Underneath the rug
Near the curled up crisp packet
There is still joy

Underneath the hospital bed
Near the vial of medicine
There is still joy

Underneath the bridge
Inside the cardboard home
There is still joy

Underneath my scalp
Between the two cortex's
My synapses fire

Neurons become thoughts
Thoughts become friends and enemies
Only I can decide

Joy is hope and hope never dies

7.30 a.m up
8.15 a.m out
Water in hand
Ready to stand
As a marshall at the parkrun

At the park
People and dogs come together
Conversations, chat
People thin, people fat
Ready for the briefing

Allotment corner
Here I stand
Radio, safety kit in hand
Welcoming the first lap up the hill
Well done Madame, well done Bill

Well done dog
Well done man
Well done second lap
Diggin in with the last energy on tap

Thank you Marshall
Thank you Marshall
My pleasure
My pleasure

Tail marshall comes through
Thats the end of the run
Gathering cones and job well done
Fellowship, friendship and some fun

Empty is the soul
Cruel is the mind
That makes me think of me
Instead of others

Empty is the pocket
Of the old man on the street
We pass without looking at
We pass and pretend that isn't there

Empty is the world
The world that we live in
Deep are the pockets of the rich men
The rich men that don't act or care

Up the hill past the waterfall
Trippn thru bracken and gorse
Fireweed lines the path
Thru moss covered dense dark wood, no remorse

201m above see level, when shall I stop?
Nettles coarse my legs as I step up over stone n roots
Mist and dew cling to me
As I clamber up the wood with climbing boots

220m now I think I see the top?
The viewing seat beckons
But the top is not the top
And more steps needed I reckon

240 m now I see the top
Views of Calandar town appear
I can see 200 miles maybe more perhaps to England
Heathers blossoms like veneer

245m I'm there
My heart rate peaks at 170 beats per minute
Scottish history below me
Time to descend and create some more

I won't react
to your matter of fact
your polarised view
your online cue

I won't react
to your social pact
to the weight of the noise
when you throw out your toys

I will react
to the empathy you show
for being there
when everyone said no

When did we become so disconnected?
Was it when we became so connected?
To every screen in sight
To every pixel in the night

When did we stop talking?
Was it when we stopped walking?  
Side by side
Across the countryside

When did we stop writing letters?
Was it when we engaged our debtors?
For everything we need to own
For every in App purchase in the game zone

When did we stop being selfless?
Was it when we became a menace?
To every man and women we see
We take what we want then flee

Spring becomes Summer
Summer leads us into Winter
Results come to us everyday
Everyday we see change

Exams become passes
Passes become leaving home
Sons become men
Daughters become women

Sadness becomes joy
Joy becomes sadness
Greed becomes more greed
Selflessness goes unoticed

The iterations of life
Don't knock on our door
They just happen in the background
Like leaves getting caught in spiders webs

Chaffinch on bended straw
Holding on for the ride
Like a red metal horse on a giant spring
I stare, it sings

3000 crows, maybe more
Gather noisly on the telegraph wires
4000 crows now, maybe more
Start fighting, some gore

Sea mist coming in over the Antrim shore
Sea mist cooling air round our skin
Farmer's wince for the time of day
Too late for the last of the hay

We used to ride in cars
Now w're sending rockets to Mars
It's the brilliant way to feel
As we drive 'round in batteries on wheels

Carbon fuels are the past
Select ignition, then blast
Fuels cells on roofs
Gas 'n smog aloof

Next holiday in space
More progress for the human race
Earth has been our first stop
Now in the ionosphere, first stage time to drop.

I'm vapin on my escoota
Goin up da hill
iPhone12 in hand
Life is quite a thrill

Town centa is the destination
MackyDs to stop
A quarter pounder is the deal
Onions and analogue cheese all da the way to the top

Cor that babe looks nice
I'm looking supa cool on my scoota
Shoulda packed my ****
Got to put that idea thru ya

I'm an Architect of air
I exist to sit between you and progress
You hear my name said all of the time
On social media and TV

I am the Architect of nothing
I exist to create nothing for you
Even though my remit is to help you
My pleasure is your displeasure

I am the Architect of broken time
My clock is always off and I'm always late
There is no finish or completion
My mantra is to process air
Input to output with no added value

Postman, binman, policeman
My language constrains my thoughts
To a small world, Brian's world.

Whorfianism is the constraint
Language rules, the paint
To paint a better picture
To expand our universe

The time has come where
We need to think past the pathetic notion
of linear time, past and present
To a sentence where past, present and future
are one

Just go to a field
Sit on a bench
And breath...

Just go to a field
Don't take your phone
And stop thinking...

Just go to a field
Take in the grass
Forget about stuff...

Just go to a field
Don't drive there
No need to race...

Just go to a field
The light is there
Smile...

Indigo Blue was a Comanche through and through
She'd sit near the Grand Canyon tourist spot
And watch the champagne and the helicopters land
White men upon Comanche sand

Alcohol fuels her people now
White man and white money drive the wheel
The land was taken, nothing left to steel
White man rules that's the deal

She smile and drags from her last cigarette
Her mother looks on..starts to fret
She know there's nothing left to do
White man has won, no time for coup

Everything has value
Everything you see
Everyone can contribute
Everyone can be

Nothing is worth ignoring
Nothing is less than than it's sum
Nothing needs a break
Nothing is not fake

Something is worth holding onto
Something is the start
Something is the mind start
Something is the art

Hope is the ignition
Hope is the cart
Hope will take us to that place
Hope is that smile on your face

The space between my thoughts
Is where I want to be
Breathing in, breathing out
Time stands still

My heart and lungs as a piston
No thoughts now, no thoughts then
The piston moves up , moves down
That's all there is

Calm, no storm
Calm, no fear
Smiling I look up
Deep breath in and..
back to reality

Back to burgers
Back to beer
Streets full of laughter
Streets full of cheer

Back to haircuts
Back to the gym
People start to chatter
People start to grin

Long time coming
Long time to sleep
Ok to vent now
Ok to weep

Next stage is coming
Next to open up
More fun to be having
More new life erupts

Building a house
The house of life
With foundations of flesh and bone

Building a bridge
The bridge of strife
With supports of words and grit

Building a barrier
The barrier to hate
With strength of love and kindness

Light fades to dark blue
The almost time
Almost there

Birds finish off the days work
People finish off their days work
It's as if time is pausing a little

The next few minutes wander in
Dark blue changes to black
Black forms the night

Pulse of breath
Pulse of heart
Beating beneath me
Beating to tell me that you're still there

Pulse of night
Pulse of light
Beating through me
Beating to tell me that life is still there

Pulse of wind
Pulse of fire
Beating at me
Beating to tell me that touch and feel is still here

Nature's rhythms
Nature's beat
Nature's rhythms
Nature's pulse

He's fixing time..literally
looking at my Swiss cuckoo clock
to find out what's wrong


I entered the semi detached house from the front
After several attempts at the bell
the millionaire opened the door

I walked past a sparse interior into the repair room
a small room with a lathe and every form of tool you can imagine
1950s magazines lie under tin boxes full of essential stuff

I ask what the old handset gadget does on the wall?
It's a remarkable build of switches and cables
"Thats the intercom so I can speak to her in the kitchen"
We study the cuckoo clock
We can't fix time, no fault found
Time is not broken
The only currency on show is kindness

He sits in the nursing home with his wife
"The house is up for sale and that's that' he tells dad
With no kids to leave his money will go to charity
Time well spent on the right stuff
Time spent on kindness not greed

Marjorie mulls the passing man and fly
The marriage window has gone by
Her hair lies dank n' grey in sobern grief
Her clothes befit a teenage thief

Rejection is a common theme
Daily survival is the daily dream
She plays with beads and hears the chime
The grandfather clock, true keeper of time

She smiles when asked to play the part
Of successful daughter, mother and heart
But reality bites when she is inept
Losing in life she always accepts

Sun flickers through icy fog
Driving to the forest screen sodden with damp due
Arriving to the sounds of bikes, people and dog

Starting out with cold hands
I take the six mile trip
Like some middle age horse
My breath forms an airy aerosol in front of me

Trail shoe lugs grip in
Legs begin to loosen
As my hands move from cold to luke warm

Bikes and people cross at invisible traffic lights
Smiling runners greet me half way through
My cadence quickens

The gate beckons
I stop to walk
Time to stretch
Time to talk

Three miles of white sand
Fit into my hand
As I look out to sea
Mussenden Temple sets us free

The hills at the top
Look up, what a drop
Teenage time full of fun
Screaming to the bottom of 'the big one'

Forty five degrees to the wind
Sand, grit doesn't rescind
Nowhere to the South
Nearly at the bar mouth

I turn and it blows
My back takes a lift
Portstewart in the distance
I brace for resistance

As the night grows dim
The Harbour bar draws us in
Past seagulls who soar
To the welcoming door

The fire is on
The people sit low
The bar is full
The taps are slow

We wait at the door
As the Guinness is poured
How you doin boy?
Not bad, just o'er from Gweedore

The craic is good
The night is long
The drum beats hard
To the Ceiltic song

More people pile in
To the small rooms 'n the floor
More Guiness to order
More time at the door

I'm picking litter
To clear out the litter in my head
To clear out what was said

With a robot arm
I mean you no harm
It's a mental need
To sow new seed

The needs of the planet
Are called out by the Goddess Tanit
Let's gather more litter
And afray from being bitter

Blinded by sweat
Blinded by the threat
Of obvious noise
From your Internet toys

It's gone beyond time to play
It's time to refocus words not images that stay
In your latest Instagram post
Be a word prophet toast, not a primevil tribal ghost

Let the words tell the story
Why the future is not gory
Time to take mental stock
Time to rework words that rock

Frozen stem
Frozen jem
Loud crack step
Loud crack prep

Snowy hill
Snowy thrill
Kids on trays
Kids afray

Snow goes away
Sky still grey
Ice starts to form
Ice becomes norm

Memories flash through my head like a deck of cards
First in last out
Last in first out
Quad core, octa core

Signals stick and queue
Buffering and quick to view
I throw my head back
And drop it to reset the stack

Flickering memories
Lights of joy
Come to me now
Release the sweat from my brow

My destiny is becoming quicker
I'll bound to be a middle aged litter picker
I see the cans and mackie dee's wrap
I see the hedges full of crap

I walk around the block 'n shake my head
I come across discarded plastic 'n shake with dread
The old woman waddles with her ID badge
I'm on a mission, watch out Madge

I envisage buying the remote grabber
You know the one that'll make me madder
All I need next is a bag
To pick up the sea of discarded ***

I see an old guy bending over
Perhaps he's checking that there is some clover
Perhaps he's comes to get rid of blue
No, no, no, no he's a middle aged picker too

Clothed up to the max
I enter the garage to mount my indoor bike tracks
On a digital road we drift
As we press Go on the biking game "Zwift'

Ride fast, ride free
No need to watch out for the tree
As the game takes us on a journey
Hey "ride on' there's Bernie

The sweat builds to a stream
I race on in my digital dream
Watopia world provide us with freedom
A place to gather, a fellow biker's Eden

With mighty aplomb
You drop your vitreous 'view bomb'
With unorthodox precision
You squander my decision

You have one filter
And that is to kilter
The views that don't come from a stranger
The views that echo in your echo chamber

Fair pity to those who reach out with an olive branch
To give you another chance
A chance to move away from grief
A chance to turn over another leaf

Modesty blaze
Modesty haze
Walking towards the next day
Walking to struggle for something to say

Modesty blaze
Modesty graze
My left knee takes a blow
My left hemisphere full of snow

Modesty blaze
Modesty anew
Winter draws in, how time flew
Winter continues, my time to cue

Vaccine 2 I love you
Mass vacation can start anew
The year can begin with hope
The year can begin...we can cope

Hats off to the Oxford team
Efficacy numbers from a dream
Now it's down to Johnson's lot
2 million a week, no time to stop

When you think about it we are all storytellers
Whose story do we believe?
Whose story is out to deceive?
What story will you tell today?
Are sad, mad or glad?

Dusk draws in on the shortest day
The darkness frames the end of the longest year
I walk towards the future with nervous excitement

Dogs great people excitedly at doors not knowing what lockdown is
People great dogs knowing what lockdown is
Animal ignorance trumps human evolution

Roll on the new year
Roll on longer evenings of light
Roll on 'the end in sight'

There's a hole in the sky where my soul fits in
Did you see it open last night?
It comes and goes when you least expect it

There's a hole in the thoughts of the world leaders
Did you see it on social media last night?
It comes and goes just before the broadcast starts

There's a hole in the socks of the poor
Did you see it on TV this year?
It never goes away

The lighthouse man doesn't want to know anyone
He sits in solitude
Staring at the swirling seas
Wandering up and down the endless stairs

Fingers and thumbs fat with muscles
Salted sweat on skin
Working on the light fixtures
No word he utters

No visitors today
None scheduled for tomorrow
Steam boils off the kettle
More tinned food in fine fettle

Time stands still here
No interruptions
He meditates on his soul
What there is, he controls

No knowledge he shares
Turning on the light
To ward off danger
To ward off strangers from his world

Icy fog sets in
People stay in
Walking through a cold wall
Walking to stay warm

Temperature stays low
It's no, no go
Ice rules as King today
No change to the affray

Dreich day
Wet rain falling
Wet icy rain falling
Cooling my face
Cooling my body

Robin soaked
Blackbird happy
Blue **** flitting
Sparrows committing

Dreich day
Endless grey

Goodbye 2020
You've given us pain, plenty plenty
Time to forget you even exist
Time for your pain to desist

******* to your cruelty
Now replaced with some congruity
Forget you n' your death
Forget evil 'theft of breath'

Farewell messed up leap year
Farewell year of fear
Twenty one is coming
Vials of vaccine running

You're now history to me
We've done it, set us free
No virus going to stop
The progress of man, man now on top

Cold thru stone
Cold thru to the bone
Can't get warm today
Wandering from radiator to radiator

Change a top
Change a crop
Chilling flesh too cold
Winter story untold

Need a cuppa
Need some suppa
Gritting teeth need to stop
Let's turn up the heat before we drop

Punch me in the face
Throw me out on the street
Give back to God

Slander my name
Sack me from my job
Give back to God

Kick me hard
Bully me at work
Give back to God

Those who give out negativity
Are lost in their proclivity
Turn the other cheek
It's time to be unique

The last leaf just fell on me
Did you see it?
It was yellow and cheeky
Crept up on me behind my back and swooped over my shoulder

There will be no more leaves this year that's it
No more colour for us to see
Roll on Spring
Roll on colour

20k to go
20k of dirt and grit
Pounding out the tread
Rushing through the thoughts in my head

10k to go
10k of twists and turns
Take on another hill
Take on another thrill

1k to the finish
Looks like I'll make it alive
More than a journey of strife
Moreover another page in this wonderful life

Promise me the sun
Promise me some fun
Promise me a good next year
Promise me a year without fear

Give me your grace
Give me a smile across your face
Give me the sun
n' I'll be the one