Life’s too short to be Bittern

Once Bittern twice shy

They dance to the tune of the reeds

These wood wind musicians of the sky

They play like the reeds their throat song

They beat the bull frogs at their own game

In time they sing along

Like a jamboree

All the same

They do impressions of Bulrushes

Standing plant tall and straight

And what do they want of paint brushes

When streaked brown and white they wait

Birds

Chaffinch on the table

Blue Tits on the bench

Starlings on the cable

Little Black Bird on the fence

All about their picnic

All about their lunch

Some Wren’s a pick pocket

 Some woodpecker packs a punch

Out the garden grows the vine

Out beside the pond

Far beyond the picket fence line

Keeping true its bond

Where sat the warbler

Warbling his song

To the dawn in chorus

For all the New Spring Long

Reap What You Sow

That our days are numbered, we all know

No use fixing our eyes, only on the end of the rainbow

No use thinking, that all that glitters is Gold

You will reap what you shall sow

That Blue Sky thinking can shatter glass ceilings

That if you shoot for the stars, you might hit the moon

But, no use hiding scars, from the fallen glass, soon

You will reap what you shall sow

You’ve sought out the After-life, like it was an after thought

Believed all good things come out of strife

But from dust to dust, from nought comes nought

And, any time you fear the wrath, you just lie low

You’re going to reap just what you sow

The mermen rise from a watery grave

I’m ready Lord for you to save

Let me be cleansed of all I know

As vanity passes like a fool in a blizzard of snow

You’re going to reap just what you sow

The Temptation lies like an open door

But don’t step inside, you’ll only want more

The House of God is our only refuge

You must wash your feet in the river

Let the water purge you

But it’s no use, unless you know

You’re going to reap just what you sow

Airport

Board an aeroplane

Metal birds on concrete floors

Change your name

In your Holiday fame

Return to the same

Like a Phoenix from the Ashes

The Ashes fall down again

Oh keep your broken arrows

Oh keep your spears yet sharp

Like the shooting sparrows

Like the darting carp

Keep your soldiers marching

They march the whole day long

Through the Marble Arch

Singing your victory song

Steel Robins singing

Feathered Fuselage

Keep your eggs a bobbing

Through the thorough fare

Fight or Flight in the space age

Diamonds sparkle in the night air

What I’ve left behind upon the ground

While I’m up in the air

What I’ve brought with me

What I’ve found

Since flying way up there

Music of the airport

Sweet Saccharin smooth tile

Buying our duty free report

Up high mile after mile

Cutting clouds like Paper-Mache

Newspapers writing foreign attaché

Of foreign wars and words

Oh keep sharp your swords

Keep damp the ink your pen

Hold tight, hold strong ye noble men

The sky is full of dreamers

The earth’s soul full of dirt

Let flare Ideals' streamers

Let wild geysers spurt

I told you so

When the walls are falling in

And the cakes are burnt

When you’ve done an appalling thing

Gone and made somebody hurt

I’ll just say I told you so

When you need knives and not a spoon

Or a fork and not a cork screw

When your dreams don’t hit the moon

Even though to the stars you were true

I’ll just say I told you so

And if the miles of endless ocean

Leave you bereft of all emotion

Or the plane you need to catch stays on the ground

So you need to hatch

Some other scheme as grand

I’ll just say I told you so

Digging in and Letting Go

Bulls in the meadows

Digging in and letting go

Like ticks to the black blood of the land

Like Peat worker’s dogs

To the flesh on the bone

Digging in and letting go

Like his spade into the rich

Whale blubber fat of the land

Into the water bank

Where the fishermen stand

Digging in and letting go

All in the throw

The weight on the line

The meadow fly catches

The meadow fish

The Kingfisher watches

The Heron’s wish

Digging in and letting go

Swan Bath

Flexing neck, like a writhing snake

Orange beak pecking, bristling feathers

Pure white what choice has it but to be

A snow bird, neck like a waves crest crashing

Combed like the mane of a Kelpie

Back like a white bread bun

Like a leaven creature of the lake

Half in Half out undecided

Sky or Water which it preferred

Perhaps its own reflection?

Is there a word for rippling body matrix

Of muscles in formation?

For the wings spread, tendons extended

Changing becoming something more

Like a dragon evolving

Just glimpsed at by the observer

Out spread flinging dislodged grit

Mites or dirt across the surface

Like its Purity is its guard

Its white queenly gown

Sets her above all else around