Whispers

 Darling that look in your eyes

tells me that you whisper

That true whisper

Darling that look in your eyes

tells me that you whisper

To me

Every time you speak time flies

I could be in golden vespers

I could be a bold trespasser

Everytime you speak time flies

Everytime you're speaking to me

Every drop of light from you mouth

Every turn or change of your skin

Everytime I'm just flying south

Waiting for winter to begin

Darling that look in your eyes

tells me that you whisper

That true whisper

Darling that look in your eyes

tells me that you whisper

To me

Case closed -exhibit a

 I don't want to say it, but I'll say it anyway

I see her standing there

In the way, in a way

I see her standing as a model 

In a muddle saying i don't want

To be mollycoddled

I see her standing there

She is still as a manikin

And I don't know what's

going on under her skin,

under her skin

But I feel she comes alive

When I catch her eye

I feel she changes from plastic

To real

Yes I can play her fingers

Because they are like keys

I think she's like a skeleton

And I think that I must see

And I know that her bones

Are electricity

And on fire

And that we are already ashes

I can see her standing there,

An exhibit in her own show

And who can make it

As an exhibitionist

I can tell you I can see you

Through the lens of a lover

And the lens of her friend

But I'm only, Joe lonely

Just an observer in an exhibition

of her, yes I'm only passing through

reading the artifacts, oh so true

I've got to believe, what my eyes are saying

now

Exhibit b

 And in the hall of mirrors

The exhibits stand

Look what we can see 

Held in our right hand

A golden gun to shoot me

To shoot you and him

Two hands the silver bullet

Whose gun is going to win?

Somethings are golden 

when you look at them

from afar

Soon diminish in splendour

The more close up they are

You are neither of those

The closer I get to you

The more I want your skin

Every freckle on it

Every curve

And every grin

Exhibit A

 I'd like to draw the court's attention to Exhibit A

It's been drawn out for the jurors as if she's made of clay

I think you'll agree she's made of sea

I'd like to draw the court's attention to the article on the agenda

Let's call it mistaken identity or a case of forgotten gender

Exhibit B, you see, exhibit B

Everything in this courthouse is a kind of evidence

The swooping judge before us he'll hammer his gavel of common sense

I see the gun before me now, this is exhibit C

And everything that's drawn around outside the melodrama

courtroom 

Shepton Show

 

Birds of tomorrow

 Like birds of tomorrow

We fly apart

But together we tether

The wings of the heart

Needing no reason

Than the sky to depart

Like birds of tomorrow we fly apart 

Lady

I woke up and found myself listening to Top of the Pops

1986, Chris De Burgh was singing

Lady in Red

I love you 

But the walls of peace are falling down

I love you, but this is such a very

very small town

I cannot say you're my lady

Because you're somebody

else's instead

I love you,

You've made me crazy

You were my lady in Red

I've never seen you looking so lovely

As you do everyday

I want to turn to you and say

You are amazing

It's hard for me to stand by

And see you with some other guy

It's like a twist in my heart

You've tortured me apart

I was your patsy

In the assassination of your past life

You needed an assassin

Someone to blame your love on

And it either was going to blow you apart

Or it was going to make you more strong

Well you're a woman, that's your love song

It just turned you more into you all along

You're like a folded samurai blade

In the heat is where your strength is made

And what am I but the turner, the swordsmith

The one who loved you but can never carry you with

Him 

On your eternal motorcade

You are amazing

But I can't worship at your feet

As I suffer my defeat

Though I may have to retreat

From your campaign

You've signed the order

Brought the law forward, 

Sealed

The border

And I'm stuck in Mexico city

 on the train

going south

Over the Sierra Nevada

So I've never seen you looking so lovely

As you did that night

But you're like a mountain

Going out of sight

My lady in red

But the bumblebee's flight

Has ended now

Miami Mallet

 Miami Mallet

It's no Ballot

They've taken the tickets for the free Chalet

The heat hits you like an iron hammer

The street greets you, you start to stammer

Miami Mallet, Miami Mallet

I can't hardly stand it

Gotta get me out of this inferno

It's like a towering tornado

Of heavy heat flow

Overpowering pallette

Of scorching reds 

Miami Mallet

Beats on all our heads

Time's flies

 Time opened his flies

And let it go all over the world

Yeah time really let it flow

He must have been holding on for so long

He must have drunk so much of whatever it is he drinks

To make time his excreta and waste product

I can't believe we have to live in this fellows urine

When we find we're just living in a stream

Sit down Father when you piss on the world in your toilet

Said misses Time

You make such a mess of the Carpathian basin

And you splatter time all around the equator

It really takes me a goodly time to clean up

And I've better things to do with my time, Time

Timothy Time flagged, let the rustling leaves of his hair

Fall down

Forgot all about time

Dropped despairingly onto his bed

Mrs Time came in and said

Why so down Time

Why not get up and go out instead

Take some time out

Take the clock for a walk

Take the clock by the hands

And seize the day

Dream of 8th-9th August

 I dreamt I was escaping my house in Meare

And all the faces of good cheer

All the good and all the bad,

I ran, I ran down to the river 

Down the slopes

Landsliding way

And across the rotten planks

Of building sites gone astray

And flood in green stagnant water

All of the memories to me were short

But the flow

Of the river was fast and keen

I tried to hold on to rock faces

While avoiding the neighbours eyes

And not wishing to fall into bad graces

The judgement of others on the divorce

The swallowing river dragged me with it

The red gills of seaweed or ferns up the canyon walls

Did Meare ever have canyons? I can't remember at all

And above I saw bridges where the people walked

But I was trapped beneath them, I couldn't escape

The flow carrying me further along in time

It's personal

 

If I have been an arsehole

Please know it was not personal

I’ve just been feeling recently

Like a wheel spinning out of control

I’ve just let myself down

In so many ways

That I can’t keep count of the hurts

I’ve suffered and inflicted

Trying to prevent damage to my soul

I’ve got a sensitive disposition

It’s a blessing and a bind

I’d say I need a dressing every time

I speak my own mind

It’s not as if anything ever mattered to make me cajole

The good intentions I’m feeling

Always seem to lead me into trouble

I’ve tried to act holy, then I’ve acted shit

I’ve been accused of grand larceny

For the stealing of my own grit

And I’ve grit my teeth in a bubble gum way

Before I bit the dust

I was all about the time I’ve been double crossed

But trust is a rubber band you can’t stretch it too far

It’s not like a streetcar named desire

That’s a tail of a shooting star

Always disappearing on the horizon

Just out of my reach

If I can I’ll go surfing then you say life’s a beach

It’s better to be careful than to really go for gold

Everytime I tried that

I found the prize had already been sold

I’m always knocking up against barriers I find

And pretending they are entrances to a new corner of the mind

But I should have come to expect that the good just seeps away

It’s like a plane expending fuel never leaving the runway

I wish I could see you in the light that we once knew

But that was just an illusion like Cinderella’s shoe

I gotta make the cut

 

I gotta make the cut, I gotta make the cut

I can’t bust a nut,

I’ve gotta make the cut

There are no ifs or buts

There are no quips or tuts

I've gotta find my guts

I gotta make the cut

It's gonna be a hard road rising

It'll be the hour of my horizon

I'm gonna struggle in uphill toil

It'll be like a slope covered with oil

I gotta make the cut

I gotta push on to the hut

At the mountain peak

Where the poets speak

I gotta make the cut

Hail Mary

 I tried to see the light

And eat the humble pie

I tried to peel the flight

Of the bumblebee fly

I met a streaming knight

Who told me I could die

So I stayed in dreams all night

Until the Earth did pass me by

I saw a screaming kite

Fall from a darkened sky

And lay with leaves so light

They made me want to cry

I fell in worlds of light

That changed my waking mind

And tears so beaming bright

Rolled from my crystal eye

Mirror man

 I tried to save myself in this place

Keeping in my place

But the selfish hunger

The jealous dragon

Began beating its wings

restlessly

I looked myself in the mirror and thought

I saw the elvish ears twitch

The sign of the devil

The demon looked me in the face

And led me away from the path

Of righteousness

There is only strength in the fellowship

I thought I could handle it alone

But I can't

I need a higher power

Care home blues

 You sit around with dying parents

Who is talking to you?

No one

They just say it's heir apparents

Who take the glory from you

Affidavits , Cindy Crawfords

Executors of the will

Let me sleep

I'm slipping northwards

Ever rolling hill

Charge me up

And roll me backwards

I don't want this life no more

I've got nothing

From talking parrots

Who mutter negligible things and swore

They knew me before the years had passed us

And wiped the memory

Like a scar

Buccaneer

 Well I went away on a ship of pride

But my sail buckled on my ride

I thought oh God how can I abide

So I sailed back to my bed where I lied

I played, I played and sang my lungs

But nothing, no sound did ever come

The quiet beckoned, I was succumbed

By which I wished I'd never sung

I lay, I lay and read with stories and words

And filled my soul with myth and swords

And loves of Gods and dreams of men

And women's beauty which had no ken

And even this, it lasted not long 

for no peace came to me in song

Just pain and suffering no balm could ease

The suffering of loneliness was my disease

The love went missing from father to son

Some lack of capture needed so long

Some hole left before time had begun

Before life had realized I was made wrong

No thought could muster

No home for the spirit

Am I cursed as Custer

To forever wander, not win it

The battle is over, I've lost that love

Whether the wars of heaven

Can call me above

I wish no more from this earthly realm

I can find no joy in mind nor body alone

And I look for nothing in anyone's eyes

If I had a shotgun I think it would tell no lies

Easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart

 I went down to where the sea nymphs part

She was easy on the eyes but so hard on the heart

He said I want to try a bar where the people are

She was easy on the eyes but so hard on the heart

It was to my great surprise when the singing start

She was easy on the eyes but so hard on the heart

I sucked on a strawberry and chewed on a tart

She was easy on the eyes but so hard on the heart

Listen to me he said just wait until the best part

She was easy on the eyes but so hard on the heart

Changing places

 I found a place where lovers meet

It was just a pub down the street

And the blue times rang

A strawberry bell

The rainbow cupcakes

In garlands fell

And petals curdled in the milk

That churned a summer thin as silk

And struggled vowels

Spoken by infants at the growls

Of cats and parents

Gaggled-geese robbed Peter

To save Paul

In pools of grease

And myths of Saul

And teeth gave virtue

To empty strands

Where billowing forests

Burnt and sang

In cinder voices

And ashes cried

Their lidless eyes

To the skies

That no one spoke

That babies sighed

And peering smoke

Filled with lies

Evaporated

Purged

The fake laughs

Echoed

Nothing was chequered

Even the flag was yellowed

And people walked

But walked nowhere

For aims were useless

To their cares

As nothing but a river meandered

And God came back

And men and women haggled

Over bits of silver

And rags of silk

And we continued to drink

an alien milk 

Play on

 If music be the food of love play on, 

play on

If music be the food of love play on, 

play on

If music be the food of love 

I will hear you like a dove

play on, play on, play on

I met her in a chance hotel

She was there feeling well

I knew I couldn't

See my love so strong

I saw her where the willows weep

And the copper leaves of the beech

They landed on my head on the steep

The pillow of the sky was there

It was blue and I was square

And I knew I had to play on

Play on

I ate the food of love and it

Was sweet and was better it

had no ever bitter taste begun

If music be the food of love play on, 

play on

If music be the food of love play on, 

I noticed I was going well

I thought I was like William Tell

But all I ever was, was too strong

For the kite is in his sky

And he's looking down

With that eagle eye

If music be the food of love play on, 

And it doesn't matter how you go,

You could be a cricket

or a grasshopper jumping in the grass so long

so long

It would be the breeze to tell

That's written on the church bell's knell

If music be the food of love play on, 

I hear them softly sweeping

up the clouds where he is creeping

And the chimney it was keeping strong

The bellows with the arches played

The fire through the old arcade

If music be the food of love play on, 

play on

If music be the food of love play on, 

Listen to the hearth rug play

It was playing some charade

Of love and lovers in the song

in the song

But it was too much for me to take

I had no love except mistakes

If music be the food of love play on, 

play on

If music be the food of love play on, 

play on

If music be the food of love play on, 

Castle Rock

 Around Castle Rock

Like a giants frock

The sea, dresses and undresses

It twice a day

Twice a day it is exposed by the tide

Its two naked cliff trunks

Like twins forever tied

A natural fortress bearing the brunt

Yet its moat abandons it

With the river’s violent shunt

They stand like vast stone legs

That once held a giant’s torso, but not now

Only the Greater black backed gull eggs

Its arch like a mouth swallowing

The river, greedy for its hollowing

Out, to be gone forever

It says my time is come

The last ice age, never took me by chance or design

And I can’t wait for the next one.

 

Castle Rock

These elephant legs without a trunk

Steady as a Flat Holm Monk

Rock of ages, Peter’s chair

Strata stages,