Category: Poetry

Pen in hand…

On By jovisgoesIn Fun, Life, Poetry, vital, wisdom, Writing1 Comment

Opinions lurk at the back of our mind
at the front there are yet many others
in recording in voice or writing in odes
we convey them to our sisters and brothers.

The onus is on us to take care what we pen
for our opinions can vary so much
but never hold back even under attack
your thoughts and opinions they can’t touch.

But there are some quite sane rules to stick to
for instance we shouldn’t purposely offend
and when you’re writing a factual poem
be confident it’s what you can defend.

Punctuation and spelling are important of course
as they help the reader  follow your flow
you choose the genre and you choose the words
learn your craft and let your minds go!

There were thousands of great poets before us
many thousands will follow us too
but we are the ones with the pens in our hands
and history might reflect what we do.

©Joe Wilson – Pen in hand…2015

The Fall…

On By jovisgoesIn Accidents, Children, Family, Father, Fear, Illness, Life, Loss, Love, Poetry, Regret, TimeLeave a comment

I fell from the top of a tall block of apartments.

How I remember my children growing
and the never-ending beauty of my wife
my boy and my girl, so full of knowing
my darling, the centre of my humble life.

But the ground rushes up at me as I fly down so fast.

I’ve loved the same woman for all of my time
contented and happy and passionate are we
I remember the night full of vodka and lime
when I asked my love if she would marry me.

And still the ground races up at me…

What joy we have had on our long journey here
with some pains that we’ve shared and endured
sadness has crept in and occasional fear
but we beat it all back and we still feel assured.

I hit the ground — there is nowhere else to go…

Did I make it…did I not?
Was it a dream…was it not?

©The Executor acting for Joe Wilson – The Fall…2015

The numbers rise…

On By jovisgoesIn Belief, Corruption, Faith, Life, Loss, Pacifism, Poetry, political, Regret, so-called civilised, War1 Comment

Walked I along this Autumn morn
midst trees with bright red berries borne
where once men stood with with tanks as shields
on Europe’s bloodiest battlefields.

And in extraordinary Worldly War
friends kill friends who’re friends no more
as lines are drawn and power revealed
where once such things had lain concealed.

How many men and women died
for pious thoughts and national pride
whose wasted lives now lie beneath
that trampled o’er when we cross heath.

The bodies fall, the numbers rise
more victims of political lies
and yet some people still would fight
convinced that they are in the right.

Twas ever thus and shall remain
the populace feel power’s disdain
yet even now we fight their wars
with they as pimps and we their whores.

©Joe Wilson – The numbers rise…2015

It isn’t ours…

On By jovisgoesIn Homo-sapien, Life, Nature, Poetry, Point of View, Survival, The World, Time, vital, wisdomLeave a comment

Has man ever really stopped and looked
at all the beauty that Nature has cooked
arrayed throughout the world to see
by stumbling humans like you and me.

Deserts filled with shifting sand
moved by winds and Nature’s hand
creating dunes of epic scale
compared to this we are so frail.

Rill and brook, stream and creek
all a river’s end they seek
as they head for oceans wide
moving always with the tide.

Filled with fish of every size
sometimes caught for dinner’s prize
and on their trek it’s life or death
they struggle on for every breath.

Through the forests these rivers flow
passing trees whose names we know
they’re the lifeblood of our world
new breath with every leaf unfurled.

Too often though we cut them down
turning green land into brown
and yet somehow there are still flowers
grown by Nature’s greater powers.

They brighten days in glorious hues
so many colours, too many to choose
in meadows watered by rivers’ flow
past those trees whose names we know.

And on to seas with sharks and whales
the mighty Blues with their giant tails
whose flukes are wider than football fields
what majestic beauty the ocean yields.

To care for our planet we would do well
it’s a living thing not just a shell
it isn’t ours to destroy and maim
it’s future health should be our aim.

©Joe Wilson – It isn’t ours…2015

The wine bottle corks…

On By jovisgoesIn cheers!, Poetry, WineLeave a comment

 

The night started slowly as we just sat and talked
We were waiting for our friends to arrive
We figured they’d be here by about half-past eight
As neither had finished work till gone five.

But the bottles of wine were lined up in rows
There were reds and roses, and there were whites
And as neither of our friends had arrived yet
Those bottles were full and clearly in our sights.

So we opened a red and a white one too
Mine a Shiraz, for I like a good red
My wife, well she started the white one
As a Pinot she much favours instead.

And the time it just got that much later
But our friends well they still hadn’t come
And as each of us was drinking the vino
Well it’s nice to raise a glass with a chum.

In the end our friends never did show up
It was next week not this, we were dorks
But we drank all the wine and enjoyed it
And now we’re just left with the corks.

 

©Joe Wilson – The wine bottle corks…2014

Author Notes

My granddaughter asked me if I could write a poem about a subject just chosen at random. She picked up a couple of corks from the previous night and this is the result. It is purely for fun…

The unseen journey…

On By jovisgoesIn Homo-sapien, Life, Nature, PoetryLeave a comment

Messages carried along
meandering lanes
without conscious input
by electronic impulses are
speeding across the sinews,
through the blood avenues
and down the back alleys
to our feet, on the footpath
of life
telling us
that pressing on
is the only

way

forward.

Meanwhile telegrams
travel to the very edges
of our arterial network
sending instructions
to our shoulders
and on
to our arms and hands
to move in beautiful unison
with our feet
thus
allowing us
to set out
using
our form of

propulsion.

And so we amble on
blissfully unaware
of the arduous tasks
our body will carry out
every second
of every day

for

all

of

our lives.

©Joe Wilson – The unseen journey…2015

And as I wander…

On By jovisgoesIn Family, Life, Love, muse, old age, Personal, Poetry, TimeLeave a comment

…and as I wandered through my mind
cluttered with memories of every kind
I smiled whenever I thought of you
the things we shared,
the love that grew.

…but time has caught us up at last
those memories all are in the past
yet still I smile at thoughts of you
loving our children
as they both grew.

…and when you ail I cannot bear
your being in pain that I can’t pare
yet as you smile to guide me through
I’d not survive
had I not you.

…as we’ve grown older our love remains
passionate as ever despite life’s strains
love is the greatest gift twixt two
I found life’s gift
when I found you…

©Joe Wilson – And as I wander…2015

She doth inspire me so gently…

On By jovisgoesIn Family, Friendship, Life, Love, muse, Personal, Poetry, wisdomLeave a comment

She doth inspire me so gently
In her essential sensuousness
She fills me with hope so intently
As she soothes with whispered caress.

I’m empowered by her will for my being
To reach heights I could never believe
She aids my heart’s vision of what it is seeing
Keeping me focussed in my desire to achieve.

And when at the end of a very tiring day
When I’m worn from the travails of this life
I sit down by she who’s my muse everyday
She’s my friend, she’s my heart, she’s my wife.

©Joe Wilson – She doth inspire me so gently…2015

Heads, you lose…

On By jovisgoesIn Accidents, carelessness, Driving, Fate, Life, Loss, Motorways, Poetry, Time1 Comment

Speeding along not a care in the world
the young man and his beautiful girl
driving in an open-topped E-type Jag
they were happy
………………………….and life was a whirl.

They were racing along the motorway
fast approaching Gravelly Hill
when a tanker jack-knifed in front of them
……….I can hear their screaming still.

They had nowhere to go but under
the trailer, however, was too low
and I, in a car a short distance back
saw both of their heads suddenly
…………………………………………………go.

One head rolled onto the hard shoulder
and sat there staring right back at me
while the other bounced over the railing
and fell into Witton
……………………………….for all there to see.

It put me off my lunch I can tell you
for that’s where I was going at the time
and if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s totally true
it would be a case of the ridiculous
……………………………….from the sublime.

 

©Joe Wilson – Heads, you lose…2015

The trawlerman’s wife & the 1953 spring-tide disaster…

On By jovisgoesIn Fate, Loss, Poetry, Survival, TimeLeave a comment
Flood
Mablethorpe 2 Feb 1953

 

A little dot of light in the distance
Signalled that they were on their way home
She was waiting at her own insistence
As the trawler drew closer through the foam.

Her man had taken another man’s place
And he sailed with yesterday’s tide
But their baby was due in only three days
She wanted him back on dry land by her side.

It caused her to reflect on her father
He’d been lost in the’53 spring tide
That had raced down the east coast of England
Brushing trawlers and ferries to one side.

They called it ‘The Big Flood’, it was really that bad
It happened unexpectedly
Two and a half thousand, including her dad
Were drowned and swallowed by the sea.

January thirty-first into February one
The storm raged like no other before
Then it turned out to sea and was suddenly gone
Leaving death and devastation in it’s maw.

The trawler was pulled into the harbour
And her husband jumped the jetty and ran
He took her into his arms and she worried no more
He was home, he was safe, and her man.

 

©Joe Wilson – The trawlerman’s wife & the 1953 spring-tide disaster…2015