Category: The World

They also served…

On By jovisgoesIn Faith, heroes, Life, Loss, Pacifism, Poetry, The World, Time, WarLeave a comment
Lest we forget...
Lest we forget…

My tribute to others who fell in the First World War

 

 

They said they couldn’t kill another
a man a soldier might call a brother
but clearing death from sodden trenches
repairing trucks with rusty wrenches.
These men did their bit too.

Many a shot mowed these men down
in trenches filled with awful sound
they fell and died, their blood as red
and in the end were still as dead.
These men did their bit too.

Some men can’t fight no matter what
so other work was what they got
and midst the cordite battle smell
they picked dead comrades as they fell.
These men did their bit too.

Four long years the battles raged
by Armistice young men had aged
so many young men had sadly died
pacifist stretcher men by their side.
These men did their bit too.

Pacifists choose simply not to kill
Clearing bodies became their great skill
patching up wounded and moving them back
under the vilest of mortar attack.
These men did their bit too.

Soldiers died that we might live
reconcile now and forgive
peaceful men did also die
honour them too where they do lie.
These men did their bit too.

 

©Joe Wilson – They also served… 2014

Crisis point…

On By jovisgoesIn Anger, Armageddon, Betrayal, Corruption, Deprivation, Life, Poetry, Point of View, political, Poverty, The WorldLeave a comment

Bruised by life one picks up one’s battered self
prepares to carry on into the next belligerence
and stoically turns to face the world
with all its beauty, yet too, horror and indifference.

We are but a small black, pink, brown baby upon arrival
luckier ones will be cared for and loved so well
yet still there are those whose lives will be filled with pain
from that very first beautiful breath yet fearful chest swell.

And as we grow to take on life’s burden of knowledge
some will fall along the way into deprivation
accepting life sustaining scraps as they are given
It shouldn’t happen in a so-called modern civilisation.

It falls to the fortunate to work to end the crisis
but money talks so well, and oft creates corruption
those with nothing have found their voice, their fight
if answers aren’t found quickly I fear inevitable eruption.

©Joe Wilson – Crisis point… 2014

On reflection…

On By jovisgoesIn Anger, Fate, Fear, guilt, Life, Poetry, political, Poverty, Regret, The World, Time, War, Women's RightsLeave a comment

I rise from my nice warm bed
and having made a morning drink
for my beloved wife, and one for me,
I run a bath.
As I luxuriate
in that warm bubbled water
I reflect on how lucky I am.

Later, washed and dressed for the day
I sit at the table and enjoy
a fine meal from God’s harvest
and again I reflect, and I feel…
guilt!

Guilt for the small children
who have no homes in which to feel safe
guilt that so many of them
will not eat again today.

I feel guilt
for all of the poor women around the globe
who will this very day give birth
to babies who they will surely love
but in whose having they had no choice…
no one ever hears their terrified voice.
Poor women beaten by poverty
who still struggle to feed those children
and yet too those who violate them so.

I feel guilt for all the men who cannot be made
to realise that the world is not theirs to design,
and at the way that some men feel
their own importance trumps all other considerations,
and guilt at all of the war ravaged lands.

And when I look down at the bounteous fare before me
I feel only one thing – shame.

 

©Joe Wilson – On reflection… 2014

Our fate…?

On By jovisgoesIn Anger, Betrayal, carelessness, End of Days, Life, Poetry, Point of View, The World, wisdomLeave a comment

world fate

Waking from eternal sleep
To see that fate had played a hand
Destruction wrought upon the world
Impossible to understand.

Air is still so polluted
Not as bad as once before
At least the belching chimney pots
Don’t push out black smoke any more.

Swathes of roads through forests
Means magnificent trees are gone
That vital part of the equation
Giving oxygen to everyone.

Not content with destroying all of those
We pollute our rivers too
Pesticides sprayed across the land
Are eaten by wildlife, and me and you.

We fill our greedy faces
With processed food that’s poor
So many children nowadays
Don’t see real food anymore.

And then, as if that’s not enough
We kill each other too
What on earth do we do that for
Obsolescence for me and you.

©Joe Wilson – Our fate…? 2014

In mortal pain…

On By jovisgoesIn Anger, Armageddon, Belief, Betrayal, carelessness, Fate, Life, Poetry, Point of View, political, Regret, The World, WarLeave a comment

This land has been robbed of all that it had
Nothing is left, even for the slick and the rich
Crumbling edifices to our capitalist greed
Our world no capacity now left for its need.

There were those amongst us who fought agin this
Imprisoned in jails within our own tortured selves
Not enough of us tried to stop the horrors we saw
Now nothing is left, our charade is no more.

Your fathers all fought in such bloody campaigns
There fathers too, and there fathers before
New weapons of destructive powers previously unheard
That slaughtered the innocent in ways cruelly absurd.

Buildings left standing with all inside dead
People didn’t matter, but the real estate did
And thus the corruption swept over the Earth
We were judged by our value but not by our worth.

It angers me now as I feel guilty shame
For I didn’t do enough and that makes me as them
And for you with the mess whatever is left
There’s a world that was rich and is now so bereft.

One thing is certain, save the wealth of the land
The one crucial thing that we never did foresee
Don’t go down the pathway of war-like inventions
Create things for peace and for better intentions.

Think in these ways and you may stand a chance
It’s a message I couldn’t ever iterate to much
War and corruption lie together in bed
Growing good crops gets communities fed.

©Joe Wilson – In mortal pain…2014

The world cries out…

On By jovisgoesIn Poetry, Poverty, Terror, The World, War, wisdomLeave a comment

Our world cries out in sorrow again
People dying on lonely streets
And blood is shed and spirits crushed
It seems that history repeats.

Would that we could see the truth
Of all that’s good within our sight
That we would see our own great wealth
And help to ease another’s plight.

If we could see and do all that
And in ourselves we understood
Would we not find ourselves at peace
And know at least we’d done some good.

 

©Joe Wilson – The world cries…2014

Well we know where we belong don’t we?

On By jovisgoesIn Dreams, Life, Poetry, Point of View, political, The WorldLeave a comment

I know my Place

(With a respectful nod to Messrs. Cleese, Barker & Corbett)

He looked out of his fine high-ceilinged office
He looked down at the city far below
With sleeves rolled up and his blood pressure mounting
Profits missing meant workers had to go.

He didn’t care where they would come from
Little people never registered on his screen
He was totally focussed on making dollars
In that he was absolutely obscene.

A little way down from his high pedestal
Was where those desperate celebrities abide
Where they sit wafer-thin in dark glasses
As they feed like piranhas on the crowds.

And though the Hollywood moguls will use them
Because they are the puppets that they are
All memories of where they all came from
Are now just a small thing in the past.

Lower still you will find politicians
All waiting for the moment that is theirs
When they have the glory of the ‘fifteen minute fame’
Before they fall back to their own obscurity.

We on the other hand gather down in the street
Like sheep we wait there in the hope that we’ll meet
A top businessman who might give us a position
Or perhaps for a glance at a celebrity snob.

And just up above the media vultures hover
As they hope for a juicy story to break
They’ll not care a fig for the lives they devour
Just the ratings for them are at stake.

As they say ‘T’was ever thus’ and it shall ever be
And it seems that frankly it can only get worse
You see my fine friend it’s not the humans involved
It’s simply the size of the ever-growing purse.

©Joe Wilson – Well we know where we belong don’t we? 2014

The re-assuring clock…

On By jovisgoesIn Clock, Existing, Re-assuring, The World, TimeLeave a comment

There’s something re-assuring about the tick of a clock
It counts off the moments and marks out the days
We know where we are and where we should be
It keeps the world moving without hesitancy.

But do we confine ourselves by wrapping in time
Are we constricted in this sectional way
What if we threw off the comfort of the norm
And took back the freedom of an old timeless form.

The world that we know would be drastically changed
Financial institutes would behave so deranged
Criminals would take over as ‘opportunities’ presented
Charlatans and fraudsters… – “The World Goes Demented”.

So the thing that we find is ‘there’s no other way.’
We depend on the start and the end of each day
But if time stopped existing not one of us would care
We’d soon cease to function and then we wouldn’t be there.

There’s something re-assuring about the tick of a clock…

©Joe Wilson – The re-assuring clock…2014