For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you
– Don McLean, “Vincent”
I don’t believe in magic but I do believe in you
And when you say you believe in me
There’s so much magic I can do
– Don McLean, “Birthday Song”
A rock feels no pain
but I’m a tree
An island never cries
but I’m a tree.
I’m deeply rooted
my branches spread wide
Its my nature, to be fixed
‘n’ to take you in my stride.
A tree gives you shade
a place to go to
You wants its fruits
but not help it grow?
To the loneliest one…
There is in certain living souls
A quality of loneliness unspeakable
So great it must be shared
As company is shared by lesser beings
Such a loneliness is mine; so know by this
That in immensity
There is one lonelier than you.
— Theodore Sturgeon, “A Saucer of Loneliness”, 1953