probably my favourite poem

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
"Love has no ending.

"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

"I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

"The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world."

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
"O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

"In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

"In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

"Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

"O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

"The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

"Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

"O look, look in the mirror
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

"O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart."

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

- W.H. Auden

I am the only being whose doom

I am the only being whose doom
No tongue would ask no eye would mourn
I never caused a thought of gloom
A smile of joy since I was born

In secret pleasure - secret tears
This changeful life has slipped away
As friendless after eighteen years
As lone as on my natal day

There have been times I cannot hide
There have been times when this was drear
When my sad soul forgot its pride
And longed for one to love me here

But those were in the early glow
Of feelings since subdued by care
And they have died so long ago
I hardly now believe they were

First melted off the hope of youth
Then Fancy's rainbow fast withdrew
And then experience told me truth
In mortal bosoms never grew

'Twas grief enough to think mankind
All hollow servile insincere -
But worse to trust to my own mind
And find the same corruption there.

-Emily Brontë

ten favourite albums

1. Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head
2. R.E.M. Automatic for the People
3. Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks
4. Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
5. Radiohead OK Computer
6. Kris Kristofferson The Austin Sessions
7. Pearl Jam Ten
8. Jethro Tull Songs from the Wood
9. Paul Simon Graceland
10. Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline
near misses: Sarah McLachlan Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Bob Dylan Blonde On Blonde, Paul Simon Graceland, U2 The Joshua Tree

a slap in the eye

An eyeful of polished mirrors, brimming over
With unwanted reflections. Every time you look,
You see, and see and see and see. Your life,
It could be summarized in a pupil, a perverted
Sort of miniscule nutshell. Light in and again,
Light out with fluttered openings, all timed
To hit you, but with beautiful, marked out grace.

-I wrote this a long time ago, when I read 10D's english paper, and a line in one of the comprehension texts caught my attention..."We searched and searched, but no Rex. It was like a slap in the eye."