Reported Speech

 You said what I meant

And I meant what wasn't fair

You gave me all your love

But I knew you were not there

I loved but an empty drawer

In a room that is now spare

And you who knew I loved you

Could not take me back there

Do Caves smell? epidemics.symphonic.blatently 27th January 2024

 Well actually yes, sometimes due to phenyline phosphate from old

carbide lamps left by previous generations of cavers - this is a garlicy smell

Mixed with the sulphide or sulphate component

That smells of rotting eggs

When you are digging out a cave mouth like we were today at Thrupe lane

Then you may get splashed and then be "diggered" which means covered in mud

Other conversations were about mice or rabbits being trapped and dying and giving off a horrible smell.

The naming of caves came up

We were at hobnail hole

and Thrupe lane swallet was by us

Inside was Atlas cavern

At Wigmore cave there is a place called "don't feed the ambulance"

Time phrases

 All the mountains of the mind

Come a crumbling like the time

That grows upon the wrist of mine

Where turtles twist and dragonflies divine

The certain water courses prime

For we are like water through the lime

That quenches thirst but never mime

Those shadows on the wall recline

As the sun dials back the time

I wish for this, but wishing passes

Like the sand down hour glasses

Past and present travels fastest

When we wish for what never lasted

Bear and fish story

 Life etc a glossary of terms

Be for a bear who lives in the forest

And stealthily catches the salmon

F for the fish who swims upstream

And is caught in the sunlight's gleam

The bear caught the fish

But the fish said

Why'd you want to eat me

For my shining white body

For my gleaming scales

Or because I'm fast in the water

While you are slow and clumsy

I am not the bear protested as slow

As you claim

For I've caught you or is that not the same?

While you may have caught me

Many other faster fish have slipped through

So what was it you wanted me for?

Good point said the bear and threw

Her back in

Then he thought to himself

That fish tricked me

And made me think I could catch a better fish 

Than she

Oh I am a slow clumsy bear as she says

But despite this he kept on fishing

And caught other fish who did not complain

The next summer he was fishing again

And he caught the same talking fish

That's twice now, said the fish

Just as the bear was about to eat her

What is it you have against me? When there

Are plenty of other perfectly good fish in this stream?

Well I don't know what you mean

Said the Bear

I'll show you

And with that

The fish held the bear's head in her flippers

And kissed him a full lip-smacking kiss on the mouth!

What did you do that for, stammered the bear

As he staggered back in shock

Well I thought I'd teach you a lesson

You can do more than eat with your mouth

Or talk slow stupid words

You can love and be kind instead

I see said the bear, can we try that lesson again?

Yes why not, said the fish, as long as you promise

To put me back in the stream soon or I shall suffocate

The bear agreed, and they went on kissing until

The fish began to beat her tail

Which told the bear to drop her back into the water

To save her life

She swam on upstream and gave a glance and a wink

Back at him

And the bear who had never thought of fish like that

Went on with his daily life

But instead of eating fish he took to eating berries instead

Only by the next year he'd forgotten his lesson

And was again hunting the fish in the stream

That went through his territory

I'm from the forest he said

And they are from the stream

And we could never be together again

Only in a dream

Which the bear had actually

Nightly

That he and the fish would somehow be married

she came to him again then

Into his paws and she slipped up to his hairy bear mouth

Her silver fish lips

And her silver scale back seemed to feel like a bear

And her flippers became like claws that

Wouldn't let him go

Then he felt himself becoming more and more

Like a fish

He would swim up the river with the salmon

And jump up the falls

And they called him their bear brother

Fish bear, bear-fish

But he would get cold and tired of swimming

While the strong sleek salmon swam on

He had to rest on the river bank beside the stream

And so he always wandered back home in the end

Finally she came again and he caught her

And he would not let her go

He wanted to kiss her

But she said no

For you have tried to eat

My brothers and sisters again

But I tried to become a fish like you

And I couldn't change not fully

I still have to have my forest to live in

But why can't you live here with me

I can dig you a pool and you can stay?

But I need the running water

I need to move or I shall die

You can try, he said, you can try as did I!

So she agreed to try and he built her an outlet

A kind of watering pool with an offshoot

Of her stream where she could shelter in the

Shade of the trees

Where the water flowed not so strong

And he could sit upon a rock

And sing her a song

And she, being a fish with a good pair of lungs

or gills really joined in along

And their bear fish song could

Be heard throughout the ringing mountains

And onto the hills in the valleys 

And across the fields

Her shrill harmony, like a wine glass rung

And his a deep vibrato alto bass, tenor sung

All the growling, and howling and all the

silver water quick mercury calling

As her fellow salmon went a leaping

Up the waters falling

They loved and they lived with each other

daily and nightly under the stars

They embraced and kissed the face

Of forever

But the time came when she had to leave him 

and return back to the sea

And he was as sad as a sad bear could be

But he knew she couldn't stay

He just thought that he 

Might try to become a riverboat captain and sail

Out to sea

And follow her out into the wide ocean

Not a place for a bear from the mountain havens

But believe you me he loved her 

and would have sailed seas a seven 

if only he could be by her side. 

Psychoanalysis on the bus

 What's passing through

My mind as

I'm thinking I'm king Midas

Passing through

Shepton

Everything turns to gold

And green

Butcher of the future

Like a whale boat scene

It looks blue

But I'm only passing through

Only spare, fair

Jesus or Freud

Slow jesus

All manner of 

You have to ask

Past and the present

Your mother, father, brother

Change is good, change is good

Change of pace of mood

Jesus or Freud

Can't tell who I met on the bus

That day

He was sub-conscious swimmer

Delver of the elver feelings

The slippery eels of the mind

Who can control them

Jesus was psychoanalyst

Lie on my couch

Let me heal you

Mouth to mouth

But Jesus was he 

Super Ego, id, or Egoless

Like that poet -rapper himself

Was Freud always looking for the trinity

Divided affinity - 

Father, Son and Holy spirit

The penis envy between them

Perhaps Jesus had an oedipus complex

Was he in love with Mary

Did he wish to kill his father

Electra, Casandra

Foretelling his own death

Due

 By the light of the little morning

I'll be due

By the light of the little morning she'll be due

She'll still be holding on

Come the breaking of the dawn

But in the light of the little morning I'll be due

Eton Mess

 You can buy your way into England

You can be a great success

But the only thing you need to know

Is how to eat the Eton mess

Oh the Eton mess is never beaten

Oh the Eton mess is the best

There's only one road to the top

And it never stops

Its name is the Eton Express

Don't worry about changing your name girls

Don't think about marrying a lord

The only thing that matters in the whole wide world

Is if you ate at Eton with a knife and fork

No you're never gonna hit the big time

Not with connections like that

It doesn't matter if you're from London

And swam the Thames  from bank to bank

If you speak with an accent

Like Birmingham, or Scottish or Yank

The only things that stand up on the cream 

Are boys from the Eton rank

You can sail in on a ship from Canada

Or come in on the wind from a diaspora

You can serve in the regular army

Or in the Special constabulary

You can dress to impress 

Even marry a Princess

But the only true path to your success

Is to have dined on the Eton mess

Oh perhaps you should have come

In the Norman conquest

When land was free to a stern request

And they cut off your ear

And said listen to me here

We're your guests

Now serve us some of your mess!

Back then the hierarchy started

Stood on another's head until it smarted

Then you can reach the ledge

Of the next social sandwich

Only to find the ones above you have departed

So try to make do or make a mends

If you are of the few or of many friends

Lead a good life away from such strife

Let bygones be bygones until the end

And one thing is true I must confess

I've myself never eaten the Eton mess