In the slipstream That shimmered through your best dream You were glistening And I followed you down You were whispering Secrets from your worst sting I was listening There was no other sound Now we’re regular lovers, we’ll schedule our rendezvous in I won’t break my bond for you, you’d know I’ve grown fond of you then I know it’s been hard on you, reseraching new routes towards bliss But doesn’t a part of you, doesn’t a part of you wish Let’s share a little crime For we are partners in exile Let’s kill a little time Now we’re regular lovers, we’ll schedule our rendezvous in I won’t break my bond for you, you’d know I’ve grown fond of you then I know it’s been hard on you, re-learning to cease and desist But doesn’t a part of you, doesn’t a part of you wish But doesn’t a part of you, doesn’t a part of you miss

Don’t look in the mirror, don’t look in the mirror, wistful émigré Lest you see the terror, lest you see the terror and woe Your formidable father falters with a weight that's too late for him Not-to-be-forgotten brothers wallow in the fallow they know And your mother, oh your mother, she's weeping like a mother at the barrier She'd wished away the rains that washed away the life that you'd sewn And the laurel-scented lover you left, they always thought that you'd carry her Now you're leaving in another watercolour, you're leaving alone For now you'll put your pride aside until you pay what you owe The ether dusk descends along the river Another debtor’s letter's been delivered Of the land where you couldn't flow, you learn to let go Where the brittle princes fell, you see the true cost On the road that endeth well, you bear your new cross Of the land where you couldn't flow you learn to let go For now you'll put your pride aside until you pay what you owe

Away, away, away, away from the heartland In stow, in stow below, a cargo of hate He never cried, though the cut of his visage Spoke of struggle before And trouble in wait Cast onto the stage as the curtain ascended As Leningrad died, his father had bled Out on the tide, he calls up his image Like poets of yore Vladimir’s fled He’d read the worshipped words of the duellist of valour He’d heard the righteous hymns of exiles of wisdom and will Woke in the light sleet, longing for ardour Looked out on the stark and stately street, felt only its chill The lilt of laughter left as he glides by the river Is of compatriot dolls who came here for gold And occasional calls in tongues of quicksilver Entreating with him to come in from the cold As he wakes before dawn to the toll of his duty Still the bludgeoning bear oppresses and steals The pitiless morn wields a terrible beauty He breathes in its dew and knows that it’s real

Oh won’t you hearken here, brother in exile This is your superego bringin’ the news The barricades are down at the turnstiles Exit angels left it for you to choose And I know you’ve had a taste of the sweet life Soft and supple and tender and true And it ended without trace of a good fight It ended up hardening you Let’s take on the town and find the wild light of Turner in real time Slip into the summer and sever from our suffering skin Roses flowing over the Thames, we’re flowing over a goldmine Silver in the skyline again All the fallen false fruit in the new Rome All those fleeing like a Wild Geese Redux They say they’re craving for the place that they new as their one true home We both know it wasn’t for you So don’t you wallow now, brother in exile Don’t you swallow what you know isn’t true Don’t lose sight of the flight of a life of a highness of mind That’s death and destruction to you Let’s take on the town and weave a wide web of wit by the river Cathedral on a level as the water washes over the din Roses flowing over the Thames, we have been delivered To disappear into the luminous twilight of learning and sin Let’s take on the town and find the wild light of Turner in real time Slip into the summer and sever from our suffering skin Roses flowing over the Thames, we’re flowing over a goldmine Silver in the skyline again

Your sentences were self-imposed Grim and bloody-minded deeds Ancient vows of noble seed Now cast anew, oaths recomposed With brutal youth and hardened heart You cast off binding winter deep Awoke from lavish love-lush sleep To embrace this cold and stony creed The waves of consequence arose And how stark was the sting of cost Freed from ties, now bound to loss You reached out for the alms of art New laws on neon battlegrounds The wildness of a city tamed And rules reframed in archaic games Still blissful fools seek wistful clowns You sought out missals from the old world Missions manned to scared vaults But in retrospect only faded faults And you found you’d had enough of ghosts The phantoms of those you’d loved the most Banished then to leave no trace ‘Cept anthems penned, you're left to brace Yourself again against the cold Across the water, a way from shelter A bridge through force of rhyme And home a state of mind

It’s been struggle heretofore You return again to the well By which many good men swore In which many good men fell In the languid hellish noon You hear the spectral bell In the lamplit sheltered gloom You fear for whom it knells You sing a hymn for the princedom you miss Drink again 'til you’re convinced it exists Hem yourself in with these remnants of bliss Hell-bent on relentless descent But the longing will never be satisfied, the lost land will never be found The Lords of the Lane will have passed and died, you’ll be king of The Little Crown And your thoughts turn to days of simplicity when you ran rings around on the Rye You’ll be lost in a haze of complicity, your time will have passed You'll sing a hymn for the princedom you miss Drink again 'til you’re convinced it exists Hem yourself in with these remnants of bliss Hell-bent on relentless descent

I. “Hail another ale” says the Bitter to the Bettor “Make mine another cider and we’ll swallow to the letter There’s a long night ahead, and we’ve cause for inquisition” The All-Ireland is all over and winter’s settling in The Bettor’s grown no wiser, his twinkle's growing dim But he’s a fiver on at Fontwell Park, at Fairyhouse he hopes for a position The Compatriot turns pale, he’s been here many times before The Bettor a broken drinker, the Bitter a soaken bore Relentless in pursuit 'til he establishes your position But the rain has staked its claim and home is no parade He’ll say he’d been distracted, he’ll say he’d been waylaid Besides you wouldn’t describe imbibing as an imposition He rolls up his drinking sleeves, he revs up his shrinking liver II. Says the Bitter: "Young Kelly’s home from yonder with a sorry tale in tow Shur didn’t he always love to wander, though now it’s laid him low, But where’d he leave it with the father a rambler til he wed his yellow maiden" “Ah now, hold on” says the Bettor, “that’s merely an accusation I heard that Thai approached him in murderous contemplation A switchblade on his person, cursin' the nymph he said betrayed him” The Bitter leans to the table with a look of satisfaction “There’s three sides to that story then” and waits for a reaction Then glances towards the counter which presently with pints of stout is laden “I only just overheard her, that Charlie Dixon’s daughter Sayin’ it was murder, though he may only get manslaughter But whoever drew first and whoever did worse and whether he was cursed there was no doubt he slayed him” He licks his lips as if relishing this devilish deceit that makes them shiver III. Jump forward half an hour and they’re deep inside the tenth act The Paddys and the Powers have begun to make an impact When Kelly’s brother makes his entrance through he side door with his loyal band of others He has the type of demons you’d need to drive a stake through A wise and wily fox waiting for his hedgehog breakthrough Consistently distracted by the treachery of lithe young legs uncovered He feels their eyes upon him and his orders up a skinful From precocious Polish barmaid, acknowledges it’d be sinful Meanwhile thinks of what that bitter bastard said about his brother He returns to his comrades, he’d always been their hero Steamed through daring deeds they could only simmer near to He knows they’ll believe whatever he conceives no matter what they’ve heard from others As he lays down those brimming Bombardiers they always knew that he’d deliver IV. Now Samwat is a Sikh and peace and love his main codes Says to brooding Kelly “Friend, you’re rolling down the wrong road Won’t you be a saintly soldier, sacrifice revenge for blissful gladness” “Well aren’t you quite the silky Sage, though what’d you know about it ‘Tis easy speak of rage when your blessed to live without it It’s a burden in our blood that makes us beasts, we don’t feast on hate or badness” “Friend that man’s already ruined and living as a shadow Dealt his father’s mortal wound when he let the land run fallow Never did return and so his hatred burned, his spiteful life putrescent sadness” Kelly turns away and thinks of judge and jury Of his brother’s squalid cage and the wasted years of fury Sees it all in a moment of gestalt as pure unfettered madness There and then, he repents for all like them, the elation makes him quiver V. And so a calm descends on this refuge in the damp night Some spirits on the mend as they spill into the lamplight Others left to drift alone, abandoned bottles floating down the river

In exile within exile in the 13th Seeking solace from the tourists and the sun Two old souls descended in a corner One young enough to be the other’s son Both agreed it wasn’t sporting quarters At least not for sport where artistry is king And both concurred the homeland was decaying Even as the dew burned off the Spring “Let’s raise a glass for exile and its glory And escape again as we’ve done before Let the longing linger on, for this story’s telling song Yearns for longing all the more There was no war, there was no oppression When I broke from the fragile hold of grace To live a life of freedom from concession To track the course of icons that I traced And now I move discreetly through the seasons As a swallow free from burden and from toil Nature like a lover has her reasons And I was always cast to play the foil Let’s sing a song for exile and its glory And escape again as we’ve done before Let the longing linger on, for this story’s telling song Yearns for longing all the more I was taught not to deliver lessons And I can tell you wish to learn by stealth I’ll leave you with just this one last confession That may explain the cold resolve I felt” Just then the crowds arrived, the spell was broken They parted ways into the dimming light As dusk drew down on what had gone unspoken A train prepared for journey into night

In my finest poet’s pose I rehearsed my plea then The park was Coole and My will was strong In her meekest sheepish clothes, she came to meet me Divulge discreetly Maud was already gone She was already gone From the West the coastal mist was falling quaintly And from the East, the floating world was calling clear And in the wind among the reeds, I heard her pleading faintly As my pride arose against a tear They said “she tested the wrong man” Where every war involves a rose, I roamed and conquered, Fell despondent, Soldiered on Strewn along the path I chose, the blood of longing Loss and mourning Cast in song Another ceremony hails another autumn Another emblem borne to mark another year Nostalgia’s sweet seductive sound drowns reason’s gentle calling And so I strain again to hear “You left at the right time”

I can see me on the edge of this dream Floating freely in sync with the stream In the mountainous air My thoughts racing with the riveting rhytym Now I’m moving with the swell of the dawn On a summer’s morning before my burden was borne By the banks of the Thames From the hard-hearted hub of the kingdom I was only just hitting my stride when I faltered I was only just beginning to learn but I faltered Now I’m drifting and the ache has long eased And I’m sifting through these last memories And though peace it is nigh I’m longing for the sting of resistance If I could only just sense it again The wind whipping rain on my skin The end far in the distance