3251 - Pushing

I'm loving life, I'm in complete control
It may not always show, I'm a loner
I have a few friends and family, not all
Have that, especially those who live on the
Social media in substitution for
Real life, and who have little that they can
When push comes to shove, genuinely offer
Anything of value to other men
(And women.) You could argue with this plan
I like to have fun, I am not a troll
I like everyone happy, like to share
Happiness, and not deprive anyone
I was brought up that way, respect to all
Have a great life, even though it's not fair

3241 - Worry flurry

Now for today, what happened, not a lot
Back at work after one day off, and now
I'm feeling tired. I know that I should put
An advert up for the room, start to show
It off to potential renters, allow
Me to improve my lifestyle, get money
Although I admit I'm worried somehow
Who will it be, will we get on, will he
Or she be clean, well-behaved, trustworthy
However, I think probably I will not
Do that tonight. Energy-wise, I'm low
Might play guitar, Chevalier and Rossi
And then Serge G are next up, they are hot
Stuff to play along to (tu sais) you know

3229 - They don't know what to do with their lives

I must admit I don't feel quite tip top
I should hopefully sleep quite well tonight
May have overdone it slightly, yep
Too much work and walking yesterday, quite
Knackered and slightly ill now. But despite
That, a drink or two, time to celebrate
Relaxing for a few hours now, a flight
Of fingers on my guitar, then acquaint
Myself with Big Brother, I was too late
Last night to see which housemate got the chop
Channel 5 doing its usual job to slight
The British working classes without jobs
Where are the jobs nowadays we create
For the less gifted, less rich? None in sight

3219 - Through the media darkly

Very tired, often am in midsummer
When those light mornings get inside my mind
Spent what seemed like hours listening to the
Night-time radio, hearing horror of blind
Hate and sexism in Middle East land
I think that made it hard for me to drop
Off for a while, so hard to understand
But how much do we really know from top
To bottom, is it all bad or to stop
Believing what you hear and see, media
Bias towards the west we understand
Can prevent the whole truth being served up
Life is chaos, it's very rarely fair
All we can do is work hard til the end

3215 - Hexagon of life

The Champions League Final has just ended
And Barcelona did beat Juventus
As expected, yes, as I predicted
And they deserved it, they played the best stuff
The Cup's about to be dished out, Suarez
With his teeth will be smiling, no doubt. And
Today hung out with Josie Wosie, she's
In that pre-teen phase where she could offend
Her parents. Parents - hmmph! Old folks, the end
Of respectability for us. Did
The usual walk round the Arndale, purchased
Presents for Grandma Anita. Things end
But new things begin, grab them with both hands
Only one life, as they say to all us!

3199 - New war

Oh my goodness, life is well, just a ride
And each day is precious, like to think I
See it as pleasure, not a chore, not snide
To other people, not two-faced, but try
To give and receive pleasure, that's the high
Point and message, nothing else is as good
Don't need a religion to justify
My intention of global brotherhood
In fact, religion divides, tribal blood
Is shed endlessly as they always did
The difference in recent decades was why
The west thought it ruled the roost, but it should
No longer think that, can no more decide
Alone thanks to its cheap technology

3198 - That will be the week, that will

Just written four songs with funny lyrics
Replacing the conventional old words
A set I hope to do twice in next week's
Comedy slots - it may not win awards
It should, but we don't get our just deserts
However, enemies just make us strong
In order to survive their gunfire bursts
Like superheroes, we just can't be flung
Like superheroes, we can do no wrong
Our confidence can overcome their tricks
Our righteousness overcomes their absurd
And when the time comes to unleash our tongue
We'll spit them into space with verbal licks
They'll return to earth broken, sheathe their swords

3165 - Life is....

You might think you know what this is but I
Don't think you do, because me, I don't think
I know, don't think I do, don't care, know why
And not only don't I know, I don't think
I know, so don't think you can tell me, pink
Or red, what's the difference? It's all the same
There's no difference, it's all in the seeing
And therefore everything's part of a game
Tactics, luck, you name it, you'd go insane
If you tried to quantify, qualify
Everything, which I can't do, beginning
With the impossibility, the main
Point being that no-one knows how to apply
Themselves to life, it's just a random thing

Fri 17 April 

3142 - Midweek drink

Good night out with Pearly on Tariff Street
First, Kosmonaut, then El Capo, and then
The Whisky Jar, although that was no treat
Five quid for a sip of whisky, I drained
It in no time, but never mind, I've been
In there and that's good, I've sampled it now
A cool part of Manchester, though nothing
Compared to London, as Pearl said, and wow
She's been to many places down there, how
Many great nights she's had, that can't be beat
By anything up here in this Northern
Powerhouse, as it's now called down below
Back home in time for a drink as the night
Draws on, as time moves on, as life moves on

Wed 25 March

3134 - Stay strong

People disappoint, so you carry on
With each rebuff, you garner a bit more
Self-belief, you just have a bit more fun
Strength of character, borne out of those bores
You realise that all they have is poor
Compared to your hard won separateness
If you can keep that, then they can't compare
There is such a thing as your righteousness
As one with people who have passed the test
Walked through fire, tempered themselves with iron
And nothing frightens you then, you are sore
But have the weapons to resist their guess
Their lack of knowledge, their innate boredom
Who cares what they think, their thoughts make you snore

Tue 17 March

3097 - Not feeling the heat

Passing time on Sunday evening, heat on
As it's still pretty darn cold. Tried to read
This enormous hardback that's really long
But it made me feel sleepy in the head
So now I've listened to some Wilko. Need
To familiarise his stuff for the gig
In March at The Ritz. Louis has indeed
Got the bus to London, where he's staying
At Pearl's and searching for rooms. He's coming
Back next weekend though to collect what's on
The bedroom floor, still. Most of it lies neat
In wheelie bins now, out of sight, thinking
Life somehow feels a little less humdrum
Each day I do what I want, so I am pleased

3027 - Rams-are-leaders-ding-dong

Enjoying the quiet life as autumn soon
Turns to winter; November, December
Loads in my bank account, far from ruin
If I keep this up! Derby still hold their
Top spot in the Championship despite a
Loss at Leeds I nearly saw in person
But neither Louis nor Josie were here
To go with, and we lost, so there. Our run
Despite our stutters goes reliably on
Helped by regular luck, other teams doing
Us favours by failing to be winners
When it matters. Not done much - all I've done
Is read my pop book, covering eighties tunes
This book's given me many songs to hear

2919 - Goodbyeeeee

Oh well, here we are, one more day is gone
Everyone's agonising over the
Death of Robin Williams, yes, he was one
Of a kind, stand-up genius, what can you
Say? Apart from that, life goes on, oh yeah
What is there to say? Nothing, I would say
So let's carry on, try not to despair
No, let's instead try hard to say hurray
Why, I'm not sure, but we are here today
So while we're here, we must just carry on
Of course, there have been great people, no more
With us, but there are new people always
Let's look forward, let's not worry, move on
And so a day ends, does anyone care?

2845 - Knock back the porter, you portly Stockporter

Here I am now, safely back from Stockport
Beer Festival, it was full of obese
Blokes, but some more folks as well, we're all caught
In the alcoholic net, we're all squeezed
By life into a situation. Please
Don't pretend all's well. But failure is fun
If you can have a laugh and so appease
Your ego now and then, if not often
Because beer costs quite a lot, my son
I got in free though, saved 5 quid. That's eased
My bank account, fuck you, FC Stockport!
Louise, Richard, Steve, I chinwagged with them
I'd have liked to go to the disco but
Next time maybe. Now it's time for a snooze...

Fri 30 May

2837 - Both sides of Dylan now

Here I am, 3:15 on Friday night
Been out on the town with Nance and Dermot
Listening to Dylan on headphones, I write
It's easy when you know how, or know not
Hope I can read this tomorrow, a lot
Of hope there, it may be hope that's misplaced
But I hope not, I hope all's in the pot
And that when all's done, I won't be disgraced
In life you mustn't go too fast, be paced
You can plumb the depths and can hit the heights
Life can be cold and life can be red hot
These things can be avoided or be faced
Until the end you never quite know quite
So I'll end shortly with that timely thought

Fri 23 May very late when drunk and listening to 'Another Side of Bob Dylan'

2826 - Norman's wisdom

It's been a really good day, good evening
After work, I went down to the Eagle
It was a groovy poetry night, reading
A poem I wrote while there, my mind was full
Before the beers kicked in and made a fool
Of me, as they'll do now, but I don't care
This has been life-affirming, it's been cool
Into life's ugly face I will now stare
And have wisdom, humour beyond compare
Deal with it, oh you peeps, you start dealing
With reality, things that are, life's full
Of disappointment, surely I've been there
But as it goes on, it keeps improving
And now, fuck you, life, things are going well

2787 - Tickly cough

Do aliens live out there in Saturn's rings
Or on its moons where oceans lie beneath
Or how 'bout one of those disks orbiting
The giant red-eyed Jupiter, it's breath
Perhaps warming those icy spheres where death
Is larger than life, as it mostly is
Apart from here on this blue planet Earth
Where every nook, every peak's touched by us
Directly with grubby greedy fingers
Or indirectly by the poisoning
Half-human wind that's now polluting both
The thing we don't value, the wilderness
And the thing we do, ourselves, and as spring
Heats up the sour air, we gasp for breath

2573 - News from nowhere

It's been a hard day, and a hard evening
Playing bad-ass guitar hard as I can
It's now ten o'clock, and time for eating
The toilet's not flushing - I use a pan
I make things up in real time, there's no plan
Oh for fuck's sake, please stop this reporting
On the no news of the missing airplane
Next's doing better than M&S, things
Are really topsy-turvy if you think
Anything's guaranteed, but this living
Is an up and down thing - things go up and
Go down and then in-between, just middling
Let's not be surprised at discovering
That bad things happen. We're all too human

2558 - I got stung

What's to say, after all the gobshites we've
Endured over the decades of my life
I say this in the safety of a Salford eve
I say this in the absence of a wife
I'm free to say what I believe and strive
For, whatever that is, musically
A thing that's not important in the hive
Of queen bees telling me what I should see
Maybe I'm still short-sighted, obviously
But do they care about what I conceive
After decades of struggle and of strife
Rejection and fascistic obloquy
I'd still like to say just what I perceive
And that's what I'll do til I leave this life

2552 - I love music

Days, weeks, months, all good seemingly this year
Mind you, each year has been good in the past
Appreciate each day, have fun, good cheer
And if possible, even have a blast
Why else be alive? Time goes by so fast
But really it's slow, fate is kind to us
More so than in the past, but that has passed
However, do we know that? Why now must
Things always get better now than they used
To be? Some people seek answers in prayer
And all expect science to win at last
Maybe it's best to be oblivious
Just follow your goals, what they want, don't care
Music and love their happy shadows cast