Life/Lines

The Life Lines thing has, of course, gotten me thinking about my own life lines. None of mine are poetry yet since I just started reading it. Before poetry I had song lyrics to guide me. I didn't do too badly.

She summered every winter through a calendar from paradise.
A cheap dress up temp job, and a tan by cold fluorescent light.
'Anticipation' playing from a radio, it mocks her life
"I was here" she scribbles in the rest room proves she was alive.
All the working girls are fine. Sunlight shines.
Contemplating suicide or a graduate degree
Answers, "How's it going?" with,
"I feel sullen, I feel sullen, I feel seventeen."
-Working Girls (Sunlight Shines) by The Pernice Brothers

This song perfectly summed up for me what it felt like to be twentysomething, working in boring temp jobs. But I still love it. I think it is more universal- evoking the feeling of not being satisfied with your work or life, and knowing there has to be something else but having no idea what that is or how to get there. If you've never heard them, The Pernice Brothers have a bit of a Smiths thing going on, with the slightly depressive and/or biting lyrics backed by a bouncy tune. This is, believe it or not, a happy sounding song. Irresistible.

Now everybody wears the look
Of the child who wished to marry you
Who, knocking proudly on your door
Is greeted by your pretty wife
If this is life, make no mistake
It keeps the weary world awake.
-The World Awake by Prefab Sprout

The whole song is brilliant but I especially love this image, it's so specific and descriptive- can't you just see that innocent, crushed little face? And the last two lines are something you can say/sing over and over to yourself when need to keep a good perspective on things. Like at the DMV.

Love like a light
Let me see my secret places
Shine hard and bright
Set me free from airs and graces
Snuff out the dark and let me see
The part of you that's part of me
-High Class Music by Roddy Frame

I could go on forever. Instead, please share your own Life Lines here, be they poetry, song lyrics or bits of wisdom your mother whispered to you.