to encounter them. There were two stalls in the market catering to those fears, offering up charms and baubles and incantations and bits of iron. I couldn't afford them- and if they did indeed work, they would buy us only a few minutes to prepare ourselves. Running was futile; so was fighting.
”
”
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1))
“
What is your self-worth? Take a second to ponder. Is it the 100's in my pockets or the virtues and morals? It makes you wonder. Is diamonds what make your heart sound off or the thought of wanting someone to be true? Cause in truth, there's diamonds that abide in you, what a beautiful truth. True to be, let the value of love compare with the love of loyalty. I've learned this passion I once had for the love of money doesn't compare to the love of me. It's like one of them Pretty Ricky songs "Love like honey", yeah that's all me, self-worth value over infinity.
I can go on with my ABC rhymes and keep stimulating your mind, make you see things with your eyes closed as if I'm leading the blind. This conscience cannot be bought with money or gold but my character and values last way past old. Put me deep in the dirt, the soils where I lay, sprout flowers of life, my soul lives on everyday.
I have a question to ask, you might be as curious to hear: When's the last time you saw a Wells Fargo truck following a hearse? Don't let them try to trick you, once you're gone, your money can't be reimbursed. So the question is what lasts forever? If diamonds, money, even our flesh which is considered of such high importance soon perishes, what lasts forever? Give ear if you hear my words.
”
”
Jose R. Coronado (The Land Flowing With Milk And Honey)
“
It was bad poetry. It scanned pretty well, as you’d expect from an engineer, and the rhymes were close enough for export, as the saying went, but it was unmistakably drivel. Psellus smiled.
Her cheek is as soft as a rose’s petal
Her eyes are as dark as night
Her smile is as bright as polished metal
She is a lovely sight.
Which explained, he thought, why Ziani never quit the day job.
....secretly, deep down, everybody on earth believes they can write poetry, apart from the members of the Poets’ Guild, who know they can’t.
Psellus rested the book on his desk. So what? Right across the known world, in every country with some degree of literacy, there are millions of otherwise sane, normal, harmless people who are guilty of poetry.
”
”
KJ Parker
“
We dare not be original; our American Pine must be cut to the trim pattern of the English Yew, though the Pine bleed at every clip. This poet tunes his lyre at the harp of Goethe, Milton, Pope, or Tennyson. His songs might better be sung on the Rhine than the Kennebec. They are not American in form or feeling; they have not the breath of our air; the smell of our ground is not in them. Hence our poet seems cold and poor. He loves the old mythology; talks about Pluto—the Greek devil,—— the Fates and Furies—witches of old time in Greece,—-but would blush to use our mythology, or breathe the name in verse of our Devil, or our own Witches, lest he should be thought to believe what he wrote. The mother and sisters, who with many a pinch and pain sent the hopeful boyto college, must turn over the Classical Dictionary before they can find out what the youth would be at in his rhymes. Our Poet is not deep enough to see that Aphrodite came from the ordinary waters, that Homer only hitched into rhythm and furnished the accomplishment of verse to street talk, nursery tales, and old men’s gossip, in the Ionian towns; he thinks what is common is unclean. So he sings of Corinth and Athens, which he never saw, but has not a word to say of Boston, and Fall River, and Baltimore, and New York, which are just as meet for song. He raves of Thermopylae and
Marathon, with never a word for Lexington and Bunkerhill, for Cowpens, and Lundy’s Lane, and Bemis’s Heights. He loves to tell of the Ilyssus, of “ smooth sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds,” yet sings not of the Petapsco, the Susquehannah, the Aroostook, and the Willimantick. He prates of the narcissus, and the daisy, never of American dandelions andbue-eyed grass; he dwells on the lark and the nightingale, but has not a thought for the brown thrasher and the bobolink, who every morning in June rain down such showers of melody on his affected head. What a lesson Burns teaches us addressing his “rough bur thistle,” his daisy, “wee crimson tippit thing,” and finding marvellous poetry in the mouse whose nest his plough turned over! Nay, how beautifully has even our sweet Poet sung of our own Green river, our waterfowl,of the blue and fringed gentian, the glory of autumnal days.
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Massachussetts Quarterly Review, 1849
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To Ramona"
(originally by Bob Dylan)
Ramona come closer, shut softley your watery eyes
The pangs of your sadness will pass as your senses will rise
But the flowers of the city thou breath like yet death like at times
There's no use in trying to deal with the dying
Though I can not explain that in rhymes
Your cracked country lips I still wish to kiss have to be by the touch of your skin
Your magnetic movements still capture the minutes I'm in
It grieves my heart, love to see you trying to be a part of a world that just don't exist
It's all just a scheme, babe, a vacuum of dreams that sucks you into feeling like this
I've heard you say many times that your better than no-one and no-one is better than you
If you really believe that you know you have nothing to win and nothing to do
From fixtures and forces and friends your sorrow does stem
They'll hype you and type you and make you feel that you got to be just like them
I'd forever talk to you but soon my words would turn into a meaningless ring
For deep in my heart there's no help I can bring
Everything passes and everything changes just do what you think you should do
Then someday maybe, who knows, baby, I'll come and be crying to you
Then someday maybe, who knows, baby, I'll come and be crying to you
The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Flying Burrito Bros (1971)
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The Flying Burrito Brothers (Out of the Blue-Best of By The Flying Burrito Brothers (1995-09-28))