Asklemmy

Did they get you to trade

Your heroes for ghosts?

Hot ashes for trees?

Hot air for a cool breeze?

Cold comfort for change?

Did you exchange

A walk-on part in the war

For a lead role in a cage?

NIN Hurt - " I hurt myself today To see if I still feel, I Focus on the pain The only thing that's real..."

Now I understand

What you tried to say to me

And how you suffered for your sanity

And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how

Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you

But still your love was true

And when no hope was left in sight

On that starry, starry night

You took your life, as lovers often do

But I could have told you, Vincent

This world was never meant for one

As beautiful as you

• Vincent by Don McLean

Can't really choose a favorite, but it would have to be something from Leonard Cohen -

Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack, a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in.

Streetlight Manifesto - Here's to Life

Hemingway never seemed to mind
The banalities of a normal life
And I find
It get's harder every time

So he aimed the shotgun into the blue
Placed his face in between the two and sighed:
"Here's to life"

From BNL,

I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve

I have a history of taking off my shirt

My 'favorites' change daily, so here's today's: That's the Way That the World Goes Round -John Prine

I know a guy that's got a lot to lose. He's a pretty nice fellow but he's kind of confused. He's got muscles in his head that ain't never been used. Thinks he own half of this town.

Starts drinking heavy, gets a big red nose. Beats his old lady with a rubber hose, Then he takes her out to dinner and buys her new clothes. That's the way that the world goes 'round.

That's the way that the world goes 'round. You're up one day and the next you're down. It's half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown. That's the way that the world goes 'round.

I was sitting in the bathtub counting my toes, When the radiator broke, water all froze. I got stuck in the ice without my clothes, Naked as the eyes of a clown. I was crying ice cubes hoping I'd croak, When the sun come through the window, the ice all broke. I stood up and laughed thought it was a joke That's the way that the world goes 'round.

From Dylan, I've always been partial to this, from Mr Tambourine Man:

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow

I love the way it deviates from previous verses by including a couple more lines than them, which he just sort of works in there.

Beyond Dylan, I really like Leonard Cohen's lines in So Long, Marianne:

Now I need your hidden love
I'm cold as a new razor blade.
You left when I told you I was curious…
I never said that I was brave

And from R.E.M. loads of examples, but the first that springs to mind is some of the imagery in Driver 8:

I saw a treehouse on the outskirts of the farm
The power lines have floaters so the airplanes won't get snagged
The bells are ringing through the town again
The children look up, all they hear is sky-blue bells ringing

And later:

He piloted this song in a plane like that one
She is selling faith on the Go Tell Crusade
Locomotive 8, Southern Crescent, hear the bells ring again
The fields of wheat is looking thin

Just so evocative of travelling through a vast, open countryside.

Come on, baby, now throw me a right to the chin. Don't just stare like you never cared, I know you did. But you just smile like a bank teller Politely telling me, "have a nice life"

-Ben Folds

He looked beneath his shirt today

There was a wound in his flesh so deep and wide

From the wound a lovely flower grew

From somewhere deep inside

He turned around to face his mother

To show her the wound in his breast that burned like a brand

But the sword that cut him open

Was the sword in his mother's hand

The Lazarus Heart - Sting

Fossilized Apostle and I comb it with a rake. Soul Coughing

My dreams are not unlike yours

They long for the safety

And break like a glass chandelier

But there's laughter and oh, there is love

Just past the edge of our fears

And there's chaos when push comes to shove

But it's music to my ears

Rise Against - People Live Here

not sure if this is very 'poetic' but here's my favorite

Hated by life itself

In the end, we’ll die anyway

You will, I will, one day all of us will rot away like fallen leaves

But regardless, we live on frantically--

Shouldering our lives, frantically, we live--

Killing, struggling, laughing, shouldering it all

Living, living, living, living-- just live

(song is hated by life itself, original is in japanese so this is a translation)

Oh one more:

An Amazon girl lives in Dumfries

Hey-oh, chicken on a raft

She only has kids in twos and threes

Hey-oh, chicken on a raft

Her sister lives in Maryhill

Hey-oh, chicken on a raft

She says she won't but I think she will

Hey-oh, chicken on a raft

There is a road, no simple highway

Between the dawn and the dark of night

And if you go, no one may follow

That path is for your steps alone

Ripple in still water

When there is no pebble tossed

Nor wind to blow

You who choose to lead must follow

But if you fall you fall alone

If you should stand then who's to guide you?

If I knew the way I would take you home

I can't say how poetic it is since I suck at that type of stuff, but:

Somewhere out there beneath the pail moonlight

Someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight

• Linda Ronstadt (or whoever voiced Fievel because I absolutely love the version used in the movie)

Jimmy Webb’s song “Wichita Lineman” made famous by Glen Campbell, ….“And I need you more than want you, And I want you for all time”.

All the roads we travelled

The journey of our lives

Take another picture

Before we say goodbye

Arm in arm we're standing

Standing side by side

Memories fade but legends never die

Back One Day - TheFatRat

I'm not going to quote it entirely, but this song has spoken to me for decades. It's the song I used to sing my daughter while she was going to sleep. Albeit, the song her mother sang to her before she died was better (and is the first tattoo our daughter got).

Sung from a father's lips to a daughter's ears:

Goodnight, my angel

Time to close your eyes

And save these questions for another day

I think I know what

You've been asking me

I think you know

What I've been trying to say

I promised I would never leave you

And you should always know

Wherever you may go

No matter where you are

I never will be far away.

https://genius.com/Billy-joel-lullabye-goodnight-my-angel-lyrics

Whiskey woman, don't you know that you are driving me insane? Liquor you give stems your will to live, it gets right to my brain You're trying to find your way through life You're trying to get some new direction Another woman's got a man But she won't get a new connection

Takes another drink or two Things look better when she's through

Take another look around, you're not going anywhere You realise you're getting old and no one seems to care You're trying to find your way again You're trying to get some love Another woman's got a man But she won't get a new

Takes another drink or two Things look better when she's through

You been fooling with some hot guy I want to know why is it why Get up, get out You know you really blew it I've had enough I've had enough Good God, pluck me

Once she was beautiful Once she was fine Once she was wonderful Once she was mine Change has come over her body She doesn't see me anymore Change has come over her body She doesn't see me anymore

Changes Changes Changes Changes

Not Dylan, but my top:

"Gotta kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight"

Bruce Cockburn

Time is like the ocean

You can only hold a little in your hand