This is England

 The sheep are lying down now

Resting under the oak

And it is so English and free

And there is peace on the hillside

And in the valley

And whenever you hear the sally of the guns

It is not for anyone but the nuns

Who are shooting into heaven above

And firing out their eternal love

For this is England in a green, green land

This is England in a blue, blue time

This is England everyday of our lives

It is like folded ecstasy, 

Folding and unfolding in infinity

It is unravelled plentitude

and every kind of habitude

The crows know it's free

and they are so black

And the ravens in the trees

And the buzzards they attack

And the knights round the table

They talk of their king

But that was all such a long time ago

For this is England

This is England

It is so corrupt with corrosion

Finally earning its place

In the world

This is England, this is England

The smell of the cold

And the hawthorn trees

This is England

The collaged beaches

And the brownfields down to the sea

You can see it in the finer details 

of a Turner painting

While it is smeared about like Colman's mustard

Upon the ruins of the grating

This is England in our time

This is England

Thistles and pines

Broken horses and broken cows

Oh they are walking not straight

And all the houses of broken vows

It is there now

This is England following the plough

Making all furrows

All the burrows inside ourselves

This is, this is England in the hillside

Where the rabbits are all mating, none have to decide

This is England and they're all on benefits 

but that is good for the government

This is England in the Spring time

It is England in the Autumn time

This is England every noon and afternoon

And in the morning, and it is when you awake

for the sake of love

This is England and we can't go wrong

As long as we keep on singing our English song

This England I am robbed by you

And all the white van men in the afternoon

This is England and there are no voices

But the black and white choirs

Singing their different tunes.

Take me to the bridge

 Take me to the bridge of understanding

Take me to the bridge of your dreams

Take me to the bridge of the foregrounding

Take me to the bridge of your streams

Take me to the edge of forever

Take me to the limit of your tether

Take me to the most outfar reaches

Take me to your beaches

I will carry on forever

In the airy bounds above

Take me to the bridge of understanding

Take me to the bridge of your love

There are many rivers beneath us

And so much water has passed between us

There are so many valleys below us

And many mountains above

Take me to the bridge of understanding

Take me to the bridge of your love

I need to find a way to cross

To cross the river between us

There must be more than I can see

There must be more that I can trust

Take me to the bridge of understanding

Take me to the bridge of your love

Travelling tears

 Hear that steam whistle blowing

Over the hills and through the wind

Hear it blowing for you and for him

Hear it blowing for you and for him

And it will blow through the leaves and through the trees

And it will blow through the cobweb of the years

And it will shunt up the tracks ever going

And it will be like the travelling tears

It will ever go from midnight til the morning

And blow through the hills and trees

And yes you can hear that steam train blow out its warning

For it's crying those travelling tears

And sometimes joy in the joining of two people

Sometimes force through the course of the years

Sometimes loss in the pain of separation

Oh they're departing with travelling tears

In the heat in the hour of conversation

They can speak on the platform standing near

And if you wait there for me at the station

You'll be crying those travelling tears

Yes you can hear the steam train blow out its warning

It is a hoot, a toot through the years

It says decide on your final destination 

Or you'll feel those travelling tears

Or you'll shed those travelling tears

In the truth of the pale last question

You can ask me about all my fears

Well I'll know when you meet me at the station

You will cry those travelling tears

You will cry those travelling tears

Skin in the game

 Skin in the game,

Oh skin in the game

It's all the same when you've got skin in the game

You've got to admit, you've got to have skin in the game

Drive off a cliff, don't be tight lipped

Let the hips kiss, it's so far from this

You've got to admit

You've got to have skin in the game

Oh the shame

There's no one to blame

None who can name

One single cuplprit who can even claim

They stood on the summit

and sung it

Or from the pulpit they'd plummet

You know it's a shame

But you've got to have skin in the game

Take or leave it, cut it and sleave it,

Come from the fore or the rear,

Cut off a toe or slice off an ear

It is sheer hypocrisy to me

Leave it on the butcher's table

Maybe Cane and Abel,

Leave a trace of blood, 

Like Hansel and Gretel through the mud,

You know it's a shame but you've got to have

Skin in the game, or so they claim

Make the sunrise, wear clothes of disguise

Hide the sun's rays behind rainy days

It shouldn't take long

To sing on your song of praise,

In many ways

Fire engine bell ringing out insane

They're burning down the tower of Babylon's great name

You know I can hear them say

You've got to have skin in the game

Oh it don't mean a thing, if you don't got that ring

You've got to have skin in the game

Squirrel

 Oh Squirrel who cares

If your nuts freeze

If they're frosty cones

And ice-cream pears

Nobody cares, look after number one son

Climb your bat infested tree

And stick it to the woodpecker

Who is drilling in your ear

Like a mad dentist

Slash and burn, slash and burn

The acorn is born

From your forgetfulness

Tree planter, Robin chanter

In the tree top's highest reach

Screech, and chirp, and pepper in wood pecker rhyme

No, screwdriver tongue

But the bells have sung and hung out

To dry in your silver squirrel sky

Half life of your care

 Won't you tell me

How you're spinning

In the radioactive isotope there

Won't you tell me, the half life of your care, oh yeah

Is it 50, is it 40 ,

Is it around 20:20

What do you need? And what do you you dare, oh yeah

In the foreground

In the fairground

In the far sound from somewhere

Won't you tell me, the half life of your care?

How long will it take for me to decay

Like a jailbird, like a mocking jay

In the forest, in the thickest wood

Or neighbourhood

See diffraction like an x-ray

See the cathode tube and particle spray

In the foreground television there, back in the day

And the white noise, and the signal,

Getting lost in the Mendip hills

Give me microwave, give me ultrasonic care, oh yeah

In the photograph, of exposure

I can see I'm getting older,

Who will still be there?

I'll give you guesses, maybe two or three

Show you infinity, and eternity

But just show me you will still be there

Oh you can tell me, probabilities

You juggle the uncertainties

Just hold my hand, if I despair

Firefly, burning in the night

Photons flying at the speed of light

When Time is sidewise

Train carriage doesn't look so bare

I try to hold you but I'm lost now

In the spinning, forgetting everything

Entropy and chaos, Magnetic resonance

Bring me back into the foreground

I can touch you on the shoulder

Radiotherapist, radiographer 

Tell me what is the half life of your care?

Shepton on Show

 Behind the scrape the hotel slates

Fall from the roof that stand up late

Into the scoffs of hate and rebuke

The pavements soft from puddles of puke

And Shepton stands above it all

The show of hands is ready to fall

But play your cards right late at night 

See the lands of firelight

Where burning men and women fight

Like flames of candles flicker in plight

Shepton, Shepton on show

Shepton, Shepton on show

The windows full of birds and bees

And Coloured snow and worms that seize

The books they throw at the libraries

And the jokes they tell in the reggae-ease

Of Shepton, Shepton on Show

Behind the handpicked frieze

The bright rainbow is covered in sleaze

And thoughts which show the summer's ease

No greased elbow or lock-jawed keys

So cling to the clinker of unspoken word

Fly away like a jailbird

And say what you say without being heard

It's a world away from castle and sword 

Shepton, Shepton on show