The Ballad of John Kempe Part 1

Hear this ballad set to music and played by the Penland Phezants (and with explanatory notes) here

"Upon the Ouse's stinking beach
I stand and look across,
Amid the waste, and West Lynn seems
The Eden that we've lost.

"I take the ferry there, now Lynn's
Jerusalem or Rome,
Those Walsinghams she'll chase to find
She's just as far from home.

"The grass is always greener on
The other side," I say.
She says, "in heaven it really is
This green hill far away."

With a bump, I bring her back to Earth,
"You’re a mother not that maid
Who sang the Song of Songs to kings,
Our class must toil and trade."

"You great lump, John, in lechery,
You waste my church-spire dreams;
Trade children, chores and chamber pots
For heaven's shining greens."

"The grass is always greener on
The other side," I say.
She says, "in heaven it really is
This green hill far away."

Lyric © Gareth Calway 2017

Remarkable women in a man's world
http://garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/julian-and-margery.html

http://garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/margery-kempe-wife-of-lynns-tale-part-2.html


Margery of Lynn and the Lollards
http://garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/short-panel-lollardy-began-in-14th.html

http://garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/margery-kempe-wife-of-lynns-tale-lynn.html

Lynn Festival shows, Hendrix, Beatles and a book at Christmas - my BBC radio interview on Sue Marchant's Big Night In

Hold you hard! 75 minutes into the programme, Sue Marchant interviews me about my crazy 4 shows in July and the Doin' Different ballad book on her Big Night In show (BBC Eastern Counties radio) here

 

Above , modelling the Hendrix show fifth heaven pilgrim - external eyes half open, internal eye beginning to see All - after my interview with the wonderful Sue Marchant.

Below, No More Mr Nice Guy, modelling my martyrdom as William Sawtrey. Method, darling.

 

 

 

Watch a trailer of the EWife of Lynn's Tale here

 

 

And an earlier interview with Breckland radio at the Folk in a Field festival here