Cold snap whip lash

The clocks are striking on the hour
For what I've done I've no word power
To put pen to feeble page
The last good men have left the stage

And in their stead are Angels standing
And Ghosts of those of understanding
And piercing through quick silver fog
Their ideas like arrows fell the hog

We all are currents in the ocean
Sometimes swelling with emotion
Sometimes drowning being pulled down
By forces created by Neptune's crown

And linking now more than ever
The tides are turning like the weather
A cold snap lashes inside like terror
But warm blood flows under skin of leather

Sure enough they stopped him
Before it was too late
The openers out trumped him
Outside the pearly gate
And he could not get in
Nor could he climb the wall
Only stand appraisin
While paradise did fall

Only stand appraisin'
While paradise did fall

I long for the mountains

 I long for the mountains

Where the grizzly bears roam

Where there's wood on the fire

And a path made of stone

Oh I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

Where the wood chucks twitter

And call out in tin tones

Where the miner's gold glitters

in the pans full of loam

Oh I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

I long for the mountains

where the fountains they shiver

And you drink up the water foam

Where the trees stand and quiver

And the leaves they shimmer like chrome

I long for the mountains of home

Where there's snow is on the caps

And there's ice in the stream

And you know all the maps

And the mice all look keen

On the mountain, where the grizzly bears

roam

I long for the mountains, the mountains of home

Where the kettle's on the fire

And the metals in the ground

And the beef is on the wire

And the moles are in the mound

I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

Where the dogs in the yard

And it's chasing the cat

Where the hogs looking hard 

At the man in the hat

And the child's a sleep under the piano

I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

Where the wind whispers softly 

Through the trees on the river

Where the father of time

He cries stand and deliver

And all of the pines beside they quiver

Oh I long for the mountains

The mountains of home

Long ago

 Long ago, long ago

Well it must have been a life

When I had my girl at home

And long ago  

Well it must have been a lifetime ago that

I took to the road to roam

Well I'm still that man walking down the highway

Yes from my path I have not strayed

Oh long ago, well now

It must have been a life time

That I left when I should have stayed

Long ago, well it must have been a life time

Well I just couldn't follow the plan

Well it was long ago

Oh it could have been a life time

When I was your only man

Tell me how long

Can a man wait to be forgiven

For the words he says

And tell me how many days

Must I be a-counting

Til I can return to what livin

was

Long ago, yes it must have been a life

When the world was filled with diamonds and dust

And now it's a grizzled world with dark sun rising

Over the lands we love and trust

So tell me how long til I will see my horizon

Broaden to the red rose of dawn's rust

And tell me how long til I will see you rising

In your bed clothes at the dawn's early musk?

How long? Well maybe it'll be a life time

Yes how long must our love rust

Nothings broken

When I have spoken

Like the birds at the sun's rising

To a new world of love and trust

Facing North

Once I held mountain in my hands
But they turned to mountains of ash
Fell through my fingers like sand

Like an empire of dust
Blown away are the ghosts of lust
Blown to seed another field
Thrown out to birds the bone meal

Field of fish heads
Turning tail
Running through the burning hail
Stones are thrown, the first to cast
Will be the one who laughs the last

And crows count the merry pipers
Walking home on country roads
Reddening their apple vipers
For their wives to fill their calves

Spilling all the beans in saucers
Breaking bread with the cat
Whose nine tails like the vipers
Whip the cream until its flat

Down the road to elements
The natural gases heaven sent
But omnibuses carry on
As octopuses carry guns

And none stops a floating thief
As the moon rides the tide's relief

Red fox

 I saw a red fox, just

chillin' on the hillin

He looked so happy

like Just after a killin,

killin' a chicken

Skulking away

Like he was making hay

But he was in the field

In December not the month of May

I saw a red fox just a chillin' on the hill

and I saw a brown box

just millin in the mill

Nobody asked the cockerel

If he was crowing for the sun

Nobody even noticed

The day was nearly done

Coal tits

 Under the arches the coal tits dart

Around the quarry they flurry

Down over that little bit of swamp

Where the railway men's waste was dumped

Over the piles of rubble, brick work and industrial trash

The leached-into, the sodden ground, near the river, brown bushes grow

That make homes for the Coal Tits, they flit and dart between them

And hang on to the brick work

With their little claws

In the embers of December, they are the spark

In the grey rainy Novembers, they come again like filaments

of colours in the filigrees of green and brown, agricultural hedgerows

In the borders of the town, where the dogs and dog walkers

go around

Not forgotten about

But just hanging around

Like a resident nobody knows

Except you'd miss their sound

Because they're like a loved one

In the fabric of the town

A backdrop scenic prop

Except they chose to stop

There who knows, what senses

Just an ideal bit of real estate

To live beneath the arches of the viaduct

Close to where the Sheppey flows

Nature line

 In the brambles underfoot

The brash that's slashed with bill hook

As volunteers go rolling by

Swinging slashers and hedge trimmers high

Hear the sound of What exactly?

Slow worms crawling through the debris?

If this is nature unbound I ask thee

What next will they find to tell ee?

I saw a Robin, that I did

Hanging around the neighbourhood

He was interested in the action

The hewn stalks of bramble were his passion

He flew amongst the swinging workers

Willing to do what nature shirkers

Would not do, but oh we few

We merry few the strawberry line crew

Still you mention where is nature?

Well, it's thorns and rotten tapers

Of fallen trees long since died

Heads in the earth, fungi multiplied

Purple patches, even velvet ears

Grow on dead logs rotting near

And they crumble underfoot

Nature found it hard to look

But after humans abandoned it

Soon started bramble that didn't quit

And now we come to reclaim the land

Nature gives us a helping hand

And palms us back this great high five

Saying come and take me I'm still alive

It is something that doesn't want to die

It will strive, and suffer and survive

And every change or drop in pressure

It will respond more robust and better

Ultimately it holds all the cards

To life's big mysteries we find so hard