It's about the journey not the destination

 Clink clang

shh shh

Clink clang shh shh shh

shh shh shh shh

Can you hear us coming

Working round the bend

Pick axes cracking stone

Clearing debris in the den

Shh shh, shh-shh

Hush and listen a while

Hear the sound the ground makes

It will make you smile

Sh-shh, shh-shh, like voices at the station

Ghost passengers waiting for their locomotion

Slash slash at station Rd

Bells ring out on Hitchin lane

Sh-shh, shh-shh, clang clang

As hammer on iron rang

Steaming through the tunnel

At Mendip Vale

I can hear the ghost train coming

pale rider, pale

Shh-shh, shh-shh

Then the signal man

Let his flag down

The Beeching cuts began, 

slash slash

Slash, slash we go with billhooks

All these years later

Read about steam trains in history books

Slash, slash go the hedge layers

Bending down the trunks

Laying down the cycle path on old rocky bunks

Clearing the valley floor of debris and junk

Heave ho, heave ho, hand over hand

Passing up the rumble, clear through station stands

Coming under Cannard's grave

Clearing through the sidings

Picking up the thread near Mill lane

Dungeon farm and keep winding

Shh-shh, shh-shh, what's that I hear?

Not the sound of clanging metal

But the sounds of changing gear

Children's voices laughing

Families pedalling for joy

Laying down the cycle pathing

Steam train whistle sounds like a child's toy

Toot-toot

The racing and the Whirring

Faster now, faster still

shh-shh -shh, shh-shh-shh

We're steaming up the hill

Our legs are the crank shafts

The pistons pumping blood

Our boilers filled with sandwiches

As we go riding through the mud

Picking up the trail 

Just near the Dinder Quarry

Then out under Dulcote

Early or late you needn't hurry

There's just the stars in the night sky

That make up the constellations

Just like the lights of the past don't die

All along the Strawberry line stations

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

 We are the strawberry line volunteers

We are the strawberry line volunteers

We push and pull the plough

We don't know quite where but we know how

We are the strawberry line volunteers

Oh we are chugging our way to Clevedon

All the way across the waves of the Mendips

All the way we shall lead them up and down

Like the sand dunes we shall weave them

Like side winders through the deserts we shall wind

And dig and hack and bind, and together navigate

and follow the old grate

Until we reach the tunnels we shall find

we are the Strawberry line volunteers

We haul on the the rope and yet ready for the smokes

Going and having hope enough for years

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

we're following the track that disappears

We'll uncover the truth and reveal what we find

There'll be the proof of what we've left behind

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

We come together with our eyes and ears

We'll put our heads together, we'll bend upon our knees

and any kinds of weather we'll sing our railway shanties

we are the Strawberry line volunteers

Sweet as cherry wine that runs clear

Or as the fruit divine that hangs on Mendip's climbs

We shall be as rosy through our years

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

Everything in our path we will clear

Noting down the squirrels the badgers and the rats

And even if we have quarrels we are better after that

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

Don't put us down or lose good cheer

We have nothing to fear, but a lack of Strawberry beer

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

Take away your dark days of winter

We will push them out like a splinter

And become stronger even keener

To finish our great task

And drop down time's mask 

from the railways line that runs clear

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

Don't put us in a box or even box our ears

You cannot out fox us when it comes to

pathway clearances

So you know just who to call and when

You have a road which winds this way and then

You may have lost your compass

In a haystack it was done

But be sure you'll thump us 

and miss us when we're gone

So let us finish off our song

We hope you've enjoyed singing along

And if you care to join us

Then don't be afraid to coin us

For we are the Strawberry line volunteers

A patchwork eden

 The women are washing curtains

And cutting out new shapes

Keeping out the cold

Until they make their great escapes

And I am in my room with

A scarf around my nape

Looking at the gloom with

A roll of sticky tape

Can I patch up my windows

Can I make a patch work quilt

And sew my images of Eden

Into everything I make?

A patchwork paradise made up

Of my own mistakes

A blanket to wrap myself in

When the cold comes 

When it threatens my life to take

And are these memories just a childhood fantasy

Or like Joseph and his dream coat

Will my dreams trump my mistakes?

I have to believe in the power of dreaming

And I'll sleep on it,

Under cover of life's roadmap I make

This thing has wheels

 This thing has wheels and it will fly

Take it for a spin

Hitting over drive

There's nothing to lose or win

Only you've got to stay alive

In this thing with wheels

Come on and survive

It is over it is under

The fast road racing

Through tunnels

Under bridges

The scenery displacing

And time shifts its gaze

Until we realize

This thing has wheels

And we are on a ride

Railway silence

 The ducks on the sharp pond

The eye of the ice

The glittering tear lake

There bitterns shy twice

And Egrets and Herons

Stalk upon the fronds

Crushing and stealing

The icing on the cake

The glittering tear lake

Where blue sky cries

Into the fears and mistaken

Lullabies

Out shoot the swallows and in the branches starlings twitter

All above the glitter

Of the glitterati lake

Come see the birds swoon in their dazzling displays

Play fiddler on the roof tunes

As we walk the golden highway

And the yellow brick road shines

But there's no way we can stay

As I see the Tin man from Japan

Pick up his bucket and spade

And the black lion roars in the railway sidings

And his iron coat soars

And his bronze mane shining

Like a Sun pirate coruscated

and laid out on the plain

Dorothy is skipping doing a dance for the rain

And I'm on the platform waiting for the last train

But it left several hours ago, and my waiting is in vain

Still the rocks pile sideways and the Wizard of Oz calls

Here come the fortunate ones who have climbed

Over the walls

An end of pity

 What a pity it's the end of the road

I came down here thinking

I'd find a city full of glittering gold

But the road got too gritty

And I never listened to what my heart foretold

Don't drive down dead ditties 

Or else you'll never know what might unfold

Vobster Quarry (for Denise)

 I'm going to Vobster Quay right now

There's no one else here, 

I think I am free

Driving down the drove

No need of a key

I'm unlocked already

I put on my gloves

I get ready to jump

But the water is black

Like an oil sump

And So I slip in so quietly

The cool takes my breath away

I am brave, I am strong I repeat

Under my breath, some place that can't be

Me

But is some how

Then so cold 

I must move

Keep moving

I get that euphoric feeling

That high

As my body adjusts

And I swim lengths like I'm an otter

all alone in this quarry

After I feel so brave and so happy

Time's wall

 Are you barely holding on?

Quiet desperation is the English style

In a struggle with the Gods

And yourself for a while

Until something splits 

The pea breaks

The willow cracks

And a viper spits

And Then you fall 

To endless

Time

Oh Time's wall

The wall of now

For ever we climb

Trying to reach it

The present moment

Like a summit

That we keep sliding

Off of

Like ice

You see you cannot ride 

Or overshoot the wave

That crests ever on

And never breaks

But is always breaking and being reclaimed

The endless cusp of tomorrow

Though you can look through if you are brave

And see tomorrow and tomorrow save

A moment from the future

A moment from the now

Like an eternal suture

heals over

A wounded brow

And the closer to the summit 

The more clearer your vision through

The medium of tomorrow

Time's eternal blue

Ocean of forever

Man your surly crew

All hands on deck

Else we break our necks

When we try to push on through

Keep reaching for tomorrow

Keep striving for today

Keep letting go of sorrow

Like a pearl lost to the clay

It will be found by someone else

Another day

And its wisdom impart

Like the shaking bough

Interprets the wind's thoughts in its way