Category: words

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roses from africa

they stumble but the march of progress goes on –
distilled in a book and captured in song,
when laughter drowns the dogma we’ll be free.

nature doesn’t need to win this one with words
and somethings rise, others fall I’ve heard,
remember this as rings inside a tree.

i won’t be the last one out the door and this is all just make believe

so i make my mind to take my time,
a bird silhouette on the laundry line,
the blackberries are ripe, it’s havest time again.

did summer come early? did it come at all?
flip-flops in puddles all down the road.
the ice is melting someplace far away.

i won’t be the last one out the door and this is all just make believe

a ring of roses and they all fall down –
water the blooms but forget the town.
sacrifices or indignities?

please tell me something i can understand,
a truth i can hold in the palm of my hand,
a song i can sing for all humanity

i won’t be the last one out the door and this is all just make believe

the theatre of man has come to town
the curtains back, the house lights down
spotlight on a blushing history.

don’t try to make sense of the words above
i’m not the only one confusing war and love –
do whatever you must to live your dreams.

i won’t be the last one out the door and this is all just make believe

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grace 101

A little song inspired by the lovely Joanna Newsom and some of Michael Stipe’s more obscure moments…

Tell me which colour is blue –
Then stand in a line and shout “Idiot, yours truly”
Nothing compares to this feeling of flying
And gravity wants to join in for the ride.

I don’t know which one is true –
The fool and the knave they both have intuitions
But foolproof plans which require ten volumes
To explain the subtleties just don’t sound right.

I will determine the last day on earth
And I will determine what Winston was saying
So I can make way for the peach and the pear and the plum
And you cannot fault what I’ve done.

The concrete must yield to the steel
And some sun could reach me despite of the morning.
Patio living with no remote features
Could be a solution but think of the mice!

I will dig deeper than others will dare
And I will dig deeper regardless of warning
and I will make way for the peach and the pear and the plum
And you cannot fault what I’ve done…

no, no, no, no
no, no, no, no
no.

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montreal

Let’s take a trip down Somerset Island,
Across the mainland to Hudson Bay.
We’ll take a boat across the water
Down to Montreal.

Taking our time we’ll cross the border
And be in New York for christmas day.
We’ll meet the friends we made in Philadelphia
In Florida sometime in May.

I’d escape across the sea,
If you would come with me to Montreal.
I would run away
If I thought it possible at all.

Let’s take a boat from Norway
Sail north across the Barents Sea.
We’ll spend some time in Anderma
And take a train across Russia.

I would gather sweat and dust,
If that is what I must do to get away.
I wouldn’t care of others views,
Lets wear out all our shoes in vain.

Let’s drink tea in China,
Let’s drink coffee by the Arabian Sea,
Let’s go walking in the water
But only up to our knees.

So I’m sitting in my room,
Pencil in my hand,
Drawing lines on the wall,
On my map of the world.
I couldn’t be in Rio by tomorrow
Even though its an inch from my nose.

Looks like it’s Brighton or Moorgate for us.
Call in sick on tuesday.
I’d be happy walking on the beach alone,
You’ve got money, could go anywhere at all.

I would sail across the sea
If you would come with me to Montreal.
I would run away if I thought it possible at all.

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i love leonard cohen

What’s in that box? What’s hiding in here?
Pictures from Bedford, taken half a blue moon ago.
My we were young then, all mix-tapes and alcopops,
Bum bags, shell suits and meatloaf cds.

Did I really dress like that and dance to that tune?
Then stumble home drunk by the light of the moon.
Guess times they change and the change times they guess,
And nonsense can still be a welcome relief.

My Weezer cd’s well they hardly get played,
My obsession with Ani Difranco has faded,
You might ask is anything sacred these days,
And I’d probably tell you that I love Leonard Cohen.

A snail carries with him some slime and a shell,
I have ten boxes plus cartons as well
As these books, bags and a case
My grandfather used in the war.

Did I really write those words
And did she write back?
Stray hands in Row G all through that James Bond film.
Nonsense it still has a welcoming ring,
And heroes they never don’t come easy.

Chorus

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la gare d’austerlitz

my words fall flat and clumsy,
my pen scratches the page.

school-boy rhymes collide with stunted haikus,
scattered amongst extinct to-do lists,
and piled up under a burden of exile, expectation and exhaustion.

on four hours sleep, in le gare d’austerlitz,
i let down my guard and fall in love.

the lady with red trousers and a violin sits down next to me
unaware that we are married and expecting a son called claude.
we exchange smiles and i put hers in my pocket as she gets on the train.

at the toilet i urinate next to a boy with a machine gun.
somewhere between platforms 18 and 10, after passing
a hairy man scraping chewing gum from the concourse,
i fall in love with paris too for good measure and remember
that i need to buy some nail-clippers when i get to orleans.

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’till dawn

picking my way
back through the rain
grey skies today
but its fine

here in my mind
play like a child
leaves underfoot
autumn could

turn out to be
musically mine
spring in my step
I stayed up

‘till dawn again
drinking with friends
moments you
feel so alive

my road has been
better believe
better pretend
consigned to

some place before
memory me
wind in my hair
thoughts of your

smile in my dreams
patch up the past
love and cheap booze
I stayed up

‘till dawn again
drinking with friends
moments you
feel so alive

dance in the street
break out the flag
singing aloud
foreign eye

textures and words
things that we heard
my pen it feels
momentum

sat on a train
palette of greens
strangers with shoes
I stayed up

‘till dawn again
drinking with friends
moments you
feel so alive

and I sat there
watching her sleep
how do you dream?
when will you

wake? I must say
one of a kind
parallel lines
meet at the

vanishing point
not what I mean
I meant to say…
I stayed up

‘till dawn again
drinking with friends
moments you
feel so alive