Author: Jonnyfun.E

Now retired, and enjoying making music and writing. Living in Gloucester, historically an important port on the river Severn, and situated with The Forest of Dean and the Brecon Beacons to the west, and the beautiful Cotswolds to the east.
Song for Today · Songwriting

I Am On A Roll

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I haven’t posted for so long, but I just have a backlog of songs that need to be out there somewhere.

The band I am in did a gig back in February, and the same weekend I did a gig with my wife and tried out some of my newer songs.

This is one of the newer ones that seems to have gone down well.
It strikes me that these are just the lyrics. I will have to do some recordings, but I’m never happy enough with them to put them out there. (Yet)

At the songwriters circle that I go to. We were given a challenge.

This was to write a song with four lines in each verse, lines one, two and four were to be the same but with a different third line. (A bit like a country blues)

A
A
B
A

Pity the refugee without a home
Pity the refugee without a home
Her past is behind her for future unknown
Won’t you pity the refugee without a home

Pity a world without any respect
Pity a world without any respect
I’m sitting here, wondering, whatever next
Please pity a world without any respect

A life with no reason is no life at all.
Won’t you carry me down to rest in the soil?

(The word pity can be changed as required as lib to: Think of, Remember, etc).

September 2025.

Climate Change · Poetry · Songwriting

This House Is On Fire

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I’m not sure what this is. I tried to make a song out of it, but it’s still work in progress.

I just had a phrase in my notebook. ‘This house is on fire.’

House

This house is on fire.
This house is on fire.
Can you feel the smoke?

They say keep small,
They say keep small
Be invisible

Don’t ask for any trouble
Don’t ask for any trouble

What if I want to ?
What if I have to?

Because this house is on fire,
Because this house is on fire.

September/October 2025.

Activism · Persecution · Political · Song for Today

All Under The Same Sky

Jonnyfun.E2 Comments

We support a small human rights charity called Amos Trust. One focus of their work for many years has been support for Palestinians in Gaza and The West Bank.

Every Tuesday they have a Zoom call with interviews and other news about the projects they are involved with.

One of the Zoom calls was with two Palestinian women.

One of them talked about all the things that she used to love about living in Gaza. The sky and the stars; the sea, and meeting with friends at seaside cafes; the flowers and the fruits that grow abundantly; her home.

All of that is now gone. So much so, that the things she used to love, she almost now hates.

There is a paradox – that the dispossessed and persecuted live under the same sky as those who are the cause of their pain and suffering.

After listening to her talk, I wrote this song.
It’s always a tricky thing writing a song from someone else’s perspective. Do I really have the right to do that?

But I used her words as much as I could to stay faithful to what she was expressing.

The Same Sky

I hate this sky
For what it means to me.
The lightning flashes by
The stars have ceased to be.

All that I knew before
And loved and daily saw
Is now a horror show
A constant and fearful glow.

Please take this beach away
The peril of the sea
Once beautiful has changed
Is now a threat to me

I hate this house I love
Destroyed from up above
By thunder and by rain
Can we ever build again

Everywhere I search
To look for flowers in the dirt
With rubbish lying all around
I run for cover from the sound.

Birds that scream across the sky
Send down death on every side.
We wait for what we had and lost
Never can we know the cost

And when we talk together now
Of treasures hidden in our past,
Or speak with dread at how things are,
We share the pain of broken hearts

We are all under the same sky.
We are all under the same sky.
We are all under the same sky.
We are all under the same sky.

February 2026

Song for Today · Songwriting

This Moment We Are In

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Another song.

I realised how long it is since I’d posted very much, in spite of having things I would have to say …

Maybe now the best thing I can do is post lyrics of new songs as I write them. That is a pretty constant feature of life for me at the moment.

I’m grateful to be a part of two songwriting circles where we have an opportunity to try out songs that we are working on and get some feedback from other songwriters

This one is called ‘I’m Just Saying’ and was written in February 2026.

I had a couple of phrases in my notebook that I had gone back to several times but not used. As it turned out, they seemed to work with this song.

Verse 1

Met with some old friends yesterday.
Talked about the people we all knew.
The times we shared, both the good and the bad.
The crimson and the blue.

Chorus.

This is a waiting game.
Everyone is playing.
We are all the same.
I’m just saying.
I’m just saying

Verse 2

One decision I’ve yet to make
Is whether to be buried or burned?
And the past to heaven
Is always round the bend.

Chorus.

The only thing I’m really afraid of, it’s not dying.
The only thing I’m afraid of, is not dying.
The only thing I’m afraid of it’s not dying.
The only thing I’m really afraid of is not living

Chorus II

The only certain thing
Is this moment we are in
We are all the same.
I’m just saying.
I’m just saying.

February 2026.

Activism · community · Political · Song for Today · Songwriting

We’ve Got A Big House

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My wife and I were walking back from feeding chickens for some friends who were away on holiday, and on the way home we passed a big house, with a tall hedge in front.

I immediately felt a rhythm in the words … We’ve got a big house, behind a tall hedge …

It made me think of TV programmes like Escape to the Country where someone looks round a selection of properties with a view to buying … One recurring theme is a requirement for the property to be secluded with no near neighbours.

Writing the song made me think about the rats’ nest that is world politics. It is very tempting sometimes to ignore everything that’s going on and just get on with life …. But …

Here’s the song

Verse 1

We’ve got a big house
Behind a tall hedge
Nobody’s lookin’ in
No-one’s making friends
And that’s the way we live
In these troubled times
Holding on so tight
To everything

Chorus

Do you know what I mean
Do you know what I mean
Can I get some sympathy
Do you know what I mean

Verse 2

We’ve got a big house
Behind a tall hedge
Nobody’s lookin’ in
No-one’s making friends
’Cos we’re not quite sure
If we can let it go
Open up the door
And let you in

Chorus

Verse 3

We’ve got a big house
Behind a tall hedge
Nobody’s lookin’ in
No-one’s making friends
We don’t want to live in feat
So we hide away
From everything

Chorus

Bridge

There are days
when I might make a change
Get a bigger heart
I’ll need a safe space
To make a start

Chorus

faith · Poetry

A Poem For Holy Saturday

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Today is an empty day
Yesterday was full
Of waiting for a trial to end
A judgment to be given

Following in his footsteps
But only so far
No further

Behind the corner of a building
I peer round
And draw back
Fearful of being seen

Later I am told

Today is an empty day
Tomorrow will be full
of something
I cannot quite name

The questions almost
Shroud the wonder
But in the end

There is a room
where we will meet
No more hiding
From myself

And he is there

Today is an empty day



Ecology · Songwriting · Storytelling

Clothed In An Earthy Disguise

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I have a new song.

It’s taken a lot to get it finished, but I’m happy that the original idea of ‘hiding in plain sigh’ has been realised. I have a recording of it, but I’m not happy enough with it to add it here.

For the sake of brevity, here it is, and I might post some of the back story to the writing at a later date.

I have in mind a walk through a wood, and trying to be quiet, to be attentive to whatever is around me, and sensing something moving in the trees

The song is in part about being attentive to things in general. Spending time and cultivating an attitude of awareness.

Young Deer

Suspicion of a movement
Beyond a curtain of branches and leaves
Suggestion of a breaking
And making a sound in the trees

Young deer, why are you hiding
And biding your time to appear ?
Is it a hint of your presence
Or maybe your absence is near ?

Elusive as a whisper
Breathing gently, blowing free
Fleeting as some distant music
Carried away on the breeze

Young deer what are you seeing
As you flee from the questioning eye. ?
If I stop, and patiently listen
Will you come on by ?

And meanwhile everything everywhere 
Is hidden from our eyes
 Meanwhile everything everywhere
Is clothed in an earthy disguise

Activism · Following Jesus · Jesus · Political · World Affairs

A Babe In My Arms

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I have had so many thoughts and prayers over the last nearly two years, but not been able to put into words what I’m thinking and feeling.

Many times I have been on the edge of posting, but not been able to.

Today, I was listening to a short passage from the Gospel of Luke in my daily ‘Pray as you go‘ … here it is:

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’ Luke 2:33-35

The child is Jesus. Simeon is a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph have brought Jesus at 40 days old to present him to the Lord. The words said to Mary are disturbing. They point to the way that Jesus will speak truth to the powers of his day, and the opposition that he will receive as a consequence.

Having listened to the reading a couple of times, I was invited to think about a character that I identified with in the passage. Or maybe I would like to imagine holding the baby in my arms ?

I’m writing this as we are surrounded by ugliness. By actions and words that spread hate and violence.

We are in the middle of the unlawful and genocidal actions of the Zionist state of Israel.
In addition we have to contend with racism directed at those seeking refuge in our land.

All around we see forces at work that are not rooted in compassion and understanding, but cruelty and ignorance.

I imagine myself in the middle of all of this, and ask myself what do I do, or say.

Do I shout out ?
“From the river to the sea …”
Yes, I have joined in those chants, and will still do so.

Do I hold up a placard ?
“Free Palestine, save Gaza”
Yes, I have done that each week in a public space this year, and will continue to do so.

But today, I have an image of myself with thousands of people simply holding babies.
No chants,
No words,
No placards.

Just holding a baby in my arms.

To hold a placard I would need to put the baby down, or give the precious bundle to someone else.

To shout a chant I might disturb this sleeping infant.

The most important thing in my mind is to protect this baby, who speaks to me of vulnerability, of non-violence, of possibility, of innocence.

Maybe this could be a worldwide Christian witness to the self giving love of that tiny babe.
Thousands, millions of people simply holding a baby in their arms.
A witness to the disrupting power of non-violence.

Join me.

N.B. this would be intended as a symbolic protest, in case you thought I was suggesting we put real babies in danger.





Climate Change · faith

How Then Shall We Live ?

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I’ve been catching up with a couple of people I haven’t come across before … writer and ex environmental activist Paul Kingsnorth, and mythologist and storyteller Martin Shaw.

Paul Kingsnorth has a very powerful and to me convincing take on the climate emergency- or rather how we are responding to the climate crisis. Essentially the responses are mostly not out of reverence for nature or the planet. They are a human centric response that is recognising the gravity of the situation, but aiming to deal with it in a way that enables us to continue our consumption driven way of living.

It’s a technological way of seeing things. We will, we must, progress in our expertise in devising new ways to enable the human race to enjoy life.

The argument goes – yes, It might mean defacing the countryside with solar farms, but it is all about saving the planet.

The question is – saving the planet for whom ? For the planet ? Or simply as the biggest project in selfishness ever ?

What is inconceivable to most of the human race is to work to consume less., travel less, use less power etc etc.

What is unthinkable is to plan for negative growth. At least for the richest communities.

But unless we do plan for negative growth we’re kidding ourselves if we think we can save the planet – at least, the planet as we know it.

As Paul Kingsnorth rightly says, everything is spiritual. What we need is not technological solutions, but spiritual solutions. (If solutions is the right word, which is probably isn’t)

Why would we expect that establishing outposts on Mars is going to work any better than the mess we have made of our home ?

How then shall we live ?

We need, as a race, to realise that we are not the centre of everything. But there’s a massive problem here, because for the most part, we live in a post God world where the only conversations we have are with ourselves. We’re not willing to engage in a serious conversation with the planet, or with our maker.

In people like Paul Kingsnorth and Martin Shaw, we have interesting signs of a serious grappling with this fundamental issue that everything is spiritual and until we accept that, we’re going nowhere.

Or rather, we’re going, just going.