These Days

I walk in silence with the wind

Winding cold fingers through mine

‘We are wild and free, these days’

It whispers

My hair dances in the air

Unrestrained, flowing like birdsong

From the starlings and blackbirds

It sings for me

But my heart is as empty as the road

As heavy as the clay under my feet

‘Dig deep’, ‘Dig deep’

The passing finches sing, wild and free

The clock has not stopped yet

But the minutes and seconds have gone

Only unwinding hours, uncounted days

Where time is measured in footsteps

I walk in silence with the wind

Winding cold fingers through mine

‘We are wild and free, these days’

‘Dig deep’, ‘Dig deep’

Celandine Sings

A new set of poems/songs.

Ripple Stones

I’m sorry your skies have turned a colder blue
And I wouldn’t want to disturb more than I do
But sometimes you have to throw
A pebble in a pool
Ripple stone
Ripple stone
Watching ripples as they roam
Far from view

Above the starlings fly across a cold winters’ sky
A flock of a thousand birds so wide
All flying back home
A path well flown
Ripple stone
Ripple stone
Watching starlings as they roam
Far from view

The orchard sleeps deep in a blanket of sheep
While the cold air’s the only company you keep
I’ll throw a pebble in a pool
For I’d rather be a fool
Ripple stone
Ripple stone
Watching ripples as they roam
Far from view

Sticker album 2018

Working on a new set of stuff...

Coyote

This eye scrapes on ice inside

When's this heart going to let go

In the last hours of our reality

We think we'll all save our humanity

But it's a quick trip and a cheap shot

Not a map for the future
But a graph of all your plots

Out in the wilds the coyote cries

Good riddance and goodbye

This fire burns, a cold riven flame

Kicked into touch like paper in the rain

For a heart beating brightly

A beacon in this pain

When's this heart going to let go

This eye scrapes on ice inside
When's this heart going to let go

Journeys Run

A maze of footsteps in the snow
Tell of the places we could go
Journeys run
From cradle to grave
And those footsteps echo
Memories we’ve made

Two Weeks in June

The summer lights are shining around the bay

Calling us to come and dance the night away

A warm breeze

Some pine trees

Music played loud

To the beach

Hand in hand

Through the crowd

Where summer lights

Illuminate

A high tide in town

Two weeks in June

It'll be over too soon

But until then I'll dance the night away

Under the summer lights around the bay

The summer lights are shining around the bay

Calling us to come and dance the night away

All for Love

Long after the roses have faded

You'll learn what love is

This night sky clothes your desire

Hides your eyes from your heart

Long after you'll remember

What we are

We are nothing unless it's all for love

All for love

And you can laugh and you can pour your scorn

And you can ask the devil what the hell it's all for

Long after you'll remember

It was all for love

All for love

I got your text and the crazy photo of us

Like we were meant to be together

And the view from the window

With the sun setting so many years ago

How we must have changed

And I hope you are well

As can be expected for someone

Who hides his eyes from his heart

Now you've remembered

What we are

And I could laugh and I could pour scorn

And ask the devil what the hell it was all for

If so long after you'll finally remember

It was all for love

All for love

Long after the roses have faded

You'll learn what love is

This night sky clothes your desire

Hides your eyes from your heart

Long after you'll remember

What we are

We are nothing unless it's all for love

All for love

One-Sided Coin

Love's not a one-sided coin

You can't always win the day

Love's not a line in a poem

Borrowed words aren't what I

Need to hear you say

You've got to feel me in your heart

This honesty is where love starts

Fancy words and fast moves

The hallmark of a lonely fool

Love's not a one-sided coin

So don't throw it all away

When all I need to hear you say

What I need to hear you say

Words from your heart

Why can't you say

Love's not a one-sided coin

You can't always win the day

Love's not a line in a poem

Borrowed words aren't what I

Need to hear you say

You've got to feel me in your heart

This honesty is where love starts

So don't throw it all away

Love's not a one-sided coin

And you can't always win the day

A Trick of the Light

I know it's just

A trick of the light

Falling through the window

Across the empty room

To where you sit

On a plastic chair

Playing that tune

But the dust is dancing

To the sound

Tombé

To the floorboards below

And I know

It's a trick of the light

A quirk of the late hour

And the notes

Falling

Where you sit

Playing that tune

Where it Lies

Pan played a cold tune

When he played for you

In moonlight bathed

And shadows swathed

Your heart is stolen from your sky

Left to languish where it lies

Pan played a cold tune

When he played for you

A game of moves

And quiet clues

To what could be inside your mind

Beyond the reach of measured lines

A sea defence wall

Broken by winter squalls

A morning of fractured light

Dispells your uncertain night

A coat-hanger caught in the door

A pile of clothes on the floor

Startles the same old sames

Into a different frame

In moonlight bathed

And shadows swathed

Your heart is stolen from your sky

Left to languish where it lies

Pan played a cold tune

When he played for you

Pan played a cold tune

When he played for you

In Reach

I used to stand on this beach
Pebble in my hand
Thinking if I throw it
The world would be in reach

Is this a two-way street
or am I just talking to my feet
Words thrown against the wind
And it's always the tide that wins

Patterns are falling into place
We still make the same old mistakes
I used to stand on this beach
Perhaps it was me who was never in reach

Well, promises are promises
And water finds its level
And every love story
Has a high tide flood
And a low to reach
Seems to me
It's a two-way street

I used to stand on this beach
Pebble in my hand
Thinking if I throw it
The world would be in reach

Cerulean Daze

I would have lived on a hill
Where the trees never stood still
Kissed by an ocean's breeze
Safe in those cerulean days

I take a moment now and then
To remember how and when
We changed
How we change

Mosaics on the floor
Crosswords against the door
And every little fragment that falls
Into place
Changes the look on your face
Till I no longer recognise you
At all

Four winds and a high tide
Won't help me find the way
Back to my cerulean daze

I would have lived on a hill
Where the trees never stood still
Kissed by an ocean's breeze
Safe in those cerulean days

Fragile, handle wih care

Life's a chicken fricassee
It's where I come unstuck
No one's out there gunning for me
I'm just another schmuck

I wish that I could make it all much better
And every dream come true
But I can't stop falling
falling through

If love is such a simple game
Let's play heads or tails
If I win, you'll take the lot
If not we'll swim with whales

The human heart's a strange beast
A contract made in blood
Beating to a single tune
We sing called love

I wish that I could make it all much better
And every dream come true
But I can't stop falling
falling through

Sometimes I

Sometimes I find the sky is turning me blue
& sometimes you find time too, time to
Sometimes I remind you too much
& if all the world could be poured into a glass
We could drown our sorrows
Or at least attempt to
The roll of a dice won’t help it pass
But it’s true
Sometimes I find the sky is turning me blue

The horse and the plough
The race and the clouds
I can’t explain it any clearer
You’re no nearer than before
What truth will you recall

Sometimes you find time too, time to, sometimes to
Sometimes I remind you too much
Sometimes you
I’ll see you and raise you
Sometimes I find the sky is turning me blue

He’s not just any man

He came courting and on bended knee
About some dancing he would like with me
But I don’t give my heart to just any man
And put his daisies out in the trash can

He went a way and bought a silver car
One with wide seats and said we wouldn’t go too far
As if to impress me I could be his girl
I don’t need a flash car and some social whirl

He came courting and on bended knee
About some wedding he would like with me
But I don’t give my heart to just any man
And put his daisies out in the trash can

Well, he went away and built a house with trees
Cooled by an ocean’s gentle breeze
Planted jacaranda and hibiscus fair
With a pool for little fishes to paddle there

Now our grandchildren play in the sea
I’m old and wrinkly and so is he
He asks me why I put his daisies out in the trash can
I say I didn’t give my heart to just any man

(spoken word and trumpet, flugelhorn, tuba, drums)
1,2, 1,2, 1,2,3,4 whoa! calypso!

(Repeat two verse, music only, sing last line)
He's not just any man