Wax

I'll not mourn the absent sun

That so recently shone and is gone

I have other lights

Pillars, votives, tea lights, tapers

Comfort for the twilight days

And solace in the nights

Sonnet No. 2

 The ripples in the service of the sun

The breeze that dapples leaf-light into shade

The clouds that pass above, they all are one

Upon the same foundation they are laid

And though the precious day be turned to night

Abandoned in that night you shall not be

If but the silver Moon shall shed her light

And by that gentle light we both may see

Be tomorrow darker, shorter, colder

Autumn stealing glory from her brother

Yet the universe shall grow no older

And what is to come shall not be other

The universe endures, I tell no lie

To me it seems not proper that we die

The Fever is Come

Horrors of the night parade themselves in daylight

Now that the fever is come

Floods of tears and sweat but the crisis is not yet

Now that the fever is come

The patient is not dead but life hangs by a thread

Now that the fever is come

When the fever is gone will life go on?

Or will a dead planet orbit the sun?

Killed by its fever as it tried to kill

Everyone? 

Deforestation

There was a forest on the hill

Many moons ago

It was so thick light did not fall

Upon the soil below

But over time the trees were felled

And others did not take their place

And now the forest is so thin

You would not know the place

And where the sunlight did not reach

Now it shines straight through

And though your hair has gone my friend

I still know its you

Somme

When I went away to war

I feared I'd see my love no more

On the day I went away

I feared that she was lost for aye

None are here to tell me why

In the bloodied pools we lie

Those that live and those that die

Beneath an inattentive sky

Those that wont return again

Yet they dream - anticipating

Dying, calling out to those

Those they hope at home are waiting

I returned again today

But my world had gone away

A shadow of it still abides

In my darling's weeping eyes

But I remember all I saw

Blood still hot and flesh still raw

And dim recall the world before

I was called away to war

Hung Upon a Yewtree

Hung upon a Yewtree

I saw a notice writ' in red

I stopped and read it carefully

This is what it said ...

Soon when you die

I will tell the world why

Your charm was an act

I'll tell them in fact

All that you did

And all that you said

And let them decide

When you are dead

The world may believe

Whatever it will

But your lies will lie with you

Silent and still

To the law you will finally have no recourse

For one cannot libel a corpse

Below the notice hung a book

I opened it and took a look

I was shocked at the number of names that I knew

And next to each, #metoo 

Benediction

My brother, my son, let's climb that hill

One last mountain until...

This is the last one my son

You climb another my brother

Before you too are done

Then, wearing these clothes that I wear

You, my son, you will go there

Remember all that has gone

And He will help you to do

All that must be done

Wearing my clothes, my son. 

Nostalgia

I used to be able to fly in my dreams

It was like treading water in air

By ever so gentle movement of limbs

I was transported up there

Among clouds in the sun

Or the moon and her beams

But nothing forever remains as it seems

Now I am content to remember I went

When I used to be able to fly in my dreams

Blind Spot

Between fantasy

And reality

Inconvenient innocents

Please don't remind me

Finest Day

I looked in the glass and saw

A face I knew from long before

Even on my finest day

I never looked that way

 

Heard a voice at the door

And there was the girl I knew before

I remember to this day

I couldn't help but say

I prayed it was you

My beautiful

Lovely as you could be

I had a dream and now it's true

And you're back home with me

I tell you so true

My beautiful

Lovely as you could be

Suddenly my sky is blue

Like I knew it would be

We looked in the glass and saw

Two lovers from a time before

And hand in hand we went our way

Into the finest day

So glad to see you

My beautiful

Lovely as you could be

Glad He's the one I listened to

"Trust and you will see" 

I tell you so true

My beautiful

Lovely as you could be

Forever now my sky is blue

Like I knew it would be

Basic Melody:

VERSE

I looked in the glass and (there I) saw

CEEEDCDCB

A face (that) I knew from long before

CEEEDCDCD

(And) (E-) Even on my finest day

CEEEDCEFG

I never looked that way

EEEDEC

CHORUS

I prayed it was you

CEFGA

My beautiful

GGEC

Lovely as you could be

CAAGFG

I had a dream and now it's true

AAAGFGEC

(Now) You're back home with me

DDDCBC

 

Dusty Moved On

When I said I needed you

You said you would always stay

I thought I made it plain to you

That you can't play away




Don't you see that now you're gone

And I'm left here all alone

Don't you realise that I

Am better on my own




Don't you dare to say you love me

Don't you hold my hand

Don't think you can come back ever

I have other plans

Believe me

Believe me

I no longer love you

And you'll never keep me down




Left alone with just a memory

But day by day I will heal

Until there is no loneliness

I'll learn again to feel




Don't you dare to say you love me

Don't you hold my hand

Don't think you can come back ever

I have other plans

Believe me

Believe me




Don't you dare to say you love me

Don't you hold my hand

Don't think you can come back ever

I have other plans

Believe me

Believe me

Incy Wincy - Verse 2

Incy wincy spider

Tempted by the sun

Climbed up the spout

But before the climb was done

Down came the snows

And froze his spider toes

Now that we have climate change

That's the way it goes

Cairn

The engine cools for the last time
At the side of the road in the rain
Four empty jerricans and watery silence
Land's End to John O'Groats - almost

Three billion revolutions stilled
Now I am re-evaluating
The car burns to ashes at the side of the road
And I walk away into the trees

Two hundred and forty eight thousand tears
Were mostly shed just to keep my eyes clean
If you live to 100 you may sail on the seas
But I must go walk in the trees

The Hypocondriac

Nobody listens & nobody sees

The afflictions that bring a man to his knees

He said as around the market he raced

And then loaded his car in the disabled space

Nobody cares, it's not cheap to be ill

He said it before, he's saying it still

As he sups up his beer and drags again hard

On his fag while he scratches a lottery card

I don't ask a lot, just what is my right

And my worries, they keep me awake in the night

He exclaimed and then belched and patted his belly

Before falling asleep in front of the telly

He murmured 'I think I may die in the night'

As chance would have it he was quite right

In spite, or because, of all he had said

When he woke up - he was dead

Elephant Predicament

I sat at peace contented

With the world at one

Dozing in the afternoon 

Soaking up the sun 

A shadow overshadowed me

Warmth and sunlight gone 

Suddenly it was as if

The sun no longer shone

I started up in panic

All at once awake 

But all I saw was pachyderm

All else became opaque 

I prodded at the pachyderm

It put up no fight

But merely turned itself around 

And poohed on me from height

Stunned beneath a pile of pooh

I shouted out 'not fair' 

The elephant stared at the sky

As though I wasn't there

I shouted louder at the brute

Until it noticed me

I hoped that it would move along

But all it did was pee

In the depths of my despair

I willed the elephant not there

But all my wishing was in vain

The pachyderm remained

In the end all I could do

Was resign myself to life in pooh

Sat beneath the tusker's bum

Never more to see the sun

I wept and slept and woke again

In expectation of more pain

But to my complete surprise

The sun was shining in the skies 

Elephants come and then they go

Nobody can tell them 'no' 

They are of no fixed abode 

Wait long enough - they hit the road 

So if you're sunk deep in pooh

And there's nothing you can do

When elephants trespass en masse

Remind yourself - this too will pass 

Re-turn-ing

In a far off ancient time

When the universe ran slow

I was yours and you were mine

And how were we to know

That soon the years would pass like hours

That soon the hours would flee

Like beams of light cast 'tween the showers

Like waves upon the sea

Breaking on a shingle beach

Upon a far forgotten shore

Each one foaming upon each

Continuous - forever more

Come watch with me the shadows turn

Night to day to night to day

And together we will yearn

That future eon when we may

As if in an ancient time

When the cosmos slowly span

Life and love as one entwine

As it was when we began

Fame

Pistachio shell

Afloat upon

The Bosphorus 

How far you have come

Since Gaziantep

Now you float 

On the hinge of the world

Like a boat

Until the next wave comes along

Tabula Non Rasa

Though all may have been

Written before

Take comfort and choose

From fragments of a la carte

Fallen to floor

The olive that rolled to the side

Crumbs fallen from table

You may decide

To eat or if able

To scrawl your name

High on the wall

In the hope that the mark remain

Farewell Elvis

No you didn't love me

Quite as often as you could have

And you didn't treat me

Quite as good as you should have

For little things you should have said and done 

There was always really time

But I was never on your mind

I was never on your mind

Tell me

You're sorry now my sweet love upped and died

Really

You know you never kept me satisfied 

Satisfied

It's true you never loved me

How I wished you would have

And yeah you never held me

Half as often as you should have

Save the things you should have said and done

'Cos baby I'm not blind

I was never on your mind

I was never on your mind

Dimension #5

I dreamed of death and life
Of infinity and nothing at all
At once dead and yet alive
In Dimension Number 5

Do you know of what I speak?
Deep, as deep as sleep
Indexed in the archive
In Dimension Number 5

So wide as to have no other side
So small as to be tall
A hope of life that has not died
In Dimension number 5