Dartmoor zoo

 Monkeys escaped from Longleat 

Pull windscreen wipers off cars

Have a fondness for Carwash machines

Think their bristly brooms

Their home

It's  a monkey puzzle tree to me

Pumas roaming the hills of Dartmoor

Dartmoor prison of brothers and nuns

The beast is on the loose, always

Prowling on the lookout for you

Like a lion

They beat the devil out of a man

And now he too is set free

Ready to step into another's body

Get out, get out I tell thee

The gulls in the sky

Black-headed ones flock

In large numbers

You can never call them sea gulls anymore

as Most of them have never even

heard of it, let alone seen it.

There's mould growing on my bathroom wall

Does that count as natural or unnatural?

I clean it off, but it reappears like a stain

Upon my soul

Out, out damn spot!

They bought a zoo

To show what could be done

With dollop of determination

And a side serving of salt and grit

And they did it

The animals were saved

As if by Noah

Still they are a little incongruous

On Dartmoor

Canned worms

 Canned worms

She looks into my deepest soul

And sees canned worms

Canned worms

Canned worms

She puts me on a hook

Dangles me in front of the moon

The silver fish leap up 

Bite little chunks out of me

Moon food, moon food

And canned worms

Hope in the rain

 The days they seem too long

Though not as long as the song

That the songbird sings on dunes

That ebb and flow with the moon

And I am caught between the shadows

And the curtains of the windows

Singing a tune for you

The flag is hoisted in the castle

I see the knights ride in

But have I pawned the dirty rascal

Who calls me back to the king

And the Bishop eying the Queen

Only a peasants rebellion will win the scene

What's done is done, what's been has been

Singing a tune for you

The day that Christmas came and went

Found me in a little tent

Praying for the windows

Into out of, round the bend

Of the road of good intent

Before I rode up to your window

And showered you with flowers

From the chimney sweep's chimney

Just singing a tune for you

Making up the last verse

Was like I had you on my shoulder

Singing to me lovely dreams not ever getting older

Only fleeting like the blizzards, ever getting colder

Until I warm them by your fire

Makes my mind a little kinder

Once again my hope is that I shall find her

Singing a tune for you

Frog-eye

 She sits and she composes her song

And all the birds , they go flitting along

And it skits, it scats and it throngs

With alley cats, the dogs howling too strong

And the train, the train rumbles on

The last refrain, she always gets wrong

And the frogs are leaping into her pond

And the birds are tweeting, while she keeps writing her song

Oh ribbet, ribbet

Rib-eye steak

In the time of Henry the Eighth

The Bishop had his eye on the market square

Looking out for bargains here and there

The Bishop's nose

The bishop's feet

Oh how they grow

In inches sweet

Yet he jumps back in his pond

Repeats, I have my eye on you

Ribbet, ribbet, ribbet

bleat!

Housing Project

 you sing of blue shoals

In deep savannah

You love in new roles

The asleep piranhas

But I am deep scrolls

And I am the Bahamas

Oh who do you think you are?

Singing Praise be Hosannahs?

The frogs on fourth street are hanging their washing

The dogs on low walls are already hogging

The cream cats on the sofa where the couples are snogging

Singing who do you think you are

With all this blogging

The new year is here,

It is what we all hope for

The fire brigade are on parade

Along the silver street serenade

The fountains

Of mercy they are overflowing

crying who do you think you are

(1/1/2021)

light

 Well the birds would sing

And the night disappear

It was the usual thing

The thing I like to hear

And it left me, with a feeling of glory

As the dance continued

And the storm breathed on

And the rain in it's legions

Dropped on us like bombs

But we found the meaning so clear

On our trail with the snails

across the garden path

And the creatures taking comfort 

From a water bath

I saw the Magpie's eye spy

An early worm

I saw an earwig leap at the crack of dawn

As a beetle creeps under a stone to stay warm

And it was a telegraph of buzzing flies

Upon the ceiling when I opened my eyes

All there ready to die or get born

In the cycle of life you don't ask twice

You take what your given including good advice

Its just that sometimes it would be nice

To be warned

If I am reincarnated as a bee or a bug

Then let me know the morning dew

From a night's dreaming there's the rub

Would I dream of being a human?

Does an ant have a fantasy of being a cat

Does a dog wish that actually he could have been a bat

As he chases butterflies through a field

Would a rattle snake that shivers rather be a whale

Would a leaping pony rather learn to sail

How do we know this is not what animals feel?

Whose to say their dreams are not like yours or mine

Perhaps they dream by day while the sun shines

And that is what drives evolution

Because you have to have a dream, to make one come true

You have to cling to hope no matter what you're going through

And it's in these final lines that reminds me to sing

It's through the cracks as Cohen says that the light shines in 

Knit-knacks

 It was cut and run

In the sewing circle

She would sort out their mealy mouths she thought

With a swift joust here

A dagger, dagger stagger fall

There

A needle knit between the brows

Don't knit your eyes at me you cow

She exclaimed

As they blamed one another for the blood bath

Whose red satin scarf is that around your neck?

Not mine?

Not yours?

But your gaudy blood I expect

It is slash and burn

In the fabric aisles

Rollers torn, and carpets shorn

The rending of the cloth

The tearing of skin

The knitting

Of a dead thing

Into life

Taxidermist like

She loved her lover

She gloved her mother

Turned her into a leather cover

For her book on knitting yet

Birdie, birdie

 Waxwings in the supermarket car park

Directing the traffic

Seagull on the trolley

Pushing his family to go Christmas shopping

Buzzard at Mcdonald's picking up

his happy meal

Blackbird prittle-prattling in the planted pot

Crows flick-flacking on a lamppost

Below a pied wagtail strutting its stuff

Busy birds bush whacking the red berried trees

Off the M5 motorway service station pit stop

Crossing bridges

 The railway embankment rises

From behind the gardens of the estate

A long corridor of brambles and green leaves

The pale, pastel barks of the Ash saplings

That still sprout and grow vigorously

Goldfinch carousel about the branches

Each limb is like a path to another town

Another bud is ready to burst into life

But now waits in earnest expectation

Of the spring

Biding its time

On the Strawberry line

I am conflicted, in two minds

Because on the one hand we are bringing

access to the countryside, linking up

the hubs and nodes like a network

Of underground roots

And on the other these natural corridors

will inevitably be somewhat diminished

By the human wish to spread its own branches

To feed its own systems of growth

And repair its own faulty pathways - the roads

Industrial, smoke breathing cars

That flash and wizz past the parapet of the 

Once-bridge below

They will resurrect this bridge back from the grave,

And like an old giant remembering

Something of the spirit of the railways

Will come alive again

As people will walk their dogs along it

Will cycle their bring-a-bring bikes

and maybe the hedgehogs and squirrels

And scurrying things, will likewise

Cross the bridge and discover new worlds

beyond the boundary of the road 

Elsewhere

 Well the buildings they breathed, photosynthesized

In the forest of the city

Sky scrapers sprouted limbs

And stretched out to greet the new dawn

Bridges hummed in the wind

Giant bumble bees flapping their

Rotar blade wings

Danced between

These new plantations

Seeking out the giant flowers that the covered football stadiums

And Opera houses

Planes stood upright and preened themselves

Qantas

Pan Am, British Airways

Ducked and dived in the Hudson river

Where oversized water boatmen police boats rowed themselves

Up and down leisurely

Other plane-birds rolled around in the enormous dust baths of quarries

Cars became inflated beetles that opened out

mechanical wings and zipped here and there

And altogether elsewhere

The forests and the oceans breathed a sigh of relief

Because they could finally relax about

Keeping the whole planet going on themselves.

Don't pull the wool over your own eyes, it's all unnatural

 Who are those cows in the shed,

 Little calves lying on the ground, 

tags in their ears

Mothers looking down

Begging

Shouldn't they be in a field?

Shouldn't they not be carolled

But we all like to drink our tea

With milk

Therefore here's a dairy herd

Who are those sheep in the field?

Can you imagine them long ago

Roaming around by themselves

No particular place to go

Ewes separated from their babies

Sadly bleating on

But we all like a lamb chop

Or a leg of mutton

Even more we are keen on a woolen jumper

To keep warm in

You can't say that these are natural

Man's dominion of nature

But we do what we can and we must to survive

Except now that threatens the planet

Rose Dawn

 On the Rose dawn

Was when Christ was born

And Joy spread through the world

From the desert sands of Jerusalem

To the oceans beds of old Siam

Word was spread, yes word was spread

Jesus Christ was born 

The birth of the great I am

In the rose dawn I saw the light

Like a flock of birds risen in flight

And shoulders of lamb tender to the bite

Born was Christ Jesus and the great I am

Following the flock and flecking the fight

Little blood spots trail along corridors of might

And he carries the cross and he bears a shroud of white

Holiest of spirits come in deepest night

Yellow sun

 I felt a new sun rising

And I knew it was so clear

Yes I saw on the horizon

That you answered not to fear

And you stood up to your enemies

And you went forth with love

And you knew just where the anemones

 would grow down in the cove

And you fought for your love

You fought to live your life

And you never once did stumble

Nor did suffer kinds of strife

Yes you went onto the future

and you went on with bold heart

And you never stopped believing

Right from the very start

Yes you came onto the ocean

And you set sail out to sea

And filled your heart's devotion

With the hope of liberty

You met all those who would be

Who would be friends to you

And the yellow sun so lovely

In the circles that they sew

Come be a new horizon

And be then under the Lord

And shine on out your rising, sun

And shine on out your sword

And you can see on out the ocean

That the fish are clapping their hands

And they know that this emotion

Is a real thing for a real man

And they know that this is holy

And they know that this right

And they know that you will be there

From morning right through to night.

dark gains

 We don't realize we have have fallen

And raised the demon of War

Through worshipping the money God

Our own souls have become poor

And in each untidy corner, forgotten

And left sore

A little bit of darkness grows

And creeps under the door

Ill-gotten gains and more

Ill-gotten gains

What blood money

Can put our dignity to shame

For out the other side of happenstance

The colours soon will drain

Showering on the heads of ambition

Ill-gotten gains.

Spit

 Cuckoo, cuckoo

He says spring has sprung

Cuckoo, cook who?

Who has rung?

Cuckoo spit over

A pint over

A pint?

No bird could

What are you talking about?

The places that I want to be

 Lights on the river

And boats on the sea

These are places that I want to be

Stand and deliver

What you mean to be

Come back and haunt me

Notes that don't waver

Trust's constancy

These are the spaces where I want to be

Sing me a quaver

I'll sing in your key

Then together we'll savour

Life's urgency

She's gone again

 She came

and now she's gone again

A long walk

In the blistering rain

A short leap

Does a leaf feel pain?

When it falls 

From its stem

But she's gone again

I used to look in the mirror

Of the sea

And sometimes I'd see

A mermaid staring back at me

But she came on the tide

And she left in the rain

It's been a good ride

But now she's gone again

My heart is a tanker

A floating on the ocean

And I don't know if I should

Thank her

For showing me such emotion

But I must pull into a dock 

To repair my hull and frame

I loved her when she came

But now she's gone again

I sat in the yard thinking so hard

My time had come and gone

Like a passing swan on a lake

And if I thought I'd done something wrong

Made some kind of mistake

Well I'd write her a song

From my prison

But the walls are too high to hear

Someone singing inside

And even if I hadn't cried

She'd have known I'd lied

Still I break the rocks until I'm freed

From these chains

I loved it when she came

But now she's gone again

A certain 

Ten cents

 It was a ten cent city

Hell bent on destruction

The lip of the pin down alls the hair

It was a tent city

A city of resurrection

And skirts that lifted churches

Up from the shadows of dispair

It was a pauper's paradise

A gold digger's salvation

At the corporate price

Of little sanitation

And they sold their wares

Just as long as their stares

On a field of nothing

And a hiding to nowhere

Always you

 Yes it was there

Was it water

Was it wine

Was it yours

Or was it mine?

Well we were there

The bread was spare

I took  nothing

But your time

I am a thief of that at least

Time robbery was my crime

pieces of a life

That we'd been through

I kept the chunks

That belonged to me and you

Now it is washed

In deepest blue

It could've been me

But it was always you

Pastor of Muppets

 In life it seems you can either be a master of puppets

Or a pastor of muppets

Real people

 People are people

They've got to live

All about the mulberry bush

With a bottle full of fizz

In the eighteenth hole

Putting off the green

Who cares scares in the bunker

In tears, in tears

Living in the real world

Real people, real people

I want to be real

I'm an imaginary deal

Let it rip like thunder

The sport of the cracking willow

Feel the rain upon my face

Keep the wind as my pillow

Name

 You can say I'm better

Or you can say I am the same,

I would love you better if you could 

remember my name

Name, I want to live forever

No, I want to die in a flame

Come on write me a letter

People remember my name

All away

 Away, all away now

Oh you throw it all away

Well I've seen it all before

Like a desert floor

When you've thrown

It all away

Away, oh away now

Throw it all away

See that open door

Watch the ocean pour

When you have thrown

It all away

Away, all away now

You have thrown it all away

Well in the roll of a dice

Between the fire and the ice

When you've thrown it

All away

Away, oh away now

Throw it all awy

Like so many times before

Could've been rich but now you're poor

Because you've thrown

It all away

Snowdropping

 Drip, drop

warmth of Spain in your pale cream

Milk white warm 

And sadness for the year that's been

But like a mother's breast

Full of life giving

For the year to come

Miniature brothers

Miniature sisters go

walking through the forest

Praising the cool silent winter Earth

Healing flower footsteps

Bloom in their path

Praising the life of this good Earth

What purity you can read

In their books of green leaves

Standing up like flutes or reeds

But heads bowed down

In prayer, humility

Or perhaps

Just loving the Earth

As it smiles on them

In it's darkest months

Growing them in its womb

Like eggs, their bulbs will

burst forth in birth

Growing strong with Mother Earth's milk

Snow white babies crying out in joy

Snow white children running through the woods

In their snowshoes girl and boy

Telling all the fairy tales of childhood

Road hump

 I've got the road hump

It's sticks in my ear

Like a sugar lump

I want to swallow it clear

But it goes, thump, thump

Every time a lorry comes near

And my chair just jumps

And my windows shake with fear

I've got the road hump

I've been living here too long

The road hump that just rings out strong

Like a beef steak rump

That's too tough to chew

I've got it stuck in my gut

Like some kind of glue

That road hump

Like a bump to my head

That road hump

Gives me bumps in my bed

It's like a slow jump off a high cliff

I need to vote Trump or else smoke a spliff

Ash

 I can't stand to see the Ashes fall

Though I know our backs are up against the wall

I can't stand to hear the Ashes fall

Another ax, another chain and ball

In our hands the keys to all

Will we understand when nature calls?

I can't stand to see the Ashes fall

All the Ash leaves, all their keys

Keys and locks, locks and keys

Another lock, one more key

Another prisoner is set free

In their limbs one disease

Take wind or whim, brings them to their knees

In our hand one more ball

In our mouths one last call

Who will answer the Ash's need?

See the fall of the twin bladed seed

One more flock of birds flown free

One more hawk flies across the sea

But one more knock on the Ash's door

Then another, then one time more

Can't you save the Ash from death's maw

Can't you help save just one more tree

Ship at sea

You are  like a fire that must blow up to stay alive
Consume the wood of your surroundings
But now this bare room
Is black and charred
And I was your fuel but
You have burnt my heart away
I have no more love to give you
I have no words left to say

I know things will never change
That between us lies
a chasm and into it you've thrown
All the love of our abandon
And all the wood of my heart has kept on burning for you
But now it is a smouldering pile
of ashes without a spark

And now the room has gone black
there is nothing left for us to see
Who will light
the way between us
When the way is lost like ship at sea

Horizons

 All's well they say

Down in hotwells

All's well

Like a mermaid's

flag

The love that was flown

In the rotting fish crown

Soon will be worn by the hag

And the man that was bright 

And full in youth

Must search for the will

To survive

There are more than ships

On the horizon

That go down

When you close your eyes

I see in you all that's infinite

That we give it away down the line

Our children inherit the Earth

But what will it be worth in good time?

No, for ours is not for saving

Ours is only lived in our own time

The future belongs to those others

Who will have to live with our crimes

Yet they will have love and courage

Theirs is youth in its prime

And where we may wish to run for cover

They will fight on with hearts that shine

And now as I'm leaving

I say adieu

All the stage is worth living through

And fighting for a chance to save your brother

And fighting for a chance of love one more time

Cold snap whip lash

The clocks are striking on the hour
For what I've done I've no word power
To put pen to feeble page
The last good men have left the stage

And in their stead are Angels standing
And Ghosts of those of understanding
And piercing through quick silver fog
Their ideas like arrows fell the hog

We all are currents in the ocean
Sometimes swelling with emotion
Sometimes drowning being pulled down
By forces created by Neptune's crown

And linking now more than ever
The tides are turning like the weather
A cold snap lashes inside like terror
But warm blood flows under skin of leather

Sure enough they stopped him
Before it was too late
The openers out trumped him
Outside the pearly gate
And he could not get in
Nor could he climb the wall
Only stand appraisin
While paradise did fall

Only stand appraisin'
While paradise did fall

I long for the mountains

 I long for the mountains

Where the grizzly bears roam

Where there's wood on the fire

And a path made of stone

Oh I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

Where the wood chucks twitter

And call out in tin tones

Where the miner's gold glitters

in the pans full of loam

Oh I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

I long for the mountains

where the fountains they shiver

And you drink up the water foam

Where the trees stand and quiver

And the leaves they shimmer like chrome

I long for the mountains of home

Where there's snow is on the caps

And there's ice in the stream

And you know all the maps

And the mice all look keen

On the mountain, where the grizzly bears

roam

I long for the mountains, the mountains of home

Where the kettle's on the fire

And the metals in the ground

And the beef is on the wire

And the moles are in the mound

I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

Where the dogs in the yard

And it's chasing the cat

Where the hogs looking hard 

At the man in the hat

And the child's a sleep under the piano

I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

Where the wind whispers softly 

Through the trees on the river

Where the father of time

He cries stand and deliver

And all of the pines beside they quiver

Oh I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

Long ago

 Long ago, long ago

Well it must have been a life

When I had my girl at home

And long ago  

Well it must have been a lifetime ago that

I took to the road to roam

Well I'm still that man walking down the highway

Yes from my path I have not strayed

Oh long ago, well now

It must have been a life time

That I left when I should have stayed

Long ago, well it must have been a life time

Well I just couldn't follow the plan

Well it was long ago

Oh it could have been a life time

When I was your only man

Tell me how long

Can a man wait to be forgiven

For the words he says

And tell me how many days

Must I be a-counting

Til I can return to what livin

was

Long ago, yes it must have been a life

When the world was filled with diamonds and dust

And now it's a grizzled world with dark sun rising

Over the lands we love and trust

So tell me how long til I will see my horizon

Broaden to the red rose of dawn's rust

And tell me how long til I will see you rising

In your bed clothes at the dawn's early musk?

How long? Well maybe it'll be a life time

Yes how long must our love rust

Nothings broken

When I have spoken

Like the birds at the sun's rising

To a new world of love and trust

Facing North

Once I held mountain in my hands
But they turned to mountains of ash
Fell through my fingers like sand

Like an empire of dust
Blown away are the ghosts of lust
Blown to seed another field
Thrown out to birds the bone meal

Field of fish heads
Turning tail
Running through the burning hail
Stones are thrown, the first to cast
Will be the one who laughs the last

And crows count the merry pipers
Walking home on country roads
Reddening their apple vipers
For their wives to fill their calves

Spilling all the beans in saucers
Breaking bread with the cat
Whose nine tails like the vipers
Whip the cream until its flat

Down the road to elements
The natural gases heaven sent
But omnibuses carry on
As octopuses carry guns

And none stops a floating thief
As the moon rides the tide's relief

Red fox

 I saw a red fox, just

chillin' on the hillin

He looked so happy

like Just after a killin,

killin' a chicken

Skulking away

Like he was making hay

But he was in the field

In December not the month of May

I saw a red fox just a chillin' on the hill

and I saw a brown box

just millin in the mill

Nobody asked the cockerel

If he was crowing for the sun

Nobody even noticed

The day was nearly done

Coal tits

 Under the arches the coal tits dart

Around the quarry they flurry

Down over that little bit of swamp

Where the railway men's waste was dumped

Over the piles of rubble, brick work and industrial trash

The leached-into, the sodden ground, near the river, brown bushes grow

That make homes for the Coal Tits, they flit and dart between them

And hang on to the brick work

With their little claws

In the embers of December, they are the spark

In the grey rainy Novembers, they come again like filaments

of colours in the filigrees of green and brown, agricultural hedgerows

In the borders of the town, where the dogs and dog walkers

go around

Not forgotten about

But just hanging around

Like a resident nobody knows

Except you'd miss their sound

Because they're like a loved one

In the fabric of the town

A backdrop scenic prop

Except they chose to stop

There who knows, what senses

Just an ideal bit of real estate

To live beneath the arches of the viaduct

Close to where the Sheppey flows

Nature line

 In the brambles underfoot

The brash that's slashed with bill hook

As volunteers go rolling by

Swinging slashers and hedge trimmers high

Hear the sound of What exactly?

Slow worms crawling through the debris?

If this is nature unbound I ask thee

What next will they find to tell ee?

I saw a Robin, that I did

Hanging around the neighbourhood

He was interested in the action

The hewn stalks of bramble were his passion

He flew amongst the swinging workers

Willing to do what nature shirkers

Would not do, but oh we few

We merry few the strawberry line crew

Still you mention where is nature?

Well, it's thorns and rotten tapers

Of fallen trees long since died

Heads in the earth, fungi multiplied

Purple patches, even velvet ears

Grow on dead logs rotting near

And they crumble underfoot

Nature found it hard to look

But after humans abandoned it

Soon started bramble that didn't quit

And now we come to reclaim the land

Nature gives us a helping hand

And palms us back this great high five

Saying come and take me I'm still alive

It is something that doesn't want to die

It will strive, and suffer and survive

And every change or drop in pressure

It will respond more robust and better

Ultimately it holds all the cards

To life's big mysteries we find so hard

Love upon Love/ upon all

 

I came upon loves fence

Out from a walk in wilderness

And sat there for a while

Many a thought did come to me 

As I rested upon loves stile

And many a feeling too

Though so fleeting were the clouds above

That soon I abandoned love

and walked on

In that time all was white and fine

For the briefest moment all was bright

I said good bye to blackest night

And in my hand

I felt her hand

In my heart I heard her voice

Each was nothing

but ever most

She was too real

Yet she seemed a ghost

Each was hard yet soft

In my dilemma I had no choice

I had to return to love

Either to win the moon and stars

or to lose all of creation

Either to be bold to match the feeling

Or as ash and star dust

be blown away

Nothing was near yet nothing far

As all in Love's landscape

had been changed by trust

And silence moved my very soul

Yet in my heart

I heard music of harps

And all this I found in loves place

This love I found in her sweet face

This is obviously Pigeon Street

 Coo, coo, Ha, Haa, Ho, ho, He, he,

The slap and tickle the cackle free

Of turned up turnips

Tourniquet, tie around

a dignified neck

Telescopic voice calls out

Not a laugh, but a shout

You've reached the corner

Now turn about

back onto Pigeon Street

Real lives turn fake

Taken pride, prison cake

Somewhere within you find

The key to 15 Pigeon Street

Now yours, now his,

This wide eyed blink

Can you believe no Kitchen sink?!

Can you cry out, what drought, what drought,

Its dry on Pigeon Street

Come pour with rain

Come fill your pain

With Tears so distant they

Fall in vain

When windows blow

The prison cell

You'll know too well

You're living on Pigeon Street

Two eyes collide

head on with stuff

Graveyards, bones

Now I scoff at

Flies inside the beggar's belly

Calling out for Pigeon Street

Reading lines from long lost poems

Who wrote the Mayans

When they last wrote Home

Because they died because they lived

In the house on Pigeon Street

Railings cold, and trailers scuffed

Tears dry on tombes

You learnt your books off

And libraries close

And Roman roads all lead

to Pigeon Street

Coo, coo, Ha, ha, hee, hee

Hoo, ho

You know you are a prisoner now

Your keys are gone

but thought lives on

Inside the cracks on Pigeon Street

Take heed my friend

It does not end

That road which leads from here

there wends

When the light is gone

And all is cold

You know you've reached the pigeon road

And there no friend

One may meet

Unless its to ask

Is this Pigeon Street

elephant hearts

 Funny how it starts

And funny how it ends

In the chambers of the heart

Where we might find a friend

Elephants fart

And little mice mend

The holes in dresses and truse

Of the confessions of shrews

Who also need a friend

Elephant ears

 Where are the monsters

Of common sense?

They are living with the elephant

In the room under the stairs

Oh nobody knew

If he was really theirs

Where are the dragons bent on destruction

Fire, fire flames, grow higher

And what of the fairies, elves and dwarves

Where are they now?

Have they gone indoors

Oh show me the way back to that world

Where courage still lives

And all 

Easter Sunday

 Easter Sunday, listen to the bells toll

Easter Sunday listen to the church bells toll

Easter is come walk in the sun

Easter Sunday listen to the bells

Easter Sunday walk into the light

Easter Sunday out from the shadows of dark into the light

Easter Sunday leave the shadows behind

Easter Sunday find your peace of mind

Easter Sunday leave those shadows behind

See the sun blaze like a candle in the sky

Remember the good days and the good to come

Easter Sunday now you can walk in the sun

Key change:

At Easter there are no bad things

At Easter nothing to see but Spring

At Easter everybody sings

And it's Easter Sunday by my reckoning

Easter Sunday see the others strong

All cows in the park and hear the church bells toll

On Easter Sunday there is nothing gets stolen

And the treasure lies hidden deep inside your soul

On Easter Sunday it's either forgiveness or fate

On Easter Sunday you must choose to love and not hate

And to forgive your enemies that stand at your gate

On Easter Sunday before it's too too late

For Easter is a time for love

And to remember the father above

And the son who died on the cross

the cross, the cross, the cross

On Easter Sunday there was gain and not loss

Yes his gain was our loss

Yes, yes we gained and he lost

On Easter we sacrificed a man

On Easter we gotta do what we can

Yes on Easter Sunday we got to follow the plan.

Socks

The giant falls upon his back
Then from him pulls
a lion black
Whose raging mouth
and lashing tongue
Has been the scourge
of everyone

The frosted beams and splintered branches
Of certain dreams after
Curtain glances
Whose home alone
And what are the Jones
Up to now?

 Four score years I've
been living these dreams
Waking up with nightmares
Giving me womanly screams

The socks in the wind
and the money in the pocket
Don't light up what I mean
After I stick into the electricity socket

Timing is all out
I want to shout but fail
My calls rebound within
Internal walls of self
Not rising above esteem
Like some pitying ocean
Swell cannot breach the brink
Of the harbour wall
Cannot flood the wishing well

A new man ?

The early dawn of man
He yawns and scratches his arse
How can this being be ancestor to
those whose sublime intelligence is unsurpassed?

Well, the truth is we all must be ourselves
Let him scratch his arse
He has a hard few thousand years ahead of him
And even then
He's still not let off the hook

There are crimes he has paid for, and those he has not
And sometimes he raided more, really quite a lot
He can't be too proud of himself
Because there's quite a bit of shit

One hundred million years ago
The mines of crystal city glared
In such unearthly vibrancy
And clarity of air
What they mined was photons
From a gravitational well
They had been caught in a black hole
They fought back it was too strong a spell
So light was black it was trapped
And trapped light is angry
It comes up spoiling for a fight
Or it spends an eternity going around an infinite number of mirrors
And reflections within the crystal maze

Some said this is what God is
An infinite reflection and refraction of light
Trapped in another dimension
I don't know I can't be sure

Goldie and Cindy grow up

I prayed to the pig of the evening
For when Goldilocks picked her gown
She works in the mall
She's a shop girl
For her if things aren't up they're down
Some dresses are just too hot
Some are just too cool
So she opts for the frock in the shop
She thinks is neither too good nor too rude

She meets different men in her shop
To come to her aid they tried
As she's standing at her counter
And ask her to be their bride
Some of their beds are too small
Of her men way too tall
Some of them like to show they can spend
But she's hanging on waiting
For her millionaire friend
And she turns down all of their offers

A friend of a friend
Walks up to her with his "do as I dare'
And ends up trumping them all

She meets Cinderella on her break
From the night time canteen
They grab a coffee at 3 in the morning
And talk over the men that they've seen

Cinderella has this Prince Charming
He's out for the perfect match
He's been around town
Seen every gown
And in Cindy he thinks he's made
The right catch

But Prince Charming ain't got no money
And Cindy is poor as a dime
She decides to work in the laundry
And Earn better money for her time
She works round the clock
To buy the fanciest frock
To catch a better class of male in their  prime

Said Cindy -"Well Goldie why don't you come dancing?"
"Or introduce me to some of your men?"
"Now Cindy", said Goldie
"You already have Prince Charming
What more can you possibly want then?"

Still they went out next evening
With the millionaire feeling
Drawn to Cindy's new dress
While Goldie who was more demure
Found herself ignored
And her fine finesse
Of her home made dress
Caught only the light of the shade
Compared to the bright dazzle
That Cindy's dress made

Two weeks later Cindy was married
To Maximillion who had not tarried
And Prince charming was kicked out on the street
Kicking the can when who did he meet?
But Goldie on her way back to the shop
So he talked and briefly they stopped

Amore

The London rain is falling down
Amor, amour, amore
Its falling fast and I have to go
Amor, amour, amore

Now you know my time
Like the desert sands
Amor,amour, amore
The sands must fall
Through the glass that stands
Amor, amour, amore

I've known you
Like the back of my hand
Amor, amour, amore
And you're the only one
That understands
Amor, amour, amore

I've seen mountains
As hard as a house
Amor, amour, amore
Come crawling to you
Like a meek little mouse
Amor, amour, amore

I've been a thousand miles above
And a thousand below
Amor, amour, Amore
Been a million miles for your love
And I've got a million more to go
Amor, amour, Amore

Cherish the rhyme

 Blood down my window

Its a sad disgrace

Wind in my willow

Tears down my face

Cat in my gutter

Singing out a tune

I've just blown a million dollars

Rolling out my doom

Songs in my ears

Ready to be sung

Love like a gallows' noose

Waiting to get hung

Cherish the tombstone

Cherish the fire

Cherish the colours 

Cherish the desire 

Who will follow?

Who will follow him
To the end of the road
Who will follow him into where darkness grows
Yes and who will follow him
To the end of the song?
Will you?
Will you, follow him
Even if you know
He is wrong

Who will follow him
In the belly of the beast
Who will get up early
Stay until the fightings ceased?
Who will follow him
Through temptations door
Who will cast away the doubt
And keep walking on some more?

My shadow walks and I follow too
Into the cage of the lion at the zoo

Those things you do

Tell me how you do those things
Like the way you do them
Tell me about the love
Before they come and shoo them
Tell of the stallion
Tell me of the Mare
Tell me of the unicorns
Who fly up in the air
And if you tire of telling me
Well throw up your arms
And care
To show me how you do the things I love
When I see you there

Show me the black forest, and show me
The white knight
Show me the Green Giant
Who hides there out of sight
And if you should tire of showing me
Then whisper it in my ear
For I never tire of listening
To the things you want me to hear

Push me in a wheelbarrow
Wheel me down the street
Take me round with the carols
To the land where moments meet
Deliver me from the narrows
Deliver me from the straits
Don't keep me over a barrel
Of your fickle fates

Twin town 3

 I can give you sunrises baby from my bed

And I can give you goat heads

Baby, laying in wastelands of the dead

And we can be friends baby in the Sci Fi store

Full of magazines I have seen but never read

And I can be your target baby when you need to shoot someone

I can be in your crosshairs baby and you can kill me 

With your crossbones

And I am walking backwards through the door of our love

Because I know it is time to say goodbye

And shortly on the sorrowful shore

I can see my ship is leaving

With the animals

Two by two we go up the steps into the dark ark

Of consciousness and sail upon the seas

Seas of love

That flood that land

But on board the lions are roaring and the monkeys howl

And the mates are bellowing on their horns

The wild wind is blowing us to a foreign shore

And I know that we must make land

Is twin town just a figment of my imagination

Or a sacred geometry of time

That too many flutes and cut throat guitar strings

Have told me of in dreams

With Hyenas and national parks

Like Noah's ark did we ever make it

Out of the ballpark

Or far from the dark?

Into Twin town

Something to say

Walking round all day
Just want something to say
Something say
Something to say
Cut me some slack Jack
I'm on a hard highway
Cut me some slack
Cut me some slack

I'm just looking for something to say
There is so much silence it seems these days
Sometimes they tell you lies
Sometimes its truth ok
But I'm just looking for something to say

All I'm asking is for something to say
Don't leave me in a libary in the silent parade
Don't throw me to the lions for having a big mouth
I can keep secrets, there nothing down south

Spanish Guitar Bossa Nova

 Listen up listen

I've gotta tell ya my opinion

About al these playboy

fly-by medallions

Hanging round in their millions 

Like flies on a corpse, call the reporters

Call the hearse, write the raptors

Left for dead or worse

By the drive-by shooting

The night jar hoodlums

Who squeak like Nascar wheels

In the old bazaar deals

Well they've been squealing too

Like piggies stealing ciggies from the food mart

Bart, simpson, no mozart, Bartholemew

Higgins of the Boson fame, ships maine sail

Boson head the coxsawain, the sailors remain

Orsmen, boarsmen hunting down the wild war

mongering men, fishing for the guts and

Glory, its the same old story morning hoary

Through the pie hole

In the sky pole under vaunted roofs

Veritable like lead windows

Blown and fool-proof

But they had to catch you at them,

They had to sign the truth

The search warrant wouldn't cut it

It needed a razor tooth

Tiger biting the paper bark canoe

Of our sanities and majesties in tweedle dum, tweedle dee

Tee shirt wearing match stick men

Dumped like bitumen on the roads

And rolled over again and again

But the drive by shoot before thinking youths

That drink battery acid

Think they're battle proof

But we see through them like the glass

Windows that trap them where they are

Mean they will always be driving around the same cars

Until they are behind bars

Or worse

Someone call a hearse

I think I killed a nurse

When I shot at you

Oh I wish it were me

Not you in that grave that day

But its true

We don't get blue

When the sky turns grey

We get even

Stevens

In the good old fashioned way

How we die of pride

 And the preacher said he had been a good man

And his mother said he had nothing to hide

But what no one could understand

was how he could have died of pride

Yes we all have known the badlands

We know they have secrets to hide

And even the city fathers and the lawman

They both died of pride

Well she lived in seedy districts

Where flowers rarely bloomed

And she held a candle to the instincts

That was how her bust just boomed

But even that was as a cola can

She kicked down the city street side

But it wasn't enough to keep her man

That was how she died of pride

Well they went to the village

Where the lions slept

And they held out their baskets of fruit to accept

But it was no use, there were no Pets

And so they died of pride

Hard lives

 Hard lives, hard lives,

Hard lives in the private eye

Can't disguise hard lives

Hard lives in the private eye

Out of focus, hocus pocus

Hard lives going round the bend

Hard lives, hard lives

Hard lives of some good friends

Whose lives, your lives?

Our lives living til the end

Hard lives, short dives

Short dives off the dive board end

Paper chain men

 I guess you wanted someone different

In that head of eyes

I guess you looked over my shoulder

In the furtive glance you tried to disguise

I guess the boat came out the water

I guess our airship has left these skies

For when I look I can see no quarter

That you have not cut up like a heart of lies

Paper chain men and women go walking

Down the street, down the  rise

Off the railway sidings

From where they lay down in the tracks their lives

Now all is paper thin, you see the skin

Is almost see through

And what they write in front

Can be read just the same from behind

No, we do exist, even if made of paper

Paper town, Japanese disguise

Paper Geishas walking

Wait for the ghost train's returning promise

Paper men and women talking

Break the chain of compromise

Olfactory

 I work in an Owl factory

Where we collect the pellets

We put the pellets on pallets

It can get quite smelly

In the Owl factory

We produce mechanical Owls as well

For looking down wells

We employ plenty of Dental scientists

For looking down their mouths

Counting the teeth in the fish

mouth

Counting the ships in Plymouth

Counting the tombstones

In the graveyard

And generally hooting up in a tree

We tried to replicate it

With a clown's rubber horn

But found the sound too loud

And screeching

And not really eerie at all

Talking of Eerie I met an audiologist there

And an Ornithologist who had caught a hare

In his mouth

She was running across a field

Crying take me to the Olfactory

The audiologist listened

And the owl who went deaf

Had to visit a hospital

But suddenly, suddenly

The owl couldn't hear

He said it feels quite stuffy in here

Quite, stuffy, quite stuffy

And really quite queer

I've lost all hearing in my left ear

So his head turned around

And around did it go

Like a merry-go-round

At a Christmas show

He thought a mouse as big as a house

Is someone I should know

But if he crept up behind me

I couldn't tell the difference

between him and lightest snow

He'd visited the wrong doctor

Oh wouldn't you know

An orthodontist or and orthologist

Who stretched out his wings out

The other his legs they tightened on springs

And his Owl hoot shouted like an awful thing

Oh take me back to the Owl factory

Lads

 Come my lads in the train yard

You're not yet in the graveyard

Come my tame lads 

Who work in the tanyard

Come my lame dads

Who shirk in frame yard

Come free my dray cart

Take my load off homeward

Comfort and mirth lads

Down in the valley with the pub landlord

Carnival

 The carnival came

All flashing light and flame

And burst their firework

Of music into the night

The faux indians gyrated

The proper yokels

Did impressions of Hollywood

It is smart culture

Do not bring in the outside world to view

But bring it in with a distinct hue

One which when titrated through

The stockings of your mother

Or the vicar's pews

One which you see in your

Somerset gown, Somerset eyes

We'll consume it like a local

The carnival leaves town

Their lights are off

Unanimated

Just the skeleton remains

All the entertainment drained

Off to the next town

Like a pig slaughter

Like the prostitutes

These entertainers

Who stand up and are the travelling show

The dazzling glow

In the mid of winter

In the confluence of all their work

Like a theatre troupe

They make an event

A standing show 

In those moments they are famous

They carry the culture of the world in tow

And bring it to the sons and daughter

And for whom these dancing figures

Could be the real McCoy for all they know

Jupiter underground

 Caves barred off

In the past from Neanderthals

Humans had to earn enough

From their payrolls

In order to afford the leisure time

Once again

To live like troglodytes in holes

Though I think our ancient ancestors would

grin

Their ancient wizened hairy grins

If they knew we had gone out

And back again to our beginnings

And you see we left the trees too

To go down into our houses

And visit animals in the zoo

Or pay exorbitant amounts

To have oak wooden panels

To make our floorboards and walls

And rocks that look like frozen jupiters

Giants stuck there underground

Titans of the rock face

Garden

Stare at Prometheus unbound

What has nature done to Kinship

What scars have her talons torn?

Sacred marks on flesh adorned

Like a crown of holy thorns

Sits the Kingship of man

While nature with her beaks surround

And peck his liver out each morning

Fresh another Eagle screeching

Flesh his breakfast on man will dine

Yet for stealing secret knowledge of fire

He has to this rock been chained

By Jupiter Titan king who reigned

Down his unjust treatment meted

Upon poor Prometheus

Until a Hero did free him

Hercules with Apollo's bow and arrow

Sheared the chain which kept him stowed

And tied to a rocky eerie

How the men and women did query

Who is he and what labours has he lost

or gained?

As it was while he was chained

But breaking free

Hercules and he

Went on down the road

Persephone

 She walked in fields picking flowers

She was picked by heavenly powers

And by the plains down in hell below

Where flowers wilt and will not grow

But love there was too strong to show

That of Hades for Persephone

That he stole her and her beauty

Down to chasms and caverns he took her

Her mother walking up above

Called where is the heart string of my love

Where is my one and only daughter

I left her only a while by the water

Demeter the Goddess of the harvest

Became so fraught and restless

She sought answers from Zeus, her brother

But he told her not to bother

"She will return, she is young and free

Free to wander and love, be who she will be

But Demeter was not to be calmed

By such words when she feared her harmed

"Find her now or I shall strike the world a mighty blow!

Put down my plough, neither shall I gather nor sow"

So under pressure Zeus searched high and low

And found her locked in Hades below

But Hades would not fully relinquish his prize

Not one so beautiful, it would be too great a sacrifice

So, though he knew he was commanded by his brother

He gave food to Persephone so as to trick her mother

She was starving in the underground prison

And so she ate the food of poison

She ate six pomegranate seeds 

And for each seed came a punishment for her greed

For each seed represented a month not free on Earth

In the arms of her mother from whose flower she was given birth

Instead she had to return to hell below

And live with Hades her captor in tow

For these dark months her mother would not work

Demeter went into mourning, crops died the harvesters shirked

Nothing went on growing above ground on Earth

While Hades imprisoned her daughter denying her worth

When finally the months of waiting were over

And Winter had followed Autumn, Persephone broke cover

And unbound she walked again through spring meadows

Her Mother overjoyed began to emerge from the shadows

But each year ever since, Demeter ceases to reap or sow

As her daughter in the ball and chain goes down to hell below

The darkness must answer light, the freedom by degrees

Is qualified by the quality and value we put on being free

The Other side

 The otherside, the otherside

There is always another side

You can hit or miss the mark

Or you can shoot in the dark

But I'll see you on the other side

She left for New Orleans, 

She left for New England

And roved around the countryside

(She said) See you on the other side

The otherside, the otherside

I'll see you on the other side

There are always two sides

 You don't have to ask

I will see you on the other side

When the light is low

And you cannot find your home

You can look for me from far away

I'll see you on another day

I will see you on the other side

The other side, the otherside

I'll see you on the other side

You can turn on the light

Don't get lost in the night

I will see you on the other side

Icarus

 Oh you had your wings of wax and feathers

And you were stuck up there like honey

let loose your tethers, out of the tree of money

You jumped from the cliff, or were you pushed?

I saw you gliding up over the horizon

You've been flying too close to the sun

Oh you wanted to be a God, didn't you

You wanted to steal the secret of fire

You wanted the best of both worlds

Didn't you?

Now you can see pride comes before a fall

As you tried to fly higher and higher

All your plans have come undone

You've been flying too close to the sun

Oh well the time will come when you will learn

But not until your wings will burn

And you'll fall back down to Earth

What goes up must come down

Don't you know there are many more like you

And you're not the only one

You've been flying too close to the sun

Stars and Bucks

 It takes a lot of bucks

To get to the stars

To the black espresso coffee

Of space

Where God is a barista

And stirs in the galaxies

And he sprinkles stars like sugar

All the way

Oh it takes a lot of stars to make a universe

It takes

A lot of Bucks they're far away

And if you could take a single shot of rocket fuel

Would you reach for the stars today?

Who thinks

Who thinks we can get there?

Who thinks we can get there today?

I'm just sitting down here on a bar stool

Drinking a coffee to the milky way

The star-bucked Martyr

 Oh how the stars bucked me

They threw me off indeed

I thought I was dying for a cause

Or a need

In fact I died for my own greed

Selfish as a human will

The stars they taught me a lesson still

Do not follow or ride our train

Around and round the earth again

You'll get dizzy

It's all in vain

The Star-bucked Martyr cried again

If I should go down in flames

Let the stars spell out my name

But they ignored her single claim

For stars are no man's fool

And no woman's gain

They follow their own rules

So don't get cross

If you find your stars are lost

The banner still shall be held high

On the spot you came to die

Armistice

 I've seen this world go up in flames

Then down again soon fall the rains

And ashes burnt, but memory remains

It's all just a part of the game

And I create while you destroy

You treat this world like it's your little toy

But can you claim you don't enjoy

The lives you squander, girl or boy

I should have thought you'd have had enough

What's life worth and at what cost?

Will death come cruising for your ghost

In hidden halls of your war post

Write a letter home won't you

Tell of the murder that you do

Explain to your mother and your father

How you rape, pillage and torture 

If this crime belies your heart

What a black place it is to start

Make a new world instead your art

Paint with brushes not with darts

Cut the cloth to fit the mode

The time of living in this abode

Is over so soon before it begins

All babies surely are born without sins

No child deserves such a death

Wrenched from life at their first breath

For the sake of lives much farther along

Despite the heartache, despite the wrong

What justice is there in killing the young

In defence, or to prove that you're strong

It is weaker still to aim your big guns

At innocents who've done you no wrong

So put away your guns of shame

And let peace reign again

It matters not what hot words have flown

Let sleeping dogs lie

Return to your home

All flags of nations should have one hue

The white flag of truce

To show their fighting is through

And if Armistice means any kind of gain

Let us speak true and end the war games

Casino Britannica

 All new

The news

That money can buy you love

At least so long as

The money keeps rolling in

For this is Britain 

And that is what love is found on

From the Romans to the Vikings

They all wanted to take a spin

On the Casino of Britannica

Oh she's a wheeler and a dealer

It is true

Our lady Britannica is a survivor

In the best of times and the worst

Giving her pound of flesh

To invaders

For a piece of the Royal chest

A slab of the fat of land

She's a giver

She's a real river of joy

What you can love

You can likewise destroy

But life's about quality

And we have it here in spades

My mother, God love her,

Would not have wanted

it any other way or boy?

It's just a shame the man turned out 

Different to what her hopes

Could enjoy

But that's just the Casino Britannica

Clicking around like a toy

Opera

 Well you gave me the choice to turn

And in grace not lose the voice that

I brought from my face

That howled in the wind

Of the afternoon opera

Well you gave and I took it

You gave the choice to turn

And in the grace I must learn

To embrace the new

While I release the old

That is the only life that is true

Move on, move on he said

And the snow winds blew

On the mountain tops head

And it was new and oh so true

That Scotland was the way ahead

I knew

I want to be free

 Are these ties, strong enough to bind?

Are these eyes open enough to find

The one truth hiding amongst all the debris

After the explosion crying out let me free

Are these feet strong enough to walk

The thousand footsteps on the path of forks

And will their soles choose left or right

On the road of choices, on the path of light

How can you say you don't believe me

When I know it is you

Who is lying to me

Oh give me a choice, throw me a frizbee

Let me sound my voice, I want to be free

Sidcot Swallet – Burrington Coombe Nov 9th 2013

Down, down into the deep

Into the depths of the hills which sleep

Earthly death the temporal bowl

The bowels of the earth

The hell hole

Dark and black

Damp not cold

Warm as bark

From the fires below

Down we go, down, down, down

Down to the depths of the pits dark pole

Rock that’s round, slime and mould

Warm and black don’t lose your soul

Farther back, farther still

Reaches the slack of the Mendip sill

Subterranean rivers run

Inside the place hid from the sun

Farther back and farther still

Runs coal black the rocky gill

Breathes the stone lung

Its wet warmth not chill

Yet eerie stack upon stack the boulders fill

When so far down

Beneath the crown of the hill

When above you lay the weight of a hundred ton sill

What drives you down is an impossible will

It draws you down

To the world beneath

To cavernous clowns

Who hurl your belief

Into echoes around the hideous relief

Where a voice may drown without knowing a grief

Where the fantasy stalactites like acrobats stow

And chastened as sleeping bats roost under bows

Of roofs a thousand feet below

Below, below, to and fro the arches bend and breech the throw

They lend a spectacular frieze

As in a cysteine chapel we fall to our knees

And reach such wonder lust as only heaven must know

A man must be humble, crawl and lower like a snake

Slither on belly, on back on sides between cracks

Around bends without using his eyes

Just feel with his feet

Trust to the unknown

For it is in refusing to accept defeat

That for our greater sins we atone

I thought I had it coming

It was first on the windowsill in my home

That I lie in the sun on a stone slab

And I thought I am Jesus Christ and some

Mystical power came and gave me a jab 

 You might say that I had it coming

That Bodhisattvas had my back

But Karma is a killer and here is the craic

Why does God's voice sound like beat of distant drumming

Or perhaps it's just the sound of pain leaving the body's rack

I knew you later on when we were in High School

The Dalai Lama rose upon my map

I thought long and hard that I might be a monk

But couldn't remove the good book from my lap

And I learnt about redemption and the redeeming God

I learnt about atoning for our sins

And that Protestants think we must earn our salvation

While others think it's all just predestined

You see I thought I had it coming

as a Catholic,

For we all start off with original sin

It means we're predisposed to some evil acts

But we don't have to listen to the devil within

And then I learnt they had it easier in the Orthodox Church

That everyone is born with a clean slate

No problems are inherent and we have free choice

We just better not wait too long to use our voice

Or it will be too late

So I thought I had it coming

But now I learnt it could be reversed

That I am not bridled with inherent vice

That if I follow correctly a protestant work ethic

And always follow other people's good advice

Maybe I'll earn the merit to make it to heaven's gate

And by the power of free will

It may not be too late

Then I heard of the Vedic traditions of India

And it all made sense in a colourful life

Blue demons and Angel figures in a mandala

Revolved in Karmic wheel pinned by a knife

And you walk its edge between life and death

And you must give your thanks with prayer of your breath

And even the Kama Sutra leads like a thread

Of the right path to nirvana

Well I thought I had it coming

Then the Hiniyana gave me hope that I could live

And walk upon the water of the lake of Dharma

And maybe through Karma learn to give

Because what comes around goes around

And we are all incarnated into the living beings we deserve

If kind hearted actions and not harming others

Came top of your list then you'll preserve

Your current status or climb to a hiatus

But hatred and cruel malice you lived by then

you'll drop back down to earth

For Paradise is a place that we all have in our hearts

It's a place that we protect and must serve

Like guards protecting king and queen in the royal palace

We must forgo our dreams in order heaven to preserve

Yes I thought I had it coming then I learnt of God

And Jesus Christ who is love

And I knew just then that he could keep me in his bosom

And I would be forever his peace dove

The voice from the Tower

 I had a hurt that came to me

It came like a roaring flower

It spoke of love's inconstancy

It spoke of love's great power

It let the yelp of timeless plea

That fall like the passing hour

No I said stop in your tracks

Don't fight in the burning tower

More shall calm the raging sea

More shall charge than cower

For hearts are bold on the aging quay

That waits like the rocks turned sour

And salt and kelp flow in my mouth

My eyes they see sea foam

Caught between the north and south

No direction have I home

The love that was strong did turn the key

To unlock the door of the prison

And I saw the prisoner mad to be free

And let him have his freedom

Oh I spent ten years a wandering on

Where the voice of life grew faint

And I heard my heart that called me on

To the canvass I should paint

And love like a lion did roar on

Down the darkened ruins of time

I leant upon the turnstile gate

And drifted to the tower 

Danube Girl

 Danube girl, on the banks of a brand new world

Making waves with your hand shoe twirl

In the sand by the river

Danube girl, I want to swim with you in the curls

Of the water as you dive for pearls, on the bed of the river

Can you hear me, singing through the sea

Did you hear the voices of a Europe that was free

Danube girl, some where upstream, 

Where they make your dreams

Come true like in magazines

Trying find a new world

Tumble Town

 By now I'm almost there

That being the place

Where I can get somewhere

I'm no young man

But I ain't no square

Well by now

I would have thought

You'd have got somewhere

Well I'm doing my best you

Know it's hard out there

DOING YOUR BEST

tO BE fRED ASTAIRE

dANCING WHILE SHE'S SPARKLIN'

oFF IN THE clouded lair

Well, by now I'd have thought

You'd have got somewhere

So what do you want of me

Mr spoon

With your head shining in photography

Of the silver moon

And your legs dipped in the iodine

Of an ionized ocean

Oh where is the irony

In all this emotion?

I'd have thought by now

You'd have got somewhere

I saw you coming up the dirty track

Your wheels were dirty like a cigarette ash

I knew in your coming

There was no going back

It was like the bees humming

Over honey like cash

Now Don't you mistake me

I know where you're from

I've been there myself

I once was a bum

But I don't like your kind

Sniffin' around

So why don't you crawl back under

The rock you've come from

Apples

Word got around
You had stolen my crown
And you began with laughter
And the bees on the thorn
Or the rose on the horn
They sting or they bleed me
After

And the falling apple spins
It does not bear the wind
It does not count the seconds in time
It has left the tree
It has broken free
And it lands on the grassy slope
Near to the father

Waiting for the river

Its way past the time when I ask for it
Come with the mask that fits
In the second hand kit
But kid gloves are it
In the stagnant pool
Where we sit
Like frogs and think of England

Is this it?
She says jump
And I am afraid of getting wet
Afraid of free fall
Of the height of this wall
I am sitting on

But the water must flow
Somewhere
There must be a river to follow
And I see it snake off
Winding into tomorrow
I must go

There were two frogs who sat on a log
Who sang of the birds and the bees
Along came a dog who howled like a hog
Red-faced it knelt on its knees
And I looked for signs in its face
Of intelligence or innocence or grace
And yet it was wearing a mask
I could not detect or trace

(30th January 2019)

Any old Adam

 Well paradise was full of birds and bees

And elephants with long trunks

Tucked up their sleeves

And God said, look who's that man Eve

And she said - I don't know him from Adam

Now Eve, I thought I told you not to mess around with boys

You know you will break my equipment

These men are not toys

I have already given you several models named Steve

So who's this one Eve?

And Eve said I don't know him from Adam

But Eve said, this one's different, I can feel it in my bones

For now I've set the ball rolling, it's like a rolling stone

And please stop this cajolling, insistent tone

God said do you still believe in me Eve?

Eve said, well I don't know you from Adam

Just then a snake slithered down from up in the leaves

Eve thought he was a rope so gave him a heave

Hey kid quit pulling me down,  what are ya tryin to achieve?

Eve said oh you must be new in town, because I don't know you from Adam

Well if that's how you treat a stranger, I think I'll get myself lost

I can see a three leafed clover, there's a manger and a holy ghost

Perhaps if I went in, they might give me a warmer toast

Eve said I doubt it unless you can shed your skin,

They don't know you from Adam

And Adam said to God, I don't know if I  really know myself

God said here's a mirror, look within you'll find I am your twin

And so they embraced, like long lost cousins, and Adam got a lump in his throat

And God got a pain in his neck, and before you could say paradise

Eve appeared with an apple

Now I'm willin' to marry a twin, you don't have to ask me twice

But before we tie the ribbon, I think it would be nice

If you can introduce him, the one with the snake eyes

And God said I would but I don't know him from Adam

Bees in your bonnet

 All in the cans of the cantalope

All in the knowledge of the elope

He went with blinkers over his scope

And thinkers in his graveyard's hope

Sure you say the dogs will bite

Well it's you they bay for every night

And the fierce fires roar outside your door

And kites

That soar

Too true the cruel hand of time

Has passed us all by twisted crime

For fate will fall upon the wall

Where sunlight still shines

Then the dial on the church 

Shall cast its shadows like the birch

That sways above your kind of love and mine

That's fine

Inside the hour where birds do sing

And the dogs they cower as the bear does swing

His massive claw at your door

Or mine

That's fine

There are bees and birds and hymns

In the gutter with the butter and the pea shooter kings 

Who throw their shells like cartridges

Back at black and white partridges

The Day the Council Flooded

The Salisbury Rain
Always falls on the plain
While the tiger in the woods
Stalks the badger again
The lion down the lane
Roars when I pedal passed
But it seems I can't complain
You either play dead or cycle fast
The council forgot the recycling today
Its been the 19th week
And the rubbish won't go away
Bristol Zoo let out its animals
In a green protest
But I must attest
Though they are a pest
They certainly liven up the place

Then this Noah from number 42
Said he'd solve the problem by counting two by two
Then the rains fell fast
And I believed his resolve wouldn't last
But he'd already built a boat
Called a floating zoo

Well the council didn't like it
But they had to accept
It was a darned sight better
Than what they'd come to expect

And yet still the bin men didn't come
Now the water table you could dine one
We found plastic milk bottles
Lashed together make a fine pontoon
To stand on

And Noah he took the animals round a tour of Salisbury plain
That had become the new hotspot of flood tourism
And migration again

Great White Egret

 Come spread your white wings

About my rusty springs

Oh Egret of the Sandy lands

Up here in migrant fare

Come be blown like a sack cloth

Pure white as a snow flake, sin-free

Come spread your angel wings

About me, sit in my Ash tree

Come burn a white hot flame

Down by the cold black lake

And write in your smoke signals

The message of my mistake

You are my guardian Angel

You take away my pain

I pray to you Great Egret

Far off in the beating rain