Heaven-worthy Now

We should walk barefoot to Walsingham, my dearest friend

There’s much more to this than love and lies and medicine

I’m heaven-worthy now

Let’s burn all your letters in the garden after work

Watch the embers turn to ash, like Adam: back to dirt

I’m heaven-worthy now

Isaiah

Hedgehog, fox

War and peace

Yes, he speaks

Truth to me

Echoing

On the Green

Through the woods

To the sea

Wish… is… was… what the…

Realist?

Not out here

We’re the wind

Not the fire

The cookies are cut

Into random shapes

It’s our design

It’s our escape

Wish… is… was… what the…

I’m lying on the ground

I’m covered in damp earth

And Hesperus is calling

Austerlitz is lost

And Napoleon’s right there

What is this, Isaiah?

Fanclub of a Dream

Paris onto Jena

From the city to the woods

Broken branches trip me as I speak

I am a man

Tell me

Am I going crazy?

Am I stuck in the machinery?

Will I ever make it out?

Being is becoming

But I write because… I am?

Think it so I make it so

I live it all the time

Tell me

Am I going crazy?

Am I stuck in the machinery?

Will I ever make it out?

Brother

We were driving in your car that night

Singing

All about the kind of world we’d build

Tell me

Is the Fanclub of a Dream still real?

Are you like me?

I sank down to the bottom of the sea

Then I kicked and screamed at the factory

Now I’ve climbed right up to the top of the tree

But the fog’s so dense so you can’t see me

There’s a thin, faint light in the east

Can you glean it?

It’s the hope I feel in the morning

Can you get it?

There’s a world inside

If I say it I can make it

Like the world we built

There’s a manifesto with it

Brother

We were driving in your car that night

Singing

All about the kind of world we’d build

Tell me

Is the Fanclub of a Dream still real?

Are you like me?

Shap Abbey

In Ephesus there’s peace of mind

We tried it but got left behind

That bearded guy’s a friend but don’t let him fool you

Shap Abbey is a state of mind

It’s that feeling that we just can’t find

I’ve been there only once, it was fine, a bit boring

The Albion’s a state of mind

Why the hell are you trying to lead those guys

From Kensington to Hammersmith?

There’s not much time

Peace

Stillness

Solitude

Albeit only fleeting

You’re never gonna find it

What

You are

Searching for does not exist

In the Vale

One long June

Keir and Matty on the screen

Losing blood in the hospital

What’s a life?

And what’s dying, anyway?

Makes your soul

But it breaks your heart

Why the snake?

And the apple on the tree?

And why did she have to fall so hard?

Why so wide

And so indiscriminate?

1 in 4

Omni oh…

Yes, he wept

Though Lazarus would rise

Job was right to curse

Neither just nor wise

There is no design

There’s no end, no telos

In the vale

My Love

Michael and Sarah

Traded happiness for power

David and Samantha

Had it all laid out for them

No Spanish Leather

No cabinet or office

No Healy book, no magazine

Could take me away from you

My love

Let me drive you home

To the hills where we have built our world

Our family

Is all we need

We let the Goodness shine on all

Nowhere

Eddie was a bully and you knew it

Kathleen never spoke up

You left home at 17

For the “city”

You lived in a rented room

Up near the bank, St Luke’s

Spent long nights with your friends

And then my father

I didn’t live a life like you

You were the empire coup

I was the Berlin Wall

And the End of History

But I listened to the words you spoke

Felt all the ways I was wrong

Did you daydream just like I do

In the morning?

Now you’re leaving

And I’m nowhere

Rootless spinning in the vacuum

Looking at the photographs, still

This was the room where you held me

Then I held you

I would listen to the sound of you breathing

Smell your wine in the air

Were you drinking just like I do

In the evening?

Now you’re leaving

And I’m nowhere

Withdraw Your Roar!

We don’t believe

In the apocalypse

And all those out-there things

Reason alone

Daring to know

Will lead us to the light

If there’s a God

It’s not what you think

If there’s a heaven

We’ll build it

Withdraw your roar!

Let’s all take a sponge

And wipe up the horizon

What’s Enlightenment?

Back then we didn’t know much

We were lost: just fumbling in the dark

Chose dogma and infantile ignorance

Now I’m gonna go for a walk

The clock’s set at the same hour every day

It’s high time that I put it all down on the page

What’s Enlightenment?

Moses Mendelssohn? Mine was better!

You’re lazy and cowardly too

Your guardian’s grip isn’t so tight

Choose freedom and rationalism instead

Tell the guys you’re done with the church

Tell the king you’re no longer afraid

Tell the people to think for themselves for a change

What’s Enlightenment?

Moses Mendelssohn? Mine was better!

Candide

I’m your prophet of reason

Your Moses down from the mountain

Pangloss, tone down your hopefulness

Thousands dead in Iberia

Endless, senseless hysteria

Optimism’s been overruled

Is this the best of all possible worlds?

Is this the best of all possible worlds?

Is this the best of all possible worlds?

Is this the best of all possible worlds?

Rats on the Sinking Ship

One more round

One more toast to the ship that’s sailed

Enlightenment suited us

Now they feel

Our imperial hubris roar

That’s not how we wanted it

Chew the ropes and the sails fall down

Swing your oars around and around

Cause a bloody accident

Here’s to the rats on the sinking ship!

Philosophes

Feeling giddy with power? No

Enlightenment suited us

You Would Have Smiled

I can’t bear the morning

Must I meet them on the green?

Or can I cultivate my own?

Fallen fathers fighting

I’m a bad Diogenes

Rolling in my jar

You would have smiled, seeing me there

Still the rising sun comes again

And memory remains

I can’t last the day

Can’t shake this life-long yearning for

The many not the one

Still the sound of birdsong

And those fine lined oak trees stand

Guiding us home

You would have smiled, seeing me there

Still the rising sun comes again

And memory remains

Jonah

The water’s getting higher now

We’re going under and it’s all my fault

Just throw me overboard, the storm will pass

You’ll see

I’m sorry for the lies I told

I hide from you and doubt your light

Just spit me out and I’ll begin again

I know

Went to Ninevah to make things right

Said they’d all be gone in 40 days

They were righteous with the sack, the cloth

The fast

Now I’m melting in the hot, hot sun

The shade’s abandoned me and I know why

It’s me

There Is a Light Here Among Us

Thus spoke the Lord

She makes her way

In the sea

A path in the deep

No chariot

Horse or sword

Man you’ll never believe this!

There’s a light here among us!

You, you are she

Without iniquity

Water in the wild

Let us drink, blessed child

Man you’ll never believe this!

There’s a light here among us!

She’s the sun on the ocean!

She’s the endless horizon!

She’s our heavenly body!

She’s the light here among us!

The Garden

Strange you’re out there now

Still I crave your alma

It’s a price I’ll pay

To be with you

Feel so far away

Been out here forever

Have I found the light?

Have I ever…

Let the light in

You can’t live like this

How I need your love

How I need your counsel

To be by your side again

In the Garden

Let’s pretend we never left

The Sea, The Sea

Spent the weekend on the coast

We were lost, we were trying to get over it

We didn’t learn this back at school

That education got us so far

We could drink until we can’t stand

That’s the plan - are the others alright? No, they’re not

Well, we could stay up late and talk of stupid things

Like which of us is going to join a cult

We were down near Dancing Ledge

I couldn’t get too close to the edge - I was scared

Is it postmodernity

This lack of friction in the void?

You’re better silent - they can talk

Just sink your beer, sink the Square and the Compass, we’ve got

A random art completion at base

I drew a picture of the ocean

And it was called The Sea, The Sea

Iris Murdoch was right on my mind - could it be

That I crave transcendence like I never used to?

Am I old now?

OLIG

Lying there on the landing

Still got crisps on our hands but

The signals are clear:

Our world is changing

We move things up to the bed

We share the news, call your parents

Could this be real?

Or are we dreaming?

Then you flew off to Malaysia

Feeling tired and ill there

While I stayed at home

Took to the bottle

We almost slept through the winter

Felt quite cold when the boiler

Conked out on us, Pete

He came and made it better

Albeit wetter

Our love is ever so good, good, good

And now we’re nesting like crazy

You’re mural’s done - it’s amazing

Once squirrel, now goose

You’re radiant

And we’ve got our beautiful Alma

Oh how I adore her

And how I love you

And everything we have here

It’s all we need

Our love is ever so good, good, good

How Long Until It’s Over?

School day’s done

We walk half way

The rest in our father’s car

The leather seats

I’d known before

Feel different on hearing the news

How did this happen?

How long til it’s over?

I search for love

I fear the end

Find solace on lower East Way

My mother sighs

Despairs at me

Afraid of the world I’ll find

Down to the graveyard

Pass me a cigarette

Morning comes

The sun is out

Indifference from nature, still

The hangover

The light relief

The suffering over now

Breeze in the garden

Blowing south-westerly

Chessboards in the Rain

Can’t you see the light?

Child of Good, the sun

Carving the numbers into your arm

Guileless, senseless

Scenes on the Underground

Melancholy long

Now withdraw your roar

Over to us - we’ll drink up the sea

Aimless, pointless

Eden we’ll never be

Past the marble arch

Up to Brown Street once more

Over the line, Boethius claimed

Endless, timeless

Chessboards in the rain

2011

2 for 5

At the Polish/Irish

Red, red wine

Oh the Prince of Wales was right!

Boogaloo

Seeking solace in the

Booze with you

And the Libertine was there!

But I didn’t mean to cause such hurt to all those around - I didn’t understand

Wild, wild town

From debauchery came

Overwhelm

Are we heading for the sea?

Neither Fight Nor Flight

Boxes all around us

Damn this wretched pit

Will we ever break the

Back of all this shit?

Numbness in the morning

Drowning in the night

Frazzled in the afternoon

Neither fight nor flight

Ivy’s creeping up now

I can hardly see

Hacking through the shrubbery

Home we’ll never be

William’s paradise

Fallen, it’s lost

Tending to your land?

Avoided at all cost