Category: Poetry

My life less ordinary

On By jovisgoesIn Family, Friendship, Fun, Illness, Love, Personal, Poetry, Point of ViewLeave a comment

contentment-inner-peace (1)

As the years go flying past
you realise just how much
your perspective changes and
when I now look back at how
things were I realise that far
from having had an uneventful life
mine has been one so full and rich
with love and laughter that I wonder
that there was time for it all to fit.

How we laughed as we left the wedding reception
and all those ‘old fogeys’ and drove away
to enjoy our honeymoon together – alone!
and how we loved each other finding fun in
all that we did together, sometimes
just looking at each other – and how
highly amused we were by the ‘jobs-worth’
car-park attendant by our hotel who stuck his hand out
the moment we crossed his threshold and said
“ten pee please”, he did it every time we went
there, often just to hear him say it again, and
how beautiful you looked in that dress that was
covered in the lovely cherry design. I think
everybody else loved you too.

How wonderful the mead tasted as we sat by the
pub fire in a place we’d never before heard of
never letting go of each others hands for a minute
and how the regulars who treated us so nicely
must have thought we were a bit bonkers.

The joys in raising our beloved children and
the intertwining pain of watching them sometimes
get a little hurt along the way, but our always
being there to help them find their own right solutions
has helped weave a rich tapestry through our lives.
The times when you want to take their pain and
make it your own – but can’t, the smile on their faces
and their laughter as they play with friends and
of course the grumpy expressions as they rail against
doing homework and tidying things like bedrooms. But
what pride we felt at their achievements along the way.

And now they too are married, one on a beach
under a lovely blue sky on the other side
of the world, and one in a most beautiful
church in our capital city. We spend such a
lot of time laughing with our grandchildren,
they are so very clever, and so funny – and
they just make us feel so young again.

Illness – illness!! Now there’s an unfortunate
word, one that has been used in our lives rather
more often than we would like. My wife has been ill,
survived and can still love and laugh. I have too,
but I can still love and laugh. Our children are not
unscathed either from this darker part of growing older,
and yet they too still happily love and laugh very much
and with all their hearts. Illness really is just
a small percentage of our time here.

So now when I reflect on my life I realise that
far from being ordinary I have been very lucky
indeed to have taken part in a life that has overflowed
with love and fun and laughter and only the occasional
sadness and it’s then that we help each other through
to the other side of it. It turns out the fact is
there has been nothing ordinary about my life at all.

And I’ll not be bowing out yet – not yet

©Joe Wilson – My life less ordinary 2014

The tells.

On By jovisgoesIn Nature, Personal, Poetry, Seasons, Time, Village LifeLeave a comment

beech
I often wake up in the night these days
and if I lie very still and quiet
listening to the house I’m rewarded
as it makes all the nightly noises
that I find are so very reassuring.

Crack!! I recognise that sound
of the little lumps of ice falling
down a chute at the back of the fridge
as it defrosts itself by some
magical force once again.

If I wake soon after I fall asleep
I can still hear the creaking sounds
of the furniture as the springs
seem to relax and get themselves ready
for those who will use it next.

Should I wake nearer to dawn I hear
the gentle gurgle of the hot water
as it makes its way along the pipes
warming the house for the new day and
getting us all ready to rise and face it.

When the day is bright I hear the roof tiles
as they tighten up when the warmth of the sun
slides over the trees at the bottom of
the garden and gradually release their
wonderful rays of light on the house.

It is life and it should never, ever, be taken for granted.

©Joe Wilson – The tells 2014

She said “yes”

On By jovisgoesIn Love, Personal, Poetry2 Comments
This can never do you justice.
J x

Silver clouds gently eased by overhead
standing out against a clear blue sky
and it was on such a beautiful morning
that I determined I’d give it a try.

My prospects were looking quite good now
I was certain I was in with a chance
and now was the time to take the bull by the horn
for it was true love, not a holiday romance.

I laid favourite flowers down before her
and I went down on one knee, that’s the thing
then I said, “Darling, will you please marry me?”
“for when I see you, you make my heart sing.”

I waited for what seemed like forever
as she sat there and looked into my eyes
then her eyes lit like sparkling diamonds
and she said “Yes.” and I let out a sigh.

©Joe Wilson – She said “yes”

On 1 July 2014 my wife, Daphne and I, celebrate our forty-second wedding anniversary. I would never have made it without her constant love and support. I wouldn’t have wanted to make the journey alone or with anyone else.

This poem is dedicated entirely to her…with love.

Snap!

On By jovisgoesIn Anger, Loss, PoetryLeave a comment
Police officers investigate the site of a roller coaster accident in Suita, western Japan, Saturday, May 5, 2007. A roller coaster traveling up to 75 kilometers (46 miles) per hour hit a guardrail at an amusement park in western Japan on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 21 others, officials said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) ** JAPAN OUT, NO SALES, MANDATORY CREDIT
Police officers investigate the site of a roller coaster accident in Suita, western Japan, Saturday, May 5, 2007. A roller coaster traveling up to 75 kilometers (46 miles) per hour hit a guardrail at an amusement park in western Japan on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 21 others, officials said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) **

He was the sole survivor of a fairground ride disaster
and spent twenty-three months in hospital
– as they very carefully put him back together.
It had been such a lovely day for several friends
who had taken the ride, but when the bolts snapped
– they fell like dominoes on either side.

Only he survived, he’s full of anger, and weighed down with guilt
he’ll never walk again though, too much spinal fluid spilt
and though he recognises his Mum, he’ll never again speak her name
his larynx was crushed too in the fall and the new sound is not the same.

It takes so long but he taps each letter out on his new keyboard
then he blows in a cup and sound comes out through a strange cord
and although he doesn’t remember his voice sounding so tinny as this
it is a voice of sorts, and it just has to do he guesses.

He’s up to Jack and Jill books now as his Mum helps him learn to read
it’s sad to see her in such pain when her eyes look into his and plead
but the words are hard to grasp now and he always does his very best
yet he lived while others didn’t so some days he still feels blessed.

He hates it though when they wash him, a pretty nurse helps his Mum and when
– they wash him ‘down there’ he always wants to scream
he wishes that he could go to sleep and never wake again but then
– he feels the guilt and instead wishes he could wake to find it all a dream.

©Joe Wilson – Snap! 2014

He became hungry

On By jovisgoesIn Illness, PoetryLeave a comment
poor-people
I wonder what he was before he became poor and hungry!

It was the being hungry that drove him as he carefully sorted through
the broken and rotting detritus that was left by me and you
he rarely found a full bag, nor ever an item that was clean
for people dispose of rubbish in disgusting ways that he used to find obscene.

He’d walked with his head held high once
– another time in the past
But a fear of the crowded, noisy hospital wards
– had shown itself at last.

He found that he couldn’t cope with the pain in the now far distant eyes
of the people who recently lost loved ones and their pleas and desperate cries.

He took off his white jacket and walked out of the ward one day
and try as he did he was never able to go back there again.

He still read books as he wanted to seem to himself at least to be trying
but it was all so many years ago and these days the hunger pain stung
and though he’d only had his street skills he had somehow survived
despite the cancer inside him that was even now eating away at his lung.

When he had enough bits that he could once again call a meal
he slipped away from the others in the street to find a quiet spot
for the one thing that he had learned almost straight away
is that anyone – anyone – will steal what little bit you’ve got.

He was used now to seeing dead bodies – as other street people died
from hunger and disease and other times – just from being alone
some of the older ones always seemed weak and so fragile
and in winter they’d often end up frozen – frozen to the bone.

The days were getting shorter now and he often felt very insecure
he knew that his lungs were getting much worse and cold would weaken them badly
the winter would bring his last days this time as he struggled so hard to cope
he’d never expected to die on the street but he’d do it now quite gladly.

©Joe Wilson – He became hungry 2014

The Arrow

On By jovisgoesIn Competition, Poetry, SportLeave a comment

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Pulled back to the fullest stretch
The string now as hard as steel
The arrow ready astride the bow
And your senses stop as you feel.

Muscles tighten at tension break
A little sweat leaves the pores
Then just at the moment the brain says yes
You release – and the target is yours.

Flying through the air as straight as a die
Where gravity takes a pull on it too
But it lands in the gold as you knew that it would
For your aim and the arrow were true.

©Joe Wilson – The Arrow 2014

A Warm Heart

On By jovisgoesIn Love, PoetryLeave a comment

love-me-tender18

The Heart is a dangerous and yet beautiful place
Where the traveller should be wary to call
For if Love, its companion, looks out at your face
Your defences are nothing and will easily fall.

But what a way to fall to a loving Heart
What happiness is promised every day
Though to the unwary it can all be too much
For then the Heart shrivels and it all blows away.

So if ever you’re there in that dangerous place
And your chest feels a warm tender feel
Be alive to all the Heart’s possibilities
And for you perhaps Love will reveal.

©Joe Wilson – A Warm Heart 2014

The man in the street

On By jovisgoesIn old age, Poetry, Point of ViewLeave a comment

old guys_edited

How I often envied the man in the street
– whose opinion was so often sought
The simple truth that oft sprang forth
– was honesty that can’t be bought
And then one day I was approached
– as I walked along the street about Ten
I realised then that I was too
– just another of those useful street men.

Then questions followed on all sorts of issues
– on everything probably other than tissues
Opinions sought too on matters political
– as if my opinion was somehow quite critical
Ere long I asked if all this was relevant
– as wonder I did at my ears getting  bent
Then finally finally the last question came
– had I been injured of late and would I like to claim!!

©Joe Wilson – The man in the street 2014

Family down

On By jovisgoesIn Family, Loss, Love, Personal, Poetry, RegretLeave a comment

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Going down the stairs on that March Saturday afternoon
I looked out of the landing window at the torrential rain
It was then that I heard a loud hollow thump as he fell
And I was never to see my father alive again.

I was just a little shy of my thirteenth birthday
It was the unhappiest and saddest of my days
My mother now a widow had lost her best friend
And the pain that followed hurt in many ways.

Five brothers and our sister had lost a rudder
To the ship that is a family going through life
And the empty place not filled beside the table
Strikes at the heart as with a rusty knife.

Time passes and my brothers number just one
And my sister makes us three and not now six
For over four decades and five my kin have fallen
And that’s one statistic nothing can ever fix.

Never fail to love the ones you care for
Never fail to tell them how much you care
For sometimes if you turn around for too long
You turn your head and they’re no longer there.

©Joe Wilson – Family down 2014