To build a boat

 God said to Noah

Build me a skiff

Noah said I might but only if

God said quiet I make the rules 

There's a flood coming you don't know

about, so try to go to boat school

No ifs or buts, here are the tools

Bend me some planks

Curve me some ribs

Look Noah

Just get off your butt

And build me

A bloody big ship

So Noah said right

I've got one bloody night

To build God this boat

Pride

 When you think that you'v got no further to fall

Hold on for you are still attached to the wall

Of pride

And it's a slippery slope, the higher you climb

The further you fall

So try to be humble that's all

Try not to let the seed of greed grow tall

It's ever ready in a fertile heart

Corruption sinks in and the rot starts

But stand guard against chaos and disaster

Brian the ferryman

 Brian the ferryman

If anyone can the ferryman can

I wanted to cross over the river

I wished to cross over the sea

Just so I wasn't a lily liver

And a brave sailor man I would be

I tried it by boat on my lonesome

But I came unstuck at the oars

I didn't know which way to row her

And so I circled right back to the shore

Oh next I thought I would swim it, 

But I put one toe in and ouch

A crab had only gone and bitten it

So I turned round and acted a grouch

Just then I saw my friend Brian

Hi Bry I cried, it was outdoors

Howdy do di me young rapscallion how can I be of help

Well my boat I've scuppered and bare feet suffered

So I shan't be swimming through the kelp

So Brian can you help me to cross over the water 

I can for I'm the ferryman,

I can I'm slippered away

It'll only cost you a farthing

Then you may be on your way

Nearer or farther he wouldn't say

But Brian the ferryman can

Take me across the bay

Canned heart

 Who's that knocking on my window pane?

It's just the wind, again and again

Who's that knocking I thought it was you

I can't find the words

 To say I'm sorry

It's just the wind,

 It'll have to do

Who's that opening my heart like a can

To find another heart shaped man

My heart is just a fruit in a can

For you to eat, eat it up, lover woman

My Caroline

 Oh my baby Caroline

G My peace and my war D Am What do you wish for Emfrom this Red Wine?A7 DTo Compare your blood to mine? [Verse 2] G What if, what if, if so your human woesGcould all amount to the indigo C D Bm EmFlowing river under the bridges of VeniceC Am EmBeneath the Gondolas' oars [Verse 3] C D G C My struggle and my torment Am C D GOh God grant me deathG C My baby Caroline, what a pity, G Dwhat a pity this love is in this cityGWhat a pity

Archers

 It's inexplicable and lickable

So spickable and spanable

So fickle and fannable 

The flicking blood of May

When lords have loved the lady's bed

And Straws are laid upon their backs

And Camels weigh the light of day

By answers grey or white or black

When young thugs hail the coming rain

When old lugs pale then face again

The Age of change for it all looks strange

To eyes without lies and truth without pain

Yet follow me and I will lead you

To the driving range

Where golf balls fly

And it's tee at Four!

And no one's rearranged

Just wait for me in the garden and climb

The Trellis late

I looked for you beside the gate

And no one shook my fate

I looked for you in the darkness

And in the corridors of light

That filled with the tears

Of long lost steers

Who wander on into the night

So take the bow and string your arrow

Fling your fire lights

The silk worms are spinning clothes for you

That glisten in the night

love times

 I loved you left, I loved you right

I loved you wrong and in your flight

I loved you day, I loved you night

There's nothing left, you're out of sight

I loved your soul, I loved your body

I cannot control, or mollycoddle

The sense your life is precious light

I loved you dark, I loved you bright

So don't leave me now

I can't bear the weight

Of sorrow

Of the pain

It is too late

To lie to you now

Of the shame

Of the shadow

But how can my love be wrong

When I love someone so good and strong?

Everything must go

 Sometimes, everything must go

The windows are rattling

As spring winds blow

Clearing out the clutter of last year in tow

Dredges from ditches of ideas that flow

Sometimes everything must go

And it's like I need to let go

Of all those fugitive pieces I stole

Shards of hearts exploded

Glass animals collected in menageries

They all got shattered

Precious though they were

They are all dust in the desert now

Everything must go

Back in the Land of the living

 I'll let you know 

If I'm still in the land of the living

I'll see you tomorrow

I've never seen a ghost

In the land of the living

I'm glad to be back in the land of the living

Glad to be the black cat and not grave digging

Glad for your life hack that kept me breathing

Glad to be back in the land of the living

 Am I really? Yes! Well why?

I guess, it's that we were born to die

And all our days are numbered

But if I thumbed a lift with Thumbelina

For a little time her trampolina

If I humbled myself at her cortina

A courtly show for a fashionista

But nothing must glow as hot and cold as

The sun we are all under

We regret to inform you

That it will not rise tomorrow

Has never crossed anyone's mind

But for the fact that she breathes

I cannot detach myself so well

I've tried to pull her out of my heart

But the seed was planted, love kick started

And now it's banished by her rule

I fell apart for a bit, not sure if I'm

Together again, just yet

It's just a letter I write from the base of wall

Which I fell off last night

It was just my pride that's hurt, I'll bet

I'm back in the land of the living

And I'm trying to live without regret

The body snatchers

 Moving the mannequins

How do we carry them?

How can the body be spare?

Nobodies, everybody nowhere

Nothing to wear, no hair, no air

But graceful poises, not making noises

Standing so silently, spare

In use or out of it, in storage in the cupboard

Up in the attic

Wholly vacant like some static

The status quo of not moving at all

All hail human existence

Looking in the mirror at the dummy

The numb, dumb country bumpkin

The straw man, scarecrow

Worzel Gummidge figure

Come in to transfigure the interior design

Portfolio of foliage

Caught a cold you know like Coleridge

Walking out in the snow and storm like Keats

Cathy come home staring out the window

For Heathcliff

On the cold moors, the dale

That separates our homes

Mechanical walking of limbs

Legs and spare arms carried

As if by medical students to the 

Dissecting theatre

The autopsy of the dead relative begins

Where is she now?

Where is her soul, I can't find it

In her model's eyes

What do I want with her body?

With her imperialist grey skies

That have dominated me

From sunrise to moonrise

The set order of a regimen of lies

To get me down the endless catwalk of Winter

Into Spring

Looking in shop window reflections

To make sure I still exist

And have not been turned into

Yet another of her mannequins

On her archived list 

Forty something

 I'm over forty

I've got Dr Wolff at my door

Howling out he's got a cure

For my grey hair

I'm over forty

Now I'm a victim of time and fate

If I wasn't before

Well now there's no time to wait

You see my father was over forty

Before I turned naughty

You see he is behind a bullet proof glass plate

And history always comes to those too late

They tell me to inject caffeine in my pores

They tell me to believe in the male menopause

Well I believe, I have no cause, it goes

The same with Santa Clause

But I don't remember anyone getting on his case

About his over rosy cheeks, rotund belly

Or beardy white fakes

Why didn't he ever use Just for Men?

I suppose they wouldn't trust any dark haired strangers

Coming undercover down chimney ranges

Probably would have burnt him in the grate

Than suffer the indignity of a milk tray lover

Whose cover's blown as is his sperm count of late

But as I say I'm an over forty victim of fate

I'm an over forty son of

A man who's over eighty

Who's father never run the clock so late

But you can't say I've begun to hate

I still feel love could come by my gate

And we'd meet

At number 28b

 or not 28B

Two score and twenty four blackbirds

Baked in a pie,

on Pigeon street

And don't be late

Valentines

 It's when you love the wrong woman

Valentines is a traitor's heart

broken in two

Pieces of a queen's tart

Lay it on thick

Holding all the cards

She's ready to take their heads

Queen of broken hearts 

How I wish you were dead

I thought I loved a woman

But in fact I loved the wine

That's where thinking gets you

Thinking, such a waste of time

Back in Blighty

 Returning to old blighty

It feels oh so mighty

With it's castles and mists

And memories of being kissed

In the dams and caravans

In the Springs and the Wells

Where I sprung a Welsh leek

And held a Scottish thistle

And the teacher blew their whistle

And I ran to pick up the sandbag

And I can't run anymore

I've been run down

Until I'm sore

Primary school against the wall

Counting down

Turning around

Looking for the wolf

He's always at your back

Ready to attack

Coming back to good old blighty

What a mighty time we had

But who are the good

And who the bad

How can we forget?

How can we ever be sad

Except what else do you do here

Kiss the salty sand

Wait for one gland after another to pack up

Take up the slack and bear the share

The burden

It's no curtain to draw

No blanket of sack cloth to wear

Nothing is for certain

It's all fair

Love and war

You've been trained for

Ever since you grew up

In good old blighty

They train you to be mighty

Have a mighty heart

And to save the ones you love

For you to play your part

They told you how to live

How to run the game

How to take and how to give

And how to feel love and shame

And that's why blighty's in your bones

That's why you are always called home

But that's why you must escape the chrome

Nelson, the brass buckles

The shining buttons and waistcoats

The statues in museums

You saw history through

Like a peach black wind through hair

But love was a cummerbund

Of your joy and despair 

A good boat

 She's a good boat, she's a good boat

She's a very good boat to me

I like her lines

I like her curves

I'd walk her planks

But I'd always swerve

She's a good boat for me

I want to row right onto her ocean

It's like she's the vessel of my emotion

She carries me oft, hard or soft

Let the waves lash or the winds us blow off

Course, of course

I'll hold her straight, because I'm tied to her fate

She's a good boat, she's a good boat for me

I think we could float on the raging sea

She's a good boat, she's a good boat

She's a good boat for me

like bombshells falling on windmills

 Like butterflies' eyes

Falling eyelashes from the skies

Like bombshells falling on windmills

Like sky thrills filling

The windowsills

With sly shys, with nice guys

And dolls

And ice cold

souls

Like bombshells

falling on windmills

Gravity lane

 Gravity lane

Fallin down

Down on my luck again

In gravity lane

Wishing well quarter

I threw a dime in the water

Gravity pulled me in

I forgot how to swim

Won't you pull me out

I don't wanna drown

In the town 

where it rains 

forever and a day

Down gravity's lanes

Gotta walk on the moon

I'm gonna leap pretty soon

It's gonna be like a swoon

But it might take me til June

Cos here gravity's thick

Just like your lipstick

And I could float on your lips

Only your rip tide rips

And gravity pulled me down

Don't wanna wear this crown

It's heavy as horns

My little crown of thorns

So won't you tear it off

I love you hard not soft

But I can't wear your cloth

It drags me down to earth

And I need to be free

Cos I'm made of gravity

The phases of the moon

She I can't follow

Up and down like a yoyo

There's the new moon

Better let her know now

She, I can't follow

Silver thread to her bed

The Waning Crescent

She's the lady in red

She, I can't follow

I'm like a rainbow on the blink

The Third quarter 

She gives me a wink, I think

She, I can't follow

Her summer swallow

The Waning gibbous

Her wax wings I kiss

In her wax work museum

And the full moon

Was I a loon crying at noon?

Was it a neap tide

Was she a true bride?

Had she lied? We all lie

It's just the phases of the moon

It's only true at that time

The waxing gibbous 

She was melting like a candle

Too hot to handle

I never tried

The first quarter hid us

Occluded from the light

I saw a polaroid flash

I saw a polar bear dash

Across a wire and I didn't care

The Waning crescent slid

Down our throats

Like a lemon slice

Like a glass of wine it disappeared

Brought into focus

The sharp taste

Bitter as leaving your lover

And that's how I follow her

like the phases of the moon

After the glitter had fallen

 After the glitter had fallen

The ball had stopped spinning

The music turned off

The costumes were hanging on their hangers

The models had danced their socks off

After the manikins of bodkins

Had scaled the omphalos of night

After the slim ones, the trim ones

Had returned their souls to the light

After their bodies and shoddies 

Had shouldered their blames and their shames

After the love of their eyes had smouldered

In their ear's last refrain

After their mouths had powdered and chowdered 

and lisped their clasps undone

Then I knew that I was older, but not

colder for the sun had still shone

As the hall let down its decorations

Like a dog shaking off

As a christmas tree moults its needles

So spring crept into our midst

And winter was a burnt out candle

That really no one could handle or miss

Still I knew I was a vandal for the words

I'd used when instead I should've kissed

Yet Jesus still lay on the cross

And Mary Magdalene cried at his feet

And all the holy wine had cost

The word forgiveness spread on the street

Lily

 C I give you all my love, F Lily

G I give it to you for C free

C I'll give you all my love, GLily

F Yes, your heart is the C key

C I'll give you all my love F Lily

G Without you F I'm all at sea

G Oh so give me all your love

C Lily

C I've seen you like a dove G

F In my dreams, in my C dreams

C I've seen you like a dove

G Who I've set free

C And though you're G flying away

F I know you can'tG stay

C But still I'll give you all my love

G Lily

C I've seen the stars shine G above

F And held your hand, C I held your hand

C I've seen the diamonds sparkle

F like jewels in the sand

G And you are quite remarkable

C Oh yes, my little miracle

G I'll give you all my love

C Lily

Reused love

 I used to love you

Like an American loves Paris

I used to love the allure

The romance of you

But now I am embarrassed

Because all you ever were was a false messenger

You told me straight , but I never believed

You loved not him but her

I used to love you

Perhaps I still do

Just like I love a mountain

I've seen while passing through

But now I don't want to walk up its paths

I don't wish to explore the view

I used to love you

But now I'm sure 

it's not true

You did nothing wrong

That was my thing, I felt too strong

It wasn't you but me

I loved someone who was

already free

I thought I'd save you, but he

He has been a slave to you

And you to he

It's not that I see a golden cart come round the corner

With all the promises you made to him

Look like a pyramid, but taller

I think you lied to yourself

That's all and I came along for the order

You served me a dish of cold radishes

And expected nothing but a mourner

Well I can't be sad when your relationship has died

Because in my eyes it was all lies

no matter how hard you've tried

If you think I'll mop up the pieces

Or offer pity to those who have cried

I couldn't be the man in that city

So lonely that I could have died

You've used and abused his love

He's used up now and you've sucker punched

The blues out of him

While he's mourning his system

Of doubts, and about that he's listing

Just look at the way you have kissed him

The back of the neck

Like you're paying his cheque

You better bet that it was love you missed in him

I cannot love you, I'm disgusted by this betrayal

It's all just a home movie portrayal

Of love gone awry

But I'm an honest guy

I'll tell you, I can't stand to see this low railing

It's better to kill him than help him

If you love me, then there's no sense in the whelping

He's a beaten dog, let him lie with the hogs

I have no more pity than is self effacing

I love you still it seems, but it's physical

It's not what it means

I'd love to be close to you

To know and play host to you

But the most of you

Is the tail end of what's been

If you pass her by

 If you pass by my love

Tell her it's she

I've been thinking of

If you pass by, if you pass by my love

I won't pass by your love,

I won't pass by your love

It is all I can do

To try and stop thinking about you

Oh I won't pass by your love

She loves you not

 She loves you,

She doesn't love you

I'm just another piece of meat

In the street

She loves you like a cider apple

Bitter sweet

She loves, she doesn't love you

Bitter sweet

How can the moon rise

How can it turn into nothingness

Before your very eyes

She loves you

She loves you not

Just like the knot in the noose

She loves you, she loves you not

Just like the cards fallen

Played out of suit

I am just a game to her

One she cannot lose

Because I am no flame to her

Just another guy who hangs too loose

will the winds blow her away

Will she peel the end of love

I wish she would die and go away

I have no more love to use

The ventricle I left

 It was the ventricle I left

The same one I had no right

To be in

I was lost in your heart

Bereft

I turned down a one way street

Going against the flow

Your heart beat to my feet

But no further could I go

The city's hustle and bustle

Was too much for me

A busful of fat tourists

Looking for Cathedrals

And Vaults, Crypts and Mausoleums

Just nothing of the mournful museums

I left the chambers of commerce

I left the hallowed halls

I left all my promises

Behind the bars of prison walls

I kept visiting the prisoner

But my words felt hollow

I kept my vigil

In arteries, that led to capillaries

In chrysalis that hung like carcasses

In cold stores of the heart

But the butcher came out

And asked me what I wanted to eat

He said you can eat your heart out

But I ain't giving you no free meat

I had to pay on credit

I've got an account at the heart foundation

But I left the ventricle

Ashamed by my humiliation

I should have had the courage

To go in and ask for what I wanted

But I've always waited to be given

When others deem me daunted

Yet to be a rich man owning a city

To be a working man making a living

What can discourage you? Need no pity

To walk like a rooster, ready and willing

To bet it all, on a game of chance

No to given nothing except a dance

In the hall of the second glances

In the tower of freelances

Waiting to free the maiden of work

From the fell clutches of her enslaver

The dragon of capitalist return

The serpent of endeavour

The vacuum of a worthless worm

Who has ensnared her

My sink overfloweth with love

 Like the sea and the sand

Like the river and the land

We go together hand in hand

Hold me forever, I'll be your man

Give over, the shoulder, leg of lamb

It's a lamb to the slaughter

Water on the lam

Water daughter never taught her

How to stay close at hand

She always ran off from the land

I'm a king of fishes, I'm a fisher of kings

I'm making wishes I don't how to begin

Leave me in the lake

Let me drown, I think it's a mistake

That I wear this crown

Will you hold my life in your hands?

It's like water through the holes

Like using a sieve to catch sand

I've been borrowed before

I've cut and run

I've bet it all on a ball

Or a roulette hand

Show me how to fall

Let me tear it all down

I can't hear your call

Now I'm a wanted man

Right in the heart

 There was a time when waters flowed

When feet tapped to the drummer's art

When people danced and bands played

When rivers ran right in the heart

When church bells tolled

When markets stalled

When children schooled

Right in the heart

There was a time when snow drops sprang

When church bells rang

When prison's cart

And so when men believed

In nation's pride right in the heart

Right in the heart the spirit sprang

The choirs sang

The sun rays dart

When skies brighten as dark clouds depart

And future's form in solid gold

Moulded in, right in the heart

And on palisades, or in rocky glades

where cider's made, a cunning craft

Where times have changed

But some things remained

Because they stayed right in the heart

The Amulet, and church a couplet

A twin, like chalk and cheese

So far from each other's trouble

But in a bubble of cider's seas

And the bubble burst

All the thirst was scattered seeds

So gather up and sow again

In fertile earth

The rain will fall, new life it calls

will spring forth out of the dark

As things must turn right before the dawn

And kindle fire right in the heart