Day: November 14, 2020

Nature Trail by Benjamin Zephaniah

~ JezzieG

Nature Trail

At the bottom of my garden
There’s a hedgehog and a frog
And a lot of creepy-crawlies
Living underneath a log,
There’s a baby daddy long legs
And an easy-going snail
And a family of woodlice,
All are on my nature trail.
There are caterpillars waiting
For their time to come to fly,
There are worms turning the earth over
As ladybirds fly by,
Birds will visit, cats will visit
But they always chose their time
And I’ve even seen a fox visit
This wild garden of mine.
Squirrels come to nick my nuts
And busy bees come buzzing
And when the night time comes
Sometimes some dragonflies come humming,
My garden mice are very shy
And I’ve seen bats that growl
And in my garden I have seen
A very wise old owl.
My garden is a lively place
There’s always something happening,
There’s this constant search for food
And then there’s all that flowering,
When you have a garden
You will never be alone
And I believe we all deserve
A garden of our own

Benjamin Zephaniah
Born: 15 April 1958, Birmingham, UK
Nationality: British

Born and raised in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, UK, Zephaniah is a writer, dub poet and Rastafarian. He is dyslexic and attended an approved school but left at 13 years old unable to read or write. He was included in The Times list of Britain’s Top 50 post-war writers in 2008

Jolly Roger by Adam and the Ants

~ JezzieG ~ 2 Comments

Adam and the Ants

Adam and the Ants were a rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1880s. The group lasted from 1977 to 1982 and existed in two incarnations both fronted by Adam Ant. The first incarnation, May 1977 to November 1977, achieved a cult following during the transition from punk rock to new wave. Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman and Leigh Gorman at the suggestion of Malcolm McLaren went on to form the controversial Bow Wow Wow . The second incarnation of the Ants included Marco Pirroni on guitar and drummer-producer Chris Hughes. The band went on to achieve commercial success in the UK and abroad which continued into Adam Ant’s solo career

Jolly Roger
Album: Kings of the Wild Frontier
Date: 1980
Genre: Post-Punk

Lyrics Marco Pirroni and Adam Ant

In days of old, when ships were bold
Just like the men who sailed them
And if they showed us disrespect
We'd tie them up and flail them
Often men of low degree
And often men of steel
Who'd make you walk the plank alone
Or haul you 'round the keel
Hoist the Jolly Roger!
Hoist the Jolly Roger!
Hoist the Jolly Roger!
It's your money that we want
And your money we shall have!
Of all the pirates on the seas
The worst of them was Blackbeard
So damnable a fiend from hell
He was the one they most feared
Any man who sailed with him
Was taking quite a chance
He'd hang them from the gallows
Just to see if they could dance (ha! ha!)

She Will Survive

~ JezzieG

Form: Free Verse

You are the miracle of divine creation
thirsting for water across the dry passage of time
and when the rains come your body immerses in freshness
like a bath in cocoa butter making you shine
and shimmer with the silent stories
we know within our souls yet too often deny
ignoring your protests like spoiled children
your sons and daughters complaining at a single drop of rain
yet it is the floods that pump through your veins
mining the future of life from the mud
rejoicing in beautiful colours in mulled cascades
of flowers
and we swallow, drowning in your beauty
breathing, believing that you will survive the droughts of humanity
until the blessed rains fall again

©JGFarmer2020

Karma Chameleon by Culture Club

~ JezzieG ~ 3 Comments

Culture Club

Culture Club is a band formed in 1981 in London, UK. The band line-up comprises of vocalist Boy George, Roy Hay on guitar and keyboards, bass guitarist Mikey craig, and Jon Moss on drums and percussion. Culture Club is considered one of the most influential and representative groups of the 1980s. Led by singer, boy George, whose androgynous style caught public and media attention in the early 1980s, the band has sold over 50 million records. Hits include ‘Do You Really Want to hurt Me’, ‘Time’, ‘Church of the Poison Mind’, ‘I Just Wanna Be Loved’, and ‘Karma Chameleon.’

Karma Chameleon
Album: Colour by Numbers
Date: 1983
Genre: Pop

Lyrics by George Alan O’Dowd, Jonathan Aubrey Moss, Michael Emile Craig, Roy Ernest Hay, and Philip Stuart Pickett

There's a loving in your eyes all the way
If I listen to your lies, would you say
I'm a man (a man) without conviction
I'm a man (a man) who doesn't know
How to sell (to sell) a contradiction
You come and go, you come and go
Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon
You come and go, you come and go
Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dreams
Red, gold, and green, red, gold, and green
Didn't hear your wicked words every day
And you used to be so sweet I heard you say
That my love (my love) was an addiction
When we cling (we cling), our love is strong
When you go (you go), you're gone forever
You string along, you string along
Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon
You come and go, you come and go
Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dreams
Red, gold, and green, red, gold, and green
Every day is like survival (survival)
You're my lover (my lover), not my rival
Every day is like survival (survival)
You're my lover (my lover), not my rival
I'm a man (a man) without conviction
I'm a man (a man) who doesn't know
How to sell (to sell) a contradiction
You come and go, you come and go
Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon
You come and go, you come and go
Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dreams
Red, gold, and green, red, gold, and green
Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon
You come and go, you come and go
Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dreams
Red, gold, and green, red, gold, and green
Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon
You come and go, you come and go
Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dreams
Red, gold, and green, red, gold, and green
Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon

Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

~ JezzieG

Ode on a Grecian Urn
1820

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

John Keats
Born: 31 October 1795, London, England
Nationality: English
Died: 23 February 1821, Rome, Italy

John Keats was an English Romantic poet and one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantics alongside Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. By the end of the 19th century he was one of the most beloved of the English poets and a significant influence on a vast and diverse range of poets and writers.