DMArtifice

Don’t foreclose my eyes to open
Finding you are there
I can’t write lines romanticising
Presence isn’t care
Push me, push me, push me, push me
Can we stop the train
Passengers and guards object
And here we go again

The feet don’t touch the floor before
The plans obstruct the day
Forget them, take the medication
Glitter fish at bay
Watching, watching, watching, watching
See the moment gone
See the window, make a chart
Before the show moves on

And it never was enough
And there’s always something more
And this never is enough

I go into the kitchen
And I need to clean the floor
I go into the bathroom
And I need to clean the floor
I go into the bedroom
And I need to clean the floor
I go into the kitchen
I need to clean the floor

And it never was enough…

I forget that there is time
I forget that there is rest
I forget that there is love

Someone you can follow
And they tell you what to do
Someone to provide instructions
Follow, follow you
Someone who can understand
And keep you on the wall
Someone who can glue the pieces
When you fall

And it never was enough…
I forget that there is time…

Walking past the window
See my Polish seamstress
In her shop in fading light
With her staff she listens
To the customer
Who tells her what he wants put right

It was just a brief impression
And the seconds that it took
To see made clear
Her orange hair was grey
And she was older
Alterations to her self appeared

She always knew the changes
That I needed, mended me
Time makes cuts and fates explain
What will be

Changes, changes, changes, changes
Changes, changes, changes, changes

She knew the alterations
That I needed, mended me
Time makes cuts, fates explain
What will be

She always knew the changes…

Listen to our story
That we are here to tell
Hear the army that decides
Who shall not weather well
Not a hand to help us
And we are not saved

This is all connected
He said, ‘It’s not the same’
There will be accounting
There also will be blame
In the nations people say
We shall not be saved

We are navigation
We sail by pole star blues
No need for a captain
When we are the crew
Turned his hand against us
How can we be saved

The intellect we find is
Misplaced for repair
The anger will articulate
Fix and render fair
Target for the arrows
When will we be saved

Only finding common cause
Asking for respect
He said he was, ‘A piece of work’
Connect, reject, select
Sit alone in silence
Why should we be saved

Give us ‘wine and roses’
‘Love… desire and hate’
No more ‘weeping… [give us] laughter’
‘We [shall] pass the gate’
Pay them back what they deserve
Then we shall be saved

Let’s make this our history
Act in certain ways
Press for an atonement
Pray for blue sky days
We have been rebellion
And we shall be saved

The hand that wrote the letters
Barely settled in the mind
A whisper in the distance
To help retain inside
A memory of closeness, back
When each of them arrived
They grew apart, they ended
Significance denied

It was such a long time
A time to live again
Harder to remember
To retain

The hand that takes the letters down
Takes care to keep them still
Precious pile preserved in order
Passion unfulfilled
Others came, they were not kept
Till only these would last
The others were discarded
These became the past

It was such a long time…

‘Slim guilt soul’ inscribes affection
Every page in every measure
Every artless word perfection
All the waiting silence in between

The hand that wrote the letters
Was the stronger of the pair
A voice that others heard and found
Original and clear
The hand, the voice took leave
Composed a valediction fair
The hand that put the letters back
Still cares

It was such a long time…

She sang of love and fleeting days
Her voice a gentle breeze
In Paris streets where shadows play
She set our hearts at ease

With every note a whispered sigh
A tale of joy and pain
In moonlit nights beneath the sky
Her spirit will remain

Francoise, your songs remain in time
A melody so pure, refined
Though days are gone, your voice will chime
In memories, secure
Francoise, your songs remain in time
A melody so pure, divine
Though days are gone, we hear your voice

Sous le ciel gris, ta voix s’élève
Ton chant d’amour, doux comme rêve
Francoise, dans nos cœurs tu restes
Mélodies claires, tendres gestes
Francoise, dans nos cœurs tu restes

Her songs of love a wistful call
Echoes of yesteryear
She left us all, yet stands so tall
In music and in tears

Francoise, your songs remain in time…

With respect, with understanding
With love from us to you
Men and women be upstanding
What we’ll say is true
Lifetime working now is over
Years of caring all are through
All those lines that needed learning
Time for rest is overdue

What will you do with all that freedom
Wonder how you’ll spend the days
Weeks that merge into each other
Welcome to the final phase

A girlfriend’s father said to me
When I was just sixteen
Don’t look down on earning money
Money makes you free
Money buys you yes and no
So you don’t need to choose
Money buys you I don’t know
You win and you don’t lose

What will you do with all your money
Wonder if you spend or save
Enough put by so you don’t worry
Enough as long as you behave

Nothing to be scared of
Some quiet for the mind
Time for doing what you like
Leave the rest behind

Another case will make the point
Refer to number two
Lifetime spent in healing others
The many not the few
No-one else and no dependents
A solo life, just you
All those years of blood and passion
All the temps perdu

The past profession vapourises
Evanesces, sublimates
Instead of making memories
An unattended dream it fades
Don’t look back, it doesn’t matter
You left your work in others’ heads
A lifetime in the dirt has scattered
Look for what comes next instead

Nothing to be scared of…

Room to rent in 1985
Owner sends, candidates arrive
A man turns up and ticks my boxes
I’ll expand on that synopsis
But first to you I will confide
I think that day I lost a love for life

He was well-presented, educated
My handshake weak, he frankly stated
Six years older, meditated
Bossy, but he seemed warm-hearted
Once more to you I will confide
I think that day I lost a love for life

He checked my fridge, inspected books
I watched no soaps, ate no junk food
Said home life here might suit him well
Pleased I had a book by Blaise Pascal
Maybe husband, maybe wife
I think that day I lost a love for life

He liked me but the room too small
The décor not his taste at all
He rang back, said he’d take the room
My life turned on a sixpence then
I told him no, and I was right
I wanted to be running my own life
Siren hormones were denied
Since that day I lost a love for life

Now we’ve met the woman
Behold the man
To understand her actions
She says know the man

Turning happenstance to art we see him there
Finding poetry from chance, retains his flair
Turning happenstance to art and see him there
His words still speak to her, retain their flair

He rhapsodises on the places she and others miss
To find before him
‘Such an undistinguished place as this’

Walk the land, as poet, walk the land
Walk the land, as artist, walk the land

In this undistinguished place a beauty underlies
‘In our sleep and selfish fuss’ we pass you by

When I was small my house seemed big My dad was tall, I looked up
I learned to read and write with pride Met my friends and ran outside
Sunny summers, winter snow Time it used to go so slow
Save the planet, life is good Redwood trees and starry nights

Stone-age folk are long time dead They used to paint their bodies red
L.S. Lowry and Picasso See the hunters in the snow
Look at statues bold and fair Nefertiti’s one-eyed stare
Do you know what beauty is Can you hear the people singing

We’ve got to fix the air
And clean the sea
We’re running out of time....

When I was small my house seemed big My dad was tall, I looked up
Learned to read and write with pride Met my friends and ran outside
First guitar when I was nine Playing football all the time
Save the planet, life is good Redwood trees and starry nights

Rocks are moving we have found Hear them rumbling underground
See volcanoes, fiery skies Know the planet is alive
Whales are singing in the sea Smell the rain upon the breeze
Do you know what beauty is Can you hear the people singing

We’ve got to fix the air…

When I was small my house seemed big My dad was tall, I looked up
Learned to read and write with pride Met my friends and ran outside
I’m settled now in this fine town I laugh and make my children frown
Save the planet life is good Redwood trees and starry nights

Greeks and Romans, Persians Africans, Indians Polynesians in their boats
Crossed the seas to find their home Keep on feeling, look around
Enjoy the world that you have found Do you know what beauty is
Can you hear the children singing

We're going to fix the air And clean the seas
We’re going to do it right this time
We're going to fix the air And clean the seas
We’re running out of time

The words will shine
The words inside
The words are careful
The outside shines
The heart inside
Be my valentine
Words you have written you want to retract
Words I have spoken I want to take back
Nothing inside that was such a good fit
Until something comes to alter it

There should be something that’s easy to say
To undo what’s always unclear
There should be actions that lighten our way
To where we were when we were near
Something important gets lost in the focus
Of arguments made on the run
Until unimportant imposes, we notice
The trials that each of us won

We’re unexceptional lovers
In so far as we fight on and off all the time
The ups and the downs we accept, we recover
I still make you my valentine
The outside appearance tells much less than half
Of a story that’s mostly in here
Try to be clearer and play it for laughs
Fades a glory that does not appear

So many love songs say much the same things
But most of them never reveal
That love is the long run whatever time brings
They miss just what most lovers feel
Swear to grow and swear to love
And swear to kinder care
The ties won’t unravel as through days they travel
They weather, they manage, they’re there

They part for the next small while
She makes home on a smaller isle
They bridge as the bridges cross
Send him messages to fill his loss

Her pictures don’t show the scene
Disappointed as she writes to him
Washed out, not the vibrant day
Washed in with just pastel shades

Bright green of the forest trees
Shine, shining on days like these
Turns, takes in the broad terrain
Bare, barren and boulder-strewn

Boats dragged on to empty land
Crews, nets and a culture gone
Placed there by an owner’s love
As the owners, lived useful lives

Every time she goes she writes to him
With the world she sees and he chose not to see
All the times he knows he hears from her
He has all he wants and does not need to see

Flags fly from good people’s homes
Large, small they are meaning flown
In the old land they do this too
Still declaring the who is who