What Sarah Said

And it came to me then
That every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself
That I'd already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth
I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself

Because there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
Then the nurse comes around and everyone lifts their head
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said
That love is watching someone die

death cab for cutie

Peace & Beauty

"My closest experience with profound human suffering was that earthquake and fire. But we were not burned out, ruined, or bereft of family and friends. I never went to war, too young for the First and too old for the Second. The great events of the world have been tragic pageants, not personal involvements. My world has been a world too few people are lucky enough to live in- one of peace and beauty. I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate."

Ansel Adams

Carl Sandberg

I never heard a mocking bird in Kentucky
Spilling its heart in the morning.

I never saw the snow on Chimborazo
It's a high white Mexican hat, I hear.

I never had supper with Abe Lincoln
Nor a dish of soup with Jim Hill.

...But I've been around.

The Only Gift That I Need

You'll be leaving for the winter
But I look and see that it's true
It's the right thing for you
But it's tough to be moved with the holiday spirit
And to tell you the truth
I have big plans for christmas
And high hopes for you

I want you here by my side
Cold nights and fires and white wine
And dreams of holidays to come
But I'll wait for spring to bring you to me
The only gift that I need

dashboard confessional

A Red Piece of Cloth

That day you used a piece of red cloth
to blindfold my eyes and cover up the sky
You asked me what I had seen
I said I saw happiness

This feeling really made me comfortable
made me forget I had no place to live
You asked where I wanted to go
I said I want to walk your road

I couldn’t see you, and I couldn’t see the road
You grabbed both me hands and wouldn’t let go
You asked what I was thinking
I said I want to let you be my master

I have a feeling that you aren’t made of iron
but you seem to be as forceful as iron
I felt that you had blood on your body
because your hands were so warm

I had a feeling this wasn’t a wilderness
though I couldn’t see it was already dry and cracked
I felt that I wanted to drink some water
but you used a kiss to block off my mouth

I don’t want to leave and I don’t want to cry
Because my body is already withered and dry
I want to always accompany you this way
Because I know your suffering best

© Cui Jian

Superman

Wish that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
About a home
I'll never see

It may sound absurd
but don't be naive
Even heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed
but won't you conceed
Even heroes have the right to dream
It's not easy to be me

I Hope You Dance

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin'

Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone

If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.

Notes from the Underground

"Love is God's mystery and should be hidden from outsiders' eyes, whatever happens. This makes it holier, better. The husband and the wife respect each other more, and a great deal is founded on respect. And if there has been love, if they were married for love, why should love cease? Isn't it possible to keep it alive? It is a rare case when it's impossible. Besides, if the husband happens to be a kind and honest man, how can love pass? It's true, the feeling of the early married days will pass, but the love that will come afterwards will be still better. Man and wife will grow close in spirit; they'll have no secrets from each other. And when children start coming, the hardest times will seem happy, so long as there is love and courage. Work goes like a song, and even if you have to deny yourself a piece of bread once in a while for the children's sake, life's full of joy all the same. After all they'll love you for it afterwards; so that you're really saving for your own future.

The children start growing up, and you feel that you are setting an example for them; that even when you die, they'll carry your thoughts and feelings inside them all their lives, for you've bequeathed them your image, and they will grow up in your likeness. So you see, this is a great duty, and how can the mother and father help but grow closer? Some people say it is a hardship to have c hildren. But who says so? It's a joy from heaven! Do you love babies, Liza? I love them terribly. You know- imagine a pink little boy suckling your breast. What husband's heart could turn against his wife, seeing her with his child? The baby, rosy, plump, spreads out his arms and legs, luxuriating in your warmth; his little hands and feet are firm like ripe apples, the nails clean and tiny, so tiny they are comical to see, and the eyes look at you as though he already understands everything. And when he suckles, he tug at your breast with his little hand, playing. His father will com over, and the baby will turn from the breast, bend backward, look at him and laugh- as if it were God knows how funny- then start suckling again. Or else, when the teeth begin to come, he'll take a nip at his mother's breast and look at her out of the corner of his eye; 'See, i bit you!' Isn't this the greatest happiness in the world when the three of them, the husband, wife, and child are together? For such moments, a lot can be forgiven. No, Liza, I suppose one has to learn how to live himself before accusing others!"

fyodor dostoevsky

The Whispering Gallery

She's turning away, about to step
out of the concave cuddle of Italian tiles
before walking through the grand

doorway to cross 42nd Street
to glance up at The Glory of Commerce
as she hails a yellow taxicab
when he whispers, I love you, Harriet.

Did he say something to himself,
something he swore he'd never think
again? Or, was she now limestone
like Minerva, a half-revealed secret,
her breasts insinuating the same
domed wisdom? Maybe his mind

was already heading home to Hoboken—
his body facing hers—his unsure feet
rushing to make a connection
with Sinatra's ghost
amongst a trainload of love cries
from the Rustic Cabin to Caesar's Palace.
Hugged there under the curved grandeur,
she says, I love you, too, Johnny.

-Yusef Komunyakaa

"The love of God is like the ocean, you can see its beginning, but not its end."

Blue Like Jazz

"I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze. I am early in my story, but I believe I will stretch out into eternity, and in heaven I will reflect upon these early days, these days when it seemed God was down a dirt road, walking toward me. Years ago He was a swinging speck in the distance; now He is close enough I can hear His singing. Soon I will see the lines on His face."

Donald Miller

Charlie Chaplin

"The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury."

Charlie Brown

"Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."

The Sprout and the Bean

And as I said,
I slept as though dead, dreaming seamless dreams
of lead.
When you go away,
I am big-boned and fey;
in the dust of the day,
and in the dirt of the day.

joanna newsom

Herman Melville

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."

For the times they are a-changin'...

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

bob dylan

A Broken Appointment

You did not come,
And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb.
Yet less for loss of your dear presence there
Than that I thus found lacking in your make
That high compassion which can overbear
Reluctance for pure lovingkindness' sake
Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum,
You did not come.

You love me not,
And love alone can lend you loyalty;
-I know and knew it. But, unto the store
Of human deeds divine in all but name,
Was it not worth a little hour or more
To add yet this: Once you, a woman, came
To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be
You love me not.

- Thomas Hardy

American History X

Well, my conclusion is: Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it. Derek says it's always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can't top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you'd like. 'We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.'

Happiness

"People spend their lives wanting things they shouldn't. The world confuses them into taking their love and aiming it where it doesn't belong... All it takes to be happy is to love the right things, in the right amounts. Not money. Not books. People. Adults who don't understand that sometimes never feel fulfilled."

St.Elmo's Fire

"It's St.Elmo's Fire. Electric flashes of light that appear in the dark skies out of nowhere. Sailors would guide entire journeys by it, but the joke was on them... there was no fire. There wasn't even a St.Elmo. They made it up. They made it up because they thought they needed it to keep them going when times got tough, just like you're making up all of this. We're going through this. It's our time at the edge."

"We live to love, and once love happens, I believe that we will love to live."

Jerry Maguire

"You had me at hello."-

Lust for Life

"But then, no artist is normal; if he were, he wouldn't be an artist. Normal men don't create works of art. They eat, sleep, hold down routine jobs, and die. You are hypersensitive to life and nature; that's why you are able to interpret for the rest of us. But if you are not careful, that very hypersensitiveness will lead you to your destruction. The strain of it breaks every artist in time."

irving stone

The Art of being a Pedestrian in New York

A pedestrian in New York City is more than just another poor soul walking down the street in just another super-sized American urban sprawl. The proof is in the proving that any heart-hardened New Yorker can tell an out-of-towner just from the way that he walks, much less the way that he talks. Pedestrians of New York do more than just walk, they jog, swerve, glide, duck, run, push and power through the avenues of their city with a speed and grace that is unmatched by those poor sauntering folks from other parts of the world. New Yorkers need to weave through foot traffic, dance across real traffic, dodge the occasional zealous bike messenger or errant cabbie, dive through closing subway doors and do it all without spilling a drop of coffee or tripping over the dog walker and his cadre of four-legged charges.
And they are adept at it.

New York pedestrians cannot be labeled walkers; they are rush hour sprinters, rainy curb vault jumpers, lunch rush acrobats and Times Square footwork artists. They are all of those things and they recognize those that are not, with the same keen sense of accuracy that a lion uses to find the weakest wildebeest in a traveling herd.

We do not take pity on the slow of step, those without split-second reactions and those without that trademarked New Yorker's sense of purpose and direction, that unmistakably arrogant and punctuated stride. Tourists are left dazed and buffeted about like leaves in a storm, stray notes in an orchestra too massive and foreign to be kept up with. In other cities, we would be in a rush, we would be rude and huffy and inconsiderate, but here at home we are just everyday pedestrians, in fear only of the moment when we are passed by one who is faster and more fleet of foot than we, and in that moment we will hang our heads in shame. -By Adam Redfield

With Arms Outstretched

i visit these
mountains with frequency
and i stand here with my arms out
now somedays they'll last longer than others
but this day by the lake went too fast

Beside You

We follow the river down into the stream
That's where my dream began
I left my worries to the people who stare
And dreamed without a care

That I'd always be beside you
To watch the day and night
And we listen to the sunrise
And feel its growing light
And peace will come inside so quiet

Wherever we're going, I don't know
For a million years our love keeps growing
The mystery deepens, day by day
But trust my love, and hear me say

simply red

What Dreams May Come

Dear Diary, I am writing in your bullshit pages because my shrink is crazier then I am. He thinks you're therapy. He figures if two babies can hammer me into a Psycho ward, what will I do with this ? He is so stupid. He's so stupid that he thinks he pulled me through the breakdown when it was Christy. Always. Only Chis. I was looking through his postcards. Paintings were his obsession. He used art as another way to love me, to help me. To keep us always together.

10 Things I Hate About You

I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme. I hate it, I hate the way you're always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry. I hate it that you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call. But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.

stephen chbosky

Girl Interrupted

Don't ask me those questions! Dont ask me what life means or how we know reality or why we have to suffer so much. Dont talk about how nothing feels real, how everything is coated with gelatin and shining like oil in the sun.

Perks on Love

"More like the movie where the guy meets a smart girl who wears a lot of sweaters and drinks cocoa. They talk about books and issues and kiss in the rain."

"It's like when you are excited about a girl and you see a couple holding hands, and you feel so happy for them. And other times you see the same couple, and they make you so mad. And all you want is to always feel happy for them because you know that if you do, then it means that you're happy, too"

“I just think its bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girls is better than the girl actually is.”

The Tunnel

As you enter the tunnel, the wind gets sucked away, and you squint from the lights overhead. When you adjust to the lights, you can see the other side in the distance just as the sound of the radio fades to nothing because the waves just can't reach. Then, you're in the middle of the tunnel, and everything becomes a calm dream. As you see the opening get closer, you just can't get there fast enough. And finally, just when you think you'll never get there, you see the opening right in front of you. And the radio comes back even louder than you remember it. And the wind is waiting. And you fly out of the tunnel onto the bridge. And there it is. The city. A million lights and buildings and everything seems as exciting as the first time you saw it.

Vincent

But I could have told you Vincent
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

don mclean

Life As a House

If you were a house, you would want to be built on rock over-looking the sea.

I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn't need to be big. It didn't even need to be beautiful. It just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life. I built myself a house.

Heroes

We are the heroes of our own stories.

Hail To Whatever You Found In The Sunlight That Surrounds You

Pretend all the good things are for you
pretend all the good things are for me too
And the weather changes not halfway between your house and mine

A Better Son / Daughter

Sometimes in the morning I am petrified and can’t move
Awake but cannot open my eyes
And the weight is crushing down on my lungs
I know I can’t breathe
And I hope someone will help me this time

But you’ll fight and you’ll make it through
You’ll fake it if you have to
And you’ll show up for work with a smile

And you’ll be better
And you’ll be smarter
And more grown up and a better daughter or son
And a real good friend

And you’ll be awake
You’ll be alert
You’ll be positive though it hurts
And you’ll laugh and embrace all your friends
And you’ll be a real good listener
You’ll be honest
You’ll be brave
You’ll be handsome and you’ll be beautiful
You’ll be happy

Your ship may be coming in
You’re weak but not giving in
To the cries and the wails of the valley below
And your ship may be coming inYou’re weak but not giving in
And you’ll fight itYou’ll go out fighting all of them…

Tennessee Williams

"We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it."

psalm 13

how long O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
how long will you hide your face from me
how long must i wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart....
... look on me and answer, O Lord my God...

But i trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation i will sing to the Lord
for He has been good to me

Sideways

I like to think about the life of wine.

How it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your '61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline.

Blower's Daughter

Did I say that I loathe you?
Did I say that I want to
Leave it all behind?

I can't take my mind off of you
'Til I find somebody new

damien rice

Waking Life

"Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams?"

Creep

I don't care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
You're so fucking special
I wish I was special

Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so fucking special
I wish I was special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here

radiohead

It's just your accidental death

You're obsessed with finding a new brain
But what you need is a new body
It feels your brain has lived a thousand lives before

And the skin you call your home
Holds a heart that quits
And knees that buckle in
And lungs that can't breathe when they're alone

And the days come to you like sailors
You watch them as they drift away
They meet the sunrise out at the horizon

And it's neither sink nor swim
Least the water's beneath your chin

There's blood spilled on the floor
Everyone's staring at you what for?
Till you realize the blood is probably yours

You feel you lost something, you want it back
You're lying motionless on your back
And your legs aren't taking anymore requests

It's just your accidental death

rilo kiley

12. Under My Umbrella - (3:31)

When I close my eyes
I can see for miles
there's comfort in my dark seat
and chaos in the aisles

These eyes are not your eyes
and these eyes are not the color that
your arid eyes might be
no I was not around
when those eyes of yours decided so
I refuse to kneel before the sights you choose to see

Suppose

Suppose that you think that you matter,
Well how much do you matter to whom?
It's much easier at night when with friends and bright lights
That much later alone in your room.

Do you think you're just one in a million
When you finish this whole human race?
Does it really make much of a difference
When your friends have forgotten your face?

Well how much do you think your are worth, boy?
Will anyone stand up and say?
Would you say that a man is worth nothing
Till someone is willing to pay?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Sometimes I think people don't understand how lonely it is to be a kid, like you don't matter.

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned;
Laber and rest, that equal periods keep;
Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;
Desires composed, affections ever even,
Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to Heaven.
Grace shines around her with serenest beams,
And whispering angels prompt her golden dreams.
For her the unfading rose of Eden blooms,
And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes,
For her the Spouse prepares the bridal ring,
For her white virgins hymeneals sing,
To sounds of heavenly harps she dies away,
And melts in visions of eternal day.

Storm

How long have I been in this storm?
So overwhelmed by the ocean’s shapeless form
Water's getting harder to tread
With these waves crashing over my head

I know you didn’t bring me out here to drown
So why am I ten feet under and upside down
Barely surviving has become my purpose
Because I’m so used to living underneath the surface

lifehouse

Moonlight Mile

You asked me before where I went. And I want to tell you. I went to a place where nothing’s right, where every word hurts, every moment’s backwards, every sky’s without color, without hope. I tried to come home, but I got lost.

And while I was gone, I met you. And I didn’t even have the courage to realize I was home. A wise friend of mine told me, “We all have our homes.” And now I know it’s true.

Hey, Hey

Say what you want
Say what you mean
Question yourself, are you really what you seem
Say who you are
Say what you mean
Question yourself , are you really what you dream

You might think this is easy for me
But there's a lot of things
You don't know
You don't care
You don't want to see

Long while since I got myself across
but maybe there's a reason for that
Even if I caught you,
I'd throw you back

Mad World

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going no where, going no where
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head i want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And i find it kind of funnyI find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best i've ever hadI find it hard to tell
'cos i find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very very
mad world.

tears for fears

have fun

Have you ever ever wondered which hurts the most? Saying something and wishing you hadn't? or saying nothing and wishing you had? I guess the most important things are the hardest things to say. Don't be afraid to tell someone you love them. If you do, they might break your heart...if you don't, you might break theirs. Have you ever decided not to become a couple because you were so afraid of losing what you already had with that person? Your heart decides whom it likes and whom it doesn't. You can't tell your heart what to do. It does it on its own....when you least suspect it, or even when you don't want it to. Have you ever wanted to love someone with everything you had, but that other person was too afraid to let you? Too many of us stay walled up because we are too afraid to care too much...for fear that the other person does not care as much, or even at all. Have you ever denied your feelings for someone because your fear of rejection was too hard to handle? We tell lies when we are afraid... afraid of what we don't know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing we fear grows stronger. Life is all about risks and it requires you to jump. Don't be a person who has to look back and wonder what they would have done, or could have had. * What would you do if every time you fell in love you had to say good-bye? *What would you do if every time you wanted someone they would never be there? *What would you do if your best friend died tomorrow and you never got to tell them how you felt? (even if it is that you don't care anymore)*What would you do if you loved someone more than ever and you couldn't have them? *What would you do if you never got the chance to say I am friends with all of my family and they know I love them?* People live, but people die. And I want to tell you that you are a friend. If you died tomorrow , you would be in my heart !!! Would I be in yours? If you care about me as much as I care about you, you will send this back. You might be best friends one year, pretty good friends the next year, don't talk that often the next, and don't want to talk at all the year after that. So, I just wanted to say, even if I never talk to you again in my life, you are special to me and you have made a difference in my life,look up to you, respect you, and truly cherish you. Send this to all your friends, no matter how often you talk , or how close you are, and send it to the person who sent it to you if you consider them a friend as well. Let old friends know you haven't forgotten them, and tell new friends you never will. Remember, everyone needs a friend, someday you might feel like you have NO FRIENDS at all, just remember this entry and take comfort in knowing somebody out there cares about you and .. always will.. I LOVE YOU!!!!

Robert Frost

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-robert frost

All Things are Relative

A flashlight
isn't quite sunlight
but any light at all seems bright
when you're looking in the dark. It's all about the way we receive it
how much we believe it
depending on the life you lead, if you lead it
compare it to yourself
compared to someone else, you care
and if you pick the threads in your closet
the cash in your wallet
the color of the skin in your blood and how you got it
compare it yourself
and someone else, you care
everything is relative

You're either underweight or you're unfit
underdressed or overzipped
too social or you're just too shy too depressed
or you're too high night to day
day to night
rich to poor
black and white
everything is relative

When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.-Vietnamese saying

His thoughts...

"You will not be remembered if you die now. You will be buried and mourned by a few, and what more can you ask for. But you feel so tremendously alone because you fear that your blood is not strong or good and your friends are few and embattled, too. But so what. That is the answer. So what so what so what so what so what so what? The world will spiral out from underneath you, and you will find nothing to hold on to because you are either too smart or too dumb to find God and because what the fuck will Camus ever do for you? Just ideas. You are not an artist, you will not leave something behind. Maybe you are angry only because the way out is through love and you are horny and lonely. Maybe this is the way it is for everybody, only you are weaker, or less lucky, or have seen something they all have not. You have seen that before you lies a great stretch of road, and it is windswept or blasted by the hot sun or covered in snow, or it is dirt or concrete or shrouded in dark or bright and clear so you have to squint, but no matter what, it is utterly empty."