Category: heroes

Bellepheron

On By jovisgoesIn heroes, PoetryLeave a comment

Bellepheron

He was a dignified man, quiet and still
And it was long years since he’d felt such a pain
But the haunting voice he now heard in his head
Was calling him in a challenge again.

He knew the dark monster had risen yet again
He felt it in every fibre of his being
So he gathered his belongings and left his small room
To face the vile creature he’d soon be seeing.

Bellepheron summoned the winged horse
He armed himself with his spear
The Chimera was such a mighty beast
And it’s flaming breath was to fear.

But Bellepheron had a plan for that
He loaded his spear up with lead
And upon his attack on the fearsome beast
He dropped it and it’s throat blocked instead.

Bellepheron became a hero defeating the Amazons too
He defeated the Soylmi and many other tribes
But his ego was getting a little too large
And assassins were beginning to take bribes.

Bellepheron sadly suffered from hubris
And Zeus caused him to fall to the earth
Where as a blinded and crippled lonely hermit
He lived a poor life – no longer of worth.

©Joe Wilson – Bellepheron 2014

The Jules Rimet

On By jovisgoesIn Competition, heroes, Poetry, Point of View, SportLeave a comment

10beckenbauer

So now the thing is over
all the pundits have gone back home
and the Rimet Trophy has been put away
to be played for again another day
some managers will now lose their teams
for not fulfilling a nation’s dreams.

But it is football, just a game
men paid so much, disgraceful shame
while others struggle to put food on the table
players cavorted like Betty Grable
but we watched it still – we cannot stop
I wonder when the penny will drop.

I remember pictures in black and white
when games were played in failing light
where players had jobs to earn their pay
and played the game on Saturday
where then the ref’s decision was law
and players didn’t roll round on the floor.

Those days are gone and that’s for sure
the balls were heavy and kit was poor
but player’s hearts were in the game
and not the glory of fleeting fame
when celebrity wasn’t theme of the day
for men oft found to have ‘feet of clay’.

©Joe Wilson – The Jules Rimet 2014

I can still remember Franz Beckenbauer playing on after breaking his arm, simply by wearing a  black sling to support it…a sight you wouldn’t see today.

The Seed

On By jovisgoesIn Competition, heroes, Nature, Poetry, Seasons, WildlifeLeave a comment

seed_edited

In the boiler-room of life powerful energy is forcing new growth
As a very small shoot pushes its way out of a small seed’s husk
And as if by some magical force it is drawn upwards towards the light
Picking its way through the soil and between the stones that lie
Betwixt its chance of seeing the sun or falling by the way.

Slowly and surely it climbs up to the as yet unknown surface
Struggling in its weakness yet fighting in its single aim
To break through and reach out for the warmth of the sun,
Its fleshy stem hardening as it grows ever taller in its reach
To the sky and its second-year show of bright flowers.

The days march on and soon it develops large broad leaves
Which gather the rains that feed it life right to its roots
From which its energy comes with a force as great as any
In the universe…it is life, it is beauty, it is magical
Till finally it pushes the beginnings of its flowers out.

For all the world to see the majesty that is the purpose
Of its existence in this meadow of life and death, for now
The creatures come to feast on its sweet nectar and they
Will carry its pollen far and wide ensuring that new life will
Always be assured and that the circle of life is complete.

 

©Joe Wilson – The Seed 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

1914 – Final Thoughts

On By jovisgoesIn heroes, Poetry, Point of View, WarLeave a comment

1914_1918_gewonden_ieper

To a war that they’d never understand
Were sent men who hadn’t a clue
Because men behind doors make decisions
While the dying’s for me and for you.

So thousands went off into battle
To places that they’d never known
Over the top and shot down to die there
In fields where red poppies have grown.

Is there ever a point to this mayhem
I struggle to find one, I do
History will record that I stayed here
So it matters not, except to a few.

©JRW2014

One in a group of poems recognising the centenary of WWI

1914 – A Dream In This Nightmare

On By jovisgoesIn heroes, Poetry, WarLeave a comment

1914_1918_gewonden_ieper

I was sitting at home with my beautiful wife
We were enjoying a simple cup of tea
Our son was astride his white rocking horse
Our daughter sat giggling on my knee.

The room seemed so lovely as the sunlight shone in
The children so happy in their play
Our world seemed exquisite and so full of joy
I remember as I wipe tears away.

And I’m again plunged right into this nightmare
Where there is nothing but misery and death
Where each time the shrapnel drives into a man
It will spell their last painful breath.

From the horror of all of this killing
So senseless, so cruel and obscene
If any man walks away from this carnage
He’ll scrub but he’ll never feel clean.

©JRW2014

One in a group of poems recognising the centenary of WWI

1914 – We call It Wipers

On By jovisgoesIn heroes, Illness, Poetry, political, War, WildlifeLeave a comment

ypres field guns 1914

Mud goes so stiff as it dries on the clothes
And it gets in the rifles and ammo
And men live in the mud for day after day
And they die there as the death tolls just grow.

The lads call it Wipers, but we know it’s called Ypres
And we don’t know the language but know mud
And the massive field guns that are firing this way
Causing lots of men to stay here for good.

In two months I’ve not heard the sound of a bird
With the fighting and dying you don’t listen
But I saw a dead blackbird lying out in the mud
And memories of home made my eyes glisten.

I’d rather be back at my home on the farm
Tending cattle and working the land
But I’m lying here shooting at men I don’t know
In a hard bloody war that I don’t understand.

We’ll soon be coming to the end of this year
We were told that it wouldn’t last too long
I don’t know how much longer the men can last out
The spirits willing but their bodies aren’t strong.

We’ve been pounded for hours, we’ve been pounded for days
It seems like so long and it’s so cold
There are men who’ve got frostbite and gangrene and sores
But it’s the dysentery that makes some men fold.

When will it end and who will make peace
They’re decisions that aren’t made at the front
But by men back at home who think they know best
Not by poor dying men bearing the brunt.

©JRW2014

One in a group of poems I wrote recognising the centenary of the outbreak of World War I

1914 – How many Generals died in battle last night?

On By jovisgoesIn heroes, Poetry, political, War1 Comment

somme_0

How many generals died in battle last night
Asked the young soldier of his captain
They’re far too important to actually fight son
Their time is spent planning how to silence the gun
Soon they’ll send in the men in a large show of force
They’ll go over the top and get mown down of course.

How many soldiers died in battle last night
Asked the young soldier of his captain
You can see for yourself son as we look down below
There were many young men son, some who we’d know
But my eyes grow so weary from seeing all the pain
Of so many young men dying scared in the rain
Men like us two, who will stay here at least
Who will never grow older for we now rest in peace.

©JRW2014

One in a group of poems recognising the centenary of WWI

1914 – It’ll Be Over By Christmas

On By jovisgoesIn heroes, Poetry, Point of View, WarLeave a comment

Malthus-1914-08-17

His mate sent a letter to his girl back at home
All the houses in their road put out flags
They were led to believe that the war wouldn’t last
By Christmas they’d be back at home smoking fags.

But it wasn’t so, he was still there on Christmas Day
With others just like him who were terrified
He’d heard they’d played footie somewhere miles away
But they carried on shooting and more men died.

He’d not really known how much a man could hate mud
But when it got in your food, then your eyes
And when you slept in it, and lived in it day after day
When men died in it their blood made dark dyes.

And the deafening noise of the guns just kept on
Till his eardrums had burst and made him deaf
The noise carried on like a dull thumping sound
He’d have run, but he’d got no run left.

All around him his friends were all dying
His mate with the letter had now gone
From the hundreds who’d been in the trench yesterday
Of the twenty-nine left, he was one.

What was this madness, again his heart cried
These men he must kill and for why
He couldn’t understand why the generals back home
Sent here all these young men just to die.

Then a round hit him just under his rib-cage
And the blood that oozed out was dark red
There was no medic nor anyone near him
So he bled out on his own till he was dead.

So another man lay in the mud dying
Still the reasons of why would remain
He just knew that those back at home waiting
Would get the sad telegram of pain.

©JRW2014

One in a group of poems recognising the centenary of WWI