Drummer

Never tell a drummer that he's out of time

Metric Modulations and Polyrhythms

A drummer for many a year

Changes in metre I hear them

But my feet and my wrists can't I fear

I still feel the rhythm flow through me

Though my body won’t dance to the beat

Heart pumping faster

Breathing much harder

To master being on the drum seat

As we get older

We have to get over

The things we can no longer do

Even now they tell me

'You should play again'

'Must play again'

'Tell us that's what you will do'

But lo and behold

I'm more rocket and rolls

Than rock and roll, now

Sad but true!

Mike O’Leary September 2011

White Knight

White Knight - Dark Night 

Can you help me deal with this problem?

I need someone to sort it out

I know that you care about people

I’ve seen you out and about

I’ve got another problem

Your own you can sort anytime

Help me get through this nightmare

I’ll be ever so grateful, this time

You have to deal with this issue for me

And another, and another one too

You won’t! You horrible, selfish man

You only think about YOU!

 Mike O'Leary October 2011

Remembering Love

Remembering Love

I remember…

The lightness of your touch

The softness of your blush

Your delicate dancing eyes

Always finding you by my side

The smiling in the park

The passion in the dark

My thoughts with you alone

My separateness undone

But I remember too…

The silence of your mood

The anger in the room

The distance from your heart

We two torn asunder

The parting of the ways

The darkness of the days

The coldness of the nights

As if love was never right

I remember though…

How it felt to be in love

Below as above

And how it’s hard to separate

To be alone and incomplete

But Love has reasons of its own

Which to Reason are unknown

The heights of joy, the depths of pain

The memory of love remains


Mike O'Leary January 2012

Bradford

The Wasted Land

A tale of economic and moral decline ….but not a yarn!

Bradford, City of wool

Its citizens now with the wool pulled over their eyes

Like lost sheep, abandoned by the shepherd

No Good Shepherd here!

Enterprise, enter booby prize more like

Enter Westfield, enter wasteland

The neon lights are no longer bright

On Broadway

We’re all in the gutter, as the Irishman said

But too many here are peering down into the drains

Moral fibre has untwined
Like the fibres of the Llama
No longer spun and woven by the salt of the earth.

There is a hole at the heart of our city

 Mike O'Leary October 2011

Altruism

It’s not a Good time to be an Altruist

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

When selfishness and greed are seen as virtuous

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

When misfortune is opportunity for most

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

When in public, as in private
 Harvard Business Rules!

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

When ‘Release the God within’ is the cry

Some mistake this for ego, but

As Irenaeus might say, it’s just Gnosticisms way

It breaks all the rules, makes Kings out of Fools

And lets everyone think they are Great

From Ayn Rand to Human Resources

They all want the same thing from us

To be more than we are

To be ‘can do’, as far

As one hundred and twenty percent

But who will benefit from this effort of yours?

You’re a resource, committed to boot

They want you to fulfil your potential

But for them, not for you, at root!

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

                                    Mike O'Leary October 2011

Freedom

Freedom

Free to choose, I choose to care

Free to lose, my losses bear

Free to care, I care for free

Free to gain from giving freely

Freedom from, freedom to

Licence will what freedom won't

Licence says, do what you will

Freedom says you can, but don’t!

Free to starve, free to freeze

Got no money, free to sneeze

Free to live a life unhindered

 Food or heating, fires untindered

Free to live on dreams and hopes

Free to struggle, not to cope

Free to think ‘It could be me’
Can’t buy a ticket for 50p

Free to work, free to play

Free to do what others say

Free to vote, x to win

Cameron, Cowell, factor in

Free to smile, free to frown

Free to be up, free to be down

Free to want to see some justice

Free some day, free markets busted

Free to dance, free to move

Freedom song, freedom groove

Free to listen, free to voice

Is everything just a matter of choice?

                     Mike O'Leary - November 2011