Nostalgia

 Nostalgia

lookin' back on the days gone by

Like the stars in the night sky

Nostaglia

Nosta, notre, notredamn

Lady burning through the night

Falling down into my bed

Her name was Nostalgia

Nostalgia walking by my side

Like a shadow I abide

Nosta, my lady Nostalgia

She walks while I run

She talks while I gaze at the sun

My lady Nostalgia

Cooks me my meals

On her old stove

Singing songs of sweet love

Oh my lady Nostalgia

Where will we go together?

I cannot tell, 

I only know where we have been

Down in the wishing well

Looking up at the stars we both have seen

Me and my lady Nostalgia

Willow crack and willow bend

 If I could see you mellow friend

Willow crack and willow bend

If I could hold you in the pen

But willow crack and willow bend

Though it doesn't fix or like new mend

Willow cracks and willow bends

The water is the willow's friend

Willow crack and willow bend

Willow weave over the seas

Willow weave, oh willow weave

Willow crack and willow bend

Willow keep my mellow friend

There are poplars growing straight

Willow crack and willow bend

But they never grow so late

As Willow cracks and willow bends

And there are Alder who drink and send

Their limbs out straight to the rainbow's end

Yet Willow crack and willow bend

I had love, I had a life

Willow crack, willow bend

But I did not make her my wife

Willow crack and willow bend

And so it was I gripped knife

Willow crack and willow bend

Then I heard her land in strife

Willow crack and willow bend

All I saw was bloody knife

Willow crack and willow bend

And bold blood was running twice

Oh willow crack and willow bend

In the meadow the butterflies

Yes willow crack and willow bend

I saw the old bull sitting nice

The sun did shine into his eyes

Upon his ring shone paradise

As he looked out into the light

Yes willow crack and Willow bend

And it was there that I saw the Spring

Willow crack and Willow sing

And all the marsh marigolds like bells did ring

Their yellow sound through everything

Oh Willow crack and willow bend

Yes willow drink to a long lost friend

Oh willow crack and willow bend

And willow thinks when will it end

I saw my love through a long glass lens

Willow crack and willow bend

And where my love goes I too must wend

Willow crack and willow bend

And come the rain over the moor

Yes willow crack and willow bend

I loved in vain, I shall love no more

Yes willow crack and willow bend

And all is pain, but I do adore

When willows crack and willows bend

The wind will gain and crows will craw

As willow cracks and willow bends

The lights the same but sometimes poor

When willow cracks and willow bends

The fields furrow like ripples ashore

Oh willow crack and willow bend

The road is long, so long for sure

The willow cracks and the willow bends

And the chaffinch speak, and they speak some more

The willow cracks, and the willow bends

I see jack and I see george, I see Jackdaws, I see Jackdaws

And I look back through the open door

The willow cracks and the willow bends

And I see paths that are no more

The willow cracks and willow bends

And in the attack of the coming war

The willow cracks and the willow bends

There are facts and then there's the score

As the willow cracks and bends no more

The name of love

 I have known the Capulets

I have known the Montagues too

And everything they had done

In the name of loving you

There are some families out there

who don't believe it's true

But I saw it in the paper and I saw

it in the deepest blue

Some things that you see you can believe

In just one sight

But never I saw true love more

Than I saw it that first night

Some people don't even see what's right in front of their eyes

They can be so blind to love and walk over on the otherside

I have seen the Capulets and I've seen the Montagues too

And they have known that their heart's not stone

And that love's not true

I have searched the forests, I've searched the deserts too

I have not seen love I've known for a week or two

I had asked Apollo, I asked Hermes and Mars

They pointed me to the swallows and said why not cross some stars

I walked upon the moon and I looked for love up there

But it was only a reflection in a spoon and a long cold stare

I want to find a place that you can tell me so

That there is a place to go, where the love does show

Sometimes it is hidden in the reeds like a Bittern

Sometimes love will boom its name just as it is written

I cannot believe my words, I can't believe what they say

If you tell me love's a bird that will fly away

There are many martyrs who have fallen on their swords

All in the name of love but now they fall no more

What can you tell me of, if it's not in vain

Don't love the same woman time and time again

Well I knew the Capulets, I knew the Montagues too

I walked in the House of God and out the window flew

I was a ghost in the haunted house upon the hill

A ghost of all the love that's past and all that ever will

She left it in her will to me, she left me a million dollars

Said that love can't be bought or sold and that gold was hollow

And I knew the Capulets and I knew Montagues too

And I walked with Angels when two lovers did love true

There can be no answers fit, no answers can be given

That love is just a place to sit with a bright red ribbon

Gastro-enteritis

 Gold bricking

I was panning for gold

But found only dust

It came down in showers

Like the rains of rust

From some giant construtction

The Gods did create

But I found no noughats

Only loose flakes

The pan was gold leafed

And I collected the dust into a solution

For the mining company to assay

It's chemical conclusion

24 carats say

Or pure, pure gold

What's it worth anyway

To know what is sold?

I brought my find to the miners office

They said we won't accept it

It's in the wrong bottle

I said I can decant it now

They said no come back next week

The courier is here and you've missed the deadline

How can you say that I was right on the line

You've been standing here arguing with me

About rules and time

The time has run past on your gold plated face

And now you see I need to know the worth of this

Gold  - is Fortune or waste?

They said you won't know anyway until next week

The over officious little hitler stuck up bitch

You've run out of time, of that be sure

Now get out and leave from this office back door

So I drove away but my car stalled

It was weighed down with words

And weighed down with Gold

And I knew I'd found a vein

But I could stake a claim

For they had closed up shop

For me to put a stake to my name

It was glowing in my hand as I walked back through

The car park

It was a real lodestone

One that attracted attention

Cuckoo calling

 Cuckoo calling, cuckoo calling

118 118

this is cuckoo answering

cuckoo calling cuckoo 

over

Spring is over...over

No message not received

Spring has not yet start over

Cuckoo calling cuckoo

Cuckoo cuckoo

Cuckoo cuckoo answering

Message to relay is

Spring has just started over

Ok Roger Spring not over over

That is correct over

Roger and over out

Cuckcoo cuckoo, cuckoo,

Cuckcoo over

Yes this is cuckoo what can I do for you over

Only through nature

What if this is the last sunset

you'll ever see?

What if this is death coming to you

Through a colour TV?

What if this nature were never around?

And what if these birds songs didn't surround?

What if you never had bird song at all?

What a world it would be and oh how cruel

Nothing to soothe the senses or to calm the nerves

Nothing but electronic sensors or a robot who serves

And a human is not a machine, not yet anyhow

He has not an AI frontal lobe or a switch to turn off now

He has not got a mother board or a chip for a brain

The brain is organic and it must live with the same

Only in nature can we find our reprieve

And only through nature is there life to believe

Only through listening can you hear your own voice

Which like the birdsong keeps singing for it hasn't a choice

First cuckoo of Spring

 No I'm the first cuckoo of Spring

Will the first cuckoo of Spring please stand up

Raise your  wing, or give a wink

Look it's me, I was the first

No shut up I got here yesterday

Yesterday! What are you talking about?

I came last Tuesday

 I was here two weeks ago

They had forecast sun

But it turned out snow

I called it first

Saw the first dandilion blow

Or was it a daffodil I remember?

No perhaps that was last November

You know I can't tell these days no more

Not with climate change knocking at the door

The heart inside of you

 I moved mountains, and I moved hills

I moved fountains and I moved river rills

I moved Eden and I moved Heaven too

But I just can't move the heart inside of you

Yes I don't need questions and I don't need answers

Well I don't need investors to buy up my life's chances

There is just one question so answer me true

Tell me how do I move the heart inside of you?

I've seen St Steven, and I've seen Adam

Drinking with Saint Peter inside Heaven's tavern

And I've seen Death who showed me how time flew

But still I can't move the heart inside of you

Yes I can move boulders up rocky canyons

And I can shrug my shoulders and I can outstand them

But there is one thing that I can't do

I cannot change the heart inside of you

The otherside

 Let me be on the side that's winning

Give me the key to the door

While daylight is thinning

And my words are like straws 

that break the camel's back

Oh take it from me

We are under attack

Soon there will be more of them on earth

The fighters and destroyers who would kill

The mother that to them gave birth

But it doesn't matter in the swishing of the tongues

That the fire is chiller on the otherside of the sun

Well up in the prospects they are burning for gold

While down in the projects all their dreams got sold

And I hardly expect you to remember my name

I only sat opposite you the otherside of the flame

Now don't get me wrong I would have liked to be you

But we can't be another, so it's best just to shew you

Tell you to go back to from whence you came

Because you can't be my brother when you're

On the otherside of the flame

Sometimes it is blowing a cold chill out there

Sometimes I am knowing that I could kill with a stare

But I put my eyes back in my pockets and pull from their sockets

A new pair

Because I need new eyes to see with on the otherside of nowhere 

And to see you on the otherside of the flame

Easy come and easy go

 I was off the map, and driving up the wall

The Atlas was upside down

Satnav had stalled

And I said well I know

It's easy come, and easy go

I booked a plane to Japan

But when Covid came, I made another plan

But it's all the same and I know

It's easy come and easy go

I thought I'd settle for some sand

So got a visa for an Arabian land

But down the drain went all my plans

When Covid came I made my stand

I will not move from this spot

No not if soldiers force me at gun point

And I'll argue with the Policeman

Who tell's me I'm an illegal immigrant

I wish for peace, I wish for quiet

Away from scenes of a public riot

tired of being blamed for what is not

In the remit of a game of join up the dots

So I go to the parliamentary hall

And claim my right to speak for us all

Declaim the heroes of the past

Dethrone the pearly kings, nail my colours to the mast

I'm an American I want my green card

But they stopped me in Luton, said I could not pass

And yet this quarantine will end I know

It's easy come and easy go

And the last they heard, I was off again

Driving through the channel tunnel on a train

But the French authorities cried Non Monsieur!

And turned me back from behind their door

Do not offend the European Union

With your separatist ideas, and herd immunity

I thought I saw it spelled the Holy Communion

But I was mistaken when I saw the lack of humanity

Yet in the end I guess I know

It's easy come and easy go

Some say I'm better off on a desert island,

But who needs that stuff when you have a lock down environment

Bring us back to the victorious land

When the man in the street was the man in government

But my memory is foggy from the history books I read

stolen from the bonfire of vanities they said

And so I stepped inside the mirror of my insanities

And searched my reflection in the eyes of my enemies

And all I saw was what I already know

That it is easy come and easy to go

Witch's Brew

Ingredients:

Milk of cow

Tea leaves of China

Bagged by peasants

In Asia Minor

Shipped by freight

Over treacherous seas

To end up on shelves of Sainsbury's

Recipe:

Boil liquid -Adam's ale

Until Bubbling cauldron

Hot like devil's tail

Listen to whistle as vapours escape

Take off the boil let it cool and wait

Drop 1 bag of Asiatic leaf

Into a goblet of made of gold or dragon's teeth

Pour the amalgam upon the bag

Let the flavour suffuse

Til taste suits an that of an old hag

Add a drop of milk from cow

If you be an English Witch anyhow

Otherwise thou must milk an almond,

or squeeze an oat, or steal it from a nanny goat

Some may choose to opt for Soya

But the brew may make you scream like Goya

Next

Take the bag and strain with spoon

(must be done on a full moon)

Drink it down and thank Typhoo

Tetley, Yorkshire or Twining’s too

But be sure to enjoy with a familiar moggy

Unless you'd rather a long-legged froggy

Trouser Song

 Did you get dressed to day?

Did you put on your clothes?

Did you wash your hands?

Did you blow your nose?

Did you get dressed today ready for work

Oh come on mate, you can tell me straight

did you forget your trousers?

Did you check your waist coat

For spectacles and watch,

Did you test your suspenders?

Did you pull up your socks?

Did you get dressed for what could be and what could surely not?

Oh come on mate you can tell me straight

did you forget your trousers?

Come on you can tell me

If you didn't put your trousers on

We were on that old zoom call

And it's best not to flounder in song

If you can get up right now

And show me I won't be siding with the doubters

So come on mate, you can tell me straight 

Did you forget your trousers?

Don't worry, only pulling your leg!

Watching

 Between this wooden land

Of stork trees stand

The wiley scuffs of dancing tufts

That play in diffuse light like

Spiked pineapple tops

The lesions of sore silver, shimmering lakes

Stretches of straits and waterscapes

Gaping wide gates that ask their

gormless question why

To their empty fields

Their loveless lovers

Who steal like deer in shadows

Before the dawn has struck

And the sun is still a stuck

Orange yolk yet to break

And spill its golden liquor down

Upon the valley

Where the green king river snakes

And hedges blaze in fires before

The eyes of wood anemones

Who listen in their disguise

Those beautiful flower spies

Wild Swans

 Strange are the times, junta of the mind

Seized and sacked and bound

By invaders

Holy crosses fall, flags from Jerusalem's wall

And the clocks that keep running in circles

Take me back to a time

When all was easy sunshine

When we never faltered nor fell

Only down into sand

Take me back to the shore

Where the sea rushed corals

And all I did was lie on my back and floated

There must be a place like that

For you and me, my country Jack

Living free, sun on our backs

Birds through the sky somersaulting

There are ways and there are beasts

Making hay while others sleep

Inside the tree, the old knarled tree

Singing woodwork, woodwork for me

And out the woodwork

See them come

Like a stone that someone flung

Catapaulted, heaven vaulting

Wild swans, wild swans

See them skate on icey lake

See them make their last mistake

In the desert of the sun

Living as peasants for the holy one

There must be a time to fly

And there must be a time to die

When all your songs on earth are sung

That last will be your swan song

Wild swans, wild swans,

Through the grey clouds

To the land of song

In the heavens flying free

Wild swans I wish I could be

Give me life and give me joy

To always love and not destroy

This precious thing Earth's not a toy

That I can play with like a boy

I must be strong, must carry on

Through the heart land of the song

And sing on my tune of joy

Wild swans, wild swan