Missing in action

 I tried to make it as a lover

But all I became was a thief

It was like I volunteered for a war

But all I got was a peace

Can you show me the door

Or shall I take my own leave

I'm missing in action

I'm not a verb at all

Unless it's a lack of belief

The shadows fall on the wall

And I see your face in relief

It's like the sun cut its stall

Went off to join the police

For they are criminals all

These lovers who softly walk the streets

Am I the mad one alone

While they're the living beast?

I can't show you my scrawl

It would make any sense

I tried to draw them all

But I drew an offense

Because at the society ball

the crystal chandelier broke

And we're all in pieces on the floor

Where the bishop once spoke

I moved a king but he thought it a joke

I told a queen a sad tale and she began to choke

On the vodka martini that a rook left in her yoke

Well we all are the cattle

rising in the midnight smoke

A man Rhyming with Rev

 Oh he's a singing bar of chocolate

Oh he's a greasy spoon

He thinks that he's the fulcrum

Around which turns the room

And yes he's a crooner

You know he sometimes needs a tune

But you can't tell him sooner

Because his heads the size of a balloon

Yes his name rhymes with rev

And he's turning a screw

Mind out for your head

He'll try and knife you

He's all daggers and sycophantic

Grins at the women

He'll suck all their pearls

Off their necks as their swimming

There blows the blubber

He's a floating in the ocean

He thinks he's so musical

But he's devoid of emotion

He's just rude, yes he wishes he was jude

But he's obscure as his food

Wilderness part deux

 I'm watching Simon Reeves in the Congo jungle he's looking at Bonobos 

I'm happy to see them.

The jungle looks uncomfortable with biting insects

and swamps

Someone, a friend from Hungary

Said she'd gone to live in a rainforest

I volunteered today on a disused railway track near Shepton Mallet

It was a bit of a wilderness

Oak trees growing

Just nice to look at the trees with moss on them

We put up a dog fence to stop them running into the private forest

Which you can look at but not touch

I wonder if we create these private wildernesses

Here, where you need to have money to own or experience 

wilderness

For myself to have the privilege of experiencing it

I must volunteer for free

To build a road essentially for people to pass through the wilderness

Probably because we need to walk in nature

More than anything else

We need to do it

But essentially Wilderness in this country is privately owned

I think that essentially I'm part of a middle class attempt

To declassify the countryside

But really it is a reclamation

of an industrial road

It had a societal or manufactural function

It also had a commuter and tourist function

It brought communities together.

Whether there was any true wilderness there,

I don't know

It was probably all farmland for hundreds of years

what makes a wilderness?

That it has never been in contact with humans

Because certain tribes have contact with deep jungle territories

Therefore it is not wilderness

However, that it is not in contact with the wider world

Perhaps is more the point 

She's gone

 She's gone

The day is done

Who won?

Who lost?

 I've forgot

she's a ghost

It's just

I wish

I'd known

And was free from

repentance

Or guilt

She's gone

There's nothing more to lose

I saw a cloud

Pass by

And a trail in the sky

Say

I could choose

But it's not me

It's not my mind

It's my heart

And there's nothing

but the blues

She's gone

Now I have to 

turn her

loose

Marguerite

 Marguerite your light is so unique

You're like a beacon shining on mountain peak

Marguerite when I'm in darkness

Then it's your light I seek

Oh thank you from the bottom of my heart

Marguerite

I once was walking down a road

I didn't know my beginning

I didn't know where it goed

But I fell into the wayside

Like many a fellow before 

But you always pulled me up

And set me in good store

So thank you

Wilderness 2

 Trying to write about wilderness is like trying to look at your backside in a mirror

You know it is there somewhere, but you just can't seem to see it.

I think wilderness exists in the mind

It is the other

Sometimes the strangers of a town are the wilderness

Sometimes the people you know in a town

Are a wilderness too

But often we escape into nature to get away from society

A forest walk or along a hill top can be freeing

It's not wilderness exactly just away.

Perhaps true wilderness is being separated from civilization

And having only nature

I've felt very free walking in the Blue mountains on my own with just a bottle of water in my rucksack

I met another hiker some hours later with his backpack full of water and he thought I was mad to be walking with so little water.

I suppose if I had a good knee I would be doing that again,

But I've broken it and now the idea of being away and relying on

my body to run or walk enough without extreme arthritic pain

means I don't want to consider it

garden of Eden

 Wilderness in the garden

Taming the garden of Eden

The garden is really the closest thing most of us get to the wilderness

The fact is if left unattended the weeds grow over us and we have to fight to survive

So even outside our front door we have wilderness

We really, when we are older or frail, rely on others to fight off the wilderness.

There is an interesting paradox here, in that peace of mind can come from order

And yet to throw yourself into the wilderness of forest or jungle with near abandon is also

freedom and freeing.

Though of course you need to learn or know how to survive. And it is only human to try to bring order out of chaos. Even these tribes in the Amazon are sweeping up and keeping their homesteads clean and tidy and there is order in the community. To think otherwise is delusional and I'd say too much the basis of green or hippy thought. You cannot function as a society on such an individualistic basis in my opinion. 

You go into the wilderness to escape people and find people living there. They live in more harmony with nature though. I only want to live and be around real nature not just agricultural lands but Scotland and mountains. And forests. 

So dark

 Am This road ain't no E7  good

Am This road leads to E7 doom

Am So dark, G7 so dark, C so dark

Get off it while you still can

We don't need to follow the caravan

It's so dark, so dark, so dark

This road leads nowhere

This road leads to despair

So dark, so dark, so dark

Well I never knew your name

And you never needed mine

And if someone is to blame

Blame it on my heart

It's so dark, so dark, so dark

Well if you want to follow the light

Well you should learn to fight

But just keep your dreams in sight

while it's so dark, so dark, so dark

Bat my cricket

 Will you cricket my bat

Or bat my cricket

If you pull down the battens

Or mount upon the cricks

When the clouds turn to patterns

When the dusk turns to pitch

have you ate a bat, have you bit an itch

Have you blacked your cat

With the paint of a pinch

Or salt and peppered the wicket

Made all the cricketers sneeze

And fall over their white picket fences

Down upon their knees

Is the umpire of empires

Finally a sleep on the breeze

Because the silly mid is off

On his

Holidays in the land of sunny seas

Willow-the-kiss or the English cricket bat love affair

 I kissed an English cricket

Oh it had such long legs

It folded them beneath itself

And sat up straight to beg

Leg before wicket said the umpire

Not so said I 

I couldn't get my leg over

And the over just flew right by

I tried to bat it away

But it came back all hammer and tongs

Trying to play its grass fiddle play

It was all violins and Ned Sheeran songs

But at least I wasn't caught out

Playing away from home

Yes I kissed an English cricket

In the grounds of Frome

You see, it said, I've got my ears to the ground

That's how it reeled me in

It said I think we're on the same frequency Pip-squeak 

and Hey I've heard you sing

I said, how come? What you just hang about

Late at night waiting for your prey like some kind of freak?

No, I said, you give yourself away 

everytime that you speak

Well cricket bat, cricket bat riddle me this

Why did the cricket play its fiddle then kiss?

The bat was swung both ways in the sky

Before the ball had dropped while we were young and high

But what goes up must come down

And now I see batman that I've stolen your crown

I'm a fielder

I'm in the long grass

I'm mixing up my metaphors 

Gone for a duck not a pass

It's the beautiful

No, it's a game of two halves

No, it's just long and drawn out

With boredom and laughs

And many beers are consumed

And it's easy to miss

When a bat and a cricket 

at dusk share kiss

Shepton's Social classes

 Ah they'd like to think they're all equal

With their community hall

That their musical apparatus

Is nothing but a money making machine

Go then to their counter and pay your silver dime

Thirty pieces ought to do it

But mind they better shine

For the devil's in the detail

Or he's hidden in plain sight

It's about the traps and pitfalls

That's how he leads you into plight

You think that you have joined them

Their mysterious homogenous set

Like a gel of becoming

The eager flesh eating ambitious pet

Has started to devour them

In fact it's eating them alive

I went to see them becoming

But they turned into a beehive

There are the tulips of the field

The well healed crew

Who have grown out of universities

designed to build the few

Who will always grab the top jobs

Who will always succeed

Perhaps because they are obsessed

With the professions they need

To give them some kind of haven

A home to call a nest

Or a chance to claw at Eden

And find indoors their rest

I should have known the doctors

In the houses by the poor

Oh who could play at good neighbours

When the animals are at the door

And then those transient musicians

Whose egos are their fuel

Or their sheep of instrumentalists

Who follow in true tormentalist 

school

Then there are solicitors, dedicated

And disciplined who rove around the town

In range rovers with their friends

The accountants on their wings' smiling crown

Happy to be deputized by the king

of the scene or queen

For they hold the keys to the bank vaults

And will only open them when they mean

Throwing down the gauntlet

The glove makers and drapers

Go around as carpetbaggers

For the local general elections

Campaigning also are the merchants

And investors in foreign steel

Who always have a plan

No matter how generous they feel

Because you know their philanthropic

Tendencies do mask

The hidden skill and dark intentions

About which we're all too afraid to ask

So accept their charity we do

And volunteer our time

In thought that free social credit

Is not a form of nepotistic crime

And yet it greases the wheels

Of this strange little town

That is simply a microcosm of 

Any city in England

With less interference or notice

From the higher governmental climbs

It's that these enterprising fellows

See some rich vein of self-making advantage

They they can tap into

So they leave the hurly burly of the city

And retreat into a safer queue

Where it won't take so long

To reach their life goals

And why deny them the attainment of pleasure

Even if it costs them their souls

But many go to church to absolve themselves

 of their crimes

For this has already been said before

It was best of times, it was the worst of times

So dig out your suitcases and threaten to leave it all

But you turn your head and see instead

That Rome still has time to rise and fall

So you may as well stick around

Long enough to see what happens

And what that will be

I can hardly see

For the log is still jammed in the cabins

We had a field day

Listen to the birds she'd say
I'm listening, I'm here I'm very much ok
In your loving arms
The touch of your lips
Makes me feel good
Up from my toes to my hips

In this world of over confidence
Arrogance and harm
She walks gently like a healing balm

She skips like a child
She sips at flowers
She let's me sleep for hours
Until I forget I'm in the wild

In a field, just a field
With Oak trees
A little wood stretching along the lower perimeter
The best place in the world for me

The only place her beautiful face
Can be forever
Like an  imprint of our bodies
That we left in the grass
When we leave

Good bye to that

I have been missing you
In the words of those unknown
I had thought our time was done
But you go and dig up a bone
It's ancient history
The thought is lost and gone
Well almost until archaeology
Of un-reason
Has brought it out in the light of the sun

I had thought I had lost
The last flames of the fire
The embers of a ghost of heat
Had burnt down in my desire
More than this
I'd said good bye
To all we'd known or done
It's just you had to dig up the bones
Again
And bring them out in the sun

Good bye my friend
Of those times gone
I can yearn dryly
Like one burnt in the sun
I can reach wildly
Or with dwindling desire
To touch the flame of our love
With the touch paper
catching fire

Fox trot

 The fox shot out of the entrance

And he sprang across the road

His wily wild head, lolling tonge hanging red

And a grin of his face saying overload

He grinned the laughing grin of a joker,

But crazy intelligence of a poker

Player from the barn, who takes chickens

By the yarn, tells of the wild dreams

Of a yoker

He cuts clean like a suit

Fires his brazen canons in salute

To the Sassy salty sea

Wearing orange sash of the bear

God-like as hesperides or Loki

A fallen angel star, picked up in a bar

Propped up by a whisky sour

The head of folded hair

The face of livid care

The wild wily fox crossed over

From SARS to Mars

 From SARS to Mars

So they came from out the rover

And in a great distress

The masters of their destiny

Or the Mistresses of distress

They saw and oh how phoney Phoebe

Lied in her nocturnal caress

Combing the skies like a pair of skis

Fitted for lifelessness

But come on home on your ponies

Oh you boys of the Wild West

For Mars is a showroom of the homies

And the people

Under some duress

They dress their Dunes in frills

And knickerbocker glories

Rock the Mars bar tune

And Roll in the Red sea stories

The man in the mask

The masks and the gloves

I needed ask, who it is she loves

And who wears the make up

and who wears the mask

Well the straw dogs bale

In the sun so pale

And there is a lipstick stain

On your mask

Who have you been kissing my love?

With your face so covered and blue

Whose clinically tested face accessory

Has been making contact with you?

Stay your distance

Don't over step the mark

Its full of hits and misses

But you've seen kisses in the dark

Now who, yes who

In the near or far

Do you love

The man in the mask?

And they said it's you

He's been talking to

They say that rumour has it

Well rumour owns the house on the hill

And rumour lives in your father's mansion

But rumour doesn't know well

Where your love does dwell

No, rumour only follows the current fashion

And he says fairwell, to the dale and the fell

And the man behind the mask

No he doesn't know well

Just who you do love

And rumour is afraid to ask

So suspicion does swell

In the circles they can't tell

Just who is the man in the mask

I will be writing this down

Some years from now

And the case of murder she wrote

Because its clear to see

When she is wild and free

Who the muses take to task

But only God knows

Which way the wind blows

And who is the man in the mask

The Brown Water Brook – Of a December train journey from Bristol to Aberystwyth

 Brown water in the brown brook

Flowing fast like a runaway crook

Swallowing hollows

Peaking on the tree lines

Of Alder, Ash and Willows

Grasses systemic in fields

Like primitive rice

Turning to boggy marsh land

And edges of birch bark

Damp and dark

With wet cloud covering everything

Up to the hill tops

Hedges black and dark,

Border fields there,

Crows in a pair

Tip toe and muzzle the earth with their beaks

Nowhere near the brown brook with the white crest peaks

Then the brook washes down again

And is seen from the train

Like a mane

Of a wild horse

Flowing down the mountain

Where Christmas tree shaped skeletons of birch fill a valley

Like forgotten Christmases past and lost to memory

Only sighted from a journey, East to West

To the Saturday noon, the moon past it’s best

And Ivied trees slender,

Others covered in moss

The dead brown of leaves

Lends a feeling strong with loss

And shadow to a crumpled land

By the wind and weather

Yet I am a changed man

Like the wind carrying a feather

It is a hope for the land

As back to view comes the brook singing

As it tributaries a larger river

As I see sheep on the hill side running

Scared from the train

The brown river running fast

With the falling rains

It is yellowy cream of churned butter,

The surface scum

That tumbles and turns

In troughs and gushes then

Like spreading fingers departs

And then it leaves the train’s route in yarn spools

To only standing water in pools

And Black slate walls

Damp

Then reeds and long grasses,

In the marshes by Macunthlyth

And Dovey Junction, fen land high

Firs in mist and fog and the sense of height

Mountain tops beyond sight

Hidden behind a curtain, a veil of white cloud

Then flat ground, flat as a fen

As the lay of an ocean bed

The wide flat river passes

Like a Mississippi over the plain

A solitary chapel on a promontory

Of a little headland into the flood bed

That is green with grass but not lush

Brown as well

And sculpted up into gentler hills

The brows of tarmac roads

And grey/white stone built houses

Start to populate and change the landscape

Into modern houses

Community greens and football grounds

Then the brown babbling brook appears again

And look as it follows the train

Down to the sea

Criss-crossing under bridges from

The crow’s path

Turning the Ystwyth

Into Aberystwyth

Justice

Justice is like a flame
Burning in dark night
My enemies weigh-laid
But I find might is right
What can be the fate
Of one whose lot is plight
The thorn that grows upon the tree
Bleeds dark red on white
And from the sceptred isle
To the monarchy of hate
I row my river boat
Down lanes to pearly gate
She dons her crown
I take it, not a minute too late
For the Queen does frown
At the merriment of state

A follower of the king
Came by his banquet table
To present to him the crown
For to prove that he was able
Get up you lowly dog he says
Go fetch me a pitcher of wine
But after he brought it to the man-god
For his adventure did he pine

My liege I am an adventurer
My turkey bruises well
When left to ruts and ditches
The snakes belly does swell
He must take on witches
Fight dragons and ogres as well
Or else his eternal itches
Will cause him infernal hell

Indeed young man then go on
Your mortal steaming quest
Just bring back my pearly daughter
Whose been captured by the Vest
Oh my pearl cried the Queen
And fell into a quivering dream
She sits in the underworld
Ruled by the dark prince Bream

Bream oh bream
His tokens have a wall upon my body
His fishy scales
Like mighty whales
Send shivers down my spine
He has no sense of time
And even his living is a crime
For none too soon
Shall I swoon under his pescalian

prime

Sunset on Somerset

 It was in the year 1819

The darkest year that had ever been

Billie Watts was a pauper scrounging for scraps

But the law was a torture and he took the raps

No one would buy his nice clay pipes

And the crops all died and he reverted to type

They never saw him for the good man he could be

Oh but if they did would they ever have stopped him being free

Well they're doing the same thing now to you and me

the establishment would like to keep us under lock and key

Than allow a free spirit to live in the air

Oh yes he stole a pigeon, they didn't care

He stole a piece of muslin, they barely lifted a hair

And then they saw him as a troublemaker

And transported him down there

He stole a pigeon, and they threw him in prison

Down in a cell he stewed

Down there to Tasmania and Van Diemen's land

Where only the hardest men and women can stand

And if you weren't hard before they made you that way

Because you had to survive or dig your own grave

Oh can you see over the prison walls?

You're building a new country but a prison for your souls

And if you could own a single plot of what you bring under control

Well could you see the sunset before the darkness falls

Lords and ladies of land

 When you pass

As sure you must

Will I look on your grave

And see that you've survived upon

The dust your parents saved

I hold all you land lords and ladies

To be poisonous viles lent

And spilt your toxic blood

Upon the land that I have rent

I owe you nothing but my soul

My liberty's at ease

I'll grate you down the drains

With gust of the wind

Or gentle breeze

You are nothing more to me

Than brown and fallen leaves

From the branches

Of your family

Who happened to love thee

I shall not stand on circumstance

Nor with pomp

bow nor serve

My dignity does not allow

Me to reward

What was never earned

So go your way

And please depart

From the path that 

I call mine

For nothings left

But what I deserve

Since I must walk

My own line

Manikin's kin

 If you say yes, I'll have to go

But I'm not a manikin

Only for show

I'm a real man

You need to know

But if you say can

Then I must go

Down the shoot, one more time

Bring a bottle

Of red wine

Because you know it's in my mind

This psychic buzzard keeps

Swooping by

I think it's an augur

But that's in spring

And we met in August

Where do we begin?

Now that it's ended I need to know

Should I stay for the fashion show

French exchange

 Now I don't mean you're delusional

It's that you're diluvial 

In a manner quite effluvial of

Certain schizoid type

For your French exchange

When young, hung

Like a ripe

Plum around the gum

Of the girl on

The bike

Who you saw but did not like

Only the smell and the hum

Of Paris or a bum

Or a scent of the drum

When the sun beat its thumb

On the edge of your skull

In the bus where the droll

Hypocrites type

Their soul out

And write

I think you're delusional

Why'd you have to look like that?

 Yes I saw you have some new shoes

Well are they blues shoes or are they black?

Because one of them suits you

And the other one makes you look 

Like a cat

Well yes, nice to see you too

How do you like my new hat?

Well it could be from the top draw for sure

Or he fetched it from the back (of the store)

Well anyway, how do you do?

Oh, Why'd you have to look like that?

Yes it makes me feel so rich and then so poor

When I see you walking out of his front door

Because I know you're with him for sure

Or oh is it for the long haul? Baby tell me more

Why'd you have to look like that?

I could move to the other side of town

And you'd never see me kicking around

With a frown underneath my new hat in brown

And this top hat would have it's bottom turned down

Oh why'd you have to look like that?

Oh we fell out and he fell in

And I don't doubt that he'd like to win

But we've got about you've put me in a spin

Oh why'd have to look like that to begin

With or without, I need you like gin

I want to bake you like bread

In my heart's oven even

Because you've got dough eyes

That make me knead to grin

Oh Why'd you have to look like that?

Oh why'd you have to look like that?

Corncrake

 The lowland scrub where the corncrake croak

Like a buzz on a cockroach's throat

Like a disco, a turn up to vote

In the booths of policemen

When they ring the yard on the phone

Oh the lowland reeds and the heathery belt

Where the corncrake hides in his feathery pelt

And the cornflakes fly and the cocoa pops melt

To the rice crispy cries of snap crackle and Celt

Oh lay myself down for to hear the Corncrake

On the isle of Canna where the canned worms wake

And they opened and wriggled around on the make

For the blue sea glistened but I never heard the Corncrake

Modern Man

 Modern man

He dances

Modern man in trousers

Could lose some weight

Gain in love not hate

Yes, he's a modern man

He's out there on the town

Living life as best he can

Yes, he's a modern man

He'd shoot you down

If he liked it

But he'd rather

Dance with the bouncers

Yes, he's the modern man

Needs a beer

In his stomach

To keep

The butterflies

Turning into caterpillars

And then a Chrysalis 

Yes, he's a modern man

She's got a new friend

 She's got a new friend

I don't doubt it

She's got a new friend

I want to shout it

She's got a new friend

And it don't mean much to me

I wish I could win

Her in the end

But I know that now

I'm just her old friend

Yes she's moved on

Like a ship in the sea

And I'm out here on my island

well I'm not complaining

And I'm not drowning

I'm just sorry to see

Her ship leaving me

 She's got a new friend

I don't doubt it

She's got a new friend

I want to shout it

She's got a new friend

And it don't mean much to me

You're not my type

 

E You're not my type G-E

Am I call it hype A G

Dm7 A little Am7 drunken Dsus4 D Tyke

Am Kind of tripe G-A

E You're not my type G

 

E I like it black

Am I like it white

E You're not my type G

 

F You think you're Zebra

C I don't like stripes

E You're not my type G

 

You know a leopard

Can't change his spots

Well this old beggar 

looks strange not hot

You're not my type

 

I like to write

I don't mean left wing

I don't mean right

E You're not my type G

 

I just think you should choose

To get on your bike

You're not my type

 

I wouldn't ride you

It's not my like

So just walk in my shoes

You're not my type

gardening lines 2

 Can you disencumber your cucumber?

Or disentangle your runner beans?

Or extricate your carrots

from their unpleasant scene

Disencucumber me means

Just removing my cucumber from your vines

For I got it stuck there when I crossed some lines

Forgive me, I didn't realize I confused your bed with mine

At least we can say the grapes had a good crop

And we did enjoy the wine

I shouldn't think to tangle up

Again in your runner beans

But they do keep running on and on

If you know what I mean?

I should like to disembarrass myself

from your brussel sprouts

But they keep looking at me

And beyond that I have no doubt

I could never leave the allotment

That lies down next to thine

But I'll probably

Be put right myself

Because I seemed to have crossed the line

Owen Parfitt of Shepton Mallet

 Owen where you going to?

Owen, Owen where you going?

Owen, Owen where you know it's snowing too

Oh and the wind is blowing strong

Owen where you going to?

For it's here you do belong

Oh Owen where you going to?

You've been gone so long

I wish that I was knowing too

Where it is you've gone

I haven't seen you in many moons

And the blue one's coming on

I need you in my life Owen

I need you to be strong

So Owen where you going to?

Oh Owen now where you gone?

Owen where you going to

And Owen where you gone?

You had a great adventure didn't you

When you were so young

Many battles you fought in

And many women's hearts you won

Now Owen where you going to

Oh Owen where you gone?

Your body it is broken too

I can't believe it's gone

The loving and the fighting

In the corners have undone

All that mother gave you

That nature that stood strong

Oh Owen where you going to?

Owen where you gone?

Listen to the heart beat of the Sheepey call

Listen to the fast feet run along the prison wall

The padding of the white sheep

Across the green grass fall

Owen why'd you fall asleep

Before you could count 'em all?

Sometimes in my dreams of you

You return back home

But in them you're a younger man

Without a broken bone

If I could mend your broken heart

I'd fix it in a blink

Bring back the twinkle in your eye

That shone when you'd wink

But I am no magician still

I'm just a woman in a window sill

Asking Owen where you going

Owen what was your will?

Gardening tips number five

 Give a man a hoe

An his weeds won't grow

Give a man the heave-ho

And either the weed is so big that

He needs help pulling it out

Or you are firing him

Little Prick of Love

 

C G F

C G F

Am C G F

C G F                              

Oh C little prick of F love I can feel C yer

Oh C little prick of F love nice to meet C yer

I've Em got a Am little prick of love And it's trying to F greet yer G

                                                    

Oh Am you don't like G injections F And you're afraid of blood

Well C this is divine G intervention C My little prick of love

 

It'll C only hurt a F little C And yes it will bleed                                 

Em But just like a Am needle F It is going to G succeed      

At Am combating G your love sickness F You know you suffer a disease

Dm You can't love C another F Without starting to seize

F   Em-F                         

So C let me F give you  C My little injection

I'm Em just like Am a doctor F You need G examination                                          

Am And it could add C years to your life  F Or it could set you free

Dm My little prick C of love will F look after you, you’ll see

C   G F

C G F

Am C G F

C G F                             

If C I were a F snail  It would be C minute

So Em just think you're lucky AM And don't F get cute G                   

If Am you want to get C ahead You know you have to F push                           

Dm And my little prick of C love Is like a F thorn on a sloe bush                                               

Am Sometimes the sloe gin G comes so thick it's a sin  

Dm Sometimes the bush is F so hard to get in                                              

Am But with a little back and forth F A little pull and shove                   

G That's how you'll feel my F Little prick of love

G  F G F                         

C Oh little prick of F love I can feel C yer

Oh little prick of F love Now we’re togeth G er                                            

Am We’ve got a little prick of C love And it's now and forev F er        

Our Am little prick of G love ties us togeth F er

C G F

Am  G F

Am C G F

Am C G F

The Ballad of Pirate William Watts

 

I was born C in the town Shepton Mallet

Appren F tice to a pipe maker G man

In C Oakhill where I found my Am vocation

I Dm wandered G around that sweet C town

 

Then a C sudden disaster hit the nation

The sun F was hidden by G a hand

I C lost my job and turned to (Am) stealin

Trans(Dm) ported to (G) Van Diemen’s (C)land

 

Chorus

Caged (Am) canaries sing of freedom

A bird in the (Dm)  bush is worth two in the (G) hand

On a (Am) ship we were (F) condemned men

(C)  Down in Van(G)  Diemen’s (C) land

 

In that (C) hell hole I found Ester

Trans(F) ported for ten years(G) long

For(C) stealin a loaf for her (Am)family

On (Dm) prison island (G) we got(C) along

 

(C) Living was rough, dying easy

We (F) never had enough cash in (G)hand

So I (C) made and sold bootleg (Am)whisky

So (Dm) we might (G) escape Van Diemen’s(C) land

 

Chorus

Caged (Am) canaries sing of freedom

A (Dm) bird in the bush is worth two in the (G) hand

On the(Am) ship we were (F) condemned men

(C) Down in Van(G) Diemen’s (C) land

 

(C) Lashed by the law when they caught me

(F) Two hundred or more I could not (G) stand

(C) I swore to friends and (Am) family

(Dm) That one day I’d (G) escape Van Diemen’s(C) land

 

(C) Next time I bootlegged I was running

From town (F) to town and formed a (G) gang

(C)  But the lawmen who caught me were (Am) cunning

And the(Dm)  judge told me(G)  I would(C)  hang

 

Chorus

Caged(Am) canaries sing of freedom

A bird in the bush(Dm) is worth two in the (G) hand

On a(Am) ship we were condemned (F) men

Down (C) in Van(G) Diemen’s (C) land

 

 Part 2

On a (C) brig to Macquarie Harbour

Death (F) sentence for us they(G) say

At anchor (C) the crew went (Am) a fishing

And we (Dm) cons (G) mutinied (C) away

 

(C) Now we were free canaries

(F)  Pirates bound for New Zea(G) land

(C) Lost our way we met with (Am) Samurai

(Dm) Picture me pipe(G) man in(C) Japan

 

Chorus

Caged(Am) canaries sing of freedom

A bird in the bush(Dm) is worth two in the (G) hand

On a(Am) ship we were condemned (F) men

Down (C) in Van(G) Diemen’s (C) land

 

(C) we knew our British hunters

We(F)   scuppered the ship off (G) Canton

And (C) pretended to be (Am) survivors

Of another (Dm) wreck but (G) that crew came (C) along

 

(C) Caught again we were arrested

Put back (F)   on a ship for(G) England

Oh (C) but my trial went (Am) unattested

They hung (Dm) me as the (G) last pirate (C) man

 

(C) My name is William Watts the pirate

The last(F) man for piracy to(G) hang

For (C) stealing a pigeon I was (Am) sent to prison

That (Dm) place called (G) Van Diemen’s (C) land

Chorus:

Caged(Am) canaries sing of freedom

A bird in (Dm) the bush is worth two in the (G) hand

On a(Dm) ship we were (F) condemned men

Down (C) in Van(G) Diemen’s (C) land

On failure and success

I could have succeeded in an exam

I could have lengthened my life span

But you know would I still be who I am

Or would I have compromised?

For life is full of truths and lies

What we tell ourselves

Comes as no surprise

But what others see of the true self

Belies our projected hologram

Our public persona, 

If it's accepted,

 is mona 

Lisa smile of conceit

Or self satisfied

Competitive edge

To match esteem in others' eyes

Yet what is it this public self

That must be held upon

Such a high shelf

And where or how to measure

The other in a soulful equilibrium plasma

Some gell of unconscious desires

That we all swim around

Like creatures in soup

Flies stuck perhaps

Fallen from skies

Or else amphibious lizards

Rising out of the goop

And how do you keep it all together?

Dry spell

 It's a dry spell

And the heat is in my mind

They're clearing out the drains

I'm falling far behind

It's a dry spell

And I'm shooting out my brains

The apples are falling off

The tree limbs

It's a dry spell

And we're waiting for the rains

The well has run dry

The reservoirs are drained

It's a dry spell

And we're waiting for the rain

The brocoli can't grow

No carrots on the trains

The ships masts sway

But there's no wind again

As we're waiting for the rain

It's dry spell in my mind

Gotta asking yourself

If it's you or him

Because the man in the mirror is always

Gonna win

Rambler's refrain

 Repeat after me:

I will not be cowed by the cows

I refuse to be bullied by the bulls

I won't be lambasted by the lambs

Nor stampeded by the stags

All these farm yard animal antics

Frozen in the field

Frightened by Frisians

Ghouled by the goose

Nor duped by the ducks

I will neither be hounded by hounds

Or alarmed by the llamas

I will be strong and centred and sound

I will stand my ground

In the face of shadowy cows

In the herring howls of horns

In the screeching jowls of gulls

In girlish growls of fowls

In foolish brows of owls

Or the horrid hoots of crows

The chalkish cheers of sheep

The balkish bawls and bleats

Of the unknown darkness sheets 

Please Pan to fall asleep

And ignore our rambling feet

love another day

 The summer will be over soon

And I will want my rest

And you my love will own the moon

And take my very best

If you want to walk the room

And come out at the end

Then find me here another June

And you'll call me friend

I never meant to hurt you

Nor spoil what we had

But it has been so untrue

This dream turned out bad

I miss you and want you too

It's all that I can say

I never meant to hurt you

Just to love another day

Thank you

E  Am E Am Dm7 Am7 Em E7 repeat, G D7 G D begin again

 Thank you

I want to say thank you

Thank you for being in my life

Thank you, thank you

Thank you for showing me

Thank you for showing me

That you like me too

That you like me too

Thank you, thank you

Thank you for not cutting like a knife

Thank you, thank you

We all are slipping in the stream

we're all swimming in this life's dream

Dm7                       Am7

And who knows if it's forever

   E                  Am

Thank you, Thank you

Dm7                    Am7

who knows if it's forever

For it's all unseen

Thank you, thank you

For it's all unseen

Thank you, thank you

Thank you for the friend that you've been

Thank you, thank you

Transposed

Bb   Dm   Bb   Dm   Gm7   Dm7   Bbm   Bb7   (repeat)

C#   A#7   C#   A#   (begin again)

Bb

Gm7

Bbm

Bb7

C#

A#7/Bb7

A#

Mexico City

 I'm thinking of going to Mexico city

It's a long, long way away

I'm thinking of going to Mexico city

To find out if I'm made of clay

I hear the bandidos and the casinos

Are rolling around every day

Trying to find my way to Mexico city

Where the piñatas are hit in play 

Thinking of going to Mexico city

Where the drugs barons say hey

Thinking of going to Mexico city

Just on a short holiday

Thinking of going to Mexico city

Where the fishes all leap on the plate

Thinking of going to Mexico city

Where pinatas hang on trees of bay

Thinking of going to Mexico city

We can be on our way

With a muletto, singing falsetto

And a sister who wants me to pray

Thinking of going to Mexico city

Through the canyons of the Pecos Valley

I had a love there, she was a dove dear

But now she has flown far away