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Sunday 11 February 2024

The ballad of coming good

Jack, for that was his name

Jack rearranged his life

He was not a poet, nor a singer

Or a storyteller

No, writing words 

Was not his road to fame


Nor was he a happy Jack

Or nimble or quick

Or that famous stone rolling

He was no moss gathering

Jumping jack flash

With cracked open champagne

Rolling down the lane


His moulded words

Never turned the same

He unfolded herds

Of herringbone

To sail alone

For lonesome was his game


One day he met a miner

Many years ago

He wrote

That he met a sailor

On a Eastern European boat


One day, he said he’d never forget

In the mills of steel

He feels for the cotton workers

With the silent bobbin reels


Jack, for that was his name

Jack rearranged his life

He was not a poet

Nor a singer

Or a storyteller

No, writing words 

Was not his road to fame


Nor was he a dapper Jack

Or the ripper by another name

Or that slipper Jack; from the yard

Who caught the robbers of the train


He called the agent, the publisher

He called the girl from Maine

He sold the rights on dark deep nights

But never wrote again


One day he met a tailor

A cutter of the cloth for all of those who reign

Another day he met the blacksmith

And the cobbler who shod the shoes to remain


One day, he said he’d never forget

The echoes of the wheels which he feels

For the farm workers, the country folk

Who sing of empty harvest fields


Jack, for that is his name

And Jack has rearranged his life

He is now a poet, he is a singer

And a storyteller too

Yes, writing words

Are now his road to fame

Believe you me, it is true



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