My Sorrow Hid in Shame

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

MY SORROW HID IN SHAME

©Trev Teasdel Coventry 1970

And darkness flowed in like flood waters, the sun went to bed with the sea.

The moon now on night watch threw stars in the sky for to see.

I walked along the ring road footpath where vagrants and down and outs pass

And imagined myself to be one in the low state I was in.

I passed the wreck of a car to which I likened myself

Passed gravestones in the yard, gazed over at the Church of God

I stopped by a sign which read Salvation Army Hostels

And thought of hitching a ride But there was no traffic was in sight.

Til I saw the ghastly figure of a man who had been cast aside

Passed a couple in the doorway, ignored their request for a light.

I continued down a side road to a pub called the Hope and Anchor

Where beer smells make the wind unstable but found not a drop of hope nor anchor in my glass.

I passed houses now demolished, like my dreams lay in ruins on the ground

I thought of the face of the one I loved, and tears ran away from my eyes

I took a deep breath, the air tasted of meths, Oh to see the poor site of two city tramps

Lying like sacks on the ground, one begged a coin and the other a fag

My heart felt pity but pride held me back from giving my sympathy away.

As I entered the hall of a bright discotheque, my sorrow hid in shame

To think of all the friends and things I possess, compared to the men whose souls are lost

In the doorways of no consequence.

I Think of You

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

I THINK OF YOU

©Trev Teasdel – Coventry 1977 / 79

In the morning I leave my bed

Throw cold water at my head

Breakfast ate and paper read

Catch the bus, then I just

Slip into that old routine.

When it’s seven in the morning and I’m late

And I face another factory day.

Take a drag on my fag, then I turn and I curse my fate.

Chorus

I think of you – I really do

I think of you – whatever I do

I think of you –oo..

Teabreak come and teabreak go

Time really knows how to go slow

Working like a clock-work toy

In better ways my time I could employ.

Sanies ate and tea is drank

Hands they itch, my mind is blank

The foreman’s eye on us is bent

as if he’s coming for the rent.

When it’s early in the morning and it’s break

And its hard to get through the day

Take a drag on my fag then I turn and I curse my fate.

Chorus

On my left is Jeremy Pike

Who tells us all about his motorbike

And the leathers he wears skintight

In his helmet he looks a freaky sight

Gives old ladies a terrible fright

They banned him from The Dog that Bites..

On my right is Arnold Dick

The Daily Fun’s what makes him tick

Bores you with his gossip column politics

Blames the blacks for everything

From earache to bad housing

Picks on all the scapegoats he can find.

Then there is old Albert Babel

Who tells you what he did with Mabel

Finally got her into bed

Were doing nicely when it came to a head

Albert went and fell out of bed

Same thing happened again and again

Wrote to the problem page

They told him they thought it was his age

Just a phase he was going through

Sent him a book on How to Screw.

Dark Seahorse Shine

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

DARK SEAHORSE SHINE

©Trev Teasdel Coventry June 1972 / Nov 73

I’m still in darkness

I haven’t seen the light.

I’m still the lost one

With eyes unadjusted to the night.

When life unveils its sunshine

You will see
This Dark Seahorse Shine.

My tankard still stands empty

The vessel’s still pure and clean

My heart is still searching

for the light to pass through my screen.

When life unveils it’s sunshine

You’ll see
This Dark Seahorse Shine.

The depths of life’s dark ocean

is my abode

For love and light the surface is my goal.

When unripe life ripens, as a vine

You’re gonna see
This Dark Seahorse Shine.

The social insecurity bit off the hand that fed me

Told me I’m useless and lazy and hopeless,

They called me a parasite and all.

Well I tried for some jobs, to no avail

I feel like a criminal inside a jail.

So I’ll sing for my supper or starve on the street

I’ll sleep in the subway

curled in a heap.

Oh I feel like an east wind blown back by the west wind

and cornered by North and by South.

Oh I feel like an east wind blown back by the west wind

and cornered by North and by South.

But they will blow me so far

And I’ll pick up my guitar

and I will blow back oh so strong.

Because the more they repress me, the more they depress me

the stronger will be my fight.

Smouldering

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

SMOULDERING

©Trev Teasdel Coventry April 1969

We sit on cushioned chairs

watching television

Resting from our cares

We stare at a partition

We’ve created in our minds

And although we loath this division

It’s plain to see we’re blind.

For the words that we have spoken

are scattered in the air,

And the bonds that we have broken

We can no longer share.

And we sit in our frustration

Longing for relief

In wasteful anticipation,

We’re propped by our belief.

We’re the victims of our minds

And we’re drowning in the times

Sunk in deep self-pity

We’re a divided city.

You – the penetrating spark

You’ve grown so cold and dark

And I no longer bring

You flowers in the spring.

And here we sit and smoulder by the fire,

We’re sinking in the mire.

Anxious moments causing friction

We’re just a bad addiction.

Seeking means of conveyance

but love is in abeyance

Till we rearrange our lives

And once again play husband and wife.

Then life will have a truer meaning,

And once more I’ll see your eyes a gleaming.

Silent Sunday Harmony

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

SILENT SUNDAY HARMONY

Waves of tranquil quiet

Tremble down my spine.

The golden shades of sunshine

Sheds feelings so divine

The sound of quivering bells

Freely flow throughout the countryside.

Farmer Hawkins’s son awaking from a dream,

Pulls the alarm clock nearer to his side.

The sound of howling hounds

Vibrating like machines.

Do not disturb the slumber

Of the silent sleeping world it seems.

The shepherd and his crook, prowl frequently.

Surveys the ground around to see what he can see.

The sound of smiling voices

trickle through the trees.

The sun smiles gently
as the earth below it leaves.

A lane full of people,
Sunday best dressed people

with their Sunday haloes
shining in the scent.

Amble in to take their pews,
receive the blessing of the Lord

then stampede to catch their daily booze.

And the church with the Telford spire

gledges down upon the adjacent local

where the congregation conspires.

And as the day slips into night

The world turns on its commercial lights,

Transmitting waves to cabinets
with many shelves

and goodnight kissing in the streets.

Baby I Can Tell

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

BABY I CAN TELL

I can tell that you are slipping away from me

By the far away look in your eyes

and your superficial sighs.

Chorus

Baby I can tell – yeah

Baby I can tell – yeah
Baby now I see.

Baby I can tell – yeah

There’s no use in trying to conceal your guilt

You’re trying to demolish this whole world I’ve built.

Better admit now the beans are spilt.

You’ve turned so crimson,

I’d better call the fire brigade.

Now from my life you intend to fade.

All my happiness will evade.

You jump around like a Kangaroo

You don’t just know what you intend to do.

Better lock you up in the local zoo.

I’m in a state of rejection

I’ve discovered a loose connection

Won’t you open up your eyes

to a wise compromise.

Back in the Soothing Arms of Love

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

BACK IN THE SOOTHING ARMS OF SADNESS
©Trev Teasdel Middlesbrough 1980’s

If my heart had a voice that could speak without words
Your eyes would be open and your heart would heard.
How our perceptions are different of the way we relate
How I’ve held back my feelings and how they can’t wait.

Although we’re just friends in your estimation,
Seeing you fills my heart with elation.
Sharing our thoughts and sharing experience,
my feeling’s for you are now so immense.

But i know what you’ll say,
I’ve known from the start.
We’re not lovers but friends
Cos lovers will part.

I’ve heard all the reasons
from lovers before
and it saddens me to think
I must hear them some more.
When you leave me you leave my heart in a mess,
and I run to the arms of my sister – of sadness.

Seeing you’s a pleasure, not seeing you’s hell!
I wasn’t going to say but I might as well,
I’ve resolved many times to put an end to this game.
But I’ve weakened with loneliness and risked some more pain.

Although we’re just friends in the eyes of the crowd.
My heart bursts with love but never out loud.
Holding your hand in your deepest dark fear.
Feeling so close and feeling so near.

How Would Be If Anyone Survived?

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

How Would Be If Anyone Survived?
©Trev Teasdel 2009

The seas are rising – ice floes melt
Rock aiming for us from an asteroid belt
Floods and droughts and earthquakes felt.
Is it any wonder, anyone’s alive?
How would be if anyone survived?

The trees are falling in the poison air
Seas flood the land most anywhere
Screams and shouts from volcano flares
Is it any wonder, anyone’s alive?
How would be if anyone survived?

Bridge
What are we to do?
Sit back and see it through?
There’s work for us to do
It’s down to us to help this Earth survive.

Space shuttle service to cosmic host
Mother Earth, is just a ghost
If anyone survives, they’ll just roast.
Is it any wonder, anyone’s alive?
How would be if anyone survived?
It’s up to us to help this Earth survive.?
Up to us to help this Earth survive.?

Living on the Dole

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

LIVING ON THE DOLE
©Trev Teasdel Coventry 1976

I know that I don’t have the looks
of heroes in glossy magazines and books.
My hair don’t shine and fall in place
in ways that would enhance my face.
My body’s not a symbol of sex
and my stomach’s somewhat circumflex.
There ‘s more to love than meets the eye
That could bring together you and I.

Should we marry
How would life be
Living on the dole
If we had kids
Could we feed them
Living on the dole
Living loving loving living
Living on the dole.
Living loving loving living
Living on the dole.

I know that I don’t have a job
and my prospects aren’t very good.
I live in poverty untold
rely on hand me downs
and sign dole.
No work around for ages to come
So the people label me a bum.
There’s more to love than meets the eye
That could bring together you and I.

I know that I don’t have the nerve,
To tell you how much I really love you
I just don’t know how we’d make out,
In fact I haven’t got a clue.
Our houses are both overcrowded
and there’s such a long waiting list.
There’s more to love than meets the eye
That could bring together you and I.

The house we live in we’ll never own
And you can’t ring me on the phone.
in these dark ages, these troubled times,
We must look to the future and bare in mind
This is not how it will always be,
when changes come, we must stand up and take our place.
There’s more to life than meets the eye
that could bring together you and I

It’s a good job good looks don’t get you through the world.
No magazine image for those living in the real world.
Can you see us in time, sitting in the cold
our children grown up and on the dole.
We’ll grow older in the freezing cold
warm our limbs by the fires in our souls
There must be more to life than meets the eye
I love you could you love I.

Unemployed Worker

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

UNEMPLOYED WORKER
©Trev Teasdel Coventry June 1976

How easy it is when you are unemployed
To feel helpless and alone in your plight
Being in the doghouse each way that you turn
Knowing well how it feels to be the one who’s never right
Cast into darkness without a guiding light.

Chorus
Unemployed worker, unemployed man
Unemployed woman, unemployed hands.
Down on your luck, down at the heel
Join hands together, fight for a better deal.

Cast out of work when the big boss man
Feels that he no longer needs you.
Made to fish for money in endless benefit offices
Though the tiddlers you catch wouldn’t feed a cat.
And you feel lost like a worn out shoe.
And you just, you just don’t know what to do.

Maybe you’ve a wife who does not understand
Just why it is that you are an unemployed man
Maybe you’ve a man who does not understand
that you’re a woman who likes to work just like a man.
And your children are ragged and underfed.
Maybe in shame you’ve both wished that you were dead.

Your bills being big and your income small
You’ve sunk so low that you’ve no life left at all.
Try and drown your blues with a little too much booze
Cigarettes, bingo and bets.
Just as if the earth had moved from under your feet
You feel like rubble that once was a city street.

Maybe the isolation, it tears at your heart
Having lost any meaning that life might have had.
This life of leisure, well it would not be so bad.
If the conditions endured were not so tragic and so sad.
Only way out of this plight is to join with the workers
Unemployment to fight.