In the company of Angels

 I wish for the company of angels

I wish for the company of man

I wish for the company of animals

That live upon the land

Yes I wish for the company of the sea's fish

I wish for the birds of the sky

And I wish for your company my woman

For I will love you til I die

 I wish for the company of angels

I wish for the company of man

I wish for the company of animals

That live their lives on the land

Oh give me love everlasting

Give me love at thy command

Oh give me something like blasting

The fires from the burning sand

 I wish for the company of angels

I wish for the company of man

And all the trees in the rain

They are leaving their leaves

Oh I wish for the company of them

Yes I wish for the company of lions

To lie down inside their dens

I will pull the thorn from out their paws

Like Daniel and lie down with the lambs

I wish for the company of angels

I wish for the company of man

I wish for the trees and leaves

and everything that grows in the breeze

I wish for the company of them

Oh give me your love lord everlasting

Give me it, serve it on a plate

I will earn your love, by my love lasting

If it's the last thing I do, if it's too late

Give me cheapside, give me riches

Of the pitches of the poor

I need your hope in the glasses

When the beer and liquor pours

Come keep me strong in your guidance

Keep me holding to the plough

Keep my line true in the field

Lord, and don't let me furrow your brow

 I wish for the company of angels

I wish for the company of man

I wish for the company of animals

That crawl or walk upon this land

Give me fish, give me sea,

Give me everything between

Give me love lord, 

oh give me all your plans

Give me secrets to hold

Give me nights and days of olde

Oh give me gold

Or give me nothing for a man

All I need is your love to keep me strong, Lord

All I need is your love from day til night

In the morning come and greet me in my bed, Lord

And be there when I put out my light

 I wish for the company of angels

I wish for the company of man

I wish for the company of animals

That crawl or walk upon this land

Blow your thistle down

 Thistle down, oh thistle down

Whistle down, oh whistle down

In the browning of the dill

On the frowning of the hill

Whistle down, blow the whistle down

Blow the whistle up again

Blow the thistle, blow the thistle, 

Blow the thistle down

Where the bramble and the thorn

All the places we have gone

Blow the thistle, barren down

Down and down again

Seeds are wasted, seeds have shown

Seeds have thrown and seeds have grown

In the places we have known

Oh thistle down, blow your thistle down

Blow the whistle down, 

blow the whistle down

In the happy stances

In the thrones of kings and queens

Where they stood in equity

Oh blow your thistle down

Blow your thistle down

England's Rose and Scotland's queen

Blow the thistle in between

Thistle crown, oh thistle crown

The crown that we shall wear

Is the crown of thorns of care

Whistle down, blow your whistle down

Blow it all over town

Running through the tunnels up and down

Blow the thistle down

Blow the whistle down

Hear them shoot upon their horn

Hear them shoot the new day's morn

Throwing out the old day's corn

Blow your thistle down

Whistle down,

Thistle down

Blow, blow

Your whistle down

Everything is on the ground

Just blow your whistle down

How do you know the raging winds?

Or the rains upon the skins

Any day that we have come and gone

Come and gone again

Thistle down, blow your whistle down

All these places we have known

Everything must go

Thistle down, blow your whistle down

In the places of the town

And the places grown in sound

Blow your thistle down

Blow your thistle down

Just passing

 I saw a twister in a field of grass

Just pass

Like a spirit

On your funeral day

I looked at the sky and saw

A helicopter cut the sun like glass

I saw it

Just pass

Like a broken vase

It cracked the sky

I waited outside the church

Then sang the hymns within

Listened to the your eulogy

And yet I can't begin

To unravel what it all

means to me

It is strange not having a thing

Is not the same as losing it

If your bonds of affection were not

tight

Holding the cane

Letting it fall

picking it up again

Letting the good times come

and go

and just pass

Passage

 Gonna make that final passage

Out of the salt sounding seas

Up into the skies 

Sail my ship

To heaven's shores

I'm gonna weigh anchor at the gates of Saint Peter

And I'll clamber out 

And get down on my knees

Oh the passage is a hard one

And I've worked my journey

Sometimes my cards won

Sometimes I pushed the gurney

But nothing sounds better than

than the snap of a sail

Like the belts of Spanish leather

In the wind of a gale

I've worked my passage and I'm on my way now

To the promised land of freedom and eternal ease

I'll not scrub the decks nor haul on the line now

For I'm following the light of the beckoning seas

The Gondolier's chat

 The Gondolier's song

You sticka ina de pole

You take a outta de pole

Hey presto

You are a Gondolier

Punting round the Venice canals

Blocking up the waterways

Punt the summer holidays

Punt oh punt away

Ye Gondoliers

Taxi drivers of the canal

LIfe for a gondolier is far from banal

Do you know who I had

In the back of my Gondola the other day?

South of Venice

This time of night

With this much traffic

You must be joking

My own worst enemy

 I fought him on the battleground

I found him out, I found him down

I brought him up, he beat me down

He's my own worst enemy

I bought him gold, but me he sold

Down the river bound in the hold

Like a product, a pound of flesh

I'm my own worst enemy

I fought him off, but he came back

All guns blazing, I should've guessed

He would attack

I locked him up under my bed

He's my own worst enemy

Some call him their shadow

They shadow box their soul

Some see him fly in through a window

Then break it when he loses all control

Sometimes I witness him in the mirror and

Ask myself, but I am unresolved

Whether to once and all do away

With my enemy, for without him

I would have little left at all

He kicks me out of bed in the morning

He slaps me in my face when I'm yawning

I try to drink a glass of water, he pours a bucket

of it over me

He's my own worst enemy

Orbit

 Living in the twilight zone

Nothing to me seems real

It's like my flashlight is on

But the wagon's lost its wheel

There's only so much psychic space that can 

be kept upon a hill

Eventually the bowl fills up

And then it overspills

And the witches they are circling

Upon their broom sticks in the night

Tying threads

And loosening them

As we're a sleeping tight

And we orbit each other 

like planets round a sun

Passing

sometimes like ships

Sometime together

Then alone as one

Each of us is a comet

An asteroid on its way

But the orbit round the solar field

Lasts 2 maybe 3 years they say

Then they come back into

our own gravitational  pull

And somehow we collide

inescapably like a fool

What is it we are all circling?

Is is some central sun?

Or is it a buried moon rock

Left over after each generation

Is it an empty sense of self?

Space is a vacuum they say

And nature abhors a vacuum

It must be filled in any way

Life is inevitable

It must carry on

Death just recycles

Energy back into the sun