Those sad red roses that smelled so sweet
Seemed to wither to nothing in my hand
For by comparison to you my love
What chance did they ever stand!
So here we are at St Valentine’s Day
It’s only you that I’ll ever need
My heart and my soul I gave to you
And for me, my spirit you freed.
©Joe Wilson – Ode to St Valentine…2015
Moonlight casts out its magical spell
Again I feel that deep pleasure
Yet when you gaze upon it’s face
It loses lustre by no small measure.
For such is your beauty that all else will pale
When everyone meets you they smile
Your kindness just simply amazes my heart
You make each of us feel worthwhile.
O lucky man I, that I got to share
A lifetime spent here by your side
Immersed in such love and your radiance
With a heart that is bursting with pride.
And now here in twilight I gaze at your lips
That have kissed me with such sensuous touch
And I know as I smile and think of our life
That I have and I still love you, so very much.
©Joe Wilson – Moonlights casts a spell…2015
Moonlight casts a beam of light
Over the dark and snow-covered land
Offering light to shadowy strangers
Needing to get where they’ve planned
Lending an eerie feeling all round
In shadows the night creatures hide
Giving the strangers a really wide berth
Hopping back to their burrows and going inside
The clouds move along and the moonlight is gone.
©Joe Wilson – Moonlight acrostic…2015
…and so I stare at the metronome
as it counts away the beat
I lay my fingers upon the keys
after carefully adjusting the seat
but nary a delicate sound can I make
I played French Horn, the piano’s a mistake.
…but ivory keys I would love to play
I’ll get taught somehow along the way
for I have heard no finer sound
in all the years I’ve been around
than when good fingers are laid on keys
to make great music designed to please.
…the classical sounds I learnt at school
I chose the horn as my delivery tool
for there was only a single grand
and sadly it was in such demand
but with my horn I had good tone
and skills in that field I did hone.
…time has passed and tastes have changed
and my life now is rearranged
I’ve not played horn in a very long time
I took to the pen and tried to make rhyme
while musical magic goes round in my head
often a classic or a jazz piece instead.
…with books and music and my muse at my side
I’ve lived a good life in a quiet countryside
but the one thing I’d like that I’ve still yet to do
is learn to play keyboard and play it well too
and one day I will, I’m certain of that
play a wonderful concerto…quite loud in E-flat!
©Joe Wilson – Musical notes…2015
Thinking back now, knowing it wasn’t then the same
Sex lives free and easy and the rest just a game
But recalling the names of my friends from back then
I find they’re so few now and I miss those young men
And I bless that I knew them as I take up my pen.
It was a time they called ‘swinging’ in the press of the day
But those of us there at the time just made hay
As we carelessly staggered through our wild teenage years
Racing round in cars with bad brakes and crunched gears
Till we arrived at adulthood and took on new fears.
Some of us got married and our lives felt complete
A few drowned in alcohol and lived on the street
While others tripped out just that one time too many
On the drugs that were freely available to so many
You literally could get them at ten for a penny.
But most of us moved on and we raised families
With mortgages or rent life was no social whizz
And our children carried hopes for things we’d failed to do
Such an ordinary tale that reflects me or you
But it all helps to bind us together like glue.
Now we find ourselves older and wiser perhaps
Managing to sidestep some of lifetime’s worst traps
And we pause for a moment and think of those days
Many of them spent in a drug-induced haze
And we’d not change a thing, we just shifted our gaze.
©Joe Wilson – Moving on…2015
His pain from fire was seen round the world
And Governments’ collective lips all curled
Such profanity was displayed without a care
A King left the runway as his jet took to air.
Leading his people against this vicious attack
It began long ago and there’s no going back
They’re baying now for the terrorist blood
He’s sure to know it will come to no good.
So many wars and so much fighting
And so much bloody death
New children are brought into the world
Where wars just rob them of their first breath.
Everywhere now seems awash with the blood
With the blood of the Innocents
While the world is slowing destroying itself
In human inflicted increments.
©Joe Wilson – Taking the lead…2015
The clock ticks on
Life moves forward a notch
And we as fools survive
In self-absorbing hotchpotch.
The clock ticks on
And failings and success compete
For space within our cluttered lives
The world no longer, is at our feet.
The clock ticks on
And wrinkles start to show
Our footing slips on the ladder of life
And aging pains begin to grow.
The clock ticks on
Our hearts begin to race and flutter
Our memories lose a thread or two
And we start to mumble and mutter.
The clock ticks on
And she or he forgets our name
We know the truth of dementia well
Our parents went through this the same.
The clock ticks on
And one of us will disappear
The other left to fend for themselves
In a life now filled with fear.
The clock ticks on
And on
And on
And on………
©Joe Wilson – Ticks…2015
Winter has dumped her bounty upon us again
In snow-covered landscapes which to some are a pain
‘Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible’
Tractors pulling cars and more patients in hospital
Eventually it thaws and it all goes quite hoary
Returning our pothole-filled roads in all of their glory.
Spring is on its way though, so be of good cheer
Plants that were hidden now start to appear
Remember resolutions you made at New Year
In front of your friends who’ll remind you I fear
Now get on your bike as you promised you’d do
Get fitter this year, it’s a good thing to do.
Summer comes in with a rush of bright colour
Up comes the grass and the mower bag gets fuller
Mimosa and marigolds are out in full show
Mild summer breezes are starting to blow
Even as the nights start to draw in again
Red skies at night hold off much of the rain.
Autumn arrives with the wind through the trees
Unsticking leaves that have held on with ease
Taking them all on a trip through the air
Upstart that it is drops some here and some there
Many leaves are golden, others are bright red
Now dying back ready for winter instead.
©Joe Wilson – Seasonal Acrostic…2015
I’d love to sail o’er the powerful sea, to sail to the end of time
and meet amazing people and be thankful in every rime
the pull on the sails, the feel of the rope and the salty sea
and a good fast ship to sail in, would be enough for me.
I’d love to sail and never stop, see the world in its symmetry
and watch the mighty albatross as it’s shadow flies over me
as the pull from the sea and the wind drive me on
and the cobwebs and quietude of the normal are gone.
I’d love to sail round Equator’s girth, and sail right back again
and read accounts of sailing men, who sailed this way back then
for the pull of the sea and a driving wind, and with all the sails unfurled
would make me the happiest man in our water-filled world.
©Joe Wilson – To sail… 2015
The docks are so barren now, where once there was such fare
there’s no more shipbuilding, the work’s just not there
and yet when I think, when I dream, I can hear
all the fine sailing vessels that have long since passed here.
The docks were so mighty, all the work, all the men
it’s sad now to think, we’ll not see them again
and yet, if you think of the sails and the ropes
we’ll carry on dreaming, we won’t lose our hopes.
The docks stand so quiet, no stevedores can be seen
no lightermen move barges through the channels in between
and yet if you dream, you can still hear the sails
it’s a heart-lifting sound, the excitement never fails.
©Joe Wilson – Where once there were docks…
Jovis on a Journey... 