Hands caressing wood Tracing the grain Or moulding clay To release secret shapes Or shearing marble Into silken shapes Or stroking the page To paint magic words Or brushing the canvas Revealing worlds of dancing light Nothing No automation No factory No robot No tool Will replace the love In the craft
The whole kit and kaboodle Everything you need to get started You will soon be the expert In your new chosen hobby/pastime/pursuit Until the next new thing The next thing to be seen doing Then you will need to get Another whole kit and kaboodle This is the lifecycle Of the perfect consumer Duped into thinking They are pursuing a perfect life
Be true To yourself There is no other Truth Follow your dreams And other such Platitudes But They don’t Pay the bills Or Bear the weight Of life’s Burdens They were Written By those Who Enjoy the fruit Of others’ labours
The whole human race Must transform Move on Leave behind the past The constraints and restraints Of superstition Fix the damage And become new Become something more Than the consumers of the earth
Deep in the Crevice No chink of light creeps Water carved solace Permanent night There dwells the one Who will bring us to the day When our own cavernous darkness Will finally hold sway
Formulate Don’t wait for permission Go Make the new world Leave the old With the dinosaurs Don’t change the establishment Ignore it Make a new one Reclaim Everything
Egg and bacon sandwich Dripping yolk and ketchup Steaming tea from an old tin boiler Condensation frosting the windows Empty streets, lit by sulphur orange Solace
Beneath all the drama All the bluster and the mustering of arms The blows and the hot hot wind The shouts and screams The glory and the tragedy The dreams and the hopes Through every act and movement Every entrance and exit grand and small After every curtain call and echo of applause Do not overlook the fact that Children died Brothers and sisters remember
It looks like the arc of the defeated The hunch of an old and tired man Worn down by time and routine Only The arc is a buttress Against the burden of life It is bent, not broken It serves its purpose well If not gracefully
Some words Are neglected Not forgotten Still in the lists Used when absolutely Necessary For example Chimney When did you last utter it? Like the object itself It’s redundant Only used When it’s a problem Sometimes I feel like a chimney
The cur Concurred That his fur was fine The Dragon Entwined, sublime Around the dog Agreed As he preened Sat on the mat. The rat Sneered as he neared A disagreed With the lead of the cur While the rooster sided with the worm His belief in showmanship firm White he strutted The tiger tutted And purred, Anticipating Waiting His chance The rabbit Twitched and hopped Unsure who To believe Whether to leave Or watch While the snake Curled around The ground Sniffing out The way ahead The monkey Puzzled And guzzled his beer Coming near Without seeing While the swine Less divine Fed Its stomach, not its head And the bull Forged on Sure and strong One way forward The stallion danced And when they glanced Gave a show While the goat’s Step Slow and sure Kept time And amidst them all Nothing That had a clue
When the oppressors Flaunt Their power When they laugh Not in their sleeves But in your face As they take And cut And take some more Chuckling On their beds of gold And thrones of power When their hands are tightest On the flow Of information Disinformation And lies They feel the safest The strongest That Is The time To strike
The mallet Ancient tool Held by many hands Down through the ages Hands of skill and experience Worn and hardened By labour and care Now Resigned to Tent pegs and vampires
Come on you loons You warrior poets You insane ranters Crank it up! Give us your ideas! Give us your brains! Break the mould Break the world So it can be remade Better
We brave explorers together Wearing imitation leather And as silent as a feather We toiled through the darkest weather onto our prize
Through mountains and valleys, we walked By tigers and lions were stalked And as brave as we always talked There came a time when we just baulked against the size
Of the hunger in our bellies Off with our explorer wellies Broke out the ice cream and jellies And retreated to the telly’s noisy comfort
Permit me to speak Permit me to say The truth of our lives Maybe if we shared The healing could begin We could escape The electronic cage If we listened If we did
The dominant theme Of the modern movement Is just that To dominate To be the best No second place No room for losers Crush them Squeeze them dry That is the song Of our age We seem to sing it With joy
Sunny She was And the shadows she cast were long We long for her Now the winter is here And the long long night descends Bright was her smile White and bright her smile Deep and black her skin And we wanted in From afar Memories of sun In the dusk