Suitors and Jumpers

I saw you on the high rise
The block of flats
The wind blew you sideways
You didn't account for that
I saw when you fell you pulled the parachute flap
But it did not open well
Much like your cat flap

Oh suitors and jumpers
It's charming the thumpers
That punch out your lights
When you try to alight
Upon a foreign window sill

And what of being a suitor?
The eyes are often traitors
To the soul
Well who could really tell
What he should surely sell
In order to buy a piece of her heaven

A fragment of a kind
A frog jumped into the pool
The lemon slipped off its rind
Like a dress
She felt the bitterness of his
impress
Touch her through her jumper
Though she fell like water
Of Victoria Falls
When this suitor jumped her

Bruton Castle poem readings

Bruton Castle

The Whimsical Wood reading at open mic nite 4th Aug 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtWjq83rJBY

The egg that rolled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMF0SXP2Zkc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMF0SXP2Zkc

Jason and the astronauts

One day Jason was out in deepest space
He had to recover the Golden Crease
It was hidden in the Argian trousers
Guarded by one of most fearsome face
Trigonom of Pestilese the terrifying beast

The trousers once were worn by King Wowser
One of Seven knight kings born of the first phase
The other six had all been eaten in defence of Galactic Rights
The last stand of Wowser came against Trigonom in a field of Maze
Where he fought bravely but lost the fight

When the awful Trigonom attacked it was in the seventh moon
Ever since that Lunar day The trousers of King Wowser
Have hung up in the Trigonom's dark cave room
Nobody ever attempted a rescue
Not until Jason that is and his astronaut crew

The astronauts set out one day on their God sent mission
To recover the stolen Trousers before too long an intermission
But on their way they met an intergalactic spider
Who spun her space time warping web
And trapped his ship beside her

With an eerie elegance she began bundling up his ship
Wrapping it in silky thread from her body did it slip
Jason spied just one whole in the nick of time
And thrust up through with his sharp pole
To severe the spiders spine

Now all a tumbling went the space time continuum
They all fell into her black hole funnel
In a time warp they swung like a pendulum
First in the future then in the past
Their final destination was once again the present at last
And now nearer than ever for space had been nipped
And tucked under in folds as space's cosmetic surgeon had tipped

The planet of the Trigonom now came into view
All they had to do now was land right on cue
No sooner had they done this and their ship come down to rest
When the singing Queen's of Trigonom sung a tune they loved the best
These Queens were of such beauty no mortal man could resist
And if not for the actions of Jason all his Astronauts would desist

Jason being a demi God new the Queen's dark plan
To devour each and everyone of them down to the last man
So stepping up with skill he sang his own song shrill
Until their notes they'd miss like a lovers kiss, 
Once the spell is broken, he took his chance and made his kill

The astronauts were much relieved to be saved by Jason
And it strengthened their will and made them believe
In this demi-god they called Captain

A prophecy had foretold that they must encounter some problems
A great marsh stood inside a hellish wood full of murderous Goblins
To cross it they must take a path no mortal man had tread
only the seventh King Wowser whose body still lay there dead

The astronauts were ready they were Jason's loyal knights
However much dread they felt in their hearts they knew
They fought for Galactic rights
With a tip and a toe and a power lazar bow
They cut through the forest ahead of them

Many a nasty creature did sit in their sight
And they were forced all day long to severe and to fight
At last at fall of blessed night
The monsters came no more
They found themselves a resting place beside a cave mouth door

Come the morning, the sun's rays barn storming
Broke and woke them from deep slumber
They looked for foe and checked their friends
And found them less in number

The forest at that hour was filled with grazing unicorn
Such a sight revived their spirits new in magic were they born
But no sooner had enchantment come then the spell was broken
For from the caves dark belly a tremendous voice had spoken
Who out there can I smell? Is it Jason and his astronauts come please do tell
And even greater than the voice soon followed the man
If man you can call the hideous giant form of Trigonom

His thunderous footsteps crashed, all deer and woodland beast did scatter
And then appeared with fearsome beard the mad cyclops of unearthly matter
Aha cried Jason here I am, I come to cut you up like ham
You bad hog whose dirty dog has spoilt the fair galactic calm
I accuse you of Regicide to kill a King who awfully has died
You must in the name of all that's right and fair
Offer up his Golden trousers and return his body to our care

Such an upstart how dare you speak to me
I am the King now I keep the golden trousers hanging free
You want them back eh? you must settle with me

With that he picked up a giant log and hurled it into the astronauts
Who tumbled back into the wood until only Jason stood and fought
"With that one bad eye old man, you this whole horizon scan
And call it your dominion? Well let it roll back in your skull
For now your death drum roll is the sound of my opinion" spoke Jason

"What you say makes little sense but, if you leave now
I shall take no offense, and take with you your bandaged brethren" replied the giant

"I will not go you dirty hound the wolves have called now 
You must go to ground, let me lead you on your way" Jason said
With this Jason thrust his mighty dagger into the cold heart
Of the Astronaut bagger
Trigonom finally fell
The earth shook and forest floor quaked, stones as big as houses
soon rolled cracked and flaked, trees uprooted
And the volcanoes coughed soot 
But eventually all became still

After the dust had settled Jason walked over his kill
Beyond Trigonom's corpse in the dark caverns recess
Hung the Golden Trousers of King Wowser shining
like a fork in the darkness

With the strength of ten men Jason pulled them down and put them on
They must have weigh nearly half a tonne
But feeling now the Majesty of Kings he strode on
To accomplish other things

The surviving Astronauts bound King Wowser's body in the green leaves of a palm
And carried it in consort back to their ship
Finally only Jason stood on that planet of Mortal Woe
Thank goodness he thought, we have fought and won
A great battle of galactic rights
Now gone is Trigonom the great foe
One stepping stone to future harmony is laid when we felled his body

Then he climbed aboard his ship, and it pushed up through the gravity
Escaping at terminal velocity the Planet's well
Such are the escapades of the brave
That they live to outshine the dimmer lights
before they turn to the grave
And so it was with Jason and his Golden Trousers
Now they hang in an interstellar wardrobe
Next to a statue of King Wowser
A triumphant tribute to Virtue over tyranny 

Failure of Adam

When we begin to sin the road is not yet light
The sun has yet to have fully risen
The stars are still out in the embers of night
Un-creating Adam in a God-like frisson
In a swagger of the mystical
The moon leads the way like a pied piper
To the un-begun day

Un-sun,in unison with childhood memories of hay
And what is left is the failure of Adam

The license to kill was given him
In the hearthrug to decay
Next to a roaring fire where
His father spends his day
Cleaning up ashes, sweeping up soot
Clearing the chimney chambers then polishing his boot

Holding up the cinders of an unhindered world
Falling like the dust of empires into a bag of perfect pearls 

Taking stock of photographs, stored for memory
The gland which does the talking in his head
Is the one he must make free
Courting the disaster that is the consciousness of Eve

The last, the single plaster that may mend his wounded sleeve
For there he has worn his heart from the hour he first believed

Her own heart is on his sleeve she said
Do not wipe your tearful eye with it
When you contemplate the dead
They are gone as apostrophes in history
Silences in the pitta patter patois of eternity
All the rocky cliffs that chant infirmity
That edifice of Eden called infinity

That none can scale its garden walls
But must be let in its gates
It takes a mighty pride to succumb to such as its falls
It takes a river to cry over its loves and hates

Some such philosopher Rimbaud maybe
Told of these devices of the coming day
A tree to scale once there in
Of innocence it lies,
It grows neither to east nor west
It knows of no earthly prize
Yet in its fruits has mankind made a home for all his sins
The melting pot where to put the devil in

Its name is Nature it knows no law of man
Its laws are of God's creation its roots seek out his plan
Such is the arrogance of Adam
That he sees this tree as lumber
And every fruit and every leaf
As an economic number

He frames it in human terms
Tries hard to tame it
Forces it to follow rules he learns
From his greedy heart names it:
Tree of his possession, Beginner of his sin
Constructor of the pale confession
The water he drowns himself in
He calls this tree the Mother
For it cannot be male
She is the only other
Whose profession teaches Adam to fail

This tree flowers but once a year
In this he says is innocence reborn
In this her virgin tear
And yet "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"
As the roots reach down to a buried fear

They reach back farther to when the earth began
Before the concept of human fear or folly
Had even entered into God's master plan

They are irreconcilable, parallel roads that never crossed
And yet so close they could be twins
Two life forms, each others' ghost 
Mirrors, but to each other lost

The Lion of Lake Balaton

Standing strong the lion
Stood on the ice upon the Balaton
Defying the winter chill
As all came to a standstill
And let the white Safari gaze
Hunters out on Winter days
Sighting the mighty king

Its ferocious head
The leader of the lead
The majesty of the ice jungle
Fill the heart, its worlds apart
No more false hunts to bungle

They set out at break of dawn
The ice did creak as if it'd sworn
Under their skates
Their snow boot plates
That trod their mystical way

The hunters walked in single file
Mile after weary mile
The darkness and the cold
The starkness of the white was bold
As the sun climbed into a purple sky

Tinted by a red rose tie
Tinted now they traveled long
Between the feet of Balaton
The ice was deep it sang its song
Mile after mile

Mile after windswept mile
Until they found where the Lions beguile
He hid not from them in their scope
He stood strong like a symbol of hope

They took aim, and he did fall
In a crash that sent up an ice sheet wall
A crack which spread
Was the great beast dead?
Or a figment of imagination
Out on the ice of lake Balaton

He runs there still
Through the winter chill
King of all he surveys
More hunters come in the Midday sun
For long at him to gaze

.....................

The lion bounds across the frozen Balaton
Bound in the breaking ice
And crashing in its warlike eyes
Melting paws
The frozen thaws
Out through heat of life

Out, out beyond the cold stars
Reflected from the sky
The ice abounds while the lions crown
Like a furry Eskimo's hood does fly

From the scope of the hunter's moon
Earning his almost magical skill
To mark his prey, and then to kill
The mystical beast too soon

It leaps beyond the gun
Beyond the glinting rays of the sun
Through the testy fields of ice
The frozen waves
The half crescent eyes
Closed to the pain, the cold
But open to the fame of the bold
He fights for life

He fights, he fights
And yet in their sights
They have him still
Like a hymn sung on a hill
Like a bull caught by the nose
In its advancing raging pose

Now crossing the inebriated plain
He comes close to the edge again
And finds in the twisted bank of reeds
A cover that will suit his needs
He stops to rest
And feels best
His heart's blood bleed
The wound is in his thigh
The bullet nipped, it tripped
And skipped back up into the sky

He sees the jade dawn's birds cluster
And at last his strength does muster
to go on
Stalking on around the edge
The cover of the myrtle hedge

The hunters far across the ice
Have yet to spy him with their eyes
His blood is spent, it drips it screes
In pools that mark him, foot prints with ease
The hunters follow this Hansel trail
Of blood sweets, the end their quarry to take

The leaves they breeze
The end in sight
The slightest sneeze
The burn of the night
The lion sees the lake's bright lights: Balatonfűred
He wanders up the pearly streets
Blood dripping on the marble feet
Staggers then
Lays down to rest
Upon a plinth
There he turns to stone
No more the hunter's bullets him can harm
Only their thoughts to atone
For the Lion of Balaton stands alone

The Welsh Bards

There he is the Venomous King
Head in the clouds, our Praise should sing
Closer to God?But he is the Sod
Whose doing the Welsh Murdering

King Edward No, I shall not show
Nor break my bardic Seal
You are the black crow
Of Evil tidings don't you know
Such harm you cannot heal

King Edward, black of heart and mind
Go back to England there to find
Your throne's foundations rotted root
The day your  blighted hand played your family suit

Your coat of arms, a shield of death
Your pack of cards is missing a king of hearts

King:
I am here, I'm ever present
I put down the poor Welsh peasant
My English crown is most pleasant
When I wear it on my head

They're dead, they're dead
The Welsh are dead
My Kingdom knows a wider spread
Make way the Royal carriage lead
Up the Royal Road

Red, its red, the road that's lead
From my throne to this Welsh bed
Here an English castle build
With Spear and Sword I wield
Might is right, and the English fight
To conquer foreign field

Young Bard:
He's mad, he's bad
He's made us sad
What can we sing of now but sorrow
Tomorrow, tomorrow is another day
Dad, but what of the Welsh blood to borrow?

Old Bard:
Its drained, its drained
The life's been washed out by the English reign
Our Prince Llewellyn lies in pain
He's seen only sorrow

How now, I fought beside the Great
A Great man never knows love nor hate
Just daring do be he early or late
To fight the English Foe

But fight he does on Castle Rampart
Flinging spear, casting sharp dart
The arrow head as daggers sped
Into the English Horde
The Welsh fight on
In perennial rebellion
Ever shall daffodil flower yellow
Or the bluebell ring on
In green valley, or fields fallow
Ringing the chimes of freedom

Here are our hearts grown stout and strongest
Bringing courage over hard times longest
Waiting besieged in Castle Harlech
Or standing on the shore

Someday Wales will sing free again
Free of English will to cruel reign
Over hearts and minds
Bards will sing them, of Wales' Victory song

He sits there on his throne admiring
As beyond Welsh country folk are expiring
All for the joke of a United Kingdom
All under one yoke, one throne

See his might on pedestal put
As Majesty steps down its heavy foot
The poor welsh crown is crushed ash soot
In another burning town

See his face in the fire flaming
See the juices of meats and gaming
Set out on the banquet Naming
King Edward King of Wales

His son the poor boy such a weakling
Must follow suit and be a leak King
Prince of Wales is this meakling
Powdering nose and trailing coat tails

When do the ever self-abasing lords
Lay down their arms offer up their swords?
Yet we as Bards fight with our quills
Our tongues our bows, our arrows our words

We shall not deny our heritage
To speak Truth in place of false homage
To recognize infamy in the guise of virtue
To know a villain out beyond his curfew

Such are the acts of an honest bard
Not to dishonour his tradition
Though demands be deadly hard

What worth is a man's soul anyway?
A king's ransom? For King who will not pay?
One compliment given, is a sin to heaven
Even if a season in hell be my forfeit
Heaven knows a poet must speak
But truth guides his tongue
He must not be weak
To sell his soul for a lie
Or his pride for a leek?

I will wear it by my side
Until the stench does wreak
Then the king will know the bad air around him
Of the Welsh's men's hearts grown cold that surround him
The banquet table holds a chill as well
For all the soul's he's damned
Including his own straight to hell

So no I shall not sing his praises
King Edward is the poison of the middle ages
Wales the sick patient,
Only kept down in a perpetual sleep
May King Edward's Castle fall
and tumble into the deep

River Severn

River Severn, River Severn
Severed heaven
At the pearly gates
Your locks the Brunette, Brunel Curls
That flow and Furl
Along your banks

River Severn on a journey
Through the mists of time
Turn back the clock
At the Bristol docks
So the river creatures chime

River Severn, severed from heaven
Flowing out of Eden
Through the bearded bushes grow
Narrow, widen, even
All the gulls that fish you
All the cormorant crews
Crows in rows that haunt your flanks
Swans that pose upon your banks
Carry the roots of inner earth
The heart of caves
To the river mouth of course
Far from ignoble birth
In the hilltop source

River Severn, severed heaven
From a Seventh Eden
Bows down from the midland crown
Between Wales and England

From source the mundane force
From little becomes a lot
Into the trees of noble seas
The Blood clot
Breaks through waves of life
Muddy foot prints in clay
Sinking skin of arterial
Reeds poke up as aerial
Let little birds fish
Has bigger fish to fry
The river in quiver
From the rain darts of the sky
Down the ponds and lakes
That stand beside in half hidden tree stakes
That let the flood-lines shake
The field levees break
And out in all the miserable din
As Winter breaks the icy grin
And spread its cold shiver across the skin
Of river-land

There it is beneath the skin din
Rustling its shoulders
Rolling blood over mud over blood
Over boulders
Slipping its slight artery out to sea
Bleeding its inheritance of land
Bleeding its rain heart
Its cloud song
Sky banks let its savings out
Spending all its cash
On one last ditch attempt
To splash, flash or smash our contempt
For law for the claw that
tries to rake back the sea

It tries to take back the land
In its never ending battle ground
Playing its hand
In Neptune's tidal sand
In the Kraken's fighting stand
With its seven heads of heaven spewing
Severn mouths of seven wells
From the Seven fallen Angels
Conquering seven seasons of hell

each one feeding, snatching at the next
Until the river Severn has severed and broken all their necks
And the river dragon is finally dead