Cave teeth

 I'm searching for the nitty gritty

Getting down and dirty with the crew

I'm checking all my facts

Balancing equations til I'm blue

Like rabbits pulled from hats

Or streams down a sinkhole

Money flows or so I'm told

Into this vast cavern

And the devils in the detail

But he wears a thorny crown

I'm digging for dignity

dig for the nitty-gritty

When the chips are down

The cave mouth

And the stalactite teeth have fallen out

And the gaping cave monster

Begins to shout

I think no

It's only a moan

Because it's got toothache

A cavity beneath

A stalagmite

An abscess in the root

Where is the root of this mountain?

Washed with listerine

That like incy wincy spider

Runs down the spout

And comes out unseen

The thinking hill

 Under the hill 

And over the dale

The water runs on

In buckets and pails

And lamp lights glitter

The streets full of litter

Of the debris of the day of its flooding

Like getting blood from a stone

The mendips alone

Aren't places to roam

But men may atone

For sins they've committed

Or rights they've done wrong

The swords in the stone

Like the words in the song

And I have a home 

In the hills of Rome

Like in Bath the seven paths

All lead to one

Beneath the settled slabs

The calcite, limelight

The shining light shone

Flashing in the darkness

Of Remembering black swan

Gliding on the white lake

Of certainty throngs

Of people gathering above

In the busy world all day-long

But in the quiet echo chambers

The sound reverberates

It's a kind of cranium

a skull

Hollowed out by evolution

Of the water-blood flow

To breathe new thinking space

Into the timeless blue

This hill is a head

That has been contemplating time

And the world for millennia

Each epoch creates a new network

Of channels

Water was its neurons

It had water on the brain

The rain fell on its crown

And it began to think

I am a hill, a rock

But what is a rock

But a composition of chemicals

Elements and minerals

A body waiting to react

To the lifeblood of water

And in the thinking it loses itself

A part is washed away in the flood

Of passing thought through the passages of time

Yet the loss is like a growth

A thinning of the excess weight

Of past ideas, preconceptions

And judgments about the world

That proved false

Or only true for the time they were laid down in

No longer a present reflection of the status quo

Do Caves smell? epidemics.symphonic.blatently 27th January 2024

 Well actually yes, sometimes due to phenyline phosphate from old

carbide lamps left by previous generations of cavers - this is a garlicy smell

Mixed with the sulphide or sulphate component

That smells of rotting eggs

When you are digging out a cave mouth like we were today at Thrupe lane

Then you may get splashed and then be "diggered" which means covered in mud

Other conversations were about mice or rabbits being trapped and dying and giving off a horrible smell.

The naming of caves came up

We were at hobnail hole

and Thrupe lane swallet was by us

Inside was Atlas cavern

At Wigmore cave there is a place called "don't feed the ambulance"

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 

dig

 Dig, dig

Stones from down below alone

The earth must be lonely

So full of holes

Missing some parts

Run through by rivers

Like a pin cushion the Mendips

The rain water's silver darts

Cutting a way

Shooting in the dark

Down below consciousness

Where proto-thought does spark

Primeval, not even

A feeling or a hunch

The rock and sill is breathing

But like an animal bunch

Crunching and mindless

Yet beautiful and measureless

Caverns of such exquisite beauty

Dig, dig feel the throb

You're near the pulse of the earth

The heart of nature, where

her life blood bursts

Forth upon the slimey organs

And the organelles, the vessels and the vapours

The aromatic aprons of silt and crustaceans

That move like slow crabs

That dive like whales and dolphins

Deep beneath the surface

Only to come up back for air

Blow hole, sinkhole

Gills and shark nurses

Chapter and verses

Of the sedimentary book

Read geology like a bible

First a dribble

Then a full flown bark

Nothing but the desire

To return back down to earth

Return back to the womb

Of Mother nature's birth

Smothering, something

Unnatural in this boring into her belly

Yet where else to live

When Strictly's on the telly

Mole men and rabbit soldiers

Dig down into the boulders

Following the veins

The bloodhounds gone to ground

Mole men and badger men sniffing out

The gold, the finds,

The fires of scent

Arousing burning coals of eyes

Glint of fire in the soul

The light that burns the brightest

In the passages of dark

Is the light of the human heart

Such decoration as in a basilica

Stalactites stretch into stalagmites

And columns form the rock salt body

Ectopic growth around the womb wall

Wolverines dig for streams

Standing panting in muddy pools

Surveying their discoveries like

Some pioneers of opalesque halls

Smooth marbled bowls

And balls rolled over one another

Like in a hip joint, the bones

Of the earth are polished

To a varnish finish

By the master craftsman-water 

Jupiter underground

 Caves barred off

In the past from Neanderthals

Humans had to earn enough

From their payrolls

In order to afford the leisure time

Once again

To live like troglodytes in holes

Though I think our ancient ancestors would

grin

Their ancient wizened hairy grins

If they knew we had gone out

And back again to our beginnings

And you see we left the trees too

To go down into our houses

And visit animals in the zoo

Or pay exorbitant amounts

To have oak wooden panels

To make our floorboards and walls

And rocks that look like frozen jupiters

Giants stuck there underground

Titans of the rock face

Garden

Stare at Prometheus unbound

What has nature done to Kinship

What scars have her talons torn?

Sacred marks on flesh adorned

Like a crown of holy thorns

Sits the Kingship of man

While nature with her beaks surround

And peck his liver out each morning

Fresh another Eagle screeching

Flesh his breakfast on man will dine

Yet for stealing secret knowledge of fire

He has to this rock been chained

By Jupiter Titan king who reigned

Down his unjust treatment meted

Upon poor Prometheus

Until a Hero did free him

Hercules with Apollo's bow and arrow

Sheared the chain which kept him stowed

And tied to a rocky eerie

How the men and women did query

Who is he and what labours has he lost

or gained?

As it was while he was chained

But breaking free

Hercules and he

Went on down the road

Sidcot Swallet – Burrington Coombe Nov 9th 2013

Down, down into the deep

Into the depths of the hills which sleep

Earthly death the temporal bowl

The bowels of the earth

The hell hole

Dark and black

Damp not cold

Warm as bark

From the fires below

Down we go, down, down, down

Down to the depths of the pits dark pole

Rock that’s round, slime and mould

Warm and black don’t lose your soul

Farther back, farther still

Reaches the slack of the Mendip sill

Subterranean rivers run

Inside the place hid from the sun

Farther back and farther still

Runs coal black the rocky gill

Breathes the stone lung

Its wet warmth not chill

Yet eerie stack upon stack the boulders fill

When so far down

Beneath the crown of the hill

When above you lay the weight of a hundred ton sill

What drives you down is an impossible will

It draws you down

To the world beneath

To cavernous clowns

Who hurl your belief

Into echoes around the hideous relief

Where a voice may drown without knowing a grief

Where the fantasy stalactites like acrobats stow

And chastened as sleeping bats roost under bows

Of roofs a thousand feet below

Below, below, to and fro the arches bend and breech the throw

They lend a spectacular frieze

As in a cysteine chapel we fall to our knees

And reach such wonder lust as only heaven must know

A man must be humble, crawl and lower like a snake

Slither on belly, on back on sides between cracks

Around bends without using his eyes

Just feel with his feet

Trust to the unknown

For it is in refusing to accept defeat

That for our greater sins we atone

Witch's wedding

 It was a witch's wedding

Down in a cave

A witch's wedding

But never a guest looked grave

Through the cob webbing

As the candlesticks save

And the yellow lights shone

On the walls

Who's echoing screeches gave

The tides on the shore were ebbing

The sun dial's chimes did call

A large cauldron stood four feet tall

And into the pot went all manner of fool

A four legged friend even one foot stool

Friends until the end as the frog's legs sprawl

And the preacher she was a creature of

A most hideous hide

Jagged as a stalagmite

Only matched by the wedding bride's

But beauty runs more than skin deep

And these had rhinoceros hides

Such beauty had never walked such caves

Not since the Halloween's tide

The witch was given away by the star of

The scene 

as the devil walked in there

Turning all the wedding guests green

Ah my sweet Papa said the witch

And bowed to kiss his tail

The mysterious man showed grace and poise

And in his duties never failed

"A fine young man your bride groom is

As father I do approve

Just mind he is versed in the dark arts

And his station it will improve

I shall turn the world to my will

And ensure his career is skilled"

Oh, but the Devil was no ordinary man

A real Prince charming was he

And as he let go of her hand

In the other he passed the husband a key

Now you and she will be locked together

Chained like the tides to the sea

And your life and hers will forever be tied

Round and round until in death you are free

A narcissist first, and a narcissist last

The devil's own sin was his pride

And as he vainly gave the key to the groom

He neglected to look at the bride

And in that short moment

When the wedding bonds passed

And the Groom did inherit the Earth

Hell wore a smile like a river wide

And his daughter's eye contained much guile and mirth

Yet she was a witch and could never submit 

To man's complete dominion

For in truth she hurt for the wild wind's course

And she ached to untie the marital union

Though love is a bond that lives wild and strong

And will pass beyond measureless time

The heart is an art that is a high road long

And only lives because others have died

This man she knew, she would tell to go to hell

And he would in truth dwell down there

But his worldly sense loved the commonsense

While hers was more a type magical mare

A witch's divorce is a thing to see of course

No solicitor could negotiate deeds

How to divide the keys to the Earth

Or pages of pride and of greed

Though he may leave her

She will never forget

And her curse will follow him

Like a supersonic jet

Booming the sound waves

And brooming the debt

He owes her his life yet

He owes her his life yet

Caveman

 My mama said son, what you gonna be?

For you're nearly 9 and it's 45000 BC

I said now mama, why don't you know

I don't wanna lay bricks and I don't wanna build

I Don't wanna join the stone mason guild

I just wanna lie around all day

In your cave? She said

I said Uhhuh ugh hey

I'm a cave man, don't you see

I'm a cave man from 45 k BC

I wanna go out and gather and hunt

While my woman stays home 

Takes care of the little runts

I'm a cave man ,I got no colour TV

I'm a cave man, I can count 1 2 3

I'm a cave man and I'm on the prowl

For a mammoth to kill

While I hear the wild cat growl

So son, she said, the world is changing fast

You can't be a cave man and live in past

Your father he managed but was killed by a rock

That fell from a height while he was building a dock

Now what you should be is a sailor out to sea

Build a boat or invent the wheel

I depends how you feel 

But whatever you do, don't stay in the cave, 

for life's out there to be lived

And you've got to be brave

Oh mama dear mama, I wanna run free in the wood

And chase after bears and antelopes

She said that won't do you no good

You gotta use your brain, and think with your head

We invented fire last week otherwise we'd be dead

Sometimes it's cold and sometimes it's hot

But you gotta be bold make the most of what you've got

Why not start a jewellery business selling necklaces of bone

I said, I don't have fine motor skills and anyway I'd need a loan

She said why don't you get off your ass and go to the bank

The manager there is a customer of mine named Hank 

He can surely give you all the bones you'd want

Well I don't have chisel I said, she said What?

I said I'm a caveman, why can't you see,

I never learnt to write, only abc

That's why you called me Abel

And my brother you named Cain

And I think he's hiding under the table

playing some wicked game

Mother:

Now pretty soon Neanderthals like us will be extinct

Don't you see son you can't just follow your instinct

What you need is a role model like Cro Magnon man

He's over there looking so sophicated in his new clan

Why don't you go up to him and ask to be his apprentice?

Oh Mama, I would, but he looks like a dentist

Well a little bit more brushing wouldn't do your gums any harm

Oh Mum, I said, but she was having none of it and grabbed me by the arm

Hey there Mr Cro-Mo can you teach my son to think?

He needs a good role model, 

and Cro-Mo just blinked

And then he looked me up and down, 

and gave a wink then a frown

Then in his eyes I saw a twinkle

Like the stars had come out

He said sure I can take him on, but he'll work night and day

And when his time is over he won't receive any pay

Except life experience and that's worth more than fine bones

So my mother signed a contract that was written in stone

You come here everyday he said, at the hour of four

And you fetch all the tools, and leave them at my door

As I'm building something marvellous

It's big and round and rolls

But it's looking pretty cumbersome

So I am filling it with holes

Just to make it lighter? I said with a laugh

He said, yeah, you got it kid

Then he trundled down his path

I never will forget the day I left the cave behind

And I opened up a new door that opened up my mind

Swildon's Hollow

 He showed me his cave  

And I showed him my soul

All around Swildon's hollow

Oh he came back from the grave

But his heart burned a coal

All around Swildon's hollow

What can a man do

But show that he's brave

All around Swildon's hollow

I lost my true love

And for her did I crave

All around Swildon's hollow 

Oh the cave it is dark

And the depths they are deep

All around Swildon's hollow 

And the brave a breath take

Just before they do sleep

All around Swildon's hollow 

(Down with the pixie miners)

And the rain ties its bow

Over a Winter time sweet

All around Swildon's hollow

And the bats take a bough

And the rats they might creep

All around Swildon's hollow

Oh should you come walking 

Out in the dark

All around Swildon's hollow

Well the cows will be talking

And the dogs lose their bark

All around Swildon's hollow

Don't take the dark lightly

On your heads wear a spark

All around Swildon's hollow

And light your way brightly

All through the park

Until you find Swildon's hollow

The Neanderthal Song

Who killed off, who killed off?

 Who killed off the Neanderthals?

Will you tell me staff?

Who killed off?

Who killed off the Neanderthals?

 

Oh, were they getting soft?

Had they had enough?

Who killed off the Neanderthals?

Did they have a long skull?

Were they really too droll?

Oh, who killed off the Neanderthals

 

Who killed off, who killed off?

Who killed off the Neanderthals?

Oh, was it you or was it me?

Was it Las Champs or destiny?

Who killed off that Beastie boy?

Was it the man with a new toy?

Who killed off, who killed off?

Who killed off the Neanderthals?

 

Were they invited in?

for a glass of Champagne

By Cro Magnon Man

Did he sin, did he go insane, 

did he poison the well?

or leave him outside

In the frozen hell

With no place to hide

 

Oh, Cro Magnon man, was it you?

Was it you who drew the last line?

Well, they drew the short straw

And then they were no more

And that was the decline 

Of the Neanderthal line

 

Who killed off, who killed off?

Who killed off the Neanderthals?

Tell me who killed off, who killed off

Who killed off the Neanderthals?

 Did he walk with a limp

A little too like a chimp

A little hunched over

More like the dog Rover

Did they need to stoop? 

when they had to poop

Were they not upright citizens?

Oh, who has the right to criticize them?

Who killed off, who killed off?

Who killed off the Neanderthals?

Tell me who killed off, who killed off

Who killed off the Neanderthals?