for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 285 (D)

FREELAND ENGLAND
"You'll be home for Christmas"
my father was told,
as were my grandfathers,
all the brave and bold
who went to war
to fight for democracy,
a land fit for heroes,
all their children free.
They'd get to know
lies, lies, lies were told
to all the soldiers
who were brave and bold.
Two World Wars
and the same old story,
"You fight for peace
and a land of glory."
But where is it now,
this democracy ?
What kind of future
can we hope to see?

FIND-TWO-FACES-TO-JANUS-
A-GATEWAY-GUARDIAN
Without there being love
there can only be hate ?
You may live with neither
until one comes through the gate !

A PUBES BY CUBES PAINTER
An artist was Picasso
who liked the cube
as well as the fair sex
who posed for him nude.

Yes a painter was Picasso
and much older than those
who were far from square
in their cool naked pose.

YES-IT-IS-A-TIGER-GIRL
Like the fierce Blakean tiger afire
comes the girl with symmetry and ire.
Of her burning beauty who could tire ?
Of her anger who would not desire
such abandon beneath the bed-linen ?
Big-cat, wild-cat, cub-cat, sex-kitten.

A HOOKER
In her fishnet stockings
by the park gate,
the girl's the hook
and she's the bait,
and if your appetite
has been whetted
you'll be hooked
as well as netted !

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 285 (C)

A STREET HALF-AWAKE
The postman whistles
in the morning sun.
The half-asleep street
would strike him dumb
with curses, damnation.
The twittering birds
they'd also silence
with some foul words.
Can't face the day
so it sure seems.
They'd like full-sleep,
a world of dreams.

PLAYING PARTY POLITICS
You can support PC
and play politics
when the other party
lets a non-PC word slip,
fall on your own sword
when you, find, go slip
on a non-PC word
in the game of politics.

DIZZY DUO'S CLIMBDOWN
Up the Blackpool Tower
and the Eiffel too,
climbed you and I,
went me and you;
and there we viewed
the 'pool city lights,
and there we viewed
the Parisian sights.
But I am afraid
it was found to be true...
we were not meant
to last dizzy-heights.

MOTHER EARTH
A plastic sea, find a plastic sea,
and all countrysides concreted.
Is this how the world's to be ?
Mother Nature so defeated.

A BITTER BITE
The sweet-apples offered
will almost always turn damn sour
once the sweet-apple offerers
find themselves in power.
The apple-green envy of politicians
poisons their systems when in opposition.

from MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 107 (the flyer/circular)

From Magic Ship flyer/circular:- Ever the adventurous child, following my star Aquarius, I was able - as an adult - to inform many fellow Saltburners of what they were unaware, via my community magazine, Saltburn Scene. You can mount Huntcliff, and walk along the top to where a Roman fort had once stood, by climbing the footpath behind The Ship (Inn) where the King-of-Smugglers once was landlord, and passing behind the old coastguard cottages. You can also walk along the rocky foot of Huntcliff (check high and low tide times first) till you come to skinningrove and its legend of a captured merman. The car park by Cat Nab and miniature railway in Saltburn was once a boating lake. Where the rail is situated now was once a donkey field. Donkey rides were given on the beach. A residential fairground complete with a gypsy fortune teller stood on the seafront. The half-penny Bridge spanning the valley, over the beck, no more exists, come twilight bats may be seen winging in circles by the beck, or burn, from which Saltburn gets its name. Along the lower promenade in the opposite direction to The Ship (Inn) if you walk far enough you'll come to Hazel wood. Witches used hazel wands in folklore. This wood leads to the old caravan site the back way. The miniature rail leads to the Valley Garden. Above the Valley Garden is a path leading to Fairy Glen and through the deeper Rifts Wood. At the end of Rifts Wood is a path which gives a spectacular view of the Victorian Viaduct, and a path to the right which brings you back into the town's Marske Mill Lane or alternatively Victoria Terrace and Victoria Road leading to Glenside, where I used to live, before moving to York and then Bangkok and Pattaya in Thailand. Some of these areas have since been signposted and there are information postings now, also. Saltburn Scene got around, even overseas, and attracted celebs and film makers. Paul McCarntney of the Beatles and of Wings was given a copy on the Mull of Kintyre. I later met him and he said he liked my article on the Victorian pier and piece on the woodland 'jenny wren'. Prolific poet, Captain Mark. 

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 285 (B)

LOOKING FORWARD TO A FUTURE TIME ?
Fast-forward wind to the future
as if life's a film projection.
What do I see, in this here movie,
as though mine's a psychic connection ?
What I do see, in this here movie,
is ever the comedy and the tragedy.

VERY CLOSE TO VACATION
The eye of my mind
has seen inside your head,
and there it was, girl,
that your thoughts got read.

Has it not been said
there's a book in everyone ?
You're more a postcard
with very-few lines upon.

SNOWY OWL MPs ?
A parliament of owls ?
No wise-birds are all these.
They're more the cocaine-heads
or crack addicts, if you so please !

THE TOUGH TIMES' TROTTERS
We got through the Winter of Discontent
which helped usher in Maggie Thatcher.
We got through the hefty Poll-Tax
that many were to suffer under her.
We Brits are known to tough-it-out
while in the trough our politicians' snouts.

SAD AS A CLOWNFISH
Just like the clownfish
out the ocean deep,
only she was shallow
with a circus clown's feet.

Yes so like the clownfish,
with a circus clown's feet.
Imagine she had tail-fins,
huge would be their sweep.
You've got to laugh to yourself
otherwise you should weep.

A SHIPPING-OUT POEM
My over-six-foot-casket -
during my cremation -
will be a Viking long-ship.
Such is my imagination.
Yes a real long-ship set afire
would be more to my desire !

A RUM DREAM
All hands on deck
from down below.
Through the rigging
feel the wind blow.
Unfurl the flag
this wind-swept day,
set the boat's sails,
up anchor and away.

Ye gods, were it so;
ye gods, were it so...
the dream cruises on,
my head lies low !

THE DOE-RABBIT JUMPER JUST
THOUGHT A TRICKSY-BUCK A
TOP-HAT ACT
The magician was a rabbit,
oh yes a bob-tailed hopper
who pulled a tiny female-human
from his seemingly empty topper.

Then the stage-conjurer -
with his magic carrotstick -
made a jumpy-bunny of she
who just made the buck her 'trick'.

THE COMING KEEPER ?
The collective is a pen, a keep,
and the collected are all sheep,
or so the collector would have it be ?
"The collected WILL think the same.
The collected MUST play the game.
Nevermore any individuality,"
shall say the shepherd of a future time
should democracy begin to fail or decline ?

A-HELL-HOUND'S-HEAVENLY-DESIRE
Go dig with a fury,
go dig with fire,
go dig with a passion,
go dig with desire.
Dig a deep hole
there in the zone
you sure think buried
a big juicy bone,
just like the world
digs a grave of its own.

THE TYKE ON THE MOTORBIKE
The guy was a tyke,
more suited to a child's trike
than he was to a motorbike.
Out of control from the start,
here and there he'd dart.
Folk would have to part
or be mowed down in a bunch.
Yes he sure was out to lunch !
It came to the crunch
when he was to go crash,
when he was to go smash.
He was gone in a dash.

from MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 121 (the flyer/circular)

Snippet from Magic Ship flyer/circular:- Alice Cooper was the name of a witch supposedly burnt at the stake in America. Singer/screamer Vincent Furnier, son of a preacher, and his group of musicians, a shock-rock outfit, claiming to be surrealists, became The Alice Cooper Band. Vincent later, legally, took  the name Alice for himself.
A fan of author Edgar Allan Poe, Furnier's act was a gothic horror show. They'd a big hit with the single 'School's Out. Fame, or infamy, made him a neighbor of horror film actor Vincent Price, of whom he was also a fan. He bit the heads off realistic-looking bats, before Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a real one thrown on stage. Ozzy sang about the O-zone Layer in the 1970s, but many Tory and Labour MPs were in denial as to climate change even in the late 1980s. I met both Alice and Ozzy and a great many other celebs, 10-12 years ago, when they visited scenic Saltburn due to my magazine, Saltburn Scene, and due to the members of young bands I'd helped out lyrically, and with band names. The stars/celebs were attending gigs in Teesside, Manchester and near London, film maker Oliver Stone confirmed to me. The three venues were a celebrity bash. Professor Brian Cox was among them. Have a Cosmic Christmas, Cap'n Mark

From MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 123 (the flyer/circular)

From Magic Ship flyer/circular:- David Coverdale was born in Saltburn though he also lived in Middlesbrough and spent a lot of time in Redcar. He first came to my attention when I saw him sing for a band called Stormy Weather in a Saltburn pub, and later with The Government at Redcar's Coatham Hotel/Jazz Club. Deep Purple were looking for a vocalist to replace Ian Gillan who'd left the band. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had favoured Paul Rodgers of Free, who'd also lived in Middlesbrough, but Rodgers had other ideas and formed Bad Company with a member of Mott The Hoople. He'd later still be Freddie Mercury's replacement in Queen. It was Coverdale landed the job with Purple. Blackmore later left Deep Purple, supposedly wanting to form a band called Baby Face with Phil Lynot of Thin Lizzy, but formed Rainbow instead, without Lynot. Deep Purple eventually broke up (reforming some years later with Ian Gillan back as vocalist). Ritchie's band were made up of members from Elf. Singer Dio would later front Black Sabbath who'd previously been fronted by Ozzy Osbourne. Ian Gillan would briefly front Sabbath on their album 'Born Again'. Coverdale went on to form Whitesnake (sexual innuendo, though it is suggestive of Bram Stoker's novel about the 'White Worm'?). Now living in America's Hook City, Dave would visit Saltburn when over here in England, looking up old pals, and his female friends Sue and Julie. Sue had been a local singer too, and kept old copies of my community magazine Saltburn Scene for him to read. She lived in Zetland Terrace. Julie was a girlfriend before he found fame. Sue and Dave came by my door on Glenside, walking her dogs. She hoped I'd do an interview with him, but I was preparing to move to York, and only doing a flyer similar to Magic Ship called The Ship's Log. Coverdale was somewhat bashful anyway, Sue was just urging him on, but he liked what I'd already written about him, mentioning him to much younger locals, and said he liked my 'fairytale-type verses', wishing he could write similar lyrics. Ironic really, considering Hook City conjures up images from Peter Pan! Ha. Cheers mateys, Captain Mark 

for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 285 (A)

HIGH TIME AND A
LOW TIDE
We shared a bath
by candlelight,
"Mermaid," and "Merman,"
we laughed outright.
Her naked body
was a pure delight.
The candles burnt
like stars in the night,
but time is the tide
that turns at its height.

THE FAR-OUT FEMALE-FRIEND
She could be pink,
blue or green,
someone somewhere
men have not been.

She could be from
way beyond Mars,
someone somewhere
beneath a far star.

She could be someone
out of this world.
Does not a man desire
that kind of girl ?

THE OVER-HEAVY ROAD AHEAD
We are on the road
 to an overload?
Many more mouths to feed ?
Verdant forests fall,
should we crush all
as man continues to breed ?

SELFISH SHELLFISH
She clams shut,
tight as a nut,
won't open up.
Shellfish. Selfish.


A CUTTING-OUT-CARDBOARD CAT
He lived in Cardboard City
though not cut out for that.
He slept inside a box
like a fierce stray alley-cat.

The guy's no more homeless,
lives in a cramped-bedsit.
Hardly room to swing a cat
by the tail; he's glad of it !

A SPIKY-HEELED DOORMAT
TREADER
Just how many times
must a guy forgive
a girl who doesn't learn ?
Just how long live
with open arms
and an open door,
lie like a mat
upon the floor
for her to walk over
with stiletto-shoes ?
No more chances, girl,
your advances refused.

THOUGHTS ABOVE
Yes I'm an outsider, girl,
on my thoughts you may intrude
as they go round the world
in their satellite solitude.

SHE'S A BIT OSTRICH-BIRD
A law-laying
bird is she
who'd lay her laws
down on me.

Lady Little-Legs,
her laws are eggs
I'd just break,
make no mistake.

She's no tall bird
but understand
she buries her head
there in the sand

like an ostrich.
What blind justice !
Lady Little-Legs
can keep her eggs.