It's a big world, and I'm old news to you.

I woke up at seven
Rode the bus until eleven
Called ex-lovers, and my brother
Hoping someone was awake
Circled around the campus
In a t-shirt and pajamas
As I stared out the window
And my heart began to break

But it's all good,
'Cause I'm no good
And believe me,
You don't need me.
It's a big world,
And I'm old news to you.

I started healing
Soon as I regained the feeling
In my fingers pressed so hard
Against that steel the night before

I wrote another love song
But my heart, it wouldn't sing along
My head agreed, I didn't need
To try and right the wrongs

But it's all good,
'Cause I'm no good
And believe me,
You don't need me.
It's a big world,
And I'm old news to you.

But it's all good,
'Cause I'm no good
And believe me,
You don't need me.
It's a big world,
And I'm old news to you.

I woke up at seven
Rode the bus until eleven
Called ex-lovers, and my brother,
Hoping someone was awake

July 25, 2007 by Allison Weiss

I couldn't find nothin' beautiful or uplifting about her goin' back to God

Passin Me By (Hot Chip Remix) by The Pharcyde

No I've never ever dabbled in the dark arts

Let's Pretend by No-Fi Soul Rebellion

It was your heart on the line (I'll never be what is in my heart)

Weep for yourself, my man,
you'll never be what is in your heart
weep little lion man,
you're not as brave as you were at the start
rate yourself and rake yourself,
take all the courage you have left
wasted on fixing all the problems
that you made in your own head

but it was not your fault but mine
and it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
didn't I, my dear?
didn't I, my...

tremble for yourself, my man,
you know that you have seen this all before
tremble little lion man,
you'll never settle for any of your scores
your grace is wasted in your face,
your boldness stands alone among the wreck
learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck

but it was not your fault but mine
and it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
didn't I, my dear?

but it was not your fault but mine
and it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
didn't I, my dear?
didn't I, my dear?

but it was not your fault but mine
and it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
didn't I, my dear?

but it was not your fault but mine
and it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
didn't I, my dear?
didn't I, my dear?

Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons

I was young, I was young, but it's done

Hold on this will hurt more than anything has before
What it was, what it was, what it was
I've brought this on us more than anyone could ignore
What I've done, what I've done, what I've done

I've worked for so long just to see you mess around
What you've done, what you've done, what you've done
I want back the years that you took when I was young
I was young, I was young, but it's done

Oh take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh take it all away
Oh take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh take it all away

We'll fall just like stars being hung by only string
Everything, everything, here is gone
No map can direct how to ever make it home
We're alone, we're alone, we're alone

Oh take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh take it all away

I Don't Feel It Anymore by William Fitzsimmons

Please at least leave us alone in our living room!

Mad As Hell scene found in the film Network

I don't think that I could

I’ve been away a year and a day
You recognize love after the fact
You did what you did and that was that

Don’t say words that you don’t mean
When I’m gone, please speak well of me

Looking back now
I only wish I had been kinder
Did I ever know love, did I ever know love?
And could I have been blinder?

Don't say words that you don't mean
When I'm gone, please speak well of me

Don’t hold back all your love for someday, for someday
I would say that I’m sorry if it would do any good
But to never regret means you have to forget
and I don’t think that I could

Don't say words that you don't mean
When I'm gone, when I'm gone, when I'm gone
Please speak well of me

Please Speak Well Of Me by The Weepies

Though your towers were tall

Fistful of Swoon by Vandaveer

Below the shade of night

Finish the rest of the story at What Things Do

We all know how empty you are

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.

Then-in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life-was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:

From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

Alone by Edgar Allan Poe

If I had but three last things to say to someone, I would tell her I love her thrice

The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild;
He has devoured the infant child.
The infant child is not aware
It has been eaten by the bear.

Infant Innocence by A.E. Housman

It is if everyone dies alone

Scene from Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly

Spend my nights and days before searching the world for what's right here

Woke up and wished that I was dead
With an aching in my head
I lay motionless in bed
I thought of you and where you'd gone
and let the world spin madly on

Everything that I said I'd do
Like make the world brand new
And take the time for you
I just got lost and slept right through the dawn
And the world spins madly on

I let the day go by
I always say goodbye
I watch the stars from my window sill
The whole world is moving and I'm standing still

Woke up and wished that I was dead
With an aching in my head
I lay motionless in bed
The night is here and the day is gone
And the world spins madly on

I thought of you and where you'd gone
And the world spins madly on.

World Spins Madly On by The Weepies

The potential significance of one

Virus Comix

Maybe sometimes we'd rather stay in the dark

I weighed the cost and chose my crime

Wake from your sleep
The drying of your tears
Today we escape
We escape

Pack and get dressed
Before your father hears us
Before all hell breaks loose

Breathe, keep breathing
Don't lose your nerve
Breathe, keep breathing
I can't do this alone

Sing us a song
A song to keep us warm
There's such a chill, such a chill

You can laugh
A spineless laugh
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you
Now we are one
In everlasting peace

We hope that you choke, that you choke
We hope that you choke, that you choke
We hope that you choke, that you choke

Exit Music (For a Film), by Radiohead, cover by John & Lindsey (Vektor)

Poverty tells many stories

She devoted her life to the process of teaching

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

Found in Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins

He would say anything just to prove that he was sorry

I was six when I first saw kittens drown.
Don Taggart pitched them, 'the scraggy wee shits',
Into a bucket; a frail metal sound,

Soft paws scraping like mad. But their tiny din
Was soon soused. They were slung on the snout
Of the pump and the water pumped in.

'Sure isn't it better for them now?' Dan said.
Like wet gloves they bobbed and shone till he sluiced
Them out on the dunghill, glossy and dead.

Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hung
Round the yard, watching the three sogged remains
Turn mealy and crisp as old summer dung

Until I forgot them. But the fear came back
When Dan trapped big rats, snared rabbits, shot crows
Or, with a sickening tug, pulled old hens' necks.

Still, living displaces false sentiments
And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown,
I just shrug, 'Bloody pups'. It makes sense:

'Prevention of cruelty' talk cuts ice in town
Where they consider death unnatural
But on well-run farms pests have to be kept down.

The Early Purges by Seamus Heaney

As if it wasn't enough just to hear you speak, they had to give you lips like that

We’ve been wasting time
Staring at our laces leaving both untied
We’ve been stuck inside
Either something changes or my parents lied

I said I’d come back
I’m trying to make up for what my friends lack
You were supposed to know
This is one of those things that I won’t let go

That I won't let go
We’ve been wasting time
We've been wasting time
We've been wasting time

I see you’re terrified
Waiting to be buried so you try to hide
You’ll be justified
Taking all you wanted to before you die

When our time is over, we’ll leave as we came
No time for crying, this building’s in flames

I know this wont take too long
The good old days are yet to come
I know this wont take too long
The good old days are yet to come
I know this wont take too long
The good old days are yet to come

My Parents Lied by The Static Jacks

The most unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so.

A discontented person won’t find contentment through any outward change. Put her in a new and bigger house, and she’ll still complain. A discontented man can change wives, but if he doesn’t address the spiritual cancer within, he’ll grow just as weary with the new one. Trying to find contentment in this world without addressing the inner person is no more drastic a change than simply changing cubicles while continuing to work for the same company. Your location may change but the overall environment is exactly the same.

Gary Thomas

It pains me, but I'm sure she's still yours

WHEN we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning
Sunk chill on my brow—
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame:
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me—
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee too well:
Long, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met—
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.

When we Two parted by George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron

Who can say where they're blowing

all the gentle,
fragile ones,
who seem to
break apart
In the random
brutality of living,
I wish
I could find
a soft womb
for you,
where you could
grow again
and find
the strength
to endure
this utter hardness

All the gentle, fragile ones by J.L.Stanley

Lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless; and lonely is healing if you make it.

Grandpa, were you a hero in the war? Grandpa said, "No... but I served in a company of heroes"

looking back down the long path I don't believe I would have done anything different.

citizens of the world
I renounce you.

I have
long ago.
but this is a formal
notice.
me against
you.
a restraining
order.

fuck off.
dry up.
vanish.

don't come to
my door
with pizza
pussy
or offers of
peace.

it's too late.

the music has
frozen in the
air
castrated by the
absence of your
presence.

notice by Charles Bukowski

Alone within myself again

Blanket by Urban species feat. Imogen Heap

This place is terribly remote

I lay over her like a salvage boat wondering if this is really where we sank or if that place disappeared long ago

After the day you died
I went to a mountain lake
all warm and piney
and as I floated in the gentle water
transfixed between earth and sky
I thought of you dying
just the plain sorrow of it
and of how it would never end

And one day
I was older
than you'd ever be
you would never again
be older than me

Elegy for an Older Sister by J.L.Stanley

His situation, insofar as he was a machine, was complex, tragic and laughable. But the sacred part of him, his awareness, remained an unwavering band

I'm the most irresponsible person in the world. The reason I'm like that is because, at 21, you all gave me $50 or $100 million, and I didn't know what to do. I'm from the ghetto. I don't know how to act. One day I'm in a dope house robbing somebody. The next thing I know, 'You're the heavyweight champion of the world.' ... Who am I? What am I? I don't even know who I am. I'm just a dumb child. I'm being abused. I'm being robbed by lawyers. I think I have more money than I do. I'm just a dumb pugnacious fool. I'm just a fool who thinks I'm someone. And you tell me I should be responsible?

Mike Tyson

Tetrapharmakos

Don't fear god,
Don't worry about death;
What is good is easy to get, and
What is terrible is easy to endure

The four-part cure by Epicurus

Lust of limb nor lust of food, mar the lovely solitude; yet there stirreth in my clay, memory of an older day.

His white lips move, whispering, My time is short,
I would be gone.
O Lord, Lord! now let thy servant depart!
I am left alone
an old man with thin hands and a dry heart
sitting in the sun.

I am grown sadder than the gust that shakes
dead leaves in May,
lonelier than the sea that breaks
her heart in spray;
now, O Lord, ere another morrow wakes,
I would away.

For the spring returning moves not as before
this dolorous clay,
love is forgotten, a bright cloak I wore
and cast away;
the stars are dumb, the heavens resound no more
in this dark day;
I am old, I am old: thine ancient peace restore,
O Lord, I pray!

The Old Man by A. R. D. Fairburn

Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum

My name is Fatso and I am eight.
I think I would be better if I lost weight.
The kids at school hate me,
And often make me cry.
I try to tell the teachers
But they say I just lie.

My name is Stupid and I am ten,
I sometimes feel angry and stab my arm with a pen.
I want to be loved
But I want him to go away.
I don’t understand the things he does
And the words I hear him say.

My name is Waste-Of-Space and I am thirteen.
The teachers say I’m naughty, disruptive and mean.
Each day at school I dread
Each night at home I fear
Praying for an exit,
I need way out of here.

My name is Anorexic and I am fifteen.
Their rules and threats, they are obscene.
I’m not ill; I just need to rid of a bit more fat,
Then I promise I’ll leave it at that.
I want to be small, fragile and pure
And food is certainly not the cure.

My name is Attention Seeker and I am eighteen
But my self Injury is not about being seen.
It’s my way of surviving in a world which I fear
It’s a way of crying without my eye shedding a tear
The punishment I deserve and need,
You can’t stop me. I must bleed.

My name is Rachael and I am twenty one.

My Name by Innocent Voices

My name is Rachael and I am twenty one.

he was 65, his wife was 66, had
Alzheimer's disease.

he had cancer of the
mouth.
there were
operations, radiation
treatments
which decayed the bones in his
jaw
which then had to be
wired.

daily he put his wife in
rubber diapers
like a
baby.

unable to drive in his
condition
he had to take a taxi to
the medical
center,
had difficulty speaking,
had to
write the directions
down.

on his last visit
they informed him
there would be another
operation: a bit more
left
cheek and a bit more
tounge.

when he returned
he changed his wife's
diapers
put on the tv
dinners, watched the
evening news
then went to the bedroom, got the
gun, put it to her
temple, fired.

she fell to the
left, he sat upon the
couch
put the gun into his
mouth, pulled the
trigger.

the shots didn't arouse
the neighbors.

later
the burning tv dinners
did.

somebody arrived, pushed
the door open, saw
it.

soon
the police arrived and
went through their
routine, found
some items:

a closed savings
account and
a checkbook with a
balance of
$1.14
suicide, they
deduced.

in three weeks
there were two
new tenants:
a computer engineer
named
Ross
and his wife
Anatana
who studied
ballet.

they looked like another
upwardly mobile
pair.

hell is a lonely place by Charles Bukowski

Always with me, always with you by Joe Satriani

With artillery, you greet your only lasting memory. Am I the monster?

I dreamed that you had ceased to love me—
not that you had come from other beds
back to mine, or gone from mine to others,
just that something in your heart had stopped.

I willed myself awake to find you still
beside me. It was just a dream, I thought,
yet when I turned to kiss you, in your eyes
I saw that you had ceased to love me.

I willed myself awake a second time
to find myself alone, as I have been
these many months, but did not know if it
was terror or relief I felt, and whether

dreams unfold the past or make the future
plain. I dreamed that you had ceased to love me,
and know when I see nothing in your eyes
I can't dream myself awake a third time.

The Dream by David Solway

They're telling you where it's good to be

Get Home by Hooray For Earth

And the sand tells me there's no one here anymore and so I fall into the dug-out

Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled,
And one arm bent across your sullen, cold,
Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you,
Deep-shadowed from the candle's guttering gold;
And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder;
Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head
. . . .
You are too young to fall asleep for ever;
And when you sleep you remind me of the dead.

The Dug-Out by Siegfried Sassoon

How long will it be before you let me go?

Slow by Twin Shadow

It sounds pretty hollow

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

You've been living awhile in the front of my skull, making orders.
You've been writing me rules, shrinking maps,
and redrawing borders.
I've been repeating your speeches, but the audience just doesn't follow.
Because I'm leaving out words, punctuations, and it sounds pretty hollow.

I've been living in bed because now you tell me to sleep.
I've been hiding my voice and my face and you decide when I eat.

In your dreams I'm a criminal, horrible, sleeping around.
While you're awake I'm impossible, constantly letting you down.

Little porcelain figurines, glass bullets you shoot at the wall.
Threats of castration for crimes you imagine when I miss your call.
With the bite of the teeth of that ring on my finger,
I'm bound to your bedside, your eulogy singer.
I'd happily take all those bullets inside you and put them inside of myself.

"Someone, oh anyone. Tell me how to stop this.
She's screaming, expiring, and I'm her only witness.
I'm freezing, infected, and rigid in that room inside her.
No one's gonna come as long as I lay still in bed beside her."

Atrophy by The Antlers

You checked yourself out when you put me to bed and tore that old band off your wrist

With the door closed, shades drawn, the world shrinks
Let's open up those blinds
But someone has to sweep the floor
Pick up her dirty clothes
That job's not mine
Now that everyone's an enemy, my heart sinks
Let's put away those claws
I don't blame them for their curtains-calls
Because I pulled the rope
I want to call them back out for applause

Spring and Thompson on the first of May is horrible
We hid in catacombs
So now I'm sleeping next to mousetraps
In a bed of all our clothes
While I hope that she won't come home
It was easier to lock the doors and kill the phones
Than to show my skin
Because the hardest thing
Is never to repent for someone else
It's letting people in

Well you can come inside
Unlock the door, take off your shoes
But this might take all night
To explain to you I would have walked out those sliding doors
But the timing never seemed right
When your helicopter came and tried to lift me out
I put its rope around my neck
And after that you didn't bother with the airlift or the rescue
You knew just what to expect

That with the door closed, shades drawn
We're dead enough
They don't open from outside
And someone has to speak with their teeth behind their tongue
To never let that right be denied
We can't rely on photographs and visitation time
But I just don't know where to begin
I want to bust down the door
If you're willing to forgive
I've go the keys, I'm letting people in

Don't be scared to speak
Don't speak with someone's tooth
Don't bargain when you're weak
Don't take that sharp abuse
Some patients can't be saved
But that burden's not on you

Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that
Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that
Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that
Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that
Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that
Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that
Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that
Don't ever let anyone tell you you deserve that

Wake by The Antlers

Before we had ever started, I wrote "I think your smile is precious. I wish I could tell you." Funny how, two years later, I feel the same way

[Her:]
Alabama, Arkansas,
I do love my ma and pa,
Not the way that I do love you.

[Him:]
Holy, moly, me, oh my,
You're the apple of my eye,
Girl I've never loved one like you.

[Her:]
Man oh man you're my best friend,
I scream it to the nothingness,
There ain't nothing that I need.

[Him:]
Well, hot and heavy, pumpkin pie,
Chocolate candy, Jesus Christ,
Ain't nothing please me more than you.

[Both:]
Ahh Home. Let me come home
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is wherever I'm with you.

La, la, la, la, take me home.
Mother, I'm coming home.

[Him:]
I'll follow you into the park,
Through the jungle through the dark,
Girl I never loved one like you.

[Her:]
Moats and boats and waterfalls,
Alley-ways and pay phone calls,
I've been everywhere with you.

[Him:]
We laugh until we think we’ll die,
Barefoot on a summer night
Nothin’ new is sweeter than with you

[Her:]
And in the streets you run afree,
Like it's only you and me,
Geeze, you're something to see.

[Both:]
Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is wherever I'm with you.

La, la, la, la, take me home.
Daddy, I'm coming home.

[Talking]
Him: Jade
Her: Alexander
Him: Do you remember that day you fell outta my window?
Her: I sure do, you came jumping out after me.
Him: Well, you fell on the concrete, nearly broke your ass, you were bleeding all over the place and I rushed you out to the hospital, you remember that?
Her: Yes I do.
Him: Well there's something I never told you about that night.
Her: What didn't you tell me?
Him: While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was gonna be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you, and I never told you til just now.

[Both:]
Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is where I'm alone with you.

[Him:]
Home. Let me come home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.

[Her:]
Ahh home. Yes I am ho-oh-ome.
Home is when I'm alone with you.

[Her:]
Alabama, Arkansas,
I do love my ma and pa...
Moats and boats and waterfalls,
Alley-ways and pay phone calls...

[Both:]
Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is where I'm alone with you...

Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Panel 59

There are worse things than being alone,

I was on your porch,
The smoke sank into my skin,
So I came inside to be with you,
We talked all night,
About everything you could imagine,
'Cause come the morning, I'll be gone,
And as our eyes start to close,
I turn to you and I let you know,
That I love you.

Well, my dad was sick,
My mom she cared for him,
Her loving nursed him back to life,
And me, I ran, I couldn't even look at him,
For fear I'd have to say goodbye,
And as I start to leave,
He grabs me by the shoulder and he tells me,
"Whats left to lose? You've done enough,
And if you fail then you fail but not to us,
'Cause these last three years,
I know they have been hard,
But now it's time to get out of the desert and into the sun,
Even if its alone."

So now here I sit,
In a hotel off of Sunset
My thoughts bounce off Sam's guitar,
And thats the way its been,
Ever since we were kids, but now,
Now, we've got something to prove,
And I, I can see their eyes,
Then tell me something, can they see mine?
'Cause whats left to lose?
I've done enough,
And if I fail then I fail but I gave it a shot,
'Cause these last three years I know they have been hard,
But now it's time to get out of the desert and into the sun,
Even if it's alone,
(Even if it's alone)
Even if it's alone.

I was on your porch last night,
The smoke, it sank into my skin.

On Your Porch by The Format

Will you be okay?

Cold Weather by Aaron Katz

And you just remember that your old man walked Ben Wade to that station when nobody else would

Zee Avi by Monte

feeling senseless and beat

Deadbeat Summer by Neon Indian

She said that she didn't plan it exactly that way, so it goes

"Do you like skipping?" I asked. She nodded, I could see, as we walked side-by-side entering the grounds of my apartment complex.

"I do," she responded with a growing smile.

We both knew where this was headed.

"We have to hold hands, you know. There's no other way to skip," I explained, leading her to where we both wanted. I put out my left hand, hoping.

"I see," she said, as her smile finished growing now. She let out her right hand, placing it in the cusp of mine.

My heart jumped in synch with the first skip of my leg.

First Skip, It Won't Be Our Last by Calvin

It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri... It will be a species very like us - but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses

Carl Sagan

A million here, a million there

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

Buddha

Remember that you're sorely missed

To kill for murder is a punishment incomparably worse than the crime itself. Murder by legal sentence is immeasurably more terrible than murder by brigands. Anyone murdered by brigands, whose throat is cut at night in a wood, or something of that sort, must surely hope to escape till the very last minute. There have been instances when a man has still hoped for escape, running or begging for mercy after his throat was cut. But in the other case all that last hope, which makes dying ten times as easy, taken away for certain. There is the sentence, and the whole awful torture lies in the fact that there is certainly no escape, and there is no torture in the world more terrible. You may lead a soldier out and set him facing the cannon in battle and fire at him and he'll still hope; but read a sentence of certain death over that same soldier, and he will go out of his mind or burst into tears. Who can tell whether human nature is able to bear this without madness.

Prince Lyov Nikolayevitch Myshkin, found in The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Brothers Karamazov

As long as the dark foundation of our nature, grim in its all-encompassing egoism, mad in its drive to make that egoism into reality, to devour everything and to define everything by itself, as long as that foundation is visible, as long as this truly original sin exists within us, we have no business here and there is no logical answer to our existence. Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do. And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure.

Vladimir Solovyov

Everything is, no doubt

Things aren't working out like they're supposed to,
but at least they're working out.
If you ask yourself if anything is meaningful,
you'll find that everything is, no doubt.
Call it lack of inspiration,
resignation, stupid or immature.

You can only do as much in little time,
if you're up for sharing I can split up mine.
'Cause it makes me happy.

I've been up and down
and out and in
and everything that's in between.
And in my ridicule I thought that I was something special,
in spite of ordinary dreams.
But you end up getting tired of doing psychoanalysis of yourself.

But you can only do as much in little time,
if you're up for sharing I can split up mine.
'Cause it makes me happy.

(Why can't we stay this way?)
I don't wanna go back,
I don't wanna move on.
(Why can't we stay this way?)
I don't wanna grow old,
I don't wanna stay young.

(Why can't we stay this way?)
I don't wanna go back,
I don't wanna move on.
(Why can't we stay this way?)
I don't wanna grow old,
I don't wanna stay young.

I don't wanna know you,
not like I used to know people.
I don't wanna change you,
not like I used to change people.
I just want to have you here.

Stay This Way by Peter Bjorn and John

So listen up homey

Sickness beware,
I will be there,
Weakness watch out,
I'll be her crutch,
Sadness, oh you,
Can back away,
'Cause I'll keep her from your rain,
Anger, calm down,
I will stay my ground,
Fear, fear me,
dare not come near me,
Forget about failure,
Lose all the lies,
All you demons beware,
For her,
I'll be there.

For Her by Tristan Claude

Enthralling

Strephon kissed me in the spring,

Robin in the fall,

But Colin only looked at me

And never kissed at all.

Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,

Robin's lost in play,

But the kiss in Colin's eyes

Haunts me night and day.

The Look by Sara Teasdale

I am a friend, comrades, a friend!

Face changer

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Carl Sagan

Show me my opponent... Show me my opponent

Stuntin' Like My Only Swerving by Bearbot

Come and live with me in peace and safety, away from all the Wangdoodles, and Hornswogglers, and Snozzwangers, and rotten, Vermicious Knids.

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going.
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing.
Is it raining?
Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a blowing?

Not a speck of light is showing
so the danger must be growing.
Are the fires of hell a glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes! The danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing.
And they're certainly not showing
any signs that they are slowing!

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

The Human League

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

Thomas Paine

Athiest, Gnostic, Theist, Agnostic

Babies are born indifferent to the idea of gods – indeed – they cannot conceive it, and accordingly are atheists: they do not believe in gods because they can not.

Peter Brietbart found here.

Macy

Octopus I Love You by Dalmatian Rex and the Eigentones

You're the strongest person I know

One of the first things about you I did see
Is that you verse your views quietly
When nature verses truths I get violent feelings
But softly time will reply thats wise

A delicate gesture of why you see
The best route through this being right through here
But met with a cute blind snide of fear
Best to go along with their idea

But , you gently take things slowly
You softly bowl them over
That's the delicate way you've shown me
You're the strongest person I know

You gently take things slowly
You softly bowl them over
That's the delicate way you've shown me
You're the strongest person I know

After taking the worst route, blatantly
Bang on cue we manage losing way
But in a squirmy backed and screwed up way
They actually managed passing you the blame

With that mad man wrapped with rage
Even then your temper stays exactly the same
And in that manner is the manner you stay
Beautiful person that's happily unchanged

You gently take things slowly
You softly bowl them over
That's the delicate way you've shown me
You're the strongest person I know

You gently take things slowly
You softly bowl them over
That's the delicate way you've shown me
You're the strongest person I know

In the heat of speech
Your words improve
Right out of reach in my stirred up words
But every time they fucking blurt out drool
I'm noticing they're all learning from you

Cos even though they know they cursed you
They should've admitted that they were fools
The next time they're wanting to work things through
The very first person they turn to is you

Cos you gently take things slowly
You softly bowl them over
That's the delicate way you've shown me
You're the strongest person I know

You gently take things slowly
You softly bowl them over
That's the delicate way you've shown me
You're the strongest person I know

The Strongest Person I Know by The Streets

The big two one on the one two

A grand doesn't come free

Find more Bellen! here.

A young man in finance

Find more of Austin Kleon's genius over here.

Of love and apples

Left Handed Toons

She's still the only one besides my dad who's ever said I love you

I'm Creedence Clearwater Wright
Best friend of Elodie Eye
We've been tight since Percy Elementary
Class of 1985
We moved together out to Philly after college
Took a two bedroom at South & 9th
I sold my violin so we could have it easy
El got her grandmother's money when she died

We laughed like we were queens
And split our ballgowns at the seams
And every single time I'd dream
It was only El & me
But then she slipped away from me
She met a boy from New Jersey
And they fell fast in love of course
I swear it felt like a divorce

This September I'll be 26 years old
And El's the only one besides my dad
Who's ever said I love you Creedence

Took a job downtown
It's an hour on the bus each way
Typing letters for a lawyer in a bad toupee
It's dumb I know but it pays okay

And did I mention I moved out
I got my own place off of South
And I've been living hand to mouth
For going on a year by now
And yes I still see El around
It's different but I can't say how
She cut her hair it's back to brown
She's living with her boyfriend now

And since September I've been 26 years old
She's still the only one besides my dad
Who's ever said I love you Creedence

I Love Creedence by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

And immediately we all came to realize

Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!”

This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

Puddle Thinking by Douglas Adams

None shall pass

This Too Shall Pass by Ok Go

I caught a thousand sundowns in my headphones

Weary Apology by Andy Friedman

God? No god.

Luis by Niles Atallah, Cristobal Leon & Joaquin Cociña

You checked yourself out when you put me to bed, and tore that old band off your wrist

The cold grows colder, even as the days

grow longer, February's mercury vapor light

buffing but not defrosting the bone-white

ground, crusty and treacherous underfoot.

This is the time of year that's apt to put

a hammerlock on a healthy appetite,

old anxieties back into the night,

insomnia and nightmares into play;

when things in need of doing go undone

and things that can't be undone come to call,

muttering recriminations at the door,

and buried ambitions rise up through the floor

and pin your wriggling shoulders to the wall;

and hope's a reptile waiting for the sun.

February by Bill Christophersen

Event A

Excerpt from Schrodinger’s Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
Image Borrowed from Pete Ashton

Would you always, maybe sometimes, make it easy? Take your time.

Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear

If you’re not sure who not to believe, who has better reasons to decieve?

I Like Music by Stuart McMillen

It killed me to see you getting always rejected

Knives can do no more than cut
But flesh can heal.
Guns can do no more than pierce
But wounds can close.

Whips can slice,
Fists can bruise.
Bones can be broken,
Ligaments can be torn.

I can be beaten
Bloodied, broken, and bruised.
But the beauty of these wounds
Is that they fade with time, and faintly remind.

But a fallen teardrop,
A callous heart, a loveless soul...
These wounds leave me not,
And they alone can kill.

Wounds by Astral Flare

Hundreds of thousands of hospital beds and all of them empty but mine

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

He has cancer

In a nightmare, I am falling from the ceiling into bed beside you.
You're asleep, I'm screaming, shoving you to try to wake you up.
And like before, you've got no interest in the life you live when you're awake.
Your dreams still follow storylines, like fictions you would make.

So I lie down against your back, until we're both back in the hospital.
But now it's not a cancer ward, we're sleeping in the morgue.
Men and women in blue and white, they are singing all around you,
with heavy shovels holding earth.
You're being buried to you neck.
In that hospital bed, being buried quite alive now.
I'm trying to dig you out but all you want is to be buried there together.

You're screaming,
and cursing,
and angry,
and hurting me,
and then smiling,
and crying,
apologizing.

I've woken up, I'm in our bed, but there's no breathing body there beside me.
Someone must have taken you while I was stuck asleep.
But I know better as my eyes adjust.
You've been gone for quite awhile now, and I don't work there in the hospital
(they had to let me go.)

When I try to move my arms sometimes, they weigh too much to lift.
I think you buried me awake (my one and only parting gift.)
But you return to me at night,
just when I think I may have fallen asleep.
Your face is up against mine,
and I'm too terrified to speak.

You're screaming,
and cursing,
and angry,
and hurting me,
and then smiling,
and crying,
apologizing.

Epilogue by The Antlers

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.

As if your cancer weren't enough,
the guinea pig is dying.
The kids brought him to me
wrapped in a bath towel
‘Do something, Mom.
Save his life.'

I'm a good mom.
I took time from work,
drove him to the vet,
paid $77.00 for his antibiotics.

Now, after the kids rush off to school,
you and I sit on the bed.
I hold the guinea pig, since he bites.
You fill the syringe.
We administer the foul smelling medicine,
hoping the little fellow will live.

admitting to each other:
if he doesn't,
it'll be good practice.

Guinea Pig by Julie Cadwallader-Staub

There's a bear inside your stomach

The Colouring by Joseph Pelling and Dan Brit