A Theatre of Life

I’ve been a little bit lost for words this week. David Bowie meant so much to so many of us, every time I attempted to express my thoughts, words just felt inadequate. Even writing this now, several days on from news of his death (from liver cancer), it all feels a little bit surreal. But of course, like so many before him, his death has rather brought him back to life in a pop culture sense. Social media, and indeed, mainstream media, is awash with tributes; his life is being discussed, his music is being played and shared, his films are being watched, and so many brilliant photos and images of the man have emerged or resurfaced. On my own social media newsfeed, one of the best tributes I read came from a longtime friend of everythingsgonegreen, London-based Glaswegian Paul Colvin, a political activist and poet, and a man who clearly has a passion for all things David Bowie … thank you Paul for allowing me to share your words:

This is about a man whose music and style meant so much to me and so many others who witnessed Ziggy Stardust, who loved his music then and still do now. I wouldn't even have considered paying a tribute to a genius like David Bowie but I woke this morning, sat bolt upright in bed and wrote this at 4.45am. I hope I have done him a little bit of justice.

For Bowie fans. 12 January 2016.

A Theatre of Life

Who do we thank for the wonderful times?

 And which one do you thank for the rock’n’roll crimes?

 Where the sailors and lawmen link hands with the sadmen

 And the smiling asylum laughed at all the madmen

 You sang of a whore who fell to the floor

 And with an explosion of colour you crashed through our doors

 You were so many people in so many times

 With so many words sung aloud in your mimes

 The spaceman who posed in ridiculous garb

 Whose sharpness pierced hearts with a lyrical barb

 A lad who was mad yet the sanest of all

 You lived life to the full in a choreographed ball

 Your width of a circle was a world that was flat

 Where you danced with the strangers in your satin and tat

 And the pavement was heaven where creatures once roamed

 Where the ashes of genies were swept up by gnomes

 But a duke came to warn us, so thin and so white

 That a spaceship of spiders from Mars was in sight

 They watched China danced slowly in your colourful eyes

 And at a free festival, children, were all in disguise

 And the heroes you swam with were all suffragettes

 As you pulled on your fingers for a long cigarette

 We were all pretty things you would not cast aside

 Your festival’s memories was one magical ride

 Where diamond dogs glittered in your stations of life

 You came as a hero to erase all our strife

 Lay low now dear Lazarus, you’re in heaven and free

 We all came as strangers but as friends we can leave

 His name was always Buddy, a crack’d actor now gone

 But we still have his music so let’s dance until dawn

 And every mountain that passes a free flying cloud

 Will hear through the rainbows, his music so loud

 With a bizarre gift of beauty he reached to mankind

 And on the world’s greatest stage he played to our minds

 But our world was full of plastic grooves that circled in our heads

 And the thought of what went on in there filled them all with dread

 It was one vivid circus full of actors and clowns

 It’s a pity their master’s no longer around

 We will always remember a star that was born

 The starman was Ziggy, a genius forlorn

 

Paul Colvin is very passionate about his Scottish roots and is very active in the ongoing campaign for Scottish independence, or his homeland’s freedom from the shackles of Westminster tyranny, as he would doubtlessly put it. Paul has had two books of poetry published on that subject (and wider political and social commentary), ‘Poems For An Independent Scotland’ (click here), and ‘Are You Yes Yet?’ (which has just been published).