Poem and songs

Robert's got a quick hand He'll look around the room He won't tell you his plan He's got a rolled cigarette Hanging out his mouth He's a cowboy kid Yeah he found a six-shooter gun In his dad's closet, in the box of fun things I don't even know what But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you [Chorus x2:] All the other kids with the pumped up kicks You better run, better run, outrun my gun All the other kids with the pumped up kicks You better run, better run, faster than my bullet Daddy works a long day He be coming home late, and he's coming home late And he's bringing me a surprise 'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice I've waited for a long time Yeah the sleight of my hand is now a quick-pull trigger I reason with my cigarette Then say, "Your hair's on fire, you must've lost your wits, yeah?" [Chorus x2:] All the other kids with the pumped up kicks You better run, better run, outrun my gun All the other kids with the pumped up kicks You better run, better run, faster than my bullet Run, run, run, run, ru-ru-ru-run, run, run Ru-ru-ru-run, run, run, run Ru-ru-ru-run, run, run, run, run, run [Whistling] [Chorus x4:] All the other kids with the pumped up kicks You better run, better run, outrun my gun All the other kids with the pumped up kicks You better run, better run, faster than my bullet

"Pumped up Kicks" Foster the People

"Pure Imagination" - Richie Cunning - Do I have talent, Dad? - Course you have talent. You got all the talent in the world. - Can I be a baseball player? - You can be anything you want to be. Remember, the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. You could have all the talent in the world but if you don't do the right thing, then nothing happens. But if you do the right thing, good things happen, you hear me? [VERSE 1] Woke up, couldn't remember what my dream was But it was probably the same one Where I'm sitting at a easel in the rain with a masterpiece Trying not to let the paint run It ain't really nothing new, cousin, bareknuckle boxing With the snooze button, but he never stays down I've had mornings where I wanted to tell them I wasn't coming But man thats how I'm feeling every day now Take a breath, punch the clock, here we go again Straighten out the nametag, tuck the polo in Trying to swallow my pride, but going out of my mind Taking orders from mother****ers I'm older than Lunch break, come back to make chump change Starting to feel like I'm running out of somedays Cross my heart, hope to die My love letter with no reply, close my eyes and imagine What if anything could really happen What if daydreams was everlasting I know it's silly ain't it, but what if I really made it And could say that I rap without feeling humiliated I would send a thank you to everybody I proved wrong Be in the studio before I put my shoes on Jump out my bed every morning like a youngin on December 25th and tear the ribbon off a new song They would love it and they'd play it loud Pour out my heart on the cut, they'd soak it up like a paper towel They would stop me in the street every week just to say "Keep holding down the city, boy you make us proud" I'd be happy as can be, dude Like I jumped right out of the fishbowl and into the deep blue But there I go letting my mind get ahead of me Swimming in a rainy day reverie [VERSE 2] Clock out, bus home, and change costumes Sometimes I wonder what I'm in it for Another night, another 20 minute chance to convince 20 people that I'm worth 20 minutes more If I knew that even one lone listener was with it I would spit it 'til the club had to close down Like a tired old hornplayer blowing With his case propped open on the street in a ghost town Take a breath, grab the mic, here we go again Crowd thinning, I pretend that I ain't noticin They said "Richie, yo you know we got your back, but it's late And we ain't siting 'round waiting for the show to end" Type of night that turn bangers into sad songs Didn't even make enough to catch a cab home Same train, same lonely ride The cold world rolls slowly by, close my eyes and imagine What if anything could really happen What if my profession was my passion What if I could sit in the back, hit every city on the map And get the hell up out this labyrinth I'm trapped in It goes hotel, motel, holiday inn Around the world with my crew trying to follow the wind, for real No more waiting on a wish, no more hanging 'round Put the sails up and never let the anchor down I would light up every face in the crowd Cold tearing up the mic like ice in a blender Laughs and wild times, hellos and goodbyes and Too many unforgettable nights to remember I would wonder if it all could be what it seems Nobody wake me up, please, life is but a dream But there I go letting my mind get ahead of me Drowning in a rainy day reverie Pure imagination...

"Pure Imagination" Richie Cunning

Come down from the mountain, you have been gone too long The spring is upon us, follow my only song Settle down with me by the fire of my yearning You should come back home, back on your own now [Verse 2] The world is alive now, in and outside our home You run through the forest, settle before the sun Darling, I can barely remember you beside me You should come back home, back on your own now You should come back home, back on your own now [Interlude] In the evening light, when the woman of the woods came by To give to you the word of the old man In the morning tide when the sparrow and the seagull fly And Johnathan and Evelyn get tired [Chorus 1] Lie to me if you will at the top of Beringer Hill Tell me anything you want, any old lie will do Call me back to you [Chorus 2] Lie to me if you will at the top of Beringer Hill Tell me anything you want, any old lie will do Call me back to, back to you Back to you, back to you, back to you, back to you

"Ragged Wood" Fleet Foxes

Like thousands, I took just pride and more than just, struck matches that brought my blood to a boil; I memorized the tricks to set the river on fire- somehow never wrote something to go back to. Can I suppose I am finished with wax flowers and have earned my grass on the minor slopes of Parnassus.... No honeycomb is built without a bee adding circle to circle, cell to cell, the wax and honey of a mausoleum- this round dome proves its maker is alive; the corpse of the insect lives embalmed in honey, prays that its perishable work live long enough for the sweet-tooth bear to desecrate- this open book . . . my open coffin.

"Reading Myself" Robert Lowell

Which is worse-not being myself, for long hours, able to account for my own absence, or not having been, by anyone, asked to- I can't say. As when the leaves have but to angle in direct proportion to the wind's force, times its direction and the mind, whose instinct is to resist any namelessness, calls all of it-leaves, leaves, and the wind's force-- trust, at first, then disregard until, suspecting the truer name is neither of these, it must stop naming. Or as in the days, reportadly, of the gods having dwelled among us--always people invariably not knowing and then(some irreducible odor, an abrupt solidity to the light) only then knonwing, but too late, their faces changed forever after by the difficult weight of mere witness, of having none but their own word for it...If mistake,possibly, yet mistake this afternoon seems less a river than a barely contained in spite of everything belief; there's another ending. In this one, I recognize you-- and the recognizing has the effect of slowing down that part of me that would walk past, or as if away toward another ending-- You speak first. And I'll answer.

"Revision" Carl Phillips

In this blue light I can take you there, snow having made me a world of bone seen through to. This is my house, my section of Etruscan wall, my neighbor's lemontrees, and, just below the lower church, the airplane factory. A rooster crows all day from mist outside the walls. There's milk on the air, ice on the oily lemonskins. How clean the mind is, holy grave. It is this girl by Piero della Francesca, unbuttoning her blue dress, her mantle of weather, to go into labor. Come, we can go in. It is before the birth of god. No one has risen yet to the museums, to the assembly line—bodies and wings—to the open air market. This is what the living do: go in. It's a long way. And the dress keeps opening from eternity to privacy, quickening. Inside, at the heart, is tragedy, the present moment forever stillborn, but going in, each breath is a button coming undone, something terribly nimble-fingered finding all of the stops.

"San Sepolcro" Jorie Graham

Scar tissue that I wish you saw Sarcastic Mister know it all Close your eyes and I'll kiss you 'cause With the bird I'll share With the bird I'll share This lonely view With the bird I'll share This lonely view Push me up against the wall Young Kentucky girl in a push-up bra Fallin' all over myself To lick your heart and taste your health 'cause With the bird I'll share, this lonely view Blood loss in a bathroom stall Southern girl with a scarlet drawl Wave goodbye to ma and pa 'cause With the bird I'll share With the bird I'll share, this lonely view Soft spoken with a broken jaw Step outside but not to brawl Autumn's sweet we call it fall I'll make it to the moon if I have to crawl With the bird I'll share, this lonely view Scar tissue that I wish you saw Sarcastic Mister know it all Close your eyes and I'll kiss you 'cause With the bird I'll share With the bird I'll share, this lonely view

"Scar Tissue" Red Hot Chili Peppers

I thought I was growing wings— it was a cocoon. I thought, now is the time to step into the fire— it was deep water. Eschatology is a word I learned as a child: the study of Last Things; facing my mirror—no longer young, the news—always of death, the dogs—rising from sleep and clamoring and howling, howling, nevertheless I see for a moment that's not it: it is the First Things. Word after word floats through the glass. Towards me.

"Seeing for a Moment" Denise Levertov

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille day, yes it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner and I don't know the people who will feed me I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun and have a hamburger and a malted and buy an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days I go on to the bank and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard) doesn't even look up my balance for once in her life and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or Brendan Behan's new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres of Genet, but I don't, I stick with Verlaine after practically going to sleep with quandariness and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT while she whispered a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing

"The Day Lady Died" Frank O'Hara

Well my daddy left home when I was three And he didn't leave much to Ma and me Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze Now, I don't blame him 'cause he run and hid But the meanest thing that he ever did Was before he left, he went and named me "Sue" Well, he must o' thought that is quite a joke And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk It seems I had to fight my whole life through Some gal would giggle and I'd get red And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named "Sue" Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean My fist got hard and my wits got keen Roam from town to town to hide my shame But I made me a vow to the moon and stars I'd search the honky-tonks and bars And kill that man who gave me that awful name Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July And I just hit town and my throat was dry I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew At an old saloon on a street of mud There at a table, dealing stud Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me "Sue" Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye He was big and bent and gray and old And I looked at him and my blood ran cold And I said: "My name is 'Sue!' How do you do!? Now you gonna die!" Yeah that's what I told 'em Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes And he went down, but to my surprise He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear But I busted a chair right across his teeth And we crashed through the wall and into the street Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer I tell ya, I've fought tougher men But I really can't remember when He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss He went for his gun and I pulled mine first He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile And he said, "Son, this world is rough And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough And I know I wouldn't be there to help ya along So I give ya that name and I said goodbye I knew you'd have to get tough or die And it's the name that helped to make you strong" Yeah he said, "Now you just fought one hell of a fight And I know you hate me, and you got the right To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do But ya ought to thank me, before I die For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye 'Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you "Sue" Yeah what could I do, what could I do I got all choked up and I threw down my gun Called him my Pa, and he called me his son And I come away with a different point of view And I think about him, now and then Every time I try and every time I win And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name! Yeah

"A Boy Named Sue" Johnny Cash

The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn't hard to master. Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster. I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of losing isn't hard to master. I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster. —Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

"One Art" Elizabeth Bishop

1. The Cane Fields There is a parrot imitating spring in the palace, its feathers parsley green. Out of the swamp the cane appears to haunt us, and we cut it down. El General searches for a word; he is all the world there is. Like a parrot imitating spring, we lie down screaming as rain punches through and we come up green. We cannot speak an R— out of the swamp, the cane appears and then the mountain we call in whispers Katalina. The children gnaw their teeth to arrowheads. There is a parrot imitating spring. El General has found his word: perejil. Who says it, lives. He laughs, teeth shining out of the swamp. The cane appears in our dreams, lashed by wind and streaming. And we lie down. For every drop of blood there is a parrot imitating spring. Out of the swamp the cane appears. 2. The Palace The word the general's chosen is parsley. It is fall, when thoughts turn to love and death; the general thinks of his mother, how she died in the fall and he planted her walking cane at the grave and it flowered, each spring stolidly forming four-star blossoms. The general pulls on his boots, he stomps to her room in the palace, the one without curtains, the one with a parrot in a brass ring. As he paces he wonders Who can I kill today. And for a moment the little knot of screams is still. The parrot, who has traveled all the way from Australia in an ivory cage, is, coy as a widow, practising spring. Ever since the morning his mother collapsed in the kitchen while baking skull-shaped candies for the Day of the Dead, the general has hated sweets. He orders pastries brought up for the bird; they arrive dusted with sugar on a bed of lace. The knot in his throat starts to twitch; he sees his boots the first day in battle splashed with mud and urine as a soldier falls at his feet amazed— how stupid he looked!— at the sound of artillery. I never thought it would sing the soldier said, and died. Now the general sees the fields of sugar cane, lashed by rain and streaming. He sees his mother's smile, the teeth gnawed to arrowheads. He hears the Haitians sing without R's as they swing the great machetes: Katalina, they sing, Katalina, mi madle, mi amol en muelte. God knows his mother was no stupid woman; she could roll an R like a queen. Even a parrot can roll an R! In the bare room the bright feathers arch in a parody of greenery, as the last pale crumbs disappear under the blackened tongue. Someone calls out his name in a voice so like his mother's, a startled tear splashes the tip of his right boot. My mother, my love in death. The general remembers the tiny green sprigs men of his village wore in their capes to honor the birth of a son. He will order many, this time, to be killed for a single, beautiful word.

"Parsley" Rita Dove

Thinking of Caroline Herschel (1750—1848) astronomer, sister of William; and others. A woman in the shape of a monster a monster in the shape of a woman the skies are full of them a woman 'in the snow among the Clocks and instruments or measuring the ground with poles' in her 98 years to discover 8 comets she whom the moon ruled like us levitating into the night sky riding the polished lenses Galaxies of women, there doing penance for impetuousness ribs chilled in those spaces of the mind An eye, 'virile, precise and absolutely certain' from the mad webs of Uranusborg encountering the NOVA every impulse of light exploding from the core as life flies out of us Tycho whispering at last 'Let me not seem to have lived in vain' What we see, we see and seeing is changing the light that shrivels a mountain and leaves a man alive Heartbeat of the pulsar heart sweating through my body The radio impulse pouring in from Taurus I am bombarded yet I stand I have been standing all my life in the direct path of a battery of signals the most accurately transmitted most untranslatable language in the universe I am a galactic cloud so deep so invo- luted that a light wave could take 15 years to travel through me And has taken I am an instrument in the shape of a woman trying to translate pulsations into images for the relief of the body and the reconstruction of the mind.

"Planetarium" Adrienne Rich

Third Avenue in sunlight. Nature's error. Already the bars are filled and John is there. Beneath a plentiful lady over the mirror He tilts his glass in the mild mahogany air. I think of him when he first got out of college, Serious, thin, unlikely to succeed; For several months he hung around the Village, Boldly T-shirted, unfettered but unfreed. Now he confides to a stranger, "I was first scout, And kept my glimmers peeled till after dark. Our outfit had as its sign a bloody knout, We met behind the museum in Central Park. Of course, we were kids." But still those savages, War-painted, a flap of leather at the loins, File silently against him. Hostages Are never taken. One summer, in Des Moines, They entered his hotel room, tomahawks Flashing like barracuda. He tried to pray. Three years of treatment. Occasionally he talks About how he almost didn't get away. Daily the prowling sunlight whets its knife Along the sidewalk. We almost never meet. In the Rembrandt dark he lifts his amber life. My bar is somewhat further down the street.

"Third Avenue in Sunlight" Anthony Hecht

I was left to my own devices Many days fell away with nothing to show And the walls kept tumbling down In the city that we love Grey clouds roll over the hills Bringing darkness from above But if you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like Nothing changed at all? And if you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like You've been here before? How am I gonna be an optimist about this? How am I gonna be an optimist about this? We were caught up and lost in all of our vices In your pose as the dust settles around us And the walls kept tumbling down In the city that we love Grey clouds roll over the hills Bringing darkness from above But if you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like Nothing changed at all? And if you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like You've been here before? How am I gonna be an optimist about this? How am I gonna be an optimist about this? Oh where do we begin? The rubble or our sins? Oh where do we begin? The rubble or our sins? And the walls kept tumbling down In the city that we love Grey clouds roll over the hills Bringing darkness from above But if you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like Nothing changed at all? And if you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like You've been here before? How am I gonna be an optimist about this? How am I gonna be an optimist about this? If you close your eyes, Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?

Pompeii Bastille

I took my love, I took it down Climbed a mountain and I turned around And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills 'Til the landslide brought it down Oh, mirror in the sky What is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life? Well, I've been afraid of changin' 'Cause I've built my life around you But time makes you bolder Even children get older And I'm getting older, too Well, I've been afraid of changin' 'Cause I've built my life around you But time makes you bolder Even children get older And I'm getting older, too Oh, I'm getting older, too I took my love, I took it down I climbed a mountain and I turned around And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills Well the landslide will bring it down And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills Well the landslide will bring it down Oh, the landslide will bring it down

"Landslide" Fleetwood Mac

I'm up in the woods I'm down on my mind I'm building a still To slow down time I'm up in the woods I'm down on my mind I'm building a still To slow down the time I'm up in the woods I'm down on my line I'm building a still Down the time ooh I'm lost in the world I'm down on my line I'm new in the city And I'm down for the night Down for the night Said shes down for the night I'm lost in the world I'm down on my line I'm new in the city But I'm down for the night Down for the night, down for the night Your my devil, your my angel Your my heaven, your my hell You're my now, you're my forever You're my freedom, your my jail You're my lies, your my truth You're my war, you're my truce Your my questions, your my proof Your my stress your masseuse Mama say mama say mama gos-an Lost in this plastic light Let's break out of this fake ass party Turn this into a classic night If we die in each others arms Still get laid in that afterlife If we die in each others arms Still get laid yea I'm up in the woods (Run from the lights, run from the night Run for your life I'm new in the city And I'm down for the night Down for the night, down for the night) I'm lost in the world I'm down on my line I'm new in the city And I'm down for the night Down for the night, down for the night Ya oh wow Ya oh wow Ya oh wow Ya oh wow Ya oh wow Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? I'm lost in the world I'm down on my line I'm new in the city But I'm down for the night Down for the night, down for the night I'm lost in the world I'm down on my line I'm new in the city But I'm down for the night Down for the night, down for the night Hey oh wow oh Hey oh wow oh Hey oh wow oh Whoa whoa whoa Hey oh wow oh Hey oh wow oh Hey oh wow oh Whoa whoa Hey oh wow oh Hey oh wow oh Hey oh wow oh Whoa whoa whoa Hey oh wow oh Hey oh wow oh Hey oh wow oh Whoa whoa whoa

"Lost in the World" Kanye West

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a ***** And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished, In squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? The ten-dollar founding father without a father Got a lot farther by working a lot harder By being a lot smarter By being a self-starter By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a trading charter And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted away Across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow, or barter Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain Well, the word got around, they said, this kid is insane, man Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland Get your education, don't forget from whence you came And the world is gonna know your name What's your name, man? Alexander Hamilton My name is Alexander Hamilton And there's a million things I haven't done But just you wait, just you wait When he was ten his father split, full of it, debt-ridden Two years later, see Alex and his mother bed-ridden Half-dead sittin' in their own sick, the scent thick And Alex got better but his mother went quick Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide Left him with nothin' but ruined pride, something new inside voice saying Alex, you gotta fend for yourself He started retreatin' and readin' every treatise on the shelf There would have been nothin' left to do for someone less astute He woulda been dead or destitute without a cent of restitution Started workin', clerkin' for his late mother's landlord Tradin' sugar cane and rum and all the things he can't afford Scammin' for every book he can get his hands on Plannin' for the future see him now as he stands on the bow of a ship headed for a new land In New York you can be a new man In New York you can be a new man In New York you can be a new man In New York you can be a new man In New York you can be a new man Just you wait Alexander Hamilton We are waiting in the wings for you You could never back down You never learned to take your time Oh, Alexander Hamilton When America sings for you Will they know what you overcame? Will they know you rewrote your game? The world will never be the same, oh The ship is in the harbor now See if you can spot him Another immigrant comin' up from the bottom His enemies destroyed his rep America forgot him We fought with him Me, I died for him Me, I trusted him Me, I loved him And me, I'm the damn fool that shot him There's a million things I haven't done But just you wait What's your name, man? Alexander Hamilton

"Alexander Hamilton" Lin-Manuel Miranda

Oh, when it all, it all falls down I'm telling you, oh, it all falls down Oh, when it all, it all falls down I'm telling you, oh, it all falls down Man, I promise, she's so self conscious She has no idea what she's doing in college That major that she majored in don't make no money But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny Now, tell me that ain't insecure The concept of school seems so secure Sophomore, three years, ain't picked a career She like, **** it, I'll just stay down here and do hair 'Cause that's enough money to buy her a few pairs of new airs 'Cause her baby daddy don't really care She's so precious with the peer pressure Couldn't afford a car so she named her daughter Alexus She had hair so long that it looked like weave Then she cut it all off now she look like Eve And she be dealing with some issues that you can't believe Single black female, addicted to retail and well Oh, when it all, it all falls down I'm telling you oh, it all falls down Man I promise, I'm so self conscious That's why you always see me with at least one of my watches Rollies and Pasha's done drove me crazy I can't even pronounce nothing, pass that Versace Then I spent 400 bucks on this Just to be like ***** you ain't up on this And I can't even go to the grocery store Without some ones that's clean and a shirt with a team It seems we living the American dream The people highest up got the lowest self esteem The prettiest people do the ugliest things For the road to riches and diamond rings We shine because they hate us, floss 'cause they degrade us We trying to buy back our 40 acres And for that paper, look how low we a'stoop Even if you in a Benz, you still a ***** in a coop Oh, when it all, it all falls down I'm telling you, oh, it all falls down I say **** the police, that's how I treat 'em We buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom We'a buy a lot of clothes but we don't really need 'em Things we buy to cover up what's inside 'Cause they made us hate ourself and love they wealth That's why shorty's hollering, "Where the ballas' at?" Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack And a white man get paid off of all a dat But I ain't even gon' act holier than thou 'Cause **** it, I went to Jacob with 25 thou Before I had a house and I'd do it again 'Cause I wanna be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz I wanna act ballerific like it's all terrific I got a couple past due bills, I won't get specific I got a problem with spending before I get it We all self conscious, I'm just the first to admit it Oh, when it all, it all falls down I'm telling you, ohh, it all falls down Oh, when it all, it all falls down I'm telling you, ohh, it all falls down Oh, when it all, it all falls down I'm telling you, ohh, it all falls down Oh, when it all, it all falls down I'm telling you, ohh, it all falls down (I's can't keep workin' like this This grave shift is like a slave ship)

"All Falls Down" Kanye West

I don't want a lot for Christmas There is just one thing I need I don't care about the presents Underneath the Christmas tree I just want you for my own More than you could ever know Make my wish come true oh All I want for Christmas is you I don't want a lot for Christmas There is just one thing I need, and I Don't care about the presents Underneath the Christmas tree I don't need to hang my stocking There upon the fireplace Santa Claus won't make me happy With a toy on Christmas day I just want you for my own More than you could ever know Make my wish come true All I want for Christmas is you I won't ask for much this Christmas I won't even wish for snow, and I I just wanna keep on waiting Underneath the mistletoe I won't make a list and send it To the North Pole for Saint Nick I won't even stay awake To hear those magic reindeer click 'Cause I just want you here tonight Holding on to me so tight What more can I do Oh, Baby all I want for Christmas is you All the lights are shining So brightly everywhere And the sound of children's Laughter fills the air And everyone is singing I hear those sleigh bells ringing Santa won't you bring me The one I really need Won't you please bring my baby to me quickly I don't want a lot for Christmas This is all I'm asking for I just wanna see my baby Standing right outside my door I just want you for my own More than you could ever know Make my wish come true Baby all I want for Christmas is you All I want for Christmas is you, baby

"All I want for Christmas is you" Mariah Carey

I tried each thing, only some were immortal and free. Elsewhere we are as sitting in a place where sunlight Filters down, a little at a time, Waiting for someone to come. Harsh words are spoken, As the sun yellows the green of the maple tree.... So this was all, but obscurely I felt the stirrings of new breath in the pages Which all winter long had smelled like an old catalogue. New sentences were starting up. But the summer Was well along, not yet past the mid-point But full and dark with the promise of that fullness, That time when one can no longer wander away And even the least attentive fall silent To watch the thing that is prepared to happen. A look of glass stops you And you walk on shaken: was I the perceived? Did they notice me, this time, as I am, Or is it postponed again? The children Still at their games, clouds that arise with a swift Impatience in the afternoon sky, then dissipate As limpid, dense twilight comes. Only in that tooting of a horn Down there, for a moment, I thought The great, formal affair was beginning, orchestrated, Its colors concentrated in a glance, a ballade That takes in the whole world, now, but lightly, Still lightly, but with wide authority and tact. The prevalence of those gray flakes falling? They are sun motes. You have slept in the sun Longer than the sphinx, and are none the wiser for it. Come in. And I thought a shadow fell across the door But it was only her come to ask once more If I was coming in, and not to hurry in case I wasn't. The night sheen takes over. A moon of cistercian pallor Has climbed to the center of heaven, installed, Finally involved with the business of darkness. And a sigh heaves from all teh small things on earth, The books, the papers, the old garters and union-suit buttons Kept in a white cardboard box somewhere, and all the lower Versions of cities flattened under the equalizing night. The summer demands and takes away too much, But night, the reserved, the reticent, gives more than it takes.

"As One Put Drunk into the Packet-Boat" John Ashbery

I Is the total black, being spoken From the earth's inside. There are many kinds of open. How a diamond comes into a knot of flame How a sound comes into a word, coloured By who pays what for speaking. Some words are open Like a diamond on glass windows Singing out within the crash of passing sun Then there are words like stapled wagers In a perforated book—buy and sign and tear apart— And come whatever wills all chances The stub remains An ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge. Some words live in my throat Breeding like adders. Others know sun Seeking like gypsies over my tongue To explode through my lips Like young sparrows bursting from shell. Some words Bedevil me. Love is a word another kind of open— As a diamond comes into a knot of flame I am black because I come from the earth's inside Take my word for jewel in your open light.

"Coal" Audre Lorde

You're my bad influence And trouble just likes to call your name Back seat with the windows down Keep on driving, driving Skin just like summer rain But eyes like you know something I don't Sun-kissed and underweight Keep on driving, driving [Pre-Chorus] I lost myself in the maze of your mind I'm never getting out again And in the back of my head and the tip of my tongue I can only ever say your name And I can only ever say your name [Chorus] Forever falling down We're getting close to the bottom And I wear my heart on the outside And as we drive right off a cliff We can live dead end love forever Dead end love forever [Verse 2] Headlights under the stars oh Tell me, what day is it again? Front seat with a cigarette Don't stop driving, driving We'll never get there 'cause we Don't have anywhere to go Stay on the Interstate And don't stop driving, driving [Pre-Chorus] I'm still lost in the maze of your mind I'm never getting out again And in the back of my head and the tip of my tongue I can only ever say your name And I can only ever say your name [Chorus] Forever falling down We're getting close to the bottom And I wear my heart on the outside And as we drive right off a cliff We can live dead end love forever Dead end love forever [Bridge] Dead end love forever Dead end love forever Dead end love forever Dead end love forever Dead end love forever, forever, forever, forever [Chorus] Forever falling down We're getting close to the bottom And I wear my heart on the outside And as we drive right off a cliff We can live dead end love forever Dead end love forever [Outro] Dead end love forever Dead end love forever Dead end love forever, forever, forever, forever Dead end love forever

"Dead end Love" XYLO

hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldn't, dammit: No tears. I'm stone. I'm flesh. My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. I turn this way--the stone lets me go. I turn that way--I'm inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial again, depending on the light to make a difference. I go down the 58,022 names, half-expecting to find my own in letters like smoke. I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash. Names shimmer on a woman's blouse but when she walks away the names stay on the wall. Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's wings cutting across my stare. The sky. A plane in the sky. A white vet's image floats closer to me, then his pale eyes look through mine. I'm a window. He's lost his right arm inside the stone. In the black mirror a woman's trying to erase names: No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

"Facing It" Yusef Komunyakaa

Gray whale Now that we are sending you to The End That great god Tell him That we who follow you invented forgiveness And forgive nothing I write as though you could understand And I could say it One must always pretend something Among the dying When you have left the seas nodding on their stalks Empty of you Tell him that we were made On another day The bewilderment will diminish like an echo Winding along your inner mountains Unheard by us And find its way out Leaving behind it the future Dead And ours When you will not see again The whale calves trying the light Consider what you will find in the black garden And its court The sea cows the Great Auks the gorillas The irreplaceable hosts ranged countless And fore-ordaining as stars Our sacrifices Join your word to theirs Tell him That it is we who are important

"For a Coming Extinction" W.S Merwin

I was turning nineteen, on a cold December night Burning like kerosene for nearly half of my life And I barely had the GPA to make it out of Eugene You can blame it on me with a ADHD while I'm falling asleep during the Sat's And as I pack my bags and headed to a foreign land One way ticket on a one way plane Laying my head down alone each night The same devil's calling and that same old fight 'Cause this one's for middle surfs living in the middle love Where they coming from and a halfway rush of blood This ones for those first prayers to heaven on a road that seems never ending For all the heartbreak dreamers waiting for the light Looking for just one reason to get through the night Every long lost believer caught in the fight All the heartbreak dreamers gonna be alright Everybody sing La la... And I was turning twenty five in a city that don't sleep Was feeling only half alive to the dreams that I keep And I kept on waiting only she's waiting for me You burning down lane on a quarter tank of pain with soles off your feet And you've been waiting and praying for the right one to come Watch the rising and the falling of another setting sun Nobody seems quite good enough for you except the wrong one she keep running back to So this one's for Mike still waiting for his wife This one's for grandma losing the love of her life This ones for those first prayers to heaven on a road that seems never ending For all the heartbreak dreamers waiting for the light Looking for just one reason to get through the night Every long lost believer caught in the fight All the heartbreak dreamers gonna be alright Everybody sing La la... And this one right here ah.. this is for the fat girls This one is a... is for the little brothers This is for the schoolyard wimps, for the childhood bullies who tormented them To the former prom queen and to the milk-crate ball players For the nighttime cereal eaters and for the retired elderly walmart store front door greeters Shake the dust This is for the benches and the people sitting upon For the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns To the men who have to hold down three jobs simply to hold up their children For the nighttime schoolers and for the midnight bike riders trying to fly Shake the dust This is for the two-year-olds who cannot be understood because they speak half English and half God Shake the dust For the boys with the beautiful beautiful sisters Shake the dust For the girls with those brothers who are going crazy Those gym class wallflowers and the twelve-year-olds afraid of taking public showers For the kid who is always late to class and forgets the combination to his lockers And the girl who loved somebody else Shake the dust This is for the hard men who want love but know that it won't come For the one's amendments who not stand up for For the ones who are forgotten For the ones who are told to speak only when you are spoken to And then they are never spoken to speak (La la...) Every time you stand so you do not forget yourself Do not let one moment go by that doesn't remind you that your heart beats hundred thousand times a day And that they have gallons of blood making every one is an Oceans

"Heartbreak Dreamer" Mat Kearney

I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light: lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind. A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind. I have found the warm caves in the woods, filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves, closets, silks, innumerable goods; fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves: whining, rearranging the disaligned. A woman like that is misunderstood. I have been her kind. I have ridden in your cart, driver, waved my nude arms at villages going by, learning the last bright routes, survivor where your flames still bite my thigh and my ribs crack where your wheels wind. A woman like that is not ashamed to die. I have been her kind.

"Her Kind" Anne Sexton

And you may find yourself Living in a shotgun shack And you may find yourself In another part of the world And you may find yourself Behind the wheel of a large automobile And you may find yourself in a beautiful house With a beautiful wife And you may ask yourself, well How did I get here? Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again after the money's gone Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground And you may ask yourself How do I work this? And you may ask yourself Where is that large automobile? And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful house! And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful wife! Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again after the money's gone Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Water dissolving and water removing There is water at the bottom of the ocean Under the water, carry the water Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean! Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again in the silent water Under the rocks, and stones there is water underground Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again after the money's gone Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground And you may ask yourself What is that beautiful house? And you may ask yourself Where does that highway go to? And you may ask yourself Am I right? Am I wrong? And you may say yourself, "My God! What have I done?" Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again in to the silent water Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again after the money's gone Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Look where my hand was Time isn't holding up Time isn't after us Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Same as it ever was Letting the days go by (same as it ever was) Letting the days go by (same as it ever was) Once in a lifetime Letting the days go by Letting the days go by

"Once in a Lifetime" Talking Heads

When the swordsman fell in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai in the gray rain, in the Cinemascope and the Tokugawa dynasty, he fell straight as a pine, he fell as Ajax fell in Homer in chanted dactyls and the tree was so huge the woodsman returned for two days to that lucky place before he was done with the sawing and on the third day he brought his uncle. They stacked logs in the resinous air, hacking the small limbs off, tying those bundles separately. The slabs near the root were quartered and still they were awkwardly large; the logs from the midtree they halved: ten bundles and four great piles of fragrant wood, moons and quarter moons and half moons ridged by the saw's tooth. The woodsman and the old man his uncle are standing in midforest on a floor of pine silt and spring mud. They have stopped working because they are tired and because I have imagined no pack animal or primitive wagon. They are too canny to call in neighbors and come home with a few logs after three days' work. They are waiting for me to do something or for the overseer of the Great Lord to come and arrest them. How patient they are! The old man smokes a pipe and spits. The young man is thinking he would be rich if he were already rich and had a mule. Ten days of hauling and on the seventh day they'll probably be caught, go home empty-handed or worse. I don't know whether they're Japanese or Mycenaean and there's nothing I can do. The path from here to that village is not translated. A hero, dying, gives off stillness to the air. A man and a woman walk from the movies to the house in the silence of separate fidelities. There are limits to imagination.

"Heroic Simile" Robert Hass

You'd take the clothes off my back, and I'd let you You'd steal the food right out my mouth And I'd watch you eat it, I still don't know why Why I love you so much, oh You curse my name In spite, to put me to shame Air all my laundry in the streets Dirty or clean Give it up for fame But I still don't know why (Don't know why) Why I love it so much, yeah And baby It's amazing I'm in this maze with you I just can't crack your code One day you screaming you love me loud The next day you're so cold One day you here, one day you there One day you care, you're so unfair Sipping from the cup 'till it runneth over, Holy Grail Uh, Blue told me to remind you *****s Uh, **** that shit y'all talkin' about, I'm the ***** Uh, caught up in all these lights and cameras Uh, but look what that shit did to Hammer Uh, goddammit I like it The bright lights is enticing But look what it did to Tyson All that money in one night 30 mill for one fight But soon as all the money blows All the pigeons take flight **** the fame, keep cheatin' on me What I do, I took her back, fool me twice that's my bad I can't even blame her for that 'Nough to make me wanna murder, Momma please just get my bail I know nobody to blame Kurt Cobain, I did it to myself uh And we all just entertainers And we're stupid, and contagious Know we all just entertainers And baby It's amazing I'm in this maze with you I just can't crack your code One day you screaming you love me loud The next day you're so cold One day you here, one day you there One day you care, you're so unfair Sipping from the cup 'till it runneth over, Holy Grail Now I got tattoos on my body Psycho bitches in my lobby I got haters in the paper, photo shoots with paparazzi Can't even take my daughter for a walk See them by the corner store I feel like I'm cornered off Enough is enough, I'm calling this off Who the **** I'm kidding though? I'm getting high, sittin' low Sliding by in that big body Curtains all in my window This fame hurt but this chain works I think back you asked the same person If this is all you had to deal with ***** deal with it, this shit ain't work, this light work Camera snapping, my eyes hurt *****s dying back where I was birthed **** your iris and the IRS Get the hell up off of your high horse You got the shit that *****s die for Dry yours, why you mad take the good with the bad Don't throw that baby out with that bath water you're still alive Still that ***** *****, you survived You still getting bigger ***** living the life Vanilla wafers in a villa, illest ***** alive Michael Jackson thriller And baby It's amazing I'm in this maze with you I just can't crack the code One day you screaming you love me loud The next day you're so cold One day you here, one day you there One day you care, you're so unfair Sipping from your cup 'till it runneth over, Holy Grail You get the air of my lungs, whenever you need it And you take, the blade right out my heart Just so you can watch me bleeding, I still don't know why (Don't know why) Why I love you so much Yeah And you play this game, in spite, to drive me insane I got it tattooed on my sleeve forever in ink, with guess who's name But I still don't know why Why I love you so much Yeah And baby It's amazing I'm in this maze with you I just can't crack your code One day you screaming you love me loud The next day you're so cold One day you here, one day you there One day you care, you're so unfair Sipping from your cup 'till it runneth over, Holy Grail Don't know why

"Holy Grail" Jay Z

I took a pill in Ibiza To show Avicii I was cool And when I finally got sober, felt ten years older But **** it, it was something to do I'm living out in LA I drive a sports car just to prove I'm a real big baller 'cause I made a million dollars And I spend it on girls and shoes But you don't wanna be high like me Never really knowing why like me You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster And be all alone You don't wanna ride the bus like this Never knowing who to trust like this You don't wanna be stuck up on that stage singing Stuck up on that stage singing All I know, are sad songs, sad songs Darling, all I know, are sad songs, sad songs I know, sad songs I know, sad songs I know, sad songs I know, sad songs I'm just a singer who already blew his shot I get along with old timers 'Cause my name's a reminder of a pop song people forgot And I can't keep a girl, no 'Cause as soon as the sun comes up I cut 'em all loose and work's my excuse But the truth is I can't open up Now you don't wanna be high like me Never really knowing why like me You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster And be all alone You don't wanna ride the bus like this Never knowing who to trust like this You don't wanna be stuck up on that stage singing Stuck up on that stage singing All I know are sad songs, sad songs Darling, all I know are sad songs, sad songs I know, sad songs I know, sad songs Sad songs, I know, sad songs Sad songs, I know, sad songs

"I took a pill in Ibiza" Mike Posner

I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it— A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen. Peel off the napkin O my enemy. Do I terrify?— The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day. Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die. This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade. What a million filaments. The peanut-crunching crowd Shoves in to see Them unwrap me hand and foot— The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone, Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten. It was an accident. The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls. Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call. It's easy enough to do it in a cell. It's easy enough to do it and stay put. It's the theatrical Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout: 'A miracle!' That knocks me out. There is a charge For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart— It really goes. And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood Or a piece of my hair or my clothes. So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy. I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern. Ash, ash— You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there-- A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling. Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.

"Lady Lazarus Sylvia Plath

The eyes open to a cry of pulleys, And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple As false dawn. Outside the open window The morning air is all awash with angels. Some are in bed-sheets, some are in blouses, Some are in smocks: but truly there they are. Now they are rising together in calm swells Of halcyon feeling, filling whatever they wear With the deep joy of their impersonal breathing; Now they are flying in place, conveying The terrible speed of their omnipresence, moving And staying like white water; and now of a sudden They swoon down into so rapt a quiet That nobody seems to be there. The soul shrinks From all that it is about to remember, From the punctual rape of every blessèd day, And cries, "Oh, let there be nothing on earth but laundry, Nothing but rosy hands in the rising steam And clear dances done in the sight of heaven." Yet, as the sun acknowledges With a warm look the world's hunks and colors, The soul descends once more in bitter love To accept the waking body, saying now In a changed voice as the man yawns and rises, "Bring them down from their ruddy gallows; Let there be clean linen for the backs of thieves; Let lovers go fresh and sweet to be undone, And the heaviest nuns walk in a pure floating Of dark habits, keeping their difficult balance."

"Love calls us to the Things of This World" Richard Wilbur

There's miles of land in front of us And we're dying with every step we take We're dying with every breath we make And I'll fall in line A stranger's back is all I see He's only a few feet in front of me And I'll look left and right sometimes But I'll fall in line No one looks up anymore 'Cause you might get a raindrop in your eye And Heaven forbid they see you cry As we fall in line And about this time of every year The line will go to the ocean pier And walk right off into the sea And then we fall asleep And as we near the end of land And our ocean graves are just beyond the sand I ask myself the question Why I fall in line Then out of the corner of my eye I see a spaceship in the sky And hear a voice inside my head: Follow me instead Follow me instead Follow me Then the wages of war will start Inside my head with my counterpart And the emotionless marchers will chant the phrase: This line's the only way And then I start down the sand My eyes are focused on the end of land But again the voice inside my head says, Follow me instead Follow me instead Follow me Follow me instead [x5] Take me up, seal the door I don't want to march here anymore I realize that this line is dead So I'll follow You instead So then You put me back in my place So I might start another day And once again I will be In a march to the sea

"March to the Sea" Twenty one pilots

All the new thinking is about loss. In this it resembles all the old thinking. The idea, for example, that each particular erases the luminous clarity of a general idea. That the clown- faced woodpecker probing the dead sculpted trunk of that black birch is, by his presence, some tragic falling off from a first world of undivided light. Or the other notion that, because there is in this world no one thing to which the bramble of blackberry corresponds, a word is elegy to what it signifies. We talked about it late last night and in the voice of my friend, there was a thin wire of grief, a tone almost querulous. After a while I understood that, talking this way, everything dissolves: justice, pine, hair, woman, you and I. There was a woman I made love to and I remembered how, holding her small shoulders in my hands sometimes, I felt a violent wonder at her presence like a thirst for salt, for my childhood river with its island willows, silly music from the pleasure boat, muddy places where we caught the little orange-silver fish called pumpkinseed. It hardly had to do with her. Longing, we say, because desire is full of endless distances. I must have been the same to her. But I remember so much, the way her hands dismantled bread, the thing her father said that hurt her, what she dreamed. There are moments when the body is as numinous as words, days that are the good flesh continuing. Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings, saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.

"Meditation at Lagunitas" Robert Hass

Am I the only one I know Waging my wars behind my face and above my throat Shadows will scream that I'm alone I-I-I I've got a migraine And my pain will range from up, down, and sideways Thank God it's Friday cause Fridays will always be better than Sundays 'Cause Sundays are my suicide days I don't know why they always seem so dismal Thunderstorms, clouds, snow and a slight drizzle Whether it's the weather or the ledges by my bed Sometimes death seems better than the migraine in my head Let it be said what the headache represents It's me defending in suspense It's me suspended in a defenseless test Being tested by a ruthless examiner That's represented best by my depressing thoughts I do not have writer's block my writer just hates the clock It will not let me sleep I guess I'll sleep when I'm dead And sometimes death seems better than the migraine in my head Am I the only one I know Waging my wars behind my face and above my throat Shadows will scream that I'm alone But I know, we've made it this far, kid Yeah yeah yeah I am not as fine as I seem Pardon, me for yelling and telling you green gardens Are not what's growing in my psyche, it's a different me A difficult beast feasting on burnt down trees Freeze frame, please let me paint a mental picture portrait Something you won't forget, it's all about my forehead And how it is a door that hold's back contents That makes Pandora's box contents look non-violent Behind my eyelids are islands of violence My mind ship-wrecked this is the only land my mind could find I did not know it was such a violent island Full of tidal waves, suicidal crazed lions They're trying to eat me, blood running down their chin And I know that I can fight, or I can let the lion win I begin to assemble what weapons I can find 'Cause sometimes to stay alive you gotta kill your mind Am I the only one I know Waging my wars behind my face and above my throat Shadows will scream that I'm alone But I know, we've made it this far, kid And I will say that we should take a day to break away From all the pain our brain has made, the game is not played alone And I will say that we should take a moment and hold it And keep it frozen and know that life has a hopeful undertone And I will say that we should take a day to break away From all the pain our brain has made, the game is not played alone And I will say that we should take a moment and hold it And keep it frozen and know that life has a hopeful undertone Am I the only one I know Waging my wars behind my face and above my throat Shadows will scream that I'm alone But I know, we've made it this far, kid Made it this far Made it this far

"Migraine" Twenty One Pilots

The girl strapped in the bare mechanical crib does not open her eyes, does not cry out. The glottal tube is taped into her face; bereft of sound, she seems so far away. But a box on the stucco wall, wired to her chest, televises the flutter of her heart -- news from the pit -- her pulse rapid and shallow, a rising line, except when her mother sings, outside the bars: whenever her mother sings the line steadies into a row of waves, song of the sea, song of the scythe old woman by the well, picking up stones old woman by the well, picking up stones When Orpheus, beating rhythm with a spear against the deck of the armed ship, sang to steady the oars, he borrowed an old measure: broadax striking oak, oak singing back, the churn, the pump, the shuttle sweeping the warp like the waves against the shore they were pulling toward. The men at the oars saw only the next man's back. They were living a story -- the story of desire, the rising line of ships at war or trade. If the sky's dark fabric was pierced by stars, they didn't see them; if dolphins leapt from the water, they didn't see them. Sweat bloomed on their backs like heavy dew. But whether they came to triumph or defeat, music ferried them out and brought them back, taking the dead and wounded back to the wave-licked, smooth initial shore, song of the locust, song of the broom old woman in the field, binding wheat old woman by the fire, grinding corn As evening wind stirred the olive grove, when Orpheus sang to the overlords of hell to break the hearts they didn't know they had, he braided the sturdy rhythms of the earth: the raven's hinged wings from tree to tree, whole flocks of geese crossing the ruffled sky, the sun's repeated arc, moon in its wake -- this wasn't the music of pain, pain has no music, pain is neither beautiful nor wise, pain is not a song: it is a story scratched with a stick in the dust around the well. It starts, Eurydice was taken from the fields. She did not sing -- you cannot sing in hell -- but in that viscous dark she could hear her lover singing on the path, the song flung like a rope into the crater of hell, song of the sickle, song of the hive old woman by the cradle, stringing beads old woman by the cradle, stringing beads The one who can sing sings to the one who can't, who waits in the pit, like Procne among the slaves, as the gods decide how all such stories end, the story woven into the marriage gown, or scratched with a stick in the dust around the well, or written in blood in the box on the stucco wall -- look at the wall: the song, rising and falling, sings in the heartbeat, sings in the seasons, sings in the daily round -- even at night, deep in the murmuring wood -- listen, one bird, full-throated, calls to another, little sister, frantic little sparrow under the eaves.

"Song and Story" Ellen Bryant Voigt

Ancient of Days, old friend, no one believes you'll come back. No one believes in his own life anymore. The moon, like a dead heart, cold and unstartable, hangs by a thread At the earth's edge, Unfaithful at last, splotching the ferns and the pink shrubs. In the other world, children undo the knots in their tally strings. They sing songs, and their fingers blear. And here, where the swan hums in his socket, where bloodroot And belladonna insist on our comforting, Where the fox in the canyon wall empties our hands, ecstatic for more, Like a bead of clear oil the Healer revolves through the night wind, Part eye, part tear, unwilling to recognize us.

"Stone Canyon Nocturne" Charles Wright

Southern trees bear a strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees Pastoral scene of the gallant South The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop Here is a strange and bitter crop

"Strange Fruit" Lewis Allan, performed by Billie Holiday

[Chorus] What a life I lead in the summer What a life I lead in the spring What a life I lead when the wind, it breathes What a life I lead in the spring [Verse 1] What a life I lead when the sun breaks free As a giant torn from the clouds What a life indeed when that ancient seed Is a-buried, watered and plowed What a life What a life What a life What a life [Chorus] What a life I lead in the summer What a life I lead in the spring What a life I lead when the wind, it breathes What a life I lead in the spring

"Sun Giant" Fleet Foxes

I'm not a rapper I'm a singer with a flow I've got a habit for spitting quicker lyrics you know You'll find me ripping the written out of the pages they sit in I never want to get bitten Cause plagiarism is hidden Watch how I sit on the rhythm Prisoner with a vision Signs of a label But didn't listen to any criticism Thought you knew but you didn't So perk your ears up and listen Studio is a system And you could say that I'm driven And now it's onto the next saga We drink the best lager I'll never try to win you over like your stepfather I do my own thing now And get respect after And I'm avoiding the 'caine Like it was Get Carter For four years I never had a place to stay But it's safe to say that it kept me grounded Like a paper weight At 16 years old yeah I moved out of my home I was Macy Gray I tried to say goodbye and I choked Went from sleeping at a subway station To sleeping with a movie star And adding to the population Not my imagination I don't wanna relax Would it hurt your reputation if I put it on wax? I take it back now Mmmm come on and take it back love Come on and take it back for us Don't you fade into the back love No I take it back with the rhythm and blues With my rap pack I'll be singing the news Tryin' act like Jack Black When I bring it to school I make a beat with my feet By just hittin' the loop Bringing the lyrics to prove That I can fit in these shoes I give you the truth through the vocal booth And stars burst out on the scene Like an opal fruit They try to take aim like Beckham when he goes to shoot But then again that's what they're supposed to do And I'm supposed to be calm I tattooed the lyrics onto my arm Whispering everything that happens Is from now on I'll be ready to start again By the end of the song Since they are claiming I handled it wrong But then I've never had an enemy Except the NME but I'll be selling Twice as many copies as their magazine will ever be With only spectacles ahead of me And festival fees are healthier than a Dalmatian on pedigree Singing for the masses rubber dinghy rapids I keep this rapping a habit and keep on fashioning magic I'm battling for respect and I don't know if I have it This song's from the heart cover the planet I take it back now Mmmm come on and take it back love Come on and take it back for us Don't you fade into the back love No And take it back now Now I don't ever wanna be perfect Cause I'm a singer that you never wanna see shirtless And I accept the fact that someone's got to win worst dressed Taken my first steps into the scene giving me focus Putting on a brave face like Timothy Dalton Considering a name change thinking it was hopeless Rhyming over recordings, avoiding tradition 'Cause every days some lyrics and a melody can be written Now absence can make your heart ache But drinking absinth can change your mind state Vividly need to let my liver be And I'll say it again living life on the edge with a close handful of friends Is good advice from the man that took his life on the road with me And I hope to see him blowing up globally 'Cause that how it's supposed to be I'm screaming out vocally It might seem totally impossible achieving life's dreams But, but I just write schemes I'm never having a stylist giving me tight jeans Madison Square Garden is where I might be But more likely you find me in the back room of a dive bar with my mates having a pint of Mcdaid discussing records we made and every single second knowing that we'll never betray the way we were raised remembering our background sat down, that's how we plan it out It's time to take it back now Mmmm come on and take it back love Come on and take it back for us Don't you fade into the back love No Mmm come on and take it back love Come on and take it back for us Don't you fade into the back love No My dreams keep me awake at night Written in rhymes, 'til I deliver the hype Am I just living the lie With this you must know that the number's just sold whoa Will keep me going through the tough times, dream with me We forget 90 per cent of it when we wake But the other 10 per cent it never fades Dreaming dreams, day to day goals Stay awake loads, try to make the cut like the Paper or razor blade, oh, never give up And just remember just to hold out more A couple years ago I couldn't just control that thought You'd find me buskin' on the street When it was cold outdoors And now I'm sweating on the stage of a sold out tour Writing love songs for the sake of it Never to make a hit You can't fake talent and work ethic just to make it quick I'm not a rapper I'm a singer, I just take the piss and Most of these other guys are kids that Pulses Little sister has to babysit, that's just the way it is Dreams you own, just set your goals And have the utmost faith in it; tread your own path You'll never make it as a follower, you'll never know Where you will go or where you will be tomorrow rha.

"Take it Back" Ed Sheeran

I wanna be a bottle blonde I don't know why but I feel conned I wanna be an idle teen I wish I hadn't been so clean I wanna stay inside all day I want the world to go away I want blood, guts and chocolate cake I wanna be a real fake Yeah, I wish I'd been a, wish I'd been a teen, teen idle Wish I'd been a prom queen fighting for the title Instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible Feeling super, super (super!) suicidal The wasted years, the wasted youth The pretty lies, the ugly truth And the day has come where I have died Only to find I've come alive I wanna be a virgin pure A 21st century ***** I want back my virginity So I can feel infinity I wanna drink until I ache I wanna make a big mistake I want blood, guts and angel cake I'm gonna puke it anyway Yeah, I wish I'd been a, wish I'd been a teen, teen idle Wish I'd been a prom queen fighting for the title Instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible Feeling super, super (super!) suicidal The wasted years, the wasted youth The pretty lies, the ugly truth And the day has come where I have died Only to find I've come alive Come alive, I've come alive I wish I wasn't such a narcissist I wish I didn't really kiss The mirror when I'm on my own Oh, God! I'm gonna die alone Adolescence didn't make sense A little loss of innocence The ugly years of being a fool Ain't youth meant to be beautiful? Yeah, I wish I'd been a, wish I'd been a teen, teen idle Wish I'd been a prom queen fighting for the title Instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible Feeling super, super (super!) suicidal The wasted years, the wasted youth The pretty lies, the ugly truth And the day has come where I have died Only to find I've come alive Only to find I've come alive Only to find I've come alive Come alive Feeling super, super, super! Feeling super, super, super! Feeling super, super, super! Come alive

"Teen Idle" Marina and the Diamonds

When the intern listened to the stopped heart I stared at him, as if he or I were wild, were from some other world, I had lost the language of gestures, I could not know what it meant for a starnger to push the gown up along the body of my father. My face was wet, my father's face was faintly moist with the sweat of his life, the last moments of hard work. I was leaning against the wall, in the corner, and he lay on the bed, we were both doing something and everyone else in the room believed in the Chritian God, they called my father the shell in the bed, I was the only ibe there who knew he was entirely gone, the only one there to say goodbye to his o=body that was all he was, I held hard to his foot, I thought of the Eskimo elder holding the stern of the death anoe, I let him slowly into the physical world. I felt the dryness of his lips under my lips, I felt how even my light kiss moved his head on the pillow the way things move as if on thier own in shallow water, I felt his hair rush through my fingers like a wolf's, the walls shifted, the floor, the cieling wheeled as if I was not walking out of the room but the room was backing away around me. I would have liked to stay beside him, ride by his shoulder while they drove him to the place where they would burn him, see him safely into the fire, touch his ashes to their warmth, and bring my finger to my tongue. The next morning, I felt my husband's body on me crushing me sweetly like a weight laid heavy on sonee soft thing, some fruit, holding me hard to this world. Yes the tears came out like the juice and sugar from the fruit- the skin thins and breaks and rips, there are laws on this earth and we live by them.

"The Feelings" Sharon Olds

I was chasing down the days of fear Chasing down a dream before it disappeared I was aching to be somewhere near Your voice was all I heard I was shaking from a storm in me Haunted by the spectres that we had to see Yeah, I wanted to be the melody Above the noise, above the hurt I was young, not dumb Just wishing to be blinded By you, brand new And we were pilgrims on our way I woke up at the moment When the miracle occurred Heard a song that made some sense Out of the world Everything I ever lost Now has been returned In the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard We got language so we can't communicate Religion so I can love and hate Music so I can exaggerate my pain And give it a name I was young, not dumb Just wishing to be blinded By you, brand new And we were pilgrims on our way I woke up at the moment When the miracle occurred Heard a song that made some sense Out of the world Everything I ever lost Now has been returned In the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard We can hear you, hear you We can year you We can hear you, hear you I woke up at the moment When the miracle occurred I get so many things I don't deserve All the stolen voices Will someday be returned The most beautiful sound I'd ever heard Your voices will be heard Your voices will be heard

"The Miracle of Joey Ramone" U2

Oh, I just love the kind of woman who can walk over a man I mean like a ******** marching band She says, like literally, music is the air she breathes And the malaprops make me want to ****ing scream I wonder if she even knows what that word means Well, it's literally not that [Verse 2] Of the few main things I hate about her, one's her petty, vogue ideas Someone's been told too many times they're beyond their years By every half-wit of distinction she keeps around And now every insufferable convo Features her patiently explaining the cosmos Of which she's in the middle [Bridge] Oh my God, I swear this never happens Lately, I can't stop the wheels from spinning I feel so unconvincing And I fumble with your buttons [Verse 3] She blames her excess on my influence but gladly Hoovers all my drugs I found her naked with her best friend in the tub We sang "Silent Night" in three parts which was fun Till she said that she sounds just like Sarah Vaughan I hate that soulful affectation white girls put on Why don't you move to the Delta? I obliged later on when you begged me to choke ya

"The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Appartment" Father John Misty