Poetry

Friday, 24 March 2023

BATHROOM SONG

WHAT DO YOU USE TO WASH YOUR HANDS IN THE BATHROOM?

I USE SOAP TO WASH MY HANDS IN THE BATHROOM

WHAT DO YOU USE TO CLEAN YOUR TEETH IN THE BATHROOM?

I USE THE TOOTHBRUSH TO CLEAN MY TEETH, IN THE BATHROOM


OH THE BATHROOM IS THE PLACE I GO

OH THE BATHROOM IS THE PLACE I KNOW

IT’S A BATH IN A ROOM IT’S THE BATHROOM


WHAT DO YOU USE TO DRY YOURSELF IN THE BATHROOM?

I USE THE TOWEL TO DRY MYSELF, IN THE BATHROOM

WHAT DO YOU USE TO COMB YOUR HAIR IN THE BATHROOM?

I USE THE COMB TO BRUSH MY HAIR IN THE BATHROOM


OH THE BATHROOM IS THE PLACE I GO

OH THE BATHROOM IS THE PLACE I KNOW

IT’S A BATH IN A ROOM IT’S THE BATHROOM

Wednesday, 22 March 2023

Strawberry lines


 Sharpen the billhooks and rev up the saws

Slash the nettles and bend the stalks

That's what we do in the Great Outdoors.

burn the brash with our pitchforks

 

Cut down the vine and stamp on the stump

Break up the stone with a sledgehammer

Pull up the roots and on bare earth thump

Ram in the fence post with a post rammer

 

Raze the old tree, fell it to the ground

Hack with pick axe and with mattock pound

Then when you’ve dug plant a sapling sound

Keep filling with saplings all the holes around

For that’s what we do in the Great Outdoors!

So sharpen the billhooks and rev up the saws

 

Monday, 20 March 2023

Strawberry liners

 

Sharpen the billhooks and rev up the saws

Slash the nettles and bend the stalks

That's what we do in the great outdoors


burn the brash and pitch in with our forks

Cut down the vine and stamp on the stump

Break up the stone with a sledgehammer

Pull up the roots and on bare earth thump



That's what we do in the great outdoors


Hack at the trunks and call the Jackdaws

Raise that old tree trunk, fell it to the ground

Mash up the muddy swamp and flash up the sound

The railway rations are coming back into fashion

That’s the Strawberry line volunteer’s passion


We are the Strawberry line volunteers

We'll be glad if you can lend us your ears

And listen to our song

It won't last for very long


4 hours of work a day on all fours

Crow the shrill rooks and caw the Jackdaws

That’s the Strawberry line volunteers outdoors

 

 

Bring up the dilapidated ruins of rails

Resurrect those uninhabited homes for the snails

Pull up old fence posts cut off barbed wire

And throw it all on top of our burning fire

 

4 hours of work, and nine of contemplation

Don’t sleep on the job for there’s no compensation

Lay down the runners let them have fun

Shine on Strawberry fields under the sun

 

  The railway line was bombed-out neglected

dog-eared and worn

Run down and scrubby, 

Moth eaten and brown


Hack at the trunks and scrape at the stone

Trudge through the mud up to shin bone

Break up the ice and burn all the brash

That’s what volunteers do on Shepton's mash

 

Run down the augurs and drill like thunder

Dig on dig on until you discover what’s under

The bed rock the stiff stock of railway stash

That’s what Strawberry liners do with your cash

 

 


Viaduct

 To the viaduct

Go walking

On the long wet rainy days

With your dog in the forking

Of the long hot summer hays

And Dripping with rememberance

Of a past now left behind

When railways and Steam engines

Crossed the valleys of our minds


And all the strawberries travelled and all the red currants

Too

Like blood and diamonds in parcels

From the mines of South African fruit

And the empty arches standing

As a door stop in our minds

Leaving open the door to the past

And passage way to a time 

before

Though we know it does not last

Duck Pond

 


Deep in the duck pond
Where the green weed grows
And the straw is yellow
Next to the track,
Where the ivy creeps beneath the Alder and Willow
Which brush their stems and stem their flow back

Deep in the duck pond
Where the green weed grows
Ducks fight and splash about
It could be a war or a turn about
Or a pair of lovers in a spate
One who loves, the other who hates
But deep in the duck pond
They see to their deed
Where the willow weeps in the green duck weed
Down in the duck pond,
Where fellows blow their horn
And the little spirited sprout
Sings for the sweet summer corn
While the West wind blows
Then across it the Easterly is torn
All along the deep duck pond
Where all the birds were born

Severed heads on severed spikes
All seem dead but go ask the tyke
Shadows shake in the shallows like
The deep duck pond
Of the bad old Pike
He swims about, he asks not twice
He sees a snout, then snaps his vice
And there he has you, pulls you down
Into the depths of the duck pond to drown

Where hell is a spirit on the water
And the wind chills the slender necks of swans
And the rails with the moor hens daughter
Falls to the pails and the sweet shorn sun

Where the kale sways in the shallows
And the bulrushes blow their seed
Deep as heartache over the water
Of the deep duck pond with the green duck weed

Sing oh Lord

 


Sing oh Lord to the moon and the sky
To the land of the Blind
Where the pity birds fly
And bees buzz merry like the fruits and the flies
In the land where the pity birds fly

Sing oh Lord to the ones who have many
And the ones who are lost
But have not crossed on the ferry

Sing oh Lord to the Queen of the sky
To the Land where the pity birds fly
Hear their song, like a balm on the cherry
Like a sweet salve to the unchained mind

Hear oh lord how they sing you a tune
In the land where the pity birds festoon
Hear oh lord how their hearts are not heavy
With the price of their lives or the hanging moon

Hear oh Lord just what they may stir
In the land where the pity birds flew

The Garden Stroll


In the early light
When witches candles turn low to smite
The earthly walkers on a stroll
Beside an ancient garden wall
Then one says to the other
“How strange!?
The brick work of Eden has been rearranged.”
As they ponder mortar and stone
They feel the feeling they aren’t alone
Then an archway becomes clear
Designated this way; ”Do not Enter Here!”
They hold hands then cross the threshold
Into a garden bright and so bold
The green’s of willow
The lush of Ash
Oaken avenues stand in stash
All look starkly like someone’s preserve
They feel darkly like they do not deserve
And then a hare and next a rabbit
Come by close as if by habit
Disarmed the intruders are quite standoffish
Then they realise they appear quite selfish
And pet and talk kind words to the mammals
Feeling next they may meet some camels
As they stand and pervade the view
The garden’s paradise changes hue
And far over a foreign hill
They see Cain fight Able, until one is killed
And open under heaven’s skies
They see rains fall and flooded lies
Noah’s Ark is there by chance
But many a bad creature takes death’s dance
And suddenly they too are running from the flood
By this they find the ties of water
Much stronger than those of blood
All washed up now on heaven’s shore
They think of their stroll to the garden’s core
And they think to themselves, but neither comment
They should not have walked in wherever they wanted