Ninety nine words.

DREAM TEN

INVISIBLE DOORS

Some people count sheep to get to sleep

Not me I count daft things like tiles and floors

I've got thirty odd walls in my house

And three or four invisible doors

But I’m stuck in the attic afraid

Looking up through the crack in the roof

Waiting for the full moon to come back round

So I can make my way down before dawn

Outside I can hear the birds singing now

Must have fallen asleep or through the hatch

I tell myself as I reach for the clock

It’s eight thirty time to get up and go

211214/1

Two fifty or bust.

DREAM NINE

The ancient bus stutters to a halt, I get out and start to run up the hill. It’s raining hard and someone’s chasing me. I hate running and I hate rain, but most of all I hate hills. I can hear a man behind me, he’s shouting and he’s catching me fast. I reach the top of the hill and jump over an old stone wall, big mistake I realise, as I reach out and grab the overhead electric railway cable to break my fall. Just then I sense a train coming towards me, without thinking I let go of the cable and land on top of the speeding locomotive. I lie flat, clinging on for dear life, I’m soaking wet now and it’s still pouring with rain. After a few minutes the train pulls into a country station and I manage to clamber down onto the platform. I make my way outside, and board a waiting bus. The driver looks familiar, but I sit down near the back and hope the heater will help me get dry. The bus starts to move, but I have no idea where we are going. It creaks and groans as it begins to wind its way up a long wooded road. We overtake a cross country runner; I know I've seen him someplace before, but when and where? The bus is making a horrible gurgling noise now, and it all comes flooding back to me as the ancient bus stutters to a halt.

051214/250

To the poor/pure

BACKROOM KISSES

You dangle us like puppets on a string

Your husband and your other lovers

Your man and his mans man under your spell

Your mythical calligraphy and all

That numerology don’t baffle me

Psychology technology et vous

I don’t need drones and camera phones

Or mathematical ability

To figure out the things you say to me

You had me running for awhile

Naughty backroom kisses misses

In the secret stable holding hands

Who cares about the day we went aloft

Or if we did or didn't have a plan

Who’s twisting your other lovers now

Pure is pure like god is to the poor

And gold is good but not as good as god

Nobody understands you like I do

And to the poor and pure all things are pure

020914

Ignoring red lights...

UP IN THE CLOUD

Up in the cloud

the cars criss cross

ignoring red lights

Up in the cloud

I always knew they could

why did we wait

Up in the cloud

where we all went

when the money ran dry

Up in the cloud

beneath the alien ship

where they can see what we do

Up in the cloud

waiting for you to come home

desperately trying to recall my dream

Up in the cloud

that came down before

the cars began to crash

Up in the cloud

under the cover trying to get warm

wishing I could get back to sleep

Up in the cloud

where everyone wakes up

a year late

010614

Another little song...

COLD HEART

Girly I tried to find your shop today

Retraced the steps from my place to yours

But it wasn't there it had gone away

I remember it well it had red doors

And a broken clock that didn't chime

I wanted to buy the record player

(You had it in the window last time)

And give thanks with you to god in prayer

I found the shop but you weren't there  

It was all locked up like your cold heart

Sometimes I think that you don’t care

Why do you have to be so smart

Cottonopolis was never like this

Before you came my little Miss

050514

Disambiguation

MINI SAGA OUTBID

Monday’s are madding half insane

Idiots running the inmates fate

Nobody knows when to make the call

Imagination is only a game

Shout if you want to talk

Anti-establishment drowning in hate

Games not made for playing on boards

Abracadabra don’t use the phone

Only and even the lonely will fall

Unnatural as a deep sea diver

Tempting screws with a dodgy bent fiver 

Bald as beetroot and wrangler cords

I sit waiting for you to call home

Down here on the funny walk

020514/1

DISAMBIGUATION

(REVEALED)

Down here on the funny walk

I sit waiting for you to call home

Shout if you want to talk

Abracadabra don’t use the phone

Monday’s are madding half insane

Bald as beetroot and wrangler cords   

Imagination is only a game

Games not made for playing on boards

Unnatural as a deep sea diver

Anti-establishment drowning in hate

Tempting screws with a dodgy bent fiver 

Idiots running the inmates fate

Only and even the lonely will fall

Nobody knows when to make the call

020514

Little song for Girly...

NaPoWriMo 

NaPoWriMo has finished for another year 

and you can read all my entries on
My pub-poetry page

Naive Poet Danny Waise  

Here's a little song I wrote for you -

GIRLY

Yesterday only you said

You didn't love me that way

But I'm stuck inside your head

And nothing we do is okay

But you couldn’t help yourself

Girly you're turning me blue

You should leave me on the shelf

For this love could never be true

Every day you change your mind

Will you won’t you leave that man

Who said that true love is blind?

You only want me ‘cos you can

And if you leave that man so fast

How long will our loving last?

010514

My NaPoWriMo 2014

I'm doing the NaPoWriMo thirty poems in thirty days challenge again this April. I am posting them on my Naive Poet Danny Waise blog if you would like to take a look please come on over.

Like those advert guys.

FLOAT MY BOAT

I want to fly not drop out of the sky

High up from an aeroplane or mountain

Fountain upon fountain of youth reclaimed

Meditating contemplating something

Ringing in my ears tears on my boat race

Facing up to the fact that I can’t fly

Fly me to the moon no not me not I

Why can’t I just fly like those advert guys?

Wise up tie me to the end of your string

Fling me up in the air behind your Bentley

Gently enough for me to fly but not too far

Park in the lay-by and float my boat slowly

260314/1

The mother of invention...

HERE WE GO

Old vine moonshine new wine speak to my heart

My heart aches for the plans that we made

Made in England in the good old days

Ways that were wise once in another world

Other world charm we had it in spades

Fades into oblivion like the lights

The lights that stayed so bright for so long

Longing for a past that cannot return

Gurning like a fool outside the pub

The public face that still thinks that it’s cute

Cute as a cucumber cut into bits

Bits and pieces freeze on the candelabra

Brass monkeys wouldn’t be seen dead out there

Here we go the mother of invention…

220314 

Pudding crazy...

PLUCK THE BLUES

I saw her in the woods

but she didn’t wanna talk

she was much too busy to go for a walk

she was eating ice cream with a fork

She was really really really

really busy don’t you know

sitting there eating ice cream in the snow

Rats I got tennis bats for shoes

and a one string guitar to pluck the blues

I asked her to play

just for something to say

She said no way mate

I’m much to busy

to go out on a date

I said where do you get

your ice cream from

She said I get ripe bananas

from the Banana Factory

and I bung ‘em in the freezer

and I whiz ‘em up you see

then I sit here eating them

the whole of the day long

I said you’re pudding crazy

but you’re in my song

Repeat

050314

So what's new?

Previously posted in January 2007 

Madchester...

CONGESTION WHAT?
People are starting to see congestion charging as inevitable. In Manchester and certainly in Greater Manchester we are nowhere near ready for congestion charging. Yes, there are great queues of traffic entering the city every morning and the same people sitting in the same traffic hell every evening, trying to leave town. And yes the roads do appear to be fairly congested at the peak times. However, I believe the trafic jams are made by bad planning. Speed bumps on ambulance routes as I've mentioned before, bus lanes and cycle routes in the wrong places and worst of all, all those traffic lights. In addition to the above named obstacles there is the added problem of the 'No Left Turn' signals.
TRAFFIC LIGHTS
One of the things that really annoy me are traffic lights. They always seem to change when you don't need/want them to and they stay red for much too long. The other thing about these often unneeded trafficators (should be spelt traffic haters!) is the stupid system for people wanting to turn left. In England we have to wait till the light turns to green before we can turn left, which means that lots of people behind the left turner, also have to wait and so on, causing unnecessary delays. In some other countries, you can turn left if it's safe to do so. I know that we do have a few filter lights, in some areas, but in general not enough.
BUS LANES
Yes, of course we need bus lanes. but most of them are in the wrong places and actually cause congestion! The simple answer to bus lanes is to earmark dedicated streets as 'Buses Only' these busways can easily be made in parellel streets to the main routes, which would keep everybody happy.
CYCLE LANES
YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! We need more cycle lanes. Believe me, I am a cyclist and I can tell you that the cycle lanes on many of our roads in Manchester are about as good as a chocolate fire guard. What a waste of effort, time and money. Lots of cycle lanes run out at crucial places, cars park on them, potholes appear in them. Even on major routes, where parking isn't a problem, the heavy traffic is. In general car drivers don't see bicycles until the last minute. So, the best cycle lanes are the ones that run alongside the road, for example the little stretch that runs through Whitworth Park.
TAX ATTACKS TAX
Motorists are already very heavily taxed in this country. Fuel carries a high tax, then there is road tax and insurance and insurance tax. In addition there is VAT added to every purchase, including the sale of cars, servicing and parts. Then on top of that comes the stealth taxes like parking charges, clamping fees, towing away and storage fees if you park in the wrong place or for too long. These days local authorities even have the power to confiscate and crush your vehicle if you do something naughty.
PARKING
So, what am I saying? Make car parking free? No, far from it. You only have to take a ride down to The Trafford Centre to see what a disaster free parking can be. And I'm not talking about the congestion caused by shoppers at the place at all. No, I think that they should pay a small fee to park, say £1.00 This money would then go to build a rail link and a tram link. How simple a solution is that? I can hear your argument right now, You think that the only people that go to these giant shopping complexes are car drivers. Wrong! The Trafford Centre has a bigger bus station than most towns and this is where the congestion originates as the cars and busses fight for roadspace.
CAR PARKS
The car parks in Manchester are way too expensive and too difficult in many cases to access. People feel cheated when they arrive in a strange town and are confronted by stupid parking rules. Manchester should be building more car parks and making the developers of all these new buildings to build extra spaces for visitors to the city. Instead we have the crazy situation where the council discourages parking. This is real short term thinking and can only end in tears. A few years back we had this crazy thing where the council didn't believe in sporting competition and sports days etc. in schools were banned or at best frowned upon, a kind of political correctness gone mad. Then, all of a sudden a change of direction. Manchester applied to host The Olympic Games, when that failed a couple of times we went for The Commonwealth Games. So what's all this nonsense got to do with cars, congestion and parking? Well! read on!
READ ON
I know that global warming is the buzz word these days and anybody and everybody is jumping on the bandwagon and declaring their greenness to the world. Not least political parties and politicians. Local, national and international. In general the view is that we need to reduce harmful emissions from vehicles. Of course we do, but there are green alternatives that all of us can take advantage of right now. Firstly, we can say. 'My next car's going to be electric!' If that is too much of a dream, you can start by offsetting, and I'm not talking about planting a few trees to improve the environment that you've probably just destroyed by driving here in the first place. No, I think that there may be a way to generate a little bit of power as a by-product of your journey. Then to use this little bit of captured power to run a couple of light bulbs in the office or home or a computer or tv, perhaps. Well, maybe I am dreaming a bit but who knows what's round the corner?
HOME JAMES
I just read that the Madchester band James are reforming and are set to play the Manchester MEN Arena this year. I remember going to see them at G-Mex a few years ago. Sit down next to me!CASINO
Also today, they announced that Manchester is to build the first Super or Las Vegas style casino in Britain. That is of course, subject to the politicians having the final say. The slot machine area alone will be the size of a football pitch. That's a lot of pennies!
METROLINK
While I'm having a moan about transport, I might as well have a dig at the Metrolink trams. Who was it that said: 'What Manchester does today, the world follows!' Well, in England it seems to be true as far as the modern tram goes anyway. Since Manchester started her tram system, many other towns have coppied. The problem for Manchester is that we still only have three lines and a bit of a link across the city centre, when what we really need is a proper, affordable and frequent system that goes to the places where people live and work. what we've got and also for the most part, what is planned for the future, is a system that duplicates or replaces the existing railways. That's no good! Look at the Altrincham and Bury lines, they are overcrowded and expensive and they are running on the old British Railways routes. The Altrincham line is actually worse than when it was a railway track, the trains (now trams) still go to Piccadilly Station but Via G-Mex and a shed full of streets, how mad is that?
SOLUTION
There are no simple solutions as far as transport and transportation go. The government says that cities like Manchester will have to accept congestion charging if they want to get funding for public transport. The problem in Manchester is that we already have loads of dismantled railway routes, many of them are overgrown with wild trees and junk. Why can't we re-open these lines as tramways? Well, the cost would be prohibitive, they tell me. So, why can't we just tarmac these routes over and run busses on them? Well, that would be too easy I guess, and we would no longer qualify for government funding. And we wouldn't have to pay the congestion charge, would we?
BOILER UPDATE
Some of you may remember me going on about our central heating. Well, guess what? Magic, it's fixed! It took just three minutes to change a faulty valve and bingo! we have a silent heating system that actually works. That's three minutes to fix it and three months waiting time for the boiler man to come.
THE THRU FLOOR LIFT
We're still waiting for the man to come to fix the switch on the lift, we've only had to wait since July so far and I've heard that Electricians are pretty busy these days.
FINALLY
You can check out Nicola Batty's Newsletter (AT) rawprintz.blogspot.com
She's writing a work-in-progress-novel at the moment called The Space Between. I think that she's actually going to make it into a trilogy. Anyway, you can clink the link above and have a butchers hook yourself.
FINALLY FINALLY
PUNCTURES REPAIRED
One of the nasty things about cycling is the lack of places to tie your bike to outside shops. In the old days shopkeepers used to have a cycle rack outside their shops and you could park up and lock your bike to it. Some places still have them of course, mainly cycle shops, but surprisingly some supermarkets although I was told by the greeter at my local Asda, that they didn't encourage cyclists for reasons best left alone on this blog. Anyway, there's a dead good shop on Great Western Street, Moss Side called Henson's Hardware, they sell all sorts of ironmongery and diy things and the odd tyre, innertube, brake cable and puncture repair outfit. I go there all the time for any bits and pieces I need. It is also known as The Mop Shop as it does a nice line in mops and buckets. How much better it would be though if they had a cycle rack outside with a sign that read: Cyclists Welcome, Punctures repaired!
FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY
You can check out my really bad poetry blog StraightTalkingStreetTalkingSweet it has a poem called Salford Madness which deals with the cycle parking theme, sort of!
FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY
FAST FORWARD
Fast forward to 2014 - City are in the final of the Capital One Cup at Wembley after beating West Ham in the semi-final 9-0 on aggregate. Phew!

And she went...

GONE FOR A SONG

Gone for a song

I don’t tell a lie

she was gone

She couldn’t wait

for blueberry pie

Gone for a song

she wasn't wrong

for a lifetime or so

she threatened to go

She threatened to go gone

before the dough was done

then the money was spent

and she went

No wait why what for

no goodbye

Gone for a song

I don’t tell a lie

she was gone

090114

Mountain high...

ME OH MY

When I look into your eyes

I can see a mountain high

I can hear a river flow

It’s like we’re dancing in the snow

When I look into your eyes

I can see you want to fly

I can hear that you know

It’s like there’s nowhere else to go

When I look into your eyes

I can see you want to cry

I can hear me oh my

It’s like we’re on stage in a show

When I look into your eyes

I can see a mountain high

I can hear a river flow

It’s like we’re dancing in the snow

When I look into your eyes

I can see you want to fly

I can hear that you know

It’s like there’s nowhere else to go

When I look into your eyes

I can see you want to cry

I can hear me oh my

It’s like we’re on stage in a show

080114