People and Places

 

I set off in the morning sun

In May with the sense of summer to come

And now as I smell the autumn air

The people will ask – did I get anywhere?

No great feats worthy of mention

Several hours in police detention

I can’t remember all the songs I’ve sung

I can remember that it was fun

 

I love new places and people I meet

I love to sing for you on the street

To give what I’ve got and take what I need

In the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat

 

Someone asked what message I’d got

They were right to ask, it was quite a shock

To think that they thought I was just having fun

A student on holiday, a man on the run

They asked again - and what of my wife

And how could she share such a vagabond life

And what of insurance and illness and health?

They even asked what I’d put on the shelf

 

I really love to be outside

With the whole wide world before my eyes

I’m not such a friend of the wind and the rain

But you can’t have the peace without the storm

When birds are singing in the trees

The breeze is playing with the leaves

You don’t have to own it or say it is yours

The main thing is you’re out of doors

 

Someone said – you should be a star

And they wondered why I hadn’t got that far

The funny thing is, if you hear it enough

You begin to believe in this flattering stuff

I‘m not a musician, not really a poet

If you read these lines you will surely know it

I give what I’ve got, take what I can

And happy to be a vagabond man