[Verse 1: Paul Heaton]
Poems
Don't sit by river
Aren't there to be picked up by poets who pass
To find them on bank

And I'm
Not built to deliver
When stepping stone love in need
Of a bridge or a plank

[Verse 2: Paul]
And youth
The stream so much wider
Thought you could slow down the flow
If you drank and you drank

Middle age
Still unable to find her
The words on the stone that you skimmed
So heavy, it sank

[Verse 3: Unknown]
The ripple
Hesitation creates
The unposted poem with message
So clear, yet so blank

Love will come (Love to come)
Not to he who just waits
For mouthing from bank side seems safer
Than living in tank

[Verse 4: Unknown]
Thoughts
We understood were preserved
They rotted and quickly moved on
To a less cluttered bed

And rust
Some thoughts never deserved
But treated no different to ones
You kept in your head

[Bridge: Paul Heaton]
Couldn't master me a classical piece
Brain's well oiled, but it's never been greased
Popular, but not fighting for seats
Pays the rent, but never the lease

Never been classed as a work of art
Unlikely, with the slowest of starts
Good progress if he ever took part
Schooldays when you live by your heart

When you live by your heart...

[Verse 5: Paul, Unknown, Paul & Unknown]
And those
Strong and able survive (Strong and able survive)
And do so at the expense
Of fiction and art

Dissolve
Unnoticed to sea (Unnoticed to sea)
As time eats the evidence left
That we even took part

[Outro: Paul, Unknown, Paul & Unknown]
Poems (Poems)
Don't sit by river...