"Music of the Night"

"Music of the Night"
from The Phantom of the Opera

Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination
Silently the senses abandon their defenses

Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendor
Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender

Turn your face away from the garish light of day
Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light
And listen to the music of the night

Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams
Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before
Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar
And you'll live as you've never lived before

Softly, deftly, music shall surround you
Feel it, hear it, closing in around you

Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind
In this darkness of the music of the night

Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world
Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before
Let your soul take you where you long to be
Only then can you belong to me

Floating, falling, sweet intoxication
Touch me, trust me, savor each sensation

Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in
To the power of the music that I write
The power of the music of the night
You alone can make my song take flight
Help me make the music of the night

"Loving Someone"

"Loving Someone"
by The 1975

My heart is telling me the telly isn't telling me anything I need but it needs to keep selling me
Besides celebrities lacking in integrity holding up the status quo instead of showing the kids that they matter, who are they gonna batter next? Just keep holding their necks and keep selling them sex - 'it's better if we keep them perplexed' - 'it's better if we make them want the opposite sex'

Disenfranchised young criminal minds in a car park beside where your nan resides are not slow, they've just never been shown that you should be loving someone

We're all human, we're just like you man
We're sentient or something or other I can't remember, whatever - we shouldn't have people afloat,
If it was safer on the ground, we wouldn't be on a boat

Charlatan telepathy exploiting insecurity and preying on the purity of grief and it's simplicity but I know that maybe I'm too skeptical, even Guy Debord needed spectacles
You see, I'm the Greek economy of cashing intellectual cheques and I'm trying to progress but instead of selling sex - I think I should be loving someone

I am forever in alongside the boys in jumpers on bikes from schools and cars with autumn leaves fallen sparse across mid-afternoon
She blazed about how 'cultural language is an operation system, a simple interface rendered feeble and listless when tested with a divitnty or a true understanding of the human condition.' I never did understand - the duality of art and reality - living life and treating it as such but with a certain disconnect to touch that cajoles at the artist with comfort and abandon. And between the spires and rolling roofs of the white city that orange, English light casts only one, singular shadow for you are not beside me but within me

"5 Am"

"5 AM"
by Amber Run

We run into a dark room
And we spasm to the sounds
Of a copy of Morrissey
Or the blues of the deep South

And the drugs will only hide it
The feeling never really goes
You won't find love at the bottom
Of a glass seat home

We've got work in the morning
But it's nearly 5am
Is this really what we envisioned?
We won't be 21 again

And in the haze you see colours
And problems suddenly make sense
But the way you've been going
You'll be in an early grave

And you don't know what you've got
until it's gone
And you don't know who to love
until you're lost
And you don't know how to feel
until the moment's passed.
I wish you'd live like you're made of glass.

"R.I.P. 2 My Youth"

"R.I.P. 2 My Youth"
by The Neighbourhood

R.I.P. 2 my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral

Wrap my up in Chanel inside my coffin
Might go to hell and there ain't no stopping
Might be a sinner and I might be a saint
I'd like to be proud but somehow I'm ashamed

Sweet little baby in a world full of pain
I gotta be honest, I don't know if I could take it
Everybody's talking but what's anybody saying?

Mama said if I really want then I can change it
R.I.P. 2 my youth
If you really listen, then this is to you
Mama, there is only so much I can do
Tough for you to witness but it was for me too

Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with Dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me dream with the stars

Throw me in a box with the oxygen off
You gave me the key and you locked every lock
When I can't breathe, I won't ask you to stop
When I can't breathe, don't call for a cop

I was naive and hopeful and lost
Now I'm aware and driving my thoughts.

"Forest"

"Forest"
by Twenty One Pilots

I don't know why I feed on emotion
There's a stomach inside my brain
I don't wanna be heard I wanna be listened to.
Does it bother anyone else that someone else has your name?

I scream, you scream
We all scream cause we're terrified
Of what's around the corner.
We stay in place
Cause we don't wanna lose our lives
So let's think of something better.

Down in the forest, we'll sing a chorus
One that everybody knows.
Hands held higher, we'll be on fire
Singing songs that nobody wrote.

My brain has given up,
White flags are hoisted;
I took some food for thought, it might be poisoned,
The stomach in my brain throws up onto the page.
Does it bother anyone else that someone else has your name?

Quickly moving towards the storm, moving forward, torn, into pieces over reasons of what these storms are for. I don't understand why everything I adore takes a different form when I squint my eyes. Have you ever done that? When you squint your eyes and your eyelashes make it look a little not right and then when just enough light comes from just the right side and you find you're not who you're supposed to be? This is not what you're supposed to see. Please, remember me. I am supposed to be king of a kingdom, I'm swinging on a swing. Something happened in my imagination. The situation's becoming dire. My tree house is one fire. And for some reason I smell gas on my hands. 


This is not what I had planned.

This is not what I had planned.

"Leave a Trace"

"Leave a Trace"
by Chvrches

I gave up on time
Just like you said you would
There are tiny cracks of light underneath me
And you say I got it wrong
But I tried hard to uncover them

I have somehow got away with everything
Anything you ever did was strictly by design
But you got it wrong
And I'll go anywhere but there

I will show restraint
Just like we said we should
You think I'll apologise for things I left behind
But you got it wrong
And I'm as sane as I ever was

You talk far too much for someone so unkind
I will wipe the salt off of my skin
And I'll admit that I got it wrong
And there is grey between the lines

And you had best believe
That you cannot build what I don't need
And I know I need to feel relief
And I know you'll never fold
But I believe nothing that I'm told
And I know I need to feel relief
I know I need to feel released 
Take care to tell it just as it was
Take care to tell on me for the cause
I know I need to feel released

Take care to bury all that you can 
Take care to leave a trace of a man

"Kansas City"

"Kansas City"
by The New Basement Tapes 

I listen to you time and time again
While you tell me just what's right
And you tell me a thousand things a day
Then sleep somewhere else's at night
I'm going back to Kansas City.

And you call to come, then I do
And you say you made some mistake
You invite me into your house
The you say you gotta pay for what you break
I'm going back to Kansas City.

Gypsy woman, you know every place I go
Even a thousand miles away from home
You don't care if I'm asleep or I'm awake
This fickle heart just turns to stone
I'm going back to Kansas City. 

And I love you, dear, but just how long
Can I keep singing the same old song?
And I love you, dear, but just how long
Can I keep singing the same old song?
I'm going back to Kansas City.

"She"

"She"
by Dodie Clark

Am I allowed to look at her like that?
Could it be wrong when she's just so nice to look at?

And she smells like lemongrass and sleep
She tastes like apple juice and peach
You would find her in a polaroid picture
And she means everything to me

I'd never tell
No I'd never say a word
And oh it aches
But it feels oddly good to hurt

And I'll be okay
Admiring from afar
Cause even when she's next to me
We could not be more far apart

Cause she tastes like birthday cake and storytime and fall
But to her 
I taste of nothing at all

"Stubborn Love"

"Stubborn Love"
by The Lumineers

She'll lie and steal and cheat
and beg you from her knees
Make you think she means it this time.
She'll tear a hole in you
one you can't repair.
But I still love her I don't really care.

When we were young (oh oh) we did enough
When it got cold (ooh ooh) we bundled up
I can't be told (ah ah) it can't be done

It's better to feel pain
than nothing at all.
The opposite of love's indifference.
So pay attention now, I'm standing on your porch screaming out
And I won't leave until you come downstairs

And I don't blame you dear for running
like you did all these years
I would do the same you'd best believe.
And the highway signs say we're close
but I don't read those things anymore
I never trusted my own eyes.

'Dust Bowl Dance'

'Dust Bowl Dance'
by Mumford and Sons

The young man stands on the edge of his porch
The days were short and the father was gone
There was no one in the town and no one in the field
This dusty barren land had given all it could yield.

I've been kicked off my land at the age of sixteen
And I have no idea where else my heart could have been
I placed all my trust at the foot of this hill
And now I am sure my heart can never be still.

So collect your courage and collect your horse
And pray you never feel this same kind of remorse

Seal my heart and break my pride
I've nowhere to stand and nowhere to hide
Align my heart, my body, my mind
To face what I've done and do my time

Well you are my accuser now look in my face
Your oppression reeks of your greed and disgrace
So one man has and another has not
How can you love what it is you have got

When you took it all from the weak hands of the poor?
Liars and thieves you know not what is in store
There will come a time I will look in your eye
You will pray to the God that you've always denied.

Then I'll go out back and I'll get my gun
I'll say, 'You haven't met me, I am the only son.'

"Laughter Lines"

"Laughter Lines"
by Bastille

You took me to your favourite place on Earth
To see the tree they cut down ten years from your birth.
Our fingers traced in circles round its history
We brushed our hands right back in time through centuries.

As you held me down, you said:
'I'll see you in the future when we're older
And we are full of stories to be told
Crossing my heart and hope to die
I'll see you with your laughter lines.'

Changes on our hands and on our faces
Memories are mapped out by the lines we'll trace.
Ashen faces in cold breeze
All the stories you will leave
I'll see you in the future when we're old.

'Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You'

'Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You'
by The 1975

I preferred it before

We should ring dad more

Lost our house

Hold me close
I stopped by
just to wash my clothes

I know it's me that's supposed to love you

And when I'm home you know I got you
Is there somebody who can watch you?

I know it's me that's supposed to love you

And when I'm home you know I got you

Is there somebody who can love you?
Is there somebody who can watch you?
Is there somebody who can watch you?

From 'Kitchen Sink'

From 'Kitchen Sink'
by Twenty One Pilots ft. Zack Joseph

Are you searching for purpose?

Then write something, 
Yeah it might be worthless

Then paint something, 
and it might be wordless

Pointless curses
Nonsense verses

Yeah you’ll see purpose start to surface

No one else is dealing with your demons,

Meaning

Maybe defeating them
could be the beginning of your meaning, friend. 

Street Poetry

"Street Poetry"
by Twenty One Pilots

There's an infestation in my mind's imagination
I hope they choke on smoke
Because I'm smoking them out the basement.
This is not rap this is not hip hop,
Just another attempt to make the voices stop.

Rapping to prove nothing
Just writing to say something
Cause I wasn't the only one who was rushing to say nothing.
This doesn't mean I lost my dream
It's just right now I've got a really crazy mind to clean.
Know what I mean?

No I didn't understand a thing you said
If I didn't know better I'd guess you're all already dead.
Mindless zombies walking around with a limp and a hunch
Saying stuff like you only live once.

Yeah once, you got one time to figure it out
One time to twist and one time to shout
One time to think and I say we start now
Cause death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit.

Music is Poetry

Oftentimes poetry is seen as not relevant in this day and age. For sure, it is not read to the extent that it once was and people rarely rush out to buy a poet's new collection of poetry the day of its release with the same excitement as a brand new video game or yet another novel about vampires. 

I think this is true in a very specific sense, but in another sense poetry has never been so prevalent and yet so subtly woven into the workings of our society. 

What am I talking about? Music.

Music, whether it is rock or rap, has become a huge market in the last century. Music has developed significantly in recent years and there are just so many wonderful, talented artists out there creating quality songs for us to enjoy. 

For me, listening to just one song can change my entire mood. It can make me pumped for a workout or calm me down at bedtime. Some can reduce me to a puddle of tears and others can inspire me to create something worthy and meaningful. Some songs are even important to me on a spiritual level, if that makes sense; I feel the sounds and the words to the depths of my soul. 

As an English major, the lyrics are often as important to me as the beat itself. Some lyrics are so profound that I think of them as poetry. So I thought, why not share some of this poetry? My aim with this blog, after all, is to share words that can transform the realities of our lives.

I believe that music has the power to engage us in so many different ways, so look forward to more posts sharing my favorite musical poetry. I hope you enjoy!