Cube 1: Top, bottom, left, right, front, back

Grandad paid for the tenancy
Mum and dad, landlord and landlady
Dad’s second job, delivering to the road-work navvies
I changed schools, from Thurlestone to Birdsedge

From daily tears to daily joy
But no more rides on the steam shunting engine
Our very own full-size football field
With a lamp-post for a nighttime kick-about

Mum and dad, landlord and landlady
Raiding gardens, scrumping strawberries and peas
Playing tin-can-squash with the big boys
But no more rides on the steam shunting engine

Dad’s second job, delivering to the road-work navvies
Braziers, for frying bacon and egg breakfasts
As the kerbstones were unloaded by hand
Our very own full-size football field

I changed schools, from Thurlestone to Birdsedge
Playing tin-can-squash with the big boys
Braziers, for frying bacon and egg breakfasts
With a lamp-post for a nighttime kick-about

Grandad paid for the tenancy
Raiding gardens, scrumping strawberries and peas
As the kerbstones were unloaded by hand
From daily tears to daily joy

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Cube 1: Back, top, bottom, left, right, front

No signal, no email
No phone, no text
Committal and commitment
For all of the coming days

No signal, no email
Intimidation as her very way of being
Ego as the means of survival
A dog eat dog kind of life

For all of the coming days
Breaking down the inner policeman
Growing strong and growing proud
Learning, learning; learning all the while

No phone, no text
No shortage of confident young people
Intimidation as her very way of being
Breaking down the inner policeman

Congratulations on your performance
Committal and commitment
Ego as the means of survival
Growing strong and growing proud

A dog eat dog kind of life
No shortage of confident young people
Congratulations on your performance
Learning, learning; learning all the while

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Cube 1: Front, back, top, bottom, left, right

Jigsaw-puzzle on the table
Macaroni cheese for dinner
Coffee in the World Peace Cafe
Guided meditation in the Bow Room

Photographs in the walled garden
Trip out to Millington village
Ploughed fields; partridges, or were they pheasants
Treetops and steam topped power stations

Macaroni cheese for dinner
Across the road to Kilnwick Percy Spa
Trip out to Millington village
Single bedded bedroom, bathroom shared with six

Guided meditation in the Bow Room
Chanted prayers play on compact disks
Treetops and steam topped power stations
Buddhism becoming Meditationism

Jigsaw puzzle on the table
Across the road to Kilnwick Percy Spa
Photographs in the walled garden
Chanted prayers play on compact disks

Coffee in the World Peace Cafe
Single bedded bedroom, bathroom shared with six
Ploughed fields; partridges, or were they pheasants
Buddhism becoming Meditationism

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Meditation

If I had ever been to Tibet
I would be in Tibet right now
If I ever sat by the Japanese monk
I would sit by the Japanese monk right now
If I had ever been with the Buddha
I would be with the Buddha right now
If I ever reached enlightenment
I would be in enlightenment right now

Instead I am with the Dutch artist Volbeda
In his studio by the beach in Uist
Instead I am with Brother Daniel
At Vespers in Buckfast Abbey
Instead I am in the public-house in Dublin
With the guy who was good for society
Instead I am with my darling one
On a beautiful birthday vacation

If I, instead
Just bathed in the meditation
Listened to the Om
Chanted it, as my silent mantra
Waited, mindful
That the bells would ring
If I did all of that
Would I have been anywhere less at all

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I Did It Because

This is the role I play
And I cannot remake it
Those are the words I say
And I do not, cannot, fake it

Even with the cake
Left out in the rain
I have to move on
I must forsake it

The presence is no longer
There to give me pain
There is a light, a light
And I know that I can make it

No more the sad romance
Waiting to dictate it
No more nostalgic thoughts
No more to placate it

But don’t you forget
Those days running on the sand
Don’t you go forget
Rejoice, remember, o yes, how grand

To skip, and to laugh
And to make love upon this land
To skip, to laugh, and to dance
To make love upon this land

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