Truly Deeply

I'm fed up with trying to be deep
I'm really sick of it
There's nothing else I need but sleep
But I can't get a stick of it
It's the dripping of the drain pipe
Or the falling of the rain
Call it the windows that need a wipe
Or any other name
The shame of it is maddening
The curse is just the same
And if you try to tell your dad
He just speaks his words in vain

Yes I'm fed up with being deep
I'm not afraid to admit it
It takes a deep man to say he's shallow
And I'm in such low waters
That I could paddle
In fact I could wade to the shore
And remain on dry land
There's nothing much to search for anymore
There's no hidden treasure
In the ocean bed's sand
Perhaps there once was a ship of Victory
But she's long been sunk and salvaged
Her cargo's been reclaimed
No I'm sick to the back teeth of being deep
I want all my poetry renamed

It should be named the pill
Or the heavy eye-lidder
The drowsy smell of flowers
That makes the driver veer off course
On a skidder
And the car crash wreck is a double decker
Like the Ship that sunk in the sleep
Oh yes I've had it up to the neck
Like the drumming wood pecker
I'm so sick of trying to be deep

Ocean's eleven -or Rhyme of the ancient mariner Revisited

I set off for eleven oceans

After I'd sailed seven seas

Four more I could not fail

I thought it would be a breeze

I was a lonesome vagabond

in search of riches, tourism and drink

But on that eleventh ocean

was where my ship did sink

A-drowning I was ship-wrecked

my raft it was marooned

upon the shore of a far off Isle

by a whale I had Harpooned

For where is this poor countree

that ye have towed me to?

He said well lonesome vagabond

I've towed ye to Peru

Peru I said and startled up

Where canst a man walk home?

Neigh dear lonesome Mariner

For too far have ye now roamed

But Lo what Majestic sky turned out

When I did turn me Head

For Heaven displayed a plethora of stars

One if followed must home me led

To orient I fixed the whale

Again out on the ocean

And told him hence to beat his tail

And thus from this dark Isle we shall give motion

And so on the crew of one did wend

It's starlit toiling passion

For the sea was as green as a wild monster

Calling my heart's courage to ration

Never a boat had thus put sail

Upon these treacherous seas

Nor chart or map to orient

Our pathless way to ease

We journeyed on without rainfall,

Our mouths were parched as sands

And the rats which fled from my raft

The searing heat they could not stand

Then to me appeared a visage of a friend

One I had known but now long lost

A man I had betrayed in love

And now before me visited his ghost

Accusing eyes they pierced me

And cut me to the quick

That I should live, while he had died

No candle burns a faster wick

Then flames in cohorts filled the scene

And seemed to set a light the timber

And in each flame a visage appeared

Of a man who was my crew member

They called to me and cried still worse

Why have you forsaken your brothers?

Because your life and ours were tied together

Now our deaths will be your curse

So, on I fled, crying “take me away from this guilt”

And soon from the air came a wandering dove

The evil which gave voice to these spirits

Had been dissolved by a face of love

The dove joined my vessel and led the

Whale towards dark cliffs,

“It is land “I cried

And so grateful was I

That no line written could tell of my bliss

Thank you said I, but then down did he die

Exhausted upon the deck

My future still lay in the balance, so for luck

I wore the bird around my neck

The Island was old and grey from a distance

But with speed became more familiar

It was the very spot I had sailed from

In June fifteen long years past clear

The wedding guests had arrived and there

I went with utmost haste

Now to you I regale my tale

Of eleven ocean's to which I lay waste

Meet me on the island

Meet me on the island
I'm drowning, I'm drowning
Meet me on the island
Of a thousand crownings

A thousand brown hens
Crowing the morning
A thousand cockrels
Cock adoodling a warning
Meet me on the island
Of sacrifice
Meet me on the island
Called paradise

I've been over the cold iron bridge
And I've been stuck on
a hot fiery ridge
Been too close to the sun
On my midnight run
Been down to the brook
To read a book
And lay down by the stream
To take sometime to dream
Now meet me on the island
We live in the promised land

We'll row over there one night
Under cover, out of sight
And draw our bows from the withies
And we'll stretch our strings
From twine that bark brings
And make a harp that sings
In the starlight

And you'll brood in the rude rushes
In a hood where you stood under crushes
Of the night when it fell
When we heard the tolling bell
Ring out like a warning through the reeds

So meet me on the island
Where all of it bleeds
And it mixes in the river
And its carried in the flood
I can see your eyes full of water too
Like you could cry by the riverbank
But darling can't you tell
The island is ours as well
So let's keep it a secret
And give thanks
To keep it


Kick out the kites
And Deliver the doves
The gulls are so bright
Silouhetted crosses above
Where the crows crowd in a parliament
And parle about the world outside their branches
They sit on the wires,
like old men around fires
Discussing the government
Like cowboys on ranches

Double Crossed

What can I do for you?
Sitting in the park
Watching the people go by
Waiting for the dark
Where are they going?
Are they happy with their lives
Are they filled with sorrow or joy?
And what can I do for you or am I just your toy?

I am often a watcher of life
On the carousel
It goes round and round
And I stand in the middle and yell
Can anybody hear me
Do I make a sound
And what can I do for you?
Am I making any ground?

You see I'm incognito
I'm the master spy
There are thieves like me
Everywhere
Just in the act of stealing
They die
And every double agent
Has heart that's double crossed
Its just you can no longer steal it
When it already has been lost


The world is made of instances
Much like a film you see
And if you slow it down a notch
Then life suddenly is free
We don't have to rush, we don't have to fight
There is no final bell
We just hope we'll make it back home tonight

Just a man

The world is black but I am white
The angels sing
But not tonight
Who am I, but what I am
The world is heavy
I'm just a man

In the ashes of my final hour
I see the seeds of hope's bright flower
And while I lie
An Angel stands
But who am I
I'm just a man

In a world that's grey
I am cold
In a world that's worn
I am old
And as I walk round
Disaster's castle
The walls crumble down
Like Saint Stephen's tower
And while I lie
An Angel stands
But who am I
I am just a man

The clock strikes one
I am all alone
The feelings come
But of none I own
In a desert sand
My foot prints clear
Some times I walk
No one is near
Sometimes I struggle
Sometimes I fall
My eyes see double
My ears hear call
And while I lie
An Angel stands
But what am I
I am just a man

Rough cities

Rough cities
Where there is panic and crime
I went to sleep on someday
To wake up in my prime
The north wind blows about
My front door
I've been seeing ghosts again
Walking up and down the stair
Too many posts of pain
Too much at stake about which I don't care
Flashing about the city with life
To spare
But life is cheap in the street
Under the auspices of the bear
Who should you turn to in your despair
Nothing left to live for
On the road to Babilon
Keep the wheels rolling
When somethings not right its wrong

Alpha Mail

The run was running out the back side of the linen
The sandals of diamonds
The damsels of the sand and
the random hands of
Fate and kate
And all the shape of nape
Under cape and dagger
I stagger Like a swagger
In the fake shake
I forsake the saffron make
Of Peace and pace
Of lace and dice
Of dace and lice
All among the hallowed homes
Howling like a hurricane around the mountains
Moaning like a lake in the low meadow break