Yara, yara Shepton Mallet

Yara, Kingsland, on the escapade
Through the knuckled arches
Of the walled arcade
Munching on the Myrtle of a Thrush
in pale pose

Purring in the nettles
Cooking on the rose
Succoured and suckled,
Adroit to unknown sun
In the French dressed Troubadour
Letting off steam
Sheep in folds
Folder deep
In the paper leafed field

Roman numerals of chicken runs
Pertinent permanence of setting suns
Leaving behind like nuns
Of to find a wedding

I saw a falling star

I saw a falling star

And bit my lip

My heart beneath your scar

It gave a skip

And all the glass jars

Began to slip

The night I saw a falling star

I bit my lip

In the place of a kettle drum

To the hanging halls of Kingdom come

The sallow Queen wipes her brow

Thinks of her place in heaven now

Well she fell

Oh yes she fell

You oughta known it might’ve happened

The day I crossed your path

For the morrow, yeah tomorrow

Is like a star yet risen

And tonight, we hold tonight

In between teeth tightly bitten

I saw a falling star

This morning

While the world was early turning

And the waves pulled by the tide

Rose up, let go as one who has cried

Tomorrow, yeah tomorrow

The West is there to borrow

In the east are presents burning

From the Sun whose star is yearning

To be falling like you too

On with the Show

In the cold hunted moon hanging low

Like the a hangman’s noose

Over cold harbour bridge

And the sweet summer rose

That has doffed its fair cap

To be petals to the Devil and the coal scuttle cat

To the wintery scene of the levels

Which the ice queen peruses like lovers in bondage

And the dandelion trees full of starlings

That corner the darlings

And the buds of the flower

Then as if a cruel North wind did blow

Destroys with its power

And a flutter on the breeze rise the starlings

Like dandelion seeds

And then on with the show

While bare and alone stands the tree with its branches

The summer a long way off with its rose

The winter peeling her bark in its throes

But still the Majestic dance goes on

So on with the show

The name of this Eden is chances

The sweet swelling ring of the bells

The Colonel and the Lady are dancers

So the good song of the evening goes well

And a courting goes John of the Marshes

To the town fair he has gone with the Belles

And Donna was seen with the Marquis

Whom she showed her fine, handsome hair

And the bard of the evening is laughing

And the mystery fairy folk are all there

For John with a belle is now dancing

And so long has she held his bold stare

So the evening buds are a blooming

And the morning floods are still there

But as the level’s lovers are crooning

The Silver fairy folk are in their lair

And the blood of the brothers is on the tide

The tears their mother has cried

Calls why can’t we go back to the evening

When neither a brother did care

And their wives are a-busy a-mourning

Their lives are of widowhood bare

And of the music that filled the good evening

How they wish for its love back on the air

So the fairy Folk dance on the shore line

They break the crisp foam in their hands

The Lovers come again in the evening

And the Levels is again a fine land

Jesuit Justice

All about the shirts shout

And passers- by exclaim

In voices loud as a newborn’s howl

Pass around their name

The hapless crew are wandering through

Careless is their ditty song

Of high fluting pleasure castles

Where they rest all day long

And they say that wickedness never rests

While these Babylonians were at the game

Their facetious smiles and wrinkled brows

Never turned to see their selves in the mirror

Or else turn back from their ruinous road

No they were stubborn and lazy as a toad

They came back here not so long ago

Full of misery and sad song

For their loves had flown to go

And their children had passed on

Now the loud of shirt are of tattered rags

Tatterdemalion

And their dollar bills fill just paper bags

Much like Pygmalion

Still their pride and vice

Are twice as nice as when they once were seen

Walking the castle palisades

As a pleasure palace’s King and Queen

Magistrates of the soul go by

Penny thieves, hope and vultures cry

Misanthropes tie ropes, about a dignified neck

As revolutionaries pell-mell their executioners peck

Little holes in the foals, Like a goalies check

And lace wizened purls round girlie curls

To invest in a gull ringed dove neck

River Queens

I wandered as pale as a sheep

Afraid of sleep

Of death

As a nettle amongst sick roses

Falling over myself in unspoken morose(s)

Witching the ‘you’ tree beside the Yang river

Which sang Ying as a shiver on a ghost

It began to believe in the God seed

But Jack high on speed ran it up the post

I wandered, a grief I knew not where from

Betrayed me like a mirror to a shadow

Respected no ill spectre of unforgiven love

Inspected all god pieces as if gold in a glove

She salmon pinked my insides

Yet stones I threw from the bridge

And watched the black water flow through

As if the stars had born you

And I had been waiting

All of my years

To catch a petal and let a stone go

So what ‘s the matter Queen Jane

The look of mercy is plain again

Ann of neck and sleeves is worn,

Her cares have Jasmine vipers bitten

And shy is smitten and sworn

Neptune's Circus

An Egyptologist came by camel to Camelot

Came to Neptune’s circus

Rode in there with green apparel

Climbed down the cliff side staircase

Left the land of sand and stone

Exchanged it in for sea and cross bone

Saw clown fish laugh

And clams applause

As the long decked raft

Broke in the shark’s jaws

Watched booming white comets of surf

Shoot up and spray

Like Pennies dropped down to earth

And fireman octopi with their long hoses

Bedraggle the Angel fish who stride with Moses

And see the sea part then like curtains

Closes

After the Israelites depart

From under Egyptian noses

And he came to Neptune’s circus

It was worse now that he had purpose

And the thoughts and the thrills

That burbled in the rills

On the outskirts

Of circus Marquee

Like the frills of lady jelly fish

Who came to dance the dark Fandango

In the light fantastic of the underwater

Universe

Or the solemn hermit crab

Who crept with all his red fingers drab

In the cuticle of minutiae of telescopic beetle burrs

The Egyptologist stopped

Mouth agape at the dead Sea

Staggered like a sand dune to Galilee

Those place of the hieroglyphs

Were seemingly these gyro cliffs

That turned around a merry go-round

Or carousel

And in the fairground grinding organ music

Spoke of oysters, barnacles and other molluscs

As he stared at the starry night above

All the Hebrew Tribes

All the Hebrew tribes walk out

 Slowly in the morning

 Waiting for the birthing trout

In the river spawning

And as the shingle rolls about

The tide it goes on yawning

Sharing a bed with the sprat and sprout

The tiddlers go on pawning

Prawns come marching in their leg lace style

Cycling like a ghost army each ephemeral mile

As the sea bed listens

To the love locked isle

The trees were like mighty antelopes

Appraising a far off hill

Thinking it may be their last hope

To avoid the lions kill

The trees were like a shadow

Moving upon the wall

Where one looks like another

A  sparrow

A wolf in the garden

A face ready to fall

The trees were like a shaman

Who changes shape and size

One minute they are an eagle

The next a bear with brown eyes

We were walking in the shade of the leaves

That cut up the sunlight

So that shadows were like paper chain men

Dancing their marching jig on the ground

We were walking beneath when the heavens opened

When the droplets fell like boulders

When the caterpillar crawled on the mud around

And the mosquitoes alit on our shoulders

We were walking between our youth

And times past, one a bit older

But shared in this vision of childhood rare

Looking down from a bridge in to the water

Linking to a time that now seems much colder

A future of our bodies in a state of decay

When we went out walking the other day

We ate our lunch in the hidden enclave of the land rover

Rolling the same script that’s been turned over and over

His children, the family, poor sleep

Domestics, cries for attention

Keeping a relationship going

When we went out again the rain had stopped raining

He stopped complaining, I enjoyed the job more

Scrambled down the slopes

Held onto trunks, swung on others like lamp posts

Almost singing in the rain, when it came down again

We weaved between the Holly, made no great folly

Needed no brolly, gone far from melancholy

In fact felt quite jolly

Fruit Yesterday

Fruit yesterday

Fruit today

All of it rotten in some decay

Flashing crossing lights

Blink and speak

Panic stricken on a losing streak

Hope wrestles infirmity

Dope kestrels of eternity

Hover cope, like a kite on a rope

Cutting the sky in two

Minstrel speaking crows in rhyme

One caw, two caw, three in time

Flat line oblivion

A breast sheltered Powers

Reign down on me gently

Soothing rain showers

Allow me to cry

For God’s sake forgive me

For all and every crime

I ever did not believe in thee

I need your help now Jesus

I need what you bring

Guide me up gentle

Like a kite on a string 

The Christmas Turkey

The Christmas Turkey’s wrapped

All manner of beans and flying machines

In the tumble weed dawn

When the white horse rides

And the red nose glows

And all the selfless little elves

Take a good look at their selves

When sacrament of love is given

And the holy foundation of earth is riven

From the ground in its pillars of might

By the snows,

        By the wind that blows

By the sickle cutting corn in rows

        From the hands of Avenging Angels

When dawn breaks chorus

As the Greeks

Their furious selves hide from the weak

And salty earth is in the mouth

Because food grows plenty down south

And certain tribes are tucked away

Unbeknownst to the new light of day

Unless a word or two to say

Inside the ring of the horizon

Oh Powers mighty flighty staff

Come turn the road in range,  less  ways

To mock an Eden burning, yearning

For a false dawn’s door handle’s turning

Open up a witch craft’s furnishing

All bodies in blood and yellow

In blood and yellow

      They write themselves

Into the walls or hells

And out of holes or into wells

While the church bell’s chiming

And Tachygraphs of photographs

   That keep the heart in fits of laughs

Or sit like bulls upon their loves

And doze inside fresh meadows

And sallow tainted, scented dreams

Of things unbidden, ghosts unseen

The blood and yellow most obscene

Is washed from the windows of the soul

When tears come tumbling down

Like an ocean kingdom, when falls the crest like crown

To drown in air, the watermen stare

Up at the clouds of skies

Beyond the ring of the horizon

I don't think of you that much anymore

I don’t think of you that much anymore

I am in the merry-go-round world of rich and poor

Some folks find happiness, like an open door

But me, it’s like when I hear “such and such”

No I don’t think of you much anymore

I see the painted skies turn black

Then turn back into day

I see the crowded subway trains,

Change passengers then drift away

I see the birds flock in the sky

I wish I were a bird so I could fly

But why, oh why? I don’t need to cry

As I don’t think of you much anymore

I don’t think that much about you anymore

I don’t think that love will come knocking on my door

Now when I see you it’s to say

Hello, good bye, then I walk away

There’s someone somewhere waiting for me I’m sure

I don’t think of you much anymore

I know scientists have discovered new cures for diseases

But love sickness and the blues

Just leave me with blackened bruises

And if you say it’ll work today

I’ll jump out of bed and cry hooray!

Because it’s not broken bones they need to cure

But love’s cool words that cut and tore

But I don’t think of you that much anymore

The fire flies of night are bold

They fly their tales like in stories told

Of knights in colours defeating the black

Well I can still believe you might be coming back

But I don’t need to go and do that chore

As I don’t think that much about you anymore 

It's more than I can do

It’s more than I can do

Not to fall in love with you

It’s all my hopes comes true

All my horizons turned clear blue

It’s more than I can do

In the course of a true love’s affection

I have pursed my lips and followed your direction

But to keep on after you

Well it’s more than I can do

Beyond the night time’s steep tower

Where the moon rules its awesome power

I have freed the caged bird, off it flew

To keep him locked up, well

It’s more than I can do

The diamonds in the rock face sparkle

All the tin faced soldiers darkle

To see them march beneath starry banner

And know I once marched there too

Well it’s more than I can do

I must meet the world’s demands

Must do and follow its commands

But if I can or will it’s true

It’s more than I can do

The steeple chase, the wild goose

I caught him once but turned him loose

To keep a thing so long, belonging

Beyond some right curfew

It’s more than I can do

I saw you once in the hall of mirrors

Dancing like a phantom nearer

Until you caught my eye, your beauty beholden

With your fish hooks gleaming golden

But I had to let you fall right through

It was more than I could do

The colours of the rainbow glimmer

As on the sea, the Sun’s golds shimmer

A fishing boat trawls the lost ocean

To catch a fish like you

Yet it’s more than I can do

I hold my hands, my heart stops beating

The furnaces turn iron cast sheeting

That slips between the hammers

And the fire’s heating

The old below us the other we create a new

But it’s more than I can do 

The Whimsical Wood

In the whimsical wood

Is where the dove cot stood

Away from light and power and Magic

It grew too cold and soon was tragic

Then the whimsical woodsman came along

In his way with an axe

He sang his song

And levelled the trees which had stood there long

And let the light shine in

And the dovecot stood

In the whimsical wood

Just waiting for a dove

To fly down from above

And give it a sign it was true and good

Finally one day when the woodsman was asleep

Down flew a pair of doves

The dovecot to keep

And they made their nests

With a ‘coo’ and ‘cheap’, ‘cheap’

Gently rolling their soft vowel sounds

To the woodsman asleep

Inside his dream he was wide awake

Aboard a great Ark, like Noah did make

And along from the skies came a wandering dove

Who dropped an olive twig in his palm,

And spoke of love

All around him was a flood

Like around the dovecot stood the wood

And he knew not just about what business he should

Unless it was to speak of love

And as he did the waters receded

Just as the trees that once he had seeded

And his Ark it reached the land

Well then he awoke from his own dream

To find who had spoke, was a dove on a beam

Coo-cooing here and there

They flew in a pair

But startled when he moved

And flew into air

Come back, come back he pleaded and pleaded

But his cries they went unheeded

So he sat back down in a torpor

And stewed like a tea bag left too long in the water

Finally he grew black and bitter

What need have I of trees?

Without love nor Birds nor bees

I may live in my wood of high walls

And if another high tree falls

It will not be by my hand at all

I will live here in the dovecot

Penthouse Quarter

So he laid down his axe

And began to relax

Inside the walls of his new dovecot home

That evening on the breeze

He thought he smelt the smell of the seas

He saw the rustle of the leaves

Then in the dovecot’s eves

Spied his first love

The dovecot owner’s daughter

‘Hey there come down’

He coaxed her

She gave a coo, fluttered and flew

And he saw it was a dove

Returned not the daughter

Though sad, yet relieved

To find hope in the eves

He fed the little bird some grain

And it was bad he believed

To build high walls of pride made of leaves

Just to hide and cover up his pain

So he resolved the next morning

Without further warning

To break the spell of longing

On the whimsical wood

He took his axe and his belongings

And set out through the thronging

To carve out a new pathway made for good

The going it was hard

Often times dangerous

At night he stood guard

For wolves or bears, quite treacherous

Underfoot sometimes rock or stone

From the sky sometimes thunder

Rain or blistering Sun

Down valley and up hill

He used his woodland skill

To make a path to freedom

From the whimsical wood kingdom

Past the hives of honeyed bee-dom

To the land of shrilling shrill

Once his path was made

He then became afraid

That, others might tread down his road

But determined not to be a toad

He would carry the load

And deal with the consequences

Be they light or shade

One day while he was chopping

Near a time he thought of stopping

A lovely maiden upon him strode

She looked like sunshine popping

Through the leaves as they are dropping

And his heart it gave a coo like in a dove’s abode

She smiled and sat down near him

He stopped when she began to sing

A song of love I have been told

And from that day his heartache mended

No more high walls of Pride to be offended

What’s more the doves came back

To their woodland hold

Beggars Belief

What do Beggars Believe?

When they sleep

The only possessions they keep

Are the content of their dreams

Do they believe in the foundations

Of a society of nations

In the consciousness stream

Tell me what do Beggars dream?

Do they dream of a land

Where they’re called a Human

Not judged by their ability to work or have use

Where they’ve not gone beserk nor are shown such abuse

Tell me does a Beggar believe

That the answer lies in bottle

And when they’re on a drunk

Are all their hopes sunk

Or are they free in their dreams

Like a stick in a stream

To float away from their junk

Tell me how must a beggar become real?

Is he a mystery, lost like the stars

In the sea

Is his the life of a Tramp

An envelope with no address

A letter but no Stamp

And does he still have some hope?

Or to some dark sin must he confess

And is his Sin any worse than our own

Is it more or is it less?

What deserves he of his present situation

Are past and future, just out of his creation?

How will the Music score end

Will he find a friend

Or sound his Bum note

Doe

Watching the Doe
Tip Toe
Like a delicate flower
Beset with God's power
To range and graze
The field in days
The scrub, the margins of the wood
Skirting, and just nibbling at the 
extraterrestrial soul food that lifts her
Beyond the animal, she still is
Yet divinity clings to her
Does not let her go
Does not let her go

Like some lassoo of will
From a cowboy riding a cloud 
She pulls along the sky
Draws the last rays of perfect, egg yoke sunlight
Breaking at sunset
Breaking the silence 
The absolute stillness, yet nothing
So dead quiet as a house
There is always the wind, in the leaves
The insects buzzing 
Or ducks splashing
And the doe treading like on dreams
So gently breaking them

The yet unshattered silence
Is her dream, 
While she is divine creator
Her world we glimpse
But in our observation the glass breaks
The floor creaks as she treads
And our eyes perceive her as an animal
She sees this reflection,
And reflection unveils the Goddess mask
And the world lies broken
But for the memory of her spell

Bee

He travelled the seas

He travelled the land

To the hum of the bees

And the hum of his hands

And his Queen was protected

By many a Bee knight

Though she was highly respected

She never took flight

And the Queen was a prisoner

The Bee knight her jailor

They hummed loud in their honour

But she grew the paler

The Bee hive needed a Queen to believe in

A perfect model of divinity in Bee form

In this Virgin Mother

Such a deity they perceive in

So her role of Captive Ruler

She was made to perform

All power has its consequence

All power has corruption

But the bee Queen rules her bee subjects

Without Scandal or interruption

You think the Queen owns her Kingdom

That she rules from the hive

Her vast reign

But ask her of her Bee freedom

She’ll cry To Be or not To Be

To you again and again

Envy

A ship named envy

Sailed unsinkable

Striking fear into the heart of friend or enemy

That ship, that ship named Envy

And Envy is a Ghost ship

It works a skeleton crew

Whose eyeless sockets stare about

In vanity for their sight curfew

Who may face this enemy?

The king’s fleet flee before its mast

Islanders retreat behind cover of trees

The beaches lie deserted at the last

Some are prone to Anger

Some are prone to Lust

But who can contend with an envious Rancour?

Like a ship risen out of a horizon’s dust

Some will pitch in on the high Seas

Some will fight though always to their cost

But those whose plight are the Envies

Find in the end their battles are lost

So when you search the horizon

Let your search be tempered by shame

For to know all men fear the uprising

Of the ship with Envy as its name 

Somethings, sometimes

I came to the last place of darkness and light
And saw in the last face that look of delight
As if a crimson flower, opening
As a blood vein full of life
When I came to the last place of darkness and light

I ran in the last race
The race that ran through the night
The madness of a fickle grace
That lets some win, others lose outright
By the time of daylight
The loser had won, the winner lost his fight
When I ran in the last race
That ran through the night

I pulled out of the mouth a wisdom tooth
In truth, it was proof of lost wisdom forsooth
For the fools mouth is full
His words over spilling
His teeth like a bad day
Kept needing filling
But the mouth of the wise
Is often closed shut
Though his eyes are wide open
To make the Editor's cut
So I pulled out the wisdom tooth
And found myself wise
But was it a tooth for a tooth
Or my eyes for their eyes?

Hand to I

I’ve tried to search for something more

But found something less

What ‘s worst the thing I lost

Was the thing I loved the best

On distant shore in Foreign land

I plied my skill and trade

But in each article crafted by my hand

Was the mark my creator made

As if a face in a mirror

Its visage haunts me still

And in its passing words, the manufacture

Of His mighty skill

It’s what I hoped for yes

It’s what my heart desired

But in the breaking of the mould, I guess

A new form of life was fired

Can the time that’s gone be had,

Again, any more than yesterday?

For what we thought was Good or Bad

Seems to change by the New light of Day

What I once thought Golden

Was only a beach of yellow sand

Just a beauty that in my eye was beholden

Yet crafted by his hand

And as such is all more temporary

For the passing of the day

Will wash like the sea

All signs in the sand of the children who there did play

Can I think it right?

Neigh, might I think it pays

To weigh rainbows with colours bright

Which in the painter’s palette lays?

Will the hand that writes

Be the hand that stays

For what is it than to put black pen to white

And hasten the Judgement day

Life’s too short to be Bittern

Once Bittern twice shy

They dance to the tune of the reeds

These wood wind musicians of the sky

They play like the reeds their throat song

They beat the bull frogs at their own game

In time they sing along

Like a jamboree

All the same

They do impressions of Bulrushes

Standing plant tall and straight

And what do they want of paint brushes

When streaked brown and white they wait

Birds

Chaffinch on the table

Blue Tits on the bench

Starlings on the cable

Little Black Bird on the fence

All about their picnic

All about their lunch

Some Wren’s a pick pocket

 Some woodpecker packs a punch

Out the garden grows the vine

Out beside the pond

Far beyond the picket fence line

Keeping true its bond

Where sat the warbler

Warbling his song

To the dawn in chorus

For all the New Spring Long

Reap What You Sow

That our days are numbered, we all know

No use fixing our eyes, only on the end of the rainbow

No use thinking, that all that glitters is Gold

You will reap what you shall sow

That Blue Sky thinking can shatter glass ceilings

That if you shoot for the stars, you might hit the moon

But, no use hiding scars, from the fallen glass, soon

You will reap what you shall sow

You’ve sought out the After-life, like it was an after thought

Believed all good things come out of strife

But from dust to dust, from nought comes nought

And, any time you fear the wrath, you just lie low

You’re going to reap just what you sow

The mermen rise from a watery grave

I’m ready Lord for you to save

Let me be cleansed of all I know

As vanity passes like a fool in a blizzard of snow

You’re going to reap just what you sow

The Temptation lies like an open door

But don’t step inside, you’ll only want more

The House of God is our only refuge

You must wash your feet in the river

Let the water purge you

But it’s no use, unless you know

You’re going to reap just what you sow

Airport

Board an aeroplane

Metal birds on concrete floors

Change your name

In your Holiday fame

Return to the same

Like a Phoenix from the Ashes

The Ashes fall down again

Oh keep your broken arrows

Oh keep your spears yet sharp

Like the shooting sparrows

Like the darting carp

Keep your soldiers marching

They march the whole day long

Through the Marble Arch

Singing your victory song

Steel Robins singing

Feathered Fuselage

Keep your eggs a bobbing

Through the thorough fare

Fight or Flight in the space age

Diamonds sparkle in the night air

What I’ve left behind upon the ground

While I’m up in the air

What I’ve brought with me

What I’ve found

Since flying way up there

Music of the airport

Sweet Saccharin smooth tile

Buying our duty free report

Up high mile after mile

Cutting clouds like Paper-Mache

Newspapers writing foreign attaché

Of foreign wars and words

Oh keep sharp your swords

Keep damp the ink your pen

Hold tight, hold strong ye noble men

The sky is full of dreamers

The earth’s soul full of dirt

Let flare Ideals' streamers

Let wild geysers spurt