"Fear No More"

"Fear No More"
by William Shakespeare

Fear no more the heat o' the sun;
Nor the furious winter's rages,
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney sweepers come to dust.

Fear no more the frown of the great,
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dread thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan;
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowned be thy grave!

"Journey on the Sahara"

"Journey on the Sahara"
by Samantha Haren

They tread upon a sea of sand

With no end in sight.

Shu dances over dunes

and gives the sand its bite

They struggle to set up camp

but stay silent in their plight.

Camels rest and dunes darken

As Ra gives way to night.

The groan of a camel

gives the caravan a fright.

Two stones are struck together

And the fire comes alight.

All welcome the warmth.

Sparks rise and take flight.

Then dreams take one to places far,

A home of warm delight.

"The Treasure"

"The Treasure"
by Rubert Brooke

When colour goes home into the eyes,
   And lights that shine are shut again
With dancing girls and sweet birds' cries
   Behind the gateways of the brain;
And that no-place which gave them birth, shall close
The rainbow and the rose:-

Still may Time hold some golden space
   Where I'll unpack that scented store
Of song and flower and sky and face,
   And count, and touch, and turn them o'er,
Musing upon them; as a mother, who 
Has watched her children all the rich day through
Sits, quiet-handed, in the fading light,
When children sleep, ere the night.

"Ogun's Friend"

"Ogun's Friend"
by Jayne Cortez

I saw your eyes like bumps of flint
i saw your shoes like high-top boulders
i saw your hands like faces of fire
i saw your fingers like axes of Shango
i saw your body like a rocker of steel

Yo
i heard a hum down there
i heard a rumble down there
i heard a ghost down there
i heard a thunderbolt expel down there
i heard a anvil in the night go hummmmmmmm
down there

Hey whose metals are shouting so loud
they must be the tapper that Ogun knows

whose are those beads so hot and black
they must be brass for Ogun to fill

who's that worker with corrugated gums
it must be the worker that Ogun chose

who's that one with feet like flames
it must be the welder that's Ogun's friend

Yo
i smell a chicken in here
i smell some charcoal in here
i smell a goat in here
i smell a dog in here
i smell some clay and some oil and some blood in here

Hey i see your chains like links of teeth
crow-bars
i see your coils like female pouches
barbwire
i see your grills like braided snakes
fish-net
i see your ladder like a totem of pliers
crocodiles
i see your pipes like razors on tusks
wine bottles
i see your scissors and your keys on the table in there
uh-huhn

Yo
you got pant legs made into hats
you got diamond plates made into walls
you got straightening combs made into steps 
you got hammer-heads made into skulls
you got flat-rings made into ears

Pant legs diamond plates
straightening combs hammer-heads
flat-rings
yo

i feel your flux
i feel your sander
i feel your drill bit
i feel your grinder
i feel your drill press
i feel your hack saw
i feel your brick ax

Yo 
i saw your windows like sheets of steel
i heard a gong down there
i saw some navels like bushes of wire
i heard a bird down there

Hey
you got lizard tongues made into tongs
i feel your bald spot
you got snakeskins covered in bronze
i feel your chin marks
lizard tongues bald spots
snakeskins chin marks

Yo 
i smell some fish in here
i see a rail down there
i smell some toes in here
i see a horn down there
i smell some funk in here
i see a knife down there
i smell some ratheads in here
i see a person down there

Whose that one so brown and fine
Ogun's friend
whose that one in green on green
Ogun's friend
whose that one who eats so fast
Ogun's friend
whose that one with toothpaste lips
Ogun's friend
whose that one who spits on tools
Ogun's friend
Yo Ogun's friend

"Life"

"Life" 
by Charlotte Bronte

Life, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall?
Rapidly, merrily,
Life's sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily
Enjoy them as they fly!
What though Death at time steps in, 
And calls our Best away?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O'er hope, a heavy sway?
Yet Hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair!

"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

"With You"

"With You"
by Ellena Kilgallon

I fell asleep right there with sand
in my teeth and sand
in my hair.
But then, so did you,
the bright sun winking
on a handful of shells, pearlescent swirls,
sea-salt memories of sunburned afternoons.
When the sun kissed my eyelids awake, 
I turned to look at you,
to push aside your hair and to feel
the warm skin on your back.
Our faces were aligned, 
my eyes to yours and my mouth to yours.
We stared unblinking. You reached
your hand to touch
my cheek.
I closed my eyes.

"The Second Coming"

"The Second Coming"
by W.B. 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 gun
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 toward Bethlehem to be born?

"I Dwell in Possibility"

"I Dwell in Possibility"
by Emily Dickinson

I dwell in Possibility-
A fairer House than Prose-
More numerous of windows-
Superior- for Doors-

Of Chambers as the Cedars-
Impregnable of eye-
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky-

Of Visitors- the fairest-
For Occupation- This-
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise-

"Endless Time"

"Endless Time"
by Rabindranath Tagore

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.
There is none to count thy minutes.

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.
Thou knowest how to wait.

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.

We have no time to lose,
and having no time we must scramble for a chance.
We are too poor to be late.

And thus it is that time goes by
while I give it to every querulous man who claims it,
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.

At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;
but I find that yet there is time.