The Only One

by Aaron Tate

I come from a long line of leavers
Out of the garden gate with an apple in their hands
I expect and I believe
You're gonna run out of love
You're gonna give me the shove
'Cause that's the thing that lovers do
Then there's you

You found me cynical and jaded
You lifted my mask and lightened me up
And when my black eyes have faded
I found they were not gouged
Had the coal in my mouth
I've never seen the old age new
And then there's you

You're the only one
Who knows my secrets
You're the only one
Still you're the only one
Who never leaves
And I wake up to this mystery

I betrayed you with a little kiss
I thought you'd find someone better
And you forgave me even for this
Came to the upper room
You dragged me from the tomb
There is none both good and true
Then there's you

I Didn't See It Coming

by Stuart Murdoch

Make me dance, I want to surrender
Your familiar arms I remember
We've been going transcontinental
Got no car, we just take a rental

But we don't have the money
Money makes the wheels and the world go round
Forget about it, honey

Make me dance, I want to surrender
Your familiar arms I remember
Everybody's talking about you
Every word's a whisper without you

But we don't have the money
Money makes the wheels and the world go round
Forget about it, honey
Trouble's never far away when you're around

Take me on a train 'cause I'm not flying
I can see the world from a different side
Read about us in the morning papers
When we make it alive

I didn't see it coming
(Make me dance, I want to surrender)
I'm just not in the running
(Make me dance, I want to surrender)

And we don't need a lifetime
(Make me dance, I want to surrender)
We're following the right line
(Make me dance, I want to surrender)

If—

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And – which is more – you'll be a Man my son!

from Ulysses

by James Joyce
from Episode 18 — Penelope

[...]the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else from all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby Sharans and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Summertime

by DuBose Heyward

Summertime
And the living is easy
Fish are jumping
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mama's good-looking
So hush, little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But till that morning
There's a-nothing can harm you
With your daddy and mamma
Standing by

Runaway Wind

by Paul Westerberg

You don't blow like the breeze you were born to be
You die down in the trees and try to hide
Will you witness the dark?
All you need is a spark
A cathedral of torches light the night

On your mark
Here I am
I'm your spark
Runaway wind

You trade your telescope for a keyhole
Make way for the grey that's in your brown
As dreams make way for plans
I see you watch life from the stands
Come on, I'll help you burn them to the ground

He sees you like a river, deep and silent
And he runs to you like a shallow, noisy stream
I see what you've become and try to hide it
You need someone who sees what you were born to be

You don't blow like the breeze you were born to be
You don't know what to do with your life
As day returns to dark
Flame returns to spark
Come on, I feel I'm blowing out tonight

I'm your spark
Here I am
On your mark
Runaway wind

Watch you run

Promises

by Owen Thomas

I remember sneaking in through her parents' back door
In the middle of the night, in the middle of the storm
To tell her she was all I would ever need
And that the promises I made were the promises I'd keep

I was shaking like a leaf
And soaking to the bone
But I swore to her that night
She'd never run alone

'Cause promises are all you've got to give
When you're burning with desire, but you're just a kid
And promises are all you want to hear
It don't matter that they're just going to disappear

They might only last a night
Then another one is born
They make you feel alive
Like you're worth a little more
That's what promises are for

She went to college, and we both fell out of touch
I got a job tending bar that didn't pay that much
I wonder if she met a guy to love her like I did
Or if she looked him in the eye and made a promise to him

I could never give her up
Not without looking back
When we gave ourselves away
I thought we made a pact

I've been taking stock while the days roll on
I think about her when the night gets calm
So what if we were young?
So what if I was wrong?
Well, I believed in her
And trusted all along

That's what promises are for

Ordinary Day

by Melanie Penn

It was an ordinary day
I woke up on a wave
I filled a sail
And made my way to the shore

I blew through the center of your town
Came upon your house
Waited there for you
To come to your screen door

I asked you
Can you hear me blow?
Though you don't know
Where I'm coming from
Or where I go

It was an ordinary night
I met some fireflies
I danced around with them
Until about 9 o'clock

Heard your footsteps on the road
I ran to bring you home
And I whispered through the leaves
Up and down your block

Oh I'm a summer breeze
I brush across your cheek
I have always been
And I will always be
You can hear me blow
Though you don't know
Where I'm coming from
Or where I go

It's me when you catch the fragrance of spring
When tall trees sway
It's me in the cold winter sting
In the alleyway
I am the sigh
While all creation groans and waits

You can hear me speak
If you're listening
I will always be
And I have always been
You can hear me blow
Although you don't know
Where I'm coming from
Or where I go