Hold Her Tight

Midsummer motorbikes
Leather and lace
Chasing the pace
Gliding with grace
Race, after race, after race
Gearbox grinds
Castrol GTX
Accept nothing less
Speed to excess
In your leather gear

And your carbon head-dress
Donnington to Daytona
Meet the world's best
Taking the test
Over the crest
Bury the rest
James dean
Barry sheen
Silver screen
Racing machine
Living the dream
Ride on Easy Rider
Remember Harley Davison days
Long hot rides
Long hot lays
The devil blindfolds those who play
Early start
Kerb-cracking summer sunrise
Engines overheating
Fear of missing the meeting
Why do you deserve mistreating
I love my girl
I treat her right
She holds me tight
A pillion passenger’s pure delight
Wind-warm day

Sexy steamy night
Rock and roll
Hells angel's caress
Honda Gold Wing riders overdress
First place is a short lived success
He passed the rest

With the yellow flag flying
The Jagger of a rolling stone
Inside the Sunday supplement
Sixty years of engaging entertainment
More than once

Against the wall with Marianne
Just like sussy pussy

Stood proud outside the winner's Caravan
Dawn to dusk
Bitches and biking
The circus stalls
The chequered flag falls
Another year of mustard memories
Astride the night
Revelations in sight
Roaring and scoring
Sensual summer sojourn
Easy as the aura adorned

Two hundred miles an hour
Re-live the heroes
Beneath the wires and the crows
Faster than the speed-cam carrier
Once more then you'll marry her
Into the garage, in the half-light
It's an awful long time since midnight
You hug and you hold yourself tight
If you pinch you just might
Believe it, you've been, you've seen

You've gone and got insight

 

Sputnik

The Navigation Arms
Let loose your senses
Release your defences, of navigation
Nicotine amber and creamy stout
Blackcurrant, cider, scallywags about
Mingling in with the inn crowd
Sing along, now sing along for Tom Dowd
Unsteadily stepping on the pebble shore
Pause, for a wee under the balustrade
Heads already beginning to thicken
Slowly breathing

Breathing completely clean, seaside air
In the distance, listen

The screams of delight
Shivering and shaken

Shaken out of the moonlight
Beach night, moonlight

Starlight, summer site
Listen to the screams

The screams of delight
Branscombe Beer, Plymouth Gin

Sip the gin and tonic
Only human, this is no Sputnik, Brojnic
Back in this room, been here before
Eiderdown, radio, worn out floor
No one rings tonight, no one ever does
Words arise from below
Conversing, wandering, escaping
Philandering along the promenades
Planning permissions

Applied for
To turn it into flats
The locals complain
Out loud, but they have, have they
They have never stayed here
Never crossed the threshold
Into this ancient decaying

Dilapidated space
Some say they’re business folk that run it
In it for what they can get out
But In fact that’s why I stay here
Not to be distracted

But to feel the man, feel the man
It’s closing time at the Navigation
To close this page of history
Close this page so slowly
Navigation; you are

You are, localised folklore

 

Dust To Dust

Sand dunes
You were on my mind
Seeing straight through
The soles of my shoes
Sand dunes
You were on my mind
Another Quay
Another, other time
Seeing beyond youth’s truth
The midlife, in life, so say sayer-sooth
Another, another Quay
Journeys, journey’s lost in time
A glimpse behind the shoulder
Silk scarf swirling in the breeze
Laughter passing by there
Friends with all she meets
Perhaps she will look this way
Maybe

Maybe she just might

Sand dunes
You were on my mind
Sand dunes
Journey's lost in time
Way down there, by the waltzer
Cheesecloth, crumbs of cheesecake
Taffeta, shiny glowing toffee apples
Joy, unadorned and candy-floss
Perhaps she will look this way
Maybe

Maybe she just might
Sand dunes
Forgotten tunes
Remaindered runes
Stillness soon
Sand dunes
You were on my mind
Sand dunes
Journey’s lost in time

 

Rivers Deep

Wistful, whistle, walking at the wave’s edge
Caressing, choral

Through the fields of corn
Majestic, meditation

Moving by the mountainside
Suggestive, song

In the silent sensuous sultry summer
Angelic, orchestral

Amongst evangelical ethereal skies
Mantra, chant

Immortalise Gregorian pastures
Bass wind, bassoon

Winding its way through wind and wind
Strum, vibrate, resonance

In season and circumstance
Vibrant, good vibrations

Surround sounds bounce around
Awakened, woken, voices softly spoken

Larks rising, ears opened
Nature, nurture, growing by feeling

Listen for the ragas reeling
Celtic, Irish, romance fiddles fast

Fiddles slowly, today and yesteryear
Tenors, troubadours

Walking in the heaven’s

Talking with the gods
Lutes, flutes, believe in the safe

From scary fairies

Dare to enter another world
Operatic, soprano, oh, oh

Can the beauty be imagined so, Ave Maria
Xylophone, flugelhorn

Bass trombone, saxophone

Jeroboam, of champagne
Nothings the same
In this campaign
Of music's reign
One last refrain
I can't sustain
This purple rain
This love and pain
This Virginia plain
Everlasting love
One last song
One last goodbye
I could cry
Cry if I try
Cry if you want me to
Cry tears of happiness
Tears of joy
One last hit single
Let’s make them tingle
Looking for Linda
Looking for love
Looking for work
Looking for shipbuilding
Nothings changed
Words re-arranged
One last hit single
Guitar, from afar, you gently weep
Blues, bluegrass, chewing tobacco

Working the fields
Can you soothe our pain

Slide and steel us

From being dazed and confused
Gospel, possession needing no property

Possessing our own self

With amazing grace
Soul, black and white, girl and boy

Love never knew such yearning
Tearing, torment, such soulful

Can you imagine nights

And heights, of passion
Singer-songwriter

Weave your wondrous words
Leave your blood on the tracks

Stand by your man

Remember caravan

And Vincent
Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and rock

Rhythm and rhyme

Havens even Dali-rhythm
Stones and Gaye

How could you not fade away

No, not fade away
Gypsies and Kings

And Richards and Stings

And everybody sings

And dances and romances
Lovers do
They save the last dance
They Caress, sun-blessed

Believing, conceiving

That it’s forever before the morning
Samba, mamba

Kid Creole, that old rock and roll
Jives alive, brothel creepers

And skin-tight sky-blue sneakers
Canaries and calypso

You never saw such life

Absolutely new life
Nothings the same
Nobodies going to stop us now
The romantic refrain
Emotions strain
Lipstick stain
In love again
One more night
It’ll be all right
Another magic morning
Where I shouldn’t be
But I couldn’t see
Blinded by something
Deep inside of me
Everlasting Love
Linger
Ravish
Soul singer
PP Arnold
Engage us again
First cut is the deepest
Linger
Crave
Soul singer
Aretha
One more time
Six three four five seven eight nine
Linger
Infuse
Soul singer
Otis
Take us again
To the dock of the bay
Mandolin wind

Piano string, violin and viola
Summer sunsets, evening concerts

City halls, country balls, waterfalls
Bass Guitar, Indian Sitar

Near and far, sounds surround
Around the world

Around the country

Around the home

Around whatever’s inside
And more beside

And much more besides

 

Triple Jump

Morning dew listen
Trap the dawn sun
Stalagtactica galactica
Reservoir snow cover
Icicle man astride
Pedalo’s oceans divide
Beach Seasons
Surf over summer
Blues sail the perilymph