Dear Friends, My life has been paused by a an embarrassingly-large, cancerous kidney tumour. This morning, I thought – what if I attempt to write a song a day? This is this morning’s song plucked from an hour of my time.
Good Time Rock ‘n Roll with the Addition of Jamaican beach music
Nothin’ anybody can do
Nothin’ anybody can say
My doin’ don’t belong to you
Gonna do it anyway
(musicians – tambourine, tin drum, wash-board, mandolin, clarinet, trumpet…)
Y’ doin’ don’t belong to me
Nothin’ that I can say
I’ve gotta learn to see
Y’ gonna do it anyway
(musicians as above, but then quietening to Jamaican lilt)
Where I belong
The elders sing
Eternal songs
Of all belonging
Livin’ time
‘s mine to hand
By livin’ rhyme
Where children stand
Inhabit commons
Of good behaviour
Time summons
Digger and leveller.
Enclosures shade
The ingenious view
Cultures are made
By what people do
Please come away
To scents and sounds
Bird-song dawn
Sea-shore day
Fields and woods
Where life is found.
Common good
Is common ground
Nothin’ anybody can do – & etc… (Refrain and return of rock ‘n roll)
Bad news, friend. Is it unexpected?
I’ve been pondering on some of your recent posts. I’m not sure Jeremy Corbyn was quite the messiah you described, nor that his election was so much to blame on the media. At best, he would have been an Obama-like figure, hamstrung by the system he operated in. There’s also a part of the British popular way of thinking that is reminiscent of Turkeys voting for Christmas, because it’s traditional and in keeping with British values.
Does your song have a tune?
Birdsong dawn and seashore day. I like it.
I wish you strength and grace to deal with your illness.
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Oh yikes, I’m distressed to hear that. I’ll be thinking of you in this time of difficulty and anxiety. Stay amongst us, friend!
I hear Blake in your song, amongst other echoes.
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Dear Michelle and Joshua – Yes my plan is to stick around. My tumour cannot be killed, but it is possible to keep it at bay for a few years by Immune therapy.(very expensive for the poor NHS).
Blake Michelle? Nah – It’s just wooden verse manufacture by rote! – an exercise – no magic. Mind you Blake and many others do run through my head – a part of me. Joshua, it does have a tune – the metres (there are three) evoke it.
I take your point about Jeremy Corbyn being a part of the system, which we must evacuate. But Obama is the wrong comparison. Obama is SIR Keir Starmer. Jeremy is Bernie Sanders – both of whom scared the shit from the money-men. – and neither of whom could be “permitted” to take office. Obama was “permitted”. Both Corbyn and Sanders were set to restore tax-generated commons and to remove tax-generated banks and corporations – and so make it easier for “ordinary people ” such as you and I, to begin the evacuation of the “thing” – as William Cobbet called it.
Thanks both, for your lovely messages.
Hey! I’d love to send you both a copy of my new book (poised for the printer).
Could you email your addresses – I think I have one for you Joshua, so if no change…
http://www.bryncocynorganic.co.uk
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Sorry, email info@bryncocynorganic.co.uk
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Yes, Corbyn is much more Sanders than Obama. Agreed.
I guess it shows that the ballot-box will not lead to the evolution we require.
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