when the lights go out

You'll see everything so clear
There'll be nothing to be a fear
When the light goes out

When the light goes out
There'll be nothing to shout
There'll be no wind about
When the light goes out

You may hear that thunder roll
You may fear you'll lose your soul
But don't doubt
He'll be standing on the roof top shoutin'
When the light goes out

Too many men have bought a pen
They write but they're not wrought
They've gone out and sought
What they ought
But they still doubt
When the light goes out

Don't be one of them
The sureness when
You're full
Can be a balm when you're near harm
When the light goes out

So humor me and let me see
You in the dome to come
Where figures in their Roman robes
Will beat upon a drum
And herald in the tribune
With the best of news
Who sees how things stand
In the desert sand
When the lights go out

Muscles and Molluscs

As I went paddling down the Duna
The trees were like a graceful dream
The river bank looked like a scene
From Autumn
All the leaves turning brown from green

As I went paddling down the Duna
The young men passed me in their boats
Athletic bodies
Muscles bulging
While I in my own craft
Tried hard to stay afloat

As I went paddling down the Duna
All the birds flew over head
There were Cormorants
Passing in Vee forms
ducks parading in the shallows
The Autumn chill had risen
To the clouds
And dissolved into sun shadows

As I went paddling down the Duna
Suddenly a quiet stretch
I saw a crow playing a game
like fetch
It would pick up this shell
And in its beak fly a few meters up
Then next it dropped it onto the pebbles
As if to smash the shellfish guy

As I went paddling down the Duna
I turned my boat around just there
So I could watch this little miracle
Of evolution everywhere
On the fifth attempt
He'd cracked it
This crow could pull out
The mollusc
And so happy I could have shouted
Well done Crow, what a clever Guy!

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?

Face of heaven

Somewhere under an eastern sky
I'm floating
I'm diving
I must survive
I'm swimming
And the stars are my guide

Homeward bound on the tide
The river is the determiner
the pull

Through

I look up
And I must remember to forget you

river blues

The stars are guiding me home
Its nothing political
I just don't know who I am
Somewhere between
Mother earth and
The horizon I span
A stretch of water
A River heard
The myriad waves
Like sheep I herd
With my oar
Collecting them only to
Ferry them away
Usher of tides
The coming war

What comes in I wonder
On the tides
What am I, flotsam?
Or jetsam?
From your ship
Where I was tied

Hauled anchor
Waylaid
Lied
And capsized
By the tempest
The Tsunami
The Temple bride
Of a watery world
Where I'm
Face down drowning
In space, I'd
Give my left arm for
A life buoy
She cried
And I swam to her rescue
The fescue starving waves
Of dissent
The mobs boil
Like shark infested water

Forgive me

Sand in my hands
I watch it fall
Towers that stand
I want them all
But then I sigh
On fortune's lie
Forgive me
Forgive me

The noble prince
Upon his steed
Rides across the land
Of the living dead
Book once wrote
That I have read
Turn their pages down
Turn them on their head

The colours drain
From the palace wall
Blood stains red
Empires will rise and fall
I cannot hold them in my hand
Forgive me that
Forgive me all

An angel treads
Outside your gate
She draws the line
Between love and hate
I hold my pen
Keep you in my mind
Then when I write
The Farm yard hen
The cuckold's fight
Forgive me
Forgive me

What strange days
Are these that past
Keep ringing the bells
Of freedom's cast
You hear them ring
From hill to hill
What is this love
That they do kill
A love like a swollen
belly's fill
Of the meal
Ever grateful

The autumn leaves turn brown and fall
The questions hang
Their answers call
In the dead of night
In the days enthrall
I watch them all
Forgive me them
Forgive me all

It's a backwards world

Dreamt of seeing a fox swimming
Then it became a cat, then it got out
Then a fox chasing a cat, and then it was a cat with a dog in its mouth it had caught
But it was still alive apparently underwater
The fox was duped by a chicken
Who had become the sliest of farmyard animals
Convening in corners
Brewing up schemes
Running cartels like the Mafia

Nothing seems to make sense anymore

Cats chase dogs
Cats like swimming
So much that the English Channel
Is full of them doing breast stroke

Dogs hang about on fences and walls
Balancing carefully
Or sunning themselves on window sills

The world is backwards
The birds are rowing in fishing boats
And the fish are flying above in the clouds

Moths tuck themselves up in bed at night
Catholics never have any guilt


Sheep chase wolves through the forest
Ferocious sheep stalk the hills

And Shepherds wear armour to protect
Themselves

Cats chase off Tigers

Wolves are family pets
Lions are nannies
And children keep sharks
In fish tanks

Children are in charge
Little Napoleons
And Churchills
And the politicians are in the play pens
Tossing about  hundred dollar Euro bills

The world is upside down

Back to front

Like a turtle with its shell
On the inside

The soul has hardened
The flesh is soft
Tree leaves grow to the shadows
And the roots sprout nuts

Buildings are falling over
And what lies down
Stands bolt upright

The Mountains melt like butter
In the morning sunlight

And Oceans freeze over
Where the camels now tread
While the deserts fill with water
Asleep in ruined cities
That were never made