Que sonrían las que ya se olvidaron de mí

Let those who have already forgotten me smile.

Call me false, or call me free

The Lady's Yes:

Learn to win a lady's faith

Nobly, as the thing is high ;

Bravely, as for life and death —

With a loyal gravity.

Lead her from the festive boards,

Point her to the starry skies,

Guard her, by your truthful words,

Pure from courtship's flatteries.

By your truth she shall be true —

Ever true, as wives of yore —

And her Yes, once said to you,

SHALL be Yes for evermore.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

I went down, down, down and the flames went higher

And it burns, burns, burns...wait, is this song about an STI?

Obscured

Clouds and Waves:

With bent heads hidden the clouds run by,
Muffled in shadow, across the sky.

With lowered eyes, in the darkness of the sea,
The hunched lean waves scud away fearfully.

How great is the wrong, and where is the place?
What is the truth that they cannot face?

Oscar Williams.

#throwbackthursday

Current mood.  Ah, heck, it's always current. (2015)

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

My kitchen sure is a sight.

Reminds Me of Summer Camp Back in '81

Jenny Kiss’d Me:

Jenny kissed me when we met,

   Jumping from the chair she sat in;

Time, you thief, who love to get

   Sweets into your list, put that in:

Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,

   Say that health and wealth have missed me,

Say I'm growing old, but add,

   Jenny kissed me.

Leigh Hunt.

Fresh

Probably my favorite reference to my favorite movie in this scene.

What...Is Your Favorite Color?

Who Guessed Amiss the Riddle of the Sphinx:

In the night my great swamp-willow fell.
I had run home early, dark by five,
To find the young sphinx and the hearth swept bare
By the lazy thrashing of her tail. 

A scraping on my window woke me late.
Circling those roots aghast in air
I asked of wind, of rottenness the cause,
As yet unaware of having forgotten 

Her yellow gaze unwinking, vertical pupil,
Stiff wing, dark nipple, firelit paws
—All that the odor of my palm brings back
Hiding my face, beside the boughs 

Whose tall believed exuberance fallen,
Bug goes witless, liquors lack,
Profusion riddled to its core of dream
Dies, whispering names. 

She only from the dead flames rose,
Had licked my fingers but sweet milk disdained.
Henceforth, bareness extreme,
No more this hand has branchings of a tree.

James Merrill.

Feel like I'm looking for my soul

Like a poor man looking for gold.

King of the Mud

Yertle the Turtle:

"Hooray!" shouted Yertle.  "I'm the king of the trees!
I'm king of the birds! And I'm king of the bees!
I'm king of the butterflies! King of the air!
Ah, me! What a throne! What a wonderful chair!
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!"

Then...from below, in the great heavy stack,
Came a groan from that plain little turtle named Mack.
"Your Majesty, please... I don't like to complain,
But down here below, we are feeling great pain.
I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,
But down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights...

Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Look around

Everywhere you turn is heartache.

Omnes viae

Rome:

You search in Rome for Rome? Oh traveller!
In Rome itself there is no room for Rome,
a corpse is all its churches put on show,
the Aventine is its own mound and tomb.
There, where the Palatifie once towered and reigned,
are medals ruined by the hands of time,
they show how more was lost to chance and time
than Hannibal or Caesar could consume.
The Tiber flows still, but its current guards
a city that has fallen in its grave—
each wave's a woman tearing at her breast.
Oh Rome! From all your beauty, all your grandeur,
whatever once was firm has fled . . . what once
was fugitive maintains its permanence. 

Robert Lowell.

And the wheels are turning and turning

I guess I kinda understand why this Lynchian ditty might've found its way into the Starship Troopers soundtrack, but it still seems a bit odd.