Contents

7. "PCSOs by Manic Martin
6. "A Roddicking Good Time" by Manic Martin
5. "World War One Daffodils"
4. "Action" by Martin
3. "Blind Art" by Nigel
2. "Poetic Verse" by Nigel
1. "Britain is Best" by Anita

Poetry constributed by 'students' of Oxford's Homeless College

P.C.S.O.s by Manic Martin

(Dedicated to all police community service officers.)

The pavements are pedalled past
By budget bobbies.
It’s summer now
And they wear T-shirts,
But as the days grow shorter
And their sleeves grow longer,
They still will not have any cuffs.

A Roddicking Good Time by Manic Martin

It really was bitter-sweet sixteen
As I learned that day we’d lost a queen
A regal rebel in this money-mad age
Notions and potions, potent and sage
She did her best, as we all should
If money is power then hers looked good
Some vanity ain’t always sin
‘Cos she was beautiful within
I’m no royalist, but what the heck
At least she wrote JB that cheque

Manic & Taurus

"World War One Daffodils" by Manic Martin

(With apologies to Bill Wordsworth)

I wander’d lonely as a cloud
Of deadly choking chlorine gas
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of dead, a dying mass.
Beside the tank, beneath the wire,
Faint gasps and cries rose from the mire.

Continuous as the blood that flows
From fatal wounds and open cuts
They stank a stench to twist your nose
Of rancid rents and rotting gut
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Rolling and crawling in deathly dance.

The gun beside them fired but they
Just stared from broken eyeless skulls
And if the firing died away
You might hear screaming in the lulls
I gazed and gazed and little thought
What misery one death had brought.

For oft, when in my trench I sit
In vacant or in pensive mood
I think of war, the whole of it
Of vice and hurt and tortures crude
And then my heart with sorrow fills
For men and guns and all their ills

Manic Martin

"Action" by Martin

Peace is not passivity
Being at Peace with one’s self
Is not lying at rest

Part of the human race
Joining a mass march
Away from the crazed conflict

We are a Peace Movement
Standing up to be counted
By the military machine

We’re shifting opinion
By sitting in the road
Not being trampled underfoot

As we lay in wait
For the warmongers’ wagons
We didn’t sit on our arses
As we locked onto our target

Blind Art by Nigel

Blind Art

As an artist viewing a blank canvass
I see not an empty page
Just poems still unwritten
Begging to be made.
With lyrical colour I paint a scene
Each a vocal work of art
And ‘though we’re a band of brothers
Our independence sets us apart.
The lyrics I see are my own
As is my choice to show you
Another may show a different scene
But each is painted true.
How we obtain inspiration
None of us can clearly say
Perhaps we just look at life
In a slightly different way.
So if you see a picture
But can’t identify the view
Don’t condemn it with slander
It just wasn’t meant for you!


Copyright © 2007 Nigel Savill

POETIC VERSE by Nigel

The art of poetic verse
is to show the world you care
to reach out and touch the lonely
and show there's someone there,
To find a perfect beauty
and help the blind to see,
To create a peacefull environment
thats safe for you and me.
The art of poetic verse
is to touch a primal chord,
To educate the empty
so they can spread the word.
So if you have a message
you don't know how to tell,
Try the art of poetic verse
the lyrically enlightening spell!

Nigel Mattew, Daniel Savill
Copyright © 2007 Nigel Mattew, Daniel Savill

Britain is Best

I remember what my dad once said
I'll be sorry to hear if he is dead
he said it as a piece of advice
and you couldn't really give it a price
I'm not really a patriot but
for some Britain is really the roots
I've seen the rest
Now I know Britain is best
I'm glad too
for some our country is their new home
from all over the world people see the Union Jack
some with a sense of pride
more with satisfaction deep inside
our nation can give you a good education
follow up a good relation
and spread innovation and civilisation
people come in from abroad
and Britain should never leave them bored
I know then they come and go and learn to say hello
As people are very friendly when they meet
people everywhere speak English when they greet
whether you're British or not
is something we've soon forgot
we'll say a big welcome
and you'll know you're coming home
some day you'll might be there to belong
I can sing so I'll sing this song
I've seen the rest
now I know Britain is Best.

Anita Carroll
visit her on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/anitajcarroll