IT'S SPRIGHTLY SUMMER AND
A WEARY WINTER
Outside my window
blows a breeze
through the leaves
upon the trees.
The sun smiles
down on the park
as will the moon
after dark.
Yes outside my window
a breeze blows.
Will fall the rains,
will fall the snows,
the back-of-year sun
lose its glow,
for Time's sure swift
on his toes,
though in the winter
drags his feet
come the hard rains
or the heavy sleet.
But now the breeze,
the sun on park,
the leaves on show,
does my road greet.
A FOXY-FEMALE CHASER
I WAS NOT
A flame-haired fox
set my soul afire,
had my heart racing
with burning desire,
sure like a huntsman
on a vixen's track,
so like a horseman
with a hound-pack.
Yes a flame-haired fox
set my soul afire,
but for the very chase
I'd not the desire.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 289 (A)
MISTRESS OR WIFE, JIM LAD ?
The girl on the griffin's back
through the dark sky went soar.
Below her, on a long dirt track,
winding his way to a sandy shore,
journeyed the boy hard to keep,
the lover of the lashing-waves.
The boy whose mistress was the deep.
The boy who'd make the sea his grave.
No spell of hers could hold him,
and beauty was her greatest spell.
No spell was to hold young Jim
who'd made a wish by a wishing-well
when still in the village school.
He'd wished to sail the high-seas,
be under Mistress Ocean's rule.
Under a witch-queen's thumb he'd be
were he to stay put at her side,
and so Jim journeyed the long track,
the sea his mistress, not his bride
the girl on the griffin's back.
A PERMITTED PRECOGNITION
"The future I foresee
when the spirits permit,
though not my own future,"
said the ageing hermit.
"No not my own future,
but I see what's in store
when the spirits permit,
and open wide the door
or open my mind's eye
to what may well be.
Many men just so blind.
Some see, some foresee."
A FLY-FOLK TO VERY FAR
FROM HERE INVADERS
A fear of flying-saucers ?
Of beings part-man part-octopus ?
Fly-swatters in their tentacles
here to bash the lot of us ?
Invaders from outer-space,
beings who are more advanced.
Seeing us as boils on the earth,
each one of us to be lanced ?
We must seem quite alien,
we really are a strange lot.
Perhaps only a trifle better
than the flies that we swat ?
The girl on the griffin's back
through the dark sky went soar.
Below her, on a long dirt track,
winding his way to a sandy shore,
journeyed the boy hard to keep,
the lover of the lashing-waves.
The boy whose mistress was the deep.
The boy who'd make the sea his grave.
No spell of hers could hold him,
and beauty was her greatest spell.
No spell was to hold young Jim
who'd made a wish by a wishing-well
when still in the village school.
He'd wished to sail the high-seas,
be under Mistress Ocean's rule.
Under a witch-queen's thumb he'd be
were he to stay put at her side,
and so Jim journeyed the long track,
the sea his mistress, not his bride
the girl on the griffin's back.
A PERMITTED PRECOGNITION
"The future I foresee
when the spirits permit,
though not my own future,"
said the ageing hermit.
"No not my own future,
but I see what's in store
when the spirits permit,
and open wide the door
or open my mind's eye
to what may well be.
Many men just so blind.
Some see, some foresee."
A FLY-FOLK TO VERY FAR
FROM HERE INVADERS
A fear of flying-saucers ?
Of beings part-man part-octopus ?
Fly-swatters in their tentacles
here to bash the lot of us ?
Invaders from outer-space,
beings who are more advanced.
Seeing us as boils on the earth,
each one of us to be lanced ?
We must seem quite alien,
we really are a strange lot.
Perhaps only a trifle better
than the flies that we swat ?
for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 288 (H)
THE KNIFE ANGEL
Angel of the North,
meet the Angel of Knives.
Find it's been brought forth
that it might save some lives.
A STRAIGHT EROS'S ARROW
I served up the meal,
I poured out the wine.
I cooked her a treat.
She was treated fine.
Straight as an arrow
I was feeling erotic,
my Thai-girl guest
was damn sure exotic.
She'd not tasted wine,
to her it was very-new.
Heady as I her host,
off her clothes she threw !
She stood in a thong.
Yes she stood in a thong.
Do the cooking right,
get to cook all night long !
NOT A PLAYING-CARD JOKER
IN SIGHT
There's a running riot,
the police can't keep pace.
There're running rioters,
cops with truncheons and Mace.
It's there on the Tv-News,
right up in your face.
Yes it's a running riot,
rioters winning the race.
There's a running riot.
It runs all over the place.
It runs with such a fury
the police go lose pace.
Some cheer the mob on,
some say it's a disgrace.
A pack of cards is flying,
of the joker just no trace.
Angel of the North,
meet the Angel of Knives.
Find it's been brought forth
that it might save some lives.
A STRAIGHT EROS'S ARROW
I served up the meal,
I poured out the wine.
I cooked her a treat.
She was treated fine.
Straight as an arrow
I was feeling erotic,
my Thai-girl guest
was damn sure exotic.
She'd not tasted wine,
to her it was very-new.
Heady as I her host,
off her clothes she threw !
She stood in a thong.
Yes she stood in a thong.
Do the cooking right,
get to cook all night long !
NOT A PLAYING-CARD JOKER
IN SIGHT
There's a running riot,
the police can't keep pace.
There're running rioters,
cops with truncheons and Mace.
It's there on the Tv-News,
right up in your face.
Yes it's a running riot,
rioters winning the race.
There's a running riot.
It runs all over the place.
It runs with such a fury
the police go lose pace.
Some cheer the mob on,
some say it's a disgrace.
A pack of cards is flying,
of the joker just no trace.
for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 288 (G)
A VOYAGING VERSE-POET
I worked down a mine
and for a steel company.
I edited a magazine
in a seaside community.
I worked at the Post Office
after a chocolate factory.
I'd taught Creative Writing
(in a city the last three).
I taught English Language
in a far Eastern country.
Wrote for a publication there.
Aided the son of an MP
who was in private care.
Then taught English voluntarily
(the last two back here).
Many folk, many a celebrity,
has this poet now met.
Many a place do I journey,
a sailor with his sails set
for a wind blowing free.
I worked down a mine
and for a steel company.
I edited a magazine
in a seaside community.
I worked at the Post Office
after a chocolate factory.
I'd taught Creative Writing
(in a city the last three).
I taught English Language
in a far Eastern country.
Wrote for a publication there.
Aided the son of an MP
who was in private care.
Then taught English voluntarily
(the last two back here).
Many folk, many a celebrity,
has this poet now met.
Many a place do I journey,
a sailor with his sails set
for a wind blowing free.
For MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 288 (F)
A GOOD TIME ALL ROUND
Not a girl in every port
but his every girl in one.
And each of them he sought
when back from the big pond.
A sailor-boy, oh a sailor-boy
of all of them so fond.
Each his pride, each his joy.
Each his crew just on land.
All were known to each other.
All his Thai-girls did not care.
Each might take another lover
when the sailor-boy wasn't there.
What was it about the guy
had the girls run to him ?
Unspent money and good looks,
many a worldly-tale to spin.
A-FULLY-FLOWERED-SMILE-
FROM-OLD-SIAM
Her face amongst sunflowers
had an equally sunny smile.
She shone for the photograph
her hair up in a cute pile.
Very pretty, so very pretty,
my Thai-girlfriend had style.
A sunflower field, not the city.
Not the city by many a mile.
A-VERY-MURDEROUS-
GRAVE-ROBBING-PAIR-
HUNG-DAMN-HIGH
Burke was a berk,
he forgot his spade.
Hare dashed off
away from the grave
to fetch the spade
that Burke forgot.
Dig up that body
before it went rot.
Body snatchers both,
corpses sold they
to any fool doctor
who'd willingly pay.
To any researcher
or any Frankenstein.
Hare dashed back
in the nick of time.
Burke being a berk
was now fast asleep.
His snores were loud,
breath heavy and deep.
Birds in the trees
began to unsettle.
Mice in the grass,
rats in the nettles
ran there and here,
ran here and there.
Ran across the path
of Burke and Hare.
Hare awoke Burke
and whispered "Hush.
Could be a bobby
beyond any bush."
"We'd not want that,"
Burke was to reply,
"let's make a start,
or hang me high."
Not a girl in every port
but his every girl in one.
And each of them he sought
when back from the big pond.
A sailor-boy, oh a sailor-boy
of all of them so fond.
Each his pride, each his joy.
Each his crew just on land.
All were known to each other.
All his Thai-girls did not care.
Each might take another lover
when the sailor-boy wasn't there.
What was it about the guy
had the girls run to him ?
Unspent money and good looks,
many a worldly-tale to spin.
A-FULLY-FLOWERED-SMILE-
FROM-OLD-SIAM
Her face amongst sunflowers
had an equally sunny smile.
She shone for the photograph
her hair up in a cute pile.
Very pretty, so very pretty,
my Thai-girlfriend had style.
A sunflower field, not the city.
Not the city by many a mile.
A-VERY-MURDEROUS-
GRAVE-ROBBING-PAIR-
HUNG-DAMN-HIGH
Burke was a berk,
he forgot his spade.
Hare dashed off
away from the grave
to fetch the spade
that Burke forgot.
Dig up that body
before it went rot.
Body snatchers both,
corpses sold they
to any fool doctor
who'd willingly pay.
To any researcher
or any Frankenstein.
Hare dashed back
in the nick of time.
Burke being a berk
was now fast asleep.
His snores were loud,
breath heavy and deep.
Birds in the trees
began to unsettle.
Mice in the grass,
rats in the nettles
ran there and here,
ran here and there.
Ran across the path
of Burke and Hare.
Hare awoke Burke
and whispered "Hush.
Could be a bobby
beyond any bush."
"We'd not want that,"
Burke was to reply,
"let's make a start,
or hang me high."
From MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP No. 144 circulated 20/9/2019
I received a postcard from pop poet Brian Patten and I met punk poet John Cooper Clarke outside my home, in Saltburn. I also met another writer of poetry, the comic Spike Milligan, who sometimes visited my next-door neighbour on Glenside with his agent, Norma Farnes. However, it was Spike's pal the Prince of Wales (Charles) who sent me a letter of gratitude when I supported his views over climate change, in 1989, when the media and many MPs, Tory and Labour, were calling him "Cuckoo", as to the 0-Zone Layer, in a piece I published in charity mag E.T., at the old Chambers of Commerce in Middlesbrough. The Evening Gazette did a story on this. I'd been in the press before as to Brian, and many verses of mine were later published in the Evening Gazette via Dr Andrew Croft of NOTICEBOARD. The poet Philip Larkin had been concerned as to the loss of our natural surroundings many years before, and rock bands in the early-to-mid 70s sang about pollution. Black Sabbath had 'Hole in the Sky', Deep Purple had 'No No No', Rainbow had 'Run with the Wolf'. Thin Lizzy had 'Mama Nature Said'. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon concept/story album was about madness, not space travel, caused by the environment. 'Lunacy' derived from 'lunar', the moon. Brian Jones was the founder of the Rolling Stones. Their name was taken from an old song called 'Rolling Stone Blues'. He was found dead in his swimming pool. On their psychedelic album Their Satanic Majesties' Request, features the track 'Citadel' with dollar bills flying as flags. Indeed, we've been concreting over the countryside, too busy trying to earn a living or make more money. In Purple's song 'Woman From Tokyo', Ian Gillan sings of the garden he and his girl love, inside her concrete city of lights. Let us not start demolishing parks to build houses and green belts to expand our towns. Surely the earth, the ground, needs to breathe too, and wild animals need places to live and feed. Captain Mark
Monday, July 8, 2019
for MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP 288 (E)
FOLLOW THE LEADER ?
"Don't do as we do,
do as we say."
Has it not always
been this way ?
They make the laws,
they make the rules,
think they're kings and queens
and we their fools.
Whether on the Left
or on the Right,
they who lead us
will also smite
we who would do
as do they.
"Don't do as we do,
do as we say."
STARS VISIT TO SALBURN: Due to an earlier invite from me, to Pete Doherty, and to Tom Fletcher (of McFly), to come to Saltburn with their friends, an all-star attendance at a celebrity gig in Teesside later visited the town, the many black celebs and many white celebs overcrowding the pubs on the seafront, after disembarking on Albion Terrace a number of days, and avoiding the town centre, as I'd suggested, by filing past my home on Glenside, then into the nearby woods that led to the seafront, or taking the S-bank, along the alleyway I now choose to call 'Stardust Alley'. I'd recently returned from Thailand where I'd been teaching English Language and writing for Pattaya Trader. As published in the trader, I have written lyrics, anonymously, for several now known bands, and two female vocalists. I may one day write a book about this. Prolific poet, Mark Beevers (anagram: A Verse Maker Be). Some names of the great many celeb visitors appear in information pieces from my circulars, MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP, 7 or 8 articles which are posted on this blog amongst the many, many verses. Find them by scrolling down. Paul McCartney had previously received a copy of my magazine SALTBURN SCENE and chatted to me about the Victorian pier.
From MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP No. 137 (Summer Special 2019)
Almost five years of Magic Ship, which brings me to David Bowie who'd a song called Five Years. I was introduced as Tom Fletcher's friend to David, outside my home on Glenside, in Saltburn, after I'd recently returned from teaching in Thailand. There'd been an all-star gig in Teesside, which would move onto Manchester and then near London, film-maker Oliver Stone told me. Bowie had arrived late, jet-lagged, for the Teesside gig.
He'd once had a fear of planes, saying he was waiting for the flying saucer. Anyway, he was eager to chat with Ricky Gervais who'd only just told me he liked my funny lyrics. There were royals and MPs young and old, and - of course - security, among the many black celebs and the many white celebs, now visiting sunny Saltburn. I have previously mentioned some names in Magic Ship, but here are some more: Doris Day, Buzz Aldrin, Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful, members from Abba, members from Fleetwood Mac, Bryan Ferry, Sting, members from Dire Straits, Pete Doherty and Kate Moss, Mickey Finn, Steve Harley, Adam Ant, members from Duran Duran, Gary Numan, Status Quo, members from Pink Floyd, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Meat Loaf, Rik Mayall, Lenny Henry, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand, Keith Lemon, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, cast from FRIENDS, cast from the blockbuster TITANIC, Johnny Depp, members from Spice Girls, Jimmy Page, Brian May and wife, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Minouge sisters, John Travolta, Olivia Newton John, Norman Wisdom, John Cooper Clarke, Arthur Brown, J.k. Rowling, Sean Connery, Billy Connolly and wife, Kate Bush and brother, Ringo Starr and son, Tina Turner, Cher, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Jack Nicholson, George Clooney, Will Smith, Janet Jackson, John Lydon and wife, Boy George, George Michael, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen (who sadly took ill), Lou Reed, Morrissey, Eartha Kitt, Prince and Madonna, Brigitte Bardot, Diana Ross, members from Village People, cast from STAR WARS, Tom Cruise, Michael Crawford, Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Jack Black, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, Martin Shaw, Cliff Richard, Hank Marvin. Cheers mateys, Captain Mark
"Don't do as we do,
do as we say."
Has it not always
been this way ?
They make the laws,
they make the rules,
think they're kings and queens
and we their fools.
Whether on the Left
or on the Right,
they who lead us
will also smite
we who would do
as do they.
"Don't do as we do,
do as we say."
STARS VISIT TO SALBURN: Due to an earlier invite from me, to Pete Doherty, and to Tom Fletcher (of McFly), to come to Saltburn with their friends, an all-star attendance at a celebrity gig in Teesside later visited the town, the many black celebs and many white celebs overcrowding the pubs on the seafront, after disembarking on Albion Terrace a number of days, and avoiding the town centre, as I'd suggested, by filing past my home on Glenside, then into the nearby woods that led to the seafront, or taking the S-bank, along the alleyway I now choose to call 'Stardust Alley'. I'd recently returned from Thailand where I'd been teaching English Language and writing for Pattaya Trader. As published in the trader, I have written lyrics, anonymously, for several now known bands, and two female vocalists. I may one day write a book about this. Prolific poet, Mark Beevers (anagram: A Verse Maker Be). Some names of the great many celeb visitors appear in information pieces from my circulars, MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP, 7 or 8 articles which are posted on this blog amongst the many, many verses. Find them by scrolling down. Paul McCartney had previously received a copy of my magazine SALTBURN SCENE and chatted to me about the Victorian pier.
From MIDDLESBROUGH MAGIC SHIP No. 137 (Summer Special 2019)
Almost five years of Magic Ship, which brings me to David Bowie who'd a song called Five Years. I was introduced as Tom Fletcher's friend to David, outside my home on Glenside, in Saltburn, after I'd recently returned from teaching in Thailand. There'd been an all-star gig in Teesside, which would move onto Manchester and then near London, film-maker Oliver Stone told me. Bowie had arrived late, jet-lagged, for the Teesside gig.
He'd once had a fear of planes, saying he was waiting for the flying saucer. Anyway, he was eager to chat with Ricky Gervais who'd only just told me he liked my funny lyrics. There were royals and MPs young and old, and - of course - security, among the many black celebs and the many white celebs, now visiting sunny Saltburn. I have previously mentioned some names in Magic Ship, but here are some more: Doris Day, Buzz Aldrin, Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful, members from Abba, members from Fleetwood Mac, Bryan Ferry, Sting, members from Dire Straits, Pete Doherty and Kate Moss, Mickey Finn, Steve Harley, Adam Ant, members from Duran Duran, Gary Numan, Status Quo, members from Pink Floyd, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Meat Loaf, Rik Mayall, Lenny Henry, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand, Keith Lemon, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, cast from FRIENDS, cast from the blockbuster TITANIC, Johnny Depp, members from Spice Girls, Jimmy Page, Brian May and wife, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Minouge sisters, John Travolta, Olivia Newton John, Norman Wisdom, John Cooper Clarke, Arthur Brown, J.k. Rowling, Sean Connery, Billy Connolly and wife, Kate Bush and brother, Ringo Starr and son, Tina Turner, Cher, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Jack Nicholson, George Clooney, Will Smith, Janet Jackson, John Lydon and wife, Boy George, George Michael, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen (who sadly took ill), Lou Reed, Morrissey, Eartha Kitt, Prince and Madonna, Brigitte Bardot, Diana Ross, members from Village People, cast from STAR WARS, Tom Cruise, Michael Crawford, Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Jack Black, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, Martin Shaw, Cliff Richard, Hank Marvin. Cheers mateys, Captain Mark
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