A favourite line of mine from Patti Smith ... "Scoop the pearls up from the sea." from Free Money lyrics.... [Verse 1]Every night before I go to sleep Find a ticket, win a lotteryScoop the pearls up from the seaCash them in and buy you all the things you need[Verse 2]Every night before I rest my headSee those dollar bills go swirling 'round my bedI know they're stolen, but I don't feel badI take that money, buy you things you never had[Refrain]Oh, baby, it would mean so much to meOh, baby, to buy you all the things you need for free[Bridge]I'll buy you a jet plane, babeGet you on a higher plane to a jet streamAnd take you through the stratosphereAnd check...
The Heavenly City
By Stevie Smith
I sigh for the heavenly country,
Where the heavenly people pass,
And the sea is as quiet as a mirror
Of beautiful beautiful glass.
I walk in the heavenly field,
With lilies and poppies bright,
I am dressed in a heavenly coat
Of polished white.
When I walk in the heavenly parkland
My feet on the pasture are bare,
Tall waves the grass, but no harmful
Creature is there.
At night I fly over the housetops,
And stand on the bright moony beams;
Gold are all heaven’s rivers,
And silver her streams.
from Stevie Smith Collected Poems 1983
ARCHAIC FRAGMENT
I was trying to love matter.
I taped a sign over the mirror:
You cannot hate matter and love form.
It was a beautiful day, though cold.
This was, for me, an extravagantly emotional gesture.
.......your poem:
tried, but could not.
I taped a sign over the first sign:
Cry, weep, thrash yourself, rend your garments—
List of things to love:
dirt, food, shells, human hair.
....... said
tasteless excess. Then I
rent the signs.
AIAIAIAI cried
the naked mirror.
From the diary of Frida Kahlo: an intimate self-portrait... she writes out the symbolic association of a colour with the respective pencil onto the notebook page. "I’ll try out the pencilssharpened to the point of infinitywhich always sees ahead: Green — good warm light Magenta — Aztec. old TLAPALI blood of prickly pear, the brightest and oldest [Brown —] color of mole, of leaves becoming earth [Yellow —] madness sickness fear part of the sun and of happiness [Blue —] electricity and purity love [Black —] nothing is black — really nothing [Olive —] leaves, sadness, science, the whole of Germany is this color [Yellow —] more madness and mystery all the ghosts wear clothes of this color, or at least their underclothes [Dark blue —] color...
