/lit/ - Literature

Joanna Newsom is a great lyricist and very literate.
Jeff Mangum's a little less coherent and literate but still has a way with words unlike many others.

>>3398937
/mu/ will you just fuck off already? no one cares about your lower artform, or your god-awful wannabe poets.

Starting with Newsom:

We sailed away on a winter's day
With fates as malleable as clay,
But ships are fallible I say,
And the nautical, like all things, fades

And I can recall our caravel:
A little wicker beetle shell
with four fine masts and lateen sails,
Its bearings on Cair Paravel.

The sight of bridges and balloons
Makes calm canaries irritable
And they caw and claw all afternoon:
"Catenaries and dirigibles
Brace and buoy the living-room --
A loom of metal, warp - woof - wimble."
And a thimble's worth of milky moon
Can touch hearts larger than a thimble.

O my love,
O is was a funny little thing
To be the ones to've seen

>>3398947
see
>>3398945

this is the opinion the actually literate of this board will hold

/thread

continue posting the lyrics though they're nice

I slept all day.
I woke with distaste
And I railed
And I raved
That the difference between
The sprout and the bean,
It is a golden ring,
It is a twisted string.
And you can ask the counselor
And you can ask the king
And they'll say the same thing,
And it's a funny thing:

Should we go outside?
Should we break some bread?
Are y'interested?

And as I said,
I slept as though dead
Dreaming seamless dreams of lead.
When you go away,
I am big-boned and fey
In the dust of the day,
In the dirt of the day.

And the danger! danger! drawing near them was a white coat,
And the danger! danger! drawing near them was a broad boat,
And the water! water! running clear beneath a white throat,
And the hollow chatter of the talking of the tadpoles who know th'outside!

Should we go outside?
Should we break some bread?
Are y'interested?

>>3398937
At least use a song that mentions literature:
"And the signifieds butt heads with the signifiers,
and we all fall down slack-jawed to marvel at words!
While across the sky sheet the impossible birds,
in a steady, illiterate movement homewards.

And Gabriel stands beneath forest and moon.
See them rattle & boo, see them shake, see them loom.
See him fashion a cap from a page of Camus;
see him navigate deftly this side of the blue."

Either way, I like her songs, but they certainly don't read that real (like most lyrics in my opinion). So they're not real poetry by default; they're songs.

It's real poetry all right.

Real shitty poetry.

>>3398962
I meant "read that well".

NMH

Sadie, white coat,
You carry me home.
Bury this bone,
Take this pinecone.

Bury this bone
To gnaw on it later; gnawing on the telephone.
'Till then, we pray and suspend
The notion that these lives do never end.

And all day long we talk about mercy.
Lead me to water Lord, I sure am thirsty.
Down in the ditch where I nearly served you,
Up in the clouds where he almost heard you.

And all that we built
And all that we breathed,
And all that we spilled, or pulled up like weeds
Is piled up in bags
And it burns irrevocably.
(We spoke up in turns,
'Til the silence crept over me.)

Bless you
And I deeply do,
No longer resolute
When I call to you.
But the water got so cold,
And you do lose what you don't hold.

This is an old song,
These are old blues,
And this is not my tune,
But it's mine to use.
And the seabirds
Where the fear once grew
Will flock with a fury,
and they will bury what had comee for you.

Down where I darn with the milk-eyed mender;
You and I, and a love so tender
Is stretched-on the hoop where I stitch this adage:
"Bless this house and its heart so savage."

And all that I want, and all that I need
And all that I've got is scattered like seed.
And all that I knew is moving away from me.
(And all that I know is blowing like tumbleweed)

And the mealy worms
In the brine will burn
In a salty pyre,
Among the fauns and ferns.
And the love we hold,
And the love we spurn
Will never grow cold,
Only taciturn.
And I'll tell you tomorrow.
Sadie, go on home now.
Bless those who've sickened below,
And bless us who've chosen so.

And all that I've got
And all that I need
I tie in a knot
That I lay at your feet.
I have not forgot
That a silence crept over me.
(So dig up your bone,
exhume your pinecone, Sadie)

>>3398962
Actually, I'll elaborate a bit. Song lyrics just aren't quite the same as "real" poetry because they don't contain all of the elements. Obviously they work with sound (like most poetry) and diction plays a huge role here, but form (i.e. the textual structure of the poem/how it's laid out and how the line breaks work) is pretty much all lost in song lyrics. And, as someone who actually isn't all that into poetry, I would argue that form is what separates poetry from other genres of literature (although I recognize that this is becoming increasingly problematized through postmodern novels and the like).
In other words, OP, this is a waste of time.

Oh, where is your inflammatory writ?
Your text that would incite a light be lit?
Our music deserving devotion unswerving -
Cry "Do I deserve her?" with unflagging fervor.
(Well, no you do not, if you cannot get over it)

And what's it mean when suddenly we're spent? Tell me true.
Ambition came and reared its head, and went far from you.
Even mollusks have weddings, though solemn and leaden
But you dirge for the dead, take no jam on your bread,
Just a supper of salt and a waltz through your empty bed.

And all at once it came to me,
And i wrote and hunched 'til four-thirty,
But that vestal light, it burns out with the night.
In spite of all the time that we spent on it,
On one bedraggled ghost of a sonnet,
Still outside, the wild boars root
Without bending a bough underfoot.
O it breaks my heart; I don't know how they do it.
So don't ask me!

And as for my inflammatory writ,
Well, I wrote it and I was not inflamed one bit.
Advice from the master derailed that disaster;
he said "Hand that pen over to me, poetaster!"
While across the great plains, keen and lovely and awful
Ululate all the lost Great American Novels -
An unlawful lot, left to stutter and freeze flood-lipped.
(But at least they didn't run to their undying critic.)

>>3398965
Shut your fucking mouth you cocksucking philistine. Newsom is a goddess and you would do well to recognize her glorious brilliance

Svetlana sucks lemons across from me,
And I am progressing abominably,
And I do not know my own way to the sea
But the salty sea air knows its own way to me.

The city that turns, turns protracted and slow
And I find myself toeing the embarcadero,
And I find myself knowing the things that I knew
Which is all that you can know on this side of the blue

And Jamie has eyes black and shiny as boots
And they march at you, two-by-two (re-loo-re-loo).
When she looks at you, you know she's nowhere near through:
It's the hardest heart beating this side of the blue.

And the signifieds butt heads with the signifiers,
And we all fall down slack-jawed to marvel at words,
While across the sky streak the impossible birds
In a steady illiterate movement homewards.

And Gabriel stands beneath forest and moon.
See them rattle & coo, see them shake, see them loom.
See him fashion a cap from a page of Camus;
See him navigate deftly this side of the blue.

And the rest of our lives will the moments accrue
When the shape of their goneness will flare up anew,
And we do what we have to do (re-loo-re-loo),
Which is all you can do on this side of the blue.

>>3399008
I already posted this above--read your own thread.

ITT: OP's illiterate.

>>3398937
I LOVE YOU JESSUSSHSAZHDSO CHGRRIUSIUSIUSTTTTTT

This place is damp and ghostly.
I am already gone.
And the halls were lined with the disembodied
and dustly wings
Which fell from flesh gasplessly.

And I go where the trees go,
And I walk from a higher education
For now, and for hire.
It beats me, but I do not know.
I do not know.

Palaces and storm clouds,
And the rough scraggly sage, and the smoke
And the way it will all come together
In quietness and in time

And new laws of property.
O you free economy,
And you unending afterthoughts -
You could've told me before!

Never get so attached to a poem
You forget truth that lacks lyricism;
Never draw so close to the heat
That you forget that you must eat.

>>3399019
You posted a fragment bro. I'm just continuing in my campaign.

Also, in relation to your post, >>3398989 is also quite /lit-relevant. And I think it's one of the ones that works the best sans music.

Feel the mattress tense beneath me
Like the muscle of my sleeping.
Feathers flexing will defeat me.
And it vexes me completely.

And the hexes heat covertly
Like a slow low-flying turkey,
Like a Texan drying jerky
But his meaty mitts can't hurt me.

With my steely will compounded
In a mighty mound that's hounded
By the snap my steel string sounded,
Just before your snores unwound it.

And in store are dreams so daring
That the night can't stop from staring.
I'll swim sweetly as a herring
through the ether, not despairing.

Go to sleep, you stunning sky;
Gently creep cunning by:
A quiet hum is amplified
By your thumb, that you suck dry.

Hundred raging waters snare the lonely sigh.
Hold your breath and clasp at Cassiopiea.

>2013
>Not posting cosmia
Blasphemer

When you ate I saw your eyelashes
Saw them shake like wind on rushes
In the corn field when she called me
Moths surround me, thought they'd drown me

And I miss your precious heart
And I miss your precious heart

Dried rose petal, red brown circles
Framed your eyes and stained your knuckles
Dried rose petal, red brown circles
Framed your eyes and stained your knuckles

And all those lonely nights down by the river
Brought me bread and water, water in
But though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in

And all those lonely nights down by the river
I was brought my bread and water by the kith and the kin
Now in the quiet hour when I am sleepin'
I cannot keep the night from comin' in

Why've you gone away
Gone away again
I'll sleep through the rest of my days
If you've gone away again
I sleep through the rest of my days
And I sleep through the rest of my days
And I sleep through the rest of my days

Why've you gone away, away
Seven suns, seven suns
Away, away, away, away

Can you hear me, will you listen
Don't come near me, don't go missing
In the lissome light of evening
Help me, Cosmia, I'm grieving

And all those lonely nights down by the river
Brought me bread and water, water in
But though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in

We speak in the store.
I'm a sensitive bore
And you're markedly more,
And I'm oozing surprise.
But it's late in the day
And you're well on your way.
What was golden went gray
And I'm suddenly shy.

And the gathering floozies
Can afford to be choosy,
And all sneezing darkly
In the dimming divide.
I have read the right books
To interpret your looks.
You were knocking me down
With the palm of your eye.

This was unlike the story
It was written to be.
I was riding its back
When it used to ride me.
We were galloping manic
To the mouth of the source.
We were swallowing panic
In the face of its force
I was blue and unwell,
It made me bolt like a horse.

Now it's done.
Watch it go.
You've changed some,
Water run from the snow.

Am I so dear?
Do I run rare?
You've changed some:
Peach, plum, pear.

>>3399051
And all those lonely nights down by the river
I was brought my bread and water by the kith and the kin
Now in the quiet hour when I am sleepin'
I cannot keep the night from comin' in

Beneath the porch light we've all been circling
Beat our dust hearts, singe our flour wings
But in the corner, something is happening
Wild Cosmia, what have you seen

Water were your limbs, and the fire was her hair
And then the moonlight caught your eye
And you rose through the air
Well, if you've seen true light, then this is my prayer
Will you call me when you get there

And I miss your precious heart
And miss, and miss, and miss
And miss, and miss, and miss, and miss, and miss your heart
But release your precious heart
To its feast, for precious hearts

If you want to come on down,
Down with your bones so white,
And watch while the freight trains pound
Into the wild, wild night.

How I would love to gnaw,
Gnaw on your bones so white,
And watch as the freight trains paw,
Paw at the wild, wild night.

All these ghost towns, wreathed in old loam.
Assateague knee-deep in seafoam.
Ho Swansea! Buttonwillow!
Lagunitas! Ho Calico!

And all these beastly bungalows
Stare, distend, like endless toads
Endlessly hop down the road.
Borne by wind, we southward blow.

While yonder, wild and blue,
The wild blue yonder looms
'Till we are wracked with rheum,
By roads, by songs entombed.

And all we want to do
is chew, and chew, and chew!
Dear one, drive on
When all we want to do
is chew, and chew, and chew.

That means no where I come from.
I am cold, out waiting for the day to come.
I chew my lips, and I scratch my nose.
Feels so good to be a rose.

Oh don't, don't you lift me up
Like I'm that shy "no no no no no" - just give it up.
There are bats all dissolving in a row
Into the wishy-washy dark that cannot let go.

And I cannot let go,
So I thank the Lord,
And I thank his sword
Though it be mincing up the morning, slightly bored.
O morning without warning like a hole,
And I watch you go.

There are some mornings when the sky looks like a road.
There are some dragons who were built to have and hold,
And some machines are dropped from great heights lovingly,
And some bellies ache with many bumblebees
And they sting so terribly.

I do as I please.
Now I'm on my knees.
Your skin is something that I stir into my tea.
And I am watching you
And you are starry, starry, starry
And I'm tumbling down, and I check a frown.

That's why I love this town,
Well, just look around,
Just see me serenaded hourly! celebrated sourly!
Dedicated dourly, waltzing with the open sea.
Clam, crab, cockle, cowrie - will you just look at me?

Now for some Mangum:

When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers
And how you built a tower tumbling through the trees
In holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your feet.

And your mom would stick a fork right into daddy's shoulder,
And Dad would throw the garbage all across the floor
As we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for.

And this is the room,
One afternoon I knew I could love you,
And from above you how I sank into your soul,
Into that secret place where no one dares to go.

And your mom would drink until she was no longer speaking
And Dad would dream of all the different ways to die,
Each one a little more than he could dare to try.

PEACH PLUM PEAR
PEACH PLUM

i think Joseph D'Agostino is the most poetic lyricist of our generation. his imagery and stream of consciousness and attention to the nuances of suburban life both critique bourgeois lifestyle, while still acknowledging the enjoyment and contentment those raised in a suburban environment can get out of it if they choose to.

What a beautiful face I have found in this place
That is circling all 'round the sun.
What a beautiful dream that could flash on a screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me.
Soft and sweet,
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me.

And one day we will die and our ashes will fly From the aeroplane over the sea.
But for now we are young, let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see.
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me.

What a curious life we have found here tonight.
There is music that sounds from the street.
There are lights in the clouds, Anna's ghost all around.
Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me,
Soft and sweet,
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees

Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through your mouth
To make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet.
And now we keep where we don't know
All secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago,
Now we don't even know his name.

What a beautiful face I have found in this place
That is circling all 'round the sun.
When we meet on a cloud, I'll be laughing out loud,
I'll be laughing with everyone I see.
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all.

Two-headed boy,
All floating in glass.
The sun it has passed,
Now it's blacker than black.
I can hear as you tap on your jar.
I am listening to hear where you are

Two-headed boy,
Put on Sunday shoes
And dance 'round the room to accordion keys
With the needle that sings in your heart,
Catching signals that sound in the dark.

Catching signals that sound in the dark
We will take off our clothes,
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine,
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep inside -
Now your eyes ain't moving now,
They just lay there in their climb.

Two-headed boy,
With pulleys and weights
Creating a radio played just for two
In the parlor with a moon across her face.
Through the music he sweetly displays,
Silver speakers that sparkle all day,
Made for his lover who's floating and choking with her hands across her face.

Two-headed boy,
There's no reason to grieve.
The world that you need is wrapped in gold-silver sleeves,
Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow.
And I will take you and leave you alone,
Watching spirals of white softly flow
Over your eyelids and all you did
Will wait until the point when you let go.

THE MEADOWLARK AND THE CHIMCHEREE AND THE SPAAAAAROOWWW SET TO THE SKYYY IN A FLYIN SPREE FOR THA SPORT OF THE PHAAAROOOHH

The only girl I've ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes,
But then they buried her alive
One evening,1945,
With just her sister at her side,
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone.

Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun.
All sing to say my dream has come.

But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love,
Just to keep ourselves,
At least enough to carry on.

And now we ride the circus wheel
With your dark brother wrapped in white.
Says it was good to be alive
But now he rides a comet's flame
And won't be coming back again.
The Earth looks better from a star
That's right above from where you are.
He didn't mean to make you cry
With sparks that ring as bullets fly
On empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apart.

And here's where your mother sleeps,
And here is the room where your brothers were born,
Indentions in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don't move anymore.
It's so sad to see the world agree
That they'd rather see their faces fill with flies,
All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes.

Sweet communist, the communist daughter
Standing on the sea-weed water.
Semen stains the mountaintops, semen stains the mountaintops.

With cocoa leaves along the border
Sweetness sings from every corner.
Cars careening from the clouds,
The bridges burst and twist around.

And wanting something warm and moving,
Bends towards herself the soothing.
To prove that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist.

Do any of you guys like mewithoutYou? They reference a lot of literature in their work like Rumi, Blake, Vonnegut, Sufi/Jewish/Christian scripture etc.

Oh you, pious and profane
Put away your praise and blame
Said, "A glass can only spill what it contains"
To the perpetually plain, the incurably inane
A glass can only spill what it contains

What new mystery is this?
What blessed backwardness?
The Immeasurable One is held and does not resist!
Struck by wicked words and foolish fists of senseless men
The Almighty One does not defend

I was halfway listening to what she thinks she knows
We're like children dressing in our parents' clothes
Saying,
"Nobody knows me. Nobody knows me.
No one knows my name.
Nobody knows me. Nobody knows me.
No, nobody knows me."

I half-heartedly explained
But gave up peacefully ashamed
A glass can only spill what it contains
We went to Portugal and Spain
And in her mind the entire time it rained
A glass can only spill what it contains

What new mystery is this?
In overflowing emptiness
The Invisible is seen among the shadows and the mist
Before my doubting eyes the Infinite appears in time
The Unquestionable is questioned but makes no reply

>>3399244
Love mewithoutYou, and this song in particular I've always thought was superb.

>>3399244
>>3399853
>mewithoutYou
Just looked them up, and I hate them.

>>3399244
Aaron Weiss is, by far, my favorite lyricist. He's on a whole other level. 1edgy6me atheists hate mewithoutYou.

I was looking at the leaves
Climbing to the tops of the trees,
But you were nowhere to be found
Just beneath all the green
You were buried like a little seed
Among the roots and underground

I was licking at the leaves,
But I was in short sleeves and you
You were like some sickness that I caught
My sweetheart moved away
Swept off like garbage in the alleyway

And I need more grace than I thought

Brother I'm far
Brother I'm far away
Brother, I'm far away from everything good!
She's like a hot cloth on a fevered head
And like a needle she leads me
(well, I follow like thread)

Tie me up! Untie me!
All this wishing I was dead is getting old
It's getting old!
It goes on, but it's old...

I was swimming through the waves for what
Must have been days, but could find no relief
When I started sinking down I thought for certain I would drown
Until I saw you in the ocean, underneath
All the bright colored fish tell of a treasure in a dull shell

"Such subtlety, so easily missed!"

You, my hidden pearl of pure and perfect love
And I'm the living example of 100% the opposite of this
And if I ask the same questions, will you say I ask the same questions?
Well maybe I repeat myself from time to time
But if I ask the same questions well I know I ask the same questions
But it's because everyone who's answers me is a liar!
She's like a hot cloth on a fevered head
And like a needle she leads me
(well, I follow like a thread)
But you untie me - didn't you untie me, Lord?
And now I haven't even thought about killing myself in almost five months...

>>3399862
>3deep5u
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUwokIvzUhU

>tfw she put on happiness like a loose dress over pain I'll never know
>tfw I made you so happy and so sad, but which should I be more sorry for?

>>3399942
>>3399933
>>3399853
My dudes.

>>3399862
Try not to dismiss them so quickly, they play a lot of different stuff and if you dislike one song or album they might have one that's completely different you'd dig.
For example, their first album was pretty much post-hardcore and now one of their newest is closer to folk.

>>3399942
It might grow on me, but as it stands it sounds like an emo Modest Mouse.
This is who I'm listening to atm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7DpLne1abo
I like the brevity in the lyrics.

>>3399244
>dat description of the Crucifixion
As a Jesuit I am okay with this.

>What new mystery is this? What blessed backwardness? The Immeasurable One is held and does not resist!
>The Unquestionable is questioned but makes no reply

>>3399995
Try this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StIXuUJ2jMo

>>3400013
I never connected those lyrics to the crucifixion but now that you say that it makes a lot of sense.

Gives me shivers.

>>3400047
Hasn't won me over I'm afraid.

>>3400068

To each his own, my friend. they're def not for everyone.

>continuing to post lyrics that nobody is reading

semen stains the mountain tops, semen stains the mooooooooooountain tops