The Journey of the Magi

by T.S. Eliot

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Take to the World

by Aaron Tate

Go in peace
To love and to serve
Let your ears ring long
With what you have heard

And may the bread on your tongue
Leave a trail of crumbs
To lead the hungry back
To the place that you are from

And take to the world this love, hope, and faith
Take to the world this rare, relentless grace
And like the three-in-one
Know you must become
What you want to save
'Cause that's still the way
He takes to the world

Go and go far
Take light deep in the dark
Believe what's true
He uses all, even you

Getting in Tune

by Pete Townshend

I'm singing this note 'cause it fits in well
With the chords I'm playing
I can't pretend there's any meaning here
In the things I'm saying

But I'm in tune
Right in tune
I'm in tune
And I'm gonna tune
Right in on you

I get a little tired of having to say
'Do you come here often?'
But when I look in your eyes, I see the harmonies
And the heartaches soften

I've got it all here in my head
There's nothing more needs to be said
I'm just banging on my old piano
I'm getting in tune to the straight and narrow

I'm getting in tune
Right in tune
I'm in tune
And I'm gonna tune
Right in on you

The Second Coming

by William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre,
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

by Martin Luther

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,
Ein gute Wehr und Waffen.
Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,
Die uns jetzt hat betroffen.
Der alt böse Feind,
Mit Ernst er's jetzt meint.
Groß Macht und viel List
Sein grausam Rüstung ist.
Auf Erd ist nicht seinsgleichen.

Mit unsrer Macht ist nichts getan,
Wir sind gar bald verloren.
Es streit't für uns der rechte Mann,
Den Gott hat selbst erkoren.
Fragst du, wer der ist?
Er heißt Jesus Christ,
Der Herr Zebaoth,
Und ist kein ander Gott.
Das Feld muß er behalten.

Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel wär
Und wollt uns gar verschlingen,
So fürchten wir uns nicht so sehr,
Es soll uns doch gelingen.
Der Fürst dieser Welt,
Wie saur er sich stellt,
Tut er uns doch nicht.
Das macht, er ist gericht't.
Ein Wörtlein kann ihn fällen.

Das Wort sie sollen lassen stahn
Und kein' Dank dazu haben.
Er ist bei uns wohl auf dem Plan
Mit seinem Geist und Gaben.
Nehmen sie den Leib,
Gut, Ehr, Kind und Weib,
Laß fahren dahin.
Sie haben's kein Gewinn.
Das Reich muß uns doch bleiben.

Something Changed

by Jarvis Cocker

I wrote this song two hours before we met
I didn't know your name or what you looked like yet
I could have stayed at home and gone to bed
I could have gone to see a film instead
You might have changed your mind and seen your friend
Life could have been very different but then
Something changed

Do you believe that there's someone up above?
And does he have a timetable directing acts of love?
Why did I write this song on that one day?
Why did you touch my hand and softly say:
'Stop asking questions that don't matter anyway
'Just give us a kiss to celebrate here today
'Something changed'

When we woke up that morning we had no way of knowing
That in a matter of hours we'd change the way we were going
Where would I be now?
Where would I be now if we'd never met?
Would I be singing this song to someone else instead?
I don't know, but like you just said
Something changed

Live Forever

by Noel Gallagher

Maybe I don't really wanna know
How your garden grows
'Cause I just want to fly
Lately did you ever feel the pain
In the morning rain
As it soaks you to the bone?

Maybe I just want to fly
Want to live, but don't want to die
Maybe I just want to breathe
Maybe I just don't believe
Maybe you're the same as me
We see things they'll never see
You and I, we're gonna live forever

Maybe I will never be
All the things that I want to be
Now is not the time to cry
Now's the time to find out why
I think you're the same as me
We see things they'll never see
You and I, we're gonna live forever