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Adrian was equally at home working with both visual and poetic ideas and very often combined the two forms to create something unique in British Art. PHOTO: Adrian Henri in the basement of his home in Liverpool (1962) along with icons of the sixties pop art culture (Omo packet) and the (both unfinished) 'Entry of Christ into Liverpool' and the 'Death of a Bird in the City'. (photo credit: Cheniston Roland)

Galactic Lovepoem Warm your feet at the sunset Before we go to bed Read your book by the light of Orion With Sirius guarding your head Then reach out and switch off the planets We'll watch them go out one by one You kiss me and tell me you love me By the light of the last setting sun We'll both be up early tomorrow A new universe has begun

Love Is... Love is... Love is feeling cold in the back of vans Love is a fanclub with only two fans Love is walking holding paintstained hands Love is.   Love is fish and chips on winter nights Love is blankets full of strange delights Love is when you don't put out the light Love is   Love is the presents in Christmas shops Love is when you're feeling Top of the Pops Love is what happens when the music stops Love is   Love is white panties lying all forlorn Love is pink nightdresses still slightly warm Love is when you have to leave at dawn Love is   Love is you and love is me Love is a prison and love is free Love's what's there when you are away from me Love is...

Nightsong So we'll go no more a-raving So late into the night Though the heart be still as loving And the neonsigns so bright Ate my breakfast egg this morning playing records from last night woke to hear the front door closing as the sky was getting light No more fish-and-chips on corners Watching traffic going by No more branches under streetlamps No more leaves against the sky No more blues by Otis Redding No more coffee no more bread No more dufflecoats for bedding No more cushions for your head Though the night is daylight-saving And the day returns too soon Still we'll go no more a-raving By the light of the moon

Mrs Albion you've got a lovely daughter (for Allen Ginsberg) Albion's most lovely daughter sat on the banks of the Mersey dangling her landing stage in the water. The daughters of Albion Arriving by underground at Central Station Eating hot ecclescakes at the Pierhead Writing 'Billy Blake is fab' on a wall in Mathew St Taking off their navyblue schooldrawers and Putting on nylon panties ready for the night The daughters of Albion See the moonlight beating down on them in Bebington Throw away their chewinggum ready for the goodnight kiss Sleep in the dinnertime sunlight with old men Looking up their skirts in St Johns Gardens Comb their darkblonde hair in suburban bedrooms Powder their delicate little nipples/wondering if tonight will be the night Their bodies pressed into dresses or sweaters Lavender at the Cavern or pink at the Sink The daughters of Albion wondering how to explain why they didn't go home The daughters of Albion Taking the dawn ferry to tomorrow Worrying about what happened Lacing up blue sneakers over brown ankles Fastening up brown stockings to blue suspenderbelts Beautiful boys with bright red guitars In the spaces between the stars Reelin' an' a-rockin' Wishin' an' a-hopin' Kissin' an' -prayin' Lovin' an' a-layin' Mrs Albion you've got a lovely daughter.

I want to paint I I want to paint 2000 dead birds crucified on a background of night Thoughts that lie too deep for tears Thoughts that lie too deep for queers Thoughts that move at 186,000 miles/second The Entry of Christ into Liverpool in 1966 The installation of Roger McGough in the Chair of Poetry at Oxford Francis Bacon making the President's Speech at the Royal Academy dinner I want to paint 50 life-sized nudes of Marianne Faithfull (all of them painted from life) Welsh Maids by Welsh Waterfalls Heather Holden as Our Lady of Haslingden A painting as big as Piccadilly full of neon signs and buses Christmas decorations and beautiful girls with dark blonde hair shading their faces I want to paint The assassination of the entire Royal Family Enormous pictures of every pavingstone in Canning Street The Beatles composing a new national anthem Brian Patten writing poems with a flamethrower on disused ferry boats A new cathedral 50 miles high made entirely of pram wheels An empty Woodbine packet covered in kisses I want to paint A picture made from the tears of dirty-faced children in Chatham Street I want to paint I LOVE YOU across the steps of St. George's hall I want to paint Pictures II I want to paint The Simultaneous and Historical Faces of Death 10,000 shocking pink hearts with your name on The phantom negro postmen who bring me money in my dreams The first plastic daffodil of spring pushing its way Through the OMO packets in the supermarket The portrait of every sixth-form schoolgirl in the country A full-scale map of the world with YOU at the centre An enormous lily-of-the-valley with every flower on a separate canvas Life-sized jelly babies shaped like Hayley Mills A black-and-red flag flying over Parliament I want to paint Every car crash on all the motorways of England Pere Ubu at 11 o'clock at night in Lime Street A SYSTEMATIC DERANGEMENT OF ALL THE SENSES in black running letters 50 miles high over Liverpool I want to paint Pictures that children play hopscotch on Pictures that can be used as evidence at murder trials Pictures that can be used to advertise cornflakes Pictures that can be used to frighten naughty children Pictures worth their weight in money Pictures that tramps can live in Pictures that children would find in their stockings on Christmas morning Pictures that teenage lovers can send each other I want to paint pictures

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