Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Glasgow Ned's Guide To 20th Century Poets

Andrew Motion?
He's loco

Philip Larkin?
N’aubade

Sylvia Plath?
A pure gas, man

Seamus Heaney?
A jist don’t dig him

Jackie Kay?
No as black as she’s paintit

Edwin Morgan?
Whit planet is he oan?

Kathleen Jamie?
Wild!

Tom Gunn?
Am wi Goebbels

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Songs That Didn't Quite Make The Album (I Wonder Why?)

Sympathy For The Grocer

See Marjorie Play

Stuck Inside of Mobile With Some Cheese and Onion Crisps

Big Yellow Transit

Fairytale of East Cheam

Happiness Is A Warm Bath

...you no doubt have your own...

Tuesday, 22 April 2008

small thoughts on a sunny day











spirits sometimes refuse to soar, but may be prepared to gently float

over time, the knife and fork have reached an accommodation

leaves do fall, but also often stumble, stutter or skitter along

good (and bad) things come along in all sorts of numbers, and sometimes not at all

books gather that dust may be approaching, but remain sanguine

the best thing is often just to think of the best thing

not sleeping a wink – surely that’s unlikely?

Monday, 31 March 2008

many things start this way

many things start this way
with ideas, plans etc
everything seems possible
many hurdles, ditches, cul-de-sacs
remain unseen
perhaps happily
if you were to write it all down
it might seem fantastical
things you did, and others,
those strange coming togethers
now seem like so much serendipity
you wonder how anything
involving hope, love or mystery
ever happened

Sunday, 30 March 2008

and then the rain stopped

you emerge onto an endless field

happiness stretches behind you like a blue wave

you look ahead and see it in the distance

your shoes are heavy, your coat warm

memories of yesterday are beginning to come back

the window, the street outside, the rain

there was just you, the radio

the rain, and the street outside

it might have been that way for hours

you, the radio, the street outside, the rain

(might have been)

a word was reverberating in your head

a word you couldn’t grasp

it was something about categories of things

it may have been taxonomy, maybe not

you think it was to do with butterflies,

stamps or other collectible things,

possibly

then

the one o’clock pips went on the radio

you remember saying to yourself

must go for a walk tomorrow

and then the rain stopped

the people in sweden

what is it?

that sound, that thing

is it

something far away

water falling onto stones

voices whispering

is it something you don’t recognise

a scene from a film you’ve forgotten

a book you read somewhere, sometime

call people you know and ask them what it is

write to everyone in Sweden if that will help

perhaps nothing will

sometimes even the people in Sweden can’t help

paul might indicate a line of enquiry

although then again…

sadness might follow any action that you consider prudent

the specifics of love may escape you

the lure of the past may pull you under

synchronicity is not guaranteed, indeed may be unwelcome

the fruits of a life spent walking, talking and being you

may not lead to whatever conclusion you may have been thinking of

however, rule nothing in or out

it may all work out in the end

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Silly Second Lines

These don't fit any known tune, they merely rhyme!

1
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen
I wish I hadn't bothered being the Queen

2
It ain't necessarily so
That there's a hereafter, after we go

3
In the beginning was the word
Then sometime later, Douglas Hurd

4
In Christ there is no East or West
Nor mention of a thermal vest