The stream of time

The stream of time, with onward sweep,

Bears off men's works, all human things,

And plunges o'er Oblivion's steep

Peoples and kingdoms with their kings.

If for a space amidst the swirl

The lyre or trumpet some sustain,

They're swept at last in ceaseless whirl,

And none escape Fate's common main.

by Gavrila Derzhavin

Stream near Marysville, Victoria © Jennifer Phillips

A star trapped

Somehow I've drifted
to the other side of the moon
a star trapped
forever far from view
I am lost without you

by Nadine Hayes ‏@AChosenWord

Anymore

I drift at the edges of true interaction.

I am here, but I am not here.

My heart doesn't live here, 

anymore.

My heart has moved away

and left me, a shell, behind.

I'm trying to grab the precious moments

as they fall like stars, into my lap.

But they feel like someone else's.

I don't want to be here.

I don't want to behave,

anymore.

I can't do it, this Thing. This act of normalcy 

in a place I feel I no longer fit, 

anymore.

So I wander without direction 

without true joy, as a shadow 

seeking its owner.

© Jennifer Phillips (All rights reserved)

Shell - Copyright Free Images

Team

Wait 'til you’re announced

We’ve not yet lost all our graces

The hounds will stay in chains

Look upon your greatness

That you’ll send the call out

(Send the call out [15x])

Call all the ladies out

They’re in their finery

A hundred jewels on throats

A hundred jewels between teeth

Now bring my boys in

Their skin in craters like the moon

The moon we love like a brother, while he glows through the room

Dancin' around the lies we tell

Dancin' around big eyes as well

Even the comatose they don’t dance and tell

[Chorus]

We live in cities you'll never see on screen

Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things

Living in ruins of the palace within my dreams

And you know, we're on each other's team

I'm kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, so there

So all the cups got broke shards beneath our feet but it wasn’t my fault

And everyone’s competing for a love they won't receive

'Cause what this palace wants is release

[Chorus]

We live in cities you'll never see on screen

Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things

Living in ruins of the palace within my dreams

And you know, we're on each other's team

I’m kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air

So there

I’m kinda older than I was when I revelled without a care

So there

[Chorus]

We live in cities you'll never see on screen

Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things

Living in ruins of the palace within my dreams

And you know, we're on each other's team

We're on each other's team

And you know, we're on each other's team

We're on each other's team

And you know, and you know, and you know.

by Lorde

Reluctant prophet

I have always seemed to myself

A man entirely of the earth,

Closed as closed could be to sensing beyond the senses.

Suddenly I am full of knowing dreams,

Counsel without provenance

And difficult intuitions.

My news from heaven

Is that I shall pass from purgatory to hell

In quest of you;

That if, and only if, I win you to me,

I shall live completely,

Die complete.

by David Singleton

Smoky quartz © Jennifer Phillips

Art

"As the poets and painters of centuries have tried to tell us, art is not about the expression of talent or the making of pretty things. It is about arresting life and making it available for contemplation. Art captures the eternal that feeds the soul -- the whole world in a grain of sand." 

- The Care of The Soul, by Thomas Moore

Rocks © Jennifer Phillips

Break my stride

Last night I had the strangest dream

I sailed away to China

In a little row boat to find ya

And you said you had to get your laundry cleaned

Didn't want no-one to hold you

What does that mean

And you said

Ain't nothin' gonna to break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no

I got to keep on movin'

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

You're on a roll and now you pray it lasts

The road behind was rocky

But now you're feeling cocky

You look at me and you see your past

Is that the reason why you're runnin' so fast

And she said

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no

I got to keep on moving

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on moving

Never let another girl like you, work me over

Never let another girl like you, drag me under

If I meet another girl like you, I will tell her

Never want another girl like you, have to say

Ooooooh

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down

Oh-no, oh-no, I got to keep on moving

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch the ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down

Oh-no, oh-no, I got to keep on moving

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch the ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down

Oh-no, I got to keep on moving

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch the ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down

Oh-no, oh-no, I got to keep on moving.

by Matthew Wilder, Greg Prestopino

Love that turns you yellow

Be with those who help your being.

Don't sit with indifferent people, whose breath

comes cold out of their mouths.

Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.

A chunk of dirt thrown in the air breaks to pieces.

If you don't try to fly,

and so break yourself apart,

you will be broken open by death,

when it's too late for all you could become.

Leaves get yellow. The tree puts out fresh roots

and makes them green.

Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?

by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

From Copyright Free Images

Life and death

From "The Age"

Bring me to life

How can you see into my eyes like open doors?

Leading you down into my core where I’ve become so numb

Without a soul my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold

Until you find it there and lead it back home

[Chorus:]

(Wake me up)

Wake me up inside

(I can’t wake up)

Wake me up inside

(Save me)

Call my name and save me from the dark

(Wake me up)

Bid my blood to run

(I can’t wake up)

Before I come undone

(Save me)

Save me from the nothing I’ve become

Now that I know what I’m without

You can't just leave me

Breathe into me and make me real

Bring me to life

[Chorus]

Bring me to life

(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)

Bring me to life

Frozen inside without your touch

Without your love, darling

Only you are the life among the dead

All this time I can't believe I couldn't see

Kept in the dark but you were there in front of me

I’ve been sleeping a thousand years it seems

Got to open my eyes to everything

Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul

Don't let me die here

There must be something more

Bring me to life

[Chorus]

(Bring me to life)

I’ve been living a lie, there’s nothing inside

(Bring me to life)

by Evanescence

Amy Lee

How to leave the world that worships should

Let faxes butter-curl on dusty shelves.

Let junkmail build its castles in the hush

of other people’s halls. Let deadlines burst

and flash like glorious fireworks somewhere else.

As hours go softly by, let others curse

the roads where distant drivers queue like sheep.

Let e-mails fly like panicked, tiny birds.

Let phones, unanswered, ring themselves to sleep.

Above, the sky unrolls its telegram,

immense and wordless, simply understood:

you’ve made your mark like birdtracks in the sand -

now make the air in your lungs your livelihood.

See how each wave arrives at last to heave

itself upon the beach and vanish. Breathe.

by Ros Barber

Soliloquy for strange times

© Michael Leunig

Poetry arrived

And it was at that age...Poetry arrived

in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where

it came from, from winter or a river.

I don't know how or when,

no, they were not voices, they were not

words, nor silence,

but from a street I was summoned,

from the branches of night,

abruptly from the others,

among violent fires

or returning alone,

there I was without a face

and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth

had no way

with names

my eyes were blind,

and something started in my soul,

fever or forgotten wings,

and I made my own way,

deciphering

that fire

and I wrote the first faint line,

faint, without substance, pure

nonsense,

pure wisdom

of someone who knows nothing,

and suddenly I saw

the heavens

unfastened

and open,

planets,

palpitating plantations,

shadow perforated,

riddled

with arrows, fire and flowers,

the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,

drunk with the great starry

void,

likeness, image of

mystery,

I felt myself a pure part

of the abyss,

I wheeled with the stars,

my heart broke free on the open sky.

by Pablo Neruda

Throw your arms around me

I will come for you at night time

I will raise you from your sleep

I will kiss you in four places

As I go running along your street

I will squeeze the life out of you

You will make me laugh and make me cry

We will never forget it

You will make me call your name 

and I'll shout it to the blue summer sky

We may never meet again

So shed your skin and lets get started

And you will throw your arms around me

I dreamed of you at night time

And I watched you in your sleep

I met you in high places

I touched your head and touched your feet

So if you disappear out of view

You know, I will never say goodbye

Though I try to forget it

You will make me call your name 

and I'll shout it to the blue summer sky

We may never meet again

So shed your skin and lets get started

And you will throw your arms around me

Yeah, you will throw your arms around me

by Hunters and Collectors

Live the questions

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Blue sky © Jennifer Phillips

Hills behind Byron Bay

Hills behind Byron Bay NSW Australia © Jennifer Phillips

Like a white stone

Like a white stone deep in a draw-well lying,

As hard and clear, a memory lies in me.

I cannot strive nor have I heart for striving:

It is such pain and yet such ecstasy.

It seems to me that someone looking closely

Into my eyes would see it, patent, pale.

And, seeing, would grow sadder and more thoughtful

Than one who listens to a bitter tale.

The ancient gods changed men to things, but left them

A consciousness that smouldered endlessly,

That splendid sorrows might endure forever.

And you are changed into a memory.

by Anna Akhmatova

© Kary Oberbrunner

Live beautifully

“Do you feel that?"
She asked as we watched
the stars and moon illuminate
the sea before us.
"Tell me you feel it?
That longing to not just exist,
but to live and to live beautifully?"
I, with a smile filled with so
much truth it could move
the clouds, said to her:
"Of course I feel it. The heart
in you, is the heart in me.” 

by Christopher Poindexter

Moon over the sea © Phogulum.com