Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Pok the Bard tells of himself.

It is I Pok who speak
Who fell from Bok
To scream
At first
Then tell tales
Who calls Earth She
And nussles beneath the old oak tree

It should be appreciated that Bok, being my mythological, rather than biological father, is too universal to have a voice of his own. Pok is the first pustule of potent bardic juice to fall from this erstwhile Sky god. |The drop falls through nothingness causing ripples thus causing the world.

 Pok was first and has returned
And he has lived and he has learned
Theatrics
And all for you

Which is not to say that I Simon John Miller who created Pok created the multiverses any more than you did, but that Pok certainly  has as much of a claim to such an act as any other archetype and that he would like to ask "what's in a name?"

 Reaching teenager-hood I found I wished to embark upon no college or career and, knowing where I myself was at,  eventually alighted upon the seminal work of poetic grammar by arch-scholar Robert Graves that spelled out my future. This was " the White Goddess" and I only really dipped into it then, leaving with the words of one paragraph that I probably misread, echoing in my mind.

 People called Bards, it seemed, though known by other names, would come between opposing armies and bestill their belligerence with with poetry, meaning they would give them a poetic cum politic rap to chill them out and as a result they would not make war.

 Years passed. My chosen path was mostly obscure for people but this worried me not. I reffered to myself as a songwriter and went about doing just that.

 Moving swiflty through the Thatcher years now we emerge later in 1992 when I became involved with
a group of travelling minstrel types that became Spacegoats. Originally based upon a sound generated by a C# didgeredoo and carefully tuned 323 string hammered dulcimer, I counterpointed the sound with more sharp sounding staccato mandolin, looning around and performing vocal duties, roughly in that order.

 Spacegoats hoofed it up on the streets of Devon and much of England in time. We wanted to bring so called environmental awareness to peoples lives by singing about it and being involved with different camps and actions in the concurrently appearing road protest movement that started in 1992 at Twyford Down Hampshire.
 Along with others globe-wide, we brought this awareness through and you will know this largly because you are taxed for it. Sorry about that, there is a deeper level.

 The band lasted for 11 years in all and produced about as many albums. These started with 'Inamorata' and progressed through the 90s with acoustic strangitute that we called "enhurument." One danced to the music and became enhurued.

 In 1999 the band as such split though a remnant continued through a series of fortnightly 24 hour parties deep underground in London, before transmuting. By this I mean I continued the name, being well known ans synonymous with Spacegoats at the time. This late period Spacegoats was rather different, because I 'went electric' didn't I, cranking out my Gibson SG copy for an extended in yer face psychedelic rock barndance.

 Then our good friend producer and host died, Spacegoats fizzled out after a small Swiss tour and I turned 40 feeling somewhat done in.

 I let go of the aspiration to make music. This was because my body felt wear and tear and wanted a break.
If the Muse wanted me to continue and showed me direction and only if, I would follow it.

Out of this freefall in no particular direction, I saw, one night in a melancholy Paris maisonette, a guitar on the wall. I detuned it and played in a fingerpicking mode, less stressful to the muscles of the arm.

 Later from this was borne 'My Elusive Muse', which you will find on the first of a growing number of albums of me and my songs. They are very bare recordings. I sing with one or maybe two instuments, sometimes a drum. There is spoken word, which I have come to refer to Bardic measures, though actually they do not conform to the tight strictures of that ancient discipline. My measure are written for me to speak them. I compose them to roll of my tongue the way I want them to for pleasure and memory recall.

Sometime after the end of  Spacegoats people started calling me a Bard. As this is what I singularly and originally wanted to be and to redefine for the present era and into a future, I felt encouraged.














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Tuesday, 1 May 2012

Key to the Gates
One for the stones that are old Roll roll roll Two for the alchemical gold Roll roll roll Three for the freedom of the soul Roll roll roll Who holds the key to the gates? Who learns that knowledge waits? Who holds the balance of the fates? Four for the key to hidden doors Roll roll roll Five for the song that endeth wars Roll roll roll Six for the child that asketh more Roll roll roll Know that the gates are open wide Spirit mother you are so wise For three is the number of the child Seven for the strength to move through fears Roll roll roll Eight for the turning of the years Roll roll roll Nine it is the spirit of good cheer Roll roll roll Musician herald bard held in reknown With your three several wreathes you be crowned Wielding your harps of mystical sounds for us One for the stones that are old Two for the alchemical gold Three for the freedom of the soul Four for the key to hidden doors Five for the song that endeth wars Six for the child that asketh more Seven for the strength to move through fears Eight for the turning of the years Nine it is the spirit of good cheer Roll roll roll Roll roll roll Roll it around-O Terror Machine Woa terror machine You know what I mean Woa terror machine Oh-a ya gonna know what I mean It's the work of government administration Let's just call it information sedation Keep it all hid keeps on the lid Of what is really going on You heard the news about the terrorists Though evidently no evidence fits They got Arabic scapegoats as decoys And they're treating them like shit It's a bomb on the bus it's a man in the crowd It ain't what it seems but don't talk too loud The man on the TV is talking paranoid disease Woa-a it's the Terror Machine Terror - Realise Terror - Open Eyes Terror - Easily created Terror - We're being manipulated Woa Your gonna know what I mean Woa Terror Machine Woa Know what I mean Two Towers standing now here comes the bit Where they all fall down like a magic trick At least that's how I look at it It's all in the cover-up 7/7 if you want my opinion Was all government bombs Too much talk about climate change and Africa Keep the talks going wrong It wouldn't do to make poverty history It would spoil the plan Of world domination in the nuclear age Keep it in the can Terror terror everywhere and the real reason is clear Make way for big brother keep up the war and fear Terror... Manufactured hate from newspapers Through video games and TV Try to keep us all dumbed down Can your eyes but see? It was A OK till the communists fell With the enemy gone they needed someone to kill To keep the arms trade in lollipops They had to make up with something new Terror machine is a genius plan But they don't want you to know whose scheme Terror machine is a see-thru scam A front for the killing regimes Mind control 24/7 Is telling lies outright Media coverage to the masses Is not going to talk out of line Terror... Behind the scene this killing machine Is off doing it's work Funded by tax and vacant minds It's time to get alert I'd like us all to realise That a spanner in the works Is a sure fire risk for the terror machine Because it's made of a lie Terror... Want you to see through the terror machine What really makes it tick Don't be suprised if the global 8 Are in the midst of it Violence I'm trying to work it out where does violence come from In the heat of the moment just what brings it on There's violence in silence though you might think me wrong Lights the blue touch paper for the fists and knives and guns It's just below the surface but hidden well away Disguised with greatest etiquette in the ways that we behave Passed back and forth in lethal tennis games Before the final act has blown the love away This violence has run deep in history's angry seams What violence is appropriate is what the lawcourts deem Violence on the battlefield violence in the home Violence nearly everywhere and just behind your nose How one can regret but it's always too late Whether it's to kill a man or just to smash a plate In anger for something someone said or done But who can look deep enough to ask where it comes from Who can look deep enough to know where it comes from I remember Blue I remember Blue He said "Good times bad times" And the girl in the flamenco dress Swayed to the rhythm of his guitar I looked at the scene Heard his words and his strum Never saw him one time more And the girl she was just a dream Then I paced down the street Where I saw a man he was beat Slumped into a shop doorway Head between his knees I guess he was gouched out Could be heroin or crack cocaine And I numbly wondered What happened to my dream? Didn't have no money and couldn't even speak I reviewed my own life of the street So I reached as far as I could reach Into my heart for I accept no defeat And I perceived a vast desert of soul- Stranded survivors of a world gone wrong And a flaming mouth that incinerated dreams But yet one dream it burned through the flames Of the flamenco girl who threw off her chains She danced herself into a whirling peak Said no words but smiled to me And I sanctified gratified passed on the smile Into the dawning street It smashed into a car windscreen Got lost in the wind Echoed against the building blocks Got half drowned in the rain It caught a man in turpitude And drove another sane Got jammed inside a mortal coil Of disempowered dreams It rattled through my mandolin And dislocated brains It grated through the visors Of the Motor City men It caught all in a tornado That blotted out the sun Of which dust that followed smarted eyes Of all the fallen ones And through this cloud a man appeared And he began to wave I knew that we had understood And so this vision fades My Elusive Muse I saw you once upon a normal street I looked all upon you from your hair down to your feet You smiled and disappeared and left me with the blues But you had entered into me and left a mystic clue Ah my elusive muse What was it behind the city's cracks and lies What behind hidden scars and in distant eyes And everywhere I looked all with my seeking shoes You were peeping through the gaps my elusive muse Ah my elusive muse You formed into the rounded hills such it was your grace I looked into the moon and reflected was your face I looked into the gutter thought that I might loose you So I cried a silver tear my elusive muse Ah my elusive muse Inspiration from the well of passion's holy flame Golden arrows to my heart when I hear your name Six white horses carry you in a chariot so true Seven songs of everywhere are the ones you use To keep in time the fearless rhyme My elusive muse Ah my elusive muse We chained you restrained you built worlds modern and new But these are all missing love they are the work of fools And to all insensed profiteers who at your brown skin grasp Taking gold and minerals well none of this can last For it threatens all the life on earth in the seas and skies of blue How we do depend on you my elusive muse There never can be an end to you my elusive muse So if it is we shall meet and men will truly see The majesty of life within your earth and heaven tree And if we touch this holy bough feel it's pulse and fuse We touch all infinity my elusive muse Ah my elusive muse Battered and Blue Some give pleasure others pain Most'll leave you some time in the rain Some bring trouble some just annoy Most give candy one or two bring joy Now some take screwballs some drink wine I smoke grass most of the time Don't change the situation just turns it around Like Jeckell and Hyde running all over town Hey hey hey what can I say I really do not feel so good today Me oh my what can I do I'm tattered and battered and blue for you I knew a girl I met in a zoo She played crazy golf in goodbye shoes I knew a girl she was cool Saw her last by the swimming pool I won't tell you much just the basic facts We built our house on a railroad track When we heard the clicketty-clack She ripped my shirt and didn't look back Hey hey hey what can I say I really do not feel so good today Me oh my what can I do? I'm tattered and battered and blue for you Some give pleasure others pain Most'll leave you some time in the rain Some bring trouble some just annoy Most bring candy one or two give joy Hey hey hey what can I say I'm gonna do my best to feel better today Me oh my what can I do I tattered and battered and blue for you My body's aching and it ain't faking When it finally buckled I didn't chuckle In the final end there was just us friends And a guy called Death who was playing requests My oh my! Hey hey hey whay can I say I really gonna do my best to feel better today Me oh my what can I do I'm tattered and battered and blue for you I'm tattered and battered and blue for you Twyford Down We came from far All round the globe To Twyford Down To stop a road Through special site Of ancient light Winchester College Sold off the rights So was built a site In path of the road Where Dongas Tribe lived In bent hazel domes Going out on actions Tarmac reaction And for the contractors It did their heads in Ah ah ah That was Twyford Down It was a wet cold Yellow Wednesday When luminous jackets made the first cutting And there was pain and there was crying People thought the earth was dying Fourth day of July Mass trespass day Hundreds of people All in the way Or clambering up on the bailly bridge Clanging it boldly with chaos sticks Then there was digger diving Which is conniving To jump on the 'dozers Till work was over D-locked under the wheels Of their earth-raping steel To stop the contractors There were many factors Ah ah ah That was Twyford Down A Great Conjunction Was in the sky Woa but it wasn't The reason why It was the people Who were outraged At all the tricks That had been played To build the road Against the will Of common people For money made It was enough Enough enough But still the D.O.T. Made the cut And so began This first eco-war And after Twyford There were many more There were many more There were many more Ah ah ah That was Twyford Down Ah ah ah That was Twyford Down Ah ah ah That was Twyford Down Newbury and Beyond Solsbury Hill and Twyford Down Eco war on sacred ground It moved on to Newbury Nine miles of road building insanity No one can deny it For it was on TV Harness held or not High up in a tree Eco warriors out on a limb While the corporation chainsaws made a din Saying you must not cut down this glade Make no tiny cut with your murdering blades We will defend these trees With our bodies and our minds held up high in the leaves And tunneling down deep into the ground Give your Sheriff's men the run-around Security cordons plenty of police Giving orders their consciences asleep I know it is sad to say But Camelot itself fell one day Not before Albion's warriors Made Newbury's Third Battle a legendary lay TV put he pictures in front of people's eyes Could we be becoming totally urbanised? Lyminge Forest Sella open cast mine Fairmile Trollheim and the Ladies Nine Saying you shall not chop down these trees We shall protect against your Mother murdering deeds And the Third Battle of Newbury Three minutes less for nine miles of ancient trees One hundred thousand cherry pickers Would not bring us down off our perch 'Cos news of all these road protests Has been broadcast all around the cities and the towns There is now a much greater neon orange glow From Clairmont Road down to Ireland's County Wicklow Thanks to types like the Dongas and the Flowerpots Maybe the future can be green again Canbury Garden Poplars Watley Quarry and Oxleas Wood From Scotland down to Brighton there were people who were good They came down to protest sites and did what they could A nineteen screen multiplex cinema was a little bit too much Crystal Palace was won by the people and the trees were never cut It culminated an era just before the millenium Even Ali G on the TV was at our eviction All of this was back in the ninetees before the towers fell Saying you shall not chop down these trees We shall protect against your Mother murdering deeds And the Third Battle of Newbury Three minutes less for nine miles of ancient trees One hundred thousand cherrypickers Could not bring us down off our perch 'Cos news of all these road protests have been broadcast All around let's hear it for a no pollution Newbury and Beyond To what Primal Power To what Primal Power do I owe my dues? 'Tis the Power of the mystic tri-Goddess so true Of the Maiden Mother Crone modern times it little knows Yet she was the original theme of poetry Her troubadours opening for to see the Matrix Not the celluloid one That links us up where we come from Kings and Queens and Bards in People From the place where all is equal And who though wars now rend us apart Is still the lone subject of this art. Bequeather of Kings behind all things Enveloping all in her charms of ice and fire Elusive ever present earth mother Gaia Knower of men's minds Bestower well inclined to nurture and to chide Hear her call inside your ear No fear is so opaque as to obcure her There is no cure for her love She will get you eventually Though you may reject her Have no names for her Or only those to revile She all the while Made you from clay Gave you life and days Raised you Played with you With some horn-led consort tangled and met Till this world was set Now you can't forget She spoke in the ear of those Dragon Kings of old And so this story will unfold Albion Albion Albion Albion Albion Albion's dreaming and William Blake Just rang to tell me that it's never too late You are God and the Universe The choice is yours And the Goddess is waiting for you Albion Albion Albion Albion Ezekiel some druids and King Kong Met on the corner in New Jerusalem There's going to be some spinning wheels And a lightshow that you won't forget That you won't forget Albion Albion Albion Albion When Albion's asleep A secret there we keep When Albion's alive Fear of death shall die When Albion awakes Men and women shake and make Men and women shake and make Men and women shake and make Men and women shake and make Albion Albion Albion Albion Tell of Arthurian wonder Harmony between women and men Throwing off of the chains Albion remain again Again remain again Albion Albion Albion Albion Albion's dreaming and William Blake Is calling to say it's never too late We are God and the Universe The choice is ours And the Goddess is waiting for us Albion Albion Albion Albion A moment of surprise Roll those golden eyes Albion materialise Albion Albion Albion Albion When Albion's asleep.....