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To dance beneath the diamond sky

With one hand waving free

A time to live, a time to die

A ship called dignity

Acknowledgements for reproduction without permission as follows:

Bob Dylan for lines 1 & 2 (from 'Mr Tambourine Man').

The book of Ecclesiastes and latterly Pete Seeger  in the song 'Turn, Turn, Turn'

for line 3 ( I changed a verb)

Ricky Ross of th...

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Spring! Spring! Spring!

The bells ring, ring, ring!

I am in the park under the tree.

I am free, free, free!

The crows are sitting on the tree,

They are also free, free, free.

Nothing clever comes into my head,

Only foolish things instead.

More than that!

Those critters which are on the tree

They have more freedom than me.

Their litters they thro...

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Freedom Lost

Remembering the dusty, cold floors
Beneath my feet
Never feeling stable, secure.
And the dark, damp walls
Surrounding my misery.
Feeling closed in.

Feeling like there is no life
Beyond my cell.
No one existing
Except in this hell.

Gloomy shadows
Spread up the walls
A tiny, filthy window
Only allowing pin holes
Of light through
Like someon...

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Sloth and Righteousness argued in the street,

Common Sense told them to button it.

Freedom sat on the fence.

Sloth slunk off,

Righteousness argued the point,

Common Sense felt weary,

Freedom sat on the fence.

The sun came out to play,

Righteousness slipped into shade,

Common Sense went to prevail elsewhere.

Freedom sat on the fence.

...

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I knocked on your door

you welcomed me in

Encouraged me to be a part

of the activities within

Suggestions were met with joy and horror

Young ones enthused

heard the money rolling in

Old ones, bemused

couldn't stand the din

It never could be a battle to win

you made false promises

we felt swindled

your walls were beginning to bleed

...

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Freedom is...
A blank page, ruled with margins for scribbled after-thoughts
Ink in the fountain pen and some new idea to spill
A canvas, with pallet oiled and brushes ready
A quiet room, an acoustic guitar in tune
A sunrise, derelict buildings, wide lens and film ready in the camera
A garden, soil turned and green fingers
Wet sand, a new love and a sharp stick
A science textbook...

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Oh! How I wish

 Said the plate to the spoon

As side by side they lay

That I could be given freedom

From bearing food

For just for one whole day

I carry their cake

Their bread and their tart

And To them it doesn’t matter

That me a little platter

Should have feelings

Of the heart

Oh! Hush you now

Sighed the silver spoon

Be...

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We'll begin at the top:

send someone to the loft

to shed light on the dark and spooky;

to seek out the machines

that capture our dreams

and other instruments of cruelty.

Let's excise and expose

what lies under clothes

and strip the whole joint naked!

So that nothing's intact

let's be ruthless, in fact,

and if it ain't broke then break it!

Go...

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At Christmas we’d lay down our arms,

sing Silent Night,

break bread and wine,

play football with the niceties,

pass salt along with pleasantries

pretending we were both the same.

But New Year always hung upon the dawn,

its fireworks heralding

some new offence…

Caught in shell shocked torpor,

through the mist of battle pall,

your lights winked at...

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Freedom is elusive,

We yearn for it when young.

But do we ever achieve it?

Is it not just a fallacy?

Once grown we discover

Invisible ties that bind.

Yet would we be without

Our friends and family?

It barely needs saying,

Compared to a prisoner

Or an animal in a cage,

We appear to be free.

But while money exists,

A man made commodity,

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I can’t imagine freedom.

Everything comes with a price.

Take love.

Love comes with the biggest price of all.

“Will you die before the morning

my beloved?

For I can never sleep

knowing that there is doubt.”

“Do you still love me?

As much as I love you?

My heart is in knots of anguish,

for I can never know the answer.”

...

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What do I want? What do I value?

                    What do you reject?

What matters to me? Whose opinions do I heed?

                   Whose do you ignore?

I no longer care what anyone thinks of me,

or my actions.

                   You realize, of course, that you have fixed

                   the anomaly of your state.

                   You are trying very...

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Come little green men,

you are needed

to fill our skies and eyes,

take lives and terrorise.

Come little green men,

make us fight you,

shoulder to shoulder with each other,

every human being a brother.

Come little green men,

make us forget

the million walls suspicion builds

the million graves our hate has filled.

Come little green...

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The Taliban of Christianity,

Are guardians of our nation’s moral health,

Protecting men from femininity,

They worship pomp, and privilege, and wealth.

They disapprove of how and whom we love,

Deny our civil right to earn a crust,

To work in schools for our Lord above,

Those bigots trample freedom in the dust.

No paedophiles then, in the Church of Rome?

In Opu...

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