Tumble Town

 By now I'm almost there

That being the place

Where I can get somewhere

I'm no young man

But I ain't no square

Well by now

I would have thought

You'd have got somewhere

Well I'm doing my best you

Know it's hard out there

DOING YOUR BEST

tO BE fRED ASTAIRE

dANCING WHILE SHE'S SPARKLIN'

oFF IN THE clouded lair

Well, by now I'd have thought

You'd have got somewhere

So what do you want of me

Mr spoon

With your head shining in photography

Of the silver moon

And your legs dipped in the iodine

Of an ionized ocean

Oh where is the irony

In all this emotion?

I'd have thought by now

You'd have got somewhere

I saw you coming up the dirty track

Your wheels were dirty like a cigarette ash

I knew in your coming

There was no going back

It was like the bees humming

Over honey like cash

Now Don't you mistake me

I know where you're from

I've been there myself

I once was a bum

But I don't like your kind

Sniffin' around

So why don't you crawl back under

The rock you've come from

Any old Adam

 Well paradise was full of birds and bees

And elephants with long trunks

Tucked up their sleeves

And God said, look who's that man Eve

And she said - I don't know him from Adam

Now Eve, I thought I told you not to mess around with boys

You know you will break my equipment

These men are not toys

I have already given you several models named Steve

So who's this one Eve?

And Eve said I don't know him from Adam

But Eve said, this one's different, I can feel it in my bones

For now I've set the ball rolling, it's like a rolling stone

And please stop this cajolling, insistent tone

God said do you still believe in me Eve?

Eve said, well I don't know you from Adam

Just then a snake slithered down from up in the leaves

Eve thought he was a rope so gave him a heave

Hey kid quit pulling me down,  what are ya tryin to achieve?

Eve said oh you must be new in town, because I don't know you from Adam

Well if that's how you treat a stranger, I think I'll get myself lost

I can see a three leafed clover, there's a manger and a holy ghost

Perhaps if I went in, they might give me a warmer toast

Eve said I doubt it unless you can shed your skin,

They don't know you from Adam

And Adam said to God, I don't know if I  really know myself

God said here's a mirror, look within you'll find I am your twin

And so they embraced, like long lost cousins, and Adam got a lump in his throat

And God got a pain in his neck, and before you could say paradise

Eve appeared with an apple

Now I'm willin' to marry a twin, you don't have to ask me twice

But before we tie the ribbon, I think it would be nice

If you can introduce him, the one with the snake eyes

And God said I would but I don't know him from Adam

Bees in your bonnet

 All in the cans of the cantalope

All in the knowledge of the elope

He went with blinkers over his scope

And thinkers in his graveyard's hope

Sure you say the dogs will bite

Well it's you they bay for every night

And the fierce fires roar outside your door

And kites

That soar

Too true the cruel hand of time

Has passed us all by twisted crime

For fate will fall upon the wall

Where sunlight still shines

Then the dial on the church 

Shall cast its shadows like the birch

That sways above your kind of love and mine

That's fine

Inside the hour where birds do sing

And the dogs they cower as the bear does swing

His massive claw at your door

Or mine

That's fine

There are bees and birds and hymns

In the gutter with the butter and the pea shooter kings 

Who throw their shells like cartridges

Back at black and white partridges

flower power

 All your enemies are wooden

You said it as you walked out of the swamp

And all your needles are lost in 

Those hay stacks of your stomp

There are queen bees a buzzing

There are wild roses too

And the marsh marigold

And celandines

Know just what you're up to

Oh Butter wouldn't melt in your mouth

You say

And all the birds are flying south

You say

And if I take you by the tongue

Then your kisses are as good as done

So for the sake of Canada

Let your wild geese roam

And for the sake of united grief

Paint all your steel horses chrome

For I see your white teeth

And I know your false belief

In the idols of the tomb

But if you will bring your knife

I'll slice your butter life

And show you the sweet honeycomb

So show me the way to walk home

I'm lost and I need your advice

I've been tripping over wires

Talking with country squires

But none of them will leave me alone

So show me the way to go home

I'm tired

time turkey

 I used to lie in the gravel of the sun

For hours and hours

Used lie above the woodshed

On the virginia creepers

And examine the soft jews ear

That grew on the elder

That stood by the slat wooden fence

That sometimes blew down in the wind

I used to watch the cat walking along the fence top

And then she would travel down

and up the side of the house plot

I had a heart to love

All the bees in the foxgloves

But I can't say that now

I used to feel care free chasing butterflies in fields

Or watching snails wandering underneath Rhubarb leaves

I used to have that desire to find out all about the world

But I don't have that now

So this is England

So this is England

Walking down the High Street of a Somerset town

Shops are closing down

Or shut up already,

Walking with a dry mouth, parched

But The pub at the end

It hearkens no laugh

The bar is a dark place

The bar stools stand

Empty as a pocket

In an empty land

So this is England

I hear you say

What I had come to love

Has soon been blown away

In a wind of change

As across the motorway

The dust of dry fields

The corn storks decay

But this is Autumn, the voice of reason calls

And anyway what's the season, we

Still have the market stalls

And Artists crying treason

Writing written on the walls

Who's sold off this lovely land

The politicians or the fools?

Who voted for them in the first place?

In this government of crows

This murdering of Parliament

This place where no hope grows

And yet and yet I hear you say

This is Winter, it goes that way

Perennial seasons, people trying

To reclaim

The name of the rose

So this is England

Dig in your own garden and look after your own lot

Put up notices, beg for pardon

Give whatever you've got

Give as good as you get

And forget to pick forget-me-nots

For suckling bees at flowers

Could not count all of their stock

Store it in piles in larders

Fill up the honeypot

And save for a rainy day

For you know that happens a lot

Though we never spend

Even though today is no day to save

Gather it in at your wedding

Give it away at your grave

Yes this is England,

Hoarding your plot

And marking out the lines 

Where you go

Where you do not

And never throw a stone at a crow

Never break the glass houses

Because we've built them out of stone

And we've tied them on necklaces down blouses

Caught in the cleavage gap

Between two breasts boom and bust

Crying I must, I must, I must improve my bust

Yet leverage of whale bones, never

Moved the beached body off the beach

We saw the mermaids waving in the surf

We gave it a pauper's grave and tears of grief

This great flotilla of what was once our dreams

That came up for air once

But heard only screams

Yelling go back, go back

And warning us of the sand banks

But it was too late as The hull

Hit ground and broke the cranks

Yet this is England

We've landed

This place of our dreams

This isle of forever

Forever down flowing streams

Water, water everywhere, flowing down the sink

Water, water everywhere, and only beer we drink

April amble

 The bee did wend its buzzing way

Bumbling hither and tither and gay

In the spring's new light of day

Searching out its food

The willow catkins dangled down

A clutch of lanterns green, yellow and brown

The bees fandangled in their crown

And danced a gleeful jig

The season showed its streams of green

Its colours bright upon the scene

Though wind blew cool then warm and keen

The Merry sun did brighten

And winter shed its skein of cold

The spring snake slid out green and bold

The foreman shouts take hold, take hold

As the curtain falls to dampen

And in the sky the stars appear

Bright and bold, wild and clear

The fire flies dance in good cheer

Of silk they've spun to lighten

And quests take hold

And nests appear

the young are bold

and the rest are near

As I walked out

upon an April amble

Sing oh Lord

 

Sing oh Lord to the moon and the sky

To the land of the Blind

Where the pity birds fly

And bees buzz merry like the fruits and the flies

In the land where the pity birds fly

Sing oh Lord to the ones who have many

And the ones who are lost

But have not crossed on the ferry

Sing oh Lord to the Queen of the sky

To the Land where the pity birds fly

Hear their song, like a balm on the cherry

Like a sweet salve to the unchained mind

Hear oh lord how they sing you a tune

In the land where the pity birds festoon

Hear oh lord how their hearts are not heavy

With the price of their lives or the hanging moon

Hear oh Lord just what they may stir

In the land where the pity birds flew

Circus shorts

 The circus came to town

The ringmaster and clown

Not pulling any punches

Pulling lots of hair

Pulling over drivers

Screw drivers and survivors

And Pirates are walking around

With performing bears

She held a tiger in her hands

And camera in her pocket

Little miss Lucky locket

Forming figures

From the statues of dancers

Standing like a straight up and down

Bottle of Champagne

Bursting in bubbles

Walking in vain along the tight rope of years

Like hamsters in cages they rolled

Turning mechanical crane

Running round in circles

In the circus of the years

She is tied up and let down

Always the pull if you're a twin

Of the invisible string

The almost shared placenta

The picture of the womb

The acrobat and the firm believer

In the miracle room

Painting pictures on the ceiling

Of Adam touching God

And the trapeze artist

and aerialist are reaching

Ever reaching to hold the horse shoe

Shod

And in between the tug of war

Over the fair share of good luck

She picked up the horse shoe

And the elephant trod

And up and down and all over the town

In the arms of the clown

And the Ringmaster pursued them

With his crown of thorns

And bleeding stigmata palms

All the way through the lavender farms

And shook them down

And the bees shot out

The bees buzzed out

Train to nowhere

 Oh this is the train to nowhere

Going nowhere fast

One place we are reaching

Is back into the past

This is the train to nowhere going on so slow

The signal black out

Like in the blitz means there’s nowhere to go

The train manager told the story

The news it wasn’t good

We were on a hiding to nothing

Riding with red riding hood

Missing out the points oh

We had to slow way down

Point to point the brakes applied

But they’re all singing now

We’re on the train to nowhere

Between town and town

The rails are moving faster than we are

The fields are over taking us with a frown

 

The white waters gleams in the blue sky

The thistles and pines they sigh

The crows in a pair sit laughing

In their trees

For even they can fly faster than we

 

Even the bees who are hibernating drowsily

Buzzing so high

But their buzzes are more than matching

Ours cos tis reason this train won’t fly

We’re on the train to nowhere

It’s going nowhere fast

I think that my future’s frozen

But now I’m catching up on my past

 

Shepton on Show

 Behind the scrape the hotel slates

Fall from the roof that stand up late

Into the scoffs of hate and rebuke

The pavements soft from puddles of puke

And Shepton stands above it all

The show of hands is ready to fall

But play your cards right late at night 

See the lands of firelight

Where burning men and women fight

Like flames of candles flicker in plight

Shepton, Shepton on show

Shepton, Shepton on show

The windows full of birds and bees

And Coloured snow and worms that seize

The books they throw at the libraries

And the jokes they tell in the reggae-ease

Of Shepton, Shepton on Show

Behind the handpicked frieze

The bright rainbow is covered in sleaze

And thoughts which show the summer's ease

No greased elbow or lock-jawed keys

So cling to the clinker of unspoken word

Fly away like a jailbird

And say what you say without being heard

It's a world away from castle and sword 

Shepton, Shepton on show

Hush now

 Hush now since the waves are falling white

And the sea is beginning to cave

Hush now since the day is turning into night

And my love it cannot save

Hush now since the coast is pure delight

And the cove it boasts its haven

A safe ground for the boats to moor at night

While about them the storm is ravin

Hush now since the ghost of your father's light

Has visited you in the tavern

And he tells you he knows who cut his throat

While the bats roosted in the cavern

Hush now since the day is turning into night

And the bees are beginning their humming

And cicadas at the motel are spotting in fights

And security guards are bumming

Hush now as the rays are turning white

And the clouds are beginning to open

And the sun comes like a chariot in the morning light

As the sleep spell is almost broken

Windswept moor - a sting in the tale

Walking on the Godney mile

When out of the sky flew a missile

It pinned me right at the top of the chest

This horse fly, wasp or hornet's nest

It was like a flying dagger

On a loaded spring

That the willows had whipped

Where the bluebird's sing

But the only thing singing that day on the moor

Was the wind that whistled

And my cry of pain that soared

Well what I had now was a creepy crawly down my shirt,

I slapped and I wrapped it, but it stang me and it hurt

Then as it tumbled down my tummy, I thought oh mummy!

It will be heading for my waist and my shorts. What's worse!

Luckily the offender flew on its way

But now I had a glowing red bulge upon my gullet

It itched sore like buggery, and my throat swelled

From wasp thuggery

Led me to believe I had been bitten by a bullet's burst

I pushed on and I did rub it to try in vain to dull it

But the pain did throb like a mullet had slapped me off my perch

The moors rolled on in soliloquy

Of a Roman revellery, when Mars the god of War

Is charging full red of face

Belligerently raging, the wind's war was waging

And holding hostage

Willows, reeds all in its embrace

Fellows linked arms and swayed

On that tortuous fierce windswept way

And faced the storm as they face the grave

Together as one, in unity strong and brave

Well what a wasp, what a stinger

What a counterfeit saint and a sinner

To have stung me that way, and then got away

I'm a red rosette winner

My throat swelled up I began to gasp

The sky turned sideways, cast askance

I looked one last look in that final glance

Saw my world fall apart and a fleeing wasp

I fell for what seemed to be days 

Down the rhyne in the gutter of the moor's water ways

And saw there all kinds of monster misbehave

From Gorillas in the ditch to crocodile graves

From the tombstones of vampires who could never

Find their rest

To the boomtowns of rats, just past the last harvest

And they each were a forgotten race, by the race of man

Abandoned and left to fend in their wayside caravan

As I slept in the wasp's sleep, it's poison did circulate

It turned my cheeks a crimson red

It turned my teeth an ashen black

As I chattered I did hibernate

Away from men's minds and matters

Into the dreamland of the wasp

He hovers above the flowery field 

He zooms in and out of the farmer's meals

And around pots of honey left at the rainbow's end

And I see that he killed me, so I might be his friend

I wake up near midnight

My back it is sore

My legs, are like black defenders

And what is more

There are no longer two

Six instead is their score

And my arms and hands into legs were blended

Nothing like they were before

As for my stomach, a thorax hard shell

Ribs like some titanium

Or carbon fibre as well

Light and of the strongest mould

Nothing less than from the fire's of hell

And I have no bum, no hips, no body

Except a bulbous bulge and at its end

A pointed stinger swells

I shiver at the sight, the thought sickens my stomach

But as I go to rub my eyes I realize

I have none, and then my spirits plummet

What has become of my head I can hardly tell

My mouth is some tapered visor and

With pincers there as well

As for my eyes they are disguised like some huge

Side placed globes, that stare out in all directions

No left or right I know

No night or day either,

Just shades of bright

And this is how I find the ether

Like a flowing road of light

I can see the sky rails

Can see the pollen trails

And thermals, the tiny discrete lines

Too miniature for detection by human eye

At last I notice behind me, folded in some natal sack

My wings like a quiver of arrows, ready for the attack

As I turn myself over

I feel them spread out naturally,

And beat and quaver and wobble and trim

To the humming sound of a bee

I rub my legs together

In some natural preparation for the flight

And before I take off I remember

To clean my large eyes

Ready to have clearest sight

Then I am off, it is lift off

The first unmanned wasp or kite

Is blown by the thin wind

His life to rescind

Which is better? Fight or flight?

I sail in the eves, I investigate nooks and crannies

Where I fail, my wasp heart believes

It can beat all the crooks and nannies

That if someone does you some harm

This sword will rebalance the scale

And you have to be cruel to be kind

In this world, for loser or winner will mind

That there is always a sting in the tale

The Wind

The figs are burning in the bowl
The night time flowers hold their soul
They close then open
Their window holes
For the fir tree breeze
To waft air in

I'm in the middle of a tornado
And it blows, blows blows
Around my skull
But its calm inside my mind
My soul
Is whole
Like a cross wind

And the firs are blowing their customs
Their shaking down
Their interrogations
Like a cop in a New Orleans
Investigation
Sounding out a criminal

How innocently the wind now blows
So thoughtless in its mind
Its droll
Its happy to be on the land
Its happy to have left the sea
Its happy, its thick
As a sledge hammer
On a tree
Its thick not slick
Like an army of bees

Its drowning in stupidity
But its free this wind
Its free, its free
Of all logic
Or rules of the game
It knows none as different
To it we're all the same
It blows from the East
It blows from the West
It is a terrible beast
Or a welcome guest
It blows and it blows
Until it has us on our knees
And then from above
Its stops in a freeze
Like a whale opening its mouth
It is vast, unfathomable
Distance and depth
Going South
To the Equator
The warm antipodes
From the Winter Sport of the North
Where the ice bergs sneeze
And icicle teeth chatter
And breathes clouds of white breath
Til Snow flakes catch their death
And callous hands test
The warmest of vests

In the heat of the sun

In the heat of the sun
In the dead of the night
I carry a gun
So I know I'll be alright

But the Stinging bees
Begin to bite
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

I'm at a million to one
In the odds at the fight
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

50 times fifty ton
Of weight feels light
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

Don't shoot me son
I'm far too bright
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

The bulls in the field run
Broken fences in sight
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

Who knows where they've gone
If there will be a fight
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

The land is undone
The sea is in flight
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

The baker burns his bun
The king turns white
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

Blue habit of a nun
Black birds of fright
In the heat of the sun
And the dead of the night

Times of Yore

And in the aftermath
The whole world quaked
The little birds in the trees sang
Their big world beat
And shoes began their tapping
Down old familiar streets
While the new world was made
In the skipping heart beats

And each place that I had known
Came from some place beneath
The blood extracted from a stone
The thoughts of my belief

I thought that I had known
Just what you were about
But I had read too many books
To be without any doubt

My head was filled with big ideas
And things that I called facts
Just truths that had really been blown
Into God given laws or acts

And in actual fact the tombe
Was written in four acts
One of dancing bees alone
The second of marshaled cats
The third a screaming cacophony
Of Unbridled acts of joy
The fourth like some regret that's known
Only to little boys

And I stood in wonder of all that came to pass
The single voice in a woodland
Calling from the grass
A fallen tree in splender of its dying root
The fire of a birth right won fast
By fierce pursuit

And each were but an emblem of what I could enjoy
When I looked out from castle Eden
At the world He had destroyed

There were no sepulcred temples
Nor thrones of Kings long dead
There were no fire of barren towns
That called for John the Baptist's head

Only the rolling ocean
That answered but for itself
The carol of those lost at sea
Those far from home or health

I wished them on the journey
And sent them Godspeed
The briars and the tourneys
Twisting like the weed
One a rose of wisdom
The other a love sewn seed
Both fell onto fallow ground
Full of envy or of greed

And when they came to harvest
Nothing much of crop was reaped
But for the heads of corn
Whose ears were deaf
And whose eyes did bleed

I searched for the shepherd
Who could rescue the lost sheep
But he told me, friend
I cannot save those who do not bleat

So I called for the lamb
Who was lost and far from heat
And the warmth of the caravan
When the road has worn its feet

I waited in the small hours
Between midnight and the dawn
And soon came the fledgling lamb
Too tired now worldly shorn

We clipped its hooves
And sheered its wool
And once again it joined its flock
One more black sheep to join the herd
One more soul bound to the rock

Mercury

She holds the moon
in a silver cup
She needs no spoon
To stir what she sups

Silver is the honey comb
Of her memory
Of all the bees in a bomb
Exploding in her tree

Silver are the rain drops
Rolling down the steel
Stopping in the silver pool
Of the place she feels

Her name is Mercury
She changes like the ocean
Flows like electricity
Solid metal into liquid emotion

Mercury like a switch
Turning on to off
Letting the current change her body
From hard to soft

Precious as Silver
Conducts like Gold
Mercury in a fever
Changing faces like the moon she holds

Song of the Stones

Stone the crows
And crow to the stones
The litmus paper test
Of a life alone
Jeering, cheering the dog with the bone
Stone the crows I'm all alone

Stone the bees
They've buzzed for me
For the love of three,
The bark of the tree
Stone the bees

I've walked along
The single ducting
In the sight of wireless fluctuating
The needless tyres
On the wheel of life
That keeps on turning
As a turbulent strife

Song of the heart
Song of the Stones
Who stand apart
And never are known
Yet see with eyes as mysterious as seas
Quenched in the fire
Of the Sun of Salisbury

Disparate parts

All the songs of virtue and
The bees whose invisibility rests
Upon the very backs of business
On the trees of Budapest

They circumnavigate circumference
And infer the situations the best
That care and love are held in reference
To the bodily boldness of rest

They cut the curtains of coincidence
And draw up the dawn light of truth
The toads in the road
Have utterly showed all manner
Of amphibious proof

That a creature who lives underwater
Can likewise breath on dry land
Even if the air is salty and bare
Or in the fog of undeniable hoof

The horse of the city is running wildly
charging outdoors holding counsel
With the wise men who have bolted
The gates to the poor

The rich are in their towers
They are behind their pearly gates
They keep the castle from disenfranchised powers
Yet hope springs though it maybe late

I have shown the circumstances how to sing
And the sirens have followed my voice
Alarm bells down the ages ring
Though nor do they have a choice

A feather in the cap of calypso
Who turns the board to the surf
And paddles out to meet the tornedo
Between Cape Cod and the Caribbean turf

The followers of pensive penitentiaries
Are imprisoned in a pendulum well
Because everybody in the cemeteries
Keep swinging between heaven and hell

I've seen it so it must be true
That jokers cast their shadows blue
Across the poker tables cue
The players to up their ante

A castle in the river fell
In three feet of water but six could tell
A good cousin saved from a living hell
Was one sinner best lost than forgotten

I'm asking you to pray for me
To open up your heaven for me
The only work in the world that's free
Is to do his will in his kingdom

There are no more ghosts to save
Apart from those who have not found the grave
And will search out the bold and brave
Until they've done his bidding

I should like to end this now
But I really don't know how
Perhaps I will just stop right here
And don't cry, don't shed a tear

The Whimsical Wood

In the whimsical wood

Is where the dove cot stood

Away from light and power and Magic

It grew too cold and soon was tragic

Then the whimsical woodsman came along

In his way with an axe

He sang his song

And levelled the trees which had stood there long

And let the light shine in

And the dovecot stood

In the whimsical wood

Just waiting for a dove

To fly down from above

And give it a sign it was true and good

Finally one day when the woodsman was asleep

Down flew a pair of doves

The dovecot to keep

And they made their nests

With a ‘coo’ and ‘cheap’, ‘cheap’

Gently rolling their soft vowel sounds

To the woodsman asleep

Inside his dream he was wide awake

Aboard a great Ark, like Noah did make

And along from the skies came a wandering dove

Who dropped an olive twig in his palm,

And spoke of love

All around him was a flood

Like around the dovecot stood the wood

And he knew not just about what business he should

Unless it was to speak of love

And as he did the waters receded

Just as the trees that once he had seeded

And his Ark it reached the land

Well then he awoke from his own dream

To find who had spoke, was a dove on a beam

Coo-cooing here and there

They flew in a pair

But startled when he moved

And flew into air

Come back, come back he pleaded and pleaded

But his cries they went unheeded

So he sat back down in a torpor

And stewed like a tea bag left too long in the water

Finally he grew black and bitter

What need have I of trees?

Without love nor Birds nor bees

I may live in my wood of high walls

And if another high tree falls

It will not be by my hand at all

I will live here in the dovecot

Penthouse Quarter

So he laid down his axe

And began to relax

Inside the walls of his new dovecot home

That evening on the breeze

He thought he smelt the smell of the seas

He saw the rustle of the leaves

Then in the dovecot’s eves

Spied his first love

The dovecot owner’s daughter

‘Hey there come down’

He coaxed her

She gave a coo, fluttered and flew

And he saw it was a dove

Returned not the daughter

Though sad, yet relieved

To find hope in the eves

He fed the little bird some grain

And it was bad he believed

To build high walls of pride made of leaves

Just to hide and cover up his pain

So he resolved the next morning

Without further warning

To break the spell of longing

On the whimsical wood

He took his axe and his belongings

And set out through the thronging

To carve out a new pathway made for good

The going it was hard

Often times dangerous

At night he stood guard

For wolves or bears, quite treacherous

Underfoot sometimes rock or stone

From the sky sometimes thunder

Rain or blistering Sun

Down valley and up hill

He used his woodland skill

To make a path to freedom

From the whimsical wood kingdom

Past the hives of honeyed bee-dom

To the land of shrilling shrill

Once his path was made

He then became afraid

That, others might tread down his road

But determined not to be a toad

He would carry the load

And deal with the consequences

Be they light or shade

One day while he was chopping

Near a time he thought of stopping

A lovely maiden upon him strode

She looked like sunshine popping

Through the leaves as they are dropping

And his heart it gave a coo like in a dove’s abode

She smiled and sat down near him

He stopped when she began to sing

A song of love I have been told

And from that day his heartache mended

No more high walls of Pride to be offended

What’s more the doves came back

To their woodland hold