Two Pigeons In Love

Togetherness

Do You Love Me Now That I Can Dance

Crocus

With each passing week

A few more minuets of light grace us

But still I hide behind a winter coat,

I don’t want the chill to seep through

Though sometimes it does.

The day is either blue and cold

Or overcast and grey

I fear the dusk sky

As the chill sets in.

In the daylight I walk in the park

Across the grass I see a mass of warmth and colour.

Oh crocus flower

You multiply each year

Let hope keep on growing.

With your flowers of mauve and yellow

Blue and white

You give the city a little beauty

A little light.

When Jack Frost prances about at night

That nimble footed villain does what he likes

But he always seems to leave you alone,

Oh brave Crocus.

Now it is not just the cold that knocks at my door

I am touched by love and warmth,

Your love and warmth,

GOD’S love and warmth.

In late summer

The Michaelmas Daisies start flowering

In back gardens

And on waist ground.

This tough old plant giving light

As we fade into autumn,

Soon after the winter berries appear.

But you beautiful crocus

I can tell by your smile

That before too long

Calmer days will be here.

Frank Bangay

February 011

When A Man Cries

Slowly breaking down barriers

That seemed like inpentratible walls

The pain starts to fade

It gets a little easier now.

He feels tears water in his eyes

Then one falls down his cheek

Then another,

He starts to feel more understanding towards others

Who are venerable

Like he is beginning to become.

When a man cries

He tries not to feel ashamed

Though the stigmas are hard to fight

He needs a friend to tell him

That everything is alright.

He tries to get rid of the macho role

That has been conditioned by so many years

He tries to confront those inbuilt fears.

He tries in anger

And in frustration

Until the violence is gone,

Others may laugh

As he becomes more sensitive

But he knows he is becoming strong.

When a man cries

He frees his heartache

Though others may try to mock

He just needs a friend to tell him

That there is nothing to feel ashamed of.

A little hazy now

He recalls a lonely room

That he returned to at the end of troubled days,

Where he fought depression

And depression always tried to win

All around the world went wild with rage.

Where people twisted each other’s arms

Oblivious to the pain

Until we forget just what the hurting was

He remembered overflowing ashtrays

Tenants super cans scattered everywhere.

Then he starts to recall

The words of compassion that came

How he started to walk down a different road

Never wanting to return to the scene again.

When a man cries

He feels a little uneasy

Though his faith is becoming strong

He needs a friend to tell him

That there is nothing to be afraid of.

Gently we learn how to comfort each other

We reach for tender moments

That we can share,

Friend can we seek freedom and acceptance

In this stigmatised land.

When a man cries

He feels stronger in his spirit

And more sensitive in his soul

Crying is hard to do

It takes a lot of courage

Can we try?

Frank Bangay

September 1984

Johnny Rocks On

Johnny was a quiet boy

Sitting in the back of the class at school

Johnny was a rock and roll rebble..

Ton up motorbikes up and down the North Circular

Neasden ,Stonebridge Park,

The Hanger Lane roundabout.

Johnny was a shy boy

Who could never chat up the girls

Johnny was a rock and roll sex symbol..

Suggestive stage movements

The guitarists rithym and blues riffs

Bringing forbidden sounds to post war Britain..

Our parents disapproved

Alf Garnet complained

But us teenagers really loved it.

Johnny was an awkward boy

Who liked to daydream

The teachers would get annoyed.

Johnny was a punk

Who looked menacing in his eye patch

To a young lad just coming into his teens.

The guitars crunched

The drums rolled on in Thunder.

His manager tried to tame him

Getting him to sing ballads

But Johnny liked to drink

And his rebellious spirit nobody could truly tame.

Johnny was a quiet boy

Who was often alone

Johnny liked to live out his dreams

Johnny rocks on.

Frank Bangay

September 06 revised April/May 07

The Further You Look

It was the early 1970s

At the Record Corner Bedford Hill Balham

A shop that I often visited on a Saturday afternoon.

I didn’t know much about reggae then

But I liked a lot of what I had heard.

One day

While looking through the record racks

I came across an album

A Love I Can Feel by John Holt

On the Bamboo label.

Something made me buy it

I took it home and played it

I liked it

It had soul.

I didn’t follow John Holt’s career

But from time to time I listened to him.

A Thousand Volts Of Holt

I liked his version of Mr Bojangels,

“Is it rain from the sky?

Or tears from my eyes

Running down my cheeks over you”?

His song Ali Baba

Became who shot the barber?

As the DJs toasted

And Natty Dread started to flourish

There were rumours going round town about the barber,

But it wasn’t Natty Dread who shot him.

Lovers rock singers

Stoned toasters

We need them both

To help make the world go round.

Frank Bangay

October 20014

Dear Lord

The times when I most need to go to you in prayer

Are the times when I’m least likely to

You could make sense of the mixed up confusion that I live with

If only I called.

Dear Lord,

Dear Lord.

The times when I struggle to understand this crazy world we live in

These are the times when I need to speak to you

But so often

My mind broods

My minds broods.

Dear Lord,

Dear Lord.

Storm clouds in a summer sky

A turbulent sea in a troubled night

My little boat gets tossed about

You are sanctuary in a weary land

This I believe.

Dear Lord

Dear Lord.

The times when I most need to speak to you Jesus

I will struggle with negative voices.

But I will stand and do my best

I walk along life’s highway

I hold out my hand

Please guide me on

long to walk closer to you.

Dear God

Dear God.

Frank Bangay

Written one overcast day in August 2004

The Boat Sails

I will say farewell my friend

The leaves fall

And blow through an autumn park.

Through life’s turbulence

Your boat sets sail for a distant shore.

I know that my boat will sail one day

I hear Blind Willie Johnson singing,

Come with me to that land

Come with me to that land.

I will celebrate your spirit

As the spring blossom opens

And flowers appear in a springtime park.

In the cool breeze

Your boat sails on calm water

My boat will sail too one day,

I hear Blind Willie Johnson singing,

We will meet Jesus in that land

We will meet Jesus in that land.

One day

I will celebrate the memories,

Your personality,

The conversations we had,

The beauty of friendship.

But for now I will shed a tear

As your boat sails to a distant shore

I will believe

That you will meet Jesus there.

I pray that I too will meet Jesus

On the day my boat sets sail

For that distant shore.

GOD Bless

May your soul find rest.

Frank Bangay

May 07