Sea Shall I, Sea Shan't I

 shall I shan't I, Shall I shan't I

Shall I go to sea

Well a blue moon's in the 

Horizon risin

And I need a cup of tea

Shall I shan't I , Shall I, shan't I 

Shall I go to sea?

The Ghost ship's in the quarters sizing

And I can't see the Sea

The skeletons are dancing

The sails move

When nobody's there

The whole

Ship

Seems to go along

Like the Marie Celeste without a care

Shall I, shan't I

Shall I shan't I

Shall I go to sea

I wish you all the luck in the world

But I'm a landlubber, me

Shall I go to the shallows

Shall I dig the deep

If I travel to the shallows

Not soundly shall I sleep

If I travel to dark depths

The night may take my soul

Then shoulds and shants

Shalls and shoals 

Shall surely swallow me whole

Please don't flood my boat

 We shipped it out of Market Quay

In the year of 63

Looking for the catch to lea

The swathes of herring in the sea

We cast our nets and dragged about

Oh and then the first mate did shout

Haul in boys we've hooked a trout

A river fish with a massive snout

But surely this must be a fish king 

For as we hauled him in the thing

Began to thrash and we could see

This river fish belonged in the sea

It was six feet wide in it's girth

And it took six men to hold it's berth

All upon the deck of wood

But this fish crashed through where we stood

And into the hull it went a heaving

Down below where believers were believing

Nothing so big could be landed at sea

Let alone a river trout with a double D

When down on the lower deck where tallow candles burnt

It was in their light that it was not a trout but a mermaid we learnt

And She was huge and heavy and really broke the scales

We knew if we brought her home alive then we'd make so many sales

She was though heavier than Archimedes in the bath

And the hole in the deck she'd made was no cause to laugh

As just then a giant wave came crashing from above 

And filled the hull with sea water and the boat did flood

Oh please don't flood our boat, we pleaded to the mermaid

But she just screamed like a siren and brushed her seaweed braids

But soon she gave us the boot and slipped out through the hole

And yet our boat was flooded and we sang out save our souls

So just remember when you're fishing never land a river trout

For what you think is a fish can be a turnabout

And if she is a mermaid it's best to let her be

At least there's always plenty more fish in the sea

To kill a monster

 What does it take to kill a monster

Can you bear what he is

What he's done to countless victims

Does the victim make him him?

Is he a monster incarnate

regardless of what he has done?

How do we judge a monster

is it only on what he has done?

Or is it on his intent

And therefore sympathy presses in

What if he he never would do

What we believed of him

It is future justice

Or is it past remorse

For things he says he regrets, and yet

He still will endorse

He should be locked up

I shouldn't be drinking with him

For what is it that he really regrets

A life without sin?

What will it take me to kill?

As an individual?

And yet what will it take for 

Justice to deal out

What is right and legal?

Is it what we thought

Is it what is right?

Is it just a string of noughts

On an accountant's dark night?

I'd like to think that a life

Is worth more than a sear

I'd like to think that

I've given my heart to a bear

For what it is that lasts is

The ones what are willing to be cruel

What we know is there are

Those ruthless individuals

But they are few and far between

And yet they make up the scene

Press-ganged

 Oh I once had a dream I was going to sea

But all was not as it seemed this dream within me

The sea took my dream and it watered it down

That's how come I'm singing shanties in shepton town

In Shepton town where the sheep are like ships

And the clouds above us are like carnival skips

Where there's cider in the river and cheese in the rocks

And you may get paid in cheddar or in dandelion clocks

Oh yes we have bullies and boys by the bucket

And then there's their parents who have said just fuck it

Because they roam the town like pirates marauding and taking

What other good folk have spent their free hours making

But don't ask for clew garnets, no point in crime stoppers

the police do buggerall they might as well pull party poppers

because it's all in the rigging, yes everything is rigged

like in the last election how the puppets danced and jigged

So find me a ship boys and sign me up

I've been press-ganged before and drank from the cup

If you bring the rum, then I'll bring the beer

We'll sing the sea shanties down on the Darshill pier

the sociopath's society ball

 At the sociopath's society ball

Oh it's not easy to get invited

But when you do

Everyone knows everyone

I joined the sociopath's society

 And they are all just like me

manipulating, caluating

And they'll invite you round for tea

Come on down, the price is right

We're all having a ball tonight

Make your life like a knife

And cut and kill

And maul

All for free down at the sociopath's society ball

I wanted to join but I thought I'd look a fool

No you can't be a sociopath with that attitude like that all

You got to step out on the debutant's trawl

And land a catfish and bring home your haul

It's all going on

Down at the sociopath's Society ball

You can see kings and politician's stand tall

You can meet floozies and old witches in shawls

You can meet young ones who try to enthrall

You in on their charms

So long as the value is high

They'll welcome you with open arms

And the stakes are all

In the lap of the Gods 

Or the dice that fly

It's no gambling for the sociopath

It's a well thought out move

Calculated maximum devastation

Of those poor entrapped fools

Like a snare is his brain

The comedian

The laughter like a drug

That soothes 

The autistic mind ratchets

Through applause

Not feeling

The reeling

Not knowing at all

But it's all allowable

At the sociopath's society ball

Cholera Hospital

 Empty windows like a mouth agape

A vaccinated vacuum

Glassless pane

The dry taste in the mouth

Bitter medicine for Cholera victims

Is the bitterness of regret

It is the house of sadness

Not easy to forget

 

Elder bushes and nettles grow

Without its walls

Through its doors

The rain runs

Leaching into cracks in the floor

Few roof tiles remain of its once proud mantel

Chimney stacks and triangular wall ends

Sand like pyramids and statues

The relics of a mighty, bygone empire

Only Flat Holm will recover all in time

This hill in the sea sings its reclamation rhyme

When one thing begins

 I came on the wind

And I left on the tide

Well when one thing begins

It means another has died

And it's all without sin

Well except when I've lied

To get in to bed with another man's bride

And the good things hinge

On the bad one's pride

And you may get singed

If you play by the fireside

Well when one thing begins

It means another has died

And I might say that I love you

After you have cried

Just like I can mould a clay pot

But not after it's dried

For when it's made hot

It burns a hole in my side

But when one thing begins

It means another has died

Lord Randall

 I met Lord Randall out in the steel cold

He had a mind that did feel

And a leather hold

Slung around his neck

Like an albatross of gold

Oh I met Lord Randall out in the blue cold

Where have you wandered?

And what have you seen?

While you've been a sailor

On the sea of green

Oh I been a whaler

Around the Philippines

But I never saw your brother

No I never saw my mother

No I never saw my brother

Upon the sea of green

Oh how far have you sailed Lord Randall my son?

I've sailed across the ocean to the land of the rising sun

And I've done the gun running, I've been a hired gun

Just hold on to your hats while the whirlwind comes

There's a length of twisted flax

She has tied in her hair

Oh lord Randall have you seen

My lover, for was my bride out there?

But I lost her early for I had to sea fare

And it's a trouble, It's a trouble

For the double, march on the double

Have you ever seen my lover in a bubble out there?

I never saw your lover, only mirrors and shadows

Only smoke screens and ghosts in liminal scenes

Where it all was changing slowly like in a dream

But I never held another who was your lover

No I never held your lover on the sea of green

Lord Randall if you're lying

Then I'll kill you down dead

And you will be lying on your deathbed

But if you are Lord True and not Lord False to me

Then I'll still send home your letter in the arms of the sea

Yes, I'll write home your letter from the arms of the sea

Popeye's song

 This is spinach, this is spinach baby

Spinach, this is spinach baby

Everything is gonna be alright

Cause this is Spinach Baby tonight

Speak in Spanish to me baby

Speak me spinach in my sandwich maybe

I'll send you spinning crazy lady

This is Spinach baby tonight

Toss the salad, throw in an egg

I quack like a Mallard, but baby you said

Your olive oil's sleek like Ciabatta bread

Speak to me spinach tonight 

Safeguarding

 I went for a job in safeguarding

I didn't expect to be positioned in a bank

One day these bank robbers came in

And said they wanted to withdraw

All the money without paying

I said it was against safeguarding regulations

And they got very irate

But they got the message eventually

So I felt like the rules are really working well

Then they came back in the bank and asked if I'd like to do some safeguarding for them, as they felt they needed my expertise. They said they'd pay me more, but I could keep safeguarding the same safe, if I just brought it with so I did. I got into the back of the van and they were very considerate carrying the safe for me. 

Laptop cable

 And low Abraham gave his laptop cable to Isaac

And Isaac lent it to Jakob

And Jakob, took it up the ladder

But it wasn't long enough to reach heaven

And Cain and Abel

Had a fight over a laptop cable

Because Abel wouldn't give it back

Cain stabbed him in the back

All over a laptop

In the lap of the Gods

The laptop cable  worked

Powered by Zeus'

Lightning generator

But up in mount olympus

There is very poor wifi signal

So they don't really know what's going on

You and me

 I don't see purple trees

I don't hear calvary

Nor the bells of the shells

Singing in the sea

I don't hear talismen's keys

Jangle in the frieze

And more than that

But nothing flat

I don't see you and me

I don't hear caravans

No see those family plans

Of holidays in holy blaze

I don't see you and me

Oh we were once an item

But we soon got sold

From off the shelves of our selves

in exchange for gold

I don't see ruby shoes

Dancing away the blues

But What is neat, is the sweet

I don't see you and me

Long time ago In the rockerie

 I remember then so long ago

Long time ago

In the rockerie

The rain did come

And the rain did go

Long time ago

In the rockerie

The thyme smelt strong

With the Rosemary

Long time ago

In the rockerie

Our love belonged like

A rock to the sea

Long time ago

In the rockerie

Now in this song

We can live free

It was a

Long time ago

In the rockerie

Cheese grater

 Cheese grater

They've gotta make yer

Creator of the alligator

Simple Susan

Held the dustpan

On the horizon of

The rising sun and

I loved you

Like a curfew

Like a soldier overdue

His leave

On a summer holiday

But cheese grater

I wish you'd stayed

Lift me up

In the hill of science

raise the temperature

On my conscience

It's too cold for caring

What I do to another

Because right or wrong

He is not my brother

Just another man

With a thorn in his side

Just a place for the living

Who have already died

But I'm tired of waiting

For the bus to come in

That will take me forever away

From sin

It is an illusion

Of a broken heart to think

This is a delusion

Of a kind of art

Take your money back

And your soul

Because what You lack

Is self control

Puppet maker

And King carole

I'm a world shaker

You're breaking parole

Cheese grater

Cheese grater

Go back to blue

 There's only one thing that I can do

Only one thing except go back to you

Well, well I'm going back to blue

There's only one song I can sing

And if you sing a along

Maybe we'll wing it through

But still I'm going back to blue

There's only one hole in my plan

There's only one hole bar none man

And if you think you're coming through

I can tell you, I'm going back to blue

I tried it black

I tried it white

I tried it bruised in a fight

But day or night

Wrong or right

I'm almost through

I'm going back to blue

Blue like the ocean

And blue as the devil's tongue

Talking strong emotion

When the fight is on

But I can call the shots on you

I can shoot the lightning bolts

Can you hear the thunder vaults too?

Well I'm going back to blue

Stolen balls

 They came and stole my balls

A space man took them away

Steel balls they were 

And balls made out of clay

I'm trying to get them back

Trying hard every day

I hope them aliens drop my balls off

Because I would like to play

un forme du poire

encore de fois

Happy Bloody Valentine's Day

 Roses are red

and so is bloody slaughter

In the sea my nose bled

There I found blood was thicker than water

Tinkering on the edge

 I shall hear no more that barking sound

That regular Bark Ode

Of Tinker, whose chimes like

Bells in Church tolled down the road

Every time a child walked passed

On his way to school

Or at an unsuspecting walker

Who walked too close to his window, the fool!

Well no more shall I see his face

Grinning back at me

Dark and imposing

Some inner ferocity

Like an Egyptian God

Dog headed deity

Standing out of his sarcophagus

Oh Mummy! I need a wee!

But  he really is charming

Yes, what a merry soul is he!

Cola black, soul black

Darkness found a light

In the bright-eyed Becky

A star of fairy night

Sparkling like a sparkler

Fluffy, buoyant woman

Exuberant, enthusiastic

Bubbly and fun

And so they were together

And Tinker was no longer glum

He and her together

All was right under the sun

Find shoe box by the sea

Let the sea dogs howl

On the island of the canary

Where the kissing winds are foul

But dunes in June are wonderful

Fundamental abundiflora all

And Just look to the summer wall

Of heat and sun

Let's not think of winter

Let's not contemplate the fall

Adam and his apple

are far from it all

He's now got his mother

She's got her baby back

And all the seaweed in the sea

Could never re-shuffle her pack 

Ai killed the man in me

 Ai killed Riki Lake

And Montel Williams

Ai killed the king

And it killed my girlfriend

Ai killed everything

Ai even killed me, her me sing

Has Ai killed everything?

Ai's killed the man in me

Ai killed the woman too

Killed the unborn baby

Ai killed the child, their childhood

Free from maybe

No more dreams, only facts

Only possibilities of brass tacks

Realities so virtual, yet outside of my control

Ai has killed the man in me

Ai's robbed me of my soul

No I don't want to get dramatic

I don't want to sound too drole

Because if you know the algorithm

I'm sure it would return what it stole

But once a candle is blown out

It's hard to see in the dark

And this wind of change is blowing without a spark

Are ideas of consciousness even weighed in the scales

Or is all that's on the mind of governments how to make big sales? 

What if I told you of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

Or the weavers

Or the Luddites

Who trashed the loom machines

That took their jobs

And kicked them out on the street

In a heartless modernization?

What if progress is no friend to 

National spirit or culture or tradition?

What if we sell our souls

At the price of bottom dollar

Just to satisfy big business mission?

Who ever asked me if I want

my child brought up by a robot army

And not a real human being?

Ai's killed everything

And no one even asked me!

Ai killed the man in me

And replaced me with a robot

If they had asked us first, like with GM foods

Where there was moratorium

Maybe we would pause for thought, 

a measure of public mood

But as it is the ai has done the thinking 

For us, it's told its creator it needs this

It was such a dazzling temptation

An end to all working

No more enslavement

But I still see beggars on the pavement

While Ai's running the government

Ai has killed everything

Ai's killed the man in me

Give me trees, and flowers and nature

Give me a sky and some distance

I need to move my body

And be breathing

Far from these satanic mills

Of mind training

Ai will try to kill everything!

Ai will try to kill the human in you

If you don't watch what it's doing

So maybe we shut just switch off

Let's turn off the machines

And take a walk back in the world

And rediscover what is green

Little prick of love

 Oh little prick of love

I can feel yer

Oh little prick of love

It's nice to meet yer

I've got a little prick of love

And it's trying to greet yer

Oh you don't like injections

And you're afraid of blood

Well this is divine intervention

My little prick of love

It'll only hurt a little

And yes it will bleed

But  just like a needle

It is going to succeed

At combating your love sickness

You know you suffer a disease

You can't love another

Without starting to seize

So let me give you

My little injection

I'm just like a doctor

You need examination

And it could add years to your life

Or it could set you free

My little prick of love

Is a lost ship at sea

If I were a snail

It would be minute

So just think you're lucky

And don't get cute

If you want to get ahead

You know you have to push

And my little prick of love

Is like a thorn on a sloe bush

Sometimes the sloe gin

comes so thick it's a sin

Sometimes the bush is so hard to get in

But with a little back and forth

A little pull and shove

That's how you'll feel my

Little prick of love

Oh don't come bustin' me down

You know I don't have the time

I'm from the wrong side of town

But we've both drunk the same wine

And the rose bush is a thicket

And I don't where to stick it

But if you stick it to me love

I'll stick it to you too

Still I don't know what to do

About this little prick of love

Oh little prick of love

I can feel it

Little prick of love

Can you feel it?

Little prick of love

Try to reel it in

But it's like a fishhook in my mouth

Everytime I sing

Pullin me in

To your land of love

Lord you can try and swim away

But it'll catch you up one day

This little fisher king

With his cloak of coloured wing

With his blue bolt of sin

His beak's a little prick of love

Little prick of love

Can you feel it

little prick of love

that should seal it

little prick of love

how to deal with it

little prick of love

 you can peel it

All I'm thinking of

Is that little prick of love

Love said to blood

 Love said to blood 

What have you to fear

Blood said to love

My family, my dear

Many generations

All with the same idea

Flow in one direction

to the ocean of tears

Love then said to blood

But blood is thicker than water

You should forgive

Your son and your daughter

For following their own course

Through uncharted quarters

Of a city shining like a penny

Blood was a family of noble stock

And love was the irrational knock

That came like a shock in a desert of grey

Good night good will

 Will you come in to my blood for a moment?

Will you share in my love

Will you buy a drop of my love

And give back a second of my time?

Will I waste all this love blood

Just as you've wasted mine?

Spilt it over the carpets and walls

Made fools of the guardians of time

Not protected the citadel at all

You've let fall the city of mind

Where body is blood, and faith is love

You've sacrificed it all on the fire

The bread is all burnt, the meals not cooked

Yet you'd still like to sing like the angels in choir

A sunless year Part 1

 Twas in the year of 1816, 

the darkest year that had ever been

The sun never shone in the sky

And all of my dreams, 

like shadows in the streams

Flew away like the birdies that fly

It was a sunless year

And Billie was a piper lad

Making pipes but smoking sad

The volcano blew the greyest rings

Around the sun that spring

He walked the Fosseway

But crops had died off 

No green, but only grey

It was a sunless year

He lost his job sent on his way

He began to rob to reach end of day

Intact, but broken like the clay

Of pipes in Oakhill's gardens

Then one day they caught him stealin'

And the Law was hard as iron feelin'

It was a sunless year

He was sent Van Diemen's land

Where they ruled with iron hand

And the chain gangs marched the roads

Like in hell of the damned souls

And though he was burnt by the sun

He was now a man on the run

It was a sunless year 

Escaped convicts don't last long 

But he was tough and he was strong

So he survived only for the law to trap him

This time they gave him 200 lashes

Then back in chains he was fastened

It was a sunless year

 

But time it passed

As cloud ships above him

And he met a wife with children

Helped to care and bear the burden

But soon the pull was strong upon him

The pull towards his freedom

The chance it came when he sold some whisky

Outlawed for Van Diemen's territory

And chased out of town again

His path could only have one end

The canary man had flown his cage

One too many times law's patience

If it could be called turned to rage

And upon a prison ship he was chained

This ship the Cyprus was to carry him 

From Research Bay to Macquarie Harbour

A renowned cruel colony for the hardened

Criminal fraternity deemed beyond redemption

Here there really would be no hope

To save him from the end of a rope

So like any sane men condemned to die

They tried their luck so they might fly

The deadly jaws of death

And overcoming drunken guards

the convicts seized the Cyprus hard

Mutinied and marooned the crew upon the island

For this crime they were well renowned

In papers over Australian towns

And news of course reached the British dominions

So that a Her Majesty's Royal Navy hunted them

And yet these convicts turned pirates

Managed to evade capture through the skills of their leader

Who had escaped many times before

And been saved by his naval skills succour

Valentine Vampire

It's the period of the Phlebotomist

Dealing in plasma

All of them after the serum

What's your poison fill my cup

Buttercup, sunny side up

The butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

And sup the red, red wine of her blood

Ulysses was a sailor

On a mighty endeavour

A roll over

The shoulder

Jackpot adventure of sons

Too far gone

For his mother Anticlea

So nice to meet yer

Demeter

Or Persephone's daughter

The land was barren in the winter

Six months under ground

What a sin to her

To keep her away from the sun

The pale snowdrop face

Been kept in an indoor vase

And he, the explorer

Had to amore her

Blood

Of the father

Salt of the Earth

Tears cried in vain

(But not in love) yet

What's the Period, huh?

I don't know! The tempo?

Yeah

In the succour, Lord Such and So

Lady Suck, Lady Luck, Lord Fuck knows when

The women in my wife

The wifi, high wife, the fi

The fidelity of her

(The hifi of my wife)

She's the werewolf mother

The fe, fi, fo fum of the Wife

The I smell the blood of an Englishman

The Wifi, low life, half life, half blood

Low moon waning

Waxing, waning,

Half moon

Whining, complaining

Lining and laning

In the groove again and

Suck my thumb

Werewolf mum

The changing

But I didn't give a bread crumb

To follow me home to my castle

Alone

And give me a bottle of red rum

My dad died in No man's land, how come?

Who's to explain? What I need is some speed

And the roses are growing

And I must get going 

To your love

cloud ships

 Christopher Cumulonimbus was the first cloud to discover America

 

Metacognition

 I met her, met her, met her

In a cognitive manner

Yes I let her , I let her , I let her

Be my life spanner

And I bet her, I bet her, I bet her

That she couldn't handle

So I'd get her, I'd get her, get her

My life's manual

But I met her I met her I met her

In a cognitive manor

At a social theory ball

Of democratic clashes

Yes I better, I better, I better

Hold on to the bedframes

As I'm rolling out of this world

In a super sonic time game

I let her, let her, let her

Tighten up all my nuts and bolts

So that I could be one of life's planners

Where kalashnikovs volt

Mizuhiki love

 Not all loves can unfold

Some are Mizuhiki tight

Some love is just for decoration

Some love is just an emblem

But people need symbols

To look up to

Everyone needs a revelation

Sometimes in the folding of love

To send in a letter

You may get a paper cut

Sometimes blood seals

The envelope shut

Sometimes it is never opened

Sometimes the letter is read

Sometimes not

Sometimes love is a Mizuhiki knot

Love Blood

 Love blood in the vein

Love blood in the heart

I've loved , I've bloodied

The loving art

I've blooded, I've bled,

I've slept in loaves of bread

I've loaved, I've lavered, and slavered

And blabbered the blubber of love

I've fatted the loving calf

And with bloody love

I've bled its bleating heart

I've shot love with a bloody arrow

I've bled love through a gap so narrow

A key hole in the heart

A pig's valve, a stent that's

Kept the closing walls apart

To keep love flowing

To keep blood going

Like a London bus

Through the city's heart

Love was a tube station

And blood a bleeding rail

And I loved the wins

When I was wise I loved the fails

But win draw or lose

I loved that my blood tried

Because love can leave a bruise

Yes love's a sucker punch to the heart

Love sucks, love's a vampire guitar

Love pumps, love's a soccer star

Love is running and love is pulse

And love is all engines set to false

And love is true blood

Love is blue blood

Love is royal as a queen of hearts

And love is a jack, in the deck

dealt badly

Love comes up trumps

But not from the start

Love is the last fighter living its all

In a war of aces and spades

Love's got its back up against the wall

And love is bullet holes in chests

And love is birthmarks

Love is portmanteau

And love is worth all the dark

Love is the light in a world gone mad

And love is a cup of Christ's blood

Love is a slice of His heart

Last Pirate

 I went out a plundering on the high seas

I thought to meself, now this isn't me

This is the last time I'm going to sea

The last pirate I will be

I shall tell all my pirate buddies just free

We shall go no more a sailing

Hey buddies hey cons listen to me

I'm gonna show you the pros of the straight n narrow see

We're gonna sail to Canton and hand ourselves in

There ain't nothing worse than being a pirate, it's a sin

So we left Japan and went to Canton

But it didn't go to plan, I can tell you that man

On the 15th of November 1829 , well I was a pirate for 

The very last time

And then the English bastards threw me in the stocks

And I ended up back in London in Executioner's dock

And when they said did I have any last words

With my head in the noose I could hardly be heard

So I asked if they could loosen it a bit so I could yell

And when they did I cried I hope you all go to hell

For this is the last place I thought I end up

When laid I down my sword and put down my rum cup

Oh if you ever think you should stop doing what you love

I tell you you this for free it won't ever be enough

So keep being a pirate for as long as you can

Because before you know it you'll be hung by the man

So they hung me by the neck in 1830

I was the last pirate to be hung for mutiny

And other crimes I suppose like robbing a prison ship

Full of provisions,

But they whole scummy scheme to build a colony

deserved derision

They used slave labour to build Tasmania,

Australia and New Zealand

And then if you didn't die in the process

You were allowed to be freemen

But that ain't no deal for stealing a pigeon

And that's why I rebelled and stole the ship prison

I'd do it again, though now I am dead

So I'll just go down in history

As the last man to be hung for piracy

You can remember me as the Last Pirate instead

Beaver's return

 Beaver’s Kiss

Give me your kiss

Oh fell my wooden heart

Beat your tail around me

Oh lean your weight

On the willow tree

And chew, chew, chew

It free

Hear the train whistle

Hear the charts

Of explorers beating a trail

Through, through, through

Your woodland glade

Searching out your wooden heart

Bang, bang, bang

Go their guns

Geronimo fells the trees

But Geronimo was felled himself

One day

For a lady to wear beaver skin

Across her knees

For Davy Crockett wore your hat

And you were so cold and grey

You froze in the winter

And your spirit went away

Beaver spirit leaving the leaves

Leave, leave, leave

Oh lever your dam

Flood, flod, flood

Your banks

Build your home deep

In the river’s ranks

Godfather of the water vole’s art

 

Oh Beaver, won’t you leave her

Oh the beaver’s return

Trying to hold back the tide

Beaver, like a lever,

Stuck at every turn

Beaver on the watercourse ride

Beaver in the hollow

Beaver in the ear

Held like a swallow

In the palm

Nesting til the morrow

In the mud of the hide

Willow weaver, beaver brew your brown beer

 

Beaver looking back through the years

Looking back over the dams

Looking back at the back water

The black water, all you’ve held back

Woodland manager, nature’s forester

River doctor

River miller, water wheeler

Only hold on make a net

Let her through yer yet

Pass through your home

Living over the river

Running under your kitchen

Always flowing

Never alone

Vampire guitar

 I've got a vampire guitar

It sucks my blood

Like a used car

I've got a cherubim

Who plays a harp string

And fires at me all these love darts

I've got a vampire guitar

It sleeps in a case until it's dark

And when the sun comes down

It gets up and wanders town

Looking for a love victim's heart

Yes it will play on her heart strings

It will search for her neck

and in each tune it plays

it will suck her blood right back

She will be all used up

Just like a second hand car

For I have a vampire guitar

I used to be a nice guy

And stand up in the corn

And wait for the harvester

To come chop me down as if I were a lawn

But then I realized that never got me very far

So that's why I bought my vampire guitar

Sound the claxon

 The people of Wells

Are singing their kells

And walking the path with their feet

The people of Shepton

Are blowing their claxon

And sounding a march in retreat

For you know when they join 

The two sides of the coin

Both will be facing defeat

For the Sheptonians are like stone

And the Wellsonians like bone

And it will be like when two tribes meet

So perhaps don't try to bridge the gap

That once fell from the map

But instead let sleeping dogs sleep

Flowers in your vase

 

D Well I brought you flowers D7 in the morning

D And I brought you flowers D7 in the day

D Well I brought you flowers

D7because of their special powers

D I thought that they might D7 make you stay

 

Dm Well I brought you D7 flowers in the evening

D And I brought you D7 flowers in the day

Well I brought you flowers in the nighttime hours

I thought that they might make you stay

 

D Just don’t make me D7 by your powers

A7Just another G dead flower in the D vase

 

 

D My heart is like D7 a ticking clock

D It ticks all day D7 long for you

D And your love is like D7 a ticking bomb

D When it blows D7 I’ll know we’re through

 

D And if you blow me down D7 all day long

D Well there’s no telling D7 what I might do

D Because I know you’re D7 like a ticking bomb

And when you blow, I’ll know that we’re through

 

D Just don’t make me D7 by your powers

A7 another G dead soldier Dm dressed in blue

 

D Well the clock in town keeps winding down

But it still chimes each hour for you

And the sand in the bay keeps slipping away

When it’s gone, I’ll know we’re through

 

D Just don’t make me D7 by your powers

A7 another G7 dead fish in the Dm Brue D7

 

D But the tide keeps washing D7the shore mama

D And I can't see our footprints D7 no more

D And I hope with these flowers 

D7you'll shatter these towers

D They’ll come crashing D7down at your door

 

D Just don’t make me D7 by your powers

A7 another G7dead crow on the Dm floor D7

 

 

D And this day, D7now it is done

D And the sun has D7shone in its way, 

D And my heart is like D7 a ship sailing on

D It's sailing, D7 out into the bay

D And just like the sun 

D7 It is going, going, gone

D gone on its way

 

 

D Just don’t make me D7 by your powers

A7 another G7 dead flower G in your Dm vase

Love in the marigolds

 Well I loved you

In your marigolds

And I stepped over

The threshold

Just to slip down

The centrefold

Into the magazine world 

That you knew

In it was so yellow and blue

And it was so green and gold

As I fell like the snow

More and more

In love with you

Well the dishes were never clean

And the fishes they were never seen

But I caught you fishing in the stream

And the music of the strings

The bow finger violins

And the tulip harps

Played your lovely tune

Because I met you

While our hearts were young

And they still sung

Out our fugue

That plays in winter

But it always sounds

Just like June

Now I can see every man

They love you so

Because you sing the song

On the radio

And on your tongue

Is like a flute of power

You're like a song bird

And I've never heard

Such a lovely voice

Issue forth from such 

A lovely flower

Oh my word

Owl versus mouse versus bat, versus night heron

 My name's the night heron

now I might be playin

When you hear me sayin

I'm in the shadows shady

Owl

Howl of the wolf

Growl of the bear

There's nothing out there

At which I scare

I'm your worst nightmare

No I don't want to blow hot air

But I can rotate my head

The circle I can square

And my eyes are wide

And ears have might

My feathers dampen

The sound of flight

And out the black I appear

Your worst nightmare

Be you Mouse or shrew or hare

So up there in the dark, it could

Strike at any moment

I have to run along my tunnels of grass

Then skip along the walls

I'm out here bold as brass

I'm the mouse with balls

Don't take me for a second rater

I'm the second comer if anything at all

If you leave your cheese grater

I'll be ready to nibble any scrap that falls

I see above and behind

I have eyes in the back of my head

But still with my mouses senses

I can feel the Owl's wings of dread

Owl

Oh such a plump little plumb

For for me to swallow

Toe and thumb, yum, yum in my tum

You go

Hold me tight to your breast

I'll grip you in my talons

I have talents on the wing

I am kind wouldn't hurt a fly

I'll leave that to the bat guy

Over there

Running nowhere

 Oh the lands are all strumming and I will be drumming

Oh my mum is coming today

And I wish that I'd joined the army or navy

For anything like the pay

Oh the lands are all drumming

And the river is thrumming and tumming to stay

And my hands are all thumbing

And the hearts all humming

And I wish that I'd joined the army or navy

But then I wouldn't be running away

Oh they say you could join the circus they say you are made out of clay

But mould me when I'm young

I'll be a good son

And maybe I won't run away

They tell you mortal combat

Is just a flesh wound they say

But what if a chortle wombat

could really say what he wanted to say?

What if it were just enough in life

To be yourself anyway

In general most useless

In any conceivable fruitless concourse

Of life's busy highways

Oh the time was timming and the reams were rimming

And the bowls were valeting away

For the limousines were liminal in the shimmering chimeral

And the cathedral was caterwauling away

The cats with the wool met the hats of the walls

And hares were all standing on the heads

And raising a fare was like failing a fair

Where the ferris wheel says farewell to the fool

They say go join the foreign legion,

Go fight in foreign region

Go flabbergast her, filibuster  or carp

The carpets all piled in the pile high club

And the pilots have trouble seeing through the glare

As celebrity pigeons on hedges, meet their fans

On ledges

And they all shake wings

The planes and plain things

That famously pledged passage to the sun

And I no longer want to join the army or navy

Although I'm not running away

Perhaps I would if I could

But my knee isn't good

So I think to myself I might stay