Lyrics: 1968–1974

Make it Today

Count the sand within the glass
You watch the grains of time slip past
A million written words don't help your peace.
You're not the first
You're not the last
You're just an actor in the cast
From one to maybe half a hundred years.

What do you hear
When the words are not clear?
Blow your own way
And you'll hear what I say
Make it today

Superficial games you play
To seek sensations everyway
And in the maze you're running round and round.
If you look with open eyes
You'll see the truth
You'll know the lies
So climb the skies to where the rainbow's found.

What do you hear
When the words are not clear?
Blow your own way
And you'll hear what I say
Make it today

Free yourself and you will find
There's peace of heart and peace of mind
Both on the narrow stony road you run.
You will see that black is white
And nothing's wrong that is not right
And love is everything beneath the sun.

Under the Sky

Smile at the smiling man
Tear in your eye
Dance in the morning sun
Under the sky.

High in the hawthorne tree
Bee and butterfly
Seek fortune in the leaves
Under the sky.

Follow the road that winds up
to the sky,
There's no reason do not
wonder why.

Dappled green summer glades
Where swallows fly
And laughing children play
Under the sky.

Smile at the smiling man
Tear in your eye
Love in the morning sun
Under the sky.

Follow the road that winds up
to the sky,
There's no reason do not
wonder why.

Soft on a mossy bank
Silently lie
Everything's everything
Under the sky.

Everything's everything
Under the sky.

The Piper

Beneath the tinsel twilight skies
A changeling child with
cinnamon eyes
Wends his way to a secret glade
and plays his pipe in a serenade.

In and out of the spectral trees
Between the starlight burnished leaves,
He strolls the speckled toadstool way
to join th elfin court in play.
The brown owl hoots upon the oak
The foxes howl and the green frogs croak
As through the wood to a marvelous moon
He blows the notes of an elfin tune.

Towards the moss-weed bridge he goes
Where burble-pebble water flows,
Across the meadow up the hill
And on the wind I hear him still
. . .

'Appiness Street

Basins and barfs are good for some larfs
But an old china sink is me favrite me thinks
'Oles in me shoes I got nuffin t'lose
Back in 'Appiness Street

I never went to 'Arrer
I just push me barrer
I'm such a cheerful sparrer
Down old 'Appiness Street
Saucepans and plates is fine for me mates
But I do the lot in me old iron pot
Me suits needs repair but I aint' gotta care
Livin' in 'Appiness Street

I never'ad no learnin'
Never'ad the yearnin'
Just keeps me barrer turnin'
Down old 'Appiness Street.

Trouble and strife now that was me wife
But we'aven't met since she married the vet
So I'm feelin fine and the 'ole world is mine
I'm in 'Appiness Street I gotta tell yer
I'm in 'Appiness Street.

Birdman

Long ago in Walthamstowe
A man he dreamed a singular scheme,
Had no wish to join the fish
But he'd sigh, "I'd love to fly."
Sat in bed and scratched his head
So absurd to fly like a bird.
Time blew past until at last
Late one night he saw the light.

Careful hands drew up the plans
Shapes and things like curious wings,
Heirogliphics most prolific
Numbered charts with all of the parts;
Now the work starts.
He toiled for days on struts and stays
Umpteen screws and numerous glues
Harness leathers and rainbow feathers
Hinges and joints at the relevant points.

Till in the golden dawn beam sun
He saw that all the work was done;
With face aglow ran up the road
To 'Wishbone Hill' then pausing still
Cast his eyes on distant skies
And slowly moved his arms.
Slowly up then slowly down
Faster up then faster down
Faster up faster down up down up down
Until at last with swishing sound
He very gently left the ground.
..............

Weary from his journey
Birdman circled homewards
Gliding through the sunset
He very gently floated down
to the ground . . .

Travel Weary Capricorn

Travel weary capricorn
Move on
To another dawn.

Travel weary tired and torn
You will
Be reborn.
Capricorn, dawn, torn, reborn . . .

I Talk to The Wind

Said the straight man to the late man
Where have you been
I've been here and I've been there
And I've been in between.

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.

I'm on the outside looking inside
What do I see
Much confusion, disillusion
All around me.

You don't possess me
Don't impress me
Just upset my mind
Can't instruct me or conduct me
Just use up my time

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.

21st Century Schizoid Man

Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Epitaph

The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams.
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams.
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
As silence drowns the screams.

Between the iron gates of fate,
The seeds of time were sown,
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known;
Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no-one sets the rules.
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools.

Confusion will be my epitaph.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back
and laugh.
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying.

A House of Hopes and Dreams

Across the floor lie broken bowls of pride
Unlatch the door and scratch holes in the night
She'll be there someday, tides turn, winds change
You know, Oh you know.

A house of hopes and dreams I built one too
Drunk on gypsy violins like you
Ran naked through the flames and burnt like you.

Unbuttoned times when two laid down as one
Eyes on eyes where catherine wheels spun.
Now every stale day is a haywire highway
Alone, so alone.

A house of hopes and dreams I built one too
Danced upon the tables just like you
Swam the sea of dreams and drowned like you.

The cave of tears you choked and almost cried
Emotions horse's roped and staked inside.
Never could show her but somehow hoped to know her
Again, again, again to build
A house of hopes and dreams upon
a pack of painted cards;
To build a house of hopes and dreams
with bricks of loaded dice;
To build a house of hopes and dreams
with roulette wheels for stairs;
To build a house of hopes and dreams
Secured and bound with love,
With love, with love, with love, with love
Build strong and sure with love . . . . . .

Moonchild

Call her moonchild
Dancing in the shallows of
a river
Lovely moonchild
Dreaming in the shadow
of the willow.

Talking to the trees of the
cobweb strange
Sleeping on the steps of a
fountain
Waving silver wands to the
night-birds song
Waiting for the sun on the
mountain.

She's a moonchild
Gathering the flowers in a garden.
Lovely moonchild
Drifting on the echoes of the hours.

Sailing on the wind
in a milk white gown
Dropping circle stones on a sun dial
Playing hide and seek
with the ghosts of dawn
Waiting for a smile from a sun child.

The Court of the Crimson King

The rusted chains of prison moons
Are shattered by the sun.
I walk a road, horizons change
The tournament's begun.
The purple piper plays his tune,
The choir softly sing;
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
For the court of the Crimson King.

The keeper of the city keys
Put shutters on the dreams.
I wait outside the pilgrim's door
With insufficient schemes.
The black queen chants
the funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the Crimson King.

The gardener plants an evergreen
Whilst trampling on a flower.
I chase the wind of a prism ship
To taste the sweet and sour.
The pattern juggler lifts his hand;
The orchestra begin.
As slowly turns the grinding wheel
In the court of the Crimson King.

On soft grey mornings widows cry
The wise men share a joke;
I run to grasp divining signs
To satisfy the hoax.
The yellow jester does not play
But gently pulls the strings
And smiles as the puppets dance
In the court of the Crimson King.

Peace: A Beginning

I am the ocean
Lit by the flame
I am the mountain
Peace is my name
I am the river
Touched by the wind
I am the story
I never end.

Peace: An End

Peace is a word
Of the sea and the wind.
Peace is a bird who sings
As you smile.
Peace is the love
Of a foe as a friend;
Peace is the love you bring
To a child

Searching for me
You look everywhere,
Except beside you.
Searching for you
You look everywhere,
But not inside you.

Peace is a stream
From the heart of a man;
Peace is a man, whose breadth
Is the dawn.
Peace is a dawn
On a day without end;
Peace is the end, like death
Of the war.

Pictures of a City

Concrete cold face cased in steel
Stark sharp glass-eyed crack and peel
Bright light scream beam brake and squeal
Red white green white neon wheel.

Dream flesh love chase perfumed skin
Greased hand teeth hide tinseled sin
Spice ice dance chance sickly grin
Pasteboard time slot sweat and spin.

Blind stick blind drunk cannot see
Mouth dry tongue tied cannot speak
Concrete dream flesh broken shell
Lost soul lost trace lost in hell.

Cadence and Cascade

Cadence and Cascade
Kept a man named Jade;
Cool in the shade
While his audience played.
Purred, whispered, "Spend us too:
We only serve for you."

Sliding mystified
On the wine of the tide
Stared pale-eyed
As his veil fell aside.
Sad paper courtesan
They found him just a man.

Caravan hotel
Where the sequin spell fell
Custom of the game.
Cadence oiled in love
Licked his velvet gloved hand
Cascade kissed his name.

Sad paper courtesan
They knew him just a man.

Cat Food

Lady Supermarket with an apple in her basket
Knocks on the manager's door;
Grooning to the musak from a speaker in shoe rack
Lays out her goods on the floor;
Everything she's chosen is conveniently frozen.
"Eat it and come back for more!"

Lady Window Shopper with a new one in the hopper
Whips up a chemical brew;
Croaking to a neighbour while she polishes a sabre
Knows how to flavour a stew.
Never need to worry with a tin of "Hurri Curri":
"Poisoned especially for you!"

No use to complain
If you're caught out in the rain;
Your mother's quite insane.
Cat food, cat food, cat food again.

Lady Yellow Stamper with a fillet in a hamper
Dying to finish the course;
Goodies for the table with a fable on the label
Drowning in miracle sauce.
Don't think I am that rude if I tell you that it's cat food,
"Not even fit for a horse!"

In the Wake of Poseidon

Plato's spawn cold ivyed eyes
Snare truth in bone and globe.
Harlequins coin pointless games
Sneer jokes in parrot's robe.
Two women weep, Dame Scarlet Screen
Sheds sudden theatre rain,
Whilst dark in dream the Midnight Queen
Knows every human pain.

In air, fire, earth and water
World on the scales.
Air, fire, earth and water
Balance of change
World on the scales
On the scales.

Bishop's kings spin judgement's blade
Scratch "Faith" on nameless graves.
Harvest hags Hoard ash and sand
Rack rope and chain for slaves
Who fireside fear fermented words
Then rear to spoil the feast;
Whilst in the aisle the mad man smiles
To him it matters least.

Heroes hands drain stones for blood
To whet the scaling knife.
Magi blind with visions light
Net death in dread of life.
Their children kneel in Jesus till
They learn the price of nails;
Whilst all around our mother earth
Waits balanced on the scales.

Indoor Games

Indoor fireworks amuse your kitchen staff
Dusting plastic garlic plants
They snigger in the draught
When you ride through the parlour
Wearing nothing but your armour-
Playing Indoor Games.

One string puppet shows amuse
Your sycophantic friends
Who cheer your rancid recipes
In fear they might offend,
Whilst you loaf on your sofa
Sporting falsies and a toga-
Playing Indoor Games, Indoor Games.

Your mean teetotum spins arouse your seventh wife
Who pats her sixty little skins
And reinsures your life,
Whilst you sulk in your sauna
'Cos you lost your jigsaw corner-
Playing Indoor Games, Indoor Games.

Each afternoon you train baboons to sing
Or swim in purple perspex water wings.
Come Saturday jump chopper, chelsea brigade,
High bender-trender it's all Indoor Games.

No-ball bagatelle incites
Your children to conspire.
They slide across your frying pan
And fertilize your fire;
Still you and Jones go madder
Broken bones - broken ladder-
Hey Ho . . .

Happy Family

Happy family, one hand clap,
Four went by and none come back.
Brother Judas, ash and sack,
Swallowed aphrodisiac.
Rufus, Silas, Jonah too sang,
"We'll blow our own canoes,"
Poked a finger in the zoo,
Punctured all the ballyhoo

Whipped the world and beat the clock,
Wound up with their share of stock.
Silver Rolls from golden rock,
Shaken by a knock, knock, knock.
Happy family, wave that grin,
What goes round must surely spin;
Cheesecake, mousetrap, Grip-Pipe-Thynne
Cried out, "We're not Rin Tin Tin."

Uncle Rufus grew his nose,
Threw away his circus clothes
Cousin Silas grew a beard,
Drew another flask of weird
Nasty Jonah grew a wife,
Judas drew his pruning knife.
Happy family one hand clap,
Four went on but none came back

Happy family, pale applause,
Each to his revolving doors.
Silas searching, Rufus neat,
Jonah caustic, Jude so sweet.
Let their sergeant mirror spin
If we lose the barbers win;
Happy family one hand clap,
Four went on but none came back

Lady of the Dancing Water

Grass in your hair stretched like a lion in the sun
Restlessly turned moistened your mouth with your tongue.
Pouring my wine your eyes caged
mine glowing
Touching your face my fingers
strayed knowing.
I called you lady of the dancing water.

Blown autumn leaves shed to the fire where you laid me
Burn slow to ash just as my days now seem to be
I feel you still always your eyes glowing
Remembered hours salt, earth and
flowers flowing
Farewell my lady of the dancing water.

Prince Rupert Awakes

Farewell the temple master's bells
His kiosk and his black worm seed
Courtship solely of his word
With Eden guaranteed.
For now Prince Rupert's tears of glass
Make saffron sabbath eyelids bleed
Scar the sacred tablet of wax
On which the Lizards feed.

Wake your reason's hollow vote
Wear your blizzard season coat
Burn a bridge and burn a boat
Stake a Lizard by the throat.

Go Polonius or kneel
The reapers name their harvest dawn
All your tarnished devil's spoons
Will rust beneath our corn.
Now bears Prince Rupert's garden roam
Across his rain tree shaded lawn
Lizard bones become the clay-
And there a Swan is born

Wake your reasons' hollow vote
Wear your blizzard season coat
Burn a bridge and burn a boat
Stake a Lizard by the throat.

Gone soon Piepowder's moss-weed court
Round which upholstered Lizards sold
Visions to their leaden flock
Of rainbows' ends and gold.
Now tales Prince Rupert's peacock brings
Of walls and trumpets thousand fold
Prophets chained for burning masks
And reels of dream unrolled . . . . . .

Dawn Song

Night enfolds her cloak of holes
Around the river meadow.
Old moon-light stalks by broken ploughs
Hides spokeless wheels in shadow.
Sentries lean on thorn wood spears
Blow on their hands, stare eastwards.

Burnt with dream and taut with fear
Dawn's misty shawl upon them.
Three hills apart great armies stir
Spit oath and curse as day breaks.
Forming lines of horse and steel
By even yards march forward.

Cirkus

Night: her sable dome scattered with diamonds,
Fused my dust from a light year,
Squeezed me to her breast, sowed me with carbon,
Strung my warp across time.
Gave me each a horse, sunrise and graveyard,
Told me only I was her;
Bid me face the east closed me in questions
Built the sky for my dawn . . .

Cleaned my feet of mud, followed the empty
Zebra ride to the Cirkus,
Past a painted cage, spoke to the paybox
Glove which wrote on my tongue-
Pushed me down a slide to the arena,
Megaphonium fanfare.
In his cloak of words strode the ringmaster
Bid me join the parade . . .

"Worship!" cried the clown, "I am a TV.
Making bandsmen go clockwork,
See the slinky seal Cirkus policeman;
Bareback ladies have fish."
Strongmen by his feet, plate-spinning statesman,
Acrobatically juggling-
Bids his tamers go quiet the tumblers

Lest the mirror stop turning . . .

Elephants forgot, force-fed on stale chalk,
Ate the floors of their cages.
Strongmen lost their hair, paybox collapsed and
Lions sharpened their teeth.
Gloves raced round the ring, stallions stampeded
Pandemonium seesaw . . .
I ran for the door, ringmasters shouted,
"All the fun of the Cirkus!"

The Letters

With quill and silver knife
She carved a poison pen
Wrote to her lover's wife
"Your husband's seed has fed my flesh."

As if a leper's face
That tainted letter graced
The wife with choke-stone throat
Ran to the day with tear blind eyes.

Impaled on nails of ice
And raked with emerald fire
The wife with soul like snow
With steady hand begins to write.

"I'm still, I need no life
To serve on boys and men
What's mine was yours is dead
I take my leave of mortal flesh."

Formentera Lady

Houses iced in whitewash guard a pale shore-line
Cornered by the cactus and the pine.
Here I wander where sweet sage and strange herbs grow
Down a sun-baked, crumpled, stony road.

Dusty wheels, leaning, rusting in the sun;
Snuff brown walls where Spanish lizards run.
Here I'm shadowed by a dragon fig tree's fan
Ringed by ants and musing over man.

I'll unwind my old strings while the sun shine down
Won't climb any high thing while the sun shine.
Formentera Lady sing your song for me
Formentera Lady sweet lover.

Lamplight glows on old guitars the travellers strum;
Incense children dance to an Indian drum.
Here Odysseus charmed for dark Circe fell,
Still her perfume lingers still her spell.

Time's grey hand won't catch me while the sun shine down
Untie and unlatch me while the stars shine
. Formentera Lady dance your dance for me
Formentera Lady dark lover.

Ladies of the Road

A flower lady's daughter
As sweet as holy water
Said: "I'm the school reporter
Please teach me," well I taught her.

Two fingered levi'd sister
Said, "Peace," I stopped I kissed her.
Said, "I'm a male resister,"
I smiled and just unzipped her.

High diving chinese trender
Black hair and black suspender,
Said, "Please me no surrender
Just love to feel your fender."

All of you know that the girls of the road
Are like apples you stole in your youth.
All of you know that the girls of the road
Been around but are versed in the truth.

Stone-headed Frisco spacer
Ate all the meat I gave her
Said would I like to taste hers
And even craved the flavour.

"Like marron-glaced fish bones
Oh lady hit the road."

All of you know that the girls of the road
Are like apples you stole in your youth.
All of you know that the girls of the road
Been around but are versed in the truth.

Will It Be You (Will You Stay By Me)

Who'll give me comfort when the moon rides in the pines
Who'll be my pillow when the bitter north wind whines
Who'll lie beside me as the evening fire declines
Will it be you, will you stay by me?

Who'll give me shelter from the wolves of discontent
Who'll be my silence till the grumbling storm is spent
Who'll shine my armour for the next day's tournament
Will it be you, will you stay by me?

Or should I look for another
Or spend my days in a cave or on a shelf
With only life as my brother
And find my way by myself?

Who'll bring me water when my engine overheats
Who'll bring me ointment when the highway frets my feet
From disappointment's showers where can I retreat
Can I come to you, will you stay by me?

Or should I look for another
Or spend my days in a cave or on a shelf
With only life as my brother
And find my way by myself?

Who'll give me comfort when the moon rides in the pines
Who'll be my pillow when the bitter north wind whines
Who'll lie beside me as the evening fire declines
Will it be you, will you stay by me, will you stay by me
Will you stay by me, will you stay by me?
Oh of course you will.

Hanging Fire

I'm overhung I'm highly strung
Seems I'm a likely candidate
To lose the trick now my rhetoric
Gets weirder by the hour of late.

I'm hanging fire I've left the choir
Too many voices out of tune.
Yes I forget in Somerset
But now I've lost my silver spoon.

I'm under par like a cheap guitar
It's twice as hard to hold the strings
And pull my soul from out this hole
When there are cobwebs on my wings.
I've lost my oars I'm Santa Claus
Forgot my sack on Christmas day
What's left of me is all at sea
It seems my sails have blown clear away.

Islands

Earth, stream and tree encircled by sea
Waves sweep the sand from my island.
My sunsets fade,
Field and glade wait only for rain
Grain after grain love erodes my
High weathered walls which fend off the tide
Cradle the wind
to my island.

Gaunt granite climbs where gulls wheel
and glide
Mournfully cry o'er my island.
My dawn bride's veil, damp and pale,
Dissolves in the sun.
Love's web is spun - cats prowl, mice run
Wreathe snatch-hand briars where owls
know my eyes
Violet skies
Touch my island, touch me.

Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands
'Neathe heaven's sea.

Dark harbour quays like fingers of stone
Hungrily reach from my island.
Clutch sailors' words, pearls and gourds
Are strewn on my shore.
Equal in love, bound in circles.
Earth, stream and tree return to the sea
Waves sweep the sand from my island,
From me.

Song of the Sea Goat

The sea goat casts
Aquarian runes
through beads of
mirrored tears,

Suave pirates words of apricot
crawl out of your veneer

Anoint your eyes with Midas' oil and
make it still appear

Alladin's lamp is glowing bright
transmuting panacea;

To fill your souls with
sugared holes.

"Oh can't you hear"
sang the sea goat "the nonsense
makes me numb."
"It's near
it's clear"
sang the sea goat "we live to
overcome,

The madman's voice and his
nowhere choice,
The pain that drains
like an endless day of rain."

The sea goat reads
the flight of birds and
writes upon the
sand;
Gold waterfalls of autumn
wheat slip through a pointing
hand
Whose fingers stiff with
sentences still beckon
to the
band
To play the "Best Foot Forward
March" and deafen all
the land.
With hollow words, it's so absurd!
"Take your stand" sang
the sea goat "the night goes on
and on."
"Unwrap your plans"
sang the sea goat "tell everyone
you've gone
To touch the earth and to see
the birth
The smile, the style down an unspun
mile of life."

It fills the air! It fills the air!
The song of the sea goat shaking in
the domes
The song of the sea goat
as endlessly he roams,
Between the sunset's crimson veil
On smooth grey streets where the
drunkard spins his
tale.

The sea goat sips and hurls
his glass along the
smoke-filled road
Where shuttered snakes of
brakeless trains run aching
with their load
Of spring-eyed, tonguetied, wooldyed
lads who kiss the
L-shaped goad
Which soon will smear their
uniforms with blood,

whitewash & woad.
Damn iron minded, gold braid
blinded, officers and

gentlemen! "God!" sang the sea goat
"is always on both sides."
"Change" sang the sea goat "is
constant as the tides
"And this play" sang the sea goat
"is strangely

synthesised
When your part of a cast where
the first comes last
Where the east goes west and
the sun is burning out

And your part of a cast . . . . . ."

Envelopes of Yesterday

I feel like a rusty key I don't fit any door
You stole my cloudy castles but you didn't say what for.
You said I didn't have the eyes to paint out in
the street
Without a standard martyr's hat and neon sloganned
feet.
To eat, it seems, I needed you for crumbs your need was
me.
We cheered and passed the sanguine flask till the ice
man made me see
At five o'clock you could never wash your
printer's stain
away;
So I count you lost and your words I've tossed
In the bleary envelopes of yesterday.

I feel like a tumbling kite there's no hand on my reel.
I dived aboard your star-bright ship to find you'd left the
wheel
To hunt some upstart passengers who had gambled with
their fare
Then trumpeted the hull with holes and laughing gone
by air.
Whilst most of us who stayed aboard slipped brandy to
the crew
John Purser locked his iron box and pointed at
the queue.
Still working out the price of time no echoes will we lay;
So I've burnt the till and I've thrown the bills
In the weary envelopes of yesterday.

I need to suck the breasts of time and freeze
her milk in
ink
To juggle cruets full of dreams and balance on the brink.
Don't blame me if my smoke and steam obscured your
rutted track,
I only meant to startle you not offer you my back
To ride upon and overload with your jars of unbaked clay.
You can find your guide to the pulpit ride
in the dreary envelopes of yesterday.

I'm upside down I'm an empty town my eyes
are full of
ghost
Of dusty windowed certainty and spider-webbed almost.
I love, I hate this rock and roll the ladies and the lights
Ate all my flowers long ago but the roots
came through
all right.
Whilst now my toast is the crossroads post, I hear just
out of sight,
That the Black Pick's found his Chaldean lamp
After years in a concentration camp.
But I fear he's still out on the ice
With his bagpipe mouth and his cup of crimson speiss.

Still, I've fulfilled a host of dreams for that I'll cry hurray
But it won't be long till I cast this song
In the jet-edged envelopes......

Wholefood Boogie

I want to bite a rosy apple
That's not painted waxed or DDT'd.
I'd dig a plate of russian buckwheat
With a steaming sauce of sesame seed.
Just cook me miso soup for breakfast
Throw your fishy fingers back in the sea
'Cos I'm a funky macro-eater life is sweeter
Eating naturally.

I've got no taste for stricken chicken
From an ultraviolet prison cell.
I couldn't face your shaving cream cake
Or your test tube flavoured caramel.
Don't serve me "BOILA BAGGA DINNA"
When I've shown you what I eat is me
And I'm a weird organic diner life is finer
Eating naturally.

Whole food that's what I need
A bowl of grain, the taste of seed,
Whole food every day to live the natural funky way.
You're so acute about pollution
Have you ever really looked at your food
It's sickly, sweetened, poisoned, flavoured,
Coloured, processed . . . . . God! if only you knew
That there's a funky way of eating
Keeps you randy, dandy, happy and free
Go on, go score yourself a banquet
Straight from nature, not from some factory.

Whole food etc. etc.

Still

Editor's note: spelling as it was in the website

Still I wonder how it is to be a stream,
From a dark well constant flowing,
Winding seawards over ancient mossy wheels
Yet feel no need of knowing?
Still I wonder how it is to be a tree,
Circled servant to the seasons,
Only drink on sky and rake the winter wind
And need no seal of reasons?

Still I wonder why I wonder why I'm here
All my words just the shaft of my flail
As I race o'er this beautiful sphere
Like a dog who his chasing his . . .
Tailors and tinkers, princes and Incas,
Sailors and sinkers, before me and like me . . .

Still I wonder how it is to be a bird,
Singing each dawns sweet effusions;
Flying far away when all the world has stirred
Yet seek no vain conclusions . . . . . .

Still I wonder if I passed some time ago
As a bird, or a stream, or a tree?
To mount up high you first must sink down low
Like the changeable tides of the
Caesars and Pharoahs, prophets and heroes,
Poets and hobos, before me and after me all the
Painters and dancers, mountainside chancers,
Merchants and gamblers, bankers and ramblers,
Winners and losers, angels and boozers,
Beatles and Bolans, raindrops and oceans,
Kings, pawns and deacons, fainthearts and beacons,
Caesars and Pharoahs . . . . .

Mr. Nine Till Five

Shiny shoes he runs to catch the train
Rockets launched if he is late again
Pushed and squeezed on the sardine machine
To his Mr. Nine till Five routine.
Filing piling on his desk all day
In and out from tray to endless tray;
Tea and biscuits secretary's legs
Luncheon daydreams over curried eggs.
Yes sir, no sir on the squawking phone,
Five o'clock rush-hour exhausted home.
T.V., bedtime and excite the wife
Set the clock get up repeat through life.
Mr. Nine till Five . . . . . .
Down on his knees for the weekend.

All too soon it's Sunday afternoon
Post the pools and watch the 'Box' till ten
Shuts his eyes wakes up its Monday again . . .

The Night People

Blue neon clock fingers sneaking past the stars
Extinguish the last fuse of day.
Through black rain-wet streets rush bleary-eyed cars
Stuffed with revellers drunk and blasé.

In Soho stained waiters bang dustbins around,
Commissionaires yawn into tweed,
As empty and echo hose yesterday down
The night people slide inbetween.

Sallow dudes with spotlight eyes
Pour laughter sauce on ice.
Velvet dolls with brandied smiles
Lean close with mouths of dice.
The tunnel band plays studded drums
And spits electric spears
As the dancers kick like marionettes
Through the smokescreen atmospheres.
Dance on pale harlequins of night
Lest you scratch your gilded fears.

The paint peeling tea stall by Charing Cross bridge
Attracts lonely moths to its lamps.
In corners of archways on a benches oak ridge
Lie newspapered wine-softened tramps;
Pushed on by policemen and queueing for soup
Evading the world's outstretched glove,
But one pain they share with the jewelled ghost troupe
Both searching for some kind of love.

Gargoyles chewing on dead cigars
Stack chips in crystal halls.
Sequinned starlets scent their breasts
Till the single finger calls.
Rhinestoned strippers strut and peel
For the cochineal stockade.
The gangster roars his crew applauds
At the punter's fun parade;
All worshiping the jaws of night
Where the piper is never paid.
Champagned freaks in denim shirts
Snort energy in spoons.
Laughing girls ask zodiac signs
But their eyes sing lonely tunes.
It's four o'clock the wine is flat
The coffee has long gone cold,

The rustlers pay their last respects
Then drive away blindfold . . . . . .
Dead the hollow dreams of night
Turn grey dissolve . . . .dissolve . . .

Leaves dervish dance on the coiled wind of dawn
Whisper . . . . The curtain lifts . . . . Day
News vans and lorries with oranges roar
From Fleet Street to Ealing Broadway.
The first bus with charladies stops in the Strand
Milk vans and post vans cruise by.
At Euston commuters, shop girls and striped suiters,
Are jostling and milling, cars hooting, brakes shrilling . . . . . .

River of Life

River of life
Rain was your birth
Gathered deep
Beneath the earth.
Search and seep,
Hollow stone
Issue and flow.
Virgin stream
Meander free
It's a long way to the sea.

Caves and canyons
Stark prison walls
Swirl and hurl you
From white cascading falls.
Across the plain
Sweep your course
River roll
Follow your star.

There's a city
There's a bridge.
Ships and barges
Dark rusty hearts
Feed cranes along your banks.
Waste and poison
Cloy where once men drank.
Forget the pain
From rain to rain
Journey's end
Is surely not far . . . . . .

Celebration

You've spent a long time waiting
For the perfect yesterday,
Now fill your heart with celebration
For that's love's way.

Photos of Ghosts

Black roses laced with silver
By a broken moon.
Ten million stars
And the whispered harmonies of leaves.
We were these.

Beside a dried up fountain
Lie five dusty tomes
With faded pasted pictures
Of love's reverie.
Across each cover is written,
"Herein are Photos of Ghosts"
Of ghosts, of ghosts,
Of the days we ran and the days we sang.

Promenade the Puzzle

Lady dancing on a Tulip
Pirouetteing in the sunset
Let me be your next cigarette.

Church bells, played by a penguin
Bearded priest who walks like Chaplin,
I must fly like a swallow tonight.
Chinese rice paper poet
Dips his paintbrush in the silence
Of the lake which mirrors the sky.

Milkmaids waltz around the haystack
when the maestro blows his trumpet.
Bandsmen hammer at the cafe
For the gypsy's drawbridge bottle.
Choir boys pull on the zig-zag
Of the monkey's dream piano.
Fish eat stolen keys in rivers
Where the wooden legs go sailing.
Clocks join hands to dance the polka.
Sweep the carpet under the carpet
Promenade the Puzzle.

Can You Forgive a Fool

It's three a.m. you're still awake
You listen for her footsteps on the stair
You hear a car door slam
But there's no one there . . .
The ashtrays half-smoked cigarettes
Remind you of those words you now regret,
The answer to your pride
A stream of tears that trailed across her cheek
Those moments made of years
When she could hardly speak.
Until she said OK, no more, amen
I think I'd better go . . . .

Jealousy is a bitter brew
Its poison drives all reason out of you
How could she think that you were serious
And then too late, too late;
How quick the tree of love
Bears fruit of hate.
When she denied the lies you turned away
But that was yesterday.

And now you pray she'll come home again
You phoned up all her friends
To tell them how much you love her
And you pray she'll come home again
Or this nightmare will never end
Or this nightmare will never end.

Six a.m. and half asleep but wait
Is that a taxicab outside?
You throw the window wide
Oh Yes it's her . . .
You laugh, you cry, you run downstairs
Unlatch the door and she is standing there
You take her hand to see if she is real
And Oh that feeling when she says
"Hello it's me . . . ." And as the sunrise fills the street
You hold her close against your heart and say
"I love you, can you forgive a fool?"
"Can you forgive a fool?"
"Can you forgive a fool?"

Benny the Bouncer

Benny was the bouncer at the Palais de Danse
He'd slash your granny's face up given half a chance
He'd sell you back the pieces, all for less than half a quid
He thought he was the meanest
Until he met with Savage Sid.

Now Sidney was a greaser with some nasty roots
He poured a pint of Guinness over Benny's boots
Benny looked at Sidney
Sidney stared right back in his eye
Sidney chose a switchblade
and Benny got a cold meat pie
Oh! what a terrible sight
Much to the people's delight
One hell of a fight.

Sidney grabbed a hatchet, buried it .... in Benny's head
The people gasped as he bled
The end of a Ted?

Well, they dragged him from the wreckage of the Palais in bits
They tried to stick together all the bits that would fit
But some of him was missing
and "part of him" arrived too late
So now he works for Jesus
As the bouncer at St. Peter's Gate.

Karn Evil Nine: 1st Impression

Step inside! Hello! We've the most amazing show
You'll enjoy it all we know
Step inside! Step Inside!

We've got thrills and shocks, supersonic fighting cocks.
Leave your hammers at the box
Come Inside! Come Inside!
Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!
See the show!

Left behind the bars, rows of Bishops' heads in jars
and a bomb inside a car
Spectacular! Spectacular!

If you follow me there's a speciality
some tears for you to see
Misery, misery,
Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!
See the show!

Next upon the bill in our House of Vaudeville
We've a stripper in a till
What a thrill! What a thrill!
And not content with that, with our hands behind our backs,
We pull Jesus from a hat,
Get into that! Get into that!
Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!
See the show!

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside!
There behind a glass is a real blade of grass
be careful as you pass.
Move along! Move along!

Come inside, the show's about to start
guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you'll get your money's worth
The greatest show in Heaven, Hell or Earth.
You've got to see the show, it's a dynamo.
You've got to see the show, it's rock and roll ....
Soon the Gypsy Queen in a glaze of Vaseline
Will perform on guillotine
What a scene! What a scene!
Next upon the stand will you please extend a hand
to Alexander's Ragtime Band
Dixieland, dixieland
Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!
See the show!

Performing on a stool we've a sight to make you drool
Seven virgins and a mule
Keep it cool. Keep it cool.
We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown
were exclusively our own,
All our own. All our own.
Come and see the show! Come and see the show! Come and see the show!
See the show!

Karn Evil Nine: 3rd Impression

Man alone; born of stone;
Will stamp the dust of time
His hands strike the flame of his soul;
Ties a rope to a tree and hangs the Universe
Until the wind of laughter blows cold.

Fear that rattles in men's ears
And rears it's hideous head
Dread .... Death .... in the wind ....

Man of steel pray and kneel
With fever's blazing torch
Thrust into the face of the night;
Draws a blade of compassion
Kissed by countless Kings
Whose jewelled trumpet words blind his sight.

Walls that no man thought would fall
The altars of the just
Crushed .... Dust .... in the wind ....
No man yields who flies in my ship
DANGER!
Let the bridge computer speak
STRANGER!
LOAD YOUR PROGRAM. I AM YOURSELF.

No computer stands in my way
Only blood can cancel my pain
Guardians of a new clear dawn
Let the maps of war be drawn.

Rejoice! Glory is ours!
Our young men have not died in vain,
Their graves need no flowers
The tapes have recorded their names.

I am all there is
NEGATIVE! PRIMITIVE! LIMITED! I LET YOU LIVE!
But I gave you life
WHAT ELSE COULD YOU DO?
To do what was right
I'M PERFECT! ARE YOU?

The Mountain

Red Bellows of flame have blackened my stones
Convulsing my frame and cracking my bones.
Hell's dragons of steel who roar in their chains
Crawl into my caves to suck out my veins.

I've split the sky ten million years
And I've been called a hundred different names.
I know the stories of the wind,
I've argued with the thunder and the rain ...
Till eagles flew from Urizen
Revealing how my mother's
face was horribly changed
By the apes ...

Where once shepherds dined the diamond
worm screams.
The ash of my pine is choking my streams
"O-Yam-Tsu-Mi"* I invoke your name.

But "O-Yam-Tsu-Mi" lay broken and ill
By the plight and the pain of his mountains
and hills
By his waterfall weeps
Once again ...

"* Ancient Japanese God of Mountains" <- Note from the original

Just Look Away

Scraping his bow
The old violinist plays out of tune,
Blues on his fingers.
The people hurry by
As he plays upon his corner,
Sometimes throw a coin
And if they see the pain in his eyes
They just look away.

Old men in the park
Spitting at the world
Just count the hours
Faded flowers
Left up on the shelf,
Trying to keep warm
In an overcoat of memories,
Soon be dead.

Scraping for fuel
This crazy old world is quite out of tune,
Too many trumpets
The people hurry by
All looking for a corner
And if they meet a friend
Who asks them to repay some old favour,
They just look away.

Old men in the dark
Sitting on the world
Play cards with words,
So absurd,
The devil's harmony.
Each man to himself
In a well cut suit of selfishness,
Just looks away.

The World Became the World

Outside my window in the courtyard
of the world
The gentle rain was falling.
No breath of wind, no cry of beast or bird
Too quiet, too still, I turned ...

To see the raindrops like a thousand poet's words
splash their circles on the stones,
And seem to wash over everything with love
And for a moment the courtyard heard.

Until the sun came bursting through the clouds
Hung up his rainbows in the sky
And with a laugh of flames said, "Now go chase the gold"
And the world became the world ...

Now we're all travellers some seekers and some sought
Who leave the courtyard to be caught
In nets of self, damned certainty and choice;
But do you believe our voice?

You ... you've got what must belong to me,
I need! I'll bleed for more possessions.
You ... you've got no right to disagree
Bow! Kneel! Or fear my aggresions.
Thank God if sometimes your oyster holds a pearl
When the world remains the world ...

Four Holes in the Ground

Sometimes it seems that what remains of truth and real value
Is wine shared with friends,
A sunset, music or some ancient statue,
Drinking the stars or touching hearts with one whose love enfolds you.

But if life is just a well stuffed purse
It couldn't get much worse
For me and you
Chicken in a Zoo.
And if life is just crystal balls and luck
I couldn't give a ...
And if life is just this carousel
Sometimes it's heaven.
But mostly its hell
Just a paper shell
Dig yourself a well, well, well, well
... that's life.

Is My Face on Straight

Inflate your waistcoat, wind down your eyes,
Tie on your best smile, check your disguise.
Dryclean your old jokes, practice despair,
Hide your relations under the stairs.
You're invited to attend the turkey party convention;
Isn't that nice?

You can leave your troubles at the door
We have ways to make you cheer
As long as you're not sick or poor
A negro or a queer.
We can fit you with a suit of clothes
That will make you look like us,
An appointments book and a new outlook
A ladder or a truss
Have another cup of reality
Drink and drink some more!
You can own a boat, a house, a car,
Or live like Howard Hughes;
Come on what have you got to lose...
And if you're discreet there are pleasures sweet
You can even swap your wife
If you'll only sign the dotted une
You'll be fine... Oh so fine...

Thank you for joining here are your pills
The man in the white coat wilI send you the bill.
Would you like to meet
Our most distinguished member... a doctor Faustus by name!

Is my face on straight?
Will they laugh at the gate
Oh I mustn' t be late
Is my face on straight?
Is my face on straight?
Will they let me throught the gate
Oh I mustn't be late
Is my face on straight... Is my face on straight...
Is my face on straight?