My own worst enemy

 I fought him on the battleground

I found him out, I found him down

I brought him up, he beat me down

He's my own worst enemy

I bought him gold, but me he sold

Down the river bound in the hold

Like a product, a pound of flesh

I'm my own worst enemy

I fought him off, but he came back

All guns blazing, I should've guessed

He would attack

I locked him up under my bed

He's my own worst enemy

Some call him their shadow

They shadow box their soul

Some see him fly in through a window

Then break it when he loses all control

Sometimes I witness him in the mirror and

Ask myself, but I am unresolved

Whether to once and all do away

With my enemy, for without him

I would have little left at all

He kicks me out of bed in the morning

He slaps me in my face when I'm yawning

I try to drink a glass of water, he pours a bucket

of it over me

He's my own worst enemy

Orbit

 Living in the twilight zone

Nothing to me seems real

It's like my flashlight is on

But the wagon's lost its wheel

There's only so much psychic space that can 

be kept upon a hill

Eventually the bowl fills up

And then it overspills

And the witches they are circling

Upon their broom sticks in the night

Tying threads

And loosening them

As we're a sleeping tight

And we orbit each other 

like planets round a sun

Passing

sometimes like ships

Sometime together

Then alone as one

Each of us is a comet

An asteroid on its way

But the orbit round the solar field

Lasts 2 maybe 3 years they say

Then they come back into

our own gravitational  pull

And somehow we collide

inescapably like a fool

What is it we are all circling?

Is is some central sun?

Or is it a buried moon rock

Left over after each generation

Is it an empty sense of self?

Space is a vacuum they say

And nature abhors a vacuum

It must be filled in any way

Life is inevitable

It must carry on

Death just recycles

Energy back into the sun

The game

 Is it all just a game?

Just a game we are playing

Oh I wonder if you feel the same

It's just a game to me and you

Sometimes I feel shame

In the game we are playing

Sometimes I feel the pain

When I get hurt

Sometimes I take the blame

For the game we are playing

It's all just a game

Only a game, love's its name

You deal your hand

Queen of hearts

Am I Ace of spades?

I fall apart

Dig myself into an early grave

But I know my turn will come again

In the game we are playing

For love is like a year

Always turning, always changing

Sometimes love will grow

Like a garden for a showing

Sometimes love goes slow

Like an oak tree growing

But it's all just a game

Just a game oh love is growing

Like a willow it sometimes weeps

Like an aspen sometimes trembling

Sometimes love falls a sleep

On the wing a swallow resembling

But it turns, turns again

Like in the spring when they're returning

But it's all just a game

Yes love's a game we both are knowing

So do you or don't you feel the same

When I see in your eyes it's showing

River Brue

 Will you take me river Brue

To the other side 

Will you meet me at high tide

Where the Parrett meets

The Highbridge Clyce

Will you take me river Brue

Will you take me river Brue

I've been waiting on you

Will you take me by the Somerset rhynes

Will you take me river true

Will you take me river Brue

Oh I will meet you by the Brue

I will walk with you along her banks

From Bruton town 

To Meare's fine flanks

I'll walk with you my bride

Will you take me river Brue

Will you take me to the otherside

Will you meet me too, oh River Brue

Yes I'll meet you at low tide

Will you walk with me across the sands

Across the Berrow sands

Will you walk with me the paths of Brean 

And look out over the estuary

And look out over the estuary

Will you take me river Brue

Will you take me Parrett too

Will you take me out to Burnham-on-Sea

And will you meet me at Castle Cary

Will you take us to the other side

Will you take us across the estuary

Where's my Gondola gone?

 Where's my gondola gone

Where did my gondola go?

I parked it here yesterday

And today it's a no show

Where's my gondola gone

Where did my gondola go?

I'm just a regular punter

But don't call me an average Joe

Oh where's my Gondola gone

Where did my Gondola go?

Oh this is no fun

It's been stolen I should know

Oh where's my Gondola gone

Where did my Gondola go?

Oh was it Francisco

Or Tosca or Antonio?

Oh Where's my Gondola gone?

Oh where did my Gondola go?

Racing down the Venice canals

Is far from banal I know

But I need Venice Vice

Since my business partner's overthrow

Only 400 Gondoliers

One's a thief or syndicate Oh

Where's my Gondola gone?

Where did my Gondola go?

no it isn't nice, not like Venice

To be a Vice not a virtue

There should be a curfew

and no it can't be so

Where's my Gondola gone?

Where did my Gondola go?

Was it Don Juan, Carmen Electra

Was it Julius Caesar?

Christopher Columbus

Or Galileo?

Where's my gondola gone

Where did my Gondola go?

Birds

 An ordinary blokes poem of the summer

All the birds have buggered off

Oh what am I to do?

I used to feed them from my window

But now I haven't got a clue

I think they've found another sil

Or else another Gladys or Bill

Charley, Benny, Nigel or Gill

Bloody nosey parker I'd like to kill

If only I were a bird flyin' high

Oh how happy I would be

But you weren't Burt says Mary

You were born an ordinary baby

And now you're an ordinary bloke

Who's just wishing to be free

Listen says Susan to Harold

You should've been born a bird 

If you wanted to fly

Stop chasing rainbows off in the sky

There's people down on earth you know

Who care

Yeah says Harold, which ones, where?

They aren't worth the dirt

Under my fingernails

As I claw my way out the grave to

fresh air

Pier 47

 He didn't know where he was going

Off of pier forty seven

He didn't know if he was

Going to hell or to heaven

But you can't escape your fate

Says the man in the black cape

For sorcery and witchcraft 

Always serve their justice 

on time and never late

They told him he'd have to pay for

What he'd done

Stolen some money, even though he had none

Maybe he was tried for armed robbery

But he was holding a pipe not a smoking gun

He never pulled the trigger on no one

He was innocent of murder

But they sentenced him to life down under

As if he'd stolen thunder

From Zeus

They treated him like prometheus

Bound him in chains, 

that's the truth

Said let your daily life be a torment

For the storm was ever raging in the tea cup 

And you know he had yet to meet the sorcerer

Oh sorcerer you hold up

Your arms

And the lightning strikes your palms

And you can split tree trunks with your power

You can make the bravest men cower

And if you say the word they will die

When your justice falls from the sky

They say we live in a land of justice

And crime will have its just desserts

But what if you had stolen for survival

And you had to live every day 

with your face in the dirt

Wheels

 Street light passion after the rain

When the black water pools

on the road before rolling

Down the drain

All is a mystery and love

Is much the same

Just like an empty street

After the rain

Too many times have I walked out alone

Wishing to be somebody else

Someone warm at home

With a lover, under cover

Or up in the dome

Of stars that are occluded

By the clouds that roam

You were my night sky

You brightened up my day

Sun goddess, sun flower

Burning like hay

Consumed in conflagration

Of the universal wheel

All dharma cycles turning

As you turn your heel

Like a ballerina

Pirouette and gay

I wonder if you're happy

That things turned out

This way

Or are we all just on

different circles of

The turning wheel

Each holds a different angle 

on what we call real

the passion and the suffering

love and pain and strife

joy almost unending

All on the wheel of life

Sometimes the street is busy

Many wheels turning round

Sometimes there's only one

But at least your feet 

don't touch the ground

Wolfskin

 oh baby you've been wearing

That sheep's clothing too long

You oughta be knowing

That something is wrong

Come on and put on that wolfskin

Baby, you know it drives me crazy

And I know you're a wolf howling

All night long

Come on you've been prowling

Round my farm too long

Either you want to rob me

Or else you're gonna do me some harm

It isn't difficult to see you have your charms

But when you're wearing that wolfskin clothing

I get goose pimples up my arm

Oh wolfskin, awoo, howling wolf sin

When the wolf's in the camp with you ooh

You better find a new neighbour to prey on

Because I'm not playing that game

Of three card draw no more

You can go and howl round

somebody else's door

In your wolfskin

Two lovers kiss

 Lovers kiss on the street

On the wet street in the night

Two covers miss

their meeting

On the jet heat of the light

In the blowtorch of desire

The blue flame then the white

Burns, turns to a higher

pitch at blackest midnight

Two lovers kiss on the street

In the rain

Two lovers fighting

All the chaos of the reign

Of mad kings and cruel queens

And all who would inflict pain

on them

Yet

Two lovers kiss

True lovers kiss in the street

in the rain

Throw 'em on the fire

 All those thoughts of yesteryear

Throw 'em on the fire

pain and grief, love and tears

Throw 'em on the fire

Guests unbidden, unwelcome quest

Throw 'em on the fire

Burning honesty, earnest zest

Throw 'em on the fire

All the brands and marks of man

Throw 'em on the fire

Spinning jennies and caravans

Throw 'em on the fire

All the laughter lost and gone

Throw 'em on the fire

Nothing stays that hasn't come

Throw 'em on the fire

I love you, but your shoe

Is still higher than your desire

So take them off and throw 'em on

Yes, throw 'em on the fire

Withy wind

 Withy wind,

Slowly, 

withy wind 

softly

 tightening your grip

all the time

Got to break your

hand

before the death bind

While there's still time

Withy wind

Withy wind

I've been standing still

And haven't seen you

Grow up my legs, my wall

To my windowsill

It's getting like I can hardly see at all

Withy wind

I'm almost blind

Got to get you out of my mind

Break out the jungle of your vine

I cut you down, but you grow back up

I hope I've moved off your plot

 in time

Because either you kill me

Or we both unwind

Oh withy wind

Withy

wind

The breeze returns

 The breeze returns

On hot summer days

Of humid haze

Where cattle graze

And bulls laze

And

The breeze returns

Through trees, down streets

Brushes grasses and hay

Down lanes like tunnels

Over rivers running deep

next to fallow field

Along Corn crop alleyways

And over bald scalped hill tops

The breeze returns 

And we can breathe once again

Bagpipe band

 I'm going to learn the bagpipes

And start my own band

We'll march up and down the street

Making quite a stand

They will hear us coming

They sure won't understand

Why a bloody southerner

Would want to start a bagpipe band

Building bridges

Let's build bridges

Let's not divide

We have to get to the otherside

Make amends 

And be friends

For the road it can end

Too soon if we're not careful

So tend the edges

Trim the verge

Mind the ledges

Resist the urge

To destroy what we've create together

Forces of nature, or wild weather

can still smother

But mother, father, sister brother

All should gather, love one another

For bridges build new links and connections

Between communities under vivisection

And these are the ties that bind

So cross the bridges in your mind

Stairlift to heaven

 There's a Lady I know and she's very old

And she's buying a stairlift to heaven

When she gets to the store, she promised to call

So I can pick it up for her and it can get where it's going

Ooh and she's buying a stairlift to heaven

There's a sign on the wall, saying mind you don't fall

Because the footrest sometimes can be misleading

Oh, and it makes me wonder

Ooh and it makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I put on my vest

and my whisky bottle is still near the bottom

In my thoughts I have seen the wood for the trees

And I clearly know which stairlift I would choose 

Ooh and it makes me wonder

Ooh and it really makes me wonder

And it's whispered in the mobility store

That the stannah is the best one

And the others are shit, and break when you sit

And your family will laugh when you ride it

Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa

If there's a hustle and your budgie, don't sing out

Well then there's probably a gas leak

And if two mobility scooters crash on the street

Then they should've been looking where they were going

And it makes me wonder

ohh, whoa

If your head is humming, there's probably a bee in your bonnet

And you need to call a beekeeper

Dear landlady I can hear the wind blow through my window

And it's giving me a stiff neck on my stairlift

And as we wind up the spiral staircase

I'm impressed how they got the geometry right

For there's a lady that I know well, she's my landlady

And she thinks that she is snow white

Still she's looking in the store at the stairlifts

And she can't quite decide which to go for

And at last I say it doesn't matter anymore 

Because we can live in a bungalow or on the ground floor

But she's still buying a stairlift to heaven

Billie Piper Song

 Billie, Billie Piper, what made them want to try to snuff you out

Billie was a piper born in the Mendip hills

Born in the smoke stack hills

Where Breweries and carpenters drew up their bills

But God was his tobacco and he smoked his fill

He blow his smoke out of his ears and out his gills

Oh Billie, Billie piper the last pirate in the world

They never hung another, not for piracy killed

His life was a burning ember too hot to handle with skill

Oh Billie, Billie Piper should have his face on a dollar bill

Burn on up me lovers oh tear the whole world down

The world is cruel to those who've been robbed of their crown

He was once the supplier of clay pipes for the town

Worked from dawn till dusk making his clay pipes sound

No he never harmed a man, never did a wrong

Except for stealing to survive and making his life long

But for all the laws of England that were brought into play

He broke each one accordingly and they smashed his pipes of clay

Oh Billie, Billie Watts was a piper's son, he learnt his trade

Upon the hills and stuck onto his guns, 

forces of a tragic time, or an act of God?

Brought the smokes of nature to cloud over his life

We are each brought into this world a shining and entire

But we soon lose our gold, turn silver to bronze then expire

Nothing can prevent the waning of the years

But we can still keep on smoking and burning through our tears

Yes don't let the rain put out your fire, hold your pipes to the flame

Let the smoke rise higher, heaven is a long way off from our desire

We can only change what we can change, but all change sing the choir

I can hear the flag snapping on the mast

But is the flag of my country or the skull and crossbones that I hold fast

Sure we are just flesh and bones and not a nationality

To keep body and soul together holds a penalty

Have you ever heard of Billy Watts, He was a piper's son

Sure that Billy had some guts to do what he had done

They put him on a boat to Australia for stealing from someone

But Billy Watts was a fighter who kept fighting til he was gone

Oh Billy, Billie Watts look what you've done

Just stole two pigeons and some cloth, they found you the guilty one

Nothing much to speak of, but back then the love was none

He was tried and convicted and soon evicted to the land of the rising sun

Nobody saw him coming but they knew him by reputation

In a land where the criminals were charged with building a nation

Nobody asked him, they just made him work and toil

To bring in his daily bread he had to till the soil

But that wasn't work for a piper, nor one who could use his hands

And craft things finer than a vintage bottle of wine

He upped and he left that farm on Vandeimansland 

And he brewed bootleg liquor to sell on down the line

Oh Billie, Billie the piper, what made them punish you

You only did what you had to, did what you had to do

But they caught up with you, you gave them the smoke signal

But they never put out your pipe

Billie Watts- the last pirate

Billie, Billie Watts

The last Pirate of the time

In an age of floating clocks

Where water turned into Wine

He was sent on transport docks

For committing a petty crime

Well Billie, Billie Watts

Can you please tell me the time?

It's a quarter to four in the morning

I was born tired and yawning

My mother put on the fire in the hearth

There was warmth and there was mirth

At the hour of my birth

But the fire cried out the last laugh was mine

Oh Billie, Billie Watts will you please tell me the time?

For your story is a long one and we must know of your crime

Well my mother was a poor one and she soon died in time

I became an Orphan child oh but the fire blew wild

Still they gave me to the church in the village of my Birth

And Christ he saved my life on the path where lives cross

I was given to my new father Edward Watts pipe maker

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, will you please tell us the time?

How came you to be lost to this village of thine?

It was as the century turned that I began to learn

My trade that would set me up for my life

I learnt to make clay pipes and carved them with a knife

And the villagers smoked my pipes from all around

Oh Billie, Billie Watts will you please tell us the time?

How came you to be convicted of such a crime?

It is the summer of 1815 and the sky turned dark and grey

From volcanic ash by an eruption in Indonesia they say

Nobody bought my pipes and my masters were not paid

So I was laid off work and in that poor state I stayed

The weathers they were cruel it was cold and snow ruled

In Oakhill not a scrap of food could be spared

I had to beg and borrow and when that failed I could not swallow

And to feed my hunger I stole so I wouldn't starve

Oh Billie, Billie Watts will you tell us what time it is

Is it time for you to be on your way?

Yes I was but a lad of eighteen when the law caught up with me

But I was old enough to know the score

They tried me in the docks and and instead of in the stocks

I was put on a boat bound for Australia

For the next six years, I worked with sweat and tears

And tried to build a life in Van Diemen's land

Life there was hard, but still, I could rely on my skill

That I had learnt back in my home village of Oakhill

Oh Billie, Billie Watts can you tells us what time you've got?

How you lived and you made a living down under?

I lived in this harsh land of devils and sea and sand

But still turned my hand to thieving

Something would turn my head though I'd known I was misled

I did the crime though still believing

I was lashed 200 times for my various crimes

And had so many scars I stopped counting

Oh Billie Billie Watts will you tell us what time you've got

For our clocks have all stopped at the feeling

It is 1821 and my new life had begun, When I married my Mrs Esther Wright

She was a convict just like me, and in our hearts we both were free

From the laws that robbed us of our homelands

I sold bootleg liquor and my boots were quicker, 

Than the lawmen who chased me up and down the country

But they finally caught up with me Even though I was free

And they put me back into a prison of their making

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, can you tell us what time you've got

For your time is running out and you must get going

It is 1829 and they've convicted me of another crime

This time a death sentence was pronounced upon me

So they put me on a government ship, and it set off on its trip

All the way across the seas to Cypress

But we were convicts born free and so we had to mutiny 

And fought for control of the ship and from our penalty

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, can you tell us what time you've got

For your crime of stealing two pigeons and a piece of cloth

Aboard we fought our captors, overwhelmed their capture

And in my Christian heart I could not harm them

For living is a trial and we must not live in denial

Of our true natures of brotherhood to all men

Instead we set them free on an island in the sea

And we set off on our pirate life to New Zealand

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, can you tell us what time you've got

And how you turned the other cheek and lived as a freeman

We journeyed round the South Sea to China, Tonga and Japan 

And lived our merry lives as a pirate and a freeman

Smoked many pipes, read my bible every night

And kept in my heart my homeland

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, can you tell us what time you've got

And how you made it back to your homeland

After such an exciting life, I missed my country's life

And I wanted no more the sea's adventure

So we returned to London docks and in the Thames were put in stocks

And I was tried for piracy like a traitor

But I never harmed my jailors and nor to my faith was a betrayer

But believing in doing unto others what you would have done unto you

Yet the law of England is final and I was executed from a high nail

They hung my body from London bridge as a pirate

In the city of the big smoke, I was a pipe smoking bloke

Who sang his last tune as the last pirate to swing

Oh Billie, Billie Watts now we know what time you've got

You've run out out and now your bell has tolled

Yours is a tragic story, but still one of hope and glory

And life of a strong heart and spirit never sold

Billie Watts

Billie piped up and said

What's all this, this ain't right

I shan't kill my captors

 Willie Watts, Willie Watts

What a guy was Willie Watts!

Where's Watts gone for how long

I can't see him in Oakhill town

Willie Watts was a pipe maker

Blowing smoke

Into the air

But then that big old chimney

blew out his career

Willie turned to thieving

And stole though still believing

That he must survive

To keep on tryin' to follow the Lord's ear

Oh Willie Watts was put upon

A ship bound for Australia

He became Willie the Wizard of Oz

But that yellow bring road

Held many a twist and turn 

Leaving Halvis Grove /Hovis loaves

 Leaving Halvis Grove

Crossed the river Mersey

On the M56 road

Waved goodbye to Altrincham

So long Ryebank road

Onwards I go to Wilmslow

Following where the river flows

Down past Hoo Green

 Lifted my leg in Peover

At Knutsford I burst a tyre

Repaired it at Congleton

Where I danced the conga with a charleton

And at Newchapel sang in a choir 

Said all I had to say in Talke Talke pits

Ended up on the Keele road

Near the world of Wedgwood

It was a long way from there

But I finally made it home

Getting stuck in traffic queues beside the Avon

Leaving Halvis Grove

The house of warmth and love

Where a woman knows

And a man ungrows

In the garden

All they've been thinking of

Leaving Halvis Grove

It's another home from home

Where I can find my daily bread

Like in Hovis Loaves

Like in oaken groves

Down cattle droves

Where rows and rows

Of the apple tree grows

And bulls and bullocks frolicked in meadows

Long, long ago

Across the river Mersey