Love Me Back To Life

This world don't give you nothing it can't take away
Everybody holding on to something
Nobody wants to fade away

No forgiveness on the streets of this town
I left my patience at a traffic light
There's no denying that I almost lost it
Threw in the towel

song performed by Bon Jovi from Bounce
Added by Lucian Velea
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Ennis Once Upon A Time

ENNIS ONCE UPON A TIME
BY
JAMES BREDIN


Ennis will forever be enshrined in my mind,
A small mark on the map from another place and time.
Memories dimmed by many years as though cut with a knife,
First seventeen years of love and laughter in my life.

In a town bowed down by poverty struggling to survive,
Back lanes of half-door houses waiting someone to arrive.
Narrow winding streets full of friends and farmers' horses,
Pompous priests dressed in black who always walked on water,

And girls in long green dresses that came down below their knees,
Moving past on bicycles; boys waiting for a breeze,
And cows moving slowly herded down towards the water,
Where their blood will fill the Fergus from the houses of slaughter.

[...] Read more

poem by James Bredin
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Small Town U.S.A

Pizza parlors,
muffler shops
7 Elevens
and I-hops

Boarded windows,
shuttered stores
Cracked windows,
unlocked doors

Dry cleaners,
Laundromats
Empty motels
Vacant flats

One street towns
No traffic lights
No city sounds
Few family fights

[...] Read more

poem by David Whalen
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The Very Thought Of You

A shoal
of taxi cabs

swimming yellowishly
down Madison

their dorsal fins
advertising musicals

an A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
overtakes a SOUTH PACIFIC.

We walk
miserably & myopically

in the sleeting rain
cut across Central Park

a blue blur shrieks past
a yellow streak

[...] Read more

poem by Dónall Dempsey
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Stolen Car

Late at night in summer heat. Expensive car, empty street
There's a wire in my jacket. This is my trade
It only takes a moment, don't be afraid
I can hotwire an ignition like some kind of star
I'm just a poor boy in a rich man's car
So I whisper to the engine, flick on the lights
And we drive into the night
Oh the smell of the leather always excited my imagination
And I picture myself in this different situation
I'm a company director, two kids and a wife
I get the feeling that there's more to this one's life
There's some kind of complication, he tells her he's alone
Spends the night with his lover, there's a trace of her cologne
And the words of his mistress, as she whispers them so near
Start ringing in my ear
Please take me dancing tonight I've been all on my own
You promised one day we could its, what you said on the phone
I'm just a prisoner of love always hid form the light
Take me dancing, please take me dancing tonight
I imagine his wife, she don't look nothing like a fool

[...] Read more

song performed by Sting
Added by Lucian Velea
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If you walk with me on the promenade

If you walk with me on the promenade
and see the setting sun marvellous and red
while the night sparkles and the sun goes to bed
dipping behind the horizon,
it’s last journey of the day being made

the streets will probably be half empty
and the evening a serenade
while the cloak of the day is shed,
the last of its rays have fled
to sparkle at other places
and the traffic lights shines in jade

and maybe you will let me persuade you
to walk to a restaurant
or no words between us will need to be said
and the wind will brush through your hair,
the night will be expectant,
blessed with a loveliness and even if you are afraid
I will tell you that you look beautiful and fair.

poem by Gert Strydom
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Shakermaker

I'd like to be somebody else and not know where I've been
I'd like to build myself a house out of plasticine
Shake along with me
I've been driving in my car with my friend Mr. Soft
Mr. Clean and Mr. Ben are living in my loft
Shake along with me!

I'm sorry but I just don't know I know
I said I told you so
But when you're happy and you're feeling fine
Then you'll know it's the right time
It's the right time
To shake along with me!

Mister Sifter sold me songs
when I was just sixteen
Now he stops at traffic lights
but only when they're green

song performed by Oasis from Definitely Maybe
Added by Lucian Velea
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Colours Of A Heartbreak

Memories in yellows and blues.
Bathe us in their soothing hues.
Tapping on windows of our mind.
Like soft rain winter leaves behind.
Those traffic lights
Within my head.
Turn amber.
Danger, heartbreak ahead.

Green meadows of promise and peace.
We closed our eyes
And souls did release,
Pure white grace
Of Turtle dove
With violet scent of brand new love.
Who sent her?
Magenta
Naked by the lake.
She returns

[...] Read more

poem by Kevin East
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Six o’clock on a Friday morning

It’s six o’clock on a Friday morning
and I wait for my bus
and across the street,
the lights are burning cheerful and yellow
in the square and dome shaped windows
of the state library
and I wonder what documents are kept there

Street hawkers sell newspapers and sweets
in front of the Pretoria News,
while passengers are already
catching busses in rows.

There’s an icy chill
that hangs in the morning dawn light
and there’s a skew pointed obelisk
that is in front of the high court chambers
and a newspaper heading
talks about the recession
that is blowing hot and cold,

[...] Read more

poem by Gert Strydom
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I Hate Women Drivers!

I hate women drivers!
Why, can they not park?
Near the kerb?
Not anywhere
With no regards!

I hate women drivers!
Especially in the dark
They put on their blinkers
Because, they can not see.
The problem, is neither can we!

I hate women drivers!
How they love to drive fast
Only for school runs
Then they cruise all day long

I hate women drivers!
Do they believe?
That the traffic lights are stops

[...] Read more

poem by Sarwah OseiTutu
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Mr. Mine

Notice how he has numbered the blue veins
in my breast. Moreover there are ten freckles.
Now he goes left. Now he goes right.
He is building a city, a city of flesh.
He's an industrialist. He has starved in cellars
and, ladies and gentlemen, he's been broken by iron,
by the blood, by the metal, by the triumphant
iron of his mother's death. But he begins again.
Now he constructs me. He is consumed by the city.
>From the glory of words he has built me up.
>From the wonder of concrete he has molded me.
He has given me six hundred street signs.
The time I was dancing he built a museum.
He built ten blocks when I moved on the bed.
He constructed an overpass when I left.
I gave him flowers and he built an airport.
For traffic lights he handed at red and green
lollipops. Yet in my heart I am go children slow.

poem by Anne Sexton
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Runaway

Sitting at the crossways
Trying to keep my cool with the traffic lights
Ive been up and down this line so any times
Girl, its never right
Me and this machine keep the crazy urban dream
Locked in overflow
Sometimes I swear I could spin these old wheels
Just let it go
Runaway
Is it something that you hear
Coming through the waves on the radio
Or something that you see gently taps your memory
And shoots you down
Those hometown thoughts, school yard dreams and yesterdays
Moving in I just put my head down and drift away
And were moving up and down, in and out of town
Were all searching for that piece of higher ground
Somewhere...
Runaway

song performed by Chris Rea
Added by Lucian Velea
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To me you are

To me you are the woman
that walks up and down
at the traffic light
and smiles almost shy,
when I look up
and still give a view
of her breasts

To me you are
the hunger and pain,
that I hear in the voices
of children in back streets
where they loose all courage.

To me you are
the crippled gum sniffing children,
that swing walk
with eyes without hope.

To me you are the vagrant,

[...] Read more

poem by Gert Strydom
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Why, oh Why

Why are there no ants around,
until you want to have a picnic?
Why does it rain, everytime
you wash the car?
Why do people find money on,
the other side of the street,
from you?
Why does the phone ring,
everytime your in the bath tub?
Why does the weather turn,
bad, when the home baseball,
team return home?
Why does the traffic light,
continue to stay green,
when you want to stop the car,
to look for something?
Why, oh, why we ask?

poem by Jim Foulk
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Wind Cries Mary

After all the jacks are in their boxes and the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in red and the wind whispers mary
A broom is drearily sweeping up the broken pieces of yesterdays life
Somewhere a queen is weeping somewhere a king has no wife
And the wind it cries mary
The traffic lights they turn of blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sails downstream cause the life that lived is is dead
And the wind screams mary
Will the wind ever remember the names it has blown in the past
And with this crutch its old age and its wisdom
It whispers no this will be the last
And the wind cries mary

song performed by Jimi Hendrix
Added by Lucian Velea
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Life goes on

My contract comes to an end
and I will have to find another job somewhere,
and outside people pass in beautiful cars
and life goes on.

At the traffic light there are beggars,
with children and boards
and stretced out hands
and life goes on.

On the road there’s a nasty accident
and there are some people dead
and for all of the rest,
life goes on.

Sometimes a person wonders
where everything is going to
and why destiny plays its part,
but life keeps
setting its demands.

poem by Gert Strydom
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Lenny

After all the jacks are in their boxes
and the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
footsteps dressed in red
And the wind whispers Mary
A broom is drearily sweeping
up the broken pieces of yesterdays life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
Somewhere a king has no wife
And the wind, it cries Mary
The traffic lights, they turn, uh, blue tomorrow
and shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags down stream
'cause the life that lived is,
is dead
And the wind screams Mary
Uh-will the wind ever remember
the names it has blow in the past?
And with this crutch, its old age, and its wisdom
it whispers no, this will be the last

[...] Read more

song performed by John Mayer
Added by Lucian Velea
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Lenny / Man On The Side

After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footsteps dressed in red
And the wind whispers mary
A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterdays life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
Somewhere a king has no wife
And the wind, it cries mary
The traffic lights, they turn, uh, blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags down stream
cause the life that lived is,
Is dead
And the wind screams mary
Uh-will the wind ever remember
The names it has blow in the past?
And with this crutch, its old age, and its wisdom
It whispers no, this will be the last

[...] Read more

song performed by John Mayer
Added by Lucian Velea
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Attempted suicide

You were like a nuclear reactor
that was overheating
and mere heavy water
would not be enough
to cool down
your plutonium core.

Depression more than fury
had driven you past
all danger signs
and both kids
were already as if radiated,
the one by heroine
and the other past caring.

I had to brake the locked
bedroom open
where I found
rows of empty bottles
on the dressing-table

[...] Read more

poem by Gert Strydom
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The Hideous Heart of Scandinavia

Morning in Oslo, from my hotel window I see many roofs
most of them the same design; tidy, I wonder if Oslo employs
roof sweepers. Social democracy in action, cold and efficient
not given to surface passion. Even its homegrown terrorist is
boring, but my god, able in his murderous pursuit for glory.
Streets in Oslo are clean too, so spotless they look somehow
defenseless and slightly obscene. The citizens are restraint
tolerantly wait at traffic lights to turn green to cross, even if
no cars are coming But there is an another Oslo, especially at
weekends, when people drink enormous amount of beer and
violence lurks, when fights break out and knives shine in
moonlit nights. A lust for murder that harks back to a shared
cataleptic memory. And you know there is a pent up passion,
in the dark heart of Scandinavia; that given the right order can
turn compassionate people into vicious Vikings.

poem by Oskar Hansen
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