The Operation
Roundabout
A war is born: neighbour kills neighbour,
They kill till they can kill no more.
A peace is signed, war goes into labour
And dies giving birth to another war.
Playground
dark brown eyes
scanning dusty tarmac
a boy on a swing
head down
mouth humming
a boy swinging intensely
before dusk he must go
to his grandmother’s house
on the edge of the city
alone on a swing
thinking on a swing
a boy
his mother will stay home
she won’t go to the shelter
people here are afraid of shelters
they remember last time
the chains of the swing
they clank they creak
the boy’s head fills
with explosions
a boy on a swing
The Famous Battle
Dawn came creeping
On her soft grey paws
Dawn came creeping
On her soft grey paws
By the time the sun rose
She’d torn down the sky with her claws
SHADOW SPEECHES
The Shadow Poet Laureate moves in a mysterious way, something like a dark starfish. Occasionally it behoves him to speak rather than spout in public. Finding it hard to ad lib without swearing or soppiness, he writes down his prophetic if pathetic thoughts and reads them out. These are sometimes mistaken for poems and people even ask for copies. The rest of the pieces in this section were written for public performance.
All the Light There Is was commissioned as a New Year 2003 poem for the BBC World Service – the Shadow recorded it and the BBC broadcast it all over the planet.
When They Tell You to Go to War was spoken at a meeting about Vietnam and Iraq and also in Hyde Park at the historic rally of 15 February 2003. The Shadow was early on the bill and people had only been coming into the Park for an hour or so, but he was satisfied with an audience of around 250,000.
Work To Do was written on the brink of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and spoken in Grosvenor Square on my wife Celia’s birthday. I’d been listening to a lot of speeches and some of them had seemed destructive to me. I wanted to speak up for the many pacifists in the anti-war movement.
All the Light There Is
We tossed a coin marked two thousand and three
Heads for Peace, Tails for War – which’ll it be?
Came down Tails – and I heard a voice:
‘Welcome to the Monster Zoo!
We’re going to unlock all the cages
And save Democracy for you.
‘And out will march monsters
whose work is war.
Their hearts are hot
as the planet’s core.
‘For power and money
they murder the poor,
then they rape each other
till war breeds war
‘And the air cracks into shrapnel,
the oceans turn to lead
and the earth itself is burning
and all the light is dead.’
Yes the monsters are rattling their cages
their keepers are reaching for the keys
and some of us are cheering on the monsters,
and some of us are down on our knees
singing
we love the light
all the light there is
come and let’s walk
into the light of peace
no more war no more war
Yes – it was Heads for peace, and a newborn child
cuddled to its mother’s breast.
Of all the visions I ever saw
this vision was the best.
So a New Year’s born –
it gasps, it cries.
Gather up the baby –
gaze into its eyes
Sing to the baby
on the warm breast.
Let the child drink peace,
let the mother rest.
singing
we love the light
all the light there is
love is the light
all the light there is
peace is the light
all the light there is
come and let’s walk
into the light of peace
no more war no more war
When They Tell You to Go to War
don’t go
don’t go to work
don’t go to school
don’t go to the movies
don’t go to college
don’t go to your regiment
don’t go to your ship
don’t go to your air base
go into the streets
take over the streets
and bring Britain to a full stop
when they tell you to go to war
don’t go
don’t go to war
Work to Do
I’m a pacifist.
If you’re a pacifist too
You know that as soon as you say:
I’m a pacifist –
A Political Person smiles and says:
Of course I respect your position, but –
Well I say: I don’t want your respect –
How about your help?
We’ve got work to do.
And the Political Person smiles and asks
The same stupid question time after time:
Wouldn’t you have fought World War Two
To stop Hitler?
And I say: No – and here’s the reason why.
Because I wouldn’t have fought World War One –
So Hitler wouldn’t have come to power.
Don’t you understand
After all these centuries
That war gives birth to war
War gives birth to war?
That’s how the murder plague grows
Unless we stop it.
Yes, we’ve got work to do.
Many of us feel weary.
We’ve been marching against the war
And talking against the war
And reading about the war
And watching the TV war
And we’re tired of watching slaughter
And listening to the excuses for slaughter.
And in this time of grief
We often find ourselves on the brink of tears.
OK, let the tears flow.
Then wipe them away.
Have a party, get a good night’s sleep –
And start again.
We’ve got work to do.
We put on the greatest demo
Ever seen in Britain.
We put on the greatest demo
Ever seen in wartime Britain.
That’s a start.
But we’ve got to stop this war.
Stop the next war.
Stop all wars.
We find ourselves now
In the middle of World War Three –
The war which started
When nuclear bombs dropped
On Hiroshima and Nagasaki –
World War Three –
The war between the rich and the poor.
That’s the task ahead of us –
To bring an end to World War Three.
To heal the wounds of the world.
To bring peace throughout the world.
We’ve got work to do.
We’ll work with our French and German
and American and Russian and Chinese
and Pakistani and Cuban and South African
and Iraqi brothers and sisters.
We’ll make the United Nations
A blessing on the world.
We’ll teach our children and our grandchildren
That we have done enough killing,
/> That killing people is wrong.
With them, we’ll examine pacifism
And ways of non-violent resistance
To cruel oppressors and benevolent oppressors.
We’ll study and celebrate the lives
Of Gandhi and Martin Luther King
And their brave followers.
We’ll set up Commissions of Truth and Reconciliation
All over the world – including Ireland.
We’ll help to organise
The vast majority of the people of the planet
Who long for peace
And whose deepest wish
Is No More War.
And that’s our work
No More War.
So, like my Jamaican comrade
Andrew Salkey used to say:
Brothers and sisters –
Keep on keeping on –
We’ve got work to do.
ENGLANDING
Englanding
We are the cold-eyed English
from the islands of the rain
and our cold eyes are not looking at you
so how can you say we are cold to you
when you are less than nothing at all to us
and we save the cold of our eyes
for the eyes of our cold families
on the islands of the rain
We are the cold-eyed English
and at six in the evening we raise our glasses
our glasses of luke-warm sherry
and we say cheers and here’s to you
to the Manager of the Bank of Cold
and the Vicar of the Church of Cold
and the Teacher who teaches our children Cold
at the School of Coldness, which gets results
and which we can just afford
thanks to grandma’s shares
in the Iceberg which sank the Titanic.
Fun in World War Two
Get your mack out
Call Uncle Jack out
To enjoy the black-out
We’ll go to Piccadilly Circus
And feel up the workers
Maybe one of them will jerk us
Banned for Six Months
My Jaguar is mine and I am hers.
She’s my Madonna. Say a prayer –
Orphans, widows, widowers.
I touch a switch. My wild witch purrs:
‘I’ll take you anyshiningwhere.’
My Jaguar is mine and I am hers.
Give her the gun and Wiltshire blurs.
Two cyclists. Wham! A hedgehog. Squash! A hare –
Orphans, widows, widowers.
Why don’t they vivisect child-murderers?
Pass me the in-car vodka. Yeah.
My Jaguar is mine and I am hers.
We’re off beyond speedometers
Into a ghostly fog. Who’s there?
Orphans, widows, widowers.
The Court. Their family – the whimperers.
My firm fixes a driver. I don’t care –
My Jaguar is mine and I am hers,
Orphans, widows, widowers.
In a Brown Paper Bag
in a brown paper bag
is a crown of gold
in the crown of gold
is a loaf of bread
in the loaf of bread
is a loaded pistol
take out the gold crown
put it on your head
order your brother
to give you the bread
it’s fifty-fifty
he’ll shoot you instead
To Somebody Considering Suicide
up to you
we’d sooner you didn’t
but it’s up to you
your mind
your body
your life
your heart
they’re all yours
and it’s up to you
if you throw them all away
we’ll be sorry and sad
and we’ll wave goodbye
and now and then cry
but we won’t throw our own lives away
we’ll stick around down here
and whenever we can
we’ll have a good time
if you’ve got the guts
there are hundreds of other moves
you could make or try to make
instead of that one move
you can’t take back
imagine other choices
imagine those changes of
places
people
jobs
missions or visions
all those other paths
but if every path leads you
to the same brick wall
it’s up to you
bang your head
on the wall
till you’re dead
or stop
take a good look at the wall
what’s stuck on it?
a stupid poster advertising dread?
tear it off
underneath
may be graffiti by Bessie Smith
may be a phoenix by Turner
and maybe
fingerholds and toeholds
between the bricks
so haul yourself up
and climb that wall
climb up and over
that fucking wall
but it’s
up to you
if you can’t make it
sorry
very sorry but we won’t
carry your bones around with us
everywhere
we’ve got dances to try
and other chips to fry
before we lie
down and let
the wall
fall on us
meanwhile
whatever you choose to do
up to you,
love,
up to you.
for mental patients
pull yourself together
that’s what they always say
pull yourself together
throw your cares away
pull yourself together
but if they knew my heart
and how it kicks inside me
they’d say
pull yourself apart
all together now
Doctor Rat Explains
we place each subject
in a complicated maze
with high walls and bright-flickering lights
to those who work well –
pressing down the correct levers –
we give rewards
to those who prove useless –
recalcitrant, scratching themselves in corners –
we allot punishments
the rewards
are the gourmet delights of Wealth
the punishments
are the electric aches and pains of Poverty
this experiment proves
that the meaning of Money can be taught
to the majority of human beings
ARTEFACTIONS
Misery Me!
(This is a song from my stage version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. It is sung by Lucy, a young evacuee who has been sent with her brothers and sisters to the country during the bombing of London in World War Two. There she has discovered a wardrobe through which she can reach the magical land of Narnia. But nobody believes her. All she can do is sing her heart out to the audience.)
When Alice came home from Wonderland
Did her family laugh and jeer?
When Crusoe sailed back from his island
Did they say: You imagined it dear?
When Dorothy flew in her ruby slippers
From the Emerald City of Oz
Did her Auntie Em say it was all a dream?
I bet they all did, because –
Father’s in the Royal Navy
Somewhere out at sea
I’m dreaming of submarines –
&
nbsp; Misery me!
Mother would come down from London
But she isn’t free
I’m dreaming of falling bombs –
Misery me!
We’re here in the heart of the country
And we dive in the pond by the mill
And we fish for trout in the river
And we slide down the side
Of a bumpy old hill
And I should be as happy as Larry
Playing Cowboys and Indians all day
But everyone believes I’m a liar
So I wish I could grow some wings
And fly far away
Father’s in the Royal Navy
Somewhere out at sea
I’m dreaming of Narnia –
Misery me!
Mother would come down from London
But she isn’t free
I’m dreaming of Narnia –
Misery me!
What Poetry Says
(a free translation from Remco Campert)
Poetry says: Yes, I’m alive.
Poetry says: No., I’m not alone.
Poetry is the day after tomorrow
Dreaming of Wednesday week
In a far country, with you, aged 89 and a half.
Poetry breathes in and out,
It puts the beat in my feet,
It makes them hesitate and hover
Over the earth which longs for them to dance on it.
Voltaire got smallpox, but he cured himself
By swigging 200 pints of lemonade
Come on Everybody Page 30