THE SMILE - william blake

There is a smile of love,
there is a smile of deceit;
and there is a smile of smiles,
in which these two smiles meet.
And there is a frown of hate,
and there is a frown of disdain;
and there is a frown of frowns
which you strive to forget in vain,
For it sticks in the heart's deep core,
and it sticks in the deep backbone.
And no smile that ever was smiled,
but only one smile alone --
That betwixt the cradle and grave
it only once smiled can be,
but when it once is smiled
there's an end to all misery.

INFERNO - dante (excerpt)

Maintain the melancholy souls of those who lived without infamy or praise.

ROMEO IS BLEEDING - hilary henkin

you ever wonder what hell is mike?
maybe it ain't the place you think
fire and brimstone,
devil with horns poking you in the butt
with a pitchfork
what's hell?
the time you should have walked
but you didn't
that's hell...
you're looking at it.

THE STALKER (excerpt) - andrei tarkovsky

Here we are at the threshold.
This is the most important moment of your lives.
You have to know that here
your most cherished wish will come true.
The most sincere one.
The one reached through suffering.

AND DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION (excerpt) - dylan thomas

Though they go mad they shall be sane
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion

COLLOQUE SENTIMENTAL - mario de andrade

The street all naked . . . The lightless houses . . .
And the myrrh of unwitting martyrs . . .
"Let me put my handkerchief to my nose.
I have all the perfumes of Paris!"

SADNESS - mario de andrade

Deep down. Filthy my heart . . .
Look at the building: Continental Slaughterhouses.
Vices have corrupted me in false adulation without sacrifices . . .
My soul hunchbacked like the Avenue St. John . . .