Jacket # 6 - Ric Caddel - poems - "The Very Best Of"

Atlantic/Hanson K11221:
"Rivers of Babylon" : Boney M

for the Society for the Preservation of Rural England

I want to be as dull and barefaced
as the billhook in that hedger's
shaking hands: also as dangerous
and heavy. Nothing

can resist us today, rain-
water's so intoxicating and good.
Thorn! Ash! Dogrose!
Faltering heart's colours fading with the years.

Philips BF 1473:
"The sun ain't gonna shine anymore" : Walker Brothers

to Kenneth Clark, Radovan Karadzic and Martin Webster

The baby was truth. When the song stopped
we saw her helpless on the
diving board. You were there,
remember, offering photos of her,

asleep, to the staggered crowd.
I got all breathless, trying to show them
the backs, where you'd typed "FURY"
"IGNORANCE" "MALICE" and "CONTROL".

Atlantic K 10827:
"Daddy Cool" : Boney M

to the Department of Education and Employment

To forget more than you ever knew
is no joke. The skaters
push out past last summer's
trees' leftovers, but do

fancywork, no straight lines.
Even now winter sun
may catch them, beautiful
ignorant shadows cast on fish in ice.

Epic EPC 4955:
"Knowing me knowing you" : Abba

in Cambodia, in Kosovo

Amoral and apolitical silly
seeks ditto, divine: must be
"docile and passive", unable
to pervert language.

O never teach me to understand:
my sick children's gaze -
years laid waste -
and we have made all this -

Panic NIC 2:
"War Baby" : Tom Robinson Band

to the Department of Transport

Knowing who I come home to, trust
and the fighting continues. A small
wayside shrine will be lost
under the new road, our children

breathe perverted air. Government
shrug, you can't make an incentive
omelette, we can only walk
where we may. It's you. It's me. It's us.

Ember EMBS 261:
"Wichita Linesman" : Glen Campbell

in absentia

Dear Flower, it's lonely here
only the ceaseless drip
of knowledge
keeps me from you.

I wire you:
stomp on that Chinese sage
saying how leaves feel good
in Autumn.

Virgin VS 612:
"Karma Chameleon" : Culture Club

homage to Glen Baxter

They agreed it was a country of immense proportions
which seemed to move as the sun and clouds
passed over it. They agreed it was
a gila monster of immense

proportions which seemed to move
as the brushwood moved around it. They agreed
it was a politician of immense proportions
which seemed to move

CBS 6947:
"Bright Eyes" : Art Garfunkel

to the Department of the Environment

We mask emotion.
Never mind.
Path forever
closed.

City centre dusk,
synthetic voice,
nerve, never
far behind.

London HL 10046:
"River deep and mountain high" : Ike & Tina Turner

for Ann

The message is old, and disregards
ache and frustration. I tear it,
post half, throw the other, bottled,
in the sea. It floats

over oceans, islands, jungles,
is misread by sailors and police,
but still beats the posted bit.
Forgotten what I wrote. You read. It's true.

Not all of the popular songs referred to are admired by the author. Some of the poems appeared long ago in magazines such as Atlantic Review, Chock and Divan.