"Dare to be Free" (For Thomas Spence)

"Dare to be Free" 

(For Thomas Spence and Keith Armstrong)

Where is Thomas Spence ?, his song needs to be sung.
Born in poverty, died in poverty, imprisoned for his ideas.
He wrote the real ‘Rights of Man’.
He was the bane of tyrants, the scourge of pirates,
The man behind the pen.

Where is Thomas Spence ? The end of aristocracy,
Public ownership of the land, a social guarantee
for those not able to work, the rights of all and infants to be free
from abuse and poverty.
Where is this man who gave his life
So the people could be free?

What thinks Thomas Spence , 
about the progress that's been made?
Tax havens for the rich, Council tax, income tax and
VAT for all the rest.
He'd see that nothing much had changed 
beneath the fancy rhetoric.
Just desperation for the poor, 
the lame and all the sick.

Where is Thomas Spence now we need his utopian thought?
A country run for crooks will never cut the cake.
A people tired of lies and schemes, distracted by a press half baked is not the kind of world you saw.
Where are you Thomas Spence ? We
need to hear your voice once more!

by Trev Teasdel 

http://thomasspencesociety.
co.uk/

Thomas Spence

Thomas Spence
born and died in poverty
had a soul of galleon gold.
He called to 'free the People's farm'
They sent him down with prison rats.
for selling tracts of Thomas Paine
from a shop on Chancery Lane.

In "Pig's Meat" he opened eyes
"Awake! Awake! Arise!
Arm yourselves with justice, truth and reason"
They had a rap for rebels.
Sent down - for sedition, treason.

In a world that makes no sense
He shouted for the rights of women, infants, men
and though it's strange; divorce-law-change
democracy, and an end to poverty,
and a people’s right to land.

His strongbow Geordie spirit
held fast like Hadrian's' wall.
No matter how many times they gagged him
or threw him in the vaults.
Or how the pangs of hunger tore him,
Spence sprung back to action

whenever they would free him.

Alas I saw the ghost of Thomas Spence
on the quayside, walking with the fold.
Pamphlets on Kindle and an iphone,
another chapter to unfold.