Woody the wood pecker

 Woody the wood pecker

Flies from tree to tree

And he brings his song

All day long

down to you and me

He knocks on wood

He knock knock, knocks on wood

And what do think he says?

He says this wood ain't no good

So he flies on over to another tree

Hanging there with the honey bee

Woody the wood pecker

Like a messenger

Flies down to tell me

Yes this wood is good

He says knock knock on wood

Just knock,knock knock on wood

Anytime that you feel good, 

just knock, knock, knock on wood

Oh he goes out just about every day

And he knocks his poor old head away

He goes knock knock, knocking on wood

Then he bangs his head up against another wall

He bangs his hard head until that dead tree falls

He says there now what'd I tell you this here tree is rotten

He says hey pal are you listening or have you just forgotten?

You now come with me, this tree ain't no good

So you better move on over to another tree

Keep knock knocking on wood

He goes knock knock, knock, knock-knock knocking on wood

He says this tree yes, that tree no, and the others ain't no good

So you better move on with me, just on over the hill

That's where you'll find me, looking for another tree

He goes knock knock, knock knock,knock-knock knocking on wood

He says this tree yes, that tree no, and the others ain't no good

He says I make a hole in every one

So I think I might find a bite

Just a little something to eat

Like a bug or a termite

You know when that old tree dies

Well lots of creatures crawl

Well they all make a tall order

Because I can't eats them all

You know I just knock, knock, knock.knock, I keep on knocking on wood

And one day one of them trees is gonna sound hollow and good

So how about you do like me, keep on knocking on doors

Because one of these days one door will open to you

And you'll get a round of applause

So woody says to me you know opportunity knocks

And I'm just about the best opportunist on these blocks

You don't need to give me a second chance, I'm always looking

And I'll be right there, because if it's not in one of these

Then there's sure to be one of them spare

Mosquito Cloud

 Mosquito, mosquito cloud

After the rain hovering

Feathers mobile

Little ant wings

After the rain

Angels sing

Mosquito, down on the swamp

Up on the hill listen to the thump

Beating down rain drops jump

Splash up from the ground

Like a spring

Mosquito, mosquito cloud

mobile on invisible string

Jog up and down

By the invisible hand

The same one that claps aloud

What's that sound that I hear now

Just the sound of one hand clapping

Mosquito cloud before the thunderstorm

Waking aloud to the moist and warm

Crackling like the voice of thunder

Mosquito flys in radar under

Bombs me now from the breaking skies

Heaven has broken, its banks open wide

Down rushes rivers of rain

Mosquitoes know in their hive brain

There's no home like space

 There's no home like space

At least you make it your own

As a Mars Rover you roam

From Place to place

 

There's no mark that's ungiven

By grace's decision

The fate's incision into conflict or crime

A plastic tree, a plastic hedge

What is real is inside your head

What makes a house a homestead?

 

Is it the plants, the sink or the sofa

Is it the door handles shining in sunlight

Is it the plans that you make or hope for

Invested, imbued with spirit

Human habitation

The scent and the sound

The movements the aches

The partaking in common ground

Perhaps all of these, and some vision

Of the future, what can you make of the

Home shaped mould, how can you create

A life you can hold

And treasure, how can you meet the measure

make the warmth to keep out the cold

 

So there's no home like space

And space is no place at all

But if you can create space

From the vacuum of thought

Out of nothing give yourself 

To make the life spark

You can be the creator of your future

Designer of your own destiny

Like an ace tennis player make space

To make the right move

Shuffle of the foot

Angle of the racket

Keep the ball at arms length

Like your problems

That come at you from out the vacuum

 

That is what space is all about

That is what the asteroids are dashing at

Like an interstellar tennis match

You must bash them back

To what ever corner of the space time continuum

They flew at you from

Like a ping pong of problems

But that is why Space can be a home not

Only a vacuum

So tidy your room

Make space, not war

Dirt is alright

What in the world are we all fighting for?

Space, space the final frontier

Whether it's in your back garden

Or free from the veneer

Of inward turmoil

To outward decrepitude

You have to clear your mind

Give yourself some latitude

And in the process of atmospheric freeing up and flying

You might find your altimeter begins to stop lying

And tells you some home truths

For those not only are hardest to hear but

Can also offer the most comfort at times

Like when you know somebody or some buddy's

Got your back, free from the fear of attack

That is space and home, so get back there Jack

If you are smart, you will know

That home starts with your heart

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