Gold bricking

 He was the king of shit

He was king midas of the golden toilet

Did his shit smell better than everyone else's? 

Of course, for it was made of gold

Pure 24 carat golden nuggets came out of his rectum

sometimes they cracked the toilet basin

But mostly he was able to fish them out and hoard them

This King Midas of the commode

Nothing he touched turned to Gold in his life

He bearly even had green fingers

But when it came to the toilet or WC, without strife

He was on to a winner

Sometimes they would come out like gold bricks

Then he could begin to build his palace

Not much need for the shitty end of the stick

He was already down the rabbit hole like Alice

Oh of course it was sometimes painful

And to be constipated with gold is a bind

But if you can drink tea, piss gold dust in your wee

Then the long wait is really worth the find

Your love means nothing at all

 Your love means nothing at all

When I hit back your top spinning ball

And you make a racket about a packet of crisps

And break a few eggs on the court

Your love means nothing at all

You hold up your eyes to the sun, to the sun

Your holy orbs, burning the one

In tents of the desert and curtains that flair

Across the bright present

A ghost of a care

But your love means nothing at all

Another thing coming

 If you think like that

You've got another thing coming

They're running rats down through the grubbing

If you think like that you've got another thing coming

He's so arrogant, he's got another thing coming

If you think like that you've got another thing coming

Well they were waiting in the line at the rodeo

Waiting to see old tom foolio

If you think that he won't buck you

He will tho

If you think like that you've got another thing coming

And another and another

Just another thing coming

Down the road to Babylon

Just another, and another

another thing coming on the road just another one

Well buses they never come when you need them

And horses never drink where you lead them

and the forces of chance are like arrows that glance

Off the targets when you don't heed them

Well you think you've understood? But you've got another thing coming

And another, another, another and another

Yeah you've got another thing coming

And if you think that good fortune, should be your birthright

Then you take a left at the sand dunes and turn on your headlights

You'll see a rabbit with another thing coming 

Doesn't matter if you have respect, things never do quite what you expect

Oh because you've got another thing coming

New life

 I got a new life

One I don't regret

I want a new life

One where I can forget

That old life

Where the rain always was

wet

Running down the window

of my chances

I'm in a new house

One of hope and life

Living like a church mouse

But away from a roaring wife

Needing a new douse

Of something like a fire

To cleanse me of my misery

and a memory that sours

Take me on board

Take me as I am

I'm in a new hoard

I feel like a new man

Give me overlord

With a brand new plan

I am getting a new life

Last resort

 Give me back the kingdom

Of the last resort

Out of all life's freedoms

And give me back my sport

To the witching hour where

The cats have power

And I neither need the lava nor 

The kind of hurt

Night guard

 Black to black

In the night of the guard

The world like a sire to the last

Broken on the hill

Of becoming

Salt fire and ash

In the mouth of the south

While the North looks down its nose

At us

And the soggy bottom of a marsh

Swells and swelters and sweats

In the beads of cookie cutter mountains

Beds alight with the embers of love

And grave yards that glow in the dust

Houses that smoulder after the floods

And Kitsch curt right courts exploding in blood

How can you hold onto the one that you love

How can you ask me when it's good enough

If you don't know by now it's a shame

But it's all just throw of the dice in the game

Talk about it

 Snow flakes in heaven

Give me dust in my shirt

And a weight that hurts

A back breaking sign of things to come

And how to run, how to run

I don't want to talk about it any more

Memoirs of a hermit -26thSept 2021

 I went for a walk in the park

On a Sunday morning

On the way back a pigeon  flew into a car

It was flapping around on the road

So I picked it up

And lay it next to the hedge on some straw

In its death throes

It opened its mouth

and contorted and looked at the sky

Back home I talked about Harry Potter with a Japanese student

Then a different student was drunk so I cancelled the lesson

I went to church in Shepton Mallet

Talked with Sami a Japanese lady 

About the congregation and the drummer

Who had a learning disability

Then a Pigeon flew into the Church in the middle

Of a sermon about storms on the sea of Galleli

And how Jesus calmed the storm

And was a sleep while all the fishermen panicked

And he said quiet

The Vicar pronounced the word loudly as 

The pigeon flapped in the rafters

Then came to a stop in the children's cresh

I moved over to catch it and set it free

But it flew up again

The Vicar said

and Jesus said the mind boggles

I felt embarassed at the distraction I had exacerbated

By my attempt at capture

And left the church

I drove to Great Breech wood

In order to find the Sedgmoor volunteers

But was late and couldn't find them

After two hours of wandering

I sat down on New Hill and ate some lunch

I saw an Asian Wasp

Or a murder hornet

Got caught up in some gorse and brambles

Then walked back to the car.

So emotional

 It's so emotional

The way you rock the cradle

The way you care for one and all

It's so emotional

It's so disasterous like a fall

Like a grace that's saved but then

you call, put us back in our places

And wipe our brave faces

Oh it's so emotional

The tears of the terror bomb

The tears of space

That cry out the stars in their eyes

And hear from the eves of the changing of race

Into colour blindness and lies

It's all so emotional

Homing pigeon

 When the pigeon flew through the hole

When the doors were well open

And the ten Commandments scroll

Had been spoken

When you understand you don't control your life

You'll stop flapping around 

In the house of the Lord

Whether you're a pigeon or a mouse

You can neither fly from nor hide from

The word

Let it be, he is here with you

Even the lowliest shrew

Even in the turn of the screw

There is no escape for you

Read from the ten Commandments

Know the beginning and end

Are not different departments

But all tied up like a shoe

Like a pigeon that's trapped

Got lost on the map

But flew

Straight home to you

The river sheppey

 The ducks on the sheppey

Down in the valley

Flowing right up by aunt sally

Walk up from Bowlish

And then to the hill

Where the Windsors are ruling

Through the winter chill

Down in the valley where the brambles grow thick

And the lilly pads ralley

Amongst the Bull sticks

And the rushes are happy

And the flushes are drained

And the green nettle lushes

Down through the rains

Down in the valley where the river Sheppey runs

And up on the hillside where walk the white nuns

Singing their choir songs of hymns for so long

About the green Sheppey that trundles along

Through all the houses and the winter time's plain

It runs with the mouses where the old bridges lain

And the mill stream of clemency and forgiveness' name

The green Sheppey whispers out her sweet name

The heart's road

 When I go away I try to forget

All of those pieces of memories of regret

When I go away I can hold them at arm's length

And say you cannot hurt me, you cannot touch me

You cannot hurt me today

But I always come back, back to the fold

To the font of the cradle of birth

I always return to the home and the hearth

And the place where I first knew the hurt

Now you can be travelling a long weary time

You can be holding his hand or mine

And this can be our way together or apart

But that's just the road of the heart

When I am travelling down the country mile

I look for the clouds, then I burst into a smile

When the sun is all shining and the birds are in song

Then I'm reminded that nothing is wrong

When I am travelling along a steep hill

And the ridges are vast with an emptiness that chills

Then I see your hand in the sky high above

And I know it's all just a plan of your love

When I am travelling through dale and through den

And the trees they grow over and they are my ken

I know you're near me, because I feel at ease

With the summer behind me and the autumn's breeze

When I am travelling far from my home

I can forget all of those feelings I own

Nothing is stronger than the pull to return

From where I've been travelling the heart's road that burns

Forty something, don't call it out

 Love forty-

40 love

40/15, need an ace

40/30 maybe enough

Over the line

Let, first service

Let, let me be

Let us pray

Let his love show

40/40

In the midst of life we are in death

Advantage life

I've served my time

Timed my serve

All in the toss and the fall of the ball

The spring and the shot

The lob and the call

Don't call it out

I love the game, don't worry about it all

set point

Match point

Rain stops play

But I want to see the end!

Cliff Richard, strawberries and cream

We're all going on a summer holiday

Hooray!

The net is always there blowing in the cross wind

The dividing line between you and me

Between life and death

Strawberries and cream

Just look at the crowd

Watching me and you

eyes back and forth

Don't take your eyes off the ball

Forty, each fight for a point

To score

To leave your name on the board

But just play for the love of the game

You're only forty after all

From the prison

looking down from the prison

I'm still waiting behind these bars

I'm still waiting inside the prison

And I see all the pennies rolling down the cobbled street

And I see the mermaids leaning up against the lamposts

And all them rough sailors telling all their lewd jokes

But the mermaids aren't listening

Looking down from the prison

In my life time I have committed no crime

Unless it was the one that took away my prime

Love is a free bird

But I don't pay it any mind

Not while I'm looking at it and listening

From inside the prison -Looking down from the prison

There are the sailors who come in on their ships

And throw salt into the wounds

Where women sway their hips

And I think of mountains when I kiss her lips

And I lie in valleys when she touches finger tips

But I can't be doing with gems glistening

Not from my home inside the prison

Yes I got your letter yesterday

And I wrote you one too

Just like the monkey from inside the zoo

I here that you're doing well

I am too, just a little bizarre behind these steel bars

Looking down from the prison

Forty something

 Forty something

Forty something

It could be forty and one,

It could be forty and two

I'm forty something

It could forty and one day

It could be forty three

I'm forty something

I'm in my forties

I think I meant that you were better

When you were younger

But actually I think now

That you were worse

You are getting better like a wine

Something about the vintage is fine

There's a delicacy about being forty

It gives you an edge

Like a cut hedge

Until you are forty one

And then your edge has gone

It comes back at forty two

When you get an edge on your shoe

Because you bought a better one

Than the one before

All you are are your shoes

By the time you are sixty

There is very little else left to give you an edge

You are too round by that time

And then you must buy a hat

And perhaps a jacket after that

Then when you are sixty two

You will need a walking cane

A new brain, and a bus pass

But you are in your forties

You are forty something

And you do not need to think about that yet

It is not part of the furniture of your life

Grow a beard when you are forty five

And shave it off the next day

Changing of the guard

 She clung onto her soldier as he was changing guard

But a man cannot shoulder blame that falls on so hard

The Palace has been stormed

But the watch is on the ramparts

The ghost of a former world

Is drifting through the walls

The palisade is broken

The hill is on its knees

And the river it has over spilled

Out into the seas

Hold on to your soldier as he is changing guard

Don't you turn your back on me

We must protect the Queen in our own back yard

And country is a religion

For the nationalists are at the gate

And they're storming our own barricade

Shouting their lies and hate

And the patriot is dying strung up in a barbed wire fence

And they're burning the flag of liberty in a fire of ugly sense

We must be the watchdogs of a thinking common sense

We must show the courage as the guard changes post

And the 21 gun salute goes up

The ship of state does birth

And all the men and women gather round liberty's bright hearth

Be my own man

 One day in my life 

I would like

To be free

And I don't need you

I need you

I don't need you

One day in my life

I would like to be free of you

One day in my life

I would like my time to be for me

Then I could hold all the seconds in the world

In my hand

I would be my own man

One day in my life, I could be free

Free from the chains that bond me

Then you could be there, we could be together

And then I would never part

Then in the sand, in the sand

I would hold you

Then I would be my own man

One day in my life, I would like this

Just to hold you

Make it alright, make up the fight, make it through the night with you

Then I could stand on my own two feet

And be my own man

I could stand and be my own man

I saw a shooting star

 I saw a shooting star and poked my nose

I saw shooting star and how it grows

It comes up from afar and then it goes

Oh shooting star

I saw a shooting star and then it blows

Like a fire work in a car it never shows

Ever glowing shooting star,

I saw a shooting star and then it goes

Oh you're a shooting star to me

You're like the nights above when I'm trying to be free

You're like all the kinds of love in the sea

Yes you're a shooting, you're a shooting star

You're a shooting star to me

I saw a shooting star in the throes

It was burning brightly like somebody's clothes

And then it went out, without a doubt

Now I know you were my girl

You were my girl

Maybe if I'd had wished on you

Things would have been different

Maybe if I'd had made it come true

Things would have been different

But I ought to know

When I stopped seeing your glow

That it's only a time so brief that goes

I saw a shooting star tonight

And I lit a little candle light

And I remembered you then

When I went to bed

And I dreamed of all the stars

In my head

The garden of Eden

 Tap tap, ping pong

goes the horse and trap

Goes the right and wrong

Of every situation from here to Babylon

Come over her put your head in my arms

Let me caress your body let yourself feel my charms

In and out the blue yonder the stove pipe blew

And the puffing Billy came up the hill followed by 

The wild horse crew

Tap tap you go, all night long

like a magical tarantula of song

Sometimes I see your shadows

And sometimes I see your shade

Sometimes things are fluid

Sometimes they are well made

Do not be a druid on the road to Adelaid

It was hard enough to prove this stuff

Came from beyond the grave

Yes I see your skeleton dancing all behind the x ray plate

You know I see you shining but it seems like a big mistake

See through ballerina

See through and too late

The dance is over, but you know rover

And his number plate

While I'm here I might get busy

While here

The fires can wait

I'm up a ladder with an adder

And yet I can't climb the gate

Well Eden has my number and 

I'll garden there after eight

But if you shoot to kill

Then let it be God's will

I won't hesitate

To build a fire

 Should I tell you what I'm thinking,

Should I tell you how I feel

Should I show you that I'm sinking

Into you like a film reel

Should I open up my heart and find

That you are in there too

Should tell you how I feel

Or should I leave it up to you

When I am in London

I take in all the sights

When I am by the seaside

I like to see the gulls in flight

Should tell you what I'm thinking

Should I show you how I feel

Is there anyone who's blinking

Not beleiving it's not real

I wish for you on a Sunday

I want you on the road

I want you in the cloudy skies

Like a Prince who wants a toad

Should tell you what I'm thinking

Should tell you how I feel

Is it too much sinking

Into what isn't real

Come on now come on now honey bunny

Come on take a chance with me

Come on now, on now, honey darling

And we shall see what we see

The fires are glowing in the hearth now

As the winter time grows very chill

And my heart's coals are still apart now

And I see that your's are still

So come on let's build a fire, come on let's brew some tea

Come on let's live our hearts' desires

For 'we' can be you and me

Train of thought

 I was riding on my train of thoughts

When a ticket inspector he pounced and caught

Me in his eyes, his hands of ice

And he said to me "Tickets please"

I said I have none,

This is my own train at least I thought

I didn't realize I had to pay

Well you need one for a holiday

Take your leave, time out of mind

But a thoughts a thought, the tracks don't mind

The driver must be paid, so too

The workers of the railway

Big Sky

 There was a storm over the corn

On the day that you were born

Over the hills, a long, long way

Long, long way to go still

There was a dark cloud on the horizon

And a blue moon it was rising

There was a storm, storm over the corn

On the day, the day you were born

There was a kestrel in the sky

There was an apple in the pie

It was a case of do or die

And there was a storm rolling in 

to the big blue sky

In the big sky, in the big sky

Yes in the big sky

Where we shall fly,

When we cry in the big sky

In the big sky

There was a man on the hill

He was standing there, standing so still

Just a giant, with a giant will

Holding up the sky

Holding up the big sky

And they pick the bright green corn

Just like the day that you were born

In the big sky, in the big sky

Came from a big sky, came from a big sky

In the big sky, where we do fly

Where crows they cry, and spindles sigh

That's the place where you and I

Will go when we die

Yes in the big sky, in the big sky

Both you and I, both you and I

Yes in the big sky, in the big sky

You and I, yes you and I

Country boy, city girl

 You're a city girl and I'm a country boy

Why don't we give it a whirl and see if we can't enjoy

Each other's company like a pearl enjoys a clam

You can live in my world, girl I know that you can

You won't change your colours like a leopard changes spots

And I won't change my temperature or run from cold to hot

And if we can come together and agree on each other's terms

Well I can see through your eyes and we can both just learn

We can come together like a city and a park

Never mind the weather when the sun turns to dark

There are many of us out there too many to compare

But if you can live in my world we can live right there

Here we are together through the summer and the rain

All the crops grow so brightly, greens are not in vain

Sometimes I get envious of the world I left behind

Well if I could live in your world why then you could live in mine

supermarket flowers

Send me your supermarket flowers

Send me Chrysanthemums from Tesco’s

Give me your lilies from Lidl’s

Oh, shower me with roses from Waitrose

I want your supermarket flowers girl

I want them for my birthday

I desire your flowers by the hour boy

Home delivery from Amazon or eBay

 

Give me sapphires from Argos

I desire those rubies from Ikea

I salivate for diamonds from McColl’s

And slobber over jewels down the highway

Give me your opals in the carpark

Let me feel them, let me weigh

Them in my hands, see them shine in the dark boy

I need them while I'm making hay

 

And if you should ask me, have I the power?

As you stand down there outside my tower

I'll throw down my hair, call for you by the hour

So long as you buy me your supermarket flowers

Pedestal

 Don't put me on a pedestal

I'm a statue, don't you know

Look I'm not perfect,

Nobody is,

You think I have stature, but I truly can fracture

And break

And the cracks appear, on the surface veneer

The mirror shines lacquer black

And if you look in my soul's looking back

So don't put me on a pedestal, won't you

Streets of gold

 These streets are dark and dirty

and the heat fights with the cold

Oh some streets are made of china

But these streets are paved with gold

And the hills they are on fire

With the sun burning in sky of sapphire

And all the clouds have silver linings

Where the streets are paved with gold

And the rivers are jade dragons

They are green like money I'm told

But the buildings are like red lions

Whose feet stand on streets of gold

Some streets are white with marble

Some statues stand for slaves sold

Some streets are cobbled where old men hobbled

But these streets are paved with gold

And all this is no mystery

Asia minor or ghost history

When cork screws turned on the thumbs of the world

Where the streets are paved with gold

Wessex Water

 He had a job with Wessex water

It was a damn good job boys

A dam good job

But you see he couldn't stay

It breaks my heart

It was a job for life

Or a life for job?

You see the money stop flowing

Down at the water works

The work dried up

He was parched as starched shirts

But a dam good job!

It was

You know it never rains but it pours

Down at the wishing well shores

Where the tide came in

And we all grew thin

On fat wages

Meant for better ages

It's a slow drip, drip

Like the news fed

Up at the panda enclosure

Life in black and white

It was a slippery slope.

Alley cat

 Wall cat, wall cat

Joanna lumely slim

Chain smoking Alley cat

McBride of darkness skim

The cream of the crop

Top top, tip, tip

Tip toe top

Pip pop poodle pip

Kip, kipper, slipper slip

Skip skop hot scotch

Whisky whiskers, curly lisper

Speaker of the shallow brow meow, Nihow,

Anyhow, wewow, neaow

Baw wow, bawow goes the dogless night

Goes the legless fright of worms take flight

In the evening dusk of musk, and husks of ears of sound corns, and wheaty horns

Of beer which rustle in the barley bustle of fields far above the new town,

Old town, Shepton sheppey

Burble warble barble, barber straw reed, strawberry thatch and fetch of cuffs

ironed and pressed waiting for the distressed, but well-dressed cat

Alley cat, wall flower, cat power

Hush now

 Hush now since the waves are falling white

And the sea is beginning to cave

Hush now since the day is turning into night

And my love it cannot save

Hush now since the coast is pure delight

And the cove it boasts its haven

A safe ground for the boats to moor at night

While about them the storm is ravin

Hush now since the ghost of your father's light

Has visited you in the tavern

And he tells you he knows who cut his throat

While the bats roosted in the cavern

Hush now since the day is turning into night

And the bees are beginning their humming

And cicadas at the motel are spotting in fights

And security guards are bumming

Hush now as the rays are turning white

And the clouds are beginning to open

And the sun comes like a chariot in the morning light

As the sleep spell is almost broken

Falling rocks

 People of the tower

People of the tower

Stand up, stand up in power

Hold on in your darkest hour

People of, people of the tower

And though your walls are built strong and tall

The time has come for the tower to fall

People of the tower

People of the tower

Danger, danger of the falling rocks

Danger when the lightening strikes itself

Danger from electric shocks

Danger when the earth is bound

And when the sky falls to the ground

Danger, danger of falling rocks

Mind your head, and mind the gaps

Fill in the spaces on your maps

Build those towers tall and strong

But beware of places that feel wrong

Read your books and take life's knocks

But most of all beware

Of falling rocks

You can look up into a sky of space junk

You can look down to where your visions have sunk

Inside the sea of chains and locks

But beware of falling rocks

And the walls came tumbling down

When the big black bomb was dropped on the town

And we watched the big black bomb explode, 

it was a heap of gold, it was a motherlode

And we were showered in pennies and jewels

But life is strange and can be cruel

For when you hear at dawn the crow of cocks

Then you must beware of falling rocks