Poetry

Showing posts with label elephants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elephants. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 November 2023

elephant hearts

 Funny how it starts

And funny how it ends

In the chambers of the heart

Where we might find a friend


Elephants fart

And little mice mend

The holes in dresses and truse

Of the confessions of shrews

Who also need a friend


Elephant ears

 Where are the monsters

Of common sense?

They are living with the elephant

In the room under the stairs

Oh nobody knew

If he was really theirs


Where are the dragons bent on destruction

Fire, fire flames, grow higher

And what of the fairies, elves and dwarves

Where are they now?

Have they gone indoors


Oh show me the way back to that world

Where courage still lives

And all 

Saturday, 11 November 2023

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




Friday, 3 November 2023

Thank you

Thank you for the flower from India
I received her pressed in a cardboard shoe box
She had a Saffron head
Smelt of Juniper
Reminded me of the subcontinent
A pity she was dead
Thank you for the thought
From India sent
Mumbai street scenes
Elephant grass, high humidity
Of boggy marshes
The tiger's trail ahead
Thank you for these false dreams
The cut out conveniences
Of mind, snipped, cellotaped at the seams
To run the reel of old India
In my post-colonial, mobile-phone-rung mind


Thursday, 12 October 2023

A to O of jobs

 Ant eater

Accountant

Actuary


B - Baker, Butcher, bailer, bailif, banoffe pie maker


C-conartist, caption writer

Cockatoo tail feather puta in a

Cockatoo tail feather pulla outta


D-delecroy

Delivery driver

Diamond miner

Deatha nd taxes person

Ditch water inspector


E-ear wig owner

Egg white beater

Elephant trainer

Elegy writer

Electrician


F -foreign affairs correspondent

fisherman

Flaming heart flagellist

Fake hairdo maker


G-God look-alike competition inspector

Goal keeper

Giraffe adoptionist


H- happy go lucky hippie

Hair dresser

Hope creator, hope maker

Handle turner

Huddle Goth


I-indicator maker

Index finger - giant index finger

Individual inspector


J-jokey

Jill- as in Jack dressing up as Jill

Jimcarna organizer

Jolly sing-a-long

Jeopardy host


K -Kung-Fu expert

Kapitan

Kapital hill creator

Constructive cages

King maker

Killer

Kiss-me-quick

Kiss.me-not

Kiss.me on the spot


L- loverman

Low brow

lowdown taker

Lintel inspector

Label maker

Literature thief

Lobbyist

Leg measurer

Lentil maker

Logo elaborator


M- Mechanic

Motorist

Mender of watches


N-no one

Nobody

Notch maker

(K)Napsack carrier

Nuptual inviter


O- octopus trainer

Onthologist, Opthalmologist

Open university lecturer

Opportunity knocker




Sunday, 4 June 2023

Like elephants on ice

 The sun goes down over the street

The crepuscular creepers walking

the beat

Light head lice

The head lights are yet to turn on

In the Somerset Town

They call Babylon


The colours so chrome

Oh I wish they were yellow

Magnesium white lights

The glare of the mellow

And stroking the firelight

The RAC fellow

Goes hammer and tongs

and bellows


The sodium sipped at the supper of kings

Of the control of the periodic table of things

And song of the elements

And elephant wings

But who ever saw an elephant

Fly?

 inside she sings

And who knew the tide lines

And the marks that love brings

On Muriel Sparks

Or Ann summer's stings

And filing for divorce at the court of Great Kings

The Queen has been fought

But she has lost what he brings

Oh take me, elephant, thick of skin

To be your lawfully anointed wife

Oh Mouse husband I do, I do, I do

Now where shall we live?

This house is not big enough for two

I being an elephant I could fill a room

And you being a mouse could barely squeeze in

We must invest in a super saver sofa

And super soaker cheeses

And supper saving goffers

And Puppet waving breezes

And suffer saviours and their sabres

Suffer saboteurs and wheezes

Who would hold their noses

At supermarket freezes

But Jesus, please us and means us, beans us

And holy communion crumbs of busted breeze-block kinesis

Come on commoners come on please

Shake a leg at the foreigners who go between the fleas

And suck up your carpet hairs of all your finger nails

And sneezing snares at the market wares

Coralled, cajolled over controlled by forces

Of Minsk, and rinks of ice, and risks that slip on rice

And dice are rolled down to the bone of hip, skip and suffice


Monday, 29 May 2023

Weeping beech

 lolloping giant

Sheep dog shaggy

Elephant trunk and arches

benches bunk branches skunk

tail waving laughing, laughing

Trumping and dancing a shaggy hippy stomp

Shaking the shady chandeliers

Swaying all baying in 70s flares

To the age of Aquarius praying

Leaves like feathers ruffled chicken fella

Born out of shape and time

A little too heavy in the arms

Dragging knuckles on the ground

Chimp-charrooing like a monkey aping an ape

Gorilla tree, Green man

Jolly green giant

Wednesday, 1 March 2023

Animal farm

 What if the Russians controlled Divina McColl?

I don't give a monkeys

I've got a ladder in my giraffe

There's a snake down my trousers

And ants in my pants

I'm an eager beaver


I've got a dolphin's glance

I'm missing my penguin

I need an eagle's eye

There are eleven elephants who've forgotten how to die

And a parrot named dignity

Who can't stop talking lies

Sunday, 4 September 2022

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

Monday, 1 August 2022

Animus

 We live in the age of the dog

We own them, Not to talk

To each other but to say

Keep your distance

they bark for us, they are our voices

That we cannot express ourselves

God soon it will be the age of the wolf

Howling at the moon light

Of unrequited love and dreams


In the past it was the age of the Mammoth

We would walk them, Walk with them side by side

They were silent

But knee and kept our secrets

We were the howling men and women

They the serene beings


The elephants of our collective memories

We killed

They had no voice, and no choice

But when we killed all the silent singing beings

We too lost our voices


We lost our ability to communicate through

The silent thread of mutual understanding

Like the whales in song


We bred dogs,

Tamed wolves to be dogs,

Tamed dogs to be humans

And in doing so forgot our animal selves

But also gave our souls to the dogs

Becoming dogmatic

And no longer Mammotic

Monday, 25 July 2022

This summer sun

 I recall the sun before it went down

Burning brightest

Like a jewel in the crown

I recall the orchard, and the Bristol Down

Oh the Summer sun, just before it goes down


And all the memories of forgotten elephants

Who sit in rooms

Trying to remember

And yet they have nothing to regret

No there's nothing to regret

When you can forget


I remember dances

And halls

By the sea

And taking chances

Like glances of infinity

And in those eyes that seem to stretch

On to forever

I got lost in eternity

Oh now I can remember


And certain sun's faces

And glances in halves

The King or the aces

Turn up like the cards

And I can remember

I took a gamble on you

Your eyes were the dice

And you rolled them true


Double sixes a pair

Of diamonds shone true

Oh I can remember

The chance taken on you

Yes I'll never play that hand again

Not the same anyway

The tables have turned

The players gone away


And I have learned

To remember it's true

That the sun will burn brighter

When the days nearly through

For there's nothing but living

And loving to do

So come hug me tighter

For I'm swimming to you

Monday, 11 July 2022

Do the skeleton walk

 I do the skeleton walk

All bones and elbows

Like Jesus on my cross of crutches

All trussed up, a walking puppet

Stilts of Dali's elephants in deserts

Top heavy

But now loose hung together by sinews

just what is needed for my frame

"Hang loose"

The Romans said to Jesus

When they saw him pinned up there


We make a crucifix of suffixes and prefixes

We make a bonfire of our vanities

And shatter the mirrors of man in God's images

Ever receding an infinity of apes

Ever diminishing the square root of our madness

Human ideas are bound by shapes

None can get beyond their own boundaries

All must, like Lucrece, give way to our rape

and hold in the eyes the pennies of badness

And let fly the scarves that would hang our own nape

Wednesday, 23 September 2020

Elephant time/ elephantine

 

Doing my best in a shortfall, to be gone in a can of

Cortisol and hair spray

In tooth decay in nominal equities

And innumerable beauties

And telegraphic controversies of hook liners

That shape the turtle dove into some angelic being

And give her a golden egg imbibed with meaning

And when in actualness the forecast looked grim

Because high above antennae rooftops swam the peregrine

 

And even if these wolves are called the sea, and gems are not cut by diamond dromedary

Then the lump she was concealing in her peacock pouch

Was gemlike glistening

Heraldic and fizzling to be close to social exclusion 

And far from some happy place

To see in isolation solace

And yet to laugh in loneliness’s face

If that were the attainable state

I shouldn't care where the pendulum swings

And if I am a free bear

Then this forest of time

Should not be thickets of problems,

I should see the wood for the trees,

But slowly I see the hunter stalking me

Through the long grass

With his elephant in his spy glass

The elephant in the room

No one is talking about him

Just the way he likes it

He likes to be left alone

An elephant is always solitary when he's far from home

Though this doesn't mean he's made of stone

It just means he's packed his trunk is on his way

To where I could not say,

To what time or place

can you find him pining for the forest again

For the memory of ivory is like the scent of burning wood

And bonfires of his vanities,

And tusks of really doing good

And ears of imperfection for to listen

To malapropisms and feet like starved mosquitoes

Spread-eagled and flattened without blood

Pachyderm

The thermal tongue that licks the peanuts

And the snake bark skin

Like a tree trunk, gnarled and thick, as the crusts of earth

On which his feet are treading.

Wednesday, 15 July 2020

Humanimal

It's a bad habit
So don't do it
You're not a rabbit
Get through it!
Yeah you're not an animal
So don't do it
It's a bad habit

You could be a Panda
Eating shoots and leaves
Then you see a tasty animal
Makes you give up what you believe
He's a vegetarian not a carnivore
And you're a human not an animal
So don't do it
It's a bad habit

You could be a Giraffe
On the prairie
Head in the clouds
Like a fairy
Well come back down to earth
See your human worth
You're not an animal
It's a bad habit

You could be a monkey
Throwing banana skins
Trying to trip up others
In their times of sin
Well you're not an animal
Since Adam and the fall
He bit the apple
It's a bad habit

You could be an elephant
With his long trunk
Happy when he's relevant
But not when he's a drunk
You see he forgot
To remember he's an animal
But you are not
Don't do it,
It's a bad habit

You could be a flammingo
Standing in the pink
He can stand on one leg
After he's had a drink
But he's an animal
Don't be a fool
Don't do it
It's a bad habit

So lock up the zoo
The human's out his cage
There'll be hell to pay
And put heaven in a rage
You're not an animal
So don't do it at all
It's a bad habit
For all creatures great and small


Wednesday, 8 August 2018

A cheesy line




A pleasant scene
So nice and green - a riparian garden
Through the hills
The winding rills
Twist gentle then they harden

The Summer spring in elysian fountain
Coy carp rest easily in reflected black
The lilies float
In moon mountain craters
Elephant footprints smack

A trinket for a cat
A piece of reed
She swallows flat
The tiger and the mouse
Both escape near Martin’s House

For the followed, swallowed fog
Has escaped the abandoned dog

And the buzzing dragon fly
Beneath the cat’s claw does lie

Out upon the frosted moor
Where grass snakes knock on the door

To the anima enlightened
Just the wolf don’t be frightened

Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Petitudes

The Darling Pets of May

May:
The legs of the Elephant
Not scare at a mouse
The eyes of a cat
Not burgle a house
The ears of a rat
Not abode any louse
Nor the fever of a dog
Run hot as a spouse
May:
The nose of a rabbit
Be tickled by a trout
The kindness of a kitten
Be smitten by a stout
The radar of a Russian
Be rattled by a lout
Or the uncle of a Kingdom
Be carbuncled by a bout
May:
The hubris of a herbivore
Be preyed on by a quail
Or the vertigo of an eagle
Be debedded by a snail
The notion of a cuckoo
Be knocked by a tail
Or the hailing of a whale
Be disgruntled with a nail
May:
All these and likewise
Never come into fruition
Or else the trees upon which they grow
Be banished from Eden’s Kingdom
May never a more saintly brow
Be mopped up by a vet
And therefore good kind Gents and Ladies

Do look after your goodly pets

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Fire and Matches




Man of Sand

Here I stand
a man of sand
which time does wash away
My only relief
From the ocean reef
Greets my face the cool sea spray
As each grain of belief
falls to the waves beneath
and a man mould of clay
A new man of sand
who now may stand
To greet a bold new day

Here I stand
a man of sand
One which the ocean may carol
but which part of me is given
which part has it stole
Which land locked heart the key?
Love is strange, love is bold
Love grows weary, then is old
But each grain new
My hand does hold
As if of silver, as if of Gold
And as this cursed melody
Rolls with tide and ocean wave
A man of sand
does too give way
To love bold, and love brave

Yet here I stand
a man of sand
And across the sea I reach
For to hold the hand
Of my love who stands
on the other beach
Time has ravaged each of us
The sands of time do fall
And what was once sand in your eyes
Now my sandy voice does call
Oh Love is but a shifting quick sand
Into it each man may fall
and who amongst us would reach across
Who would answer your loves call?

Blue caesars
St Peters
Concubines
and turbines
turn wood from heels
to the eels
of salad dressing rebels
in the sinking sun
of a million buns and tokens of love
drugged by the stuff
that call to your heart
Totem pole dolly girls ready their seeds
to prayers and missions
in the countries art museums
That hold vases of flowers
As if earthly powers
Could some how
their seeds lay to rest
In it's appalling jest
Of some prison convict
Of who's innocense he protests
Inside the judges chambers
I lay my case the best I can
There is no equality in this world
Except the grace which is Natures Rod
The country parks hold festivals
The towns streets are full
Love transcends this wearied world
As each generation calls man God
Then fights for rights to rule
Each side believes they are top dog
The heinous crime that was His murder
Has left its mark on the faces
He created
In the pool of tears that Man is standing in
What leaves our flesh but love and sin
To lead the selfish to the test
Of nightmare or dream
Contested by the seas colours
See the grey turn into green
See the flag ships on them rolling
Confused when green turns to blue
And there is no line between
heaven and ocean
when there is no boundry
which walks beauty's line
The Train wreck of my heart is swollen
In the voices of the wind
But who's shirt now have I stolen
When I see the colours run from black to red
Upon the turf where we tread
Upon the roads that leaves the sod
When we eat the bread that bitter tastes
When the grain is small and shriven
As your love when you feel mine

What is this law
that nature has writ
That all good things die
But to save our lost wit
So too shall the bad things
die though not so quick
What are the laws that man has made
In place to confirm his face
In Godly Halls
Yet where does his dominion reach
As man is stranded away from God
Upon the other beach
He killed his God
Sometime back in the days
When capitalism breached
The walls of his holy house
Then layed so too by his self love
In his bed of roses
Yet his bed has already forgotten
Mans existence,
The years have trodden it out the way
We are each divided from another
By the time that our love does decay
Only one love when reached
Can fulfil the vacuum that
lies under the sun
There is just one love, only one
And that commands its law
With iron rod
That which transcends the bonds of time
The love in one universe alone
That Spiritual love of God



Hear the owls of night
They are poets burning bright
Each new sound a hundred more
They do set fire with bells aroar
Their loquacious tongues
do sing the hymn
Before the bat king (hung in the rafters)
To the cat clung tight in doors
stretching its carpet claws
And to each sound my ear is a tuned
As the play of light on your face by the moon
And right be right
wrong be wrong
You too my love
May hear the owl's song

Thought at night is there by right
Thought by day may go and play
Though I love the evening time
And run to it with body and mind
My love is free
As the roots of a tree
For in the day the truth to find
And yet it also must be true
That as night follows day
So I follow you
And being as one who sees
 but does not say
I will keep you a secret
from this to the last day

And comfort is blind
To the trials of love
It is good it might find
In the darkness above
A light of star to guide
While the night we abide
We pray that the day
May be more merciful and kind
So scurry not
To the scarecrows lot
With flightless birds from the sea


The Meare Road, the Road is Meare

Raging on the Meare Road
Eleven in the evening
don't know why I'm getting old
And don't know what I'm feeling

Shored myself up with a drink of gin
Jack Daniels and Rum Jim
Just walking while still missing
This gap I find myself in

Hoping all is eclectic work
No church work on this wall
Bells just fall
and ring the ground
In Meare where I'm suffering
Pale moon, pale night
My soul is pale, pale white
while the road I walk
Bends left and right
to follow the way I'm feeling

I find a bridge over running waters
Upon its wall I lay me down
The river curdles all my angst
Until black tender night
cradles me to my rest

Now nothing matters
and nothing's lost
Like in the waters I have crossed
There is no time to worry more
For blessed sleep comes
knocking at my door

And nothing's sacred
and nothings soft
Except your memory
Which I cannot turn off
All I long for, yearn, desire,
Is to burn with you, within your fire

All I savour and still hold close
Is the memory of your ghost


You got every colour Blue

You cheer cheers
Mine is close
You got ropes
I got nooses
You got hopes
Mine are mooses
You got soaps
I got sluices
What we need
is two-way fuses
You got boss
I got shriven
You been a loss
I broke even
Every thing I'd given
You need coal
I need water
You got fire
I got spit
You got sand
I got shit
You got one
I got two
We got every colour blue

Money comes, money goes
Funny how, some are sold
Some get rich, some die old
Every colour blue

Crazy gate, for crazy horse
Crazy jump, crazy course
What came first?, but what worse?
what went out, came back curse
Sitting pretty, sitting gold
Streets of heaven all are sold
None for rent have to buy
See estate agent in the sky

When I go
You go too
I and us
Me and you
Like yo yo
You two, too
We are lust
Trust like glue
how you know?
I know you
We go, go
But I go too
Fire, fire burning
Inside the zoo
Ark now go
Two by two
Kiss queen toe
toe times two
Two times toe
Toe times you
You be queen
Queen bee you
You throw, throw
To you, you,you
We must go
Now every colour blue

One is two,
Two is four
One is every colour poor
Give me trailer
Give me skint
Give me fifty dollar splint
I've grown old, but
she's still young
In the car room, salesman
husband, wife, city strife
I am her,
You be nice,
I be handsome,
You be cold
I want ransom
but kidnap sold
Kill a love
Don't love a kill
Love got no license
Love need no skill
Better be brave, better be will
love goes ice
When iceman still
Hill is cold, some mother crying
Tears fall twice
longing ever growing
Love not come, pay any respect
Now she is old, crooked neck
love stand still
Sun on hill
No mother crying
For love now kill
You are grainy
I am sand
You talk crazy
I no understand
I have time
Time kill you
We have every colour blue

If you see me
Where the elder droops
And the swallow in the sky just swoops
See my head bowed down
Don't look at my frown
because I'm still free

David Thurlow

Zen like and nimble
Fit as a thimble
That shadowy man of the lair
Bearded not greedy
By rights not all there
Shaggy not bad tempered
Robust as his fencing
Traced back his lines to the roots
Whole hearted, out-smarted
by no one above him
You just have to love him
Mr Thurlow comes from stock of the bear

You shout in his direction
He hears not a question
But answers with meaningful stare
Romance is in him
No Lance corporal can wince him
That canny old elf of great care

I once had met
Some folk who could vet
They saw him leap five great stairs
Look in river or stream
He's near anything green
You cannot believe his clean hair

David Thurlows his name
But he's outside the game
Still winning while he's not in there
Do you wait by the river
Or stumble the gorge
There's a man who'll deliver
His life in the forge
Cast of iron or steel
You know it ain't real
But believe this man of the lair

Ghosts risen in steam,
The glen or the stream
Mr Thurlow will willow,
and billow your windrow
Til canal boat and thimble
Do thread where the wind blows
Then you'll hear his voice on the air
Calling come back and greet us
Ye locals and far reachers
And step your nimble feet in Ebbors lair

Love upon Love/ upon all

I came upon loves fence
Out from a walk in wilderness
And sat there for a while
Many a thought did come to me while I rested upon loves stile
And many a feeling too
Though so fleeting were the clouds above
That soon I abandoned love
and walked on

In that time all was white and fine
For the briefest moment all was bright
I said good bye to blackest night
And in my hand
I felt her hand
In my heart I heard her voice
Each was nothing
but ever most
She was too real
Yet she seemed a ghost
Each was hard yet soft
In my dilemma I had no choice
I had to return to love

Either to win the moon and stars
or to lose all of creation
Either to be bold to match the feeling
Or as ash and star dust
be blown away
Nothing was near yet nothing far
As all in Loves landscape
had been changed by trust

And silence moved my very soul
Yet in my heart
I heard music of harps
And all this I found in loves place
This love I found in her sweet face

A Day in a Bar

In such a selfish time
And a likewise sheltered bar
I stopped a moment for to take a sip
And then to smoke a cigar

The mercenaries and Judges
There did sit and each other abide
With the mercury of their smiles
which cut their faces open wide

And selfish sin did stink the place
like some potent mell of fish
When I sat down, a waitress
came and said honey what is your dish

I left my honour at the door
My mind spoke my wish
Like bullets from a tommy gun
My eyes grappled to her flesh

And seasons of sin turned my stomach
as the blonde went to the boxer's corner
And to him him did confide

I with my half spun anarchy
Laced her pride filled heart to my side
So that when he began to bad mouth her
I quickly stepped astride

And there and then the boxer crooned
and to my face cried
A jeering jest
to which his friends did not protest
Indeed they lit the way to a duel contest

This guy who's jealousy had blunted his features
to some dumbness of form

As I levelled my hateful gaze upon him
As in some biblical storm

The day drops bled from a top his brow
Then the dame did run
And later when she was retelling it
She revealed that beneath
the table he had held a gun

Disgusted in Love

I take off my glove
And find no finger prints there
Caught red handed
And unbandaged by the witch
Who pulls at your golden hair
Looks troubled at the shaken crime
And into the toast rack of the forgotten line

Al dente under pants
firm to the bite
Throw them at the wall
All through the night
If they don't stick
They will be alright
Al dente under pants
Are a culinary delight

No pasta walls are wailing tonight
I'm disgusted in love
But my eyes cry in fright
My legs turn windmills
in the wind
And all my arms can stand up for
Is their right to be still

Give me disgusted love
And I'll tell you a rhyme
Kick out the cat in a river of slime
Bile of the ages
Pill box of crime
Disgusted love is overflowing
through the sewers of time
Ribald ribbons joke with curls
That girls are no better than boys
In the best of all worlds
Leave me tight in the pocket
I'm short in the purse
My mouth is a drain pipe
So go call the nurse
I'm disgusted in love
but it only gets worse
Now for the second time
Lets hear the first verse

Disgusted in love,
Tailored in chasened dreams
Pull down around the pantry room
The kitchens not been cleaned
I'm in my al dente underpants
And I'm disgusted
Disgusted in love

Sychophants in under pants
call time on the nations chore
Risen tides of violence rides
Out the Severn Bore
Token takes the toke glass
That smoky rivers pour
To rustic lies, in ancient eyes
When timbers moan and call
The Lady lies full square in bed
Her dead head falls
From her homestead
And elephantic wives endure
Up and down the window
This wife then yours
Us our lives
Stick the door
with tape across the cracks
Timpany creeps
A creepers core

This is obvioussly Pigeon Street

Coo, coo, Ha, Haa, Ho, ho, He, he,
The slap and tickle the cackle free
Of turned up turnips
Tournique, tie around
a dignified neck
Telescopic voice calls out
Not a laugh, but a shout

You've reached the corner
Now turn about
back onto Pigeon Street
Real lives turn fake
Taken pride, prison cake
Some where within you find
The key to 15 Pigeon Street
Now yours, now his,
This wide eyed blink
Can you believe no Kitchen sink?!
Can you cry out, what drought, what drought,
Its dry on Pigeon Street
Come pour with rain
Come fill your pain
With Tears so distant they
Fall in vain
When windows blow
The prison cell
You'll know too well
You're living on Pigeon Street

Two eyes collide
head on with stuff
Graveyards, bones
Now I scoff at
Flies inside the beggar's belly
Calling out for Pigeon Street
Reading lines from long lost poems
Who wrote the Mayans
When they last wrote Home
Because they died because they lived
In the house on Pigeon Street
Railings cold, and trailers scuffed
Tears dry on tombes
You learnt your books off
And library's close
And Roman roads all lead
to Pigeon Street

Coo, coo, Ha, ha, hee, hee
Hoo, ho
You know you are a prisoner now
Your keys are gone
but thought lives on
Inside the cracks on Pigeon Street
Take heed my friend
It does not end
That road which leads from here
there wends
When the light is gone
And all is cold
You know you've reached the pigeon road
And there no friend
One may meet
Unless its to ask
Is this Pigeon Street

Great Breech Wood

I went to walk in Great Breech wood
And found myself where trees abound
The North wind blew between dead twigs
And curled the leaves that lay on the ground

My nose it twitched, my ears they itched
I felt the presence of deer and hounds
I saw a squirrel run to a trees furthest reach
And heard the forest birds song of sound

The nettles stung, the beeches browned
The Oaks were strengthened by the ground
The leaves curled in the winter furls
That twirled the wind and around me wound


And my love did call from beneath an ash’s eves
Like a satellite I was drawn to its planetary crown
Then Great breach wood was torn asunder
It gave forth lumber of Larch and pine
All of it under a winter storms thunder
Which rattled the bones of all those near
Their toppling heights and treacherous climbs

My dear lady was struck by a bolt of lightening
A love dart from the Gods struck her in her prime

And the planetary dark that ensued was a wonder
To walk in this park I felt was a crime
My romantic soul wished to lurch for a number
By which I could dial then bring back the time
But the forest which was wiser than mountains
Held my soul fast so alone did I climb
To birth the last hope I had of my loved one
And set her soul free her one God to find

Now alone I walked though the forest was alive
Badgers scurried like bank clerks collecting
Their wad of twigs and worms like knives

The wood pecker sung the pigeon cooed
A single black bird alone mewed
And rats slumbered beneath
Rotting tree limbs
As foxes cavorted singing howling hymns
The forest was quiet like a graveyards hushed
As greenery flourished
And foliage lushed
The sandal wearing saint was knighted
The night began its game
Half housed between this world and the next
Advantaged
As in the eves called the owls

And many stations of the cross were planted
As herbs and forest plants were vowed
Into sacred celebration
Of the moon like majestic cows
Who’s alien forms besmirched the landscape
And past the night with heavy sounds
Until in the dawn rose the single starlings
In the flock of chorus loud
And beneath the canopy of heaven
Wrote the names of those in shroud
To be remembered by the martyrs
Who had seen and died, and lived then bowed
And this I saw while I was walking
All this was mine of to be most proud
Inside the Breech of the Great Wood Vaulting
And opened its vaults to the sun and the cloud


Want

I don't want to want
I don't want to tell you why
All I want is the font
Falling from a rain filled sky

And my want is tears
Falling from a pain filled eye
All my wants are fears
Stealing out before I die

And I don't want to feel or cry
I just want the want
That means I don't have to try

It has been a desert of the years
While all my wants have turned to fly
and even if I want you
My wanting will return like a sigh

So hear me in my wants
Just list them like wishes to tie
Your wishbone has been broken
Now don't you want to break the lie

How about it Sinorita?

You are in, I am out
I'm bitter, you're stout
Come one, come all
come nail your colours to the wall
I've seen what you can't believe
But your ghost won't leave
And I've only heard the rumour
That you were here Lady Amour
That shoulder to cry on
Seems as harmless as a lion
Until I step into the pen
Where you'll drink with your mouth open
And mine will cast as black as ink
You wish well, dried up ivory sink
Sucked bone dry
The hair of the sky
Now bristles with untimely winks
As your unicorn eclipses the sun
and goes to the moon light to drink

Synopsis of the film Tension at Table rock
Or the story of Wes Tancred

The head lines read :Ruthless and mean
He killed his best friend over a woman
who he snubbed then she turned him in

Then he was pardoned
The song Wes Tancred
Left him no place to call home
So he left town
and took the name John Bailey as his own
The change of my name
is a strange taste
as bitter as sage and as lonely as thyme

The faces of my masters
Turn to me to blame
They're slaves to agents of change
And actors of a stage
Still my past is shadow and reputation
And that can only be
Dismissed by acts of bravery and redemption

I killed a friend
And in it self love
He had betrayed me in crime
it was a strange taste
As bitter as sage
As lonely as thyme

Tancred earns a friend
In the owner of a stage post
He is killed by the hand of bandits
And Bailey takes the killers down
Earning him an adopted son
In a new town
The boys uncle is the sheriff
Though only in name
For his deeds do not answer the same

The colours of eden
do turn fast as pastures
grazed by cattle the drivers rustle
The county sheriff's in a fluster
frozen in fear
As the town's folk grow nervous
As cattle rustlers grow near

The cattle boys have been on the trail
for four months
Are hard bitten, rough drinken
Ready for a brawl
As they ride into town
The town's folk hide and crawl

But they're done with running scared
They need a leader to stand behind
To stand up to their foe
He's the very man
Who has had to change his name
He's mirrored his original scenario

This time its an impotent sheriff
Who's life he must change
And his love is new

The Cowboys they fill the whore house
With scenes of blue
And the love, who is wife to the sheriff
finds it hard to live with a coward
As he tries to work out his own fear
By facing up to the cow herds
And Wes Tancred has to
Face his own past again
And remember

When Ram Rod busts a fight
but the range is far away
A farmer who stands up to them
Is shot down cold in the sheriff's sight

The sheriff does not have the courage
to be a witness
He is frightened of his stage
The newspaper man tells the truth
With brave words on the page

But the cowboys came in
To revenge the cry of murder
Wes Tancred saves paper print
With fists as hard as lumber
And his adopted protege son
Is caught up in the fricay

And the new love is smitten
By his brave deeds and acts
And it is a stange taste
bitter as sage
As lonely as time

The farmer's death went to inquest
But the sheriff would not tell the truth
Until Tancred revealed his true name
Then the jury and whole town did decide
Upon who to turn the finger of blame

The sheriff finds his voice
And the cowboys are accused
But will Tancreds testimony hold up
He is still hampered by the crime
Or false repute of his past

There is a weasel who runs
the bars and whore house
And favours the cowboys custom
He arranges a local hired gun
To intimidate the sheriff
But what does it take
To make a man like Tancred stay?
The promise of a woman he loves
at end of day?

Then






Margaret Feeney’s Funeral - January 18th 2012

The relatives have all arrived
The Priest is expecting the church to fill
Lacock Abbey stands to the West
To the East is Bathwick Hill
Holymen and sepulchres
Fight in some far off foreign land
But in this Earth Margaret will rest
In this our England

The summer starlings have been and gone
Winter is reaching out her hand
The ice, the ice and frost abound
Like across a desert sand
Nothing but bleak relief
Follows the funeral caravan
As they climb the hill to the crematorium

And let fire consummate her wish belief
That all men were created equal
But all women work for peace
From ashes we come to the stars we return
Our dust is lust and trust reborn

In peasants as in kings
How the mightiest have fallen
Under such a sweet birds wings
Margaret you had the best of us
In you the most dear human qualities were found
A friend to those who knew great hardship
A saint to those run aground

The nuns of l’oisiers sang out a tune
That Margaret Feeney would come
Back to them soon
As over Africa rose the stars and great moon
A country that you once were in love with
And they loved you too,
With their hearts like balloons
As you carried them away from their strife
There was never a more deserving thing to do
No greater good could you do in your life