Ride on, ride on

For every man
a motorcycle's calling
To take a ride
along the king's highway
Through twists and turns
Down every wooded valley
Ride on, ride on
there's miles to do this day

And every mile
you ride on your great journey's
another mile
away from hearth and home
But every town
and village where you wander
will take you in
and treat you as their own

So when you leave
leave nothing bad behind you
Just memories
of days and things done well
That way you'll know
a welcome will await you
should ever you
return again to dwell

Then when at last
you've ridden every pathway
from north to south
and sea to shining sea
You happy man
will find that well known turning
that brings you home
to where you want to be

One perfect day

Wake up refreshed and early in a comfortable bed
A long relaxing shower to wash the sleep out of my head
Barefoot to the kitchen for black coffee and fresh bread
and look out of the window at the morning.

To see the cherry blossom blowing gently in the breeze
To smell the warm spring garden with not one hayfever sneeze
To hear the morning concert from the birds perched in the trees
and see the perfect day the world is forming.

Then later to the village to my favourite lunchtime spot
A muffin or a pastry and a latte with a shot
Then sit down for a gossip with the best friends that I've got
While the midday sun this perfect day is warming.

After we have set the world and all it's wrongs to right
We spend the afternoon in watching cricketers in white
play our side against their side till they run out of daylight
Then all back to the pub where pints are drawing

When all of this is over and I've gone back home to bed
Alone or with sweet company to fill the night ahead
It will have been one perfect day by which my soul was fed
I'm hoping for the same when next comes morning

One Rider

When all the separate lands unite
and man at last with man will dwell
Conquest will disappear from sight
become a story to retell

When swords are beaten into ploughs
and spears reforged as reaping hooks
When armour's hung on oaken boughs
War will retire to history books.

When working folk at day's end, will
all gather round a groaning board
and take their time to eat their fill
then Famine falls before this hoard

But

One rider still will hold the field
The last of four who once rode out
A ghastly scythe is his to wield
and in his eye you'll see no doubt
For every man that once drew breath
must meet him face to face one day
and more certain than taxes, Death
will with one stroke all debts defray

Tears in rain

I listened to the thunder
and how it changed the world
The old flag I walked under
that lies forever furled

I search for hope in vain

The safe place that I came from
New frontiers and pain
Memories of before the bomb
my mind struggles to retain
All these things are lost

lost like tears in rain




A poem out of it's time I know, but I wasn't writing in the sixties.

"Tears in rain" from the death soliloquy in Blade Runner

You gotta try

A man with a life
as empty as a pocket
As likely to succeed
as a stick without a rocket
Sets his heart on the stars
like a man that's really got it
and then he fails, fails, fails

But is he wrong to try
to light the blue touchpaper
To leave where he is
and be the great escaper
To change his world
and be a history shaper
Or should he stay, stay, stay

Well if we learn a single
thing from evolution
It's that playing safe
never brings the revolution
And a cunning plan
needs actual execution
So if you want to fly, fly, fly

You gotta try.

I Hope

I hope you find a place to stay
A shelter from the storms outside
Somewhere that's safe, your head to lay
with all the things home should provide

I hope you find a job to do
that keeps you busy through the day
That brings fulfilment, money too
Enough for you to pay your way

I hope you find an interest
Something to keep your mind alive
Something at which you can be best
your flagging spirit to revive

I hope you find yourself some friends
a little pot of social glue
To eat with as the sun descends
To stand by, as they'll stand by you

I hope you find that other soul
The one that fits you like a glove
The one that makes your two halves whole
The one that you were made to love

I hope you find these precious things
So far I've found them all bar one
But who knows what tomorrow brings
and look, a new day has begun

Table for One

I chose this solitary life
One plate one cup one fork one knife
With time and space to sit and think
and follow where my dreams have flown

My family all live apart
but they are closer in my heart
I'll visit them then ride away
to once more spend time on my own

One table and a single chair
with no-one opposite to share
or roll their eyes over the choice
of music playing on my phone

Only the sad people are sad
My single status make me glad
Most un-dependant have I grown
But never lonely, just alone.

The best you can

If you would prove yourself a man
then this should be your earthly lot
To always do the best you can
until the day that you cannot
Then when you pass this mortal span
your lessons will not be forgot
as others follow on your plan
and do their best with all they've got

Kneeling by the Camp Fire

It was late last night
and you were all sleeping
The camp site was silent
and alone I was keeping
a watch by the moon
and the stars that came creeping
past all my defences
and started me weeping

I wept for my children
and for all those I knew
I wept for the strangers
and the ones passing through
I wept for the living
and for the dead too
Then I wept for me
and I wept for you

I was very surprised
to find myself kneeling
A private obeisance
to this unknown feeling
And while overhead
the old stars were wheeling
down here by the camp fire
my spirit was healing

I'm not what you'd call a spiritual person
To religious practice I have an aversion
But Faith is a completely different thing
and I think you should go with what makes your heart sing.

(even if that is physics)

Sad

How sad when an old friend dies
How red are my tear filled eyes
How grey are the winter skies

A promise to my children

I promise I will hold you when you cry
Turn around and scold you when you lie
Be around to praise you when you fly
and love you
till all the seas run dry

Apologies to Adelle

Today
I saw
it's been a calendar year
Since the last time
when I said
while influenced by beer

That this year I would try harder
to keep away from the larder
and be generally
better
to all the ones that I love
To be a setter
of limits
I'll not go above

But

Two thousand and sixteen is here
a better me didn't appear

So I'm sorry for failing
every promise I made
For not achieving my target
or making the grade.

but that busted promise is gone now
time to make another vow

and for this year
I'll make
an easier wish
just to make the
most of
all I find in my dish

Hello,
it's me
It's the first of January in the year twenty sixteen

The Drabs Descent

No silver spoon when she was born
No nursery, no christening dress
The clothes her sisters wore before
came down, her skinny frame to bless
And celebrations were there none
they served no economic need
compared to work that must be done
for one more hungry mouth to feed.

Things got no better as she grew
from unplanned babe to unloved lass
Learning her lessons hard in lieu
of any moments spent in class
Then innocence she traded for
the first affection she was shown
Though when she looked for something more
she found out that wild bird had flown.

So forced by circumstance to wed
her mother found a sanguine buyer
to take her to his marriage bed
regardless of her heart's desire
Where she became a bartered wife
as bought and sold as any whore
and so re-lived her mother's life
and those of those who went before.

Whose lives were taken slice by slice
and day by unforgiving day
The cost of living being a price
that they were ill equipped to pay
until the end of each hard fight
when shades were drawn and all could see
the thing the doctor couldn't write
that they were killed by poverty.

The lessons we should learn from this
from every wasted human life
are Ignorance is never bliss
and Poverty cuts like a knife