The Upside Down Goldfish in a Bowl’s Song

Freda came home and found her goldfish swimming upside down in its bowl. She panicked and picked up the bowl and rushed to the vets with it. The vet examined the fish through a large magnifying glass and concluded that nothing could or should be done. Freda took her fish home and placed the bowl back in its usual place. Throughout this ordeal the goldfish sings this song (to the tune of “I had a little nut tree”):

(Chorus)
World’s walls are made of clear glass
Outer space is such a scream
Watch it as it floats past
Like living in a dream

There’s gravel for my ceiling
The floor is made of air
This is my natural being
It’s the same everywhere
Green weeds hang from the skyline
Food floats up from the floor
It rises to my eyeline
And eating’s such a chore

(Chorus)

Just watch that weird space being
He lives out there in hell
Stuck onto his ceiling
And swinging like a bell
He’s made the floor a quiver
With his flapping around
What sometimes makes me shiver
Are the ripples on the ground

(Chorus)

World’s caught up by this being
As it flies through the doors
Rolling and a reeling
Chaos churns up the floors
And trees grow from hell’s skyline
Space floors are fluffy clouds
Torment flies by the eyeline
Beings spin round in crowds

Chorus
World’s walls are made of clear glass
Outer space is so inane
Chaotic as it whirls past
It’s driving me insane

Oh look at these space beings
Two now out there in hell
stuck onto their ceiling
One cannot be too well
His eye’s gone big and shiny
It gloats below the floor
Bright lights start to blind me
And I can take no more

Chorus
World’s walls are made of clear glass
Outer space now makes me scream
I’m watched as it floats past
It is an eerie scene

World’s grabbed now by a being
And flies around once more
Spinning and careening
Violent froths the floor
Lampposts are on hell’s skyline
Hell’s floor is a blue void
More torment’s at the eyeline
This could get me annoyed

Chorus
World’s walls are made of clear glass
They see through glass darkly
Watch them as they float past
I see them quite starkly

World’s put down by this being
And settles down once more
With gravel for a ceiling
Floor is flat as before
Green weeds hang from the skyline
Food floats up from the floor
It rises to my eyeline
And eating’s such a chore

Chorus
World’s walls are made of clear glass
Outer space is now serene
Watch it as it floats past
Like living in a dream

Moonlight On the Waters

*In honor of tonight’s Black Moon.*

Soft waters here lapped to and fro
They barely made a sound
The moonlight cast a gentle glow
As wavelets twirled around

Moon shadows cast an eerie shade
Across the lowland stream
That passed beyond the woodland glade
Where nothing there might gleam

The waters lapped along all dark
The blackness was complete
In dark alone all fear is stark
In soft light things seem sweet

But light may show what may lurk near
Reveal some awesome dread
That leads on to the rim of fear
And much there ends up dead

The stream came out into a field
The moon shone bright once more
Yet though it seemed things were revealed
The stream came to the shore

Its waters went into the sea
The moon shone there on high
The stream it had not ceased to be
For waters do not die

Moonlight was seen where it has shone
Reflecting its soft glow
It passes by and soon is gone
All in its time must go

Storm waters raged here to and fro
Their waves they made much sound
The new moon casts its softest glow
With oceans all around

IF…

If you can tell big porkies and keep a straight face
If you can be two faced and seem to have good grace
If you can wangle a big house and not get caught
If you can seem to be quite fair when you’ve been bought
If you can be at ease amid much torrid sleaze
And always find some way to do just as you please
And as you do it see all blame is never yours
And as you leave your friends and brothers with your chores
And as you take the glory that belongs to them
You will by then arrive at what you have become
You will by then be – a politician – my son

Love Lies

There are two types of composition it seems. Some are crafted and worked on for years and never seem to be quite right. Others seem to write themselves in a trice and need no subsequent work. This one is still not quite right and will never be.  I may work on it some more one day but perhaps 32 years of tinkering is enough!

Loves Lies

Is Love in life a load of lies 
That dims the wits and scales the eyes
The way you once confused my so
Made it not clear to tell or know
Is Love itself a thing at all
To search for wonder shout and call
Or is but a willow wisp
We dream of yet does not exist
And though I say that I Love you
And though you say it to me too
Whilst each may hold the other dear
Great Loves can have no need to fear
When we can see no means to ends
It’s then that we can be good friends

New Hope

In deep shade ‘neath a gnarled old oak
There’s nothing can grow there
Like where you hanged the last of hope
And dwelled in deep despair

And crying and lamenting were
The only thing you knew
Until you turned yourself away
And sought for something new

You wandered into sunlit glades
And thought you caught a sight
You did not then return to shades
So dwell now in a light

The light that shines without, within
A new life can create
When you have found the will to win
Your pain it will abate

The light you have is called “new hope”
The darkness was despair
It held you like old hempen ropes
That vanished in clean air

New hopes are like a springtime leaf
That unfurls on warm days
Then time abates a forlorn grief
And new hopes shine their rays

This ballad was not composed in the conventional sense. It came to me complete and I wrote it down as fast as I could write. It is as if a Muse gave it to me.