This song has already been accepted for publication in an American magazine and is being performed in the N. West region. Thought you might be interested.
Bluebird
(Donald Campbell 1921 – 1967)
No place for sporting heroes,
This squalid modern age,
Where private life’s exposed, enhanced,
Then flashed across the page.
When God made Donald Campbell,
He tossed away the key;
Stares danger in the eye and smiles,
For what may be will be.
His father, Malcolm, lived for speed,
Broke records by the score;
They knighted him for ‘Boys’ Own’ deeds,
Yet Donald did far more.
He stands alone that morning,
Strange look upon his face,
The need to lay his father’s ghost,
Death-glory or disgrace.
Young Donald drove much faster,
While speed was still the rage,
More complex, deadly, daring does,
When he took centre stage.
Corinthian, the times moved on,
With mammoth bills to pay,
He’ll die in the attempt, or do,
hold hounds of doubt at bay.
All feisty racing thorough-bred,
She gallops down the lake;
He spurs her harder second run,
The record time at stake.
She rises, head first, in the air,
‘She’s going,’ Campbell cries;
Slow motion backward somersault,
She breaks her back and dies.
For many years his body lies
On Coniston’s deep floor,
Till divers raising Bluebird steer
His last remains ashore.
He lost his final battle,
Fate evened up the score;
For devil-dare, sheer courage,
We may see his like no more.
Peter Branson
(Tune: ‘Reynard the Fox’, trad.)
‘Ash House’,
226, Sandbach Road,
Rode Heath,
Near Alsager,
Stoke-on-Trent,
ST7 3SB,
UK
01270883410
http://www.peterbranson.com/
Peter Branson’s poetry has been published by journals in Britain, USA, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, including Acumen, Agenda, Ambit, Anon, Envoi, The London Magazine, The Warwick Review, Iota, Frogmore Papers, The Interpreter’s House, Poetry Nottingham, South, The New Writer, Crannog, The sHOP, Rattle, The Raintown Review, The Columbia Review, The Huston Poetry Review, Barnwood, The Able Muse and Other Poetry. His first collection, “The Accidental Tourist”, was published in May 2008. A second e collection was published at the beginning of last year by Caparison Press for ‘The Recusant’. More recently a pamphlet has been issued by ‘Silkworms Ink’. He has won prizes and been placed in a number of competitions over recent years, including a ‘highly commended’ in the ‘Petra Kenny International’, first prizes in the ‘Grace Dieu’ and the ‘Envoi International’ and a special commendation in the 2012 Wigtown. His latest book, ‘Red Hill, Selected poems, 2000-2012’, by Lapwing Press, Ireland, came out May, 2013.