Hold on tight to the mast

 Hold on, hold on, hold on tight to the mast

This ship is going down in the gale

So look out, look out, look out for the whale

This ship is going down in the gale

Hold on, hold on, hold on tight to the mast

This ship is going down in the gale

Hear the battering, the battering of the whale to stern

This ship is going down fast in the gale

Yes stand up, stand up, stand up on the crow's nest

Spy , oh spy out the whale

and cry out to the stars above

This ship is going down in the gale

Captain Ahab he looked out up at the stars

He forecast some hail

He hammered his gold penny to the mast

And said men now catch me that whale

So look out, look out, look out for the whale

 Hold on, hold on, hold on tight to the mast

Scan oh scan, oh scan the horizon above

For this ship ain't going down in the gale

So look out, look out, look out to the stars above

Let them guide us to the whale

Oh tell me, tell me, tell the path of the dove

With a twig of olive as its mail

So look out, look out, look out to the stars above

And tell me how they guide you to the whale

Hold on, hold on, hold on tight to the mast

this ship, it ain't going down in the gale

this ship, it ain't going down in the gale

this ship, it ain't going down in the gale

Mothballed fireballs

 There's a fire in the blood

And it's breaking free

There's these wires in the flood

Standing up for trees

For they've been burnt to a crisp

Like willow the wisp

When you tried to love me

In your way

But you're a dragon

Fallen off the wagon

Breathing fire

All day

I can't see straight every tree

Is flaming

And it's just that it's

Wherever your breath is aiming

I only want peace in the valley

And to consider the lily

But you see strange paths

Keep befalling me

Because I'm like a moth

I'm attracted to the light

And in the Winter I need to sit by firelight

But I realize now, 

I've slaughtered the sacred cow

Of friendship

Cos what I think I want

Isn't what I need

It's not a fire pill

But a water tablet seed

So that's what's on the bill

It's not a never ending cycle of greed

I need to step back and cut off

from the fire creed

I've had it with chasing dragons

I don't know how to beat them

And it is always I who's defeated by them

A river runs through it

 I just throw down the mantel of adulthood

When I remember the way

We used to be

When you were my brother

And we would run and play games in the street

I wish that I had been able to love you

Better than I have loved you since

But then the river ran through our childhood

And it was too late for our separate streams

To meet

Eldorado's moon

 Waking up in old Eldorado

To find you standing in my room

Waking up in Old Eldorado

And I want to dance with you neath the moon

Oh Eldorado the city of gold

But not until it got sold

Eldorado was a silver slice of the moon

And I remember a piece of me

Like a sliver that fell free

When you said you'd dance with me

In Eldorado

Oh and we have nothing to lose

Just our tangled lives

And these homesick blues

Well if you'll follow me

I'll follow you

And we can both dance neath

Eldorado's moon

Spinning

 She puts me in a spin

Don't know if I'm head or tails

I just know I should be coming in

But I keep going out watch the whales

It's a life that's a mystery in

What she means to me is like a hall of mirrors

And I get lost when I walk in

I think I'm seeing me, but it's her that's clearer

I would like a mountain scene

Or a volcano that's exploding

Then at least I'd know where I'll be

Instead of lost in this geography of despairing

Can you give me a golden key

One to the dress that you are wearing

Because I'd like to unlock the door

And then I'd know how we were faring

The sailor and the mermaid

 There was a sailor and a mermaid

A murmur, burble, bobble -e-o

She sang to him sweet songs she had made

A merry murmuring bobble-e-o

Hey the high seas and low the leas

Through the calms and the clams and gales 

High the low seas and Lo the mad whales

A murmuring mermaid mail

The sailor wrote the mermaid a letter

A burbling, gurgling gobbled-e-o

He was telling her how she should take off her suit

And walk on two legs through town-e-o

 Hey the high seas and low the leas

Through the calms and the clams and gales 

High the low seas and Lo the mad whales

A murmuring mermaid mail

But when the mermaid tried to walk on shore

Some bad men cut off her tail-e-o

The sailor thought his mermaid dead

So he killed these sailors in her stead

 Hey the high seas and low the leas

Through the calms and the clams and gales 

High the low seas and Lo the mad whales

A murmuring mermaid mail

Then the mermaid grew two new legs

A hermuring, murmuring whale-o

And She walked through town where the bad men bled

And she married her loving sailor-e-o

Old man

 I'm not Peter Pan

Getting to be an old man

Collect my Pension from the recycled can

Kick it it down the road

A few miles

Think about it, lick it like it

Fuck it, fight it

Take the pig to market

Park it

Leave it to rest

A dead weight

A string vest

Bullet proof

I digress

Invest or ingest

Some poisonous mothballs

At the perihelion

Of a 17th century ball

Where I leave my curtain calls

And hope that the Saint Pauls

Are waiting behind walls

In dark alleys

Not the Frogmen

Swimming in the ocean

I saw her like a fish in an aquarium

All distorted, sometimes big

Sometimes small

But I couldn't touch her at all

And it fired my imagination

But ultimately it was an illusion

Even if I thought I was talking her fish language

Was she talking to me?

It was all one sided

She was just talking to her own reflection

At most I was a curiosity

But I was just maybe a lightray

And when she turned away

I was gone

Out of the frame

And her memory

Perhaps we're all living in a fish bowl

Of sorts

I lie in bed and pray

Maybe I'll be good at sports

One day

Because I'm no Fisherman

Or even Peter Pan

Just seems like I'm an old man

A twinkling

 Oh we don't have much time

And it's gone in the twinkling of an eye

We all were just inklings,

Just twinklings in somebody's eye

 All we are are chances

Each day's a new chance before we die

All we ever were were stars seen

Twinkling in a dark night sky

So just remember that it all must pass

Like the mist upon the water

The fog will clear and you will see

All that you oughta

The love that's been was just a scene

Between someone's son and another's daughter

And it's all how come, and it comes undone

Unless you don't bring it to slaughter

Because we really never must

Kill a love that comes from lust

Or Does it come from trust?

But never let that turn to dust

Just hold the course

Though the tides may pull

And the moon is crying out in full

And the stars coming out to null

The feeling that this sky

Is only a twinkling in 

Somebody's eye

The million and the loss

Once I made a million

Then I made a loss

Once I had trillion stars

without a single boss

A nova with a rover

A lover who gave a toss

Once I had a million

Then I made a loss

But was it will or am I

just the dross

Just the seedless pines

That grow beside the sea

And toss

Their leaves down in line

Like the wild lions cross

The Serengeti climes

Before the fires floss

Once I had a million then I made a loss

But I don't regret the filling in

Of my time before I'm gloss

Frankenstein mon stir

 Frankenstein was my father

And he hounded me all the way

Yes Frankenstein was my father

and he hounded me to my grave

Like a red truck fighting fire

He chased me along the highway

Like a red truck, sirens getting higher

H e tried douse out all my flames

But his water it was killing me

Killing me all the same

Oh Frankenstein was my creator

And my creator I had to save

But Frankenstein was my destroyer

And now it is I who must be brave

Like the men who went before me

Many generations with guns and slaves

All bent on my destruction

It is creation that I must save

For if he dies

Then what am I?

What am I with no God to praise

And if he dies then so must I

For what am I?

With no God to hate

Tell me what am I ?

going ever farther

hell is nearer as closer I am to save

And if he is my saviour, then heaven

help me to my grave

The sailor and the mermaid

 Well the mermaid said to the sailor man

You got just what you deserved

For you have stayed upon the land

Left the woman you love in the surf

And the man spoke to the mermaid girl

I loved you then til the ends of the world

And I would have followed you as far as I can

But I am just a sailor and you are a sea pearl

Well what was it kept you on the shore?

You could have kissed me and been my amore

And turned yourself into a merman

Then we would have been seaward forevermore

Well I know you wanted me to be

This underwater fish, not a sailor on the sea

But the world I come from would relegate me

And cast lots to set my life free

Well why then would you stay

In that society of the bay

And their brackish words and their cruel tongues

On their sward's of land that run and run

Instead you could have seen the oceans

You are an idiot afraid of his emotions

Can't you see you're in love with me

And if you deny yourself then cursed will you be

For love it is not a trick of the light

But a bodily law of two souls locked tight

And when the soul is loose then it is lost

Like a neck in a noose or ship's ghost

So never deny the love you have 

for a mermaid is the best gal, it's sad

To see you've ruined the best years you'll have

On swigging beers with your sailor lads

When we could be happy

on the gad

Interview

 You're looking for a candidate

A cadet in uniform

Who will only answer yes

When you address his wardrobe

Who will march in line

And collect his benefits cheque

You aren't looking for

a rebel yet

Or someone with self-respect

You only want a jumbo jet

Or a dreadnought ship

Yes and you tell me I could make it yet

But you sure ain't looking for me

You want a hero

You want a public school cheerio

Or you want some young bullio

Ready with his rugby vest

You don't need a shakespeare

You don't need Some word smith

I can take it from the sound of it

You sure ain't looking for me

I better face facts

Or else have some heart attacks

That Britain is a farce act

And I'm not fit to play the fool

It's just case of tact

To be in school and follow the rules 

You'll grow up to be a good citizen

 To conform to all the bitterness

And the mocking humiliation

Of the class structure imposed on you

There's no escaping migration

What about reverse refugees?

Those fleeing discrimination

From the hands of British fools

The idiots in charge of institutions

Who govern to quell revolutions

By keeping the intelligentsia

Locked away with factory tools

And those of the upper classes

With all the money and wine glasses

Who only dain to play at farces

With their idiotic public school boy rules

Imposed on us through many chances

Seen on the playing fields or at dances

In which the social graces of life are schooled

How to beat your opponent with sheer speed

How to better them at greed

How to take and to succeed

How failure is but a weed

An unwanted look at nothingness

An emptiness, a bottomlessness

Some hole you never wish to go down

For there nothing can be won

Go....?

 It goes without going

It says without saying

It means many things

Like I’ve had enough

Or stop

Or start

It’s a kind of art

It is, it’s on, it’s off

The chart

I can bring it on a tray

It’s how I feel when I’ve too much to say

But can’t

Sometimes I feel I’m going to

But it’s the thinnest membrane

It’s always after something gives out

It never really gives in

It’s an excess of nothing

And something to begin

So don’t put your hip out

Or you’ll need to shout

Weasels do it

Pringles do it

Even the blisters

Of measles and shingles do it

Let's do it

Let's go......?..........apart

Frankenstein my father

 Frankenstein was my father

Mary Shelley was my mother

My household was unstable

I grew up on the operating table

It was a long lost book of childhood dreams

I wish to know better what it all means

He told me when I was one day old

I'd be one hell of a fella

A big strapping boy like you

is gonna knock the world out I tell ya

And my mother looked on me with some sympathy

but loathing 

I tell you all I wanted was her love

But she scathingly threw me rags for clothing

I learned to ride a bike and ski in the Alps

Albeit because my loving father had decided to kick me out

I mean I found out that after my mother had died 

he'd engaged another woman who was gonna be his bride

But you see to him, I was his greatest disappointment

He thought he'd created me in his image

But it was a distorted disillusionment 

My father, my father was God he said

And I have to ask: am I human, living or dead?

If I am just parts, am I greater than their sum

And if I'm not a machine, then a human how come

Society rejects me, my own father baulks

I scare children in the park 

even the mirrors shatter when I talk

I am a hideous abomination, no love have I

Then what can a monster do but take revenge or die?

Dear Neighbour

Dear Neighbour

I'd like to express

My deepest condolences

For your thoughtlessness

It must be hard to be such an insufferable sod

I hadn't realized that I was living next door to God

Well you must be him or else why would you act like that

With impunity as if your actions carried no consequence

You are up all night, it's driving me crazy

Do you never need to work at all?

You must be driving Miss Daisy

round the bend, 

But look, let's make friends

the good book tells us

We must love our neighbours

So I say I love you X

Even though you are a pain in the neck

And think you are a great singer when you are really not all that

Believe me I've heard you in your kitchen

It sounds like you're strangling a cat

 And about you playing guitar at 3 am

Yes I can hear it and ahem

It woke me up and spoilt the rest of my day

In that it tinged my consciousness

And jangled my nerves and left them frayed

But I was nearly forced to cause an affray

So please let's not rehearse each night the last judgement day

Let's try and respect our differences

We cannot change each others' ways

It going to lead nowhere except entrenched positions

And fighting on all fronts

and really I'd rather make hay

While the sunshines

Than sleep in all day

For the night is meant for sleeping

Not your guitar play 

Broken down

 It's all broken down

It's all breaking down

From my toes to my crown

I'm all broken down

From my face to my eyes

I'm breaking like ice

Oh it's all broken down

What a surprise!

Cry baby, cry !

But don't break the china doll

Breaking, broke, all broken

Just mind you've not broken the mould

Pull all the pieces together

The debris of a crumbling tower

And build up Babylon brick by brick

feather by falling feather

Collect up the seeds that were scattered

Draw tight the strings of the purse

Close up the wound that was open

It's not yet time to call the nurse

All these things that were broken

Mend them and bring to repair

The shattered mirrors as a token

Of a lifetime of visual despair

But nothing that is gone is truly forgotten

Always its embers still glow in the air

No matter how lowly the ashes

From its cinders can grow a new care

People of Croscombe

 People from Croscombe

They barter and they bite

Just like Romans in an amphitheatre tonight

Oh people from Croscombe

They'd sell their grandmother's teeth

And still get a second estimate

For their own financial relief

Now I'm not saying people from Croscombe

Are cheap, it's just that they're mean

And will scramble round for every pound

And penny, even raid the wishing well

But that's just what comes from living in a dell

Like Croscombe

People from Croscombe

They strain for the Sun, because you see they never 

Really get it, they have to strain their necks at it

And they grow tall and thin like Sun flowers

People from Croscombe are heliotropes

They clamber over their neighbours' walls

They're so tightly packed like cattle in stalls

And have no greater pleasure than to bicker

Or discuss their neighbour's lives

There's nothing more satisfying than

Chit chat with the promise of knives

And vengeance is a dish best served cold

They've learnt that from living in some other metropole

Like London or Bristol any number you care to mention

But they've never forgotten their just desserts

Revenge for what was meted out to them by extension

And now they're in the bear pit, in the colosseum

They can watch their neighbours getting eaten alive by lions

Or they can bet on gladiators

For once they heard about a place called Rome

That there was some foreign power better

And they'll pay their tax and all

Be so tactical until their Emperor 

summons their services by letter

And then they'll dob in their neighbours 

For traitors

People in Croscombe, but that's only what

I've heard of them

I don't tend to think of them

Very much at all

They just ask me for an estimate

I say I'll see you at four

Then they want a quotation

I recite shakespeare 

When that doesn't satisfy

I try Mark Antony and Cleopatra

Then they get offended and say

 I only try to flatter

Oh I can't seem to gather

What the people of Croscombe

want at all