The Ocean

The ocean's deep and wide my son
The ocean's deep and wide
And you have far to go my son
to reach the other side
To reach the other side my son
with only stars to guide
The ocean's deep and wide my son
with only stars to guide

The ocean's wild and free my son
the ocean's wild and free
and all you have is you my son
to guard you on this sea
To guard you on this sea my son
the strength must come from thee
The ocean's wild and free my son
the strength must come from thee

The ocean is your life my son
the ocean is your life
But life alone is lonely son
and solitude's a knife
And solitude's a knife my son
so find yourself a wife
The ocean is your life my son
so find yourself a wife

A loving wife's a rock my son
a loving wife's a rock
A bulwark 'gainst the tides my son
a ward against all shock
A ward against all shock my son
that in your heart you'll lock
A loving wife's a rock my son
that in your heart you'll lock

Evergreen

When Autumn comes the leaves will fall
then Winter will complete the scene
And all will freeze 'neath season's shawl
except for me the Evergreen

Winter comes

Winter comes
the high ground is covered with snow
Winter comes
everything moves so slow
Winter comes
once tall trees bend and creak in the cold
Winter comes
and changes the young to old

Coriolis

According to the greatest minds
when looking down the drain one finds
that water swirls this way or that
depending on just where you're sat
If the equator northward lies
then water swirls around clockwise
but if the opposite is true
then the equator's south of you

But when I asked these minds so great
for explanation of this trait
they could not quote a single source
or scientist who could endorse
this view and so I'm forced to think
that this idea just comes from drink
and so I now get to the nub...
don't ask these questions in the pub

The King

Bow down before me all you men
and leave the tribute that you bring
you'll never feel freedom again
o'er all you men I am the king

Bow down you nations of this world
bow down and render everything
forget the lords whose flags are furled
o'er all your lands I am the king

Bow down you masters of the air
you'll ask before you take to wing
and hope that I will hear your prayer
o'er all the skies I am the king

Bow down you sailors on the sea
you're tied to me by silver string
where'er you land there will I be
o'er all the seas I am the king

Bow down, Bow down, Bow down I say
while from this world my due I'll wring
and deep asleep I hope I'll stay
o'er all these dreams I am the king

Kite

Hopes and wishes like a paper kite
soar and swoop for your delight
but often are as weak and frail
as that paper kite in a summer gale
So hold on tight to your wishes' string
if you want to achieve anything
and see your kite come safely through
to where hopes and wishes all come true

Four winds

Warm Notus brought the smell of foreign lands
that fired your wanderlust and made you stray
Unlucky Eurus took you from my hands
and left me brokenhearted on that day

Chill Boreas then turned my heart to stone
as stone I stand and gaze across the sea
until that day when from the great unknown
sweet Zephyrus will blow you back to me



*In ancient greek mythology Notus is the south wind, Eurus is the east wind, Boreas is the north wind and Zephyrus is the west wind.

Spring is coming

Spring is coming
A change so small it hardly seems
that anything has changed at all
but warmth sneaks in to icy dreams
and breaks them free of Winter's thrall
The skies are limned with hazy beams
and rain not snow from clouds will fall
as life returns to frozen streams
beneath the season's snowy shawl

Spring is coming
and faster now and faster still
the snow is melting day by day
and water rushes down each hill
to fill the streams and run away
and streams join streams and streams until
a river runs and people say
"Today's the day that Winter's will
was broke and Spring is on its way"

Spring is coming
The sun climbs in the sky and shines
down where for months no light has shone
as Spring confirms with many signs
that seasons change and Winter's gone
Bright blooms in thousands of designs
come forth for bees to light upon
while hibernation's snug confines
release all sleepers to the sun

Spring is coming
The last steps of this great design
returning life to every clump
The season's heart must beat in time
a billion tons of sap to pump
And powered only by sunshine
a single great systolic thump
resounds through every stem and vine
and new life springs from last year's stump


Summer

Autumn

Winter

Rest

Lay Down Your Sweet and Weary Head
my love, go to your final rest
laid gentle in that earthen bed
with flowers crushed upon your breast
Though many things remained unsaid
your love so true and oft expressed
will see me through till I am dead
and joined with you in heaven bless'd

Walk Away

I love you dear with all my heart
yet cannot my true love display
as you are to another sworn
so I must turn and walk away

You love me too and tell me so
a sister till my dying day
a love that breaks my heart in two
so I must turn and walk away

Some day I'll find someone to love
whose passion turns my night to day
but now I'm blinded by your light
so I must turn and walk away

and as I walk part of me dies
The world is dark to my poor eyes
but I can see stars in the skies...

It's Winter now

It's Winter now
The sickly sun is slow to rise
and then bare overtops my head
Though at its height in leaden skies
the heat that's giv'n is quickly shed
and any light it brings to eyes
from where all hope of spring has fled
is lost, as quickly daylight dies
and sun goes early to its bed.

It's winter now
The snow is deep on field and fen
the land is iron hard and cold
Fell creatures stalk the lands of men
like those from ancient stories told
And autumn's bounty laid down then
by prudent folk in hidden hold
grows less and less in lair and den
and rich men learn they can't eat gold

It's winter now
As hard it was, it's harder now
and young and old are first to go
The babes just fade and old allow
themselves one last walk in the snow
The few survivors wonder how
they will get by when all they know
is gone and darkness does endow
the frozen night with fears that grow

It's winter now
It's winter now and silence reigns
Nobody lived to tell this tale
The people died, all that remains
is fallen stone and broken rail
But what was lost another gains
as wolves run fat in this lost vale
and never roam the frozen plains
so other villages prevail

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Zombie

The holidays are over now
the tourists left, the bars all closed
The tents and caravans are gone
the pitches all bare and exposed.
Yet in the distance something moves
and I am gripped with mortal fright
something is lurching up the path
and I'm the last human on site.
A clumsy gait, a vacant stare
though little human thought remains
dead yet undead and coming near
a zombie come to eat my brains.

Actually it's a German party animal with a hangover
who has missed the last bus.

Watching

I like to watch the people
come to town to do their shopping
all the trying and the buying
all the starting and the stopping
and I wonder where they're going
and just who they will be meeting
as they're milling round like sheep and
I am deafened by their bleating.

Then I wonder does it matter
does it really make a difference
all the motion and the chatter
is it all just interference
just a random side effect of
commerce powering our nation
like the humming in the background
coming from the power station.

But the scientists have told us
that the act of observation
affects changes in the target
that are in direct relation
to the effort that's expended
by the watcher in the shadows
so the people in the high street
are affected by the echoes
of me watching through the window
and I wonder if they realise
that they're altered by me looking
as I'm changed a bit by their eyes
and my head hurts from this thinking
so I think that I will stop now
and then concentrate on drinking
before my coffee gets too cold.