The restless ship

 I am the ship that will never reach port

Sail all night for the pirate's sport

I am the ship that will never get caught

Well I sail all night, and I sail in the morn

By the morning light I'm still sailing on

Yes I am the ship that will never reach port

All the times that you have thought

I am the ship that is sailing on

To the endless seas far from the land

And I sail over the horizon

And I sail on from the dunes of sand

I am the ship that will never reach port

For I chase the fish can never be caught

Well I chase him south and I chase him north

Yes I am the ship that will never reach port

I am the ship that will never reach port

For I follow the rainbow for the gold I sought

And I sail through rain and I sail through snow

And I sail through the desert sun that I know

I am the ship that will never reach port

and I fight in the wars for the sailor's sport

And the devil knows my name but I am never caught

No until my fame tells the tale of my sort

I am the ship that will never reach port

And I carry no anchor and hold my court

For the kings come to me for to get taught

How to run the game like the devil's sport

I am the ship that will never reach port

And I keep them guessing just as long as I ought

And there is no answer, no answer can be bought

With their pots of gold and their rich consort

And I never reach the final goal

Yes I am the ship with the ghost like soul

I am the ship against the rainbow

That chases the light, that chases the snow

I am the ship that will never reach port

Through the many wars that I have fought

I am the ship that will never reach port

A sailor's life is for the devil's sport

Down to the south where humpbacks are caught

Up to the North where ice cuts life short

I am the ship that will never reach port

Well the sabres swing, and scabbards fly

And gull on the wing will teach us how to sigh

And the swords they flash and the sailors cry

I am the ship that keeps fighting til I die

Yes I fought on through the wars of old

I fought to the rainbow for the pot of gold

I fought to the ends of the earth you see

For I am the ship on the rolling sea

And it rolls on down and it rolls on wide

And it rolls forever to the bright sunshine

And it rolls there now and it rolls so fine

And it rolls on down to the bright sunshine

Yes I am the ship that will never reach land

And I never touched sand and I never held a hand

I am the ship that will sail alone

Through the times of the age, but never reach home

I am the ship that will never reach port

I will sail all night and I'll never get caught

And the fires on the raging seas of time

And I'll never stop, never stop while I'm in my prime

And I wend and I wander through the days of olde

And the seas are coming and the seas are cold

And the waves are breaking on the ship's stronghold

The ship that will never reach the land

For the love who will never hold my hand

I am the ship that will never reach land

I will keep on sailing for as long as I can

I put down no anchor and ask the help of no man

Yes I am the ship that will never reach land

I ask for no quarter, no quarter from man

I am given no help except to stick to the plan

To be the ship that will never reach land

I am the ship that will never reach land

I am the ship that will never reach port

For I'm chasing the fish that will not be caught

And we chase him south and we chase him North

To the river mouth and round the horn

And the sailors shout and bloody oaths are sworn

In the dirty mouth of babes fresh born

They cry we are the fish who will never get caught

Through the summer drought or the winter storm

And I heard him out yes I heard the sails torn

He was the tavern tout, a drunken sailor of the morn

And spoke his story through the windows cry

Ribbons of the sea

 I saw the rising ribbons from the sea

I saw the rising ribbons from the sea

I saw the raging waves

And the lifeguard who saves

And Neptune's daughters 

Who were twins

I saw the father

Like Poseidon

I saw the mother like a coral reef

Beside him

And down beneath

The surf on the cliff

I saw the river sprites

Who were twins

Born in a place and in a time

Far gone over

Beyond mine

The life I have been given

No other shall be shriven

When I saw the rising ribbons

From the sea

Autumn love

The salt came up like a wave in the mouth
The river of tears always did flow south
And the bitterness of years
Bit the lip of what I couched
In kind words in soft skin of the apologist's pouch

And the time for regrets has come to pass
Nothing more to forget than the what's in the looking glass
The sound of nothing, the rush of air
From a vacuum to the vacuum of an utter despair

I wish I had held autumn and kept the fire kindled
I wish I had stood near the fire as the daylight dwindled
But I was fool enough to be self swindled
I stole the time I killed the calf who had been saved and brindled


All the sales of hearts came washing in the rivers warmth
Like an assault of the senses via the folk of

I held autumn like an air
Of a cloak of understanding
Putting it on as one does a glove
To feel the warmth
Or touch of the velvet
And sinking into that
Autumn of love
In which leaves fall from
Winter wind chilled trees
And she like an autumn
Garden I have visited
Whose secret is safely hidden
Though I must search to find the key
Lies in wait at her gate
In the comfort of the dying
Of the year to greet me
Like a changing season

Night and day

 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

Blue caesars

 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

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?

sea biscuit

 Oh the sea in all its flippery

And skippery rhyme

And Majestic Omaha

Of forever pines

And coastal rampages

Punctilious primes

And Rapscallion scales

Pear peppered wine

Well thought of good gold shrines

And leagues of legless lines

Caught in fishermen nets

Nettled but not in time

Of Shallow shelves of shellfish

And forests of frolicking fronds

And hours of anchoring urchins

And swathes of swallowing swans

The sea in all its peaches of beaches

That teaches us of time

And tides under neath of us

Needles stacked in seconds of clime

Sea fog

 They talk about sea fog and letting go

I can't see clearly to the land

They talk about white grog and hurting hands

Living with dinosaurs

And relics of bygone lands

They talk about sea fog that rolls in from the coast

The dirty men who love a ghost

The shattered, spent

And turned up hulls

Wrecked on the rocks

Of overdose

They talk about sea fog

And I can't see clearly

Through the melt water mud

Of frost and ice

I feel the pelt of rain

And The Celt in me smelt

Pain long before the dinosaur bones

Were turned up,

exposed

They talk about sea fog

And a withered hand

Holding a torch of freedom and

Perhaps the most I've ever wanted

From this land is a home

They talk about sea fog

And feeling gross

In far flung corners

And roller coast

Ers

But I switch off the forecast

And watch the football news

Peter Gint

 Peirre Gint

My life

In a glint

Doldrums of silence

In the Norwegian slumps

Slumming it it,

Bumming it in the swamps

Hope of a hump back whale

Who jumps

And splashes down

Ah he is stubborn in his soul

This man

But the sensitive love of nature

And righteousness

Is triumphant

After all his wanderings

He returns

But feels

Or thinks he feels

Will she still be there?

Is there a hope

She might still love him?

The sinking of the great ship Sea Biscuit

 The sinking of the biscuit

Oh how the biscuit sunk

Whether a digestive  or a Garibaldi 

In war a lot of biscuits were sunk

The only difference between the Bismarck and a biscuit is a biscuit goes soggy in the water

Commemorated on Butleigh wood

By a statue of Captain hood

That greatest of biscuit sinkers

They thought he was a thinker

But no a doer was he

A very dour doer

As he dipped his rich tea

The very dowager of Mrs Dowington

Edmund her dove lover from the sea

With his slow boat from China

And his cup of Earl Grey tea

They got him hook line and sinker

The tea bag stewed in the South China sea

And the pacific blue turned a tea leaf brown

As from Peace they could bring out the pea

Charging in the Calypso

A monkey lightning free

Came bolt down from the blue

As the sea stew

Was a bubbling like a market of fleas

And flaying in her flaring dress

Lady Jane, not grey was she

But plain, as plain could be

Without her very rich tea

Earl Grey he sunk it for her

Oh he sunk his biscuit in

But then it did go soggy

And sunk to the bottom of sin

She always wished for Garibaldi, that most military of Martial men

She was sure his biscuit would stand upright at the door

And could well withstand a good dunking

Sure his Spanish conquistador airs

Would frizz up the little light hairs

On the back of her neck, but she did expect

That he would respect

Her as a Lady of greatest aspect

Then she found out he was Italian

And thought of Christina Rossetti

A far cry from the poetry of biscuit dunking in the sea

And yet a step up from Garibaldi

Who never lived in the 16th century

Ah the Dunking of the Sea biscuit

And the sinking in the tea

Is there ever a good time to risk it

In good drinking company

To catch a clam

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

When he walked out on to the harbour walls

The other fishermen would cat call him,

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

Like a performing Arab?

 

But Peter Grimes just ignored them all

As he set off in his miniature size coracle

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

 

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

And it was his wish 

to woo the very most beautifulest maiden of the town

Buy landing her a haddock

Upon her gown

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

Only that you believe in yourself and sing your own hymn

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

The heart of this maiden who was so entreating

 

He went off in gale and storm and Hurricane

And his little boat was tossed like an oyster shell

Across every swell

And each wave was like a mountain

And each trough a bottomless well

But he kept on sailing his good ship lightning

To what end none could ever tell

 

He'll never catch nothing said the fish wives

Look he is far too small to sail

He should just give up and become an accountant

And live his life counting seashells

 

And the fishermen they jeered at him

And ostracized him in the pub

But there's the rub,

To sleep perchance to dream he thought

Of catching his girl a pearl

 

If they called him the oyster sized fisherman why then

He should dive down and pick up a shell

And tussle with the muscle

Which owns the grit

And has wound it around oh so well

 

And she could even have the mirror to hold close

To her breast, 

And take it out to preen herself

And even look her best

 

And I would live in her pocket

And be next to her warm love

And We could fit together like a plug and socket

Or indeed like a hand and glove

 

Now I must dive down

To the ocean's bed

Where the clams clap hands 

And applause the fish schools

As they go pirouetting overhead

 

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

And swam around the lee of the island

To a sheltered little cove

Where once he'd spotted an oyster bed

But which the other fishermen didn't know

 

And he took his chance in the morning light to dive

Down into the blue

 

The waters they were deep

But clear enough in the shallows

And he swam like a fish propelled by his wish

To be the pearl king of the marsh mallows

 

Down inside the oyster bed rows and rows of oysters gaped

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

And so, Peter crept up slowly hiding behind seaweed

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

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

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

I know who I am

A wolf in sheep’s clothing

I shall tread among their flock and when

They least expect it, I shall give them

Quite a shock

And hold open their vice like mouth before

they get a chance to shut

Then I can reach in and grab the pearl

And swim up to the prawn shop

 

So he began to do just that picking his way surreptitiously

Among the early morning clam fields that day

And none of the oysters really noticed him

Though they gave him some funny looks

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

And shuffling and tripping

over open lips

But none of them blinked an eye or moved

So at last Peter came to the mother of all Oysters

Perhaps she has the Mother of Pearls?

So he moved up to look down into her giant mouth

And as he did so

His half shells fell away

And he was revealed as a fisherman

Well instantly the mother oyster she gobbled him up

And as she did so he felt her slimy jelly stomach

sloshing and washing about

So frantic now was Peter

That he beat upon the walls,

But they were tightly shut

And his hand was cut

And his spirits began to fall

Until all of a sudden in the glimmering

mirrored dark, he spied the precious pearl

And it was heaving about

and rubbing the mirror and an inner light did call

It seemed to say

I always wanted to leave her

I need to get away

Take me with you Peter

And I will make your day

 

So Peter picked up the pearl

And with his back against the roof

And his feet against the floor

He forced the Mother Oyster

To open up her vice like maw

 

And out he popped the pearl

Then quickly followed the man

But then though the mouth slammed shut

She screamed and shouted

About how he stole her world

"Give back my pearl!" she demanded

Thief, thief she called

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

field without an escape plan

 

Suddenly a passing octopus

He stretched down an arm

And picked up Peter and his pearl

And carried him away from harm

 

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

You are a shape shifter after my own heart

Now well I can give a part

No longer need you forage

I will take back to your start

Your amazing adventure is over

And you can return to your girl

And You can wow her with your powers

As you present to her your pearl

 

I shall, I shall said Peter as he thanked

The octopus and climbed back up the harbour wall

All drenched he was but walked still into the tavern

Where she was serving ale

And when she saw him, she went a little pale

And the fishermen drinking like fish

They dropped their jaws into their dish

And the fishwives could not think of a tale to tell

They were speechless too as well

As Peter strode boldly up to the bar

And presented to his one true love

A Pearl the like of which was orient ar

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

And all who saw couldn't believe their eyes

 but in their hearts they were convinced

This oyster sized fisherman had as much skill

 and cunning

To hold his head high in the community

And never again was a bad word said about this

 Smallest

Of fishermen see