And the heavens opened

 The heavens they were opening

They had been closed for quite a while

And I thought with a hoping thing

That smiled like a crocodile

I thought what has heaven given to me

When it opens

Like manna, like gifts of friendship

Or of life

I thought of the many times

I have wanted a wife

Heaven had been closed yes

With sign saying out for lunch

Will be back in 5 decades

After the credit crunch

So I turned away from Saint Peter

I looked back then at Saint Paul

I said I don't know if you remember

But you were once called Saul

And you had these same problems

That in life I am so incumbered

He said life's problems are in the hundreds

But by life's gifts they are outnumbered

Like the stars in the heavenly sky

Try counting all your blessings

You have been rescued from many worse fates

By the fortitude of those who stand next to you

And not one of them would hesitate

To come to your aid or to your side

If they knew the trouble you were in 

They care for you with great pride

Of times up and down and the seasons

 Six months in the dark, six in the light

Three months to feel the spark

Three to see the night

One that's never ending, one that never leaves

Another is a beginning

When an old one wipes its sleeve

And sheds a skin

Lights a match

Turns the light on within

The feelings snatch

Their times to breath

A new light entering

Hope it knocks upon closed doors

A willing them to open

And a miser may not let them in

But the child who has never spoken

Speaks yes come in, and feel the warmth

The glorious blazing hearth

and all health and gin

Bring the family in

And have great cheer beside them

And outside winds turn on the world

Deep mercurial forces move the tides

Moons creak

and shake

And mother nature gives birth

To Spring like a virgin bride

And suddenly the child is born

Out pops a little lamb

And all the neighbours overheard

The words I am, I am, I am

And into the corruption, this amalgamate of man

The human genius for destruction

Flitters like a moth to the flame

As moon beams shatter ice structures

And scriptures go down the pan

And icebergs clash upon ocean swells

In darkness over icy hells

But nothing but the rising humpback

Sings his song on and on

And breaks through the ice sheets

To breathe fresh air anon

And on and on the turning goes

No it never ends

Until we are borne dizzy on our toes

And collapse into the arms of a friend

Who kisses our cheek and mops our brow

And sets us off dancing again

So turn, turn, turn like the ships prow

Upon the rolling wild ocean

Farewell to the Ghosts

 Farewell to the Ghosts

Whoever I have loved

Well I was caught dreaming

Sleeping through this life

Death catches up with us whether we like it or not

But farewell to the Ghosts

To all those I have loved

Farewell to the Ghosts

Whomever I have loved 

They who left me dreaming

In this life's swaying sea

On a lullaby so seeming

The eye of all beauty

We cannot hold on to all that we have loved

But we must let go

So farewell the ghosts that I have loved

Farewell to the Ghosts

Whomever I have loved

And they who loved me

May they fly safe above

And never return except to say to me

Don't spend your life dreaming in lost memory

For life it is for living, so take up your hat

Say farewell to all those ghosts

And move on after that

Who knows where it may get us boys

Who knows where the wind will blow

Through tropical islands

Or through cold winter snow

Farewell to the dreaming of this lives dreams

Farewell to hopes dashed like waves upon the shore

Farewell to those things lost to memory

And if I should meet the ghosts of my ancestry

I hope to say farewell to them

In the glory of the moment

When the sun goes down

Farewell to the Ghosts

Of my neighbourhood

All those faces of my childhood

I wish them on fondly into the afterlife

And hope they'll be there waiting when I die

So I say adieu, not farewell,

I say au revoir until our cages have been opened

And out we will fly

Up to join the spirits of those who live in the sky

Farewell to all the ghosts

To them I say good bye

Pomegranite Sundays

 

The morders

And mooders

The loud owls toot

She is dying to take the valium

And dad is like a snake lying in his bed

Hissing like a kettle

Who has the mettle?, he once said

He asks them to train the zoo

We she the he's and for

they

The mother, who has taken the pomegranite

seed in her mouth

And is gone for the winter season 

Into Hades, Underground

But she has gone and it has taken too long

She is not coming back

The pomegranite shells and skin

lie bear, discarded on the spring grass

That grows up around it

But she , she is nowhere to be seen

No she is not coming

The seasons come, the summers

And her mother Dementia waits in toe

In step and rhyme

In the foot prints of a life

Upon time's shore

That are pressed

Then a wave washes over them

And they are no more

Like so many memories of this earth 

She has lost, 

She is left with the memories

Of the holy ghost

And walks through springs flowers

And meadows that boast

While she walks through April showers

With her mother's ghost

Fire dancers

 How can I say I'll miss you

When you were never really there

Just a ghost of someone I was meant to love

But loving fell into disrepair

Like a Hamlet and his father's ghost

I have suffered very much

From the slings and arrows hurled at my post

But you I never truly lost

You never were a real father, you had

Some place better to be

And if you see me foam at my mouth 

You'll know I'm mad at you dad

Was I meant to have all the answers

Was meant to make do with what I had

Oh well you would know I was a dancer

Through the good times and the bad

And if you should ask me,

Whatsoever I learnt

I'd say its better to be a fire-dancer

Than to stand still and get burnt

And if you should ask me

Whomsoever have I loved

Well I would say some women

But my heart yearns for heaven above

For there really is no living

Unless looking for the holy grail

And there is no sense in dying

Before you've set out on life's trail

So keep your hope in answers

That fall like manna from heaven

And keep yourself a dancer

As you step on seven to eleven

Yes and keep yourself a winning

And never think that you have lost

When you've loved so many women

Well what's another log to get tossed

Because we all must walk over

Those burning coals in the end

And we must all be fire-dancers

And in the final answer you'll find a friend

Because we pull each other through hardship

And storms upon the waves

And we know nothing but friendship

Is the salve by which we're saved

If I hadn't met you in my tracks

 Well I was on my way

On my way to the bank

I was about to rob the safe

The foreman would have me to thank

For the headache when he awakes

Oh everything was going to plan

Yes it was working like a charm

Oh everything was going smoothly

Until someone triggered the alarm

And I was running nowhere, I was never looking back

But then everything worked out differently

Soon as I met you in my tracks

Yes and I saw you at the station

Yes I saw you at the platform too

And it was like we never had spoken

I didn't know what in the world we coming to

Yes I would have lived quite happily

Without the inviting the family

But then you took me out my hole of black

Yes things would have worked out differently

If I hadn't met you in my tracks

The storm it was raging on the wild sea

And my heart it was wailing out in misery

And I knew nothing but heartache

And the weight of history

And it was looking like my ship would never break

The chains of slavery

But then you touched the scars upon my back

And oh things would've turned out differently

If I had never met you in my tracks

Dreams in your hands

 It is your duty to oppose 

What is going on

Don't be fooled into thinking

That you are wrong

You have to fight for what you want

To stay where you belong

Every minute you are alive

Live the whole day long

I hope you understand

I leave my dreams in your hands

There are witches in the forest

Fixing your demise

But you must do as you have promised

You cannot miss what's infront your eyes

So take what you've been given

And get used to what you've got

Whether it's enough to make a killing

Or even if it's not

It is something in your hand

Which you must take and seize

And never let go

Hold on tight to your dreams

I leave mine in your hands just so

Can't think about tomorrow

Today is hard enough

Got nothing but sorrow

In this squalor of stuff

I threw it all away

So I could walk in your lands

Now I don't know what to say

I leave my dreams in your hands