Down to the river

I came down to the river
Where the river boat swept

I came down to the river where
the river boat swept

The leaves were on the water
Where the willow wept

I came down to the river
Where the willow wept


I came down to the river where the
willow wept
The duck weeds were my pillow
And my dreams they kept

I came down to the river
Where the river bed slept
And all the holy Ash keys
in the whirlpool swept

I came down to the river
Where the little creatures crept
And they brought their sleeves
Up to their knees, and leapt

They splashed inside the river
On a day not to forget

And let your lovers leave
On the river with no regrets

I came down to the river where
the river boat swept


Its good to believe in
The power of love yet
I came down to the river where
the willow tree wept

I came down to the river
Full of time and met
The river nymph of the mountain
Who said don't forget
Everyone must give something back
For something they get
When I came down to the river where
the river boats swept

Veszprém City

Neon street
Electric lamps of the money exchanges
Staring out at blinking black
Rapid city blue
Old city slowing down
Flashing like a strumpet
Boldly facing the facade of names
Blaring out their light trumpet
But so quiet it is loud
Down the street with out a crowd

What to do in the cold snow flaked town
Encrusted in this mint sugar icing
Crunching in its sickly sweet
Hansel and Gretel Christmas town
Tinsel town

They're wrapping the Kings and Queens into body bags
They look less regal now more diplomatic
Ready to negotiate their captors conditions
Ready for to pay a kings ransom
But without the king, who will pay?
Who really wants their king back
Just a figure head you need preserved in tact
Through the winter in side a sack

I met a drummer on a hill

I met a drummer on a hill

The dogs did bark and the ravens trill

The willows wept their sobbing will

She beat the drum for those to come

For the long gone in the ever after

She beat the drum for the song

In a chain of children’s laughter

She beat it for the future

She beat it for the past

She beat it with a suture

Of words that ever last

And her song sung out about

The wide and rolling valley

And it caught in the ears of deer

And it fought the canyons in a sally

And it called all the men to arms

It called the dogs of war

It called the women from the houses

It called them rich or poor

It cried yes, again, again

Once more into the fight

It called them up into the fore

The fray, the golden light

I met a drummer on a hill

Who drummed a different beat

It made the earth and sun stand still

And all the people dance their feet

The toad in the hole

The toad crawled into the hole
Deep in the coal
He went down the mine
Out of the sunshine
Just to recline

But for a thousand years he slept
Like sleeping beauty
Oh what a cuty
But ugly

After this time
Such a crime
The Earth was finally eaten by the sun
It got so hot
That chaos ensued
Asteroids tumbled
Meteors flew

And a rock the size
Of Manhattan grew
In the telescopes of the brave last few
Which spelt out armagheddon

When this did happen
Much of Earth was flattened
And the face of the earth grew a frown
The other side
Which faced out to space
Was shot clean out like a crown

Now in the meantime
Old toady was sleeping
Such a deep slumber
He did not hear the thunder
Nor rending of rock
Nor the earthquake shock

But finally he stirred
And began to want to go outdoors
Only to find no escape by his paws

The dark coal face was not much companion
But if only he knew he was in space
He would much have preferred its abandon
Than to instant oblivion

So he waited it out
And he waited, and he waited
Until as if it was fated
His rock touched down with a crunch
Onto a new planet, just before lunch

Needing some breakfast
The toad packed a punch
Of several G
But at least
At long last he was free

A crack appeared through the cold rock
And a strange blue light
Shone down in a shock
His path opened up
So he climbed out of doors
Following the blue shimmer
As effect follows cause

Onto the funny, sandy, yellow surface
That wobbled like jelly
Under the cold coal face
The horizon looked like
a labyrinth's spectacle
He was spell bound by the perfection
and by a large obelisk receptacle

Just knowing he was the only one here
It occurred to him he was still living - what a miracle
Against all odds, on a floating sod of earth
A mere toad who had trod, an uneventful road
Became perhaps the last remaining earthling
In the whole sky of stars that were twinkling

What must his family think, were they proud?
Perhaps...the question fell silent
although in his mind it was loud
Where are they now? and for that matter
Where was he?

As far as he could see
This planet must be free of all life
The next thing he thought
Was that he ought'a find some water
So off on a hike
This son of a pike set
It was not long before he met
Another monolith sort of cliff
Then he saw a fountain pour from a rock
Just as in a water-closet when someone pulls out the cock

It looked fairly strange
But then he re-arranged
The fragments in a kaleidoscopic sky
The clouds that looked metallic began to cry
And their purple rain
Fell on his brain
Until he thought he might die

From a far off field a strange dark shape lurked
It was in the guise of a hovering wraith
And with a quick jerk, he turned
To see himself returned to the rock
Which to him had given birth

The wraith was outside in the cold swollen sky
Waiting for someone to speak with him
Just then a passing fairy happened to land upon the dairy
Of the black lead cows who were happy with good mirth

Our hero exclaimed, Mighty Fred I am named
And let spill his story of Earth
A quiet long time passed after his words
Had been gassed
And he thought perhaps the Wraith had gone home

"Well can't you explain", said the Wraith with no name
"Why on Earth you chose my planet to land on?"
"No I cannot, by Saturn's rings, provide you with those things
I have no reasons why for my rhyme
I am a toad, stepped out of time
From an age of strong sunshine
To this strange planet of metallic worth"

Just as the toad was speaking
The purple rain which had been piquing
His mirth, gave some kind of birth
To a black beast which within him had been sleeping
Suddenly he grew, like mountains from a shoe
Many feet in foot hills, those that don't measure mole hills
And whole-heartedly he knew that he was new

What stood before the wraith now
Was a Black Prince that was leaden like the cow
And it proved that indeed from small things may come surprises
And if sleeping beauty slept
This was something she even did not expect
Since the toad's ugliness was not kept
He was no longer an earthly reject
But a Prince among the Wraiths of the Galactic Bowl
Then again this was the story of the Toad in the hole

Six Flicks

It seems like a gossamer of design
Like a needle in between the
Feeder and the spine
Like a tap root pulled up
Or a bean stalk to climb
Its a special condition
Of remission in my mind

There are six flicks showing at the cinema
Seven crooks in the books waiting at the bar
And I don't want a be a liar
But I just burnt down the cas ba
For the manageress was indistress
Over the painting of the tar

I fell through the floor
Eiffel true but but poor
In design of the infinite
The night and the sinews spent
And twisted in the age of someone sure

I courted the dream of an Geronitus
He laughed and split coconuts with his
Master's whip
He held in his hand the candle for the vandel
He held under knee the key
And he fell from the plinth
Where they dug up his bones
And framed them as me

I saw you wish in the harbour
And heard of love fish in labour
She drew up her wings
And spilled out her things
Until I saw all the stone babies of earth

Of course the river was rough
And its worth should have been reason enough
But asylum I found none
In the guise of a nun
The phylum of trees left me
Pith in my gun
And it all went silent after the big bang
And the trees swooned softly
Under a dying sun
As the Cathedral bells tolled
For the breaking of the day
When Christ walked on the eggshells
Of all the sinners that he had saved

And it came like this
In the fourth and Fifth
Centuries of New Palestine
The choirs of angels sang to briars
And the sandboxes refilled themselves

Of course they did he said in a moan
The loveless ponies had shelf proofed the stone
And the stone had hardened to a roof of rock
That was built upon pillars of sand

I cut the bone and marked myself
Dug a new grave and filled with my doubt
Earned my chrysalis turned
Off the water spout
And suffered the chains of freedom

Song of a New Man

The fisherman’s line he throws

Into the river its cast

I had to let it go

I had to let it pass

The rain hangs its bow

Across the sun’s looking glass

But I had to let it go

I had to let it pass

The sedge lay down in the flow

They lay like tired grass

I had to let them go

I had to let them pass

The gulls were gliding low

Across the fields of glass

I had to let them go

I had to let them pass

She stood white in the snow

And all Christmas seemed like a farce

I had to let it go

And I had to let it pass

Jesus came in tow

He sat in the midnight mass

He never let me go

He never let me pass

The river runs so slow

And then it runs too fast

I had to let it go

I had to let it pass

Jack and Jill

Now where has Jack gone?
He has left Jill
He's run off to the foreign legion
To climb a foreign hill

She stayed at home and wept
On many dark nights
In her cold bed where she never slept
But kept turned on the lights

Now Jack is a mystery
You can't predict his next move
His old life is history
His letters home prove

He was spotted in an Art gallery
It was Paris, the Louvre
He was looking long at the Mona Lisa
She never did move

He saw in her smile
A look like in Jill's
He had been walking mile after mile
Over many green hills
But they never were as green as
The ones he left behind
Nothing like Jill's Topaz eyes
In his diamond mind

So he kissed the Mona Lisa
And bid her fair well
He asked 'shall I be a man of peace now?'
But she replied 'I never kiss and tell'
So when the guards came running
And the alarms went off
Jack made for the Sun in
His arms Mona Lisa scoffed

Don't you know you can steal my heart
But you'll never know my smile
And it tore him into pieces
Mile after mile

As he ran back to Jill
and her maternity leaves
The pregnancy tree was wilting on her hill
She wore her heart on her sleeves

I live in a house with a red roof
I live there with Jill
Of my life I needed proof
She gave me permission to kill

A salt mine stood buried
Beneath the hill
Every night Jill's tears
Would fall into the well
This mine to fill

One day the miners rang the bell
They said we can't take no more salt
She looked around for Jack to blame or tell
But it was nobody's fault

Sometimes these things happen
Said Mona Lisa with a smile
You can tell I've cried a lot
And laughed for a good while

But Jill turned her face from Mona
To contemplate Jack
He had a dark brooding look
His roof had turned black

I belong in the Army he said
I think I must turn back
You know they're shooting deserters its a fact
I'll take my chances in the desert,
They don't know my face there
She said the desert is a terrible place
I think you will despair

I have to go, don't you see Jill
My mind, it is made up
So Jill watched him roll down the hill
As she cried tears into her broken cup