Strawberry line song

Chorus:

 Sharp the bill hooks, rev up the saws

Slash the nettles and bend the stalks

Burn the brash, pitch in with forks

What we do in the great outdoors

Verse 1

Hack with axe and level the ground

Pull up the roots and cut down the vine

Raze the tree and throw on the mound

And when we're finished before we recline

Burn it on the Strawberry line

chorus

Verse 2

Open the flask, pour out the soup

Pull up a stump and tell our stories

Laugh at a joke til we're cock-a-hoop

Share the tea bread like we share our glories

Serve it on the Strawberry line

chorus

Verse 3

Dig over, dig under the railway banks

Hazel, Oak and Mountain Ash

Dogwood and Hornbeam we plant with thanks

Trudge back from the site when heavy rains lash

Planted on the Strawberry line

April amble

 The bee did wend its buzzing way

Bumbling hither and tither and gay

In the spring's new light of day

Searching out its food

The willow catkins dangled down

A clutch of lanterns green, yellow and brown

The bees fandangled in their crown

And danced a gleeful jig

The season showed its streams of green

Its colours bright upon the scene

Though wind blew cool then warm and keen

The Merry sun did brighten

And winter shed its skein of cold

The spring snake slid out green and bold

The foreman shouts take hold, take hold

As the curtain falls to dampen

And in the sky the stars appear

Bright and bold, wild and clear

The fire flies dance in good cheer

Of silk they've spun to lighten

And quests take hold

And nests appear

the young are bold

and the rest are near

As I walked out

upon an April amble

Birthday bash

 There was once a birthday

I did attend

By accident

Though it was for a friend

I stepped into the dragon's den

And found myself alone again

Surrounded by my seeming foes

I came at once to bloody blows

And all about a birthday brunch

I found the dinner packed a punch

It was I saw my friend

For twenty years our paths have wend

But winding up or winding down

Neither thought to live in lonely town

Her brother of whom I took a dislike

Had modelled himself upon a Great Tyke

But whether Nero, Romulus or Remus in Rome

Not more a blood thirsty Emperor was he at home

Yet ruled his kingdom beyond his walls

Into the invited friend's birthday halls

As I walked in to join the banquet

He offered me pork in unleven blanket

But I felt sick and refused his offer

Yet he took not kindly to his rejected proffer

He became like a bull, bullish domineering

Like the house party he must be steering

And even once came to stand over me

As if to bring to bear his supreme authority 

I thought what skill what unbridled devotion

Have these loving parents with careless emotion

Brought up a son so confused in mind

That he sees not where he is going as if quite blind

Instead of modelled on Christ the redeemer

He has chosen as his model Trump the ill-seemer

How can such passionate evangelists

Bring into the world such an antagonist?

They could write stories of his follies

For when he comes it never rains but pours on brollies

And held up as if on plinths of stone

He stands there sinless as if Ozymandius alone

Yet what I see are the marks of treachery

Gains by stealing and by vice

He has wheedled his way into paradise

And shut the gates upon his brothers

And thrown down hate upon his mothers

Women he treats as slaves or worse

His blinded pride will be his curse

As Lucifer stepped so stepped he

Onto the path of iniquity 

And a fall surely will follow his pride

As unfortunate damsel his bride

Then the tower of Babel will topple

And collapse upon his sinning people

But what of me, oh me oh my

The I, the id of jealousy

Am I he? Is he I? 

The tepid stream runs dry

If only I could respect my enemy

And show those who transgress

My full Christian forgiveness

For in that act, I'm sure there'd be

An end to all hostility

And road and rage would not rise

Emotion flows and ebbs like tide

And the sun's heat will hot heads fry

Unless in shade some shelter try

I saw the old are replaced by the young

And in such usurpment one must be strong

But holding breath and swimming long

Can no more impress than old Babylon

Young minds

Down on the Ashcott plot
Where the black peat mountains ran
And the rivulets and trenches
Were our playground
Then and there lazing in the sun
The care free day's long span
The adventure and biology
Of every fascinating plant
Sundew and sphagnam moss

The cupboard amplifying a musical box
The rows of books on Maths
And intrigue in Science
Like another world
I wanted to be you
To be there in the calculation
In the escape equation

My own escape velocity
Accounted to be pulled
Away from mother earth
Or father moon
Or the other way around
I wanted to explore space with you

Outer space of our minds
Of the blackhole, of quartz in electric radios
Of microphone and transitor circuits
But you broke the connection

Revir

 Big River, Big river argent

Big river, big river gold

Keep flowing on down to the arctic

Where the big waters flow so cold

Big river snakes rolling its belly

All over dem big valley coals

Rising up over the ramparts of mountains

Raising the spirits in the souls

Valentines Day

 So I'd like to know

Can you tell me

The way the moon struck an asteroid

Out of luck, out in space

A piece of schadenfreude

Specifically applied,

but not exclusively to all my friends

And ducks

In the shooting gallery

The land between your toes is rich my friend

The gaps between your teeth

Are filled with words

And cheetahs escaping nightly

Do the yellow parasols enjoy

Beyond infinity

And a parrot that doesn't talk back

My lies of pirate sands

And concupiscence 

What Coquetry is this?

In the cocoanut tree of paradise

A fact or a fiction, I read while lying there?

Mountain Man

 Now you see me,now you don't

That often misquoted quote

When what you see is a ghost of me

It is but a footnote

Literally the mountains have turned into the man

The mole has crawled out of his hole

The iceberg has cracked and fissured alongside

The ocean of well-wishers

And if Mohammed can't go to the mountains

Then the mountain must visit him

Except the mountains are self-isolating

Under the new covid restrictions

They must all keep at least 20 miles apart

Peak to peak

We must not touch the rock

As it is a carrier of disease

Try telling Moses that

He's up there with his staff

As we speak

Tapping into the great unknown

The hard stuff

He likes being caught between a rock -God

And a hard place - the Earth

I'd like to say this is how

I imagined my honeymoon

Back on Earth

But Mars is proving a draw now

Of course