lapse land where the reindeers go to forget
Friday, 10 February 2023
Lapse land
Buzz Aldrin's Wedding Poem - dedicated to Buzz
I'm a moon monkey and not a Space Monk
And I'm gonna get married amongst all this space junk
There's no room to put anything
up on the moon
Yet it's full of these big holes
Where they grow space mushrooms
I want a honeymoon on the moon
I want to see you taste the honey
as it drips off the spoon
I can see stars in your eyes
And the sun through your dress
Reveals a new Earth rise
Can you paint me a picture from your room
After we've lived here a year
Tell me do you still have
Moon dust in your ears?
Don't you want to go for a moonwalk with me
We'll look into craters and eat space potatoes
And the lake of serenity will be our home
And the mountains of the moon
you can sweep up with a broom
And vacuum the moon dust in your hair
Speak sweet nothings to me on our Romantic walk
I think we are like the moon made of cheese and chalk
Birds are singing on the moon,
It's very quiet I can't hear their tune
There's not much atmosphere to speak of between us
But at least the lunar module will soon return us
Back down to earth
Where the air is clear
And I breath like a space monkey
With you my dear
Saturday, 4 February 2023
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
Tuesday, 31 January 2023
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
Friday, 27 January 2023
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