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Which Pearl Jam Song Inspired This?

Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
edited September 2005 in Poetry, Prose, Music & Art
I'll write a poem that contains some clues as to the song that inspired it. It should be easy to figure out. I thought of this at the second St. John's concert right smack dab in the middle of it. I realized that Pearl Jam has inspired me quite a bit, and so I'm just flowing with it . . .


He sees her on the bench.
Her head covered in shades of aging.
She’s not moving,
like a garden statue,
covered in vintage,
that was only bought once.
A bee flies away in disgust.
She became all she wanted to be.
For her he pretends.

He reads a book from a neighboring bench.
The book tattered from reading and reading again.
He wanted to fly to the moon.
He wanted to be a man.

His head filled with dreams and visions
and perfect landings,
of shadows he challenges,
and demons he slays.
He shuffles his feet remembering
the perfect morning;
when getting out of bed
was a new experience.
There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • CodeRiotCodeRiot Posts: 115
    Dirty Frank?
    I tried to be a better me
    In the end I looked like the rest of them.
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    CodeRiot wrote:
    Dirty Frank?
    It's on Lost Dogs as is Dirty Frank, but another one. When I write the poem inspired by Dirty Frank it should be very obvious. I thought this was, but oooops.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Well, there's a bee in the poem, and it mentions an old girl... ;)
  • Being EnlightenedBeing Enlightened Posts: 5,746
    I'd have to guess it as Bee Girl. Am I right? :)

    I really like how you usually let us know what inspired your poems, BTW.
    Forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. - Leonard Cohen
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    Yep, BEE GIRL is it! So, is it ok if I put it in this game format or would you rather prefer that I write "Inspired by Pearl Jam's . . ." as the title? I like this little game since I was inspired at a live concert.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    Also, what is your definition of "immortality?" What would cause immortality for you at this moment? I'm thinking of a new poem inspired by ?
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • DopeBeastieDopeBeastie Posts: 2,513
    living forever


    impossible for the childless and sub-genius folk, yeah?


    resolve dissolved
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    PastaNazi wrote:
    impossible for the childless and sub-genius folk, yeah?
    This is very interesting, because I feel immortality coming on but I don't have children. I think of it as the next step. I wonder if I had children if I would think of someone like myself as I am now as a fool.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • DopeBeastieDopeBeastie Posts: 2,513
    Bibliobella wrote:
    This is very interesting, because I feel immortality coming on but I don't have children. I think of it as the next step. I wonder if I had children if I would think of someone like myself as I am now as a fool.


    I wonder if we're not all already immortal, you know? Just part of one everlasting spirit? Like, do the Buddists have it right?

    And I have kids. For me, it's a very personal experience. It is me, and it is my children. Special and separate from everything else. There's very little consideration of what others do or don't have in that regard, or what they are or aren't. But, in thinking of immortality, I cannot say that "I" will end, because they are each 1/2 me. Genetically and mentally. So it doesn't matter that I'm a dumbass and probably wont create anything that'll go on and on like Godin or Lovelace or Frost or Wright... :D
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    I was out on my break and I was trying to define immortality to myself, and I realized that in order to understand immortality more I need to accept my mortality. Now, once I had to face it like a brick in the face, but luckily the doctors were just fuckups without a clue, but it scared me severely. It's almost easier to think of immortality since it has no end, and for that reason is more comfortable, then to think of mortality which by definition has an end. I think if I had children I would hold on to my mortality, just hold on to life and not let go. I would fight the next step tooth and nail, but I would see in my children more than myself, and maybe that is what immortality would be all about for me as a parent. . .hmmmmmm
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Being EnlightenedBeing Enlightened Posts: 5,746
    Hmmm, I know I'm not immortal but we can leave things behind that make us live on in the minds of others thereby becoming immortal in a way, I suppose. I can see that in having children, in a way, you live on in them and their children and their children's children...

    I like the idea that the spirit, the soul, is immortal. It's a pleasant thought that makes our physical mortality a little more bearable. :)
    Forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. - Leonard Cohen
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    Here's the Pearl Jam lyrics to "Immortality." What do you think this is about?

    PEARL JAM


    Immortality


    Vacate is the word...vengeance has no place on me or her
    Cannot find the comfort in this world
    Artificial tear...vessel stabbed...next up, volunteers
    Vulnerable, wisdom can't adhere...

    A truant finds home...and I wish to hold on...
    But there's a trapdoor in the sun...immortality...

    As privileged as a whore...victims in demand for public show
    Swept out through the cracks beneath the door
    Holier than thou, how?
    Surrendered...executed anyhow
    Scrawl dissolved, cigar box on the floor...

    A truant finds home...and I wish to hold on, too...
    But saw the trapdoor in the sun...

    Immortality...
    I cannot stop the thought...I'm running in the dark...
    Coming up a which way sign...all good truants must decide...
    Oh, stripped and sold, mom...auctioned forearm...
    And whiskers in the sink...
    Truants move on...cannot stay long
    Some die just to live...
    Ohh...



    After reading this I think I'm thinking about immortality too hard, as if I'm all action and no words. I can procrastinate and procrastinate with theories, but really, where's my poem? Someone else was able to create a scene with that word, why can't I?
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • pacifierpacifier Posts: 1,009
    I think the only thing that scares me more than death is immortality (at least that was the case before I met the man I love, now it's kind of opposite). This was probably because I have seen death, I know what death is, I understand it to some extent, but forever is so far out of the range of my knowledge and understanding that it physically makes me sick to think about it. No one knows what happens after you die, maybe you do live on. I think everybody does is some way.

    but I came up with the thought that even as a mortal I will live forever....forever has no begining and no end, I had no beginning, not in my mind, I have no consciousness of coming into being, as far as I know I was always here...and I believe my death will probably be similar with no distinct ending to "remember" if you like....so if I never began and I never end but I am, then my existance will have been forever...make sense? Or am I just a looney?
  • pacifierpacifier Posts: 1,009
    I woke this morning
    Tomorrow I will wake again
    Waiting for an end that never comes
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    pacifier wrote:
    I think the only thing that scares me more than death is immortality (at least that was the case before I met the man I love, now it's kind of opposite). This was probably because I have seen death, I know what death is, I understand it to some extent, but forever is so far out of the range of my knowledge and understanding that it physically makes me sick to think about it. No one knows what happens after you die, maybe you do live on. I think everybody does is some way.

    but I came up with the thought that even as a mortal I will live forever....forever has no begining and no end, I had no beginning, not in my mind, I have no consciousness of coming into being, as far as I know I was always here...and I believe my death will probably be similar with no distinct ending to "remember" if you like....so if I never began and I never end but I am, then my existance will have been forever...make sense? Or am I just a looney?

    No more than Hamlet. See, he was scared of the afterlife too:

    To be, or not to be: that is the question:
    Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
    The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
    Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
    And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
    No more; and by a sleep to say we end
    The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
    That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
    Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
    To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
    For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
    When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
    Must give us pause: there's the respect
    That makes calamity of so long life;
    For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
    The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
    The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
    The insolence of office and the spurns
    That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
    When he himself might his quietus make
    With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
    To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
    But that the dread of something after death,
    The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
    No traveller returns, puzzles the will
    And makes us rather bear those ills we have
    Than fly to others that we know not of?
    Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
    And thus the native hue of resolution
    Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
    And enterprises of great pith and moment
    With this regard their currents turn awry,
    And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
    The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
    Be all my sins remember'd.

    (Act three, scene one)
  • pacifierpacifier Posts: 1,009
    hmmm, sounds like he was afraid of what was after life, though. I'm a touch afraid of that, but I think what I'm more afraid of is the no ending part. Seriously it's making me feel a little ill just thinking about it. I've never known anything without an end. I can't comprehend it.
  • pacifierpacifier Posts: 1,009
    The only thing that can settle my stomach on this one is the thought of reincarnation, where you live in blocks of time with a beginning and an end, but you don't remember that you will last forever.

    I also like the idea that when people die their bodies breakdown and what was once them is recycled into something new. I like that thought.
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    I know what you mean: The moment of ontological end. The moment the thoughts stop. The "I" ends. Our received view of history, space, time, is all locked within us as individuals. We communicate with others but ultimately the sum total of everything is as we know it, within ourselves. For us to die, history, space and time will seem to die with thought, with feeling. Or as you say, it could inhabit a netherworld of existence like our constructed memories of pre-birth history. Yes, that's death for you. I feel more ready for it - that nothingness - as I get a little older: not in a morbid sense, but as part of a natural process.

    Was it Woody Allen who said something like "I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens"? If I can be there and feel the slipping away of the self naturally, that will be okay by me.
  • AliAli Posts: 2,621
    Bibliobella wrote:
    Here's the Pearl Jam lyrics to "Immortality." What do you think this is about?

    PEARL JAM


    Immortality


    Vacate is the word...vengeance has no place on me or her
    Cannot find the comfort in this world
    Artificial tear...vessel stabbed...next up, volunteers
    Vulnerable, wisdom can't adhere...

    A truant finds home...and I wish to hold on...
    But there's a trapdoor in the sun...immortality...

    As privileged as a whore...victims in demand for public show
    Swept out through the cracks beneath the door
    Holier than thou, how?
    Surrendered...executed anyhow
    Scrawl dissolved, cigar box on the floor...

    A truant finds home...and I wish to hold on, too...
    But saw the trapdoor in the sun...

    Immortality...
    I cannot stop the thought...I'm running in the dark...
    Coming up a which way sign...all good truants must decide...
    Oh, stripped and sold, mom...auctioned forearm...
    And whiskers in the sink...
    Truants move on...cannot stay long
    Some die just to live...
    Ohh...



    After reading this I think I'm thinking about immortality too hard, as if I'm all action and no words. I can procrastinate and procrastinate with theories, but really, where's my poem? Someone else was able to create a scene with that word, why can't I?
    Thanks for the words Bib.Are You from NJ?
    I LOOOVEEE your signature.
    Gotta love us jersey girls.
    And as they say.....
    "TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES":)
    A whisper and a thrill
    A whisper and a chill
    adv2005

    "Why do I bother?"
    The 11th Commandment.
    "Whatever"

    PETITION TO STOP THE BAN OF SMOKING IN BARS IN THE UNITED STATES....Anyone?
  • pearlmuttpearlmutt Posts: 392
    i love the poem, bibliobella

    and, Ali, this is one of my favorite lines of all time, from immortality:

    "Coming up a which way sign...all good truants must decide..."

    and one of my favorite shakespeare lines, we had to memorize it, about immortality something about life and death, what is it finns?

    to be or not to be, -- that is the question
    whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
    the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
    or to take arms against a sea of troubles
    and by opposing end them? -- to die,--to sleep, --
    no more; and by a sleep to say we end
    the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
    that flesh is heir to, --'tis consummation
    devoutly to be wish'd. to die-- to sleep --
    To sleep! perchance to dream: -- ay, there's the rub
    for in that sleep of death what dreams may come.

    (oooh, shakespeare, so good.)
  • pacifierpacifier Posts: 1,009
    ^^the only shakespear I can really remember is bits and pieces of Othello

    ie. something to the effect of "making the beast with two backs"

    which I thought was amusing and very visual.

    and something like....

    "When devils will the blackest sins put on,
    They do suggest at first with heavenly shows"

    which I thought was very smart.
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    My co-worker and my boss each had personal losses within the past week, 1 was a result of the hurrican rita. Another co-worker died, and another one had a sister who died. I just want to take the time in this little space to send out my thoughts to them and to any of you that have experienced loss. I'm very sorry.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    No more than Hamlet. See, he was scared of the afterlife too:

    To be, or not to be: that is the question:
    Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
    The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
    Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
    And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
    No more; and by a sleep to say we end
    The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
    That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
    Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
    To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
    For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
    When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
    Must give us pause: there's the respect
    That makes calamity of so long life;
    For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
    The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
    The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
    The insolence of office and the spurns
    That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
    When he himself might his quietus make
    With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
    To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
    But that the dread of something after death,
    The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
    No traveller returns, puzzles the will
    And makes us rather bear those ills we have
    Than fly to others that we know not of?
    Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
    And thus the native hue of resolution
    Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
    And enterprises of great pith and moment
    With this regard their currents turn awry,
    And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
    The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
    Be all my sins remember'd.

    (Act three, scene one)
    This is my favorite Shakespeare speech (well, besides the St. Crispin's day speech in Henry V).
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    Ali wrote:
    Thanks for the words Bib.Are You from NJ?
    I LOOOVEEE your signature.
    Gotta love us jersey girls.
    And as they say.....
    "TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES":)
    Born and raised - New Jersey and You Perfect Together . . . .The most I know about Treton is written in the Janet Evanovich mystery series about Stephanie Plum the chaotic bounty hunter. I'm from Bergen County, and some of my family are still there.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • AliAli Posts: 2,621
    Bibliobella wrote:
    Born and raised - New Jersey and You Perfect Together . . . .The most I know about Treton is written in the Janet Evanovich mystery series about Stephanie Plum the chaotic bounty hunter. I'm from Bergen County, and some of my family are still there.
    Well bib,,,If you ever want to visit...youre welcome to hang with me at my house in Trenton.Philly is an hour away...along with ACity, and New York City and we have a bar on every corner in the city to hop on and talk about poetry:D!!!!!!!WE also have a minor league hockey team and baseball team!
    Its pretty cool...
    we have a cool skateboard park in Hamilton too thats worth checking out...but ...these bones is getting old!!!33 in April!!!!
    Hearts,
    allison:D
    A whisper and a thrill
    A whisper and a chill
    adv2005

    "Why do I bother?"
    The 11th Commandment.
    "Whatever"

    PETITION TO STOP THE BAN OF SMOKING IN BARS IN THE UNITED STATES....Anyone?
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,265
    Ali wrote:
    Well bib,,,If you ever want to visit...youre welcome to hang with me at my house in Trenton.Philly is an hour away...along with ACity, and New York City and we have a bar on every corner in the city to hop on and talk about poetry:D!!!!!!!WE also have a minor league hockey team and baseball team!
    Its pretty cool...
    we have a cool skateboard park in Hamilton too thats worth checking out...but ...these bones is getting old!!!33 in April!!!!
    Hearts,
    allison:D
    Sounds good! I remember 33 . . . man, glad that's over.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
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