Poetry

Sunday, 3 February 2019

Easy Love

If you say that you need my love
What can I do but make it?
And if you say that I don't give enough
Then darling go on and take it
Oh make it, take it for goodness sake
Don't fake it

If you say that you've heard enough
That there's no more you can take of it
I can say that I learned of love
That summer by mistake of it
But its your love that I want above
All the others who partake of it
Oh make it take it for goodness sake
Don't fake it

They put you up on a pillar of love
Then like a tree they shake it
You fall down, lose your crown
On the low ground they break it
Oh make it, take it for goodness sake
Don't fake it

Make it, take it love's just a piece of cake
Ain't it?

Talk is Cheap

The clock is running low
and time is running out
We've got nowhere to go
And there's no need to scream and shout
So honey try to sleep
Because talk is cheap

There's a thousand reasons why
And a million stars in the sky
A country lane runs on mile after mile
Much like our love, I think and I have to smile
I love you too deep
But honey, talk is cheap

I've been walking in the land
Of the cold kiss
Almost blown my mind
On the chances that I've missed
But your love is one thing
I plan to keep
But honey, you know
Talk is cheap

Saturday, 2 February 2019

Cold Iron

Cold Iron, cold iron
Cold iron in the ground

They make you in a furnace
pour you molten in the mould
wait for your skin to harden
For your body to turn cold

Stand you up on the plinth
A statue of iron man found
Then they make another on an island
An Iron woman they give a crown
Tell her to hold a torch in her hand

Liberty
Cold Iron, cold iron lady
Why is your freedom so hard?
You stand on your island
Believing the future you've had read in your cards
Cold Iron, cold Iron
Will you turn into something real
Come down off your pedestal of metal
Show this iron man the way that you feel

Girl On The Tram



I see you standing there, Girl on the tram
your legs like rails run into an unknown land
But you don’t even know who I am
Girl on the tram

We might be together in a fairy tale
We could swim with the dolphins
Or even ride a whale
But I am no merman
Girl on the tram

Now I have to admit that you don’t know me well
I could be the man from U.N.C.L.E. and you couldn’t tell
But I get the idea that we could still make a plan
Girl on the tram

Maybe we’ll have babies
Or buy a big old house
We’d inoculate the dog for rabies
And lay a trap for a rat or mouse
But that’s just a plan
Girl on the tram

Maybe you’re the niece of a king or queen
Maybe you don’t say exactly what you mean
But Girl on the tram
You’re the girl of my dream

Perhaps I forgot to mention a few lines back
But I’m actually an outlaw wanted down the track
So, you better know it now, that I’m a man on the lam
But it don’t matter anyhow, Girl on the tram

I guess we could have a good life together
You could raise the kids to be birds of a feather
And if it seems to stand
I can give you my hand
And we’ll run off together
Girl on the Tram

I guess I won’t make a bad husband
Maybe I’d drink or gamble
But its no different to any other outlaw man
Born to be a wanderer, born to ramble
Some day I’ll have to leave you
Because they’ll find out who I am
But we can hook up later when I’m out of trouble
Girl on the tram

Then I’ll straighten out and get back on the wagon
I’ll be you St George and slay the dragon
And you can be assured, that I’ve done battle and won
All my critics be damned, all but for you
Girl on the tram

Maybe we’ll go out to a fancy restaurant
You’ll tell me what you need
And I’ll give you what you want
I’m not saying for certain, just making an assertion
Girl on the tram

Now I think my stops approaching, so I better be quick
Its hard to begin broaching, and the subject doesn’t stick
Maybe you’ll be fed up with the way that I am
Girl on the tram

There’s only one stop remaining, and my heart begins to sink
Won’t you stop complaining about the amount that I drink!
Your father always told you, that you couldn’t trust a beatnik
So, I’ll maybe blame him for our moveable picnic
You can see who I am
Girl on the tram

Well I guess its time, I’ll be leaving
The doors are open, I wish there was more believing
On your side – if you’d only spoken,
Just let me know how you’re feeling
Or if I can explain
It’s about communication, again and again
But now I’ll say farewell
and leave you without pain
It might be in vain, but I can
Girl on the tram






Sunday, 20 January 2019

Blog from the Bog

I am in a robot Armageddon
And the time traveller is dust
Its a case of man against steel
What you feel is real rust

What you make for a meal
Is grist to their mill
And they'll challenge your will
Provide a no deal
And implant a chip in your soul

And a robot is what?
Just a chip off the old block
Just chip on the shoulder of giants
Its one giant leap for an ant
But a drone bee is a giant step for a man

What can he swallow, what kind of pill
Can make him sleep for a thousand years
And wake up when its time to kill

And Time is killing man
But man is killing time
With his machines and devices
To serve all his vices
And even turn all his water to wine

What kind of veal can stake a claim to his calf
The meat lies on the road for the foxes
And upturned is the apple cart

How many apples have fallen before a law is made
To put Pandora's prizes back in their boxes
To turn the white beam into shade?

The dogs are howling at the moon
As the man returns to his home
Babies are crying for the womb
And the woman is sleeping alone

Man is creating his Eden
Down the street where the dog chews a bone
But who is loyal to his master
Will turn tail like an unwanted drone

Man is creating his Eden
In the bowels of a dying mother Earth
And she's spilled her guts, suffered all his cuts
From the moment that she gave birth

Some crone can read it in her entrails
Some drone will build a society of worth
But the hive mind that finds
All of human kind, can never buy back
The price of its curse

Cock and Bull Story

All the clocks have stopped
And the cardinals walk
Upon the court of the cock
And the Bull that talks
And we can't shut up the shop
Nor lock up the criminals who balk
At all the broken cups
That they drink from or tap with a fork

I thought you said you loved me
She said from behind the bars
But I was serving pastries
To pasty faced movie stars
And she was cleaning their apartments
And refilling their cars
As we talked of Hollywood departments
And walked down their boulevards

I thought you said you loved the silver screen display
That was better than make believe
Better than man made of clay
Even God appears there shifting behind the scenes
He's in the prison of the camera
That we capture and hold in our dreams

Jesus is failing as an extra,
he's been to two auditions
But the terminator director
Won't even cast him in an impossible mission
He's left kicking rocks in the parking lot
Collecting tips for parking actors' cars
Who once thought they'd seen him in a musical
Where he played some superstar

I faced into the distance,
And shook my fist at the storm
And said why must it end like this?
Oh lord I am tired of feeling so worn

And cursing the apocalypse
The Zombie actors come out on parade
They've heard there was a calypso line
For eclipsed actors who never get paid

And sure enough they all turned up
On set the very next day
They'd lost a lot of their make up
And their hair was turning grey

So they stepped back inside the prison
And the camera took off fifty years
They said now we look good by comparison
To the summation of all our fears

Suddenly from the distance a footballer turned up
Dribbling his ball, through all the holes
As if at the Ryder cup
Someone said its  Schumacher another it was Lewis Hamilton
But I knew for sure by his quick draw
That I was looking at Harrison ford
Jack Nicholson, took for advantage
A cake from the jaws of a lion
And shaking his mane, he said with some shame
That he wished he were Jenson Button

The flying ducks were caught out over the ninth hole
And eight weeks later, a great alligator
Was shot on the white House Lawn
A fishing he had been in Florida
A concertina kissed
The clouds they part, for those departed
On the rise of the steamy knoll

If anyone can control him
Perhaps his uncle should know
About all the conflagrations burning up in his soul
And if one artist, could talk to a skull
What would be said, from inside that head
And the reasons for the role call?

Similar if not for Schwarzenegger the whole
cast would have gone berserk
With unexpected losses, and time spent off work
And perhaps if their forefathers had known them
They would have signed a farewell to arms
But with the heroes going down to zero
Nobody is falling for their charms

And what if anything can be answered by
The legend of the gun-touting fool?
You've got to stick it to the man
Who made you in his image as his tool

Sunday, 30 December 2018

Master of puppets

The shadows of the past
Play puppets on the wall
Strange animals run fast
Monsters are there ready to fall

My hands cannot hold them all
My fingers untie
I am tired of all the acting
Tired of the charade, the lie

I see her in grey approaching through the white
Each time I think I may stay
She turns on another light
And it illuminates my mistakes
It casts doubts' shadows against the wall

My own past is merged with her's
And I cannot see clearly at all

There must be some reason for its standing
This cinema of life
Like I am watching my own play unravel
Like she is an actress, And I am
An editor, making the cut with my knife

The scene of us together rolls around and around
The film reel feels, like a loose end
That must be tied
I am the puppet master
But I do not pull the strings
My shadows dance without my asking
They are autonomous things

Have I responsibility for what they do or say
After all am I not just a puppet myself
In this strange shadow puppet play?