Hallelujah Simpkins, Syllogism Brown,
Wandered up to Barkingside to walk around the town.
Does it make you wonder, when they ring the bell,
How they press the ***** keys and sing along as well?
Syllogism wondered so he climbed the tower to see;
Hallelujah, Simpkins said, I know that I am free.

Hallelujah Simpkins, Pendlebury Jane,
Hurried to the hospital and hurried home again.
Does it make you wonder, when they run so fast,
How they know they'll ever reach the hospital at last?
Pendlebury wondered even though she couldn't run,
Hallelujah, Simpkins said, today I have a son.

Hallelujah Simpkins, Academic Smith,
Never et an orange if they couldn't eat the pith.
Does it make you wonder, if oranges can float,
Why they catch the Underground and never catch a boat?
Academic wondered so he went and caught the train;
Hallelujah, Simpkins said, and said it once again.

Hallelujah Simpkins, Concertina Flight,
Hear the song the angels sing in Dagenham tonight!
Does it make you wonder, climbing Heaven's stair,
How you'd speak to Hallelujah Simpkins, if he's there?
Simpkins only wondered whom he followed as he soared;
Hallelujah, Simpkins said, and glory to the Lord!

My talent (or my curse) is getting lost:
my routes are recondite and esoteric.
Perverted turns on every road I crossed
have dogged my feet from Dover up to Berwick.
My move to London only served to show
what fearful feast of foolishness was mine:
I lost my way from Tower Hill to Bow,
and rode the wrong way round the Circle Line.
In nameless London lanes I wandered then
whose tales belied my tattered A to Z,
and even now, in memory again
I plod despairing, Barking in my head,
still losing track of who and where I am,
silent, upon a street in Dagenham.

A copy of The Oxford Book of English Verse Remaindered from
the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Public Libraries




This happy gift of 1939
Rescued from the good comrades’ loving fires
From the liberation of censorship
From the gentle criminalization of thought

This little book and its happy, dancing lines
Crafted with thought and care and art and love
A celebration of civilization
Oh, save it, read it, love it, smuggle it

Because

More dangerous to tyrants than weapons
Are the poems of a people living free

Can't sleep

A waste of life as you say its just so ****

Sitting and thinking over each wasted bit

I remember when I was 44
I'd met a girl from dagenham

She opened my car door
Jumped in

A smile and a kiss pure delight

Blonde hair beautiful eyes that shone in the light

Thought she'd look at me with such fright

To my amazement she came for a date on that night

Walking and cartwheeling through the fields and sunny gates

A curry all down her and breaking the plates

This girl I remember is so ******* great

I so excited for our second date

A nice room in a hotel only the best will do

hours of passion making love through and through

9 o'clock came and a meal just for 2

Clumsy this girl she dropped this one too

A walk down the sea front holding her hand

Amazing exciting I couldn't have planed

Now kissing on our balcony heart twitching could it be love

Then came the thunder from the heaven above

The storm so powerful and raging became

All I remember is her smell and her name

A year or so passed with our trips far away

My heart now in full tangle even on this day

Now I've skipped a few details I don't want to bore

But my love will never break of this please be sure

My life is passing like a speeding unstoppable train

84 and an old man and lonely with shame

The shame that I have is the girl I once lost never seen again

If you read over you'll see I didn't mention her name

As promised over and over with no witty retort

I swore to this girl she'd be my dying thought

To have loved her for 40 years but still lonely and in pain

Knowing she is loved by another with no name

Lying in my bed eyes closing tired and ready to depart

*** my darling I'm not ready to leave you still have my heart

If I have to re live the days of my life

My only regret would be your not my wife

Now in heaven I'm waiting at the pearly gates

One and All passing by me my family my mates

And eternity I've waited

For  you to arrive your not coming your a queen a dianisis forever alive

I'm purgatory I now realise forever feeling numb

I wonder if you remember
What dreams may come

Take care my darling thanks for your time

I'll always be sad that your no longer mine

I’m not letting it stop me,
I’ll just carry on living my life
he said
treading dog **** deep into the ****
while under each arm
were many bags of bog rolls
puy lentils and spelt flour
that within the hour
would begin their months long spoil
at the back of a damp garage

Us writ large

exposed by this little
biological *******
which, let’s remember, does not think

Just because Dagenham Dave
or Portia
don’t either
does not make us sparring partners

Evoke Dunkirk or the blitz
if you want
but please
do it getting off your ****
on the 1995 bottle of ouzo
from the back of your drinks cupboard

at home

#dontbedicks