Whistle stop

 South bound whistle

On a northbound train

You better get on the chance won't come again

Living in the breathing moment

Don't stand on the platform 

For your train will run passed

There's no use holding onto

The ghosts of the past

Here we come on the strawberry line

We slash and we hack

Beat a path down the track

But there's no use in regretting

We never look back

Here we come

On the train called now

Oh the wheels are turning and it's never the same

The platform you get on at will not come again

The wheels squeal engines throb

However you feel you finish the job,

When the whistle blows we'll be getting on the train

Here we come, hear us coming the chance won't come again

And the steam billows out through the tunnel dark

You might try to out run it but it's lit in you a spark

But time's train is gonna follow whether you do or not

Just keep moving forward through the blind spot

Here we come, hear us coming

Ecuador

 I in shoulders if

The back rights

And ships of knees

Carry me

To sleep

In dungeons of burgeoning

Twigs

Feasts for birds and beasts

And only oils of rain forests

Speak

Brazenly beaks

Boa constrictors

tiger cubs and 

Tolls

Of fiends and friends

And Pandas

On Panther lagoons

Driving Howler monkeys

Across the moon

In balustrades of vines

In Ballerina Kinds

And a love of Ecuador and

All Jungle is in me now

Jonny the train driver

 Jonny was a steam Engine driver

He knew his way around like a spider

Through dark tunnels

He would ride her

Oh Jonny you won't ride no more

Lay down that old track

Don't stop to sleep, don't look back

Rest will come when you're off the clock 

Jonny you've still got a long long way to ride

That steam train whistle's gonna find ya

On your back lying with the sleepers they will bind ya

But you didn't see something black move like a creeper

Snake bit Jonny like the grim reaper

Oh Jonny come back down the tunnel

Jonny, Jonny

Oh Jonny come down the tunnel again

On your slow steam train

On your slow steam train

Jonny come round again

Jonny saw the shadow of an eagle

Come down out the sky, it wasn't legal

And on his ankle lay a beagle

But he'll never ride the train again

Lay down that steam train track

Lay down the sleepers on their backs

Come make it narrow gauge

Just pay him his darn wage

He's got smoke in his eyes turning black

So lay down your pick and your axe

Lay down your word and your tax

We've paid you enough

With our blood and toil it was tough

And you sure didn't help with throwing jacks 

Lay down your spade and your ace

We can't dig your maid and her face

She's carrying a water bucket through tunnel hill

That's the place that she came when Jack met Jill

It's about the journey not the destination

 Clink clang

shh shh

Clink clang shh shh shh

shh shh shh shh

Can you hear us coming

Working round the bend

Pick axes cracking stone

Clearing debris in the den

Shh shh, shh-shh

Hush and listen a while

Hear the sound the ground makes

It will make you smile

Sh-shh, shh-shh, like voices at the station

Ghost passengers waiting for their locomotion

Slash slash at station Rd

Bells ring out on Hitchin lane

Sh-shh, shh-shh, clang clang

As hammer on iron rang

Steaming through the tunnel

At Mendip Vale

I can hear the ghost train coming

pale rider, pale

Shh-shh, shh-shh

Then the signal man

Let his flag down

The Beeching cuts began, 

slash slash

Slash, slash we go with billhooks

All these years later

Read about steam trains in history books

Slash, slash go the hedge layers

Bending down the trunks

Laying down the cycle path on old rocky bunks

Clearing the valley floor of debris and junk

Heave ho, heave ho, hand over hand

Passing up the rumble, clear through station stands

Coming under Cannard's grave

Clearing through the sidings

Picking up the thread near Mill lane

Dungeon farm and keep winding

Shh-shh, shh-shh, what's that I hear?

Not the sound of clanging metal

But the sounds of changing gear

Children's voices laughing

Families pedalling for joy

Laying down the cycle pathing

Steam train whistle sounds like a child's toy

Toot-toot

The racing and the Whirring

Faster now, faster still

shh-shh -shh, shh-shh-shh

We're steaming up the hill

Our legs are the crank shafts

The pistons pumping blood

Our boilers filled with sandwiches

As we go riding through the mud

Picking up the trail 

Just near the Dinder Quarry

Then out under Dulcote

Early or late you needn't hurry

There's just the stars in the night sky

That make up the constellations

Just like the lights of the past don't die

All along the Strawberry line stations

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

 We are the strawberry line volunteers

We are the strawberry line volunteers

We push and pull the plough

We don't know quite where but we know how

We are the strawberry line volunteers

Oh we are chugging our way to Clevedon

All the way across the waves of the Mendips

All the way we shall lead them up and down

Like the sand dunes we shall weave them

Like side winders through the deserts we shall wind

And dig and hack and bind, and together navigate

and follow the old grate

Until we reach the tunnels we shall find

we are the Strawberry line volunteers

We haul on the the rope and yet ready for the smokes

Going and having hope enough for years

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

we're following the track that disappears

We'll uncover the truth and reveal what we find

There'll be the proof of what we've left behind

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

We come together with our eyes and ears

We'll put our heads together, we'll bend upon our knees

and any kinds of weather we'll sing our railway shanties

we are the Strawberry line volunteers

Sweet as cherry wine that runs clear

Or as the fruit divine that hangs on Mendip's climbs

We shall be as rosy through our years

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

Everything in our path we will clear

Noting down the squirrels the badgers and the rats

And even if we have quarrels we are better after that

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

Don't put us down or lose good cheer

We have nothing to fear, but a lack of Strawberry beer

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

Take away your dark days of winter

We will push them out like a splinter

And become stronger even keener

To finish our great task

And drop down time's mask 

from the railways line that runs clear

We are the Strawberry line volunteers

Don't put us in a box or even box our ears

You cannot out fox us when it comes to

pathway clearances

So you know just who to call and when

You have a road which winds this way and then

You may have lost your compass

In a haystack it was done

But be sure you'll thump us 

and miss us when we're gone

So let us finish off our song

We hope you've enjoyed singing along

And if you care to join us

Then don't be afraid to coin us

For we are the Strawberry line volunteers

A patchwork eden

 The women are washing curtains

And cutting out new shapes

Keeping out the cold

Until they make their great escapes

And I am in my room with

A scarf around my nape

Looking at the gloom with

A roll of sticky tape

Can I patch up my windows

Can I make a patch work quilt

And sew my images of Eden

Into everything I make?

A patchwork paradise made up

Of my own mistakes

A blanket to wrap myself in

When the cold comes 

When it threatens my life to take

And are these memories just a childhood fantasy

Or like Joseph and his dream coat

Will my dreams trump my mistakes?

I have to believe in the power of dreaming

And I'll sleep on it,

Under cover of life's roadmap I make

This thing has wheels

 This thing has wheels and it will fly

Take it for a spin

Hitting over drive

There's nothing to lose or win

Only you've got to stay alive

In this thing with wheels

Come on and survive

It is over it is under

The fast road racing

Through tunnels

Under bridges

The scenery displacing

And time shifts its gaze

Until we realize

This thing has wheels

And we are on a ride