In My Country - Jackie Kay

walking by the waters,
down where an honest river
shakes hands with the sea,
a woman passed around me
in a slow, watchful circle,
as if I were a superstition;

or the worst dregs of her imagination,
so when she finally spoke
her words spliced into bars
of an old wheel. A segment of air.
Where do you come from?
'Here,' I said, 'Here. These parts.'

The poet is a Scottish Black woman who wrote about her frequent experiences of being perceived as a foreigner in her own country.

She Had More Friends - Joanne Burns

She had more friends
than you could fit
into the back of a truck

that's why she didn't mind
leaving them parked
on a cliff edge

while she went
for a stroll
with the brake in her pocket

Memento Mori - Samuel Menashe

This skull instructs
Me now to probe
The socket bone
Around my eyes
To test the nose
Bone underlies
To hold my breath
To make no bones
About the dead

Indian Princess Picks Out Lover From Gods - Ruth Padel

Thank God we cast
A spot of shadow in our lives,
 Said the Mahabharata bride,
Facing five versions of her groom -

Your man himself plus four male gods,
Four dead-spit images, self-xeroxed in his shape -
 Who recognised that heartbeat,
The man she'd have to part with

By the shadow at his heel. Gods don't go round
Casting shadow. Things we do and feel
 (As a leader in The Independent
Put it afterwards) are incomplete,
Imperfect, therefore real.

Blind - Lifehouse

I was young but I wasn't naive
I watched helpless as he turned around to leave,
and still I have the pain I have to carry
a past so deep that, even you could not bury if you tried.

After all this time
I never thought we'd be here
never thought we'd be here
when my love for you was blind
but I couldn't make you see it
couldn't make you see it

I would fall asleep
only in hopes of dreaming
that everything would be like it was before
but nights like this it seems are slowly fleeting
they disappear as reality is crashing to the floor

after all this time
I never thought we'd be here
never thought we'd be here
when my love for you was blind
but I couldn't make you see it
couldn't make you see it
that I loved you more than you'll ever know
a part of me died when I let you go

after all this while
would you ever wanna leave it
maybe you could not believe it
that my love for you is blind
but I couldn't make you see it
couldn't make you see it
that I loved you more than you will ever know
a part of me died when I let you go
and I loved you more than you'll ever know
a part of me died when I let you go


- The lyricist wrote this song with his dad in mind. I just thought the lyrics are beautiful and teens from broken homes would probably relate themselves with this song. :)

Free - Corrinne May

I drift, I burn, I fly
When you sing lullabies
I'm helpless, I'm yearning
I'm like the putty in your hands

I laugh, I dream, I cry
When you take me on a roller coaster ride
You see me through and through
You see just who I am
Just take my hand and

Save me from this place
Heaven knows I'm falling
For you, my sweet embrace
Heaven Knows
Heaven knows I've been waiting for you

I had a dream that I
was falling from the sky
At 90 miles an hour
I was bound to crash and die
But out of nowhere you came and rescued me
There must be some grace in the touch of your face
I'm so happy that I've found you
I'm no longer afraid

Oh ' cause you
Save me from this place
Heaven knows i'm falling
For you my sweet embrace
Heaven knows
Heaven knows I've been waiting

Before I met you
Life was slow-mo
So slow-mo
I thought I had it figured out
But you came and turned my whole world upside down

Save me from this place
Heaven knows I'm falling
For you, my sweet embrace
Heaven knows
Heaven knows you've come to

Save me from this place
Heaven knows I'm falling
For you, my sweet embrace
Heaven Knows
Heaven knows I've been waiting for you
Waiting for you

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

- Derek Walcott