Month: Apr 2014

That Nagging Fear

On By jovisgoesIn Family, Love, old age, Poetry, RegretLeave a comment

Dead

When I was a boy I really feared nothing
As a teenager I couldn’t have feared less
But as a man when I became a loving father
My life took on all kinds of fearful stress.

You think but worry where your little kids are
You know that they’re at school, at least they were
The horrid thoughts that things might happen to them
Causes panic of the sort we all incur.

But they grow up and they manage to stay in one piece
Then they move away and make lives of their own
Then you get a call to say that one is injured
To the other side of the world you then have flown.

Later still you find your other child is ailing
And you do your best to stay so very calm
While your heart is breaking as you reassure them
This brave person that you once held in your palm.

So yes I fear so many things I never used to
Plus concerns about my body as it grows old
And of course they say we might now live to eighty
But I never did believe all I was told.

But these fears are just the things that keep us careful
It wouldn’t do to let them get to rule our lives
For it’s fear of fear that takes you to the limit
It’s the very thing on which the panic thrives.

©Joe Wilson – That Nagging Fear 2014

A Village

On By jovisgoesIn Nature, Personal, Poetry, Point of View, Village Life, WildlifeLeave a comment
The Local Pub
The Local Pub

The Victoria plum-tree that we planted this year
Is now full of blossom that looks lovely from here
The creamy white flowers and the brightest green leaves
Makes beautiful colour as Springtime relieves.

The garden of Winter, this year so wet
Does blossom herald a ‘best Summer yet.’

It’s quite true of course that village life so snug
Can have a tendency to make one feel smug
But for years our’s has struggled, it now has no shops
And a pub that’s near closure though it still sells the ‘hops.’

We don’t take it lightly the community here
For we know we could lose it which would cost us all dear.

It’s not really the money though the costs would be great
But there’d be no Village Hall and no Summer Fete
No chats with our friends over stiles by the field
Nor any more eggs from the local chicks yield.

We don’t take it lightly the community here
And we will fight to keep it which will cost us all dear.

 

©Joe Wilson – A Village 2014

Economic Nonsense

On By jovisgoesIn Poetry, Point of View, politicalLeave a comment

economics

Gordon did rather badly
Georgie does much worse
Both of them arm wrestling
With the British Nation’s purse!

Playing around with the figures
Fiddling, not half, with the pounds
They tell you they’re easing the country’s woes
But they’re just making hollow sounds.

It doesn’t ever get any better
It often gets very much worse
That is the absolute shocking truth
Of the Downing Street C of E curse.

C of E also means Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer’s always mean.

©Joe Wilson – Economic Nonsense 2014

Soul Searching

On By jovisgoesIn Loss, Love, Poetry1 Comment

RIP

Again last night the shadow men called
As I finally dropped into the softness of sleep
Bringing with them the memories of tortured souls
Of those not quite dead who can only weep.

Those who went suddenly and left those who cried
Who then later joined them when they too had died.

I felt like I was falling for a thousand miles
Into a great hole so flooded with their tears
The palpable sorrow that penetrated my soul
That seemed to wash over me for so many years.

I was lost, I am lost, I know not what to do
Amongst all these souls I am searching for you.

Why do these cruel images keep entering my sleep
They go as I wake, but they ever come back
The souls seer their faces right into my heart
And their sorrow brings to me the dog that is black.

I search every time for your beautiful soul
Nothing left now, it’s my life’s only goal.

©Joe Wilson – Soul Searching 2014

Caught in the Crossfire

On By jovisgoesIn heroes, Poetry, political, WarLeave a comment

waterboard

Torture wreaked havoc with his mind’s sanity
The anguish just chilled me to the core
As the beatings continue to reduce him
He is scared he’ll not take too much more.

Again the water washed over and woke him
The bucket clanging as they threw it back down
Once again he was taken to the table
‘Waterboarding‘ I thought with a frown.

He was laid on his back and then tied down
They put towels over his mouth and his nose
They poured and they poured water on him
Once again in his chest panic rose.

A reporter who’d been caught in the crossfire
There was no information he could tell
No amount of hard beatings and torture
Could make him give secrets he’d not held.

Beaten and bloodied he is taken
Back as before to his cell
He’s told them all that he ever could tell them
But he still can’t escape from this hell.

He languishes in his cell I am certain
He cries out for mercy from each pore
I know that they still give him more beatings
I see him as he hobbles past my cell door.

 

©Joe Wilson – Caught in the Crossfire 2014

The Big Red Wooden Train

On By jovisgoesIn Family, Fun, Loss, Love, Personal, Poetry, TrainsLeave a comment

wooden_toy_train

A big wooden train Dad made and painted red
Or a tricycle I sometimes preferred instead
Sometimes a Jeep or a truck or a plane
Those Dinky cars I played with again and again.

Cowboys and Indians that we played near the shed
At the end of the garden till it was past time for bed
Where I’d read Secret Seven books or Famous Five stuff
Till Mum put the light out and I’d feign a big huff.

It was a leisurely time full of fun with no fear
We enjoyed our school days and held them so dear
But it all fell to pieces on one Saturday past noon
When my beloved father died at years far too soon.

My childhood till then had been fun like a game
But from that moment on it was never the same
Though the standing by his grave in the cold pouring rain
Isn’t the memory I recall, it’s Dad’s home-made red train.

©Joe Wilson – The Big Red Wooden Train 2014

Your Freedom Was My Redemption…

On By jovisgoesIn Loss, Love, Poetry, RegretLeave a comment
You flew away
You flew away

In that last photograph I’m transported back
To a time when there wasn’t pain for you to bear
To the time before you felt you had to go.

And when at length I dry my eyes you are no longer there.

Where have you gone?
Where are you now?
Why did I hurt you?
Why did you go?

How could I have treated you so ill that you would leave!
How did I become so foolish that I was last one to know!

The days have since become a blur
In my rage I drink and curse
Perhaps I now see what you saw
Or maybe you saw worse.

I hope you’re happy where you are
You deserved much more than me
I cannot ever forgive myself
My redemption is that you’re free.

©Joe Wilson – Your Freedom Was My Redemption…2014