That's life

 Isn't life such a comedy?

You lie down,

until you can't lie down anymore

And then you stand up

Until you are so tired of doing the things

You can do standing up,

And then you sit down,

sitting down there are fewer things you can do than when

Standing up and so you use your brain

And write something or make something up

Until your brain and your back are too tired to work

And then you must lie down again

And that is life,

Only that story doesn't make a very good song

Chances of

 I saw the Romans in their tower

I saw the holy ones who cower

And monsters under beds are sworn

To be in death what they weren't when born

And choosing life and spirit breath

The doors of reason's consciousness

Where tides are torn

On the seas high cliffs

Where land meets storm

As lovers' lips kiss

And broken on the wheel of chance

The plague is sworn

Unreal death-dance

To chew the corn

And spit romance

Under forlorn lover's glance

Will-power

 What would my mother's last will and testament have been

Before my step father changed it?

Life is but a dream

Closing the door

And turning the key

Dropping the letter in the trash

Because it won't be read anymore

The house is closed

And it will not be open again

The lights are on but nobody's home

Sacrifice or Your money or your Life

 The question it seems to me is:

What are we prepared to fight for?

If not for the freedom of a democratic people

Then what does our own democracy stand for

Does it only apply within the borders of the 

So called free Britain

Do we not stand for these same values abroad?

And if we don't - which seems to be

The political message we are sending then no wonder non-democratic

countries will expand naturally to fill the vacuum

We have only taken out sanctions against them,

We only think we can bargain for our own morality in money

We can buy off our own democracy if we are rich enough

But this is not a foundation of society, where the rich 

can live for themselves and the poor be allowed to suffer

This is not a value I subscribe to

Where is God in all of this?

Where are our Christian values?

We live in such a selfish culture that no one

wants to look at the greed and egotism in the centre of their own lives

No one wants to sacrifice anything

And this way without values is a slippery slope

It is a Russian landslide and we are standing at the bottom

Saying we built our house upon mud and straw

Perhaps deep down there still are the foundations

Of rock

But we need to rediscover thse pillars of strength before we can stand

up for anything

because at the moment the Western liberal democracies

Are having an identity crisis

That all their wealth has brought

At some stage we need to ask our selves the question

Is it our money or our lives that we value more

And what are the values we still believe in

That money can't buy

I can't help it

 íI can't stop staring at Nazis

I can't stop staring at Nazis

It's not fair,

They're right there

I'm in a central European bar

In a town name Miskolcz

And my girlfriend

Is ordering a slovakian snaps

I'm sitting at the table

And looking around at the scene

And there is a skin head nazi young man

Staring back at me

I can't stop staring at Nazis, I can't stop staring at Nazis

And it's unfair

It's so unfair

The Disadvantaged youth

Separated fromtheir father's love

It's the truth

They look for a system that gives them back their pride

Scapegoating the Jews

Making asylum seekers run and hide

Yet I can't help staring at Nazis

There is something so vulnerable there

Like they want to be looked after like babies

Which is why they shave their hair

They all look the same like in an army

They can fit in without an identity

And that is perfect for they don't know who they are

Oh I can't help staring at a Nazi in a bar

And he comes over to my table and sits down at my side, his girlfriend is waiting for him

But does he want me for his bride?

Is he going to punch me or tell me step outside?

Oh I can't help staring at Nazis whether I live or die

He talks some crazy language and I don't understand 

Then my girlfriend comes back

And he shrinks a bit

And we just keep on drinking through the night

Perhaps he wasn't a Nazi, he just had that kind of look

As a lot of them do around this town

It is their kind of hook

I don't suppose I'll return,

Though there was a nice old castle

If I see any more Nazis I'm going to explode

And they'll have to post me home in a parcel 

Soldering on

 I was soldiering on with my soldering iron

When somebody stopped me, I think named Brian

Brian I said, I think.., but he stopped me

It's Ryan he said, pop screw or Siad 

I said can I use a solder to fight this war

He said if you hit it against an iron door

I said can I soldier like I were an iron

He said no but you can iron like a soldier

And solder like a lion

Can I lionize my iron?

It depends on your pantaloon platoon

Well I said how about a panda division

He said don't you mean a panzer division

I said yes I was never much good at maths and in addition

If I substitue one soldier for another will the match

Be played as well?

He said I think you're thinking of the future

By looking down a well, try to focus on the present

With an iron will, 

I said I wrote it last Tuesday

He said with your consitution, 

I'm surprised you're ill

Well the fact is I said it matches my mood

He said it's a game of two halves

Well try eating some food

I said I've nothing to cook it on

He said why not try the iron

So I kept soldiering on

Thinking this beats talking to Byron

You keep working on that electronic circuit

Where the electrons go round, it's an eclectic gown

And they just drop down in poteniality

Same as me

Of Life and Death

I've seen you in the corner store
Next to the margarine
You were reciting Nietzsche's words
And the supreme human being
However the universal soldier
At the check out
Dropped his genes
Into the checkout girl's draw
And told her she was
Out of this scene
The director walked in all upperty
And wanted to settle a score
The producer had fallen in with the wrong sort
Of onions
And was known as 'cucumber obscene'
He said I'm not having this sort of carry on
In my show
You can go now,
But don't forget the blow
You owe me
Out back behind the bins
But he left under shadows of booms
Through the emergency exit
Behind a stack of magazines

Some time later the director
Was sitting in his chair
Interviewing a new actor
For the role of Fred Astair
So you say you can dance?
Well show me
Bring out the fast hearts
Lay your cards on the table
And the actor turned aces of faces
In his eyes
Black clubs made his boots
Diamonds stolen from skies
Sparkled over the spades of his shoes
And she knew
He had played his cards right

The next night
She was out there waiting for him
Ginger Rogers
In her costume
Of flowers in bloom
And colours like shrapnel
Splayed across the room
When she lifted her skirt hem
And swished like a balloon
All head and shoulder
and traction knee
All break a leg at the universal sodiers
Waiting in the quay
All sailors must love her space jamboree
And suck at their lamposts
Where she sings in the rain

It wasn't for love of money
That he stayed
You see the job was a good one
His days were arranged
And every brick of time numbered
Like in pyramids of the pharaohs
Egyptian mummies loved
To see their Cleopatre
And fathers and mothers all become
Strange when you think you don't
Their ancient histories
Yet it never comes out except when its laundered
No not the dirty money
The dirty mummy, silly
That's what I mean
And they reveal their mysteries
Inside a false magazine

Halfway to Heaven

I am halfway to heaven, halfway to heaven
I feel I'll be half way pretty soon
Well the stars fall from the bright sky
I'm walking down the highway
And the hills rise up to meet the moon

I'll be halfway to heaven, half way to heaven
Halfway to heaven pretty soon

Well I'm gonna get there my way
No matter how long the highway
I'm gonna walk a million miles to the moon
I'll be coming round the mountain
Stop to drink at a fountain
But I'll be halfway to heaven pretty soon

Halfway to heaven, halfway to heaven
There's a red carpet being rolled out flat
I've just got to keep on going
Though the weather may be snowing
And across my path walk many cats
I know that I've a dog star
Shining in the silver cinema
Some movie playing about a tramp
And there's a lady there kissing him
Well I can sing the missing hymn
I'll be halfway to heaven pretty soon

Lions of lives are roaring

Thunderous applause of the salt
encumbered shoes
That walk like
Pirates walk the plank
And give no shoulder anyway
To the crocks that give way
As they balance along their flanks

It must be seen to be believed
How strange it seems to finally see
To wake up in the world
As if from a dream
Of the long encumbered sleep

I never slept well
Why couldn't you tell
Each day in heaven
Was a night spent in hell
But somehow we got over these
Disastrous things
And somehow
It just feels so raw
Like peeling back your skin
Then sprinkling on salt
Or rubbing your wound with
Lemon
It stings, it is sore
Like I've shut my fingers in the door
And I carry no truck with that queen anymore

No I played my joker
And she played her ace
And in our game of poker
I got egg on my face

I did so wrong that I can't ignore
This feeling I have in pocket
This string on the purse of my
Rich understanding
Has come loose
And all the coins have fallen
To the floor where I'm standing
And I can't sit down
And I can't let go
And I've lost my crown
But must still act in the show

It seems I have cut off my own nose
At last
Just to spite my face in the glass
Where too much self analysis
Is useless as grass
To a cow who has lost all her teeth

I wish there were some safe place
I could go, where we would all laugh
And it'd be on with the show
But that ship has sailed and she
Has moved gone
Because I marooned myself on this island
With a madman's song

If I might say it
I don't know me well - not well enough

Pangs

I have pangs of sadness
Pangs of regret
Temporary things I cannot forget
Fleeting as sea gulls
Across summer skies
Like islands in the river
That rise then subside

I have pangs like shoulders
I shrug
Pangs like ripples
In an otherwise smooth rug
Pangs I want to iron out
Pangs that will not flatten
That want to shout

There are bitter fruit
That will not ripen
That hang on low branches of my gut
So low they brush the ground
Where weevils turn, worms are found
And the apples turn brown

Pangs like shattered glass in my soul
Like glass slippers I stole
But could not give back
Pangs of a dance
Where my feet were flat
And the music stopped
And when I got off
There were no more pangs
After that

The house of the Wolf

All the houses are dug like wolverines

The opening lines of smug underlings

Fall by the wayside of a certain despair

They know no happy endings

They forgo repair

I salute the happy cats

The bold bright eyes

The pigs even fly

Above their sties

And such are the cornered hues

When heaven lets go her deluge

Upon the unsuspecting folk

Dragged out and beaten put in yoke

I looked for humility in the hands of those I knew

Looked for a caring touch, but they were few

The salad days are over too

And looking back now I’m older

It seems colder there though almost new

The lucky ones with tickets to this life

Get to ride the train without much strife

Those of us without the fare

must dodge the inspector

When he comes to claim his ware

We must slip between the tracks, jump the carriages

Hold on tight to cracks, as the train rumbles past

Like thunder we shall ride the lightning last

Some of us must choose marriage

For that is the building block of society

By that token you earn your keep

In the land of peaceful sleep

And yet if you choose to rebel

What is there left which you can sell?

Nobody wants what you can give

A humorous life is what you live

Then is it better to live in drama

Of the fading corpse?

You know the deal, you’ve seen the scene

In the movie of course

It will be a re-run, of such pride eroding toil

That would break the back of camels

Sent out to walk on sandy soil

It would be a desert dry

And yet I think that I could try

For there is something left in the sky or land

That speaks of rain

And then a little rain could come

And freshen up the hopes of one

Whose confidence had been hard done

Under such a blazing sun

What I thought I knew about love

Love is digging,
it is not a tick,
It is not blood sucking
It is time to quit
What I thought I knew about it
Has been overthrown by a new suit

The kings and queens of the merry-go-round
Go-round, and around, and up and down
And they dance in their throws
They swirl in their gowns
But where is the jester? He cannot be found

What I thought I knew about love
I'm dumbfounded,
I think it is fitting but that thought is illfounded
I  thought it was sweet, but it is rotten meat
And it smells in the wells, in the day's heat

What I thought I knew about love is forgotten
I left it in the lake, it has sunk to the bottom
My haystacks of mistakes are burning beside me
But I can't see for looking through the smoke
Which misguides me

What I thought I knew about love is all sold
I wrote it in the magazine had my words printed in gold
But they are too thin for the story to be told
So I try not to give - in, just God let me be bold

There is nothing happening

The willow wilts beside the pine

The sure man steps over the line

The pair of lovers kiss then recline

And it happens in the prism of the mind

The face falls softly and is buried in the snow

The owl coos gently to the summer crow

And faintly a heart is heard beating in their tow

Like the sheep bleating in the field

Or the pig searching for the sow

The moon is cousin to the kicking sun

The stars and satellites are burning

Like a torch of marathon

The needles are in the hay stack

And the wine is in the cellar

And the porter on the station platform

Is talking with the newspaper seller

Couples disembark trains and meet

As in a garden old friends greet

The spring turns slowly into summer

As April days end in rain like a beating drummer

Firemen roll up their hoses

Old ladies at bus stops blow their noses