Back home

 Oh potatoes rotting

And this western town

Asses swaying and cussed pockets

The slamming of car doors rubber and metal

A humming 

That probably a good thing to do when its not a very nice day

No I am not saying that there is an Egyptian living down stairs

But she sure worships that dog man

Dogman or mandog,

I am not even sure if he isn't a doggod

 God dog it, I mean dagnam it or man dag it

She has got all men out of her life except Him

And the tree next door is in blossom, well it is hanging its fruits

It is near mid July

And the pollen is high 

and its scent wafts through my window

The sun is long in the sky 

and hangs there mellow

Like it is sad to go down

And put an end to all this beauty

this summer of loving

Oh now I'm getting carried away in sentiment

The runner jogs on 

Another car passes

The martial arts combatants leave for the evening

After beating themselves up and each other

In the gym

In the dance hall of horrors

So much like a timeless

Beating box 

that is incessantly drummed with the

pounding and tapping of feet - little and large

the footprints stay there.

This is the third age of man

The forties

I am back on home turf,

Although not totally home

It is now quickly becoming my home

I am sinking back into British life

and it is absorbing me

It is beautiful this time of year

The pigeons or crows flap in the boughs

And rearrange their positions I suppose

 

don't give up

Don't give up
For you are loved
Across the plain, the field

Don't give up
Lift on wings of a dove
Its just the way that you feel

These wheels keep on turning
The seasons keep returning
The world resolves
And our problems are solved
By day turning into dark
From the dark you must come out into light


Don't give up
Every breath must be a fight
Every day a struggle against death
Tell death to fuck off
Don't give up
Don't give up

All things pass
The summer wine
In the glass
Soon must be supped
But cast your net
Feel the sea sway
Hold tight the mast
In the storm
The new day will bring
Peace of mind

The tune to sing

Where are the tunes
That I heard you sing?
Summer comes down the street
Birdies tweet in the tree
Where are those tunes
I used to hear you sing?

Ah they're coming back
On the tide
On the new sun rising
They are the silver lining
Of the clouds on my horizon
And I can hear you sing

Well its two tunes for my life
One for my money one for my wife
And I know its funny honey
You can still sing that tune for me

Timpani no more

 How do you do?

Are you in the soup too?

How does it feel to be me?

Well how does it feel to be you?

Are you waking up sideways with your head in a cupboard

Are your ears like an attic

Where bats are recovered

Do you sweep cobwebs or webcobs

Do you chew tobacco sweet stacco

Are you stuck in the middle bracket

Income packet,

Under the living wage, or between the lines

On the living page

Of life's book

The devil's in the detail, but he lives to be on stage

And who should know better

Than the deep blue sea

Who could know better than you and me?

The words I wished I had written were caught in the trap

Of the unforgiven, and smitten, by folly, sore blades 

In sacks, holding a brolly to the the radio shack

And firing nicely the cannons' report

Oh reads the daily results on the sport

Slow tambres coming and an ice cream van

Calling out its sombre, sombrero lifespan

Its always summer in the north pole

And he will serve your soul flakey

Or dipped in petrol

And lice are crawling up the road

Carrying icicles of pericles

And shoulders of pork are still to be cured

But legs of lamb have been broken

If ever softly heard

Summer's bird

 I saw you lost your throne of stone

I saw your crown was broke

And in amongst the daisy chains

Was where the blackbird spoke

Saying I lost you in the morning

I lost you in the spring

And the fourth time I was calling

You came home to me again

For the cross was born in the winter

And the tides rose up in field

And we all feel so brave on the short summer waves

When the heat is our only meal

brief time

 I'm telling you the truth

Of the birds who sit and squark

And the colour of the chalk left

By the blackboard

If it was green or was it pink

Oh the submarine did sink

Below the waves of memory

That wash up on the shore

I'm telling you the truth of what I speak

Some days we were strong, on some weak

But we were children then

Running through the thick

Glory days of youth's summer

And on some of those hedgerows

Where the dinosaurs grow

Next to the graveyard wall

To remind us all

That time is brief

And life is short

Though back then time was sport

Life is short

Life is short

It looks out to the left

Is it right?

 Can you tell me, can you tell me

Can you tell me

Is it right

That the things which had been sworn

Keep you up late at night

And is it like a unicorn, moving so magical and bright

Across the favoured summer's lawn

Oh it keeps me awake at night

And is it right that the blacks

Have lost their rights

Is it right that the blues go down Madison's loos

Is it right

In the ailing ships that sway at bay

And is it right that my stopped clock

Is still right twice a day

Tell me in the graveyards

Who has brought the corn?

And scattered over the dead corpses

So that they might be reborn?

Tell will they get up and walk around til dawn

Oh tell me, tell me, tell me is it right?

Is it right that the plague comes and knocks upon my door

While it leaves my neighbour alone,

Makes me want to settle the score

Oh we are all alone before the accounts of the Lord

But I know I can't lift this millstone

That hangs around my neck any more

Tell me oh tell me, tell me is it right?

Oh tell me , tell me,

What keeps you tossing in your bed at night

Is it that you are lonely, is it that your dove has flown

Or is it only that your afraid of the unknown

And who should come and turn on your light

Well follow her to the aquifer and bleed that stone tonight

Tell me oh tell me, tell me is it right

That the blood hurts but what's worse is 

You don't even care

And of course I curse, of course I nurse

A kind of self-mocking despair 

But what's worse is I can see the hearse

Cannot park anywhere!

Tell me oh tell me, tell me is it right

That the carnival of animals

Are on the road tonight

That we all see a vacant sign

When there's someone in there

But she can't get out, and he starts to shout

That there's a human whose soul is laid bare

Or is made out of fresh air?

Love Spade sonnet number 5

 Shall I compare thee to a garden hoe

Thou art more buxom and less straight

And were I to call a spade a spade

A spade by any other name would cut as deep

As the wound your lover's blade has inflicted on mine breast

Shall I compare thee instead to a cold north wind

Which blows down my allotment rows

Freezing all my peas, tearing my cabbage leaves

But no, thine own wind is more poisonous by far

And were it not able to let sleeping dogs lie

I should compare you to a roamin' butterfly

Who wanders aimless through the summer fields

Makes acquaintance with dogrose, or dandilion

But her self has teeth enough when she's a pup

To cut as deep, into my brassica leaf or butter cup

Or as a caterpillar grub to hang high above in Beech

Or as pure as a silken glove as a Chrysilis who speaks

Of stolen love, and innocence though monsterous actions dreams

Well after all, lets call a spade a spade, you do no more harm

lest you keep your forked tongue behind your rake's teeth

For when winter's storm comes to blow dead leaves down my street

I hold you by the trunk and ask those same fastidious protuberances

Be used to clean the mould from between the toes of my frozen feet

The restless ship

 I am the ship that will never reach port

Sail all night for the pirate's sport

I am the ship that will never get caught

Well I sail all night, and I sail in the morn

By the morning light I'm still sailing on

Yes I am the ship that will never reach port

All the times that you have thought

I am the ship that is sailing on

To the endless seas far from the land

And I sail over the horizon

And I sail on from the dunes of sand

I am the ship that will never reach port

For I chase the fish can never be caught

Well I chase him south and I chase him north

Yes I am the ship that will never reach port

I am the ship that will never reach port

For I follow the rainbow for the gold I sought

And I sail through rain and I sail through snow

And I sail through the desert sun that I know

I am the ship that will never reach port

and I fight in the wars for the sailor's sport

And the devil knows my name but I am never caught

No until my fame tells the tale of my sort

I am the ship that will never reach port

And I carry no anchor and hold my court

For the kings come to me for to get taught

How to run the game like the devil's sport

I am the ship that will never reach port

And I keep them guessing just as long as I ought

And there is no answer, no answer can be bought

With their pots of gold and their rich consort

And I never reach the final goal

Yes I am the ship with the ghost like soul

I am the ship against the rainbow

That chases the light, that chases the snow

I am the ship that will never reach port

Through the many wars that I have fought

I am the ship that will never reach port

A sailor's life is for the devil's sport

Down to the south where humpbacks are caught

Up to the North where ice cuts life short

I am the ship that will never reach port

Well the sabres swing, and scabbards fly

And gull on the wing will teach us how to sigh

And the swords they flash and the sailors cry

I am the ship that keeps fighting til I die

Yes I fought on through the wars of old

I fought to the rainbow for the pot of gold

I fought to the ends of the earth you see

For I am the ship on the rolling sea

And it rolls on down and it rolls on wide

And it rolls forever to the bright sunshine

And it rolls there now and it rolls so fine

And it rolls on down to the bright sunshine

Yes I am the ship that will never reach land

And I never touched sand and I never held a hand

I am the ship that will sail alone

Through the times of the age, but never reach home

I am the ship that will never reach port

I will sail all night and I'll never get caught

And the fires on the raging seas of time

And I'll never stop, never stop while I'm in my prime

And I wend and I wander through the days of olde

And the seas are coming and the seas are cold

And the waves are breaking on the ship's stronghold

The ship that will never reach the land

For the love who will never hold my hand

I am the ship that will never reach land

I will keep on sailing for as long as I can

I put down no anchor and ask the help of no man

Yes I am the ship that will never reach land

I ask for no quarter, no quarter from man

I am given no help except to stick to the plan

To be the ship that will never reach land

I am the ship that will never reach land

I am the ship that will never reach port

For I'm chasing the fish that will not be caught

And we chase him south and we chase him North

To the river mouth and round the horn

And the sailors shout and bloody oaths are sworn

In the dirty mouth of babes fresh born

They cry we are the fish who will never get caught

Through the summer drought or the winter storm

And I heard him out yes I heard the sails torn

He was the tavern tout, a drunken sailor of the morn

And spoke his story through the windows cry

Twin town 4

 The dive bombers are dropping bombs all around and

The shattered land lies in pieces

Of Golgotha's cousin

And seeds are blown from the dandilions

Who roar at the daisies working on the chain gang

And the flower slaves are raving and splashing

With sirens and mermaids in the shallows 

Where our ark hits the breakers of the coral island

Is this false limb the true twin town I ask

And you are like Moses and plant your staff

And stake your claim in tomorrow's garden

Where the gypsies rob

Water from the gutters of the houses of God

And I say all this lighted lanterns of concern

And the burning effigies are not real

On Christmas Day or a Midsummer's Eve

I say run at the height of the festival's plan

Run away from the clan

Back to the seas

Back to our Ark

Back where the sailors are fighting with sharks

And the rough hands of God,

And horses rough shod

Are trampling firmly upon the iron rod

As a Tempest weaves around ruined Castle walls

And standing stones have belly aches from all the prayers they've received

Our ship pushes out away from the false land

Where Caliban is still howling like a banshee from the shore

And Queen Mary is in the tower

Writing her victory score

Fir tree Pet Hotel

 Cats with suitcases

Cats taking the suitcases 

From railway platforms

Passing eachother on the underground

Suitcase and hat on

Suitcase in hand

Dogs taking it easy in the hotel room

Just kicking up their feet

And taking a sip on a pinacolada

A Basset hound with a bloody Mary

A chiwawa with a gin and tonic

Oh the pets are enjoying their holiday

In the pet hotel

Won't you take me to the Pet hotel

Pet hotel is where I wanna stay

Away from my master for a week or two

In the Pet Hotel with you

Yes you can pet me all you like

You can mollycoddle and do what you like

But I'm a dog with my animal rights

Yes I want a holiday too

I'm going to the Pet Hotel

It's out in the sticks and stones

And little puppy dog tails and bones

I'm going to the Pet Hotel

It's not like a zoo

There are no prison guards

there's no cages too

Yes it's a Pet Hotel and I want to 

Stay there with you

Do do, do do, do do- do-do 

It's a Pet Hotel come on everyone

And kick your feet up in front of the fire

It's a Pet Hotel, anything you want is alright

In the pet Hotel

It's the Pet Hotel

Everywhere you go

In summer or snow

Yes Pet Hotel, you can forget about your cares

You can leave your worries at the door

Or under the stairs

Pet Hotel there's no door mat

To wipe your paws

Pet Hotel come on in Cat

You can sharpen your claws

And treat all your sores

De-tick your fur or cough up your balls

Pet Hotel I'm not trying to infer

It's mine when it's obviously yours

Rain on Ukraine

 The fits and starts of summer

Tarts

The rain, the rain just falls

And I complain about Ukraine

But nothing else appalls

I walk in hearts and apple carts

Upset in old St Pauls

But don't news dart

Like newts that fart

all about waterfalls

The rain, the rain, the rain

That falls

In buckets from the clouds

And England's island is the size and

I cannot be more proud

I had fallen ill on top of the hill

An ailment faced with scorn

But whether it is time I kill

I did not know when born

Rainbow

 Buy me a rainbow

Pay for it with a pot of gold

I've heard tell, it will rain though

Summer sunshine leaves

Come don't believe all you've been told

Not unless its make-believe

Come on and buy me a rainbow

I just need it for all of my dreams

Family of seasons

 Father of the winter

Mother of the summer

Call me to your homeward stack

Like a bee I fly to the hive

Like a gull on the wing

I glide

Cold climes, harsh times

The season's flak

Sway in the bristling pines

I look for my father in the winter

But my mother in the summer time

Bodza utca 2021 Summer

 All the bells and the whistles

And the flights taking off

The shoes on the run way, the tarmac 

going soft

In the heat that feels like the street

got a cough

and is wheezing and teasing the trees to turn off

But the trees are shy and turn their branches away

As the birdies they fly from the nests where they stay

And the shadows crawl across the hours of the day

As Bodza street wakes in it's inimitable way

The dogs begin their barking and the trucks

begin to rumble and the whole earth shakes

But the foundations do not crumble

And the plane takes off, or a different one lands

As they groan in their descent, like the ascent of man

And there are some neanderthals and some who stand up straight and tall

And there are some cathedrals which ring their bells to cap it all

and then there is the pigeon calls who hum and burble coos 

in the leaves of the trees of the capital

And the burgeoning degrees of freedom stand

Like men and women shaking hands in separation April

To Self isolation autumn

The diggers and the straight laced boots of my degradation

And fastening don't get cute

Before seat belts became a regulation

Then car crashes and tobacco stashes,

Lie in the police station

Autumn sun

 The Summer's gone

The Autumn comes again

On a song, of falling rains

And if it's not right

Then no matter what you do

It is wrong, 

time and time again

Come undone

Come together like the dew

In the morning on the grass blades

When you flew through

The sky, oh you tern or curlew

When you flew time and time again

Come undone

Like the winter time that grew

wind and light 

Come apart again

Brick by brick

 What does my building say about me?

A Church, an apartment

Or you might live in a tree

An Italianate, baroque palatial frieze

A facade on the cards or

a post office parquet

You might live in a bank

And call it Art

You might be a river rat

And think that you're smart

Does living in a vault mean you are at fault?

Or down by the green meadows

Not mean you're ever in shadows

For do we choose our homes

Or do they choose us

Each is a road to Rome

It is do it or go bust

But is it all as capricious as the wind

Torn by time and trust

Dumped down by the tempest

Having circumstances thrust upon us

Well wild is the wind

In the corner of the park

Wild winds blow chill in

The foreign country's dark

But run from your home

Or stay still and rust

It's all just a rolling stone

That gathers no moss

And happiness is a home

A home is where the heart is

Comfort and some bliss

On the road to Rome

Look out for your pension

Don't worry about inflation

Negative equity and property booms

On the Road to Rome

House price increase

Mortgage decrease

Only in a blue moon

How about not thinking

doom and gloom?

In the parking lot of common sense

Where the council takes its recompense

And even woodland elves help themselves

To the goodies on the shelves

Greed and self-reliance

Blowing hot air over vipers

Of envy and jealousy

And competing neighbours

And every day seems like a fight

But though I know that don't seem right

It's what makes the winning and the losing

An end in themselves

And so petty rivalries from conclusions

Drawn from some imagined illusions

Of another's backstabbing collusion

Should be vanquished like the night

Yet when truth shines on a light

As I know in my heart it might

Despite all dark forces of might

That bear the shadows of night

I cross my finger and the road

I just keeping carrying this load

Just wish to let go but don't

Because I believe in the light

Mid stream

 If you need anything

Let me know

I need a fish head

I need the legs

To walk on water

Like an Ariel

I need a chance

Heads or tails

Open mouth of whale

Swallowing up a Jonah

I need a fishmonger

Market stall

For sale or rent

My suit of scales

Cheques and balances

I need a spout

I need a fluke

Over the moon

I had a whale of a time

Turning on a dime

I went down to the river bank

And cast my line

I asked the water for some message

I hadn't heard of mine

A fish it jumped

Its tail thumped

Upon the bank it pined

I threw it back

Into the sump

Of blackness and of slime

But far below

The river did flow

Like a life in its prime

What waste to catch a rotten fish

When other fresh waters wind

And I may walk to other rivers

That will give me back my time

Last one

 When it comes to call

me out my friend

They will line us up

against the wall

I'll be the last one standing

When the time is right

and the season's full

I'll walk with you

Out into the cull

I'll be the last one standing

When the rain falls down

On the stag's horny crown

And you wear that bleeding, jaded frown

Don't look now, but I told you so

I'll be the last one standing

The river green

 Down by the river

The rolling green river

Down by the river I've been

Down by the river

Where flag Irises quiver

I saw the river Queen

She walked like a sliver

Of moonlight, a shiver

Wishing upon stars in the scene

When I went down by the river

Down by the river,

Down by the river green

Down by the river

Where the wag tails bob

And the fish in the flanks

Who finish the bank job

Of eating the insects

That live only to rob

Down by the river green

Down by the river

The rolling green river

Down by the river I've been

Down by the river

When my heart and my liver

Turned a skip for what I had seen

All the bally insects

Flying round like little jets

All the colours of the scene

But one that will know you

Even everytime show you

That's why the river runs green

Ribbons of the sea

 I saw the rising ribbons from the sea

I saw the rising ribbons from the sea

I saw the raging waves

And the lifeguard who saves

And Neptune's daughters 

Who were twins

I saw the father

Like Poseidon

I saw the mother like a coral reef

Beside him

And down beneath

The surf on the cliff

I saw the river sprites

Who were twins

Born in a place and in a time

Far gone over

Beyond mine

The life I have been given

No other shall be shriven

When I saw the rising ribbons

From the sea

Witch's wedding

 It was a witch's wedding

Down in a cave

A witch's wedding

But never a guest looked grave

Through the cob webbing

As the candlesticks save

And the yellow lights shone

On the walls

Who's echoing screeches gave

The tides on the shore were ebbing

The sun dial's chimes did call

A large cauldron stood four feet tall

And into the pot went all manner of fool

A four legged friend even one foot stool

Friends until the end as the frog's legs sprawl

And the preacher she was a creature of

A most hideous hide

Jagged as a stalagmite

Only matched by the wedding bride's

But beauty runs more than skin deep

And these had rhinoceros hides

Such beauty had never walked such caves

Not since the Halloween's tide

The witch was given away by the star of

The scene 

as the devil walked in there

Turning all the wedding guests green

Ah my sweet Papa said the witch

And bowed to kiss his tail

The mysterious man showed grace and poise

And in his duties never failed

"A fine young man your bride groom is

As father I do approve

Just mind he is versed in the dark arts

And his station it will improve

I shall turn the world to my will

And ensure his career is skilled"

Oh, but the Devil was no ordinary man

A real Prince charming was he

And as he let go of her hand

In the other he passed the husband a key

Now you and she will be locked together

Chained like the tides to the sea

And your life and hers will forever be tied

Round and round until in death you are free

A narcissist first, and a narcissist last

The devil's own sin was his pride

And as he vainly gave the key to the groom

He neglected to look at the bride

And in that short moment

When the wedding bonds passed

And the Groom did inherit the Earth

Hell wore a smile like a river wide

And his daughter's eye contained much guile and mirth

Yet she was a witch and could never submit 

To man's complete dominion

For in truth she hurt for the wild wind's course

And she ached to untie the marital union

Though love is a bond that lives wild and strong

And will pass beyond measureless time

The heart is an art that is a high road long

And only lives because others have died

This man she knew, she would tell to go to hell

And he would in truth dwell down there

But his worldly sense loved the commonsense

While hers was more a type magical mare

A witch's divorce is a thing to see of course

No solicitor could negotiate deeds

How to divide the keys to the Earth

Or pages of pride and of greed

Though he may leave her

She will never forget

And her curse will follow him

Like a supersonic jet

Booming the sound waves

And brooming the debt

He owes her his life yet

He owes her his life yet

Dripping Cove

 Dripping Cove

The running iron stove

That bleeds its red blood

From the islands heart

Out to the orange buoy

Who has floated like a gob stopper

In the rivers mouth for years

And that Pirates Bay

With smuggler’s caves

Where the sea like a milky basin sways

In the murmuring moonlight it waves

And its murderous intentions

Below the looks

Of monks from above their books

Below the sounds of the farmer’s plough

And the hob nailed boots of soldiers on their way

Dripping cove, ebbs out its life blood precious

Mixes the islands blood flow with the seas salty spray

Views from Flat Holm

 When the land is on its knees

And it seems like pickle and cheese

Laid out in slabs and chunks

All along the coast of the seas

And the sky is striking blue

As a thunderbolt in a bucket or two

Emptied in, the repository of wind

Which takes it hurling up the channel

And after the storm

The white windmills clearly blew

Like the arms of those reborn

On the hills of Calvary

Like jacks that God threw

Tumbling down

From the back of his hand

Fallen between divine fingers

The way across the bay

Seems so near yet is so far

The beach beyond out of reach abscond

The cream teas and fish and chips

The happy shoppers and laughing lips

The merry go round and carousel

The Big Top turning I know very well

The pier like a playground, for grown up kids

The steep climb to Brean Down

Where many a walking boot skids

And the fort which looks out back at us

Like a mirror seeing its own eye through binoculars

Its gun turrets and batteries and military shielding

Matched by our own battlements and the Victorian's building

Conjoined like three weird sisters Brean Down and two islands

 

Steep Holm the steepest, its gradient highlands

Like a potters clay mound cut and turned

On the wheel of the sea

Its edges carved steep by is cupped hands

Flat Holm the lizard lounging down flat

Sunning itself, by the wind, ironed like a mat

Brean Down so colloquial, provincial almost

With Weston the hub of local stage post

And Cardiff is there gleaming and white

Shining out through defiance against the storm’s might

Metropolitan and buzzing splashing its wealth

Like an elephant in a mud bath all over itself

On the hill Penarth

Proud and self-fulfilled,

Looking on the works of former days willed

Collated like a kaleidoscope

The world swirls around

As a lesser black-backed gull

Swoops down to ground

Nerves

 There are nerves before a great fight

Nerves that come out at night

Nerves as you board your first flight

But these nerves you know they're right

Well they keep you under control

Like the actor who must stay in his role

And finish his play come what may

Oh nerves they'll have the last say

There are nerves that will dog you around

Like a fox is dogged by a hound

But you can't brush them away

For they're here to stay

And that's how they're as long as they're round

If you climb up the Eiffel tower

They'll be there in great power

Giving their speech, broadcasting their news

But life is a peach when you don't confuse

Their truth with having something to prove

Whether you stay or whether you move

At Death's door

 I was at death's door

Knocking to come in

Cryin' what about love and what about Sin

Well I knocked so loud cried:

 Won't you let me in

I was at death's door knockin to come in

They said

Have you bent your ear

Or taken it on the chin

When I was at death's door

Knockin'

to come in

Well I cried so loud

There's a wolf out here

And he's howlin' loud

Won't go away

But they said keep that wolf at bay

I cried how

They said hey

Won't you tell me what I can do about that?

I said aloud

But my voice fell flat

A to O of jobs

 Ant eater

Accountant

Actuary

B - Baker, Butcher, bailer, bailif, banoffe pie maker

C-conartist, caption writer

Cockatoo tail feather puta in a

Cockatoo tail feather pulla outta

D-delecroy

Delivery driver

Diamond miner

Deatha nd taxes person

Ditch water inspector

E-ear wig owner

Egg white beater

Elephant trainer

Elegy writer

Electrician

F -foreign affairs correspondent

fisherman

Flaming heart flagellist

Fake hairdo maker

G-God look-alike competition inspector

Goal keeper

Giraffe adoptionist

H- happy go lucky hippie

Hair dresser

Hope creator, hope maker

Handle turner

Huddle Goth

I-indicator maker

Index finger - giant index finger

Individual inspector

J-jokey

Jill- as in Jack dressing up as Jill

Jimcarna organizer

Jolly sing-a-long

Jeopardy host

K -Kung-Fu expert

Kapitan

Kapital hill creator

Constructive cages

King maker

Killer

Kiss-me-quick

Kiss.me-not

Kiss.me on the spot

L- loverman

Low brow

lowdown taker

Lintel inspector

Label maker

Literature thief

Lobbyist

Leg measurer

Lentil maker

Logo elaborator

M- Mechanic

Motorist

Mender of watches

N-no one

Nobody

Notch maker

(K)Napsack carrier

Nuptual inviter

O- octopus trainer

Onthologist, Opthalmologist

Open university lecturer

Opportunity knocker

Hole and Corner

hole and corner

Take me there in fires

Swear

The bold and free of purgatory

Hole and corner

Fear

Ship them off to foreign shore

Make me soft

In the cure

Take my heart and blur

The boundaries

Fire me steel in the foundries

Pumping iron

And the bellows

Scorching heat in hell's belows

Fired goodbyes and so long so's

Shake my hand when you say hello

But wake me when you wave my grave

I have no flowers in the shade

Cut the sun like a yoke

And pour me some

Like a joke

Hole and corner

Oh John Thorner

Pulled his thumb out

Of the plumb

Living fuck

 Can you make the song bird sing

In the early evening

Can you joke that it's not spring

While the season's turning?

Are you free or are you chained

While the maze of amazing rain

Comes spiralling down upon your brain

Oh tell me what is living?

Are you free to live

Then why not start to give

To your fellow human beings

They aren't blind to what they're seeing

Have the doves of the cot not flown

Out into the storm

Have the wily cocks of home

Not been kept in safe and warm

What of beauty

What of kings

What of all these kinds of things

And what you take

And what life brings

What is it you are finding?

Pub talk

 Here's to Shepton

It's on its knees

Won't the government lower

The tax on alcohol please!

Give the pubs the upper hand over

Supermarket sleaze

They're destroying our culture

With their lower price freeze

We buy our beer in bulk

Bring it back home to drink

Like the incredible hulk

shipwrecked into bed we sink

In a sulk

For we've not met new friends

Only drank til we've caulked

And whitened and paled and netflixed out

And it could be the ale or speciality stout

But in fact it's the lack

of the life we're about

 Just go down the pub

You'll feel better no doubt!

This culture is dying

But it's not what you think

Britain was founded on

A strong liking for drink

If you consider the heroes

The brave and the true

You'll find they all loved

To partake of the brew

We come together in clubs

And in teams

We drink to our fellows

And we drink to our wins

But drink too to your losses

As well as your gains

Because as the penny tosses

So fall the rains

And mercy can fall equal

On Kings as on peasants

But just mind how you say it

When plucking a pheasant!

I think we were better back in 1981

When we drank through unemployment

And likewise we drank to have fun

But you've got to enjoy it

With friends and in good company

It's like music to my ears

And it's the mark of being free

Out to get me

 I only had one thing on my mind

Down by the river Sheppey

And all the people not of my kind

They were out to get me

They were out in a posse

They were out on the jetty

Yes they went searching out to find the key

Yes, they were out to get me

Well me why can't a fella have a drink

On Saturday night he deserves it don't he

Floating his boat on the big wide sea

But they were out to get me

Searching in the town hall

Searching knee deep in confetti

I felt like I was back in school

When they were out to get me

Give me a trial by my peers

Make me stand and let me

Find witnesses with eyes and ears

To show they were out to get me

Placing an order

 A four pronged pick

Two Dutch hoes 

And a billhook

Look what do you take me for?

A pillock?

A billhook

Two Dutch hoes, from Amsterdam?

No the garden variety

For digging me rows

And beddin' in I suppose

Oh wouldn't you like to know?!

Oh and some flower seeds

Got any Corncockle?

In me pocket yokel

How about Lady's bed straw

Top draw

White Campion

She's a Champion

And grows

four feet tall who knows?

Evening Primrose

Evening Sir

Oxeye Daisy

I'll have four, for me and Miss Mazy

Driving down to the Oxbow lake

To drown our sorrows

Self Heal?

They're only in tomorrow

And Corn Poppy

Hippity Hoppity 

What a happy shopper

Alright how about a pair of telescopic loppers

Coming right up

From round the bend

Periscopic perambulation

Of a flexible friend

Draper edging shears

Oh yes give me a trim around the ears

And shovel square mouth T handle

Open wide sir, let me stick it in

Ah now that feels better

Your face is the ace of spades

Not fit for a king A Rib-eyed Stake

A T-bone?

No a sharpening stone

Round

Sound

As a pound

And a sharpening stone

Flat

As a pancake sir

Anything more after all that?

Just one thing my good man, and mind you're back chat

A lawn rake 21" Eagle

Eerie sir?

No, ordinary

Spread or Closed?

Spread? What do you take me for, some kind of crow?

Crow, a crow a cock-a-doodle doo!

Listen you cockerel fool, fooey to you

Well, I'll call you in the morning

Deliver to your hovel?

Sir, you are too rude, by the way add to that 

a shovel

Oh and a wheelbarrow

20 ltr poly blue

Right first thing tomorrow

Is there anything else I can do?

No you've done quite enough

I think I need a tissue

To wipe off my sweaty brow

I do believe we're through

Choir of Quiet

Shush, shush go the mothers to the babies

Shush, shush they say and hush them to sleep

Shush, shush go the train wheels on the railways

Shush, shush rumble the sleepers in the deep

Shush, shush go the pistons in the factories

Shush, shush go the Baby sham works

Shush, shush sing the cider in batteries

Shush, shush go the office clerks

Shush, shush goes the town's silence

Gone is the sound of the town's violence

Shush, shush go the copper cables and fibres

Shush, shush goes the telephone exchange

Shush, shush go the flies trapped by spiders

Shush, shush go the tongues sounding strange

Shush, shush go the nuns to their priory

Shush, shush go the shops of the high street

shush, shush go their shuffling feet

Shush, shush go the birds in the briar or tree

Shush, shush go the tides of the shy shifting sea

Shush, shush goes the traffic beneath

Shush, shush say the rocks of the cave

Shush, shush goes the gushing stream

Shush, shush underneath the limestone

Shush, shush where the stalactites dream

"Wake up!" say the road sweepers

"Wake up from your long summer sleep!"

"Wake up!" say the railway workers

Dig on, though the tunnels run deep

Shush, shush go the church towers

Shush, shush go the stained glass windows in pane

Shush, shush go the vases of flowers

Shush, shush goes the church warden in vain

Shush, shush go the leaves in the graveyard

Hush, hush go the mothers to their babes

Shush, shush go the yew trees that stand guard

Over the cradles, sundials and graves 

"Come home!" say the wives to the sailors

"I must go!" cry the sea gulls to the planes

"Come back!" cry the lovers to their loved ones

"I am here!" cry the others back again

 

love is a Joke

 King concrete - a cement shop name

And this is the final of the men's 100m spurt

What do you call a large ape who has got stuck on a building site?

King concrete

I saw a man dressed as a bird walking down the street

I told him to stop making a tit out of himself

I just spotted a tit flock down on the Hamwall nature reserve, and now it turns out they have built a large car park to encourage even more tits to flock there! At least I think that's what it's there for.

They think she killed her husband by breece block, but they have no _________ evidence.

Are you looking for Kongcrete evidence? Well look no further try new King Kongcrete

What do you call the shape of an ape who has fallen onto a pavement?

Kongcrete

Which Greek Island is home to a heavy ape? Kongcrete island

That Police officer looks very attractive at the moment

Yes she is arresting isn't she

Of time and chance

by any chance

chop and change

name and shame

time and a half

times have changed

give me a fighting chance

not a chance

you've got to pick and choose

It's a song and dance

But you've got to be in it to win it

to stand a chance

You don't have to name and shame

I did things wrong, I cheated the game

He came out trumps

She was shot down in flames

It gives me goose bumps

To try to say her name

And it's not what she claims

I didn't shoulder the blame

It was not me who pulled the trigger

It was not me who killed the dame

But the writing's on the wall

For to be seen by one and all

For they name and shame

Both him and her

When love's a losing game

summer's son

 And if you don't know now

Just where you have been

The summer like a fortune

Of another world unseen

Unlooked for in the pages

Of the glossy magazine

And if you don't know by now

Then you'll never know what I mean

The fortnum and Mason

The bear bite and bracing colours of 

A shimmering dancing Queen

Where strange lace hangs

In curls

From the chandelier girls

And it seems like a nightmare

Or dream

But I fight with the surls and the earth encrusted twirls

Of biscuits bitten and clean

Like a shark bite in the sand

Bleeding into who I am

In pieces at the swimming pool scene

All etcher-sketched man

Rubbed out who or what I can

Erase the memory from my mind

But the grain lies beneath

Those dim shadows trace

And outline of her in his plan

Who's plan? His or mine?

The mirror

The desert, the mirage shoe shine

Can kicked down the road a mile

Son will bring with it

The smiling crocodile

Art for art's sake?

 When does Art become

art

Is it the intention

When does gentrification become

Standard living

Does an artist move in because of an opening

Or because of an opportunity

To create

When it all is just gaps on a slate

Wipe the slate clean

Erase a high street scene

Fill it in with colours

But the buggers will keep

Burning and vandalizing

So what is going on

Who is expressing a need

Where are the youth

How Are they involved

And who sees a future for themselves

Here?

Shepton Silence

 The drains glimmer like celebrities

In the sodium light

And families watch them on TVs

On some slow Thursday nights

The tree leaves are turning yellow too

And a sickness hit me this week

I stayed in bed

As the world it sped

Past equinox and winter seas

Come along to Shepton

You're sure to suffer some shocks

Come along to Shepton

Where we've all been put in the stocks

They take vegetables

From recycling bins

And hurl them at you in the docks

And they judge you if you're an artist

And they judge you if you are not

Come to Shepton in the summer or 

While the Church bells toll

While the men drink cans on the gravestones

While the youths are playing vandals

And Van Gogh cut his ear off

I told you once why couldn't you tell

That these kind of landscapes may clear off

All other escapes from hell

I lay my cards on the table

Yet The dog ran off with my shelves

I built up reputation yet

I couldn't control all my selves

Don't personify all the animals

The Llamas on the hill are not Gods

Though they look like enlightened beings

Still you must look at the path they have trod

No I come back now to St Paul's Street

He of faith and of fire

Branding the love of a creator

Into the dogs collars of a choir

If I shove the book off the table

If I even try to call up a friend

The telephone exchange holds the cable

And we meet in the middle and end

If I yank a wire

will it hurt

All those vandals with candles

Down wells

If you live in the valley

Do you wish for

A higher home near the elms?

 Do your wings beat like headless geese

Following yet going in circles

The arctic is one I can think of, I guess

But not one I mean ever to go to

Underneath us are copper and fibres

Underneath us, are caves and dells

Beneath us the water is eating

Like worms in rotten apples

The rock is like their candy

In geological time it dissolves

Yet we like miners from the North

Blast holes along the stream bed

Waking from the long sleep

the dragon trapped there by the elves

And we burrow like scientologists

Into the heart of ourselves

But like dwarves our hearts are greedy

For the gold beneath the mountains

Like kings we can't rest in our sleep

Until our coffers overflow like fountains

Mountains

Mountains are like nerve bundles tied up in knots

Tense packed strings of wires fossilized, baked

Bended, frozen

But before these feeling times of tumultuous floods

And bruising, burning, tortuous

Moments had been forgotten

They survived as eviscerated rocky facades

Flakes of time millimetres thick only

Lain down like rings in a tree

Buzzing in the Nerve tree

In the roots of the bundle of the body of the land.

Red Burn

 Down from the dark, titanic mounds

Runs the Titans blood

Sometimes white as milk

Sometimes dark brown

Dirty blood from its deep arteries

Over salmon flesh, over cod yellow

Over the red Wrasse fish body

That heaves in the Glen

Whose gills breathe rain water

Whose lungs are damp caves

Whose Leviathan mass lies

In these watery graves

 

Whose back is a whale- une Roche Baleine

The whale bone ribs have been bent into waves

Whose oil and blubber are buried deep underground

And ambergris in its gut are the minerals yet unfound

They’ve been hunted by Geologists with their hammers like harpoons

Ready for the conquering like men who want rock from the moon

River

 The river babbles, shelves in clam-like semi-circles

These C letters it is spelling out

Constantly, clattering, changeling

Calling in chains

That run like white sausage strings

Over stone rails

Bulbous and fat as onions rolling

Down a cobbled hill

Chattering and chasing each other as children do

Racking and racing as horses out the stalls

All from the starting line over the head of Steall Falls

Dragon Fly

 Little beastie

Fearsome in is proud mantel

Scales of multi-colours

Wings of thinnest hair netting

Squashed so its guts spilled out

Trodden under foot of exploring geologists

In their rush did they find the rock was still there?

Did they try to squeeze Life out too from that?

Like blood from a stone

I don’t care

Skin and bone and hair that is where life is

We are like hurricane hunters chasing after

Something that is already dead

This is red, that is not

Time is not dead though

Time ages and we can only remind ourselves of by how much

Of by how unimportant our lives are by looking at Rock

Hard, never blinking, always staring no matter what

Rain gets in its eye, 

Like Heroes of the old world

They survive or don’t quite out last everything

Slowly decaying eroding

 

She held this fledgling in her hand

Like it was more precious than all

The Rocks of time and the world

As a giant holds a seed

Or a mother her child

That they know will grow into a flower

Then upon a rock she placed it

Ticking, for the seconds of its life

And let the fairy nymphs of the river

Have its body

Path building or making ends meet

Here we are all sat down

Amongst the turf that’s turning brown

By the stream which fecund flows

Over rocks in rows and rows

Here we stand beside each other

Sister to sister and brother to brother

Beside the mountain

Beneath the cloud

The echoing falls which talk so loud

A new line

 Monads, epistles, fevers, colds

Cool drooling mouths

Faces of fools opening, closing

Laughing and falling

Like all of human nature

Into the gene pools

The River out of Eden

The long charade

The pictures and shadow play

The aching archipelagos

Abandoned island rock

Out on a precipice

On its own a ticking clock

The sum of all our fears

 Will you create a lasting world?

Will you dry our tears

Will you ensure life for every boy or girl

That's the sum of all our fears

That's the sum of all our fears

Are your eyes seeing, what our eyes see

These visions of hell and heaven not free

Will you close the book and just let it be

While the water boils down in the sea

That's the sum of all our tears

That's the sum of all our tears

With your finger on the buttons of a warhead

Will you press the red button marked send

Will you let loose the dogs of war unlead

Like the fossil fuels that have come to an end

For that's the sum of all our fears

That's the sum of all our fears

There wasn't a dry eye in the house

When the film of Earth ran off its reel

The director was as quiet as a mouse

But you could hear every producer just squeal

Will you ask mother nature for a refund

Saying I thought we had a lifetime's guarantee

She said look son what you've made me do

It's because of you that I had to roam free

So I stare in the mirror like a mad man

And ask myself what am I going to do?

Just wait for death here in the badlands

Where the dry winds are blowing their due

Shine a light in from outside Lord

For this house is going into the shade

And we're sitting beneath a hanging sword

It's one that's only man-made

Let us be judged by a court of our peers

Let the hammer stroke beat on the gavel

For this is the sum of all our fears

For our fears yet have a long way to travel

The garden and the sea

 James Allen he lived down in Bowlish

And he planted near Darshill docks

Where the water flows down, from Shepton Town

And into the sewery locks

And he collected these Ukrainian snow drops

Beautiful flowers like pale faces at bus stops

These Caucuses brides who were carried on the tide

Of the Crimean War over fields of crops

Which soldier with his face buried in the mud

Looked up to see their beautiful faces

While cannon balls fell all around

Red blood pooled in all of the places

What hope was there in their black despair

To see these white flowers just growing there

Up from the soil, the good earth of their toil

Like a spring of hope in the valley of death's lair

And so back they came as bulbs in pockets

Who knows what horrors their porters had seen

Back to shine brightly like light bulbs in sockets

Though not yet invented the electrical gleam

And growing them hardy and growing them strong

James Allen adapted them and brought them along

In his greenhouse, his shed, his garden wall's shade

Damp like the valleys of the Crimean parade

And with powder white hands from the flour mill

Dust on his jacket, green fingers of skill

He picked and he reasoned, discerned and he judged

Used tricks of the season, through forest paths trudged

And he cared and he reared them in the English style

To be well adapted to winters in these British isles

Until these Ukrainian flowers learnt to love these lands

Brought here by soldiers, tended by gardener's loving hands

So look around you in February when the snowdrops bloom

And think of their journey from the hands of doom

And hold a light brightly, like their fair heads shine white

And look into the future with hope and fine fight