Progarchives.com has always (since 2002) relied on banners ads to cover web hosting fees and all.
Please consider supporting us by giving monthly PayPal donations and help keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.
/PAlogo_v2.gif "Progarchives.com Homepage") |
Poetic Pieces for the Mind and Spirit |
Post Reply 
|
Page 123 12> |
| Author | |
David_D 
Forum Senior Member 
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
 Post Options
 Thanks(0)
 Quote Reply
 Topic: Poetic Pieces for the Mind and SpiritPosted: November 17 2024 at 13:40 |
|
Marillion wrote in 2012 maybe some of the most poignant and touching, modern socially-engaged/political lyrics, which were about what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict meant for the life of Palestinians living in Gaza, and were written after many conversations with ordinary Palestinians living in the refugee camps of Gaza and the West Bank: Marillion - "Gaza" (excerpt) When I was young it all seemed like a game Living here brought no sense of shame But now I'm older I've come to understand Once we had houses Once we had land They rained down bullets on us as our homes collapsed We lay beneath the rubble terrified Hoping, dare we dream? We gave up waiting For us, to dream is still a dream When I woke up, the house was broken stones We suddenly had nothing And nothing's changed We live, eight people, in this overcrowded heat Factory-farmed animals living in our own sweat Living like this is all my baby brother ever knew The world does nothing, what can we do? ....................... For thirteen years the roads have all been closed We're isolated, we're denied medical supplies Fuel and work are scarce, they build houses on our farms The old men weep, the young men take up arms ................... It's like a nightmare (With the love of our family) (We can rise above everything) Towards Bethlehem (Some day surely someone must help us) Someday surely someone must help us (from the album Sounds That Can't Be Made (2012)) Edited by David_D - November 17 2024 at 14:52 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
 |
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 17 2024 at 10:34 |
|
Frank Zappa and The Mothers have made quite a song about the brainwashing function or effect of many TV programmes: The Mothers - "I'm the Slime" (an excerpt) I am gross and perverted I'm obsessed and deranged I have existed for years But very little has changed I'm the tool of the Government And industry too For I am destined to rule And regulate you I may be vile and pernicious But you can't look away I make you think I'm delicious With the stuff that I say I'm the best you can get Have you guessed me yet? I'm the slime oozin' out From your TV set (from the album Over-nite Sensation (1973)) |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
Steve Wyzard
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 30 2017 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 2582 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 07 2024 at 17:18 |
|
1. The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough. (In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound) 2. Like a drummer's brush The rain hushes the surface of tin porches. (Rain by Emanuel Di Pasquale) 3. i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is YES (ee cummings) 4. As they slept, they dreamed of the world they were now part of: A world...within a world Time...within time A dream...within dreams. (Rick Wakeman) 5. When I was small, I was in love In love with everything And now there's only you And now there's only you... (Thomas Dolby)
|
|
|
|
|
jamesbaldwin
Prog Reviewer 
Joined: September 25 2015 Location: Milano Status: Offline Points: 5986 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 07 2024 at 14:46 |
|
"C'è chi l'amore lo fa per noia chi se lo sceglie per professione bocca di rosa né l'uno né l'altro lei lo faceva per passione. Ma la passione spesso conduce a soddisfare le proprie voglie senza indagare se il concupito ha il cuore libero oppure ha moglie. E fu così che da un giorno all'altro bocca di rosa si tirò addosso l'ira funesta delle cagnette a cui aveva sottratto l'osso. Ma le comari di un paesino non brillano certo in iniziativa le contromisure fino a quel punto si limitavano all'invettiva. Si sa che la gente dà buoni consigli sentendosi come Gesù nel tempio, si sa che la gente dà buoni consigli se non può più dare cattivo esempio. Così una vecchia mai stata moglie senza mai figli, senza più voglie, si prese la briga e di certo il gusto di dare a tutte il consiglio giusto. E rivolgendosi alle cornute le apostrofò con parole argute: "il furto d'amore sarà punito- disse- dall'ordine costituito". E quelle andarono dal commissario e dissero senza parafrasare: "quella schifosa ha già troppi clienti più di un consorzio alimentare". translation: "There are those who make love out of boredom those who choose it by profession Mouth Of Rose neither one nor the other she did it out of passion. But passion often leads to satisfy one's cravings without inquiring whether the concupied has a free heart or has a wife. And so it was that from one day to the next Mouth Of Rose brought upon herself the bitches' wrath whose bone he had taken from them. But the comrades of a small town certainly do not shine in initiative the countermeasures up to that point were limited to invective. People have been known to give good advice feeling like Jesus in the temple, people are known to give good advice if they can no longer set a bad example. So an old woman who had never been a wife with no children, with no more cravings, took the trouble and certainly the pleasure to give them all the right advice. And turning to the cuckolds she apostrophised them with witty words: ‘the theft of love will be punished- she said- by the established order'. And they went to the commissioner and said without paraphrasing: ‘that bitch already has too many customers more than a food consortium'." (Fabrizio De André - Bocca di Rosa: Mouth Of Rose) Edited by jamesbaldwin - November 07 2024 at 14:49 |
|
|
Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion.
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 07 2024 at 11:54 |
 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
jamesbaldwin
Prog Reviewer
Joined: September 25 2015 Location: Milano Status: Offline Points: 5986 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 07 2024 at 10:41 |
|
"Venite pure avanti, voi con il naso corto
signori imbellettati, io più non vi sopporto infilerò la penna ben dentro al vostro orgoglio perché con questa spada vi uccido quando voglio enite pure avanti poeti sgangherati inutili cantanti di giorni sciagurati buffoni che campate di versi senza forza avrete soldi e gloria, ma non avete scorza godetevi il successo, godete finché dura ché il pubblico è ammaestrato e non vi fa paura e andate chissà dove per non pagar le tasse col ghigno e l'ignoranza dei primi della classe io sono solo un povero cadetto di Guascogna però non la sopporto la gente che non sogna gli orpelli? L'arrivismo? All'amo non abbocco e al fin della licenza io non perdono e tocco io non perdono, non perdono e tocco!" Translation: "Come forward, you short-nosed you embellished gentlemen, I can't stand you any longer I will thrust my pen well into your pride Because with this sword I will kill you when I want to Come forth you ramshackle poets useless singers of wretched days buffoons who live on verse without strength You have money and glory, but you have no zest Enjoy success, enjoy it while it lasts Because the public is trained and doesn't scare you And go who knows where not to pay taxes with the sneer and ignorance of the top of the class I am only a poor cadet of Gascony But I can't stand people who don't dream the trappings? The arrivism? To the hook I do not bite And at the end of licence I do not forgive and touch I do not forgive and touch! (Francesco Guccini, "Cyrano")
Edited by jamesbaldwin - November 07 2024 at 10:45 |
|
|
Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion.
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 07 2024 at 04:10 |
|
Here's something that I've already written about in another thread, but I think that it's very suitable to post here as well.
In 1972, the Danish band Savage Rose made the album Dødens Triumf (The Triumph of Death). It's some music written for a ballet by one of the most appreciated choreographers in the '70s Denmark, Flemming Flindt. It's also a ballet based on Jeu de Massacre, a play by Eugené Ionescu, and on the back cover of this album is a quote from the book The Wretched of the Earth (1961) by Frantz Fanon, a French Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, political philosopher, and Marxist from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department).* This quote is not a poem, but I think that it can be said to possess something poetic and certainly something "for the mind and spirit". It says: Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience. Look at them today swaying between atomic and spiritual disintegration. (The quote on the back cover is translated to Danish, while I quote it here in an English version as it's transcribed and printed by https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/fanon/conclusion.htm * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon ) Edited by David_D - November 07 2024 at 06:09 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: October 31 2024 at 05:58 |
|
About my use of the term "ideology" here, I can tell that I use it in a very broad sense. For instance and as I see it, there's no really principal difference between political ideologies and religions of any kind, so I call them all "ideologies". So I use this term in the meaning of something like any set of ideas and values which has some importance for the life of some human beings. Edited by David_D - November 02 2024 at 06:16 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: August 19 2024 at 05:27 |
|
While "Children of the Grave" were worried and called for action, it has to be noticed that "Supper's Ready" seems (just?) to be optimistic about the future of human societies, and sees "the new Jerusalem" as the model for a perfect, fulfilled society (at least according to Edward Macan's Rocking the Classics, 1997 p. 81): Genesis - "Supper's Ready" (excerpt) Can't you feel our souls ignite? Shedding ever-changing colours In the darkness of the fading night Like the river joins the ocean As the germ in a seed grows We have finally been freed to get back home There's an angel standing in the sun And he's crying with a loud voice "This is the supper of the mighty one" Lord of Lords, King of Kings Has returned to lead his children home To take them to the new Jerusalem |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: August 18 2024 at 13:03 |
|
These great lyrics by Black Sabbath are definitely missing in this thread: Black Sabbath - "Children of the Grave" Revolution in their minds, the children start to march Against the world in which they have to live And all the hate that's in their hearts They're tired of being pushed around And told just what to do They'll fight the world until they've won And love comes flowing through Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today Will the sun rise up tomorrow, bring in peace in any way? Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear? Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear? So, you children of the world Listen to what I say If you want a better place to live in Spread the word today Show the world that love is still alive, you must be brave Or you children of today are children of the grave (from the album Master of Reality (1971)) |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: August 18 2024 at 08:19 |
|
Some very poignant, engaged and touching anti-war lyrics by the early Genesis: Genesis - "Supper's Ready" (excerpt) Wearing feelings on our faces while our faces took a rest We walked across the fields to see the children of the West But we saw a host of dark skinned warriors standing still below the ground Waiting for battle The fight's begun, they've been released Killing foe for peace, bang, bang, bang Bang, bang, bang And they've given me a wonderful potion 'Cause I cannot contain my emotion And even though I'm feeling good Something tells me I'd better activate my prayer capsule Today's a day to celebrate, the foe have met their fate The order for rejoicing and dancing has come from our warlord Wandering in the chaos the battle has left We climb up the mountain of human flesh To a plateau of green grass, and green trees full of life A young figure sits still by a pool He's been stamped "Human Bacon" by some butchery tool He is you (from the album Foxtrot (1972)) |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: August 04 2024 at 04:46 |
|
Here's the original version of Niemen's "Dziwny Jest Ten Swiat" translated to English by Google Translate and slightly corrected by me. Czeslaw Niemen - "Strange Is This World" where still so much evil resides. And strange is that for so many years, Man has despised Man. Strange is this world, the world of human affairs, sometimes it is embarrassing to admit it. And yet it is often the case that someone kills with an evil word as if with a knife. But there are most people of the good will and I strongly believe that this world will never perish thanks to them. No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! The time has come, it is high time to destroy hatred in yourself. (from the album Strange Is This World (1967)) It's a great song and to me, it's first and foremost about the belief that despite all the evil, the "people of the good will" will ensure the further existence of the human world. Or it's maybe more an appeal to conflicting parts to overcome hatred, compromise and solve the conflicts - a kind of flower power message. Edited by David_D - August 04 2024 at 06:53 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: August 04 2024 at 02:53 |
|
only god knows how someone becomes such a patetisk nar a sad story of a human creature
Edited by David_D - August 05 2024 at 06:08 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: August 02 2024 at 05:35 |
If the title "Four Walls of the World" is also meant to be associated with the four directions of the world, the afore-mentioned interpretation could be defended if changed to concerning the whole world-widespread marxism/communism/socialism the way it had been practiced by regimes. Such an interpretation can also be supported by the red, or even blood-red, wall on the coverart and not least in the eyes of the depicted face. However, stating such heavy criticism is even harder to me to believe, even there was a quite strong oppositional movement emerging in Poland in the mid-'70s, which was mostly leftist though.  Edited by David_D - August 02 2024 at 07:53 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: August 01 2024 at 04:25 |
|
These lyrics, I find to be some of the very greatest: King Crimson - "Epitaph" The wall on which the prophets wrote Is cracking at the seams Upon the instruments of death The sunlight brightly gleams When every man is torn apart With nightmares and with dreams Will no one lay the laurel wreath When silence drowns the screams Confusion will be my epitaph As I crawl a cracked and broken path If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying Between the iron gates of fate The seeds of time were sown And watered by the deeds of those Who know and who are known Knowledge is a deadly friend If no one sets the rules The fate of all mankind, I see Is in the hands of fools (from the album In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)) |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: July 28 2024 at 12:32 |
|
^ I've written this already in another thread, but I think, it's good to do it here as well: Cindy has this interpretation of Niemen's "Four Walls of the World": "the Wall represents unmoveable government oppression and different folks' responses to a Wall of Pain." I find this interpretation to be rather good, but I think that instead of government, it's better to say that the wall represents the Party (PZPR), or maybe even the political or the whole system. But I can also be in doubt about whether Czeslaw Niemen, the greatest Polish Rock star at that time, would be stating such heavy criticism, even in a symbolic way. Edit: The original Polish title of "Four Walls of the World" is "Cztery Sciany Swiata", and it may be easily associated with "cztery strony swiata" which is the Polish expression for the four directions of the world: East, West, North and South. Having this as a starting point for the interpretation of the song, it may be more obvious with another one than the quoted. Further, I don't know that much about Czeslaw Niemen, but I think of him as more concerned with human beings in general, or the mankind, than with politics. Edited by David_D - August 01 2024 at 04:52 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: July 25 2024 at 12:15 |
|
^ These lyrics look definitely to me as criticism of something social, the question is just of what. Edited by David_D - July 25 2024 at 12:45 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: July 23 2024 at 12:48 |
|
Here's an English translation of "Cztery Sciany Swiata", made by Google Translate and slightly corrected by me: Niemen Aerolit - "Four Walls of the World" In front of the wall of sound stand the deaf ones They pray to the music When you don't desire, when you have to Better be nobody In front of the wailing wall stand the clowns They laugh at their own shadows' twitches And their laughter is empty, their laughter is terrible Better be nobody In front of the wall of light stand the blind ones And they look without blinking About what shines, they know better Than an ordinary man A hero stands in front of the wall of execution Looks the executioners in the eyes Smokes his last cigarette On the edge of the night There is a world made of walls growing upwards In it the word loses its value I stand in front of an ordinary wall And I bang my head against it And I bang my head against it |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: July 22 2024 at 12:27 |
|
Has it ever occurred to you, Hrychu, that this original poem of Jonasz Kofta could be a political statement? Edited by David_D - July 23 2024 at 10:37 |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
David_D
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15119 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: July 22 2024 at 11:46 |
Thank you very much. It's an interesting intepretation, but I don't find it to be able to explain very well the entire text, and not least the fourth verse: Pod ścianą straceń stoi heros Patrzy oprawcom w oczy Pali ostatni swój papieros Na skraju nocy - But then you say, it's the general message. |
|
|
quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
|
|
|
|
|
Post Reply
|
Page 123 12> |
| Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |
Topic Options
David_D wrote: