Cave trip to Mars

Why did we come to the red planet

The red sandstone caves

Where water once flowed down Martian well

And Civilization once braved

Why did we come back here?

To discover the bones

Of the long dead ancestors of Earth

Can it be true that the red once was blue

Can it be that Mars gave us birth?

What was it like, old father old mother?

To be the first life forms in the system

To grow and devour

Then feel the sun's power

When all your dreams went down the cistern

What did you see Martian sister and brother?

Martian cousin and Martian uncle and aunt

Did you remember to love her or did you discover

Love was a seed you couldn't possibly plant?

I wish your trees and streams hadn't died

I wish your rivers and oceans hadn't dried

It must have been good for a time that life

But life can quickly change hue

When the green comes out of the blue

Red, is the colour of war

Was there famine and pestilence that you abhor

Did the horsemen come riding to the count of four

And did Apocalypse beg the question

Or had the Red death never a mention 

The Mars Rover

 Well he roved out around about

The red hills and the mounds

And he Roved into tunnels

That led to caves underground

And inside every crater a martian he espied

And the next time he looked like rabbits they'd multiplied

But he could not catch one, though with his hook he tried

And like a martian fisherman, he cast his net far and wide

Yes they call him the Mars Rover, as he roves round and round

And he can look in every nook 

And Cranny that he found

But there be some hill which he cannot face to climb

And there be some cliff tops from which he cannot

face to look down

Yes they call him the Mars Rover

As he Roves round and around

And if you bend over

You might think him Earthward bound

But this is his home now

For the next six hundred years

Or however long it takes us all

To step foot with eyes, nose and ears

For then when we might look

For ourselves at the tresures he's found

And not just on TV screens

With it's surround sound

Mars babies

 Mars Babies

Get born on Mars

It's a one way mission

Retired people - get your pension and go

Beautiful women go to Mars,

Little choice of men, Marsmen really

Redplanet daily, your newspaper for the year,

Not much to report on here

Quite a boring journey there

Get through a lots of series

When you get there

Grow poatoes

Build a new colony

Cement your place in history

Produce oxygen and air,

a new plant

Moon house

Mars House

Cold winds of March

 Cold winds in March, you know how I feel

Cold winds in March, nothing seems real

Leaves on the trees all blown away

Catkins are growing but there are no buds of May

Snow drops on the ground yes they are real

But the branches I found, their bark does peel

All winter I know, feels like snow

Cold winds in March continue to blow

Dead leaves on the ground, this is all I've found

Cold winds in March blow all around,

Lean on the arch, look into the garden

See how your garden grows

Frost flowers harden, leaves covered in snow

Where did our love, where did our love go?

Lost in the Marsh, where the cold winds blow

The cold winds of March that we all know

Cold winds of March are filling the tower

Where the seamstress sits sews hour onto hour

Losing the thread, somehow she still sews

Those cold winds of March that we must all know

A Night Out

 Beauty and grace are the enemy of old age

Music and dancing

Capture the moment

and bottle it

In all its exquisite beauty

It is in a hug

Or a simple touch

He danced with the tall one and 

The round

The bouncing bosoms

And the sound

Of the crowd

The Strings that were plucked

In the beat and the time

The tall and the short women

The Bodies of prime time

And moving under silk dresses

And sliding 

In their high heels

And tapping on the floor boards

And swaying of their draws

And the beating 

And the violin, the castanets

And the trumpets

Timpani-fandango

Ringing bars

And jugs of water

Filled like

Mountain lakes

And landscapes full

And swallows of mistakes

Flown far above the mottled plain

Out to

The care takers of Mars alone

And care of the colours of the green light

And the colours of the red

And the records ever playing

Going round and round my head

And I remember the pumping fists

And the reaching for the sky

And dancing next to somebody

And doesn't have to try

And the stroke and the beat

As the violins draw across the strings

In harmony that blew the roof off

The Top of the Hall

To catch a clam

He was the most courageous of fishermen only the size of an oyster

When he walked out on to the harbour walls

The other fishermen would cat call him,

Hey little man can you date a crab? Can you ride a fish

Like a performing Arab?

 

But Peter Grimes just ignored them all

As he set off in his miniature size coracle

With a tin hull, for it was a tobacco tin.

 

Yet he knew if he could catch on a fish he would eat like a king

And it was his wish 

to woo the very most beautifulest maiden of the town

Buy landing her a haddock

Upon her gown

It doesn't matter how big you are she had once said to him

Only that you believe in yourself and sing your own hymn

Well if size didn't matter then Peter could surely win

The heart of this maiden who was so entreating

 

He went off in gale and storm and Hurricane

And his little boat was tossed like an oyster shell

Across every swell

And each wave was like a mountain

And each trough a bottomless well

But he kept on sailing his good ship lightning

To what end none could ever tell

 

He'll never catch nothing said the fish wives

Look he is far too small to sail

He should just give up and become an accountant

And live his life counting seashells

 

And the fishermen they jeered at him

And ostracized him in the pub

But there's the rub,

To sleep perchance to dream he thought

Of catching his girl a pearl

 

If they called him the oyster sized fisherman why then

He should dive down and pick up a shell

And tussle with the muscle

Which owns the grit

And has wound it around oh so well

 

And she could even have the mirror to hold close

To her breast, 

And take it out to preen herself

And even look her best

 

And I would live in her pocket

And be next to her warm love

And We could fit together like a plug and socket

Or indeed like a hand and glove

 

Now I must dive down

To the ocean's bed

Where the clams clap hands 

And applause the fish schools

As they go pirouetting overhead

 

So, he descended one day deep down from the harbour wall

And swam around the lee of the island

To a sheltered little cove

Where once he'd spotted an oyster bed

But which the other fishermen didn't know

 

And he took his chance in the morning light to dive

Down into the blue

 

The waters they were deep

But clear enough in the shallows

And he swam like a fish propelled by his wish

To be the pearl king of the marsh mallows

 

Down inside the oyster bed rows and rows of oysters gaped

Their mouths were open, then closing as the ate the passing plankton

And so, Peter crept up slowly hiding behind seaweed

Then pretending to be an octopus, he ballet danced across the sea mead

Two shells he saw in situ, empty they were of clam

And so, the two halves he held around him and said now 

I know who I am

A wolf in sheep’s clothing

I shall tread among their flock and when

They least expect it, I shall give them

Quite a shock

And hold open their vice like mouth before

they get a chance to shut

Then I can reach in and grab the pearl

And swim up to the prawn shop

 

So he began to do just that picking his way surreptitiously

Among the early morning clam fields that day

And none of the oysters really noticed him

Though they gave him some funny looks

Who is this strange looking oyster who is walking the wrong way up

And shuffling and tripping

over open lips

But none of them blinked an eye or moved

So at last Peter came to the mother of all Oysters

Perhaps she has the Mother of Pearls?

So he moved up to look down into her giant mouth

And as he did so

His half shells fell away

And he was revealed as a fisherman

Well instantly the mother oyster she gobbled him up

And as she did so he felt her slimy jelly stomach

sloshing and washing about

So frantic now was Peter

That he beat upon the walls,

But they were tightly shut

And his hand was cut

And his spirits began to fall

Until all of a sudden in the glimmering

mirrored dark, he spied the precious pearl

And it was heaving about

and rubbing the mirror and an inner light did call

It seemed to say

I always wanted to leave her

I need to get away

Take me with you Peter

And I will make your day

 

So Peter picked up the pearl

And with his back against the roof

And his feet against the floor

He forced the Mother Oyster

To open up her vice like maw

 

And out he popped the pearl

Then quickly followed the man

But then though the mouth slammed shut

She screamed and shouted

About how he stole her world

"Give back my pearl!" she demanded

Thief, thief she called

And suddenly Peter realised he was in the middle of an oyster

field without an escape plan

 

Suddenly a passing octopus

He stretched down an arm

And picked up Peter and his pearl

And carried him away from harm

 

So impressed was the octopus by Peter's cunning and courage

You are a shape shifter after my own heart

Now well I can give a part

No longer need you forage

I will take back to your start

Your amazing adventure is over

And you can return to your girl

And You can wow her with your powers

As you present to her your pearl

 

I shall, I shall said Peter as he thanked

The octopus and climbed back up the harbour wall

All drenched he was but walked still into the tavern

Where she was serving ale

And when she saw him, she went a little pale

And the fishermen drinking like fish

They dropped their jaws into their dish

And the fishwives could not think of a tale to tell

They were speechless too as well

As Peter strode boldly up to the bar

And presented to his one true love

A Pearl the like of which was orient ar

Never had such a one been seen before and never neither since

And all who saw couldn't believe their eyes

 but in their hearts they were convinced

This oyster sized fisherman had as much skill

 and cunning

To hold his head high in the community

And never again was a bad word said about this

 Smallest

Of fishermen see

 

Body of lies

 I was talking to a lady who was writing a sketch

She came outdoors and handed me the script

I felt alright then I had to sniff

And soon I was sneezing, into her papery bits

I said I'm so sorry but I'm allergic to comedy

Can't you see I come out in a rash

If you tell another joke I'm sure I will cough at you

And then the whole mother ship might crash

She said I knew you were funny but I didn't know how strange

When I said show me the money

I didn't mean give me your change

You better be careful for the next line's coming up

And the end is a deadline and it packs a punch chump

As she said that I started rolling around the floor

You see I was in stitches, but by that I mean sores

For my sides they were itching and my brain did abore

I said I think my nervous system is malfunctioning

I don't this funny anymore

Finally came the punch line and the end of the joke

With that I was at the washing line, like it would choke

She said it's got you in a choke hold, I gasped "I think that you are great

But please don't write another sketch or else, I'll end up dead or a worse fate"

With that she lay her pen down, put no more words on paper

And I left with a frown, saying good bye and see you later

"Not if I see you first" she said, just a throw away line, 

But that onliner was a curse, for at once I fell down

My heart gave way I had a cardiac arrest,

The police came to put it behind bars

But they had to call a Taxi

Instead a taxidermist turned up

And stuffed me full of paper shreds

You see the script writer had torn up her script

And with her waste jokes I'd been stuffed instead

And so now I stand before you

A shadow of my former self

Just a statue of a comedian made up of bad jokes

But it isn't all that bad, because the next day she went for a PET scan

She said is it all right if I bring a friend 

They said of course you can

So then she brought me - her own private dead pet

Well they put me in the machine, to see if they could get

Any funny sense out of my remains, but it seems as if 

I never had a funny bone in my body

What they did instead was re-read her old jokes

They came out better now they'd been jumbled around by taxidermy

It seems she was pretty funny, so there's life in the old girl yet

You bet, you little bunny, and she even married a vet

They spent many happy hours reading jokes

To elderly dogs in nursing homes for the guides

Some of them had gone blind themselves

And it was like the blind leading the blind

But enough of that because as they say

All dogs go to heaven, but perhaps not

If they've gone to Mars already, then robbed a seven eleven

They will probably go to Hell

With the Mars rover, but he knew things were going well

Up until they ran him over

But they say in Space no one can tell a bad joke because

There's no gravity just levity,

Nothing to bring you down

Only maybe roll you over

The face that launched a thousand buses

 She had the face that launched a thousand buses

Mrs T and her entourage of Big Brew Nurses

Rehearsing the flag pole march of the trusses

She came from Mars with her drink of Champions

And all you need is two dozen teas a day

The Doyens of the tea drinking fraternity say

But oh brother these sisters will have their way

So drink up your cup on the national day

They'll drop a penny down the wishing well

And care for you like you care to tell

So champion the weak, make them strong as hell

And drink your cuppa up as you say farewell

I came to see the giants of industry

And their towering ships of commerce stand

Around Bristol docks like Captains of business

But then you let go of my hand

I fell behind in the swell of the crowd

I was swept up in the riots that flowed down the street

And they toppled old giants that fell at their hands

And rolled like Ozymandias down at their feet

Then one pulled me up to my full stature

She gave me a tea to revive me and capture

The spirit of old times as the nation's bells chimed

From the cathedral on old college green

She said here's a picture of all you have seen

Here's an old record cover of the yellow submarine

And here is another mother in the city streets so mean

But then I saw buses, then I saw buses race round my head

I heard beauty birds twitter, I heard voices that said

This is the face that launched a thousand buses

This is the hand that picked me up when I was down

And this is the drink that will help you recover

So donate your money now to the charitable gown

Come spend your pennies in old Bristol town

Lady of the lake

 Lay my body down in the reeds

Lay my body down in the reeds

Lay my body down in somebody's town

Lay my body down in the reeds

Give me a straw hat, give me a straw hat

Give me a straw hat, and lay me down flat

Lay my body down in the reeds

Lay my body down in the reeds

Lay my body down in the reeds

Lay my body down

In somebody's town

Lay my body down in the reeds

Lay me down by my sword

Lay my body down by my sword

Lay my body down so I may meet my own lord

Lay my body down in the reeds

Lay me down by the river

Lay me down far from where pigeons quiver 

up where the branches are harsh

Lay me down in soft marsh

Lay my body down in the reeds

Lay my body down in the lake

Lay my body down in the lake

Lay my body down without a mistake

Lay my body down in the lake

Let me see your reflection

Let me see your every complexion

Let me see your face, oh the one I can't replace

Then lay my body down in the lake

Oh the king is come home to his wife

She is laying down by his side

And they will know no more strife

Not in this nor the next-life

If you lay their bodies down in the lake

Spirit of Mars

A long way off in space lies Mars

The spirit of the caves spoke:

Who is that with the eyes of gold shining down her face?

The Sun said - 

It is I, Sun Queen, don't you know it is to me you owe your grace

The Spirit cried:

 no, for millions of years you've dried and scorched this place!

The Sun said: 

no my dear, it was the doing of your Martian race.

They tried to build ladders up to the sky, 

They reached beyond their reach

And from that pride they would surely die

It was as the Martian prophets preached

To try to touch heaven is a mark of pride

So many have done it failed and died

But what they missed in the offing was

To hold on tight to their cherished land

The spirit of the cave looked sad,

How can this be, that they never knew what they had?

Tried to stretch when they should have stayed still

Tried to fetch the impossible will

What destiny has taught them

Is to remain where water still runs in rills

The chorus of the Martian sand dunes

Then all sang in choir:

Oh what has happened to our promised land?

Oh look what has befallen us!

Take heed ye giants and heroes of other planets

Not to follow the example set by us

The water spirits who once lived on Mars are now sleeping in the sand

Take heed, take heed they sing anon in their water lost song

Water water nowhere,and not a drop to drink

The ice fox and polar bear, are unbearably white in ink

The turtle and the whale who once swam our seas

Are lost in the sands of time

Rolled under the rug of memory

And folds of slime and unbegotten mud layer the deep Martian plain

Like an ocean these desert dunes roll on

Swept by the red winds of a planet's pain

Blood red in autopsy of the crime

The all seeing moon Phoebus sings:

My eyes are filled with red, from the blood planet's suffering

I lost my rings, have you found them?

I lost my wedding bells

They lie broken in the sandy ground

No more do their joyous songs sound

I saw destruction from my cold height

But I was hot with rage

Oh these Martians caused the onset

Of the next ice age

How when they had plundered the Martian crust 

For all it was worth they turned their greedy eyes abroad to rust

And rest on Mother Earth

But in building their starships

They were taken ill in toil

And famine, pestilence and starvation

Crept upon them like a relentless snail

But it did catch them in the end

For finally their mission failed

With the loss of resources came the fight for land

And wars sprang up across the globe near and far at hand

Which none could hope to solve or understand

They fought until every last Martian soon was bleeding their blood

Into the ground

Then my eyes turned red to see the flood

Of blood leave its gruesome trail

Abandoned of its life the planet gave up too

And gravity a friend to so many, now became 

a bind for two

The last two souls left alive Martian Adam and a Martian Eve

And they left the planet on the last transport

Out to a distant reprieve

abandoned now the planet turned in its red sunset sinking way, 

out across the solar field for forever and a day 

Then Mother Earth spoke

Her voices sounded shrill

As the yelp of a pup:

Help, help the whelp

They're doing the same to me

My forest fires are burning

Polluted are my seas

My whale's song is drowning

In the dirty tides of misery

The men in their factories

The women in their yards

Building suiting and soldering

Robots for iron hearts

And doing their bidding

And bidding them well

Though they know not their nature's

Are in artificial hell

Developed and exploited

By the few who smell

Money at the bottom

Of the wishing well

Take heed, take heed the Angels cried

From a top the mountains

The well is drying, soon no more

Will flow the fountain

Take heed take heed the wolves howled

Take heed the bears baulked

Take heed the foxes spouted

Take heed the Herons squarked

Listen to mother nature

For she is whispering quietly to us

Press your ears to the ground and feel her cries

Of pain and anguish

No pain no gain cried the fat factory controller

No gain, no rain cried the weathermen

No money no honey cried the cockerel in the morning

Who was following the weather vein

No Sun no flower cried the honey bee

Who was shivering and dying

In an acid rain shower

No love no money cried the woman to the man

Ain't it funny hunny, cried the man back again

And the sworded word fish darted through the shallows

Because that was getting to be all that was left to him

And he looked up through his silver scaled eye

And saw the moon

The moon reflected the sun

Said - I am the voice of all mysteries past

What I have seen has come and gone so fast

I never forgot and I never laughed

Because I have seen life come and go

And I always will last

A reflected glory is what I am

I tell my story to the little lamb

Who comes into this world bleating and damned

To be another leg of mutton

But I shine on like a button

Lost in the endless threads of space

In the sewing basket of a pin cushion sky

That shines with a trillion pin pricks

And I say we are lost like a needle in a haystack

And all this mystery is fantasy

And all this fantasy is mystery

And what I am I am

And can be no other

Brother Sun and sister moon

I look upon the Earth gone soon

And at my back goes red Mars

Streaking a bloody horizon

Sister Sun and brother moon

The yin and yang

Of the silver balloon that floats above

But the big bang 

Will soon cause a mighty implosion

Up and down in and out

The breathing fire

Of inward doubt

The cave spirit rushes 

From hole to hole checking nightly

For the water vole

She was here I swear I saw a mouse

Creeping through my dark red house

But low and behold the water ran out

And then so too did the little red mouse

There's no home like space

 There's no home like space

At least you make it your own

As a Mars Rover you roam

From Place to place

 

There's no mark that's ungiven

By grace's decision

The fate's incision into conflict or crime

A plastic tree, a plastic hedge

What is real is inside your head

What makes a house a homestead?

 

Is it the plants, the sink or the sofa

Is it the door handles shining in sunlight

Is it the plans that you make or hope for

Invested, imbued with spirit

Human habitation

The scent and the sound

The movements the aches

The partaking in common ground

Perhaps all of these, and some vision

Of the future, what can you make of the

Home shaped mould, how can you create

A life you can hold

And treasure, how can you meet the measure

make the warmth to keep out the cold

 

So there's no home like space

And space is no place at all

But if you can create space

From the vacuum of thought

Out of nothing give yourself 

To make the life spark

You can be the creator of your future

Designer of your own destiny

Like an ace tennis player make space

To make the right move

Shuffle of the foot

Angle of the racket

Keep the ball at arms length

Like your problems

That come at you from out the vacuum

 

That is what space is all about

That is what the asteroids are dashing at

Like an interstellar tennis match

You must bash them back

To what ever corner of the space time continuum

They flew at you from

Like a ping pong of problems

But that is why Space can be a home not

Only a vacuum

So tidy your room

Make space, not war

Dirt is alright

What in the world are we all fighting for?

Space, space the final frontier

Whether it's in your back garden

Or free from the veneer

Of inward turmoil

To outward decrepitude

You have to clear your mind

Give yourself some latitude

And in the process of atmospheric freeing up and flying

You might find your altimeter begins to stop lying

And tells you some home truths

For those not only are hardest to hear but

Can also offer the most comfort at times

Like when you know somebody or some buddy's

Got your back, free from the fear of attack

That is space and home, so get back there Jack

If you are smart, you will know

That home starts with your heart

The Mars Rover

 Well I walked in the night,

Yes I walked it was so bright

When I walked in the light

Of the Mars Rover

And it seemed like a dream

Oh this planet in the solar stream

That shines its Red beam

Like the Mars Rover

Oh now have you seen

All the things that it has seen?

With its eyes like lasar beams

Oh the Mars Rover

And it comes on oh so strong

Through the dark night and the storm

That blows its sudden winds

Past the Mars Rover

And we all must pray

To see that Rover back one day

When his long journey is finally over

Oh the Mars Rover

Keep running

 Keep on running and you don't turn back

Keep on running down that one way track

Run on into the open, where no fences stand

Keep on running through the broken, through the restless land

And I look down at my feet, at the miles underneath

And I see the foot print laying far behind

But I keep running on in my mind

No there is no distance too far, no place I will not go

I'm gonna keep on running til the stars begin to show

And I will run on into moon shadow, run on over to Mars

Run on like the rover who knows he's roving too far

But I go because I can't look behind

Yes I will keep running on in my mind

Your love is like a ghost ship that keeps following my trail

And I will keep running from the memories of the times that I failed

But it doesn't matter who won or lost only that we tried

And I'm happy if I see your ghost I'll remember to keep running

On in my mind

Running along the shore, running into the war,

Running into a burning building, running the rich from the poor

Running on over the rainbow, running on into forever

Running on whereever I go, I'll keep running on like a river

Running into the desert, and running into the sand

I don't where I'm running to, I just keep running for as long as I can