Poetry / The Spoken Word - This Topic Started At Request Of Anomis

No man is an island
by John Donne

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Death
BY
Khalil Gibran

Then Almitra spoke, saying, "We would ask now of Death."

And he said:

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Your Laughter
BY
Pablo Neruda

Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Because I could not stop for Death
by http://web.archive.org/web/20130630090203/http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155" rel="nofollow -

Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality. We slowly drove – He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility – We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess – in the Ring – We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – We passed the Setting Sun – Or rather – He passed us – The Dews drew quivering and chill – For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – only Tulle – We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground – Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity –

Sonnet 116

William Shakespeare (1609)



Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

John Donne DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,	5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,	10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Edited by Anomis - October 24 2007 at 1:02am

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Posted: October 25 2007 at 9:15pm

We Need A Revolution

Topic: M1 Dead Prez

The system ain't gonna change,
unless we make it change.

The white house is the rock house.
Uncle Sam is the motha f**kin' pusher man.
What I gotta do to make sure ya understand?
Spit it on a beat by Timbaland?
What I gotta do?
Kidnap Aaliyah, take her melody?
Make it relevant? Hold her harmony hostage
to these people, ???army verses,
that's??? the arms in the churches,
bombs in the purses.
Just when you think it's
calm on the surface,
we bomb on the first.
Uncle Tom get nervous and reverse.
Revolutionary curse words.
First come, first served.
It ain't no lost love.
Freedom cost blood.
That's the word to the
???mouth bird???, n****.

We need a revolution,
We need a revolution,
The system ain't gonna change
unless we make it change.
(x2)

(Black Power) We need a revolution, (RBG's)
We need a revolution, (RBG's)
The system ain't gonna
change (RBG's) unless we
make it change. (n**** this
that RBG's)
(x2)

Gotta cure for AIDS and cancer.
Wanna know? Come follow me now.
Diabetes and sickle-cell, even
mad cow. Wanna know how?
I can stop these cops from killin',
I can feed these hungry children,
I can stop racism, a
product of cap-it-a-lism.
I can unpack the prisons, and
turn religion back to
???re-livin'???
I can stop the bloods from peelin'..
caps
and the crypts from peelin'..
back
I can get yo' cousin off crack,
I can stop the war,
that's in the black hood,
Send the money right back to
the po' fo' sho' an'
if you with me n****, let me know.
Let's go, if ya really wanna know.
(I wanna know.)
(We need a revolution)
Mutha f**k they constitution

RBGs off in this thang
they hip to the game,
get it off the chain

The system ain't gonna change,
unless we make it change.

Posted: October 25 2007 at 9:19pm

Dedicated to me and my Revolutionary, Conscious, Brothers and Sisters.

Resistance!