My Jesus, I Love Thee

by William R. Featherstone

My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;
For thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree.
I love thee for wearing the thorns on my brow;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death;
And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath;
And say, when the deathdew lies cold on my brow:
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow:
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

Don't Look Back

by Zooey Deschanel

Orpheus melted the heart of Persephone
But I never had yours
I followed you back to the end of the path
But I never found the door

And you can work to save your love
You can bear it from the earth below
You can work, but you can't let go
But you have to know

Don't look back, all you'll ever get
Is the dust from the steps before
I don't have to see you every day
But I just want to know you're there

Quietly took to the dark of the day
And the hiss of the summer night
The heat of the breeze was a cell block wall
And when I looked, you were out of sight

I'll Never Fall in Love Again

by Hal David

What do you get when you fall in love?
A girl with a pin to burst your bubble
That's what you get for all your trouble
I'll never fall in love again

What do you get when you kiss a girl?
You get enough germs to catch pneumonia
After you do, she'll never phone ya
I'll never fall in love again

Don't tell me what's it all about
'Cause I've been there, and I'm glad I'm out
Out of those chains, those chains that bind you
That is why I'm here to remind you

What do you get when you give your heart?
You get it all broken up and battered
That's what you get, a heart that's shattered
I'll never fall in love again

What do you get when you fall in love?
You get enough tears to fill an ocean
That's what you get for your devotion
I'll never fall in love again

What do you get when you fall in love?
You only get lies and pain and sorrow
So for at least until tomorrow
I'll never fall in love again

Here Today

by Tony Asher

It starts with just a little glance now
Right away you're thinking 'bout romance now
You know you ought to take it slower
But you just can't wait to get to know her

A brand new love affair
Is such a beautiful thing
But if you're not careful
Think about the pain it can bring

It makes you feel so bad
It makes your heart feel sad
It makes your days go wrong
It makes your nights so long
You've got to keep in mind
Love is here today
And it's gone tomorrow
It's here and gone so fast

Right now you think that she's perfection
This time is really an exception
Well you know, I hate to be a downer
But I'm the guy she left before you found her

Well I'm not saying
You won't have a good love with her
But I keep on remembering
Things like they were

She made me feel so bad
She made my heart feel sad
She made my days go wrong
And made my nights so long
You've got to keep in mind
Love is here today
And it's gone tomorrow
It's here and gone so fast

from Atalanta in Calydon

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces,
  The mother of months in meadow or plain
Fills the shadows and windy places
  With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain;
And the brown bright nightingale amorous
Is half assuaged for Itylus,
For the Thracian ships and the foreign faces.
  The tongueless vigil, and all the pain.

Come with bows bent and with emptying of quivers,
  Maiden most perfect, lady of light,
With a noise of winds and many rivers,
  With a clamour of waters, and with might;
Bind on thy sandals, O thou most fleet,
Over the splendour and speed of thy feet;
For the faint east quickens, the wan west shivers,
  Round the feet of the day and the feet of the night.

Where shall we find her, how shall we sing to her,
  Fold our hands round her knees, and cling?
O that man's heart were as fire and could spring to her,
  Fire, or the strength of the streams that spring!
For the stars and the winds are unto her
As raiment, as songs of the harp-player;
For the risen stars and the fallen cling to her,
  And the southwest-wind and the west-wind sing.

For winter's rains and ruins are over,
  And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
  The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remember'd is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
  Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

The full streams feed on flower of rushes,
  Ripe grasses trammel a travelling foot,
The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes
  From leaf to flower and flower to fruit;
And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire,
And the oat is heard above the lyre,
And the hoofèd heel of a satyr crushes
  The chestnut-husk at the chestnut-root.

from This Side of Paradise

by F. Scott Fitzgerald
from Book Two, Chapter One

[Editor's Note: Another unusual post for this blog, which I can't resist posting. And again it's Fitzgerald. And again a scene from the night streets of New York. Either Fitzgerald captures the essence of the New York night so perfectly, or his nocturnal prose especially resonates with me, or both.]

Amory wandered slowly up the avenue and thought of the night as inevitably his—the pageantry and carnival of rich dusk and dim streets . . . it seemed that he had closed the book of fading harmonies at last and stepped into the sensuous vibrant walks of life. Everywhere these countless lights, this promise of a night of streets and singing—he moved in a half-dream through the crowd as if expecting to meet Rosalind hurrying toward him with eager feet from every corner . . . How the unforgettable faces of dusk would blend to her, the myriad footsteps, a thousand overtures, would blend to her footsteps; and there would be more drunkeness than wine in the softness of her eyes on his. Even his dreams now were faint violins drifting like summer sounds upon the summer air.

Chapel Hill

by Thurston Moore

Back in the days when the battles raged
And we thought it was nothing
A bookstore man meets the CIA
And we know

Throw me a cord and plug it in
Get the Cradle rocking
Out with the redneck pig old men
And it's go

The hair in the hole in my head
Too bad the scene is dead
Memories in the shadow
Back in time again

I can't forget your terrorized face
When you cried for the shameless
Wasted life Ameri-K-K-Kan
And you smile

So why should we run when we cannot hide
And my flag is burning?
We could be wrong, but that's alright
We'll rise again

The hair in the hole in my head
Too bad the scene is dead
Memories in the shadow
It's back in town again

Looking away, it's another day
And of course, we love you
Radical man is the CIA
And we say no

We'll round up the Durham H.C. kids
And the Char Grill Killers
Jesse H. come into our pit
All ages show

The hair in the hole in my head
Too bad the scene is dead
Memories in the shadow
It's back in time again

What's Going Ahn

by Alex Chilton

I liked her face and oh, those eyes
She left today, oh goodbye
And looking at you, I'm drained outright
And isolated in the light

And I resigned everyone
Ever since I was young
I'm starting to understand
What's going on and how it's planned

I like love, but I don't know
All these girls, they come and go
Always nothing left to say

Carolina

by Robert Earl Keen

The sweet smell of nighttime rides on the breeze
The river is winding through the hickory trees
The redbones are howling down by Wilson's Bridge
The lawmen stand waiting upon Deadman's Ridge

Ooo Carolina, so dark I can't see
Ooo Carolina, won't you let me go free?

I came here with Lily a year just last fall
We left her old daddy back in Donegal
We made us a home place of Black Mountain stone
But one cold winter morning I woke up alone

Days full of silence are so incomplete
Nights without Lily I took to the streets
In the streets of Asheville I channeled my pain
'Til one raging black night I slept in the rain

I dreamed of a refuge, a red velvet world
And I swore my sweet Lily was one of the girls
I loved her so madly, I loved her so long
I woke with my dream girl, but her life was all gone

Ooo Carolina, so dark I can't see
Ooo Carolina, won't you let me go free?
Love has no boundary, sorrow no end
And the lawmen of Asheville have no mercy in them

Carolina in the Morning

by Gus Kahn

Nothing could be finer
Than to be in Carolina
In the morning
No one could be sweeter
Than my sweetie when I meet her
In the morning
Where the morning glories
Climb around the door
Whispering pretty stories
I long to hear once more

Rolling with my girly
Where the dew is pearly early
In the morning
Butterflies all flutter up
And kiss each little buttercup
At dawning
If I had Aladdin's lamp for only a day
I'd make a wish and here's what I'd say
Nothing could be finer
Than to be in Carolina
In the morning

Wagon Wheel

by Ketch Secor

Headed down south to the land of the pines
And I'm thumbing my way into North Caroline
Staring up the road
And pray to God I see headlights

I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a hoping for Raleigh
I can see my baby tonight

Running from the cold up in New England
I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time string band
My baby plays the guitar
I pick a banjo now

The North country winters keep getting me now
Lost my money playing poker so I had to up and leave
But I ain't turning back
To living that old life no more

Walking to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke
But he's a headed west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee

And I gotta get a move on fit for the sun
I hear my baby calling my name
And I know that she's the only one
And if I die in Raleigh
At least I will die free

Carolina in My Mind

by James Taylor

In my mind I'm going to Carolina
Can't you see the sunshine?
Can't you just feel the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine
To hit me from behind?
Yes I'm going to Carolina in my mind

Karen, she's a silver sun
You best walk her way and watch it shining
Watch her watch the morning come
A silver tear appearing, now I'm crying
Ain't I going to Carolina in my mind

There ain't no doubt in no one's mind
That love's the finest thing around
Whisper something soft and kind
And hey babe, the sky's on fire, I'm dying
Ain't I going to Carolina in my mind

Dark and silent late last night
I think I might have heard the highway calling
Geese in flight and dogs that bite
Signs that might be omens say I'm going
I'm going to Carolina in my mind

With a holy host of others standing 'round me
Still I'm on the dark side of the moon
And it seems like it goes on like this forever
You must forgive me
If I'm up and gone to Carolina in my mind

Singin' in the Rain

by Arthur Freed

I'm singin' in the rain
Just singin' in the rain
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again
I'm laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun's in my heart
And I'm ready for love

Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I've a smile on my face
I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin'
Singin' in the rain

Dancin' in the rain
I'm happy again
I'm singin'
And dancin' in the rain

From This One Place

by Sara Groves

I was about to give up, and that's no lie
Cardinal landed outside my window
Threw his head back
Sang a song so beautiful it made me cry
Took me back to a childhood tree
Full of birds and dreams

From this one place I can't see very far
In this one moment I'm square in the dark
These are the things I will trust in my heart
You can see something else

I don't know what's making me so afraid
Tiny cloud over my head
Heavy and grey with a hint of dread
And I don't like to feel this way
Take me back to a window seat
With clouds beneath my feet

The Waste Land (Pt. II)

[Part I here]
by T.S. Eliot

II. A Game of Chess

The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
That freshened from the window, these ascended
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
Huge sea-wood fed with copper
Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,
In which sad light a carvèd dolphin swam.
Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
And still she cried, and still the world pursues,
'Jug Jug' to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the walls; staring forms
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.

'My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.
'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
'I never know what you are thinking. Think.'

I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

'What is that noise?'
                                          The wind under the door.
'What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?'
                                          Nothing again nothing.
                                                                                           'Do
'You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
'Nothing?'
    I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?'
                                                                                                               But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—
It's so elegant
So intelligent
'What shall I do now? What shall I do?'
'I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
'With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?
'What shall we ever do?'
                                                 The hot water at ten.
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.

When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said—
I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself,
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,
He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.
And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.
Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said.
Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said.
Others can pick and choose if you can't.
But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling.
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
(And her only thirty-one.)
I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face,
It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.
(She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.)
The chemist said it would be alright, but I've never been the same.
You are a proper fool, I said.
Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said,
What you get married for if you don't want children?
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,
And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot—
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight.
Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.

[Part III here]