Night guard

 Black to black

In the night of the guard

The world like a sire to the last

Broken on the hill

Of becoming

Salt fire and ash

In the mouth of the south

While the North looks down its nose

At us

And the soggy bottom of a marsh

Swells and swelters and sweats

In the beads of cookie cutter mountains

Beds alight with the embers of love

And grave yards that glow in the dust

Houses that smoulder after the floods

And Kitsch curt right courts exploding in blood

How can you hold onto the one that you love

How can you ask me when it's good enough

If you don't know by now it's a shame

But it's all just throw of the dice in the game

Talk about it

 Snow flakes in heaven

Give me dust in my shirt

And a weight that hurts

A back breaking sign of things to come

And how to run, how to run

I don't want to talk about it any more

Memoirs of a hermit -26thSept 2021

 I went for a walk in the park

On a Sunday morning

On the way back a pigeon  flew into a car

It was flapping around on the road

So I picked it up

And lay it next to the hedge on some straw

In its death throes

It opened its mouth

and contorted and looked at the sky

Back home I talked about Harry Potter with a Japanese student

Then a different student was drunk so I cancelled the lesson

I went to church in Shepton Mallet

Talked with Sami a Japanese lady 

About the congregation and the drummer

Who had a learning disability

Then a Pigeon flew into the Church in the middle

Of a sermon about storms on the sea of Galleli

And how Jesus calmed the storm

And was a sleep while all the fishermen panicked

And he said quiet

The Vicar pronounced the word loudly as 

The pigeon flapped in the rafters

Then came to a stop in the children's cresh

I moved over to catch it and set it free

But it flew up again

The Vicar said

and Jesus said the mind boggles

I felt embarassed at the distraction I had exacerbated

By my attempt at capture

And left the church

I drove to Great Breech wood

In order to find the Sedgmoor volunteers

But was late and couldn't find them

After two hours of wandering

I sat down on New Hill and ate some lunch

I saw an Asian Wasp

Or a murder hornet

Got caught up in some gorse and brambles

Then walked back to the car.

So emotional

 It's so emotional

The way you rock the cradle

The way you care for one and all

It's so emotional

It's so disasterous like a fall

Like a grace that's saved but then

you call, put us back in our places

And wipe our brave faces

Oh it's so emotional

The tears of the terror bomb

The tears of space

That cry out the stars in their eyes

And hear from the eves of the changing of race

Into colour blindness and lies

It's all so emotional

Homing pigeon

 When the pigeon flew through the hole

When the doors were well open

And the ten Commandments scroll

Had been spoken

When you understand you don't control your life

You'll stop flapping around 

In the house of the Lord

Whether you're a pigeon or a mouse

You can neither fly from nor hide from

The word

Let it be, he is here with you

Even the lowliest shrew

Even in the turn of the screw

There is no escape for you

Read from the ten Commandments

Know the beginning and end

Are not different departments

But all tied up like a shoe

Like a pigeon that's trapped

Got lost on the map

But flew

Straight home to you

The river sheppey

 The ducks on the sheppey

Down in the valley

Flowing right up by aunt sally

Walk up from Bowlish

And then to the hill

Where the Windsors are ruling

Through the winter chill

Down in the valley where the brambles grow thick

And the lilly pads ralley

Amongst the Bull sticks

And the rushes are happy

And the flushes are drained

And the green nettle lushes

Down through the rains

Down in the valley where the river Sheppey runs

And up on the hillside where walk the white nuns

Singing their choir songs of hymns for so long

About the green Sheppey that trundles along

Through all the houses and the winter time's plain

It runs with the mouses where the old bridges lain

And the mill stream of clemency and forgiveness' name

The green Sheppey whispers out her sweet name

The heart's road

 When I go away I try to forget

All of those pieces of memories of regret

When I go away I can hold them at arm's length

And say you cannot hurt me, you cannot touch me

You cannot hurt me today

But I always come back, back to the fold

To the font of the cradle of birth

I always return to the home and the hearth

And the place where I first knew the hurt

Now you can be travelling a long weary time

You can be holding his hand or mine

And this can be our way together or apart

But that's just the road of the heart

When I am travelling down the country mile

I look for the clouds, then I burst into a smile

When the sun is all shining and the birds are in song

Then I'm reminded that nothing is wrong

When I am travelling along a steep hill

And the ridges are vast with an emptiness that chills

Then I see your hand in the sky high above

And I know it's all just a plan of your love

When I am travelling through dale and through den

And the trees they grow over and they are my ken

I know you're near me, because I feel at ease

With the summer behind me and the autumn's breeze

When I am travelling far from my home

I can forget all of those feelings I own

Nothing is stronger than the pull to return

From where I've been travelling the heart's road that burns