Civil Wars I

Old Ha made his own ice lollies:
Orange and juicy, tuppence each.
Two massive sucks and they were gone;
he always kept them out of reach.

The roads were made from different stuff back then.
Oozing tar would puddle up and bubble
for bare feet and fingers to leave prints in,
and tarry digits always meant trouble.

A brand new school was being built,
Jones's mill was about to fold,
the last of the steam trains were gone
and peace was just eighteen years old.

Broadwood road had an old ford car on bricks.
Douglas Road just one red mini on wheels.
Peter Styvesant cigarettes were cool,
and you could eat milky ways between meals.

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poem by Jim Hogg
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song - High and Dry

We started sometime yesterday
shooting arrows in the sea
counting stars and making hay
Taming truth and electricity.

The days went fast the nights went slow
The future came for us too soon
You threw your cat a butcher’s bone
And killed an Adder with a spoon

You turned the lights off on our street,
smashed the gates and left for Rio,
And I went paddling in the deeps
Of no-one else but Mary oh

chorus
There was no-one else but Mary
But there were hills we had to climb
Our dreams soon put us to the sword
And impatience stole our time

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poem by Jim Hogg
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song - Snow on The River (ii)

I saw your eyes in pale blue lines you’d posted out of Oban
And breathlessly I kissed your words: all that I could hold then
But if I listen to the night I sometimes hear the chords
In the smoke that bends away from the fire of your words

In the Gallery at Kelvingrove I saw you on the wall
Your face in every picture-frame on both sides of the hall
And in your eyes, wild holiness; the kind I could believe
Like the waves that break upon the west coast of Tiree

I stopped a while at Flannan Isle for Christmas, eighty four
And found the dream that dreamers weave unravelled on the floor
The food was on the table still, but all the birds had flown
It was like you’d never been, as I stood there on my own

And once by Chapelrossan house while you were sat beside me
On the wrong side of the white line, your eyes became the sea
The moon was full above Lang Rig, the trees were silver white
I was just your chaperone, and you my weakness for the night

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poem by Jim Hogg
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song - Snow on the River (iv)

To Arthur's Seat we climbed one day equipped with cheese and wine
We had a party in the sky until I saw the sign
A shadow ranged against the clouds politely asking why
I took my pen and wrongly answered X instead of Y

The ancient bridge across the Forth criss-crossed all my dreams
As we rested in Dalbeattie in the Inn beside the stream
Like a fish trapped in a fishing net I was desperate to escape
But kept staring through the meshes when freedom came my way

Not quite as brash as Lochinvar I stayed outside the kirk
I didn't bring my broadsword and forgot to bring my dirk
I built my armour round my heart and traded love for song
But plainly Lochinvar was right and I again was wrong

And Stirling seemed so far from Balgowan in the spring
I dreamt you homewards everyday and you gave me songs to sing
Although you were Yarrow bound my love, over Ettrick into Tales
Down paths too complex to follow, beyond where reason fails

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poem by Jim Hogg
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song - Snow on the River (i)

It was back when skies were bluer and hearts were worn on sleeves
I’d fallen for the first time, into love head over heels
I might as well have carved my love upon the breaking waves
It vanished in an instant but kept me as its slave

You were dancing in a discotheque behind old Eldon Street
The wars of love were almost done but kept us on our feet
I wore McKenzie’s tartan to the drumming of retreat
I knew too well that one more touch would lead me to defeat

Once I found your image traced on the surface of the Cree
You said I’ll marry you if you’ll drift with me to the sea
I pledged my soul by wind and sun that I would never stray
But you wouldn’t leave the river and, my love, I couldn’t stay

It was long ago on Gibson Street and you were on my arm
In snowflakes falling on your hair outside the shishmahal
I saw forever in your eyes to music in your voice
Before I realised that I would have to make a choice

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poem by Jim Hogg
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Missing

The boots of clunking time
Kicked us all around this life
But for moments we stood free
On the surge and peaks of dreams
And now here in these dark glens
Where the air seems cold and thin
I wish I wasn’t wishing
I was with them still

The chestnut trees stood tall
By the banks of Inch canal
They were much too tall to fall
Through the branches to the grass
And the loch was icy cold
cold as fear of diving in
but you who knew no fear then
dived completely in

chorus

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poem by Jim Hogg
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song - Snow on The River (iii)

I saw you once in Janet’s Lounge in the way you flicked your hair
And for a moment I was back in the Town Hall on the stairs
We were heading for tomorrow amongst the chosen few
I touched your arm and spoke and when she turned it wasn’t you

I scrawled our names in stone once on the seawall at MacDuff
I thought the end would never come, but stone’s not tough enough
To stand the blast of wind and wave, that took the love we had
Somewhere between the Sandhead shore and a fading photograph

I watched your plane come gliding down from the north of Anniesland
And your name was in the vapour trails as if by your own hand
You threw your arms around me there as everyone looked on
But I was just a refugee from someone else’s song

An Islay piper stopped and played Loch Rannoch just for me
I saw your eyes in shadow as I stood there on my knees
We crossed the line of madness once when whisky set us free
Forbidden fruit that called so sweet, we knew could never be

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poem by Jim Hogg
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Lines to...

And if I can remember
What I couldn't help but love
And if even part of that
Still holds as true
As when we knew each other truly
Then maybe I can bear to lose
The skin deep things
The qualities of youth
That work the initial
But not the lasting
Magic of love
For the silky smooth grows lined
The gypsy fades to grey
And time keeps stealing from the eyes
All this I know too well
When I catch myself
Unsuspecting
In a shop front window
Where you might be too
And not recognise or be recognised

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poem by Jim Hogg
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song - Cross of Lies

Now every song calls moments home, mainly grains of summer
I sit and turn them clumsily to keep the tide at bay
And here through flattened notes I hear the coming of the drummer
In all those words like wingbeats that once carried us away

I’ve got nothing to be thankful for, so I tell myself
Except the gifts I couldn’t choose and all I couldn’t get
For, of all the sons of Adam gone, you’re the one I miss
High upon the cross of lies, tell me how it came to this

You had the power once to kill the sunlit afternoon
I’d hear you on the old dirt-track; the driver’s door flung shut
I cowered low behind my dreams, and all too soon, too soon
The hills all fell away and the ragged chord was cut

You fought the world and taught me how to damn myself alone
You pitched the darkness all around, and so I found the light
And found the light was shadow I would throw from stone to stone
And across the darkened water I went wading into night

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poem by Jim Hogg
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Who Do You Think You Are? (song)

Are you leading off the final bend
Are you at the front of every trend
Are you every girl and every boy
Are you melody or just white noise

Are you on the brink of everest
Do you ever know what you'll do next
Is the sand of time at your command
Have you got the whole world in your hand

Who do you think you are...

Che guevara's dream
An island in the stream
Anything but what you seem
The rising sun, a falling sword
A minor twitch, a winter storm
A long forgotten face
Down a country lane
A haunted sense of loss

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poem by Jim Hogg
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