Enjoying Arts and entertainment

Paul Simon 1977

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away
 

I know a man, he came from my home town
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
He said, "Delores, I live in fear
My love for you is so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear"
 

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away
 

I know a woman became a wife
These are the very words she uses to describe her life
She said, "A good day ain't got no rain"
She said, "A bad day's when I lie in bed
And think of things that might have been"
 

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away
 

And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he'd done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and headed home again
 

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away
 

God only knows, God makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We work our jobs, collect our pay
Believe were gliding down the highway
When in fact were slip sliding away
 

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away

Squeeze, 1970

I never thought it would happen
With me and the girl from Clapham
Out on the windy common
That night I ain't forgotten
When she dealt out the rations
With some or other passions
I said, "You are a lady"
"Perhaps," she said, "I may be"
 

We moved into a basement
With thoughts of our engagement
We stayed in by the telly
Although the room was smelly
We spent our time just kissing
The Railway Arms we're missing
But love had got us hooked up
And all our time it took up
 

I got a job with Stanley
He said I'd come in handy
And started me on Monday
So I had a bath on Sunday
I worked eleven hours
And bought the girl some flowers
She said she'd seen a doctor
And nothing now could stop her
 

I worked all through the winter
The weather brass and bitter
I put away a tenner
Each week to make her better
And when the time was ready
We had to sell the telly
Late evenings by the fire
With little kicks inside her
 

This morning at four-fifty
I took her rather nifty
Down to an incubator
Where thirty minutes later
She gave birth to a daughter
Within a year a walker
She looked just like her mother
If there could be another
 

And now she's two years older
Her mother's with a soldier
She left me when my drinking
Became a proper stinging
The devil came and took me
From bar to street to bookie
No more nights by the telly
No more nights nappies smelling
 

Alone here in the kitchen
I feel there's something missing
I'd beg for some forgiveness
But begging's not my business
And she won't write a letter
Although I always tell her
And so it's my assumption
I'm really up the junction

Casey Scott, 1990

Cry if you want to

I won't tell you not too

I won't try to cheer you up

I'll just be here if you want me

It's no use in keeping a stiff upper lip

You could weep, you could sleep, you could loosen your grip

You could frown, you could drown and go down with the ship

You can cry if you want to

Don't ever apologize venting your pain

It's something to me you don't need to explain

I don't need to know why

I don't think it's insane

You can cry if you want to

Well, the windows are closed

And the neighbors aren't home

If it's better with me than to do it alone

I'll draw all the curtains and unplug the phone

You can cry if you want to

You can stare at the ceiling

And tear at your hair

Swallow your feelings and stagger and swear

Show things and throw things and I wouldn't care

You can cry if you want to

Well, I won't make fun of you

I won't tell anyone

I won't analyze

What you do or what you should've done

I won't advise you to go and have fun

You can cry if you want to

Well, it's empty and it's ugly and it's terribly sad

I can't feel what you feel

But I know it feels bad

I know it is real and it makes you so mad

You could cry

Cry if you want to

I won't tell you not to

I won't try to cheer you up

I'll just be here if you want me to be near you

I love that this finds a way to express the inexpressible experience of simply being human

This is the best example of microfiction I've found - an entire story in 306 words. Brilliant!

This is what I wish I would hear from the person closest to me when I'm at my lowest point. Not advice, not suggestions, not solutions. This.