“
And, in the end
The love you take
is equal to the love you make.
”
”
Paul McCartney (The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics)
“
The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.
”
”
William Wordsworth (Lyrical Ballads)
“
If conversation was the lyrics, laughter was the music, making time spent together a melody that could be replayed over and over without getting stale.
”
”
Nicholas Sparks
“
There is not love of life without despair about life.
”
”
Albert Camus (Lyrical and Critical Essays (A Vintage Book))
“
The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye, the story of love is hello and goodbye...until we meet again
”
”
Jimi Hendrix
“
you're an expert at sorry and keeping the lines blurry
”
”
Taylor Swift
“
Would you destroy Something perfect in order to make it beautiful?
”
”
Gerard Way
“
So don't you worry your pretty little mind because people throw rocks at things that shine. [Ours]
”
”
Taylor Swift
“
If they substituted the word 'Lust' for 'Love' in the popular songs it would come nearer the truth.
”
”
Sylvia Plath (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath)
“
I fell for her in summer, my lovely summer girl,
From summer she is made, my lovely summer girl,
I’d love to spend a winter with my lovely summer girl,
But I’m never warm enough for my lovely summer girl,
It’s summer when she smiles, I’m laughing like a child,
It’s the summer of our lives; we’ll contain it for a while
She holds the heat, the breeze of summer in the circle of her hand
I’d be happy with this summer if it’s all we ever had.
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
“
I've been burdened with blame trapped in the past for too long, I'm moving on
”
”
Rascal Flatts
“
No one compares to you, but there's no you, except in my dreams tonight.
”
”
Lana Del Rey
“
I don't let nobody see me wishin' he was mine
”
”
Taylor Swift
“
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles
”
”
Anna Nalick
“
Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me.
No hope, no harm; just another false alarm
”
”
Morrissey
“
For a second I was almost jealous of the clouds. Why was he looking to them for an escape when I was right here beside him?
”
”
Kamila Shamsie (Kartography)
“
Take my hand and we'll make it - I swear
”
”
Jon Bon Jovi (The Best of Bon Jovi / Cross Road)
“
Love me or hate me, i swear it won't make or break me.
”
”
Lil Wayne
“
I truly loved you, but now I'm walking away
”
”
Jonny Lang
“
I can chase you, and I can catch you,
but there is nothing I can do to make you mine.
”
”
Morrissey
“
one love, one heart
”
”
Bob Marley
“
because being with you makes perfect sense
”
”
Tim McGraw
“
I always think of each night as a song. Or each moment as a song. But now I'm seeing we don't live in a single song. We move from song to song, from lyric to lyric, from chord to chord. There is no ending here. It's an infinite playlist.
”
”
David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)
“
I wish the night would end,
I wish the day'd begin,
I wish it would rain or snow,
or the wind would blow,
or the grass would grow,
I wish I had yesterday,
I wish there were games to play...
”
”
V.C. Andrews (Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger, #1))
“
Because you let our love just fall apart
You no longer have my heart
”
”
Boyz II Men
“
It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.
”
”
Xiaolu Guo (A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers)
“
The heart may freeze, or it can burn. The pain will ease and I can learn. There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as, my last.
”
”
Jonathan Larson (Rent: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical)
“
To me you are a work of art, and I would give you my heart - that's if I had one.
”
”
Morrissey
“
time made me stronger, you're no longer on my mind
”
”
Boyz II Men
“
You think you're lost but you're not lost on your own. You're not alone. I will stand by you, I will help you through when you’ve done all you can do.
If you can’t cope, I will dry your eyes
I will fight your fight, I will hold you tight and I wont let go
”
”
Rascal Flatts
“
I was wasting my time, praying for love.
For a love that never comes, from someone who does not exist.
”
”
Morrissey
“
But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying,
If I am dead, as dead I well may be,
You'll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say Ave there for me,
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be,
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me
”
”
Frederic Edward Weatherly
“
I am human and I need to be loved,
just like everybody else does.
”
”
Morrissey
“
Our love is like a song
but you won't sing along.
”
”
Demi Lovato (Demi Lovato - Don't Forget)
“
All you need is love.
”
”
John Lennon
“
I don't want to be in love but you're makin' me
”
”
Jonny Lang
“
Blot out the moon,
Pull down the stars.
Love in the dark, for we're for the dark
So soon, so soon.
”
”
Jean Rhys (Wide Sargasso Sea)
“
She’s like poetry. Like prose and love letters and lyrics, cascading down the center of a page.
”
”
Colleen Hoover (Ugly Love)
“
I am no king, and I am no lord,
And I am no soldier at-arms," said he.
"I'm none but a harper, and a very poor harper,
That am come hither to wed with ye."
"If you were a lord, you should be my lord,
And the same if you were a thief," said she.
"And if you are a harper, you shall be my harper,
For it makes no matter to me, to me,
For it makes no matter to me."
"But what if it prove that I am no harper?
That I lied for your love most monstrously?"
"Why, then I'll teach you to play and sing,
For I dearly love a good harp," said she.
”
”
Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn (The Last Unicorn, #1))
“
The heart has a heart of its own.
”
”
Morrissey
“
When you're happy, you enjoy the music but when you're sad, you understand the lyrics.
”
”
Frank Ocean
“
Trudy Bennett, I love you beyond any lyrics I could ever write, or any words I could ever say. I always have, and I always will. Marry me?
”
”
Samantha Towle (The Mighty Storm (The Storm, #1))
“
I am hated for loving.
I am haunted for wanting.
”
”
Morrissey
“
The things that mattered
Were broken and shattered
One by one
”
”
Jonny Lang
“
I'd love to...but only with you.
”
”
Morrissey
“
Love me - that's all I ask of you.
”
”
Charles Hart (The Phantom of the Opera: Sheet Music Piano/Vocal)
“
Now everyone dreams of a love faithful and true,
But you and I know what this world can do.
So let's make our steps clear so the other may see.
And I'll wait for you...should I fall behind wait for me.
”
”
Bruce Springsteen
“
I find peace when I'm confused, I find hope when I'm let down, not in me but in you.
”
”
Switchfoot
“
Music is storming, driving, relentless, devotional, slinky, subtle, heartbreakingly-beautiful sounds that, lyrically, switch from the cynical to the sanguine, the defeated to the defiant, dealing in love, war, beauty, children, romance, rejection, Pethedine, poetry, panties, God, Auden, Johnny Cash, cold potatoes, too-much-money, not enough money, writer’s block, flowers, animals and more flowers. But maybe I’m projecting here.
”
”
Nick Cave
“
And my head told my heart
"Let love grow"
But my heart told my head
"This time no
This time no
”
”
Mumford & Sons
“
I am convinced that God is love, this thought has for me a primitive lyrical validity. When it is present to me, I am unspeakably blissful, when it is absent, I long for it more vehemently than does the lover for his object.
”
”
Søren Kierkegaard (Fear and Trembling)
“
A song and a smile from someone I cared about could be enough to distract me from all that darkness, if only for a little while.
”
”
Ransom Riggs (Hollow City (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, #2))
“
I see the world, it makes me puke,
But then I look at you and know,
that somewhere there's a someone who can soothe me.
”
”
Morrissey
“
Say you'll love me every waking moment.
”
”
Charles Hart (The Phantom of the Opera: Sheet Music Piano/Vocal)
“
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he’s standing in front of you
”
”
Bob Dylan
“
There's so much destruction all over the world - and all you can do is complain about ME!
”
”
Morrissey
“
I believe everyone has this fuckin' poem in his heart.
”
”
Bill Hicks (Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines)
“
Oh, come and stir my cauldron,
And if you do it right,
I'll boil you up some hot strong love
To keep you warm tonight.
”
”
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6))
“
To share is precious, pure and fair.
Don't play with something you should cherish for life. Don't you wanna care, ain't it lonely out there?
”
”
Marvin Gaye
“
My love, wherever you are - whatever you are - don't lose faith. I know it's gonna happen someday to you.
”
”
Morrissey
“
I get no kick from champagne. Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all. So, tell me why should it be true, that I get a kick out of you?
”
”
Cole Porter (The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter)
“
Sunset painted the sky. Royal Wood, clad in spring green, rustled in a breeze. A fine evening for a stroll.
”
”
K. Ritz (Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master)
“
You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood, back home to romantic love, back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame, back home to exile, to escape to Europe and some foreign land, back home to lyricism, to singing just for singing's sake, back home to aestheticism, to one's youthful idea of 'the artist' and the all-sufficiency of 'art' and 'beauty' and 'love,' back home to the ivory tower, back home to places in the country, to the cottage in Bermude, away from all the strife and conflict of the world, back home to the father you have lost and have been looking for, back home to someone who can help you, save you, ease the burden for you, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time--back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.
”
”
Thomas Wolfe
“
Creativity is the catalyst to the future.
”
”
Ann Marie Frohoff
“
It's always times like these when I think of you and I wonder if you ever think of me.
”
”
Vanessa Carlton
“
What we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how; instruct them how the mind of man becomes a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells...
”
”
William Wordsworth (Lyrical Ballads)
“
You forget all of it anyway. First, you forget everything you learned-the dates of the Hay-Herran Treaty and Pythagorean Theorem. You especially forget everything you didn't really learn, but just memorized the night before. You forget the names of all but one or two of your teachers, and eventually you'll forget those, too. You forget your junior class schedule and where you used to sit and your best friend's home phone number and the lyrics to that song you must have played a million times. For me, it was something by Simon & Garfunkel. Who knows what it will be for you? And eventually, but slowly, oh so slowly, you forget your humiliations-even the ones that seemed indelible just fade away. You forget who was cool and who was not, who was pretty, smart, athletic, and not. Who went to a good college. Who threw the best parties Who could get you pot. You forget all of them. Even the ones you said you loved, and even the ones you actually did. They're the last to go. And then once you've forgotten enough, you love someone else.
”
”
Gabrielle Zevin (Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac)
“
There's a club, if you'd like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you.'
So you go, and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home, and you cry
And you want to die.
”
”
Morrissey
“
Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm
stranded in the wrong time
where love is just a lyric in a children's rhyme
”
”
Bil Keane
“
You don't like me, but you love me; either way, you're wrong.
”
”
Morrissey
“
Close your eyes, and think of someone you physically admire, and let me kiss you.
”
”
Morrissey
“
I am pieces of all the places I have been,
and the people I have loved. I’ve been stitched together by song lyrics, book quotes, adventure, late night conversations, moonlight, and the smell of coffee.
”
”
Brooke Hampton
“
You made me feel less alone;
you made me feel not quite so
deformed, uninformed and hunchbacked.
”
”
Morrissey
“
Only love can last.
”
”
Madonna
“
In the 1950s kids lost their innocence.
They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars, and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term ---the generation gap.
In the 1960s, kids lost their authority.
It was a decade of protest---church, state, and parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.
In the 1970s, kids lost their love. It was the decade of me-ism dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self.
Self-image, Self-esteem, Self-assertion....It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex and forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.
In the 1980s, kids lost their hope.
Stripped of innocence, authority and love and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.
In the 1990s kids lost their power to reason. Less and less were they taught the very basics of language, truth, and logic and they grew up with the irrationality of a postmodern world.
In the new millennium, kids woke up and found out that somewhere in the midst of all this change, they had lost their imagination. Violence and perversion entertained them till none could talk of killing innocents since none was innocent anymore.
”
”
Ravi Zacharias (Recapture the Wonder)
“
You are the sun, and I'm the moon.
In your shadow I can shine.
”
”
Tokio Hotel
“
As the thick cumulus clouds in the distance parted, a beam of sunlight shed its golden rays upon the valley and onto the tiny telephone poles below.
”
”
Rich DiSilvio (The Arnolfini Art Mysteries)
“
Can we lose our minds, and call it love for the last time.
”
”
Pierce the Veil
“
I have forgiven Jesus for all of the love he placed in me, when there's no one I can turn to with this love.
”
”
Morrissey
“
But everything I have to give, I'll give to you
”
”
Ray LaMontagne
“
Loving you is like Listening to a song For the first time And somehow knowing all the lyrics
”
”
L.J. Shen (Pretty Reckless (All Saints High, #1))
“
Her quiet sobs were absorbed into the aria of their voices, their protection and love enveloping her pain and carrying her song.
”
”
Jennifer Wizbowski (Poinsettia Girl: The Story of Agata della Pieta)
“
And god damit,
I can barely say your name,
So I'll try to write it,
And fill the pen with blood from the sink.
”
”
Pierce the Veil
“
Love lyrics have contributed to the general aura of bad mental health in America.
”
”
Frank Zappa
“
You are what you love, not who loves you.
”
”
Patrick Stump Fall Out Boy
“
You can't make a fan of everyone. Stay true to your story, characters, music, art or whatever it is you do and fuck everyone else who doesn't like it. Life isn't perfect.
”
”
Ann Marie Frohoff
“
The dilemma of the eighth-grade dance is that boys and girls use music in different ways. Girls enjoy music they can dance to, music with strong vocals and catchy melodies. Boys, on the other hand, enjoy music they can improve by making up filthy new lyrics.
”
”
Rob Sheffield (Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time)
“
It was in love I was created, and in love is how I hope I die
”
”
Paolo Nutini
“
Am I the only one
wishing life away?
Never caught up in the moment
busy begging the past to stay
Memories painted with much brighter ink;
they tell me I loved, teach me how to think.
”
”
Dodie Clark
“
And baby, the way you move me it's crazy
”
”
Ray LaMontagne
“
I like people who've seen some darkness
The haunted ones.
I like people who don't claim to know what love is
The honest ones.
”
”
Florence Welch (Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry)
“
Will sat where he was, gazing at the silver bowl in front of him; a white rose was floating in it, and he seemed prepared to stare at it until it went under. In the Kitchen Bridget was still singing one of her awful sad songs; the lyrics drifted in through the door:
"Twas on an evening fair I went to take the air,
I heard a maid making her moan;
Said, 'Saw ye my father? Or ye my mother?
Or saw ye my brother John?
Or saw ye the lad that I love best,
And his name it is Sweet William?"
I may murder her, Tessa thought. Let her make a song about that.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices, #2))
“
Your life is a movie. You are the main character. You say your scripts and act to your lines. Of course you do your lines in each scene. There is a hidden camera and a director who you can ask for help anytime up above.
”
”
Diana Rose Morcilla
“
It is, and has been, and will forever be, this world of ours, a fucking joke.
”
”
Bill Hicks (Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines)
“
Yes, and only if my own true love was waiting
If I could hear his heart softly pounding
Yes, and only if he was lying by me
Would I lie in my bed once again.
”
”
Bob Dylan
“
...I just want to be free of the fears and anxieties and the superstitions of religion. An 'avenging GOD'? One who created Hell for those who don't believe? I thought we were the perfect and holy children of GOD? How could any limits possibly be put upon us? Hell.. really? I'm sorry, but... no. Wrong. You're wrong. That's an insane GOD and therefore not mine. Because, see, GOD would be very sane, don't you get it?
”
”
Bill Hicks (Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines)
“
Even now - in the final hour of my life -
I'm falling in love again.
”
”
Morrissey
“
And givin' yourself to me can never be wrong
”
”
Marvin Gaye
“
In this vast cosmic orchestra, peace is the music of every heart. Our glory lies in understanding, listening and honoring that music.
”
”
Amit Ray (Walking the Path of Compassion)
“
If a thing can be said in ten words, I may be relied upon to take a hundred to say it. I ought to apologize for that. I ought to prune, pare and extirpate excess growth, but I will not. I like words—strike that, I love words—and while I am fond of the condensed and economical use of them in poetry, in song lyrics, in Twitter, in good journalism and smart advertising, I love the luxuriant profusion and mad scatter of them too.
”
”
Stephen Fry (The Fry Chronicles)
“
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
”
”
Alfred Tennyson (Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson: Idylls of The King, The Lady Clare, Enoch Arden, In Memoriam, Becket, The Foresters: Robin Hood and Maid Marian, Queen Mary ... Lyrical, Suppressed Poems & More)
“
But just make someone who has fallen in love listen to his stomach rumble, and the unity of body and soul, that lyrical illusion of the age of science , instantly fades away.
”
”
Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
“
They call her love, love, love, love, love. She is love, and she is all I need.
”
”
Parachute Band
“
You know I love to spend my mornings, like sunlight dancing on your skin
”
”
Rodney Crowell
“
God loves you, but not enough to save you.
”
”
Ethel Cain
“
Oh, there ain't no love, no Montagues or Capulets
Just banging tunes and DJ sets
And dirty dancefloors and dreams of naughtiness
I Bet that You Look Good on the Dancefloor
”
”
Alex Turner (Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not (Guitar Tab): Guitar and Bass TAB)
“
The voice sang on, “I am ready, I am ready, I am fine. I am fine, I am fine, I am fine.” I played it again. I was not fine.
”
”
Kimberly Novosel (Loved)
“
But you have to satisfy the monster. The monster has loved you for longer than anyone else.
”
”
Florence Welch (Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry)
“
Maybe I didn't treat you
Quite as good as I should have
Maybe I didn't love you
Quite as often as I could have
Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time
You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind
”
”
Elvis Presley
“
If you love me let me go.
”
”
Panic! At the Disco
“
Because there is nothing here than invites us to cherish unhappy lovers. Nothing is more vain than to die for love. What we ought to do is live.
”
”
Albert Camus (Lyrical and Critical Essays (A Vintage Book))
“
Echoes through the ancient mountains around us and the Greek philosophers who waxed lyrical about true love and soulmates roll in their graves as I try for the billionth time to sever myself from mine.
”
”
Jessa Hastings (Magnolia Parks (Magnolia Parks Universe, #1))
“
If I told you about a land of love...would you swallow it as a remedy?
”
”
Yunus Emre (The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems)
“
These tears I'm wailing,
I spill not without reason.
Remove them, my dearest love.
Take me to the place I've been dreaming of,
where the grotesquely lonely
meet the grotesquely lonely
and they whisper,
just very softly,
Please be mine, Dearest Love.
”
”
Morrissey
“
I feel the madness creeping slowly,
Loved by many,
I'm still lonely,
Paid the price for your mistakes,
The music died the day I walked away.
”
”
falling in reverse
“
We ache with the yearning
that turns half into whole
and offer no excuses
for the beauty of our souls.
”
”
Aberjhani (Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player)
“
The rest of the world was black and white, But we were in screaming color
”
”
Taylor Swift
“
Well I am the one who loves changing from nothing to one.
”
”
Leonard Cohen (The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen)
“
You know the Prince song where the girl's phone rings but she tells him, "whoever's calling couldn't be as cute as you?" I long to live out this moment in real life.
”
”
Rob Sheffield (Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time)
“
I am a tale, I am a book, written in different languages and styles
I can’t be read, can’t be understood,
neither by me nor the greatest of minds
I am too big, I am too small, to be processed or seen by the naked eye
I am too dim, I am too bright, to appear in the shadows or the sunshine.
”
”
Sanober Khan
“
You ask me why I don't speak
Not a word at will
But write so much worth well over a mill'
Well I value words like I value kisses
A sober one, a closer one penetrates the heart
Darling it's how it mends it
”
”
Criss Jami (Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality)
“
If I knew what to do
I'd do more than write a song for you
”
”
Criss Jami (Venus in Arms)
“
You've gone and sewn me to this bed,
The taste of you and me,
Will never leave my lips again,
Under the blinding rain,
I wanna hold your hand so tight,
I'm gonna break my wrist,
And when the vultures sing tonight,
I'm gonna join right in.
”
”
Pierce the Veil
“
Where do babies come from? Don't bother asking adults. They lie like pigs. However, diligent independent research and hours of playground consultation have yielded fruitful, if tentative, results. There are several theories. Near as we can figure out, it has something to do with acting ridiculous in the dark. We believe it is similar to dogs when they act peculiar and ride each other. This is called "making love". Careful study of popular song lyrics, advertising catch-lines, TV sitcoms, movies, and T-Shirt inscriptions offers us significant clues as to its nature. Apparently it makes grown-ups insipid and insane. Some graffiti was once observed that said "sex is good". All available evidence, however, points to the contrary.
”
”
Matt Groening (Childhood Is Hell)
“
Love Is Not A choice
”
”
brendon urie
“
Closing up. Finally spent.
You are gone.
And now you're moving along.
Heavy now. Tears remain.
Hard pressed to rest.
When all I feel like is a mess.
Now, don't you worry your head.
You're not my one and only friend.
And I don't need you anymore.
To leave me bruised and broken on the floor.
You left me bruised. You left me broken.
You left me bruised. You left me broken.
”
”
K.A. Linde (Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding, #1))
“
Because there aren’t thousands of books and poems and movies out there to describe exactly what I’m feeling, or lyrically beautiful songs for me to cry to and sing along with in the car. There’s no guidebook on how to survive this kind of fallout, no prescribed remedy to soothe this particular kind of pain. Romantic breakups are romanticized
constantly, talked about everywhere by everyone, but platonic breakups are
swept to the side, suffered in secret, as if they’re somehow less important.
”
”
Ann Liang (This Time It's Real)
“
Love is a hollow word which seems at home in song lyrics and greeting cards, until you fall in love and discover it’s disconcerting power. Depression means nothing more than the blues, commercially packaged angst, a hole in the ground; until you find it’s black weight settled inside your mother’s chest, disrupting her breathing, leaching her days, and yours, of colour and the nights of rest.
”
”
Jerry Pinto (Em and The Big Hoom)
“
Don't bother this love is a lie.
I'm a chemical kid,
You're a mechanical bride.
”
”
Chemical kids and mechanical brides by pierce the veil
“
Love me, love me, love me,
Say you do.
Let me fly away with you.
For my love is like the wind,
And wild is the wind.
- Wild is the Wind
”
”
Ned Washington
“
For the source of the short story is usually lyrical. And all writers speak from, and speak to, emotions eternally the same in all of us: love, pity, terror do not show favorites or leave any of us out.
”
”
Eudora Welty (On Writing (Modern Library))
“
The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, When Allah loves a people, He tries them.
”
”
Leila Aboulela (Lyrics Alley)
“
I didn't have a heart until I meet you.
That smile is killin me too.
I can't look away.
Can I always stay?
I can't look away.
I need to stay.
I didn't have a heart until I meet you.
”
”
Jenni James (Northanger Alibi (The Jane Austen Diaries, #2))
“
GLINDA: Well,I'm a public figure now! People expect me to--
ELPHABA: Lie?
GLINDA: (fiercely) Be encouraging! And what exactly have you been doing? Besides riding on around on that filthy thing!
ELPHABA: Well, we can't all come and go by bubble. Whose invention was that, the Wizard's? Of course, even if it wasn't, I'm sure he'd still take credit for it.
GLINDA: Yes, well, a lot of us are taking things that don't belong to us, aren't we?
Uh oh! The two stare daggers at each other, then...
ELPHABA: Now, wait just a clock-tick. I know it's difficult for that blissful blonde brain of yours to comprehend that someone like him could actually choose someone like me!But it's happened. It's real. And you can wave that ridiculous wand all you want, you can't change it! He never belonged to you -- he doesn't love you, he never did! He loves me!
”
”
Stephen Schwartz (Wicked: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical)
“
This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath
No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again
”
”
Regina Spektor
“
In times of youth, drinking is better.
With the joyful, linking is better.
The world is a mere temporal inn;
With the shipwrecked, sinking is better.
”
”
The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz
“
Life is the bad
with all the good.
The deadly sharks
with the beautiful sea stars.
The gigantic waves
with the sand castles.
The licorice
with the lemon and lime.
The loud lyrics
with the rhythm of the music.
The liver disease
with the love of a father and son.
It’s life.
Sweet, beautiful,
wind on your face,
air in your lungs,
kisses on your lips.
life.
”
”
Lisa Schroeder (The Day Before)
“
you know
I know
you know
I'll remember you
and I know
You know
I know
you'll remember me
”
”
One Direction
“
Time flies when you're falling down"...(not from a book, it's a lyric)
”
”
Courtney Love (Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love)
“
Here I understand what is meant by glory: the right to love without limits.
”
”
Albert Camus (Lyrical and Critical Essays (A Vintage Book))
“
If I'd believed that stuff was true, I would have missed out on loving you.
”
”
Janette Rallison (My Double Life)
“
Yet the only girl who'd love him is his mother...' - A Girl Worth Fighting For (song)
”
”
David Zippel
“
And you've screwed me up, Lib, because now I'm thinking in lyrics instead of original thoughts. I'm look at you and trying to find the words to convince you to be with me, and do you know what comes into you head? You showed me colors you know I can't see with anyone else. They aren't my words, I don't even know what song of album they're from, for God's sake, but it's exactly how I feel. And you taught me a secret language I can't speak with anyone else-like, I can't remember who wrote that, but I feel it down to the marrow in my bones. Being with you has changed the threads of my existence, I swear to God, so now being without you makes everything quieter, dimmer and duller. So. Much. Smaller.
”
”
Lynn Painter (Nothing Like the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #2))
“
To give yourself over to another body
That’s all you want really
To be out of your own and consumed by another
To swim inside the skin of your lover
Not have to breathe
Not have to think
But you can’t live on love
And salt water’s no drink
We're dying of thirst so we feast on each other
The sea is still our violent mother
The blood round here pours down like water
Each wave a lamb lead to the slaughter
And like children that she just can’t teach
We break, and break, and break
And break ourselves upon the beach- Body of Water
”
”
Florence Welch (Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry)
“
Life makes love look hard.
”
”
Taylor Swift
“
You were the missing lyrics to a song I didn't even know I was writing.
”
”
Jessica Pennington (Love Songs & Other Lies)
“
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
They strung up a man
They say who murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out
For his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run,
So we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope,
Side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
”
”
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
“
Words Are Windows (or They’re Walls)
I feel so sentenced by your words,
I feel so judged and sent away,
Before I go I’ve got to know,
Is that what you mean to say?
Before I rise to my defense,
Before I speak in hurt or fear,
Before I build that wall of words,
Tell me, did I really hear?
Words are windows, or they’re walls,
They sentence us, or set us free.
When I speak and when I hear,
Let the love light shine through me.
There are things I need to say,
Things that mean so much to me,
If my words don’t make me clear,
Will you help me to be free?
If I seemed to put you down,
If you felt I didn’t care,
Try to listen through my words,
To the feelings that we share.
-–Ruth Bebermeyer
”
”
Marshall B. Rosenberg
“
Sad Songs
Once there was a boy who couldn't speak but owned a music box that held every song in all the world. One day he met a girl who had never heard a single melody in her entire life and so he played her his favorite song. He watched while her face lit up with wonder as the music filled the sky and the poetry of lyrics moved her in a way she had never felt before.
He would play his songs for her day after day and she would sit by him quietly—never seeming to mind that he could only speak to her through song. She loved everything he played for her, but of them all—she loved the sad songs best. So he began to play them more and more until eventually, sad songs were all she would hear.
One day, he noticed it had been a very long time since her last smile. When he asked her why, she took both his hands in hers and kissed them warmly. She thanked him for his gift of music and poetry but above all else—for showing her sadness because she had known neither of these things before him. But it was now time for her to go away—to find someone who could show her what happiness was.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Do you remember the song that was playing the night we met?
No, but I remember every song I have heard since you left.
”
”
Lang Leav (Love & Misadventure)
“
To all my wonder, she is the answer
I call you her, her
'Cause you're my tear, tear
”
”
BTS
“
Too much of anything can make you sick,
even the good can be a curse - Cheryl Cole
”
”
Cheryl Cole
“
You'll be mine and I'll be yours.
”
”
Taylor Swift
“
I wanna be the girl with the most cake.
”
”
Courtney Love
“
Love when you can. Cry when you have to. Be who you must, it's a part of the plan. Await your arrival, with simple survival, and one day we'll all understand.
”
”
Dan Fogelberg (Dan Fogelberg Greatest Hits | Piano Vocal Guitar Songbook | 10 Classic Soft Rock Hits | Piano Arrangements, Guitar Chords, and Lyrics for Pianists and Guitarists | Music Songbook for All Skill Levels)
“
Her close friends have gathered.
Lord, ain't it a shame
Grieving together
Sharing the blame.
But when she was dying
Lord, we let her down.
There's no use cryin'
It can't help her now.
The party's all over
Drink up and go home.
It's too late to love her
And leave her alone.
Just say she was someone
Lord, so far from home
Whose life was so lonesome
She died all alone
Who dreamed pretty dreams
That never came true
Lord, why was she born
So black and blue?
Oh, why was she born
So black and blue?
Epitaph (Black And Blue)
Written by: Kris Kristofferson
Note: "Epitaph" is about Janis Joplin.
”
”
Kris Kristofferson
“
I love the sound of words, the feel of them, the flow of them. I love the challenge of finding just that perfect combination of words to describe a curl of the lip, a tilt of the chin, a change in the atmosphere. Done well, novel-writing can combine lyricism with practicality in a way that makes one think of grand tapestries, both functional and beautiful. Fifty years from now, I imagine I’ll still be questing after just that right combination of words.
”
”
Lauren Willig
“
If I had one night, I'd hold you in my arms,
Find redemption, no more contention,
Keeping you close. Too long, years gone,
Wasted away. One night, our night,
Remember this. I won't forget you,
No I won't forget you.—Red-Eyed Loons
”
”
Liza M. Wiemer (Hello?)
“
I don't believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if He felt He had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms
And I don't believe in the existence of angels
But looking at you I wonder if that's true
But if I did I would summon them together
And ask them to watch over you
To each burn a candle for you
To make bright and clear your path
And to walk, like Christ, in grace and love
And guide you into my arms
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms
And I believe in Love
And I know that you do too
And I believe in some kind of path
That we can walk down, me and you
So keep your candlew burning
And make her journey bright and pure
That she will keep returning
Always and evermore
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms
”
”
Nick Cave (Complete Lyrics 1978-2007)
“
You weren’t meant for the ice, you weren’t made for the pain.
The world that lives inside of me was not the world you were meant to contain.
You were meant for castles and living in the sun. Thecold running through me should have made you run.
Yet you stay. Holding onto me, yet you stay, reachingout a hand that I push away. The cold is not meant for you yet you stay, you stay, you stay. When I know it’s not right for you.
The ice fills my veins and I can’t feel the pain, yet you’re there like the heat that sends me screaming in fear.
I can’t feel the warmth I need to feel the ice. I want to hold it all in and numb it till I can’t feel the knife.
Your heat threatens to melt it all and I know I can’t bear the pain if the ice melts away.
So I push you away and I scream out your name and I know I can’t need you yet you give anyway and I run wishing you would run too.
Yet you stay. Holding onto me yet you stay reaching out a hand that I push away. The cold is not meant for you yet you stay, you stay, you stay. When I know it’s not right for you.
The blackness is my shield. I pull it closer still.
You’re the light that I hide from, the light that I hate.
You’re the light to this darkness and I can’t let you stay.
I need the dark around me like I need the ice in my veins.
The cold is my healer. The cold is my safe place. Youaren’t welcome with your heat you don’t belong beside me.
I hate you yet I love, I don’t want you yet I need you.
The dark will always be my cloak and you are the threat to unveil my pain, so leave. Leave and erase the memories.
I need to face the life that’s meant for me. Don’t stay and ruin all my plans.
You can’t have my soul I’m not a man.
The empty vessel I dwell in is not meant to feel the heat you bring. I push you away and I push you away.
Yet you stay.
”
”
Abbi Glines (Existence (Existence, #1))
“
In the land of Gods and Monsters
I was an Angel
Living in the garden of evil
Screwed up, scared, doing anything that I needed
Shining like a fiery beacon
You got that medicine I need
Fame, Liquor, Love give it to me slowly
Put your hands on my waist, do it softly
Me and God, we don't get along so now I sing
No one's gonna take my soul away
I'm living like Jim Morrison
Headed towards a fucked up holiday
Motel sprees sprees and I'm singing
'Fuck yeah give it to me this is heaven, what I truly
Want'
It's innocence lost
Innocence lost
In the land of Gods and Monsters
I was an Angel
Looking to get fucked hard
Like a groupie incognito posing as a real singer
Life imitates art
You got that medicine I need
Dope, shoot it up, straight to the heart please
I don't really wanna know what's good for me
God's dead, I said 'baby that's alright with me'
No one's gonna take my soul away
I'm living like Jim Morrison
Headed towards a fucked up holiday
Motel sprees sprees and I'm singing
'Fuck yeah give it to me this is heaven, what I truly
Want'
It's innocence lost
Innocence lost
When you talk it's like a movie and you're making me
Crazy -
Cause life imitates art
If I get a little prettier can I be your baby?
You tell me, "life isn't that hard"
No one's gonna take my soul away
I'm living like Jim Morrison
Headed towards a fucked up holiday
Motel sprees sprees and I'm singing
'Fuck yeah give it to me this is heaven, what I truly
Want'
It's innocence lost
Innocence lost
”
”
Lana Del Rey
“
You can dance.
You can make me laugh.
You've got x-ray eyes.
You know how to sing.
You're a diplomat.
You've got it all.
Everybody loves you.
You can charm the birds out of the sky, But I, I've got
one thing.
You always know just what to say
And when to go,
But I've got one thing.
You can see in the dark,
But I've got one thing:
I loved you better.
Last night I woke up,
Saw this angel.
He flew in my window.
And he said,
Girl, pretty proud of yourself, huh?" And I looked around and said,
Who me?"
And he said, "The higher you fly, the faster you fall."
He said, "Send it up.
Watch it rise.
See it fall,
Gravity's rainbow.
Send it up.
Watch it rise.
See it fall,
Gravity's Angel.
”
”
Laurie Anderson
“
Easy come, easy go,
That's just how you live, oh,
Take, take, take it all,
But you never give.
Should've known you was trouble
From the first kiss,
Had your eyes wide open.
Why were they open?
Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash,
You tossed it in the trash, you did.
To give me all your love is all I ever asked, 'cause
What you don't understand is
I'd catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya
Oh, oh, I would go through all of this pain,
Take a bullet straight through my brain!
Yes, I would die for ya, baby,
But you won't do the same.
”
”
Bruno Mars
“
Dandelion, staring into the dying embers, sat much longer, alone, quietly strumming his lute. It began with a few bars, from which an elegant, soothing melody emerged. The lyric suited the melody, and came into being simultaneously with it, the words bending into the music, becoming set in it like insects in translucent, golden lumps of amber.
The ballad told of a certain witcher and a certain poet. About how the witcher and the poet met on the seashore, among the crying of seagulls, and how they fell in love at first sight. About how beautiful and powerful was their love. About how nothing - not even death - was able to destroy that love and part them.
Dandelion knew that few would believe the story told by the ballad, but he was not concerned. He knew ballads were not written to be believed, but to move their audience.
Several years later, Dandelion could have changed the contents of the ballad and written about what had really occurred. He did not. For the true story would not have move anyone. Who would have wanted to hear that the Witcher and Little Eye parted and never, ever, saw each other again? About how four years later Little Eye died of the smallpox during an epidemic raging in Vizima? About how he, Dandelion, had carried her out in his arms between corpses being cremated on funeral pyres and buried her far from the city, in the forest, alone and peaceful, and, as she had asked, buried two things with her: her lute and her sky blue pearl. The pearl from which she was never parted.
No, Dandelion stuck with his first version. And he never sang it. Never. To no one.
Right before the dawn, while it was still dark, a hungry, vicious werewolf crept up to their camp, but saw that it was Dandelion, so he listened for a moment and then went on his way.
”
”
Andrzej Sapkowski (Miecz przeznaczenia (Saga o Wiedźminie, #0.7))
“
I'm in love with New York. It matches my mood. I'm not overwhelmed. It is the suitable scene for my ever ever heightened life. I love the proportions, the amplitude, the brilliance, the polish, the solidity. I look up at Radio City insolently and love it. It's all great, and Babylonian. Broadway at night. Cellophane. The newness. The vitality. True, it is only physical. But it's inspiring. Just bring your own contents, and you create a sparkle of the highest power. I'm not moved, not speechless. I stand straight, tough and I meet the impact. I feel the glow and the dancing in everything. The radio music in the taxis, scientific magic, which can all be used lyrically. That's my last word. Give New York to a poet. He can use it. It can be poetized. Or maybe that's mania of mine, to poetize. I live lightly, smoothly, actively, ears or eyes wide open, alert, oiled! I feel the glow and the dancing in every thing and the tempo is like that of my blood. I'm at once beyond, over and in New York, tasting it fully.
”
”
Anaïs Nin
“
That's what love is, Ben. Love is sacrifice. I got this tattoo the day I felt that kind of love for your father. And I chose it because if I had to describe love that day, I would say it felt like my two favourite things, amplified and thrown together. Like my favourite poetic line mixed into the lyrics of my favourite song. You'll know, Ben. When you're willing to give up the things that mean the most to you just to see someone else happy, that's real love
”
”
Colleen Hoover (November 9)
“
He fell in love with Manhattan's skyline, like a first-time brothel guest falling for a seasoned professional. He mused over her reflections in the black East River at dusk, dawn, or darkest night, and each haloed light-in a tower or strung along the jeweled and sprawling spider legs of the Brooklyn Bridge's spans-hinted at some meaning, which could be understood only when made audible by music and encoded in lyrics.
”
”
Arthur Phillips (The Song Is You)
“
Well, it kind of hurts when the kind of words you write
And kind of turn themselves into knives
And don't mind my nerve you can call it fiction
'Cause I like being submerged in your contradictions, dear
'Cause here we are, here we are
Although you were biased, I love your advice
Your comebacks they're quick and probably
Have to do with your insecurities
There's no shame in being crazy depending on how you take these
Words they're paraphrasing this relationship we're staging
And it's a beautiful mess, yes, it is
It's like we're picking up trash in dresses
”
”
Jason Mraz
“
Daylight fades away as I watch you.
Darkness claims the sky and I wish you knew
that nothing you can do can keep me from you.
But I stay out of sight and only whisper to you.
Words I can’t say. Words you don’t need to hear.
Words I can’t keep from tangling my way.
Now, I can’t stand alone.
Now, I am under your influence.
You’ve taken over me and Now, I can’t ignore what I’ve been shown.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care who knows.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care if it shows.
I’m weakened and I’m strengthened in your arms.
You’ve claimed me and I need to feel you close.”
“You stand wanting more than you could ever understand.
I stand helpless needing to give in to your every command.
Wanting to see you smile has consumed me and tied both my hands.
Nothing I offer could ever be worthy of your love.
It’s a miracle that you saw me and never ran.
I will spend my whole life trying to be the man you think I am.
Now, I can’t stand alone. Now, I am under your influence.
You’ve taken over me and Now, I can’t ignore what I’ve been shown.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care who knows.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care if it shows.
I’m weakened and I’m strengthened in your arms.
You’ve claimed me and I need to feel you close.”
“You hold fire within your gaze.
It mesmerizes everyone you allow into your maze.
I know nothing of your thoughts
but I need to bask within the warmth of your rays.
Nothing you do could ever be wrong.
You’re forever perfect in every way.
Now, I can’t stand alone. Now, I am under your influence.
You’ve taken over me and Now, I can’t ignore what I’ve been shown.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care who knows.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care if it shows.
I’m weakened and I’m strengthened in your arms.
You’ve claimed me and I need to feel you close.”
~ Dank
”
”
Abbi Glines (Predestined (Existence, #2))
“
So you start to take pieces of your own life.
And somewhat selfishly
Other people's lives
And feed them to the song
At what cost
This wondrous creature
That becomes more precious to you
Than the people that you took from
How awful
To make human sacrifices
A late night conversation
A private thought
All placed upon the altar
But you have to satisfy the monster
The monster has loved you for longer
Than anyone else.
”
”
Florence Welch (Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry)
“
In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall
Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all
-Bob Dylan, “Love Minus Zero / No Limit” (1965)
”
”
Bob Dylan (Lyrics, 1962-2001)
“
Fundamentalist Christianity: fascinating. These people actually believe that the world is twelve thousand years old. Swear to God. Based on what? I asked them.
"Well, we looked at all the people in the Bible and we added 'em up all the way back to Adam and Eve, their ages? Twelve thousand years."
"Well, how fucking scientific, OK. I didn't know that you'd gone to so much trouble there. That's good. You believe the world's twelve thousand years old?"
"That's right."
"OK, I got one word to ask you, a one word question, ready?"
"Uh huh."
"Dinosaurs."
You know, the world's twelve thousand years old and dinosaurs existed, and existed in that time, you'd think it would been mentioned in the fucking Bible at some point:
And O, Jesus and the disciples walked to Nazareth. But the trail was blocked by a giant brontosaurus... with a splinter in its paw. And the disciples did run a-screamin'. "What a big fucking lizard, Lord!"
"I'm sure gonna mention this in my book," Luke said.
"Well, I'm sure gonna mention it in my book," Matthew said.
But Jesus was unafraid. And he took the splinter from the brontosaurus paw, and the brontosaurus became his friend. And Jesus sent him to Scotland where he lived in a loch, O so many years, attracting fat American families with their fat fuckin' dollars to look for the Loch Ness Monster. And O the Scots did praise the Lord: "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"
Twelve thousand years old. But I actually asked this guy, "OK, dinosaur fossils-- how does that fit into your scheme of life? What's the deal?" He goes:
"God put those here to test our faith."
"I think God put you here to test my faith, dude. I think I've figured this out."
Does that-- That's what this guy said. Does that bother anyone here? The idea that God might be fucking with our heads? Anyone have trouble sleeping restfully with that thought in their head? God's running around burying fossils: "Ho ho! We'll see who believes in me now, ha ha! I'm a prankster God. I am killing me, ho ho ho!" You know? You die, you go to St. Peter:
"Did you believe in dinosaurs?"
"Well, yeah. There were fossils everywhere. (trapdoor opens) Aaaaarhhh!"
"You fuckin' idiot! Flying lizards? You're a moron. God was fuckin' with you!"
"It seemed so plausible, aaaaaahh!"
"Enjoy the lake of fire, fucker!"
They believe this. But you ever notice how people who believe in Creationism usually look pretty unevolved. Eyes really close together, big furry hands and feet? "I believe God created me in one day." Yeah, looks like he rushed it.
Such a weird belief. Lots of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back he's gonna want to see a fucking cross, man? "Ow." Might be why he hasn't shown up yet.
"Man, they're still wearing crosses. Fuck it, I'm not goin' back, Dad. No, they totally missed the point. When they start wearing fishes, I might show up again, but... let me bury fossils with you, Dad. Fuck 'em, let's fuck with 'em! Hand me that brontosaurus head, Dad.
”
”
Bill Hicks (Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines)
“
A Kite is a Victim
A kite is a victim you are sure of.
You love it because it pulls
gentle enough to call you master,
strong enough to call you fool;
because it lives
like a desperate trained falcon
in the high sweet air,
and you can always haul it down
to tame it in your drawer.
A kite is a fish you have already caught
in a pool where no fish come,
so you play him carefully and long,
and hope he won't give up,
or the wind die down.
A kite is the last poem you've written
so you give it to the wind,
but you don't let it go
until someone finds you
something else to do.
A kite is a contract of glory
that must be made with the sun,
so you make friends with the field
the river and the wind,
then you pray the whole cold night before,
under the travelling cordless moon,
to make you worthy and lyric and pure.
Gift
You tell me that silence
is nearer to peace than poems
but if for my gift
I brought you silence
(for I know silence)
you would say
This is not silence
this is another poem
and you would hand it back to me
There are some men
There are some men
who should have mountains
to bear their names through time
Grave markers are not high enough
or green
and sons go far away to lose the fist
their father’s hand will always seem
I had a friend he lived and died
in mighty silence and with dignity
left no book son or lover to mourn.
Nor is this a mourning song
but only a naming of this mountain
on which I walk
fragrant, dark and softly white
under the pale of mist
I name this mountain after him.
-Believe nothing of me
Except that I felt your beauty
more closely than my own.
I did not see any cities burn,
I heard no promises of endless night,
I felt your beauty
more closely than my own.
Promise me that I will return.-
-When you call me close
to tell me
your body is not beautiful
I want to summon
the eyes and hidden mouths
of stone and light and water
to testify against you.-
Song
I almost went to bed
without remembering
the four white violets
I put in the button-hole
of your green sweater
and how i kissed you then
and you kissed me
shy as though I'd
never been your lover
-Reach into the vineyard of arteries for my heart.
Eat the fruit of ignorance and share with me the mist and
fragrance of dying.-
”
”
Leonard Cohen (The Spice-Box of Earth)
“
The old duality of body and soul has become shrouded in scientific terminology, and we can laugh at it as merely an obsolete prejudice.
But just make someone who has fallen in love listen to his stomach rumble, and the unity of body and soul, that lyrical illusion of the age of science, instantly fades away.
”
”
Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
“
Forgiveness, I finally decide, is not the death of amnesia, nor is it a form of madness, as Derrida claims. For the one who forgives, it is simply a death, a dying down in the heart, the position of the already dead. It is in the end the living through, the understanding that this has happened, is happening, happens. Period. It is a feeling of nothingness that cannot be communicated to another, an absence, a bottomless vacancy held by the living, beyond all that is hatred or love.
”
”
Claudia Rankine (Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric)
“
There are moments in every relationship that define when two people start to fall in love.
A first glance
A first smile
A first kiss
A first fall…
(I remove the Darth Vader house shoes from my satchel and look down at them.)
You were wearing these during one of those moments.
One of the moments I first started to fall in love with you.
The way you gave me butterflies that morning
Had absolutely nothing to do with anyone else,
and everything to do with you.
I was falling in love with you that morning
because of you.
(I take the next item out of the satchel. When I pull it out and look up, she brings her hands to her mouth in shock.)
This ugly little gnome
With his smug little grin…
He's the reason I had an excuse to invite you into my house.
Into my life.
You took a lot of aggression out on him over those next few months.
I would watch from my window as you would kick him over every time you walked by him.
Poor little guy.
You were so tenacious.
That feisty, aggressive, strong-willed side of you….
The side of you that refused to take crap from this concrete gnome?
The side of you that refused to take crap from me?
I fell in love with that side of you
because of you.
(I set the gnome down on the stage and grab the CD)
This is your favorite CD
‘Layken’s shit.’
Although now I know you intended for shit to be possessive, rather than descriptive.
The banjo started playing through the speakers of your car
and I immediately recognized my favorite band.
Then when I realized it was your favorite band, too?
The fact that these same lyrics inspired both of us?
I fell in love with that about you.
That had absolutely nothing to do with anyone else.
I fell in love with that about you
because of you.
(I take a slip of paper out of the satchel and hold it up. When I look at her, I see Eddie slide her a napkin. I can’t tell from up here, but that can only mean she’s crying.)
This is a receipt I kept.
Only because the item I purchased that night was on the verge of ridiculous.
Chocolate milk on the rocks? Who orders that?
You were different, and you didn’t care.
You were being you.
A piece of me fell in love with you at that moment,
because of you.
This? (I hold up another sheet of paper.)
This I didn’t really like so much.
It’s the poem you wrote about me.
The one you titled 'mean?'
I don’t think I ever told you…
but you made a zero.
And then I kept it
to remind myself of all the things I never want to be to you.
(I pull her shirt from my bag. When I hold it into the light, I sigh into the microphone.)
This is that ugly shirt you wear.
It doesn’t really have anything to do with why I fell in love with you.
I just saw it at your house and thought I’d steal it.
”
”
Colleen Hoover (Point of Retreat (Slammed, #2))
“
I detest love lyrics. I think one of the causes of bad mental health in the United States is that people have been raised on 'love lyrics'.
You're a young kid and you hear all those 'love lyrics', right? Your parents aren't telling you the truth about love, and you can't really learn about it in school. You're getting the bulk of your 'behaviour norms' mapped out for you in the lyrics to some dumb fucking love song. It's a subconscious training that creates desire for an imaginary situation which will never exist for you. People who buy into that mythology go through life feeling that they got cheated out of something.
What I think is very cynical about some rock and roll songs -- especially today -- is the way they say: "Let's make love." What the fuck kind of wussy says shit like that in the real world? You ought to be able to say "Let's go fuck", or at least "Let's go fill-in-the-blank" -- but you gotta say "Let's make love" in order to get on the radio. This creates a semantic corruption, by changing the context in which the word 'love' is used in the song.
When they get into drooling about love as a 'romantic concept' -- especially in the lyrics of sensitive singer/songwriter types -- that's another shove in the direction of bad mental health.
Fortunately, lyrics over the last five or six years have gotten to be less and less important, with 'art rock groups' and new wavers specializing in 'nonjudgemental' or 'purposely inconsequential' lyrics. People have stopped listening to the lyrics -- they are now only 'pitched mouth noises'.
”
”
Frank Zappa (The Real Frank Zappa Book)
“
There are monsters all around us
They can be so hard to see
hey don't have fangs, no blood-soaked claws
They look like you and me.
But we're not defenseless
We're no damsels in distress
Together we can fend off the attack
All we gotta do is watch our backs.
Your body is beautiful how it is
Who you love is nobody's business
We all contemplate life and death
It's the poet who gives these thoughts
breath.
The monster is strong, don't be mistaken
It thrives on fear-keeps us isolated
But together we can fend off its attack
All we gotta do is watch our backs.
In your darkest hour
When the fight's made you weary
When you think you've lost your power
When you can't see clearly
When you're ready to surrender
Give in to the black
look over your shoulder
I've got your back.
”
”
Gayle Forman (Sisters in Sanity)
“
Oh oak tree, how they have pruned you.
Now you stand odd and strangely shaped!
You were hacked a hundred times
until you had nothing left but spite and will!
I am like you, so many insults and humiliations
could not shatter my link with life.
And every day I raise my head
beyond countless insults towards new light.
What in me was once gentle, sweet and tender
this world has ridiculed to death.
But my true self cannot be murdered.
I am at peace and reconciled.
I grow new leaves with patience
from branches hacked a hundred times.
In spite of all the pain and sorrow
I'm still in love with this mad, mad world.
”
”
Hermann Hesse (Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte)
“
There is evidence that the honoree [Leonard Cohen] might be privy to the secret of the universe, which, in case you're wondering, is simply this: everything is connected. Everything. Many, if not most, of the links are difficult to determine. The instrument, the apparatus, the focused ray that can uncover and illuminate those connections is language. And just as a sudden infatuation often will light up a person's biochemical atmosphere more pyrotechnically than any deep, abiding attachment, so an unlikely, unexpected burst of linguistic imagination will usually reveal greater truths than the most exacting scholarship. In fact. The poetic image may be the only device remotely capable of dissecting romantic passion, let alone disclosing the inherent mystical qualities of the material world.
Cohen is a master of the quasi-surrealistic phrase, of the "illogical" line that speaks so directly to the unconscious that surface ambiguity is transformed into ultimate, if fleeting, comprehension: comprehension of the bewitching nuances of sex and bewildering assaults of culture. Undoubtedly, it is to his lyrical mastery that his prestigious colleagues now pay tribute. Yet, there may be something else. As various, as distinct, as rewarding as each of their expressions are, there can still be heard in their individual interpretations the distant echo of Cohen's own voice, for it is his singing voice as well as his writing pen that has spawned these songs.
It is a voice raked by the claws of Cupid, a voice rubbed raw by the philosopher's stone. A voice marinated in kirschwasser, sulfur, deer musk and snow; bandaged with sackcloth from a ruined monastery; warmed by the embers left down near the river after the gypsies have gone.
It is a penitent's voice, a rabbinical voice, a crust of unleavened vocal toasts -- spread with smoke and subversive wit. He has a voice like a carpet in an old hotel, like a bad itch on the hunchback of love. It is a voice meant for pronouncing the names of women -- and cataloging their sometimes hazardous charms. Nobody can say the word "naked" as nakedly as Cohen. He makes us see the markings where the pantyhose have been.
Finally, the actual persona of their creator may be said to haunt these songs, although details of his private lifestyle can be only surmised. A decade ago, a teacher who called himself Shree Bhagwan Rajneesh came up with the name "Zorba the Buddha" to describe the ideal modern man: A contemplative man who maintains a strict devotional bond with cosmic energies, yet is completely at home in the physical realm. Such a man knows the value of the dharma and the value of the deutschmark, knows how much to tip a waiter in a Paris nightclub and how many times to bow in a Kyoto shrine, a man who can do business when business is necessary, allow his mind to enter a pine cone, or dance in wild abandon if moved by the tune. Refusing to shun beauty, this Zorba the Buddha finds in ripe pleasures not a contradiction but an affirmation of the spiritual self. Doesn't he sound a lot like Leonard Cohen?
We have been led to picture Cohen spending his mornings meditating in Armani suits, his afternoons wrestling the muse, his evenings sitting in cafes were he eats, drinks and speaks soulfully but flirtatiously with the pretty larks of the street. Quite possibly this is a distorted portrait. The apocryphal, however, has a special kind of truth.
It doesn't really matter. What matters here is that after thirty years, L. Cohen is holding court in the lobby of the whirlwind, and that giants have gathered to pay him homage. To him -- and to us -- they bring the offerings they have hammered from his iron, his lead, his nitrogen, his gold.
”
”
Tom Robbins
“
I don't really like this song," Emma had said.
"You told me it was your favourite."
"It's beautiful. But it always makes me sad."
"Why, love?" he'd asked gently. "It's about finding each other again. About someone coming home."
Emma had lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him earnestly. "It's about losing someone, and having to wait until you're together in heaven."
"There's nothing in the lyrics about heaven," he'd said.
"But that's what it means. I can't bear the idea of being separated from you, for a lifetime or a year or even a day. So you mustn't go to heaven without me."
"Of course not," he had whispered. "It wouldn't be heaven without you.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Dream Lake (Friday Harbor, #3))
“
Little girl, little boy
If love has a way
Fill their fields with laughter
And scatter the sun on their day
And if it should happen to rain
Make their raindrops kisses
Straight from heaven above
That touch their hands and faces
And that fill them with love
And make the moon reflect their smiles
And their stars plenty
And, above all, keep them together
And hold them as you may
Forever and ever
Until their last day.
”
”
Laura Miller (My Butterfly (Butterfly Weeds, #2))
“
I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
Breathing in your dust
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust
If you like your coffee hot
Let me be your coffee pot
You call the shots babe
I just wanna be yours
Secrets I have held in my heart
Are harder to hide than I thought
Maybe I just wanna be yours
I wanna be yours, I wanna be yours
Wanna be yours, wanna be yours, wanna be yours
Let me be your 'leccy meter and I'll never run out
And let me be the portable heater that you'll get cold without
I wanna be your setting lotion (I wanna be)
Hold your hair in deep devotion (How deep?)
At least as deep as the Pacific Ocean
I wanna be yours
Read more: Arctic Monkeys - I Wanna Be Yours Lyrics | MetroLyrics
”
”
Alex Turner
“
Something about you caught me by surprise
Though I always knew you’d be my demise.
“I didn’t want you to love me
Didn’t want you thinking of me
So I kept my distance
Tried to ignore your existence
I was blinded by my pride
With you, the Jekyll to my Hyde
But that’s where you found me
Baby, that’s where you unwound me
Loving you would be as easy as taking a breath
But to look at you, that’s a dance with death
I’d risk it all,
For you I would
You’d make me fall,
And fall I would
Loving you would be as easy as taking a breath
But to be by you, that’s a dance with death.
“I thought once was enough
You turned to me and called my bluff,
Maybe I should have walked away
but I couldn’t resist, I needed replay after replay
Loving you would be as easy as taking a breath
But to give you up, that’s a dance with death
We were over from the start
I never said I’d give my heart
So now it’s time for this to end
After all, a friend is just a friend
Loving you would be as easy as taking a breath
But to give you up, that’s a dance with death
So now it’s time for this to end
After all, a friend is just a friend.
”
”
R.S. Grey (The Duet (Heart, #1))
“
A little thing, like children putting flowers in my hair, can fill up the widening cracks in my self-assurance like soothing lanolin. I was sitting out on the steps today, uneasy with fear and discontent. Peter, (the little boy-across-the-street) with the pointed pale face, the grave blue eyes and the slow fragile smile came bringing his adorable sister Libby of the flaxen braids and the firm, lyrically-formed child-body. They stood shyly for a little, and then Peter picked a white petunia and put it in my hair. Thus began an enchanting game, where I sat very still, while Libby ran to and fro gathering petunias, and Peter stood by my side, arranging the blossoms. I closed my eyes to feel more keenly the lovely delicate-child-hands, gently tucking flower after flower into my curls. "And now a white one," the lisp was soft and tender. Pink, crimson, scarlet, white ... the faint pungent odor of the petunias was hushed and sweet. And all my hurts were smoothed away. Something about the frank, guileless blue eyes, the beautiful young bodies, the brief scent of the dying flowers smote me like the clean quick cut of a knife. And the blood of love welled up in my heart with a slow pain.
”
”
Sylvia Plath (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath)
“
Then, lifting me up, his head fell back and he opened his mouth wide. “Once I let Lucy Larson into my heart! I was able to take my sad, shitty song and make it better!” he sung, off key and at full volume. Some of the students around us tipped their beers at him, some broke in during the “Nah, nah, nah,” chorus, and a few looked at him like he was a crazy man.
But I just laughed—I already knew he was crazy. And I loved him for it. “I think that’s called taking creative liberties with the lyrics.
”
”
Nicole Williams (Crash (Crash, #1))
“
Here are some things I didn't have space for: putting on Alone by Heart and miming the lyrics in Leah's face until she started laughing, Leah's long hands and her yellow hair and the werewolf quality of her eyebrows. The way she walked around the flat in shorts and a sports bra and told me off for staring. The way she kissed me and then apologized for biting. The time Leah told me that making me laugh was an achievement because my face was so typically set against it. The way I was often bored and Leah never was. Talking with Leah on early dates about the panic of doing what everyone else was doing and then feeling like a dick about it. The way Leah was kind by nature whereas I always seemed to struggle. The way she tipped my face towards hers and told me otherwise. "You're the kindest person I know and I know six or seven people.
”
”
Julia Armfield (Our Wives Under the Sea)
“
The lions of hard rock, guys like Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Brian Johnson, Rob Halford, these monsters feel completely timeless, iconic, eternal. They simply shall not, will not, do not die. It's almost impossible to imagine a musical world without Robert Plant. No metal fan of any stripe can imagine a day when, say, Iron Maiden shuts it all down because Bruce Dickinson turned 85 and suddenly can't remember the lyrics to "Hallowed Be Thy Name." Metal revels in the raw energy and unchecked phantasmagorical ridiculousness of youth. It is all fire and testosterone and rebellious fantasy. It doesn't go well with reality.
So it is for hard rock and a guy like Dio, an elfin titan with an undying love for lasers and sorcery, dragons and kings. The man wrote some terribly corny metal songs, but he sang every one with a ferocity and love and total honesty. He also wrote some of the finest hard rock melodies of all time, sang them with a precision and love unmatched by any hard rock singer since. It's a rare thing to give metal some heartfelt props. It is time. Raise your devil horns and salute.
”
”
Mark Morford
“
Give Your Heart A Break lyrics
The day I first met you
You told me you'd never fall in love
But now that I get you
I know fear is what it really was
Now here we are, so close
Yet so far, haven't I passed the test?
When will you realize
Baby, I'm not like the rest
Don't wanna break your heart
I wanna give your heart a break
I know you're scared it's wrong
Like you might make a mistake
There's just one life to live
And there's no time to waste, to waste
So let me give your heart a break
Give your heart a break
Let me give your heart a break
Your heart a break
Oh, yeah yeah
On Sunday, you went home alone
There were tears in your eyes
I called your cell phone, my love
But you did not reply
The world is ours, if you want it
We can take it, if you just take my hand
There's no turning back now
Baby, try to understand
Don't wanna break your heart
Wanna give your heart a break
I know you're scared it's wrong
Like you might make a mistake
There's just one life to live
And there's no time to waste, to waste
So let me give your heart a break
Give your heart a break
Let me give your heart a break
Your heart a break
There's just so much you can take
Give your heart a break
Let me give your heart a break
Your heart a break
Oh, yeah yeah
When your lips are on my lips
And our hearts beat as one
But you slip right out of my fingertips
Every time you run, whoa
Don't wanna break your heart
Wanna give your heart a break
I know you're scared it's wrong
Like you might make a mistake
There's just one life to live
And there's no time to waste, to waste
So let me give your heart a break
Cuz you've been hurt before
I can see it in your eyes
You try to smile it away
Some things, you can't disguise
Don't wanna break your heart
Baby, I can ease the ache, the ache
So, let me give your heart a break
Give your heart a break
Let me give your heart a break
Your heart a break
There's just so much you can take
Give your heart a break
Let me give your heart a break
Your heart a break
Oh yeah,yeah
The day I first met you
You told me you'd never fall in love
”
”
Demi Lovato
“
You don't need this prep but I'm going to give it to you anyway. I can tell, I don't know any of you that well, but I can see it in your faces that and some of you have faces that remind me of what my face looked like when I was younger. I see some of you young people out there and I remember how hard it is to be young. And I remember how hard it is to be rejected the first time when you're young. And so what I want you to do is close your eyes. And I can see you, so don't cheat me here. Close those eyes of yours. Put 'em, real tight. And I want you to imagine the first person who broke you heart. The first person that didn't like you back, the first person that said shitty stuff about you. The first person that dumped you. The first person that changed their phone number because you called them 62 times in one day. The first person that didn't know how good you were and they missed you, they passed you by. Imagine that person and then I want you to sing at the top of your fucking lungs. I want you to sing. I want to heal that with you right now. (sings): Look me in the eye and tell me you dont find me attractive.
Look me in the heart and tell me that you wont go. Look me in the eye and promise no love is like our love look me in the heart and unbreak broken it wont happen.
”
”
Tegan Quin
“
If thou be one whose heart the holy forms
Of young imagination have kept pure,
Stranger! henceforth be warned; and know, that pride,
Howe'er disguised in its own majesty,
Is littleness; that he, who feels contempt
For any living thing, hath faculties
Which he has never used; that thought with him
Is in its infancy. The man, whose eye
Is ever on himself, doth look on one,
The least of nature's works, one who might move
The wise man to that scorn which wisdom holds
Unlawful, ever. O, be wiser thou!
Instructed that true knowledge leads to love,
True dignity abides with him alone
Who, in the silent hour of inward thought,
Can still suspect, and still revere himself,
In lowliness of heart.
”
”
William Wordsworth (Lyrical Ballads)
“
I stay out of sight and only whisper to you.
Words I can’t say. Words you don’t need to hear. Words I can’t keep from tangling my way.
Now, I can’t stand alone. I can’t ignore what I’ve been shown.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care who knows. You’ve claimed me and I don’t care if it shows.
I’m weakened and I’m strengthened in your arms.
You’ve claimed me and I need to feel you close.
You stand wanting more than you could ever understand.
I stand helpless, needing to give in to your every command. Wanting to see you smile has consumed me and tied both my hands.
Nothing I offer could ever be worthy of your love.
It’s a miracle that you saw me and never ran.
I will spend my whole life trying to be the man you think I am.
Now, I can’t stand-alone. Now, I am under your influence. I can’t ignore what I’ve been shown.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care who knows.
You’ve claimed me and I don’t care if it shows.
I’m weakened and I’m strengthened in your arms. You’ve claimed me and I need to feel you close.”
“You hold fire within your gaze.
It mesmerizes everyone you allow into your maze. I know nothing of your thoughts but I need to bask within the warmth of your rays. Nothing you do could ever be wrong. You’re forever perfect in every way.
Now, I can’t stand-alone. Now, I am under your influence.
You’ve taken over me and now, I can’t ignore what I’ve been shown. You’ve claimed me and I don’t care who knows. You’ve claimed me and I don’t care if it shows. I’m weakened and I’m strengthened in your arms.
You’ve claimed me and I need to feel you close.”
~ Dank Walker
”
”
Abbi Glines (Ceaseless (Existence, #3))
“
Sweet Grace amazes me
The way that she can see
Beyond the man I am
To the man that I could be
She's bringing out my best
While she covers all the rest
Some say her love is blind
But I say her love forgets
She don't like it when I try so hard to impress her
‘Cause when I do that, it's a lie that makes her love look the lesser
The truth is I know
I'll never be, I'll never be good enough
I'll never deserve her love
I'll never be, I'll never be good enough for Grace
But she takes me anyway
I am the cheatin' kind
But she's changing my mind
The way she takes me back
Though I fail her every time
She's got friends who tell her that she
Is much too good for me
Well, I've told her that myself
But she refuses to leave
I'd like to think my strength won her affection
But the truth is it was my weakness that caught her attention
I'm grateful to know
When my tears fall down like rain
She wipes them from my face
She tells me that I'm lovely
And if I am, it's all because of Grace
This love turns my inside out
And my world upside down
Grace is changing me
”
”
Jason Gray
“
But at times words can be a dangerous addition to music — they can pin it down. Words imply that the music is about what the words say, literally, and nothing more. If done poorly, they can destroy the pleasant ambiguity that constitutes much of the reason we love music. That ambiguity allows listeners to psychologically tailor a song to suit their needs, sensibilities, and situations, but words can limit that, too. There are plenty of beautiful tracks that I can’t listen to because they’ve been “ruined” by bad words — my own and others. In Beyonce's song "Irreplaceable," she rhymes "minute" with "minute," and I cringe every time I hear it (partly because by that point I'm singing along). On my own song "Astronaut," I wrap up with the line "feel like I'm an astronaut," which seems like the dumbest metaphor for alienation ever. Ugh.
”
”
David Byrne (How Music Works)
“
The hour of spring was dark at last,
sensuous memories of sunlight past,
I stood alone in garden bowers
and asked the value of my hours.
Time was spent or time was tossed,
Life was loved and life was lost.
I kissed the flesh of tender girls,
I heard the songs of vernal birds.
I gazed upon the blushing light,
aware of day before the night.
So let me ask and hear a thought:
Did I live the spring I’d sought?
It's true in joy, I walked along,
took part in dance,
and sang the song.
and never tried to bind an hour
to my borrowed garden bower;
nor did I once entreat
a day to slumber at my feet.
Yet days aren't lulled by lyric song,
like morning birds they pass along,
o'er crests of trees, to none belong;
o'er crests of trees of drying dew,
their larking flight, my hands, eschew
Thus I’ll say it once and true...
From all that I saw,
and everywhere I wandered,
I learned that time cannot be spent,
It only can be squandered.
”
”
Roman Payne (Rooftop Soliloquy)
“
As soon as teenage girls start to profess love for something, everyone else becomes totally dismissive of it. Teenage girls are open season for the cruelest bullying that our society can dream up. Everyone's vicious to them. They're vicious to each other. Hell, they're even vicious to themselves. It's terrible.
So if teenage girls have something that they love, isn't that a good thing? Isn't it better for them to find some words they believe in, words like the 'fire-proof and fearless' lyrics that Jacqui wrote? Isn't it better for them to put those words on their arm in a tattoo than for them to cut gashes in that same skin? Shouldn't we be grateful when teenage girls love our work? Shouldn't that be a fucking honor?
It's used as the cheapest, easiest test of crap, isn't it? If teenage girls love a movie, a book, a band, then it's immediately classified as mediocre shit. Well, I'm not going to stand for that. Someone needs to treat them like they're precious, and if nobody else is ready to step up, I guess it's up to us to put them on the path to recognizing that about themselves.
”
”
Mary Borsellino (The Devil's Mixtape)
“
Certainly not! I didn't build a machine to solve ridiculous crossword puzzles! That's hack work, not Great Art! Just give it a topic, any topic, as difficult as you like..."
Klapaucius thought, and thought some more. Finally he nodded and said:
"Very well. Let's have a love poem, lyrical, pastoral, and expressed in the language of pure mathematics. Tensor algebra mainly, with a little topology and higher calculus, if need be. But with feeling, you understand, and in the cybernetic spirit."
"Love and tensor algebra?" Have you taken leave of your senses?" Trurl began, but stopped, for his electronic bard was already declaiming:
Come, let us hasten to a higher plane,
Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn,
Their indices bedecked from one to n,
Commingled in an endless Markov chain!
Come, every frustum longs to be a cone,
And every vector dreams of matrices.
Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze:
It whispers of a more ergodic zone.
In Reimann, Hilbert or in Banach space
Let superscripts and subscripts go their ways.
Our asymptotes no longer out of phase,
We shall encounter, counting, face to face.
I'll grant thee random access to my heart,
Thou'lt tell me all the constants of thy love;
And so we two shall all love's lemmas prove,
And in bound partition never part.
For what did Cauchy know, or Christoffel,
Or Fourier, or any Boole or Euler,
Wielding their compasses, their pens and rulers,
Of thy supernal sinusoidal spell?
Cancel me not--for what then shall remain?
Abscissas, some mantissas, modules, modes,
A root or two, a torus and a node:
The inverse of my verse, a null domain.
Ellipse of bliss, converge, O lips divine!
The product of our scalars is defined!
Cyberiad draws nigh, and the skew mind
Cuts capers like a happy haversine.
I see the eigenvalue in thine eye,
I hear the tender tensor in thy sigh.
Bernoulli would have been content to die,
Had he but known such a^2 cos 2 phi!
”
”
Stanisław Lem (The Cyberiad)
“
Forgotten, as if you never were.
Like a bird’s violent death
like an abandoned church you’ll be forgotten,
like a passing love
and a rose in the night . . . forgotten
I am for the road . . . There are those whose footsteps preceded mine
those whose vision dictated mine. There are those
who scattered speech on their accord to enter the story
or to illuminate to others who will follow them
a lyrical trace . . . and a speculation
Forgotten, as if you never were
a person, or a text . . . forgotten
I walk guided by insight, I might
give the story a biographical narrative. Vocabulary
governs me and I govern it. I am its shape
and it is the free transfiguration. But what I’d say has already been said.
A passing tomorrow precedes me. I am the king of echo.
My only throne is the margin. And the road
is the way. Perhaps the forefathers forgot to describe
something, I might nudge in it a memory and a sense
Forgotten, as if you never were
news, or a trace . . . forgotten
I am for the road . . . There are those whose footsteps
walk upon mine, those who will follow me to my vision.
Those who will recite eulogies to the gardens of exile,
in front of the house, free of worshipping yesterday,
free of my metonymy and my language, and only then
will I testify that I’m alive
and free
when I’m forgotten!
~ tr. Fady Joudah
”
”
Mahmoud Darwish
“
He was rowed down from the north in a leather skiff manned by a crew of trolls. His fur cape was caked with candle wax, his brow stained blue by wine - though the latter was seldom noticed due to the fox mask he wore at-all times. A quill in his teeth, a solitary teardrop a-squirm in his palm, he was the young poet prince of Montreal, handsome, immaculate, searching for sturdier doors to nail his poignant verses on.
In Manhattan, grit drifted into his ink bottle. In Vienna, his spice box exploded. On the Greek island of Hydra, Orpheus came to him at dawn astride a transparent donkey and restrung his cheap guitar. From that moment on, he shamelessly and willingly exposed himself to the contagion of music. To the secretly religious curiosity of the traveler was added the openly foolhardy dignity of the troubadour. By the time he returned to America, songs were working in him like bees in an attic. Connoisseurs developed cravings for his nocturnal honey, despite the fact that hearts were occasionally stung.
Now, thirty years later, as society staggers towards the millennium - nailing and screeching at the while, like an orangutan with a steak knife in its side - Leonard Cohen, his vision, his gift, his perseverance, are finally getting their due. It may be because he speaks to this wounded zeitgeist with particular eloquence and accuracy, it may be merely cultural time-lag, another example of the slow-to-catch-on many opening their ears belatedly to what the few have been hearing all along. In any case, the sparkle curtain has shredded, the boogie-woogie gate has rocked loose from its hinges, and here sits L. Cohen at an altar in the garden, solemnly enjoying new-found popularity and expanded respect.
From the beginning, his musical peers have recognized Cohen´s ability to establish succinct analogies among life´s realities, his talent for creating intimate relationships between the interior world of longing and language and the exterior world of trains and violins. Even those performers who have neither "covered" his compositions nor been overtly influenced by them have professed to admire their artfulness: the darkly delicious melodies - aural bouquets of gardenia and thistle - that bring to mind an electrified, de-Germanized Kurt Weill; the playfully (and therefore dangerously) mournful lyrics that can peel the apple of love and the peach of lust with a knife that cuts all the way to the mystery, a layer Cole Porter just could`t expose. It is their desire to honor L. Cohen, songwriter, that has prompted a delegation of our brightest artists to climb, one by one, joss sticks smoldering, the steep and salty staircase in the Tower of Song.
”
”
Tom Robbins
“
She put him out like the burning end of a midnight cigarett.
She broke his heart.
He spent his whole life trying to forget.
We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time.
But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind until the night.
He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger.
And finally drank away her memory.
Life is short but this time it was bigger,
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees.
We found him with his face down in the pillow.
With a note that said: I love her til' I die.
And when we buried him beneath the willow,
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby.
La la la la la la la. La la la la la la la.
La la la la la la la. La la la la la la la.
The rumors flew,
But nobody knew how much she blamed herself for years and years.
She tried to hide the whiskey on her breath.
She finally drank her pain away a little at a time,
But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind until the night.
She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger.
And finally drank away his memory.
Life is short but this time it was bigger,
Than the strength she had to get up off her knees.
We found her with her face down in the pillow.
Clinging to his picture for dear life.
We laid her next to him beneath the willow,
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby.
La la la la la la la. La la la la la la la.
La la la la la la la. La la la la la la la.
”
”
Brad Paisley (Hits Alive)
“
Not to waste the spring
I threw down everything,
And ran into the open world
To sing what I could sing...
To dance what I could dance!
And join with everyone!
I wandered with a reckless heart
beneath the newborn sun.
First stepping through the blushing dawn,
I crossed beneath a garden bower,
counting every hermit thrush,
counting every hour.
When morning's light was ripe at last,
I stumbled on with reckless feet;
and found two nymphs engaged in play,
approaching them stirred no retreat.
With naked skin, their weaving hands,
in form akin to Calliope's maids,
shook winter currents from their hair
to weave within them vernal braids.
I grabbed the first, who seemed the stronger
by her soft and dewy leg,
and swore blind eyes,
Lest I find I,
before Diana, a hunted stag.
But the nymphs they laughed,
and shook their heads.
and begged I drop beseeching hands.
For one was no goddess, the other no huntress,
merely two girls at play in the early day.
"Please come to us, with unblinded eyes,
and raise your ready lips.
We will wash your mouth with watery sighs,
weave you springtime with our fingertips."
So the nymphs they spoke,
we kissed and laid,
by noontime's hour,
our love was made,
Like braided chains of crocus stems,
We lay entwined, I laid with them,
Our breath, one glassy, tideless sea,
Our bodies draping wearily.
We slept, I slept so lucidly,
with hopes to stay this memory.
I woke in dusty afternoon,
Alone, the nymphs had left too soon,
I searched where perched upon my knees
Heard only larks' songs in the trees.
"Be you, the larks, my far-flung maids?
With lilac feet and branchlike braids...
Who sing sweet odes to my elation,
in your larking exaltation!"
With these, my clumsy, carefree words,
The birds they stirred and flew away,
"Be I, poor Actaeon," I cried, "Be dead…
Before they, like Hippodamia, be gone astray!"
Yet these words, too late, remained unheard,
By lark, that parting, morning bird.
I looked upon its parting flight,
and smelled the coming of the night;
desirous, I gazed upon its jaunt,
as Leander gazes Hellespont.
Now the hour was ripe and dark,
sensuous memories of sunlight past,
I stood alone in garden bowers
and asked the value of my hours.
Time was spent or time was tossed,
Life was loved and life was lost.
I kissed the flesh of tender girls,
I heard the songs of vernal birds.
I gazed upon the blushing light,
aware of day before the night.
So let me ask and hear a thought:
Did I live the spring I’d sought?
It's true in joy, I walked along,
took part in dance,
and sang the song.
and never tried to bind an hour
to my borrowed garden bower;
nor did I once entreat
a day to slumber at my feet.
Yet days aren't lulled by lyric song,
like morning birds they pass along,
o'er crests of trees, to none belong;
o'er crests of trees of drying dew,
their larking flight, my hands, eschew
Thus I'll say it once and true…
From all that I saw,
and everywhere I wandered,
I learned that time cannot be spent,
It only can be squandered.
”
”
Roman Payne (Rooftop Soliloquy)