Sailing Man

I walked in my mind like a farmyard
Deep in the muck of my years
By the old pond and the ash tree
In the stables my horses do rear
And my pigs do snort
My swans do wail
Every time I look to the west
And I sit on my stump like a Rodin
Watching the sun on her breast

The country began on her shoulder
I walked up the borderline
And on the side of the mountain
I herded my thoughts like swine

The cider was kept in a flagon
A stone jar held the wine
I lay on the ground and drank it all down
Kicked out of the pubs nearby
I have been to the lowlands
I have been to the coasts
But there's no country fairer than her shoulder
And I've pulled up the boundary posts.


Shoulder

Rosanne was a headstrong girl
You couldn't tell her what to do
In her heart the many ruled the few
When she was just sixteen
She had in mind to wed
But her father warned her she'd be better off dead.

Barney was the king, the knave
The jester all in one
But there was no-one to succeed him, no son
He lived by wishful drinking
Which he claimed was not his choice
He had the movements of a hummingbird, the mind of joyce.

Lives of those who slip down through the cracks
Lives of the saints reclaimed and taken back

Sharon, she had so much
To give at the start
But life had gone and left her with a ransacked heart
And she didn't know
She couldn't understand
Why so many men took what they could and ran.

And Kevin down the pub again
Bore his belly like a bomb
Knowing his body would betray him 'fore to long
His habits were the product of a generation
And his history was of things he hadn't done.

Half asleep they dream now
They dream like you or I
In the village in the country beneath the sky
And though they may be forgotten
They do not stand apart
For we're all god's children in the dark
Yeah, we're all the same in the dark.

Lives Of The Saints

Straight as an arrow
That's the way i'll fly
And you won't see me comin'
With the sun behind

When I reach you darlin'
Don't wanna pierce your breast
I'll just be doin' the things you love the best

Don't you mind the way
My archer bends his bow
'Cross open country I gotta go
And I am the archer
Mine is the arrowed flight                        (apologies to R.Williamson)
I'm gonna come down and see you
Late tonight

Oh the things i'll do
Things i'll do
Things i'll do i'll do for you.

The Things I'll Do

APPEARANCES

Monday 29th August - The Lock Tavern, Camden, London, 6.30 pm, free.

Wednesday 21st September - The Boogaloo, Highgate, London, 8.00 pm, £2.

Tom Nancollas