Poetry

Tuesday, 22 June 2021

The way the seasons change


The bee on the clover

The white cliffs of dover

Oh, how the seasons change

 

The feathers in the fields

float as I feel,

The heathers on the hills

Hail out their shrill rills,

 

The spiders webbed catch,

The rain drops and thatch,

Their eggs which hatch,

Their plan

And this is the way, though it may seem strange,

Yes, this is the way the seasons do change,

 

The buttercups and the daisies lie round all quite lazy

They flop, and they fillet and fidget Miss Maisy,

Who walks in the fields and feels the chills,

Of Springtime and Summer draw near

The Winter so far off, yet spinning its jar of

Strawberry jam and rhubarb conserve

 

The dance glades are glancing, the grass blades are dancing,

The dragon flies lancing, the ladybirds lay,

The roses are chancing, as France is romancing,

The meadow so sweet in the smell of your clothes

And Summer is trancing, entrancing and glancing,

The snakes so slicing, sliding and gliding away,

The sunbathers are bathing, in new sun they're savouring,

And ages are wavering through the waves of the day,

And oh, it seems strange to you, 

But this is the way the seasons change they do,

 

And the fathers are fathering, and feathering, tarring and tethering,

And lathering and lithering and clowning and clawing

And the silage has been mown, and the mowers have been sewn,

And the beans are sprouting, and the seeds are grown,

The furrows are furrowing, deep in the burrowing,

the rabbits are tunnelling under the crows,

Who are squawking and talking in parliaments walking,

and gawking at all of those they know

 

And we are so baffled by spring's nature raffles

And summers they trifled and truffled in troves

And everything's glancing, the new season's dancing,

The midsummer's tower has toppled in throes,

Down it shall fall again to Autumn's dark wall again,

But too soon to those shadows and shades that they've known,

In every springtime a hint of the winter,

In every winter day a new summer grows

And it may seem strange, but that is the way the seasons change,

 

The grasses are flopping, and the thorn bushes popping,

The grasshoppers hop-hopping in the long summer shows,

And the clover is bursting and the bees they are thirsting,

For a flower supper and nectar cuppa in rainbows

And it may seem strange, but this is the way,

The seasons do change.


Monday, 14 June 2021

Weary all

 We are so weary,

Weary, weary all

Too tired and weary to get home

Weary of it all

Weary, weary

Weary so weary so weary all


We climbed that old hill

Scaled the mountain blue

Just to get a glimpse of the otherside

Where the grass is always greener

And our dreams they do reside

But we are so weary

Since the giants got meaner

And the Holy Thorn in a murder died


Weary, weary, weary all

Weary all hill

Won't you fill us with your reviving

Energies?

Won't you try to tame us, reclaim us, re-name us

Won't you like the lions

Lie down with our pride?

And take away the blame from us

By those who try to shame us

To cover up their own shortcomings

In the rising waters of the tide


And won't those waters surround us

Abound  us and confound us

But in your immortal energies 

You will see how hard we've tried

Yet we are so weary, so weary, so weary

And on your gentle flanks now

We must lay down by your side 

Wednesday, 2 June 2021

The Strawberry line

 Strawberry line

Two tracks infront

Always one step behind

Like a camel threads

Through the eye of a needle

So too must I thread on a treadle

Of yarn,

And spin my web,

In the ebb and flow of

The Bristol estuary

That awaits all wrecks

Of land and sea


The end of the tracks

Run down to the beach

And launch the great Iron hulk

On her maiden voyage

Steam ship of the channel

Fruit picked, picking its way through

orchards of apples

And row upon row of strawberries

Two tracks in front

Still one step behind


Out of sink in the blink of an eye

Replaced by the steel horses

That race or fly

As the horse was replaced by the bicycle

And I will be replaced by someone younger

More fitting to an age of enlightenment

Or else as it ran over

fields

It now is run over

By men and women on two wheels

Not forgotten, but marvelled at

Like walking through the rib cage cavity 

Of a dinosaur or Blue Whale

A leviathon of the past

That men and women some how constructed

On will wit and ingenuity

And the endurance of living

on a island, and wanting to get to the sea

Or wanting to sell their strawberries

Two tracks infront

But always one step behind


And the destination doesn't matter

As much as the journey

The climb is a trial,

But it is earning a living

It is living your earning

And it is working your body

Like the steam trains steel limbs

Shunting and shoving and hissing and spurting

forth steam, sliding on their greasy poles and rails

Pistons bobbing up and down, back and forth, driving iron wheels

Around and around

Much like the bicycles

We have trained out selves to be machine like

To be repetitive and determined

And strong

And tuned our limbs, muscles and tendons

For what though? May I ask?

To be able to sleep at night?

Or to be able to compete with what we see on adverts

Or perhaps simply to occupy our leisure time

Two tracks in front

Always one step behind

Sunday, 23 May 2021

Shelter me tonight

Give me comfort

Keep me warm

I need your love

From the raging storm

Come on and won't you

Shelter me tonight


Secret love, in a hide away

Upon a hill far away

I have wandered long and wandered far

My feet are weary, my head is sick

I need your home so light your fire quick

I'm coming in from the cold

Oh won't you shelter me tonight


I bought the bomb

I sold the world

But I'm a man too young and sore

To comb over the mistakes that have past

I brought a bottle, I brought a blast

When I saw you I thought that we would last

So won't you shelter me tonight


The world it is a dying fog

And I can be your Prince or your frog

Just kiss me once while we're alone

I can't bear to go back outside

And you don't need another reason to cry

So come on won't you shelter me tonight


I had left you on the stair

With coal black eyes looking like despair

But you don't know the times I've cried

The love we had now it looks lost

What was good turned bad then we got crossed

Wires in the fires of all repost

So won't you shelter me tonight

Nobody sings the folk songs anymore

 I woke up in make believe

I walked down into the street of autumn leaves

Where nobody sings the folk songs anymore


I past by the chestnut seller

Who was roasting his nuts for a fella

He said why you can't ignore

Nobody sings the folksongs anymore


I past up the street from him

The wind was blowing, the sun was thin

A film of sadness it filled my eyes

And I couldn't see through tears

That fell like rain through all the years

And I thought why nobody sings the folksongs

anymore



I crossed over the street again

To visit inside an old inn, 

I knocked upon the door 

and walked within

There were many fellas sitting there

Drinking beer to their despair

They said nobody sings the folksongs anymore


Where have all the good men gone?

Why have the walls of Babylon been broken

Down by the Pagan masses there

They cried 'We can't believe our eyes

The world got sold to our surprise'

Nobody sings the folksongs anymore


I asked the woman in the corner

Who was sewing up her husbands shoulder

Crying out like she was newly born

I said what on earth is the matter?

Why can't you explain the patter?

She told me nobody sings the folksongs anymore


Well outside in the light again

I met a strange immortal friend

Who glowed in his presence like a fire

He said walk up the road a while with me

And said we shall see what we shall see

But nobody sings the folk songs anymore


We walked upon the clouds that were lit

By the sun's rolling chariot

And we saw the world before us born

A new like on every corner

An old strife to every donor

And I know nobody sings the folk songs anymore


Well poverty it rings its bell

But nobody answers that knell

No nobody comes to wake the dying poor

They work for hours in their fields

For to scrap up a meal

And nobody sings their folk songs anymore


There are two faiths to guide you by

One is your heart and the other's the sky

And if you follow one you can't ignore

The place that we all come from

The one road to Babylon

But nobody sings the folk songs anymore


---------


I tell you that you are like me

And I am like the apple tree

That grows, grows its rosy green fruit

And nothing more can answer it

Than an apple that has dropped and split

And nobody sings the folksongs anymore


And now as I'm leaving by

I kiss the sun, and I kiss the sky

For they were the subject of what I adore

And the birds were talking in their praise

Of a world they've known in better days

And nobody sings the folk songs anymore

Sunday, 16 May 2021

Without a shadow of a doubt

 Without a shadow of a doubt

I knew, there and then

That you had me,

Like a rabbit in your head lights I was trapped

And as you came down upon me

Well I thought now this film is wrapped

When I saw you baby

With the blue light in your hair

And the moon dust, which you had brought for me

To touch but I didn't dare

Well then yes I saw your statue, And I lay down

In your shade

And I knew without a shadow of a doubt

That for your love was I made


I knew in the evening of torment

And in the final bow of violins

That my love for you was gurgling up

Like a fresh water from a spring

And I had you in my picture frame

I had you in the hall

Where all those brave, burley men with names

That in the night you like to call

And I was afraid

Of losing this one jewel, I had stole

But I knew without a shadow of a doubt

It was you who touched my soul


If you talk to me baby of suits

And cards that shout

Oh I will break them in two baby

For you knew

Without a shadow of a doubt

That love like a king, came in and ruled the game

And we were all looking to him

When we forgot even our own names

And it could have been Lord Jim, or Tim,

Or even James

But All those saints they sang their hymns

While love shouldered the blame


But, no I knew you baby

I knew within, this feeling

Like the time when the table shook

And I remember the face of the thief

In the mugshot, and the picture of all that he took

And I would chase him for you honey

Across the states, or the whole universe

But he'd just escape again my clutches

Like he did at first

And was it not you who said to me

That I was worse, but take back

All those things you said and write them in reverse

Because what I meant I gave you already,

Now you want to give them back it hurts

And I knew without a shadow of a doubt

That this love will be my curse 

Saturday, 15 May 2021

Time is short

 As I sit down to write

This my last report

Not much has changed

the war is still raging

And the soldiers continue to fight 

Supplies are running low in the fort

I see without a doubt

That our time is short


And if I look out

My window

I see the ship has already left the port

And if there is something

you need to say to me 

You better make it quick

For the candle is burning in a frenzy

And there is little left of its wick

So what I am is saying is

Our time is short


The man who loved you yesterday

Today he has gone to court

The judge in hob nail boots went crazy

He said lock him up and throw away the key

He murdered love in the first degree

Never can he be allowed to go free

So I'm sitting here on death row

Writing this letter before the final blow

And as God is my witness I loved you true

But I played love's game like a sport

I thought life was just a joke, but now I have been caught

And now I see after all our time is short