Snow Drops

 Like a lyric licks

The barley splits

The corn in fits and starts

Skits and parts chaff on the wind

Winnowing billowing gusts

And blasts that fast the breaking 

lines and rows and straps tied down

Over bales

And needles caught in Haystacks

Softly fall the snows on maps

Of our hearts and backs

And elbows tummies where

Tumble weed blows

And youth is but a refraction through

The glass of a crystal

Shatters snow flake

That breaks

But is still whole

In and of itself 

Contains itself

Again and again

Like a hologram

from the past

We ourselves change like snowflakes

Melting after a thaw

Our identity a fluid concept

That runs in and out of open doors

We are water based life forms

Beings of the vapours

And as the shore moves the pebbles

Through the tide

So we move heaven and earth

We tried

But temperatures froze us

impassable blockages dammed us in

And we could not flow

And still we waited cold and deep

Until across our surface

The ice did creep

And skaters came to play and score us with 

The lines of age

But nothing lasts that doesn't change

Upon time's stage

And in spring we thawed and our frozen expansion

Had cracked the walls of the pond

Until once again we spilled out

down new rivers and streams

And rills, rivulets culverts

and dives

And dipped into the caves

Where the bat thrives

And stalagmites and stalactites

Give us standing ovations and built statues 

Of our mineral foundations

And we deposit the past's baggage in river beds

And silt lakes

and we flow on more clearly forgetting

Not regretting our mistakes

Clear minded to the sea

Of all calm consolation

To join the mass hoards of starlit conversation

With sea birds and crustaceans

And bubbles where we glitter

And sparkle in deviations from

The winter bitter

And warm in gulf streams

And volcanic underground conurbations

A jet of steam is found 

To pass us through evaporation

Into the endless swirling ether of our imaginations

Where we write our names upon clouds

With all illuminations

Until the sun's head like lion proud

Roars in love and indignation

That he cannot see the crowds

Who to him offer their libations

And we scatter down

In snow flake crystallizations

Of the word for first softly fell then loud

But all in syncopation

On the hillside forest where the snow drops

Are praying

To welcome in the new spring

In pure white jubilation  

Christmas Swansong

 Talking of politics in the bookshop

And the rights of the individual

That Boris should be shot

The Money made by May for speeches of a kind

And others far too intellectual

They talk on the sofa of Feminism

And communism and dogmatism 

And letting go of leashes 

And losing all control

And I hold on to quiches

And break eggs to make omelettes

Of the friends I did not know

And put all my eggs in a basket of change

And hope to goodness that it doesn't feel strange

Because I have forgotten the weight of coins

In my pocket

And the feel of rain on my skin

When I enjoyed it

And Chocolate

saved up for and bought like a child

Or unwrapped at Christmas

And where has Christmas gone?

Is this its swan song that Morrisons

Are putting Easter Eggs up for sale

On Christmas Eve

What has it come to?

That you can't get served by a human being anymore you must meet a machine

A mechanized weigher

Do it your self

It will save us time and money

It will give us more Leisure time

Baloney

Leisure time is fine if you have the money

So who will have the money?

A state of lazy people who do not want to

Work

Nothing to do all day but pray

Or eat

Hopefully the former

But then their minds can be moulded better

They say

They can evolve like the Latter

Saints of the day

We will become a society of Saints all on our merry way

Doing Yoga saying howdy do neighbour

Oh you are committing a crime?

Well you know there is another way

Try being happy

Maybe that is the cure

But to be happy you must stop being poor

So we are back to the rich government handing out money to their citizens

The decadent society

The happy ones?

But then we look across the water to Eastern Europe

Are they not happier there, yet poorer?

Freedom to follow group traditions that bond each other in a fixed identity

Not this pluralism of mass individualism which

is driven by capitalism and greed and getting rich quick

Getting more and more is the religion

So where is Christmas, where are the Christian values?

Everything changes, they say

You have to let it go

We have ethnic diversity

Well we have enclaves, we have ghettoes

No we have love and strong community and rising above the fear

and hatred

Onwards and upwards like Peter Pan

Onwards and outwards and off to Japan

Sea fog

 They talk about sea fog and letting go

I can't see clearly to the land

They talk about white grog and hurting hands

Living with dinosaurs

And relics of bygone lands

They talk about sea fog that rolls in from the coast

The dirty men who love a ghost

The shattered, spent

And turned up hulls

Wrecked on the rocks

Of overdose

They talk about sea fog

And I can't see clearly

Through the melt water mud

Of frost and ice

I feel the pelt of rain

And The Celt in me smelt

Pain long before the dinosaur bones

Were turned up,

exposed

They talk about sea fog

And a withered hand

Holding a torch of freedom and

Perhaps the most I've ever wanted

From this land is a home

They talk about sea fog

And feeling gross

In far flung corners

And roller coast

Ers

But I switch off the forecast

And watch the football news

Sandringham

 Now I think I told you about Sandringham,

Sandringham the only one

Beeswax candles

And smelted biscuits in a fire

Of the iron tongue

Now I think I told you about Sandringham

And how everyone there is so kind

They'll polish your rifle

With such aplomb

And if they miss a spot

Well, never you mind

Well I think I mentioned the war

son?

You'll be going there after a spell

And it will all seem quite different

When you enter the mouth of hell

Well I think I told you about Sandringham 

or maybe it I mentioned Jenny éclair

She's eating ice cream with Harry and Megan

And the blood has gone hard on her egg and um

The knives are all out in the master's bedroom and

I think I've now told you about Sandringham

The Big Picture

Half a girl and half an angel

Half a woman and half a man

Half a hippopotamus and half a candle

Burning half the time

Half a place and half a plan

Half a leaf and half a tree

Half of life, half infinity

Half of nothing is still something

But half of something is nothing

Half a sock and half a shoe

Half a clock and half a screw

Go off half cocked

Come home half pissed

Make half hard then soft

Half on guard, she's half-missed

Half harmed, and half alarmed

By half a dog barking in half a barn

At half a cat in half a box

Which the Magician half canned

Before he left the magic circle

half-banned

Nothing is full except the moon

And nothing is empty except the cup

Nothing is half but a tea spoon

That stirs down emotions then stirs them up

Half awake, and half asleep

Half on the make, then half I'm weak

Be strong, be wrong, be fake, bespeak

The half love to take before full peak

Then I half explained with half a cigarette

propped up between two cheeks

That nothing can be claimed

Except by halves are leaked

Because seeing the full picture

Can be too much for half a brain

It needs the other half 

In order to see the same

Then, oh

then only

Will two halves become one

And then there'll a golden sunrise

Like two halves of the same sun

Teabag

 How come you say you're a teabag

When you're not a teabag to me

You know I wish you were a teabag

Because then I'd dunk you in my tea

But still you say that you're a teabag

And I count you one two three

Don't leave you in there any longer

Or you'll be as black as black can be

Maya and the Man in the Moon

 I'm sorry Maya,

The moon wept

I cannot bring your dreams to ya

I cruelly came and touched your life

With my silver wandering face

That looked cold and old

And lonely

Oh believe me that I love you only

But what am I to do?

I am just the man in the moon

Out of touch

With your love

I cannot come down to earth

To greet ya

Perhaps all we can do is wander together

In fields of stars

rolled out in our dreams

But, and here is just a thought

What if you became an astronaut?

And some how climbed the ladder of noughts

And crosses to reach me

Come and teach me your sport

I miss you Maya

I love you like a liar

Loves the truth, but hates his lie

And can't untie his shoes

When they no longer fit

Come and run with me in your ship

Come and let's throw stones

at glass ceilings and watch them

shatter and shower the earth in

illusion's shards

And then perhaps we'll reach the stars

And I can step out of my moon

And you can show me how to spoon

And how to taste delicious love

just because we deserve as much

Chicken

 Chicken wow, chicken in the trousers

DANCE AROUND YOUR PEN

Hen pen these chickens

They will love you if you speak to them

With a chicken heart

Some call of way back when

The Hen was brought from South America

Dashing across the forest floor

Chased by the native Indian

Who in turn was being chased by

A conquistador 

But can you see her this half human bird

Half a girl she is like half an angel

Who will never fly

But she will try

Perhaps to the tree top

Then stop

Perhaps she'll

Spy the moon

She'll hear the cock crow thrice

And her beautiful chicken dreams will fade

But be born again in her eggs

Specially hatched

To one day reach the sky

Saducces

 I was walking in a jungle of commonsence

Thinking where is the government of this nonsense

It makes me so concrete like the pavement

Then my favourite flavour of ice cream cement

Lent over the railings of the railing shop

And said have you brass knockers I can fit on my mop

You see the end is so hard I've nearly lost the plot

She said well you better make ends meat

Like in a Lancashire hotpot

I said you know your onions

And she said well certainly yo

I've been know to make mad dashes

At the church bell

And I've wanted to ring it

To warn of the fires of Hell

But it was Christmas Eve so I thought

I'd just wish them well

Oh the carol singers loved me they said

How are your Eaves I said I cleared the gutters last Thursday

But by now they smell

They said how do you know?

I said I've sniffed with my nose

They said well surely Mr Christmas as a Chimney sweep

You can tell

That's not the sort of thing a black beard like you

Should be doing midweek when you've left the zoo

I said I let all my monkeys and parrots alone

I didn't bar their cages nor touched my head to their hair

They whistled back sulkily a likely tune

I said I wish I could thistle

But I have lisp like a spoon

And only swallow down medicine

As soon as I'm due

It's not yet a quarter to eight and I'm feeling like a loon

Robin Road

 Robins

In the tree

Like oranges with wings

Singing oh so sweetly

But bitter rivalries win

The peel of bells

Across a winter scene

And he dived down into hell

To deliver water

To souls in purgatory

The Orange smells

The Holly pricks

The cocks fight themselves

To find the biggest dicks

But Someone shot him

On the road to ruin

Caught red handed

By the river Brue in

His red coat

His scarlet tail

The blood was flowing

until the January sale

And we keep our sides of

the garden wall

But I hear he cried

As the buckets fall

Down the well

To fetch the water

Wren, and hen and cottage daughter

Jack is lonesome on the hill

Mary's waiting blood and all

The rose is pricked

Plucked petal

placed in the mouth

Twin tongues call

The Robin sings

all winter to spring

In coldest times devouring

Such little birds but stout of heart

Ever ready reddened breast out

Facing the hedgerows

Turning about

Without a doubt

Like an arrow

Said the sparrow

Like a plough

Said the cow

On garden fork

Said the spying hawk

As gardeners busily work

Won't follow the swallow south

But stick it out

With true grit

As the snow falls 

from the sky's bit lip

And paintings of Christmas quip

Have him chirping about as reindeers skip

But shaded in obscurity, 

the blotting out of infirmity

The raging shout

The angry bull

Whose crying out 

In push and pull

the little snout

with brave pout

sings

Pale man

 whisky for your courage

Pelman for you pale

Pale riders in around your trail

I might be walking out of your city

Or I might be putting off to set sail

Look me up if you feel

like feeling pretty

look me me up I will meet you 

without fail

Whisky for your courage when the wind blows

As it turns around the arms of your white sails

See the flags fly high

And sheets of thunder

Sung like the hymns of god's of wonder

See the plastic bags fly in the tumbler

Raging round like jellyfish of the sky

Flesh is fire's friend

 Oh flesh, my flesh

mortal servant of the lord

Or servant of the fire?

When I watch him on the stage

Expire

Burning

Like a candlestick

He must sit upon the wick

And burn

In flame

And torture

Famine

Oh flesh

Of all the furniture

Fire is your friend

It must burn

In the end

Beyond The nerves

And sinews which extend

What frozen wonder land

Of wasted flesh

Oh flesh is fire's friend

Castles in the clouds

 B minor take me back

Down lanes so sweet

When life was fine

And things were meet

B minor to the E, we'll eat

The flower blossom in our mouths so sweet

The honey suckle on the boughs

The sway of tails of the cows

And grasses green and fields replete

With light summer rain

And swaying wheat

Oh B minor

But I know it's gone

It's only a line in a song

A harmony sung

In castles of clouds

Where I wander

with brow un-furrowed

Grammar Models

 Solace in the landscape

Is pretty

Seems to vanish energy

Seems to take all sorrow

From the doors of perception

Than in a big city the nerves jangle hit

against others

Are sparked off, like a fuse box

And the city lights go out

Dazzling amazing on the water

Languid, never sleeps

Oozing

this nightlife

In the countryside

The quiet night rolls

On, and what is there to do but

bemoan the passing time

The dreary year

In the buzzing city light, and flashes

The promise of glamour

But the dashed hope on the streets

The stammer of steps

that you fall down

Searching for Oz

 looking for Oz

in the underground

Searching for it in the city I found

Looking for riches, and gold

But I found wisdom at the end of the 

rainbow

looking for the wizard in nature

In the hopes of a new year's tide

Searching in the forests

Following up the green aisles

The winter time's bride

looking for it in the sky

We are all walking the yellow brick road

Walking it til we die

Sometimes I am the tin man

Who doesn't even feel

Sometimes I am the scare crow

Afraid of what isn't real

Sometimes I lack courage

But Dorothy pulls me through

As we walk our path of suffrage

What is really real ?

It is me and you

It is the dream of another world

Another place and time

A perfect amalgam

And an illusion

I can't abide

Milkman

 I like the milkman

You like the milkman ah

We all like the milkman

Love in the hills

 Out on the marshes

The endless parade

Of reeds like soldiers

Armies marching in charades

And high above them harriers harangue the pale 

Sky

Where do you expect

The division of labour to fall?

The hawks ask the buzzard

The buzzard ask the train

That rattles on beneath it

Like a bullet through the brain

What can you expect to do, or cut from the bone

When it has been gnawed so much

That the heart is no more a home

And I held you tight but

You fell through my hands like rain

When cupped I supped your water

But couldn't swallow your refrain

If I had my time again I would appreciate

What I had

You offered me life

And I threw it way

Like an apple that went bad

I think my whole existence

could be summed up in just a few words

To live and lose the love we had

passing by like a flock of birds

And yet the whole revelation

comes as some kind of second death

Or a kind of second coming

After a second breath

I tried to breathe easy this time sometimes easier said then done

When I see the gentle countryside

I am in love with

The Bakony hills loom large and black in the distance

Then they disappear but my memories are returning

And stirring in me feelings

of a love that keeps on burning