Isn’t it easier to let go
Than to keep holding on
To things as they were

Isn’t it wiser
To be taken down the river
Than to fight the current of the times

Isn’t it braver
To say what you really think
Than to try and please the people you think you ought to?

Isn’t it certain
That the times are changing
And the best we can do is change with them?

I renounce the restrictions that hold me down
I cut the binding cords that I have let wrap round me
I release myself from the straightjackets
Into which I have stepped daily
For I realise that my life is as great and wide as the universe
And what is there to lose, but face, pride, status
If I should try to fulfil my wildest dreams

I don’t cope well with uncertainty
It's exhausting living like this
I end up feeling so worn out
I can’t even sleep to cure my ills

Does it matter that I show you
A ***** in my armour?
Does it matter that you drink your nights away?
If I were a different man I guess I’d lead a different life
It's simple, some might say

If I could shrug off this heavy coat
Be sure, I’d take it off
But as it is, all I can do
Is wear it with some pride

And so like treacle, thick and dense
This year draws to an end
Its hard to think what to make of that
Which waits around the bend

I close my eyes
And wait for what may come

And then, I remember the man
With the sore skin and red face
Who passed me by today

In the blank spaces of my mind I recall
The woman praying
As a young child drops a penny in her cup
And then
The elderly man on his knees
Holding out his begging cap

I remember the light rain
Moistening the coats of thrifty shoppers
As an African lady pulls a one wheeled trolley
Noisily along the cobbled pavement

People with blunted expressions
Talk of how they will spend their Christmas
Now that we cannot be together
And I sense
The dim reflected light of despair
In their eyes

How much more
Do we have to take
Before we emerge from this storm?

And I ask myself
What is left
When everything else is taken away?

I'm waiting on the line
Passing the time
Feeling fine
This day

I watch the tides
People strolling by
In grey winter time
This day

Grannies hold the hands
Of children in their prams
Whilst blackbirds pick at sand
Across the bay

Christmas cheer
May be quieter this year
As we’ll remember
All that’s passed

In the New Year
Perhaps we will be freer
Kinder than ever before?

Our hope will rise
Each new sunrise
As Spring draws ever
Nearer

People can change
But
You can't change people

Tap tap tap
Drip drip drip
Slip slip slip
Drop drop drop

Rush rush rush
Trip trip trip
Hush hush hush
Flop flop flop

Flip flip flip
Bit bit bit
Flit flit flit
Scrap scrap scrap

Scrape scrape scrape
Late Late Late
Light light light
Night night night