Dancing Queen

 Fire in the belly

That burns up to the heart

Fire in the gallery

That burns up all the art

Fire in the church

That burns the holy part

Fire in the street

Where student protests start

I can hear the fire bells 

ringing in the city tonight

Can you see them running

Yelling hell hath no fury

Like woman scorned might

For the flames are licking

like tongues of beating feet

Fire dancers roaming

Through the rainy streets

Kettle drummers drumming

Bo peep has lost her sheep

All the fine beachcombers

Are looking for ants teeth

Any anti rollers fighting with belief

Dance on you crazy dancers

Against dark days of grief

Dancing shall give you answers

And each time you move your feet

Dreams like prayers of prancers

Are sent up to God's relief

So dance into tomorrow

Let daylight take your sorrow

All hail Great Queen Swallow

Who returns to love

The black-hearted beast

The day was red as thunder

 The shadows left the ships abroad

And the days were red as thunder

The fellows they had not abhorred

All the waves that they went under

They went the way of those before

When the days were red as thunder

They stood down from the platform ground

Where the trees were split asunder

From the hills to the gills, of the mills

The days were red as thunder

The fish were swimming in the seas

As I swam down under

And the legs of all the bumble bees

Yes the days were red as thunder

And the fellowship of falling crowns

The days were red as thunder

And it was as the sun went down

For the day was red as thunder

I saw three ships come sailing in

And the days they spelt a blunder

Of all mistakes that I could make

The day was red as thunder

Black earth rotted in the ground

And the fires they caught lumber

And burned the whole big ship down

for the days were red as thunder

Oh can you see the silent tree

Singing in the meadow

Oh can you hear the birds sing clear

As the day it falls to shadows

I heard the lips of the ships

 As they kissed in wonder

Of the tips and the hips

And the day was red as thunder

The clouds they lay

Like leviathans at bay

In a heaven's harbour

I did say that all was grey

And the day was red as thunder

Shame it lay, upon me weighed

Like tonnes of golden plunder

I thought I stole a treasure trove

But the day was red as thunder

The final count was when the mount

Blew off the top the table

And all could say who did pay

When Cain killed Abel

I shook in there, and there he stood

And all the anger left me

And grief and tears and love and years

This was how bereft me

I could not say how to stay

But I knew the wonder

For you are true as skies are blue

Yet the day is red as thunder

Thor the post modern

 And we hit the posts in and we made them sing

And the rubber hammer was like a tuning fork thing

It tuned into all the Gods in the clouds above

And Thor came down to hit the posts in for us

With each thunderbolt

He electrified the fences

And then he swore at all the posts

But they never once took offences

Thor was a most willing volunteer that day

When the rain came down on the Strawberry Line

And we all began to pray

"Thor just get us out of here!"

"Thor just finish the job!"

And Thor came down and brought his tools

For Thor's that kind of God

I wish I'd known him better

Maybe asked for his autograph perhaps

But hey I'm just a man of letters

And he's a man of action 'n' thunderclaps

There stands another post driven into the ground

Hark you can hear the hammer ring another pound

I lost sight of him just around 4 o'clock in the afternoon

The rain was falling heavily, total eclipse of sun and moon

But then I saw him going down over the hill like the sun

He sure was a son of Shepton Mallet

And if he wasn't, then I'd be a son of a gun

Ecstatic Dance

 I met a dragon in the attic

It was dancing there

The DJ's tunes were ecstatic

And so she stomped her lair

And then she tuned to jungle magic

And wild became the air

The bears began their bearing

The horses began to bray

The dogs began their howling

And the beasts came out to play

I met a dragon in the attic

Dancing in her lair

The floorboards creaked

Like a boxer's canvas

As if with fighter's sweat they wreaked

And pounded feet 

and punched the air

Though not a single one once speaked

Some were slow reptilian, 

Others like burrowing moles

Some winged hawks dancing

Raising up their souls

And my sap was rising too

As the dead began to live

And the Zombies of the grave so tragic

New life the music began to give

Skeletons they swayed their hip bones

Whales wiggled from toes to thighs

Dinosaurs as old as chipped stones

Wailed out their prehistoric cries

And St Mark's Hall became a dancefloor

For the fireflies who burned and sparked more

In the scintillating darkness of closed eyes

Then like dazzled larks flew flashing up into new open skies

As the churches rang their bells out

For Easter Sunday they chimed

We too rose from our crypt tombs

Dancing dragons thrice crow-timed

And our spirits left our bodies

And our heads did belly dives

When the doors to hell flung open

And we were free to live our lives