Homing pigeon

 When the pigeon flew through the hole

When the doors were well open

And the ten Commandments scroll

Had been spoken

When you understand you don't control your life

You'll stop flapping around 

In the house of the Lord

Whether you're a pigeon or a mouse

You can neither fly from nor hide from

The word

Let it be, he is here with you

Even the lowliest shrew

Even in the turn of the screw

There is no escape for you

Read from the ten Commandments

Know the beginning and end

Are not different departments

But all tied up like a shoe

Like a pigeon that's trapped

Got lost on the map

But flew

Straight home to you

Without a shadow of a doubt

 Without a shadow of a doubt

I knew, there and then

That you had me,

Like a rabbit in your head lights I was trapped

And as you came down upon me

Well I thought now this film is wrapped

When I saw you baby

With the blue light in your hair

And the moon dust, which you had brought for me

To touch but I didn't dare

Well then yes I saw your statue, And I lay down

In your shade

And I knew without a shadow of a doubt

That for your love was I made

I knew in the evening of torment

And in the final bow of violins

That my love for you was gurgling up

Like a fresh water from a spring

And I had you in my picture frame

I had you in the hall

Where all those brave, burley men with names

That in the night you like to call

And I was afraid

Of losing this one jewel, I had stole

But I knew without a shadow of a doubt

It was you who touched my soul

If you talk to me baby of suits

And cards that shout

Oh I will break them in two baby

For you knew

Without a shadow of a doubt

That love like a king, came in and ruled the game

And we were all looking to him

When we forgot even our own names

And it could have been Lord Jim, or Tim,

Or even James

But All those saints they sang their hymns

While love shouldered the blame

But, no I knew you baby

I knew within, this feeling

Like the time when the table shook

And I remember the face of the thief

In the mugshot, and the picture of all that he took

And I would chase him for you honey

Across the states, or the whole universe

But he'd just escape again my clutches

Like he did at first

And was it not you who said to me

That I was worse, but take back

All those things you said and write them in reverse

Because what I meant I gave you already,

Now you want to give them back it hurts

And I knew without a shadow of a doubt

That this love will be my curse 

Witch's Brew

Ingredients:

Milk of cow

Tea leaves of China

Bagged by peasants

In Asia Minor

Shipped by freight

Over treacherous seas

To end up on shelves of Sainsbury's

Recipe:

Boil liquid -Adam's ale

Until Bubbling cauldron

Hot like devil's tail

Listen to whistle as vapours escape

Take off the boil let it cool and wait

Drop 1 bag of Asiatic leaf

Into a goblet of made of gold or dragon's teeth

Pour the amalgam upon the bag

Let the flavour suffuse

Til taste suits an that of an old hag

Add a drop of milk from cow

If you be an English Witch anyhow

Otherwise thou must milk an almond,

or squeeze an oat, or steal it from a nanny goat

Some may choose to opt for Soya

But the brew may make you scream like Goya

Next

Take the bag and strain with spoon

(must be done on a full moon)

Drink it down and thank Typhoo

Tetley, Yorkshire or Twining’s too

But be sure to enjoy with a familiar moggy

Unless you'd rather a long-legged froggy

Ballad of the Gym

 Lifting iron

Barbells pile on

Weight upon weight

Sad, cold garage

Steel eyes and cameras

Look on, look on amazed

Like a spider looks

Constantly surprised

Though unblinking

Robotic and cold

Lifting its arms and legs

Up the silver steel spool

And back on the mat

The square of star jumps

Now I'm a supernova

Now I'm a red dwarf

Watch me explode

Who's watching Mr wolf?

Counting time

Jumping to the seconds

The drudgery of counting

Your life away in bodily ticks

And contraction-expansion of muscle fibres

Like a spider up and down a wall

Well a spider creates a web

Something beautiful

While I surf the web

The internet of uncool

And who knows you Uncle?

Uncle Sam knows all

He twitches his web in NewYork

And there's a tornado in Hong Kong

While I in my gym of body promises

Carry on, carry on

Lifting the kettle, put the kettle on

Polly, take it off again Hun

Back and forth like a serf

And manservant of the humdrum

And I contrast this in my mind

With the beautiful Hungarian forests I could be in

The place of cliffs and whims

And fun, saying come and put the kettle on

To my real hun

The only Hun I call Honey Bun

I long for that back again

I ache more than sinews

From a gym

Ache within on my interweb

My soul search engine

That continually rifles through memories

In the hope of finding a door back in

Or a page in the book of feelings

And hearings of the mind's comings and goings

That gives me any sense of peace

And I realize like through a sandstorm

That I am like a statue made of glass

blowing bubbles

To climb inside to escape sand grains

But I am made of that storm of sand

That is blowing

I am melting that desert life into thicker

Walls for myself

And all I want to do is to smash them down

And break the glass

Shatter these false skies and ceilings

And stop living in this vacuum chamber of feelings

I need to touch what is real again

Roof tops

 You know that I can't shoot you down

I can't pull you down today

Yet all my life you have been hanging around

Like cloud on a rainy day

So what is it that you want from me?

To confront me?

Or make me pay?

Because I was not who you wanted me to be

Well I can't be that person anyway

So can't you leave your sky to me

You know it is my sky too

Why do you want to try to frighten me

Into trying to be somebody new

Now I look out from the roof tops

Across a city scape

And All I see are the places people stop

When from their lives they try to escape

You can reach your roots

In the garden

But only upward can you be closer to God

So hold on tight 

To the concrete thoughts that harden

And go out, follow where the angels trod

COVID 14 -The School Teacher

They've sent us all home oh what am I to do
My lovely students - and none of them had the flu
Some of them the young ones they were crying,
As I waved good bye to them my hanky flying
That's it for the term here at school-the year is over
Now we have to see how we can teach them online
Talk about sickness cover
It makes more sense to just send them on holiday
An enforced kind of prison break
Where they are held captive at home for 8 weeks
By their parents
But that won't happen it is too severe
But maybe extreme circumstances call for extreme measures
For the young ones the parents will have to be the teachers
I can't see it working, not long term after a couple of weeks
They will be pulling their hair out

Then there are the older ones who will be taking their exams, they are gone for good
And how will they revise, on what, and what support
Most of my teachers are not fully tech-savvy they will have to
learn to be online that's all
Its just a completely different kettle of fish
Half the time you can't see the students
Then they can't hear you
The annoying ones turn off their cameras right on cue
When you begin to ask them a question
And the teenagers are just shy
To speak in front of a teacher one to one or in front of others
Takes boldness, but they can try

You see and then you have the factor that they must show their homes
And they do not feel comfortable sharing that with others
Except over the phone
And what about the ones who have poor family relations
They are trapped at home, with little social consolation
I think this high lights the strengths of the internet age
And its failings
We have these institutions and they are more than places of education
For many troubled souls they are sanctuaries
Places of social support and community away from
A domestic disturbance, and now they can't get away
And the internet is no place to be searching for an escape
In certain situations
So we will do our best us teachers
Keep buggering on as Churchill said
Now we must practice what he preaches

Hoopoe

James saw a Hoopoe
Flying high above
Funny to be on an island
And not to feel love

He caught it on his I phone
Him phone Her phone
He and She
This Hoopoe was caught
In a net whoopee!

James saw a Hoopoe
This is all I can say
It was many years ago
From here an eternity away

I call back to my past
My bird song echoes
But it will not last
As all the love
That we must one day
Let go of

The Hoopoe
Was as transitory
As a cloud shadow

He picked out its dimensions
Zoomed into its pixels
Like some wanted fellow
A felon escaped from prison

But it had no talons to speak of
Only this strange head
And then of course a distinctive call
To recognize miles and miles
Above the island of the dead

How many skulls have reverberated
This sound?
Called out for another's answer
Thinking themselves
The only other Hoopoe around

How many wood pecker skulls
have hammered the tree
And cracked like nutshells
Before they can get free?

How many skulls hear the ringing bells
How many hear the poetry?
Just the Hoopoe
Just the Hoopoe?

Morning Blues

Woke up this morning

Feeling this bruise

It rose like a hill

I suffered its ruse

I woke like a fire

Set on a log

With the howling desire

Of a graveyard dog

I’ve got the blues

Got the blues for you

I needed a bank job

To put me straight

But they put me in a jacket

And told me to wait

I said I’m not used

To standing in queues

They said they’d put me in irons

If I refuse

I got the blues, got the blues for you

There are six dogs waiting

Waiting at your gate

They say I must choose

Between love and hate

Six bullets waiting

In the barrel of a gun

Waiting in the bed chamber

Of the Lady Someone

But I still got the blues

Got the blues for you

I tried to stay silent

Not put pen to paper

But its like the man said

She is an escaper

Always trying to break loose

Of the chains and her noose

But who could blame her?

Who could try to name her?

She’s every woman, and someone

I’ve got the blues, got the blues for you

cemetery nights

Cemetery nights
And the wild wind
The holes in the heart
Where the rain gets in
The dogs that lose their barks
Each time the song begins
On those Cemetery nights
When you're under my skin

The frozen love triangle
That they fit over the balls
Then the reds and yellows
Like ghostly eyes that roll
And you hit them with your
Bone white cue
And they knock around the table
Going this way and that
Looking for escape where they are able

And all the sockets full of lockets
With photographs for my heart
Of lovers stuffed in pockets
As deep as I can laugh
But the joke was on me of course
Because I could not draw the graph
Of each pulse beat I made in retreat
From the position at the start

These Cemetery nights
Keep rolling off my shoulder
Billiards in graveyards
Tomb stones getting older
And we're a long time dead you know
We must live for the ones we love
And never give way to
The Grim reaper's sway
When he gives us the cold shove

There are Eleven bone rattlers
And twelve gravediggers working
In shifts
And they're burying more than
For what they get paid to lift
And they're using all their cunning,
looking at you kid
But you can't give them their way
Don't ever accept their gift

When the Cemetery nights are over
And the Sun begins to jowl
Then you'll see me from over your shoulder
And the dogs they'll begin to howl
For the crows have flown in the morning
The dust is blown from the flowers somehow
And I know I'll see you tomorrow
Each day is a tomorrow until now

Stealing words

What did the singers mean
When they swam that old stream
Across, beyond this mortal dream
Of life and love so in between

And how do singers hold their tongue
When they know the day is done
Of life and love and everyone
Brought up sun-ward in the sky hung

I filched the last pilchard of the race
The salmon swimming changed my face
Into a mainstream streamlined grace
Two fish wives looking in disgrace

I locked a nimbus in the sky
And lost my keys to the rain dance guy
Who stamped his feet, but I didn't try
I stood there watching and asked him why

He flew at me with a ballerinas speed
And chewed the curtains rails of my need
But while it drops I remains to impede
His escape from the stage where my heart bleeds

I fought a long way to the ghost
Of words that you said that hurt the most
And quietly timber falls on a Grecian coast
As they prepare their ships for the naval host

One day those ships will sail in
And I'll be there on the bowsprit and grin
At all those I know who said I'll never win
But my armies will conquer over sin

And yes there will be fortune and pain
For the river rises and runs dry again
In words once lost but we will regain
Our hold on the holy ghost down lain

I saw an eagle

I saw an eagle on the water
A pig going off to slaughter
A woman in a feint
And a killer with red paint
The writing on the wall
Says I'm tired of it all
And I want to escape
But I can't rewind the tape
It must play on and on
This same old funny song
Of love and life and hate
Of being too early or too late
But never quite on time
To make the perfect crime
To commit the killer hook
To a song or write a book
Never quite so strong
To right the thing that's wrong
I just left it where it fell
Let the whole world go to hell

Book line and sinker

You caught me book line and sinker
With that sentence of yours
Turned my cheeks a bit pinker
With that fish verb doing its best
To escape the nets, and nest
Of the dark owl of Grammar

In your forest of words I was lost
For a moment that lasted an hour, or days
I cannot tell,
They were like little bells
Tinkling in the trees of a's and b's
Then like soot
These burnt words fell, their fire
Having died out
Like ash, they lay on the ground
White words pale with memory

I kick them and let the dust fly up in a cloud
Translation is soft, it makes little sound
Remembering understanding is quiet, not loud