Thursday 8th October 2015 by James Moore

Happy National Poetry Day - 25 of our favourite modern lyricists

From Courtney Barnett to Earl Sweatshirt, our favourite wordsmiths and their best lines

Yoni Wolf, Why?: "At your house, the smell of our still living human bodies and oven gas. You pray to nothing out loud. Two first names and an ampersand, embroidered proudly on a kitchen towel." ('These Few Presidents')

John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats: "Spend too much of my life. Now trying to play fair. Throw my better self overboard, shoot at him when he comes up for air" ('Heel Turn 2')

Colleen Green: "Dressed up like a surgeon, you could open my heart. Remove the brain and leave the body in charge. No more emotions taking control. We will pick a part and play out our roles." ('Deeper Than Love')

Ezra Furman: "Can I sleep in your brain tonight, stranger? Can I rest my bones in your head? I won't make too much noise While I stay here. I just need some kind of shelter." ('Can I Sleep In Your Brain')

James Mercer, The Shins: "Did i strike the right set of chords? You're annoyed. The goal is to ignite you then move on.You feel ill at ease. You got no squeeze. And the wise cracks won't make you more stable." ('Pressed In A Book')

Joanna Newsom: "The tap of hangers, swaying in the closet, unburdened hooks and empty drawers, and everywhere I tried to love yours, yours again, and only yours." ('Does Not Suffice')

Earl Sweatshirt: "Tell momma get a gun if I get too popular. I'm just being honest with her. Tell her stop whining, it ain't no mo problems. I'm the best out of all these n*ggas." ('D.N.A')

Jesse Lacey, Brand New: "Well if we take all these things and we bury them fast, and we'll pray that they turn into seeds,to roots and then grass. It'd be all right, it's all right, it'd be easier that way." ('Daisy')

Peter Silberman, The Antlers: "There's two people living in one small room, from your two half-families tearing at you. Two ways to tell the story, no one worries, two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry." ('Two')

Aaron Weiss, Mewithoutyou: "If I'm a crown without a king, if I'm a broken open seed. If I come without a thing, then I come with all I need. No boat out in the blue, no place to rest your head. The trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead."('In A Sweater Poorly Knit')

Isaac Brock, Modest Mouse: "The moths beat themselves to death against the lights. Adding their breeze to the summer nights. Outside, water like air was great. I didn't know what I had that day." ('The World At Large')

Courtney Barnett: "I wanna wash out my head with turpentine, cyanide, I dislike this internal diatribe when I try to catch your eye. I hate seeing you cry in the kitchen. I don't know why it affects me like this when you're not even mine to consider." ('Pedestrian At Best')

Queens Of The Stone Age - '...Like Clockwork': "Holding on too long is just a fear of what's to show, because not everything that goes around comes back around, you know. One thing that is clear - it's all down hill from here"

Hayden Thorpe, Wild Beasts: "We're decadent beyond our means, with a zeal - we feel the things they�ll never feel. They're solemn in their wealth, we�re high in our poverty - we see the things they never see. Wanderlust: with us the world feels voluptuous. I just feel my way, with us. It's a feeling that I've come to trust." (Wanderlust)

Annie Clark, St Vincent: "You're a supplement, you're a salve, You're a bandage, pull it off, I think I love you, I think I'm mad. You're a cast signed broken arm You're an actor out of work, I think I love you, I think I'm mad." (Actor Out Of Work)

Natasha Khan, Bat For Lashes: "The trophy that I made for us in fur and gold, got into the wrong pair of hands and truth was sold. They bought it for oh so much less than it was worth - and every man that touched it found a heaven on Earth." (Trophy)

Paul Banks, Interpol: "We saw you in distraction, a sleeping slow despair - rehearsing interaction, he wasn't even there. A creature is a creature though you wish you were the wind. The boat will not stop moving if you tie him up until the end." (A Time To Be Small)

Elena Tonra, Daughter: " And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones. 'Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs. Setting fire to our insides for fun, collecting names of the lovers that went wrong." (Youth)

Colin Meloy, The Decemberists: "Sixteen military wives, thirty-two softly focused brightly colored eyes - staring at the natural tan of thirty-two gently clenching wrinkled little hands. Seventeen company men, out of which only twelve will make it back again. Sergeant sends a letter to five military wives whose tears drip down from ten little eyes." (Sixteen Military Wives)

Phosphorescent: "Some say love is a burning thing, that it makes a firey ring, oh but I know love as a fading thing, just as fickle as a feather in a stream. See honey I saw love, you see it came to me, it put its face up to my face so I could see. Yeah then I saw love disfigure me, into something I am not recognizing" (Song For Zula)

Will Sheff, Okkervil River: "Let fall your soft and swaying skirt, let fall your shoes, let fall your shirt. I'm not the lady-killing sort, Enough to hurt a girl in port...It lit her up, and she walked around, the winding streets of Camden Town. She don't know who she wants to be, and if I knew, I'd tell Marie." (Girl In Port)

Penguin Prison: "I wrote a song today not all the words are true. I thought you'd be the kind of girl who'd like a song written for you. Turned out it wasn�t so, you said it�s not enough. I guess I'll start it from the start, I guess it wouldn�t hurt too much." (Fair Warning)

Matt Berninger, The National: "Oh we're so disarming darling, everything we did believe, is diving diving diving diving off the balcony. Tired and wired we ruin too easy. Sleep in our clothes and wait for winter to leave." (Apartment Story)

Sampha - "Calculate indecision, can't cradle fear no more. Bear the shame of the incision, all lain cold across the floor. Your heart pounds with precision, a king dies inside his courts. Your heart pounds with precision, a king dies inside these doors." (Indecision)

James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem: "It comes apart the way it does in bad films, except the part when the moral kicks in. Though when we're running out of the drugs and the conversation's winding away, I wouldn't trade one stupid decision for another five years of life." (All My Friends)

It's National Poetry Day, so obviously you've all been dusting off your GCSE Shakespeare, Keats and Kipling collections and injecting yourself with a beautiful dose of culture...right? We didn't think so.

There's no need to hang your head in shame, we'll lift it up and show you our collection of the 23 greatest lyricists on the music scene right now. Forget the golden oldies for a moment and take a peak at the future of innovative and memorable lyricism.

Forget Patti Smith (don't really) and make way for Courtney Barnett, erase Nas from your memory (don't) and replace him with Earl Sweatshirt. That's just the tip of the iceberg though, so click ahead for a storming collection of mind boggling quotes and beautifully structured lines.