A recent weekend in Okayama yielded a secondhand ukulele. I began with the uke at about the age of 10, so it’s been a great reunion. I’d like to dedicate this one to Trevor Acfield (an old schoolmate) and his lovely dad, the late Ron Acfield who gave me ukulele lessons free all those years ago.
Composing a tune for ukulele in ¾’s a bit unusual but I like a challenge. The benefit was that I could still syncopate & the rocking rhythm inspired the whole idea of wheels and the subsequent lyrics. What goes around comes around…
All uke & voice tracks are uploaded separately. It’s supposed to be in C, but ukuleles have a way of changing their mind, so I wouldn’t put money on it. Not sure about the tempo either. I may have got a bit excited & got faster!
Go your hardest!




The Wheel

wheels within wheels
cycles in circles
falsehoods and reals
everyday miracles.


egg, caterpillar
butterfly, eggs.

eggs, caterpillar
butterfly, eggs.


drink in your Life
from the froth
to the dregs.

pulleys. levers.
life is construction.
Vishnu and Shiva’s
birth and destruction

At birth and death
wheeled on your gurney.
contractions, distractions.
end of your journey.

tricycles, bicycles
Prius to Hummer.
winter turns autumn,
spring becomes summer.

the moon moving round us,
annular eclipse.
your eyes are big circles,
the O of your lips.

galaxies turning
spinning in space,
electrons in orbit
held in their place.

rings of Saturn.
churn Milky Way.
seagulls are wheeling
out on the bay


all things inevitable:
Life, Death & Taxes.
on the circumference
or right in the axis

everything’s turning.
still’s an illusion.
suns keep on burning.
apparent confusion.

it’s all an illusion
yet everything’s real.
all things connected
we’re part of The Wheel…