Thus I Wrote

I was blind
It didn’t enter my mind
She was just beautiful to me
I was meritocratic
I was democratic
She was just beautiful to me

Come to me
Who strive to see
You are beautiful to me
I am blind
If you are kind
You are beautiful to me

Come to me
Who strive to be
You are beautiful to me
Your sweat and tears
Your laughter and fears
You are beautiful to me

Let’s go to sleep
I was appealing
Oh, please tell me
What you’re feeling

(It was the aftermath
In the moonlight
And my eyes were heavy
After our loving night)

Are you happy
With how we are?
Yes, of course darling
Together we’ve come far

Tell me your dreams
What do you believe?
What do you want?
And hope to receive

Uh…What…?
It’s late & this is deep
Let’s just agree…
To cuddle and to sleep

But I’m afraid…
And it’s lonely if I hide
I need your love
To fill the emptiness inside

Uh…Did I dream?
Did you want some tea?
I’ve been working so hard
And I’m so sleepy…you see?

I drifted off to sleep
So I couldn’t see her
As she turned over quietly
And wiped away her tear

I cannot cross the big divide
That stretches between our souls
I can’t get your attention
With all the distractions and different roles
This is my life, and I feel disconnected
No one is affected
By the statues I’ve erected
I’m getting frustrated & angry enough to swear

It’s not about love and it’s not about sex
(But I won’t say no if they come along)
I leave this island and sail on the sea
To give something good that lets me belong
I work hard to create something of value
But everything I do
I find there’s a queue
I’m getting frustrated & angry enough to swear

I’m singing on stage and I’m working hard
The song is one they can sing along
I get to the chorus and hope for release
But we don’t connect and it goes all wrong
They sound out of sync and sound out of tune
My words are strewn
And howled at the moon
I’m getting frustrated & angry enough to swear

The sands are falling and it gets less easy
The world it demands something new
The pressure is mounting and I feel queasy
I’m listening but I don’t know what to do
From the everyday experience that the world views
It will sift & choose
Who will win &  lose
I’m getting frustrated & angry enough to swear

“Meaningless, Meaningless…All is Meaningless”.

Generations come, and generations go
We ask why, but we do not know
What has been, will again be done
For there is nothing, new under the sun

Like chasing the wind, how hard we run
But still there’s nothing, gained under the sun
The rich and the poor, the foolish and the wise
Live but their day, and then each dies

The earth it turns, and the seasons bring
A time for everyone, and a time for everything
To the wise a pattern, awaits to be found
Beneath the changing waves, and the changing ground

A live dog is better, than a regal dead lion
Enjoy life and grow talents, that you can rely on
For while there’s life, there’s hope in your heart
Once dead you’ll never, ever again play a part

Do not be diverted, do not be deceived
Do not be indifferent, to the gift you’ve received
Do not be afraid & waste, your day to burn bright
But burn all the brighter, because you know the night

Generations come & go, but the earth remains
The sun also rises, & falls to rise again

“Love, Love…All is Love.”

Let us go then you and I
With the evening spread out against the sky
Let us go, through the certain half deserted streets
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster shells
Oh do not ask “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo

There will be time, there will be time
Beyond the fog that slides along the street
To prepare a face for the faces that we meet
Time for you and time for me
Before the taking of toast and tea
For a hundred indecisions
For a hundred visions and revisions

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo

Time to wonder:”Do I dare?” and “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair
Do I dare, disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Because I have known them already, known them all
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
Heard their voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas

Would it have been worth it, after all
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me
Would it have been worth while?
To have bitten off the matter with a smile
To say: ” I am Lazarus, come from the dead”
If one, settling a pillow by her head
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all,
That is not it at all.”

I grow old…I grow old
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us and we drown.

I left you sleeping
In the Chelsea Hotel
“A change is gonna come”
I heard the wind tell

I sailed a dark ocean
On a rising swell
To finish my quest
Before the wind fell

I fought for treasure
To win love & respect
But it damaged my heart
More than you expect

The wind it changed
And I was cast aside
We lost each other
As our love died

Generations come and go
But the earth still remains
The sun also rises
And falls to rise again

I remember the cracks
You felt out of control
You felt lonely and hurt
And you blamed my role

So did I not love you?
Enough to stop your fear grow?
Did I let the emptiness
Creep into your soul?

Or was there a seed sown
In your lonely childhood?
That so choked your heart
And so froze your blood?

But by what strange alchemy
Can we so change our state?
From such bright love
To such anger and hate?

So as we drew our lines
And we fought to stalemate
Our union became a patient
That we dissected on a plate

But still, it felt a shock
Like a punch to the heart
I thought we could mend
But you said we must part

Later that night
I remember it well
You came to my room
In the St James Hotel

And so began my quest
To make you mine
With flowers and jewels
With laughter and wine

We were sky and earth
We were wind and sea
But we fitted each other
Like a lock and key

I gave you protection
I gave you children and a home
And enough love to fill
The space in your soul

So we agreed to join
As we surfed our wave
And we both felt valued
For the love we both gave

I hear you shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die
I just want to know Johnny
Why did you do it, why?

Was it your broken heart?
Was it the drugs and alcohol?
Was it writer’s block?
That caused so big a fall

I wear my sackcloth
And lash myself to atone
I am holier than thou
Did you feel my first stone

There’s an empty space
In the middle of my soul
That I fill by finding
A superior punitive role

Johnny, you make me forget
All the sins in my life
By helping me stand tall
On the pillar of your strife

Red Riding Hood
You are so good
I’m the big bad wolf
Baying for your blood

The world today
Does not understand
That political correctness
Has got out of hand

Red Riding Hood
Drink sweet from your cup
Sweeten your flavour
For when I eat you all up

I have to be careful
And watch what I say
Red Riding Hood is changing
The world to her way

Oh Red Riding Hood
Surely you can understand
That a world without the wolf
Would be boring and bland