Of Croft Spa Origin

OF CROFT SPA ORIGIN

Alice was demure and O
so sensible that she really put
cut to the idea which the mad
sad Sir Harry made so clear at the
tea for if no-one could make
cake in a time so Cheshire-like
Mike could always be counted on to
do what the Queen and her head
led with their minds so surely spent
went without saying of course if anyone should
wood take from the tree that the cat
sat on whilst suckling the pig
jig the Irish griffin danced around
sounding the gong at all comers and
hand out the orders the mirror to make
break repair mend tear sew
lo there came in a jiffy or less
mess so muddy and full of mud
would shatter the illusion of a
bay horse or Shetland pony of origin
in the large country house
Rose the girl from Wales
mails the letters of congratulation from
someone to the bride
ride the wedding coach and four
for the sunshine honeymoon
June the month of the heather bells
quells the sound of the drinking men
when the hole in the ceiling grew
too small in area to mend
end

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 12th December 1966

Publications

1996 Tangent (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

On An Early Morning Walk Through The Park To The City

ON AN EARLY MORNING WALK
THROUGH THE PARK TO THE CITY

I stood and watched as the lights played
on the waters of the Kelvin;
the lights of houses on Dumbarton Road
in the background
It was still dark
but sun was beginning to dispel
the frostiness of night
In the open park — a beautiful scene —
the bare-limbed trees standing against the sky
the cold winds reminding
- it is December -
I did not stand for long
but wrapping my scarf
securely round my neck
walked on
At every step the sky
lightened as the sun climbed
The only other person I passed in the park
did not return my "Good Morning!" — I supposed
that was what came of living in a city
or perhaps he was just cold
and not in a very good mood
I walked into the lights of Sauchiehall Street
where cars were already on the move
and pedestrian numbers increased
as the small hand crept towards eight

And the darkness was soon all gone
'Day' was the term in use
The city was awake
but I was falling back to sleep

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 1st December 1966

Publications

1988 The White Rose Literary Magazine (UK)
1996 Mobius (MI, USA)

The New Story of Mohammad and the Mountain

THE NEW STORY OF MOHAMMAD AND THE MOUNTAIN

Mohammad Mohammad sat in his room
in the Palace of a Thousand Loving Nights
in the Street of a Thousand Dead Virgins

Mohammad Mohammad thought to himself
of the mountain which stood on the other side of the river
So he sent for his Chief Messenger

- Go tell yonder mountain to come unto me -
The messenger returned to Mohammad Mohammad several days after
- Oh Great Mohammad Mohammad the mountain has sent reply -

- The mountain will not come to Mohammad
Mohammad must go to the mountain -
Mohammed Mohammed was not angry

He did not tear his clothes
He did not beat his breast
- The mountain shall be brought unto me -

Next day there started on the journey to the mountain
fourteen lorries two bulldozers and the foreman's mark ten jag.
They worked all day and they worked all night

The lorries journied to and fro
and in forty days and thirty-nine nights
the mountain stood in the garden of the palace

If Mohammad will not go to the mountain
the mountain may be brought to Mohammad

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 15th November 1966

Publications

1976 MEETINGS AT THE MOOR'S EDGE (West Kirkby, Headland)
1994 International Poetry (USA)

Recollections - November 5th

RECOLLECTIONS: NOVEMBER 5th 1966

It was just the other day.
Bonfire night the fifth of November.
I went down myself
to where the suburb children
had built their bonfire
and as I watched the effigy
slowly being burnt,
I thought to myself I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

My thoughts floated back
to the little close in Petergate
where in 1570
in the Church of St. Michael-le-Belfry
behind the great Minster of York,
Guy Fawkes was baptised.
And as a rocket shot out of a one-pint milk-bottle,
shooting high over tenement roofs,
I thought I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

My thoughts escaped
to the Old Hall at Scotton
where Guy's childhood was spent.
There, in those rooms, did he plot
with the Brothers Wright?
And I thought of their home,
Ploughland, on the Spurn Road
where Holderness cocks a snoot at the sea.
Just then they lit some Roman candles
and the explosion of a banger
woke me and arrested my thoughts.
Then I remembered, I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

My thoughts escaped once more;
down South to Kettering and Newton Hall
where met the unlucky thirteen,
six Yorkshiremen and seven others,
to plan the annihilation of King and Parliament for ever,
with thirty-two hundredweight of powder.
And as the bonfire cast shadows on the ground
I remembered I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

Oh how I pictured,
as the body on the fire
began to disintegrate in the flames,
the sufferings felt by Guy
as he neither lay nor sat nor stood
in the Cell of Little Ease until,
on the 31st day of January
in the year sixteen hundred and six,
he was executed,
hung, drawn and quartered.
I knew  as I watched the dying embers of the fire,
I ought not to be here -
it is a Yorkshireman whom they burn.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed, Glasgow, 6th November 1966

Publications
1967 Pontefract & Castleford Express (UK)
2006 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)
2008 York Daily Photo (Internet)

A Two-Way Conversation

A TWO-WAY CONVERSATION

Prayer is a two-way conversation
I pray to God
I confess my sins
I ask for forgiveness
Then I listen
for the voice of God
and God will speak to me
He will lead me forward into life
He will be my guide
He will indicate the correct path to take
The main part of prayer
is silence
listening
waiting
for a word from God
God communicates to us
through prayer
for prayer is a two-way conversation

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 1st November 1966

Publications

1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)
1987 Christian Living (USA)

His

HIS

Once

I was dead
dead and dead
and dead indeed

But now I live
I have been raised
from the realm of the dead
to the land of the living
I have emptied myself
of the dead matter
which lay within me
blocking the passage of truth
I have filled this empty shell
with Christ
He dwells inside me
I am his
and his alone

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 1st November 1966

Publications

1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)
2000 THE POETRY CHURCH COLLECTION FOR LENT AND EASTER 2000 (Shrewsbury, Feather Books)

I Sense That

(click above to view text)

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 11th October 1966

Publications
1970 YORKSHIRE POETS '71 (Sheffield, Grove Publications)
1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1990 Temm (USA)
1991 California State Poetry Quarterly (USA)
1997 The Bard's Library (Internet)

Still Dead

STILL DEAD

I thought it could be done
but now I know it can not
Once you are dead
you are dead
and dead indeed
I thought I could be resurrected
I thought I could kill death
But you cannot live by dying
Two deaths do not make a birth
I thought that he who raised Lazarus
could also raise me
but the dead cannot raise the dead
and I have killed him
I drove the nails into his hands
I hung him on the cross
upon the hill called Calvary
outside the city walls
of Jerusalem
I am also responsible for my own death
I committed mental suicide
I committed the unforgivable sin
of rebelling against the Holy Ghost
Yet the Devil has not purchased my soul
I cannot go into Hell
but neither can I reach Heaven
and I do not believe in Purgatory
so where am I ?

I am a ghost without a castle to haunt
a prophet without a prophesy to preach
a magician without a spell to weave
I am still not alive
I am still dead

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 1st October 1966

Publication

1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)

God

GOD

God is not to be found on the mountain-top
The view is not of insecurity
Security to the insecure seems as insecurity;
the mountain it is which is paltry

His absence from the world
is merely the illusion of blind men
He is not the absentee landlord
He created everything
He built nothing
He is un-religious

God is not a guy
who lives in the sky
or on mountain-tops
He is everything to do with me and you

He made the world
but we forgot
and do not listen to the orders
sent from his throne

His crown
is a crown of thorns,
his throne a bramble bush
We called him insane
and locked him away
up in the sky
on the top of the mountain

And if you want
to break his laws
do, but remember,
he does care
and did care
and if was insane
then better his madness
than our sanity

God's not a guy
who lives in the sky
He's everything to do with me and you

© Gerald England

Composed: Ackworth, 11th September 1966

Publication
1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)

Epic Thought

EPIC THOUGHT

If Virgil in his genius
had written Homer's Iliad
Homer would have killed us
with his version of what Virgil had

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 2nd September 1966

Publication
1989 I HAVE A RIGHT TO FARM (Whitby, Canada, Plowman)

Paradox

PARADOX

The passed-on have not passed on
the living are not alive
soon the time will come
when time will not be
and the complete will be incomplete
the end has begun
continuance is discontinued
the truthful lie
the lying prove true
they are coming
but they won't stay long
soon be gone
and what is this heaven
which men call hell ?
it is the life we live
the death we die
the future is past
the past not come
and as for the present
it is absent
and all is nothing
nothing is all
love is a hateful thing
the straight is crooked
the crooked straight
and the real paradox is
that there is no paradox

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 1st September 1966

Publications
1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)
1994 International Poetry (USA)
1997 8 (Internet)
2001 SECOND INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY ON PARADOXISM (Romania, Anotimp & Abaddaba)

LSD

The text of this poem is not to hand.

Composed: Glasgow, 10th August 1966

Publication
POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)

Gloria

I

Here comes
a thing new
It has been before
It will come again
Each time it is new

The dead are buried
deep in their graves
We offer a salute to life

The future is held
in the future
Fortune-tellers do not last

Walk through the door
Attempt the course

II

The year's second month
brings always the snow
deep or shallow
crisp or slushy
even or dispersed

Go forward
Do not stay behind
The future awaits
lies ahead

The affirmative
is correct
Utterance
of the negative
is to be condemned

Life abundant is
Death no more is
She alive is

III

Look
Take heed of the mad
Sanity is insane

Try to do the impossible
and only the possible
is achieved
but even failure
is some achievement


The air is sad
and hard
No knife can cut through

A voice calls
needs must away

IV

Watch the rains beat
upon the ground
making wet
the street beneath

Foul the smell
Foul the smelt
Foul the smeller
But foul
to the foul
is sweet

The passage is blocked
there is no escape

Only the darkness
hides
what the light
reveals
for the darkness
is all around the light
though can not
extinguish it

V

Come Spring
Joyous Spring
Here
for but one season

It will not wait
must journey on
towards Summer
to return
again
after the lapse
of another three

It is close
nearer than you think
at hand
ready to swoop

Hear me
I speak only the truth
I cannot hide the truth
Listen

VI

June is a special month
coming between
May and July
The sixth month of the year

Search
What is it we find?
The one?
The other?

The gentle moon rises
Always it rises
in the late evening
throwing some light
upon the dark

But also prejudges
are served up with chips
on unsalted shoulders
with no vinegar
The axes grind deep

VII

The sun
is shining down
upon the earth
upon the faces
of both the good
and the evil

The beginning
is long past
the ending
not yet in sight
It is the middle of the road
the most treacherous
time of all

The mind blurs
That dazed look
is the inevitable
the price of uncertainty
of groping
of wonder
All new grows old
in the passage of time
But the determining factor
is the rate of ageing

VIII

Away
away from the world
Routine left behind
Not cure —
recuperation

Walk along the shore
Watch the waves
break
upon the rocks
on the sand

My ears ring
I hear a call
which comes to me
from somewhere

Who calls?
I know no-one
But my ears
do not lie
Yet I know
no-one

IX

The leaves fall
from the trees
Autumn
casts a spell
of brown
over a once-green
landscape

There is a short time
only
now
to wait



The wheat
the corn
is collected all in
But the main harvest
is gathered in
unseen
without tell-tale sheaves

A song
a hymn
is raised to heaven
The fields were white
but not quite

X

Return
The holiday is over
Work awaits doing

The Devil waits
with his demons
But is it in Hell?

The corners
hide shadows
dark
menacing
cold
evil

Things are unseen
for sight
cannot penetrate
where is no light

XI

The end is in sight
creeping nearer
every second
And sixty make a minute

Do not put me away
Sanity seems insane
but it is not
so

The bend
has not been turned
The crooked road
runs straight

I am sad
I weep
for myself
I weep
for others
I weep
for my tears

XII

The aged limbs cease
The heavy breathing stops
The pump dries
The lungs collapse
The old man dies

The thighs open
The womb releases its catch
The mouth cries
The eyes see
First earthly morn
No beat is lost
The babe is born

The end
is no end
but a reversal
to the beginning
The old
is made new

Christ was born
that he might die
and impart
the message
that we
must die
in order
to be born

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 8th August 1966

Publication
1973 New Headland

My Happiness

MY HAPPINESS

For the past few days
I've been feeling happy
but I'm unhappy
in my happiness
because
I don't know why I'm happy
and anyway
I know
from past experience
that my happiness
will not last,
that soon
something will happen
to make me unhappy
I would be waiting
all the time
for something to happen
to bring me out of my happiness
and make me unhappy
I wish that that something
whatever it is
would happen
and make me unhappy
for I'd know
from past experience
that my unhappiness
would not last

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 1st August 1966

Publications
1971 YORKSHIRE POETS '71 (Sheffield, Grove Publications)
1972 Numquam Mens (UK)
1986 Psychopoetica (UK)

Blind Love

BLIND LOVE

Other men
wonder about me
because my girlfriend
is fat and ugly
Indeed
she is the ugliest girl
I've ever seen
She's got a middle-aged spread
at only twenty-two
Her legs are fat
and crooked
Her arms
are the envy of local navvies
But she's my girl
and I love her so
I do not gaze into her eyes
for when we kiss
I close my eyes
her thick arms
know exactly
how to embrace me
When other men
in their foolish wisdom
ask me
what I see in her
I just tell them
- I
don't use my eyes
to make love
Another part of my body
is far better
equipped

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Lochinver, 1st July 1966

Publication
1970 Bogg (UK)

Non-Slogan for a Mountaineer Beginner

NONSLOGAN FOR A MOUNTAINEER BEGINNER

- It's easy - said the mountaineer condescending
- provided you remember don't look down -
said I - that's all very well ascending
but what about when you're coming down -

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Lochinver, 30th June 1966

Publications
1984 Folio (UK)
2005 Haiku Scotland (UK)

Ballade of an Unsuccessful Search

BALLADE OF AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH

I've been to Derby and Nottingham,
Notting Hill - London, The Gorbals - Glasgow,
Stratford on Avon and Cheltenham
but I find nothing wherever I go.
In Caithness - Wick, in Cornwall - Polperro,
along the moorland and along the shore,
but everywhere brings me a bitter blow
for I've not yet found what I'm looking for.

I've travelled to Henley and Beckenham
through wind and rain and sun and sleet and snow,
by train, by car, by ship, by bus, by tram -
all the way from Penzance to Thurso.
For all my travelling I've nothing to show.
In every town I knock on every door.
I've grown tired of hunting high and low
for I've not yet found what I'm looking for.

I have even been into Birmingham.
To anywhere in Wales the way I know -
an expert on travel is what I am -
Pembroke, Chester, Whitby, Morpeth, Kelso,
Oban, Sheffield, Lincoln, Oxford, Truro -
but I don't want to go on any more;
I'm weary and my heart is filled with woe
for I've not yet found what I'm looking for

ENVOI

Prince, won't you tell me just where I should go?
Prince tell me what the future holds in store.
I drive fast but the pace of life is slow
for I've not yet found what I'm looking for.

© Gerald England

Composed: Ackworth, 26th June 1966

Previously Unpublished

The Long Longing

THE LONG LONGING

In prison
for thee I long
Yet free
I long for thee
Free as a bird
I long to be heard
Nothing is new
I long for you
With you
without you
this is my song
- For thee I long -

I long
to belong
to thee
and thee to me

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 20th June 1966

Publications
1967 New Melody (UK)
1993 International Poetry (USA)

Will The Dead Never Rise?

Composed: Ackworth, 16th June 1966

Publications
1974 Zimri (UK)
1992 Sacrifice the Common Sense (USA)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

Song for the Unconverted

SONG FOR THE UNCONVERTED

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

You only have to do good deeds
supplying others' needs

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

The man in the shop who sells us soap
will no more in the darkness grope

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

All good children say your prayers
when you have gone up the stairs

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

You soldiers on the battlefield
don't buy a ticket - there is no need

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

You don't even have to be a Christian
just be a good man or good woman

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

As long as you repent in
the end, don't worry about sin

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!
Everyone's going to heaven

If everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!
I want to go to Hell!

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow 6th April 1966

Publication
1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)