I sing of rings Sparkling things, of moon beams and dreams I spin cliches Taunting the grey, the dull workady Join me in schemes Mist- distant dreams, all not as it seems Here is Nowhere True life (and love) is always Elsewhere Fear not the coming night No baggage, travel light All will be well, come let us dwell in secrets and spells Sail away, fade to waves, stars show the way.... Storm- tossed and starved Star- crossed I carve Through brine, froth and foam My ship a joke A paper boat within a maelstrom Night tells me nothing new, nothing to set- course to Salt stings my eyes Crushed between tides and starless black skies Sail away, fade to waves, slow decay.... I seek signposts in stars, I search for keys in the clouds I seek kind faces in waves, I tell myself to be brave To make my way to Cape Good Hope There I can rest Look to the sisters in skies to take their light as a guide

Dances of old Set standards to uphold Weathered, the wise, with smiles there would preside Guiding the wild Young passion, will and drive Render it tame Safe, sane and somewhat lame Yours was the blood that ran through veins that knew no shame A mountain bursting forth with molten flame Your soul immense you made short work of all pretence No common sense could douse your pure essence Unsupervised Awake to new desire Strong supple flesh To all sensation fresh Go forth, seek life If life be appetite All whims and vice Permitted, at a price It's almost free So sweet, this new found liberty To do and be just what you want to be Is it quite as it seems, does it come naturally? What consequence, as nothing is for free We form a ring to reenact our Rites Of Spring Reliving what we were and may have been We didn't change a thing, nor did we kill the king Too late we see we were the offering

I gasp and kick towards the faintest glow, dread in tow Evade the current dragging down to deep, blood- red reef Yes, there be monsters under wave and tide, caves to hide A burial at sea, flee the crime scene, none must see Ascend from hell below me Must reach another story Blood in the water draws the meanest dregs from the depths To shallow pools to seize the slow, the tail of the School Beset by creatures led by bestial wild appetites Ascend from hell below me Must reach another story The breaking wave remade, the pattern yet stays the same The shoal has scattered leaving none to see, just the sea A landless mass of neither night or day, vast and grey Ascend from hell below me Must reach another story

I tried the grave, you kept a light in a cave You were brave, you remained While you held fast, I burned a bridge to a past that was pain, I remained Now we walk around the Trip- wire tension, unclench hands to hold We don't let go There are seeds among the stones There's a road that takes us home A way back to you You turned the page, I mapped the scale of our cage Tried to reset our range You glid on ice, I lit a furnace of shock and surprise, realised Can we talk about the Mis- steps, missing days that fell to fire Those smouldering nights Stumble through a dawn of smoke Will you still throw me a rope A way back to you Fickle things, the doubt we bring with promises of care Cross-hatched, coy With broken toys For someone to repair Sometime we'll tire, stop by the verge, build a fire In it's embers we'll dance and we'll laugh about Illicit kisses, wandering hearts and eyes Those off- white lies There's a mischief in your gaze And a warmth in your embrace A way back to you Precious thing, a gentle swing from dead wood to new grass Stolen treats, those dogs in heat, these things will come to pass You down the road, I'll trace your footsteps in spring gold With wagging tails and tales of fortune to behold And once again I'll see you with a newborn's eyes And when the final candle dies I'm at your side

No, I never factored in this change The plans had been made, foundations laid I was safe and sure, secure So it seemed I struggled when there was no one else And grown to depend upon myself Learned to live On basic means and simple needs - a life complete I thought I was through with love affairs the endless demands of being a pair being compelled to share, and care - to be there And all of the chaos that entails the feelings that fling you off the rails Damning you to compromise and speechless lies It's been 7 days since you passed my way Now everything's changed, my whole world is rearranged I had been at home with being alone But now there's no peace, there's no hiding place Not one single space where your face won't follow me And now I'm hunted, at war with myself So now I sit staring at the phone Are you on your own, are you at home? Dare I think you think of me - can't believe I'm back in that place of desperate hope A playful pup straining at a rope, who would jump Into your arms as into (self) harm It's been 7 days since you passed my way Now everything's changed, my whole world is rearranged I had been at home with being alone But now there's no peace, there's no hiding place Not one single space where your face won't follow me And now I'm hunted, at war with myself It's been longer than I would care to say And I've grown accustomed to life as disarray A mess of sorrows with sprinklings of joy It's hard to believe we withstand the strain And work our way through every fatuous display Rather than shudder - And run for cover

The love that hides From tired and defensive eyes Under dust of "everyday" and "no surprise" Still binds the hearts of those who may have grown apart Dwell in shells of chances lost to passion's cost Now bound by need To keep the peace and shield from strife Singing songs of silence for a quite life The comforts cold And laid upon a bed of stone Still, it gives some shelter It is still a home But it brings you down, remember now How good it felt, to share yourself Lying unafraid in the embrace of love's gaze There was a dream But sadly now it's what has been Keenly felt sensations soon become routine And second- guessed A mystery so long undressed Nests in skins of habit Like a grape long pressed But it brings you down, remember now How good it felt, to share yourself Lying unafraid in the embrace of love's gaze

Thought that I heard her sweet song in my sleep Felt her faint breath on my cheek Moon sketched her shadow in Willowy trees Traced her footsteps through the leaves Morning came lame and reluctant to claim Me from this feverish dream Leaden and pinioned a weight on my chest Undead yet haunted by the ghost of myself Slender arms coiled around my neck From the depths of the dawn's drowning bed Listless with night- long unrest Hopeless I wait, long since swallowed the bait Hook cast, I gasp as a fish on a string Helpless as she draws me in Why do you haunt me, call from the margins of sleep Why do you haunt me, just out of sight out of reach Under her gaze in the shape- shifting clouds Her fleeting form in a crowd A sudden sprite in the corners of sight Shading my vision in spectral light Shrouding my day with her night Why do you haunt me, call from the margins of sleep Why do you haunt me, just out of sight out of reach She pollenates the core of my landscape Nestling in deep secret space Replicates sorrows and fears I though gone Dousing the day long before it's begun My own eclipse of the sun Why do you haunt me, call from the margins of sleep Why do you haunt me, just out of sight out of reach

Child - that small self held inside Concealed from caustic words A multitude of hurts, so clear to eyes of Love - this fragile web of dreams Of hope and dread and need And endless tenderness Of scars that seldom heal Of one that can't reveal themselves to all Pain - is patient, pain will wait Without need to lay bait As all will pass it's way and each one is it's Prey - the path is paved with thorns And hedged by beasts with horns Beset by phantoms pass A teaming mass of masks, of fleeting comfort Pass, bewildered and alone This secret is your own, where no one else can go Somewhere that sorrow knows I - would shield you from distress Make sweet the bitterness I'd fall upon your sword Ensure your voice is heard But I can't slay your fears Nor shed your stock of tears No, I must stand aside But stand beside you while your fortunes fall and rise Accept this plight as mine A secret of my own, where no one else can go Somewhere that sorrow knows