Monsters, driven by my friend Jim Beam
Soon return, and force my scream
Feelings of inadequacy reign
Am I really slipping back again
Or did I make good my escape
From when my soul was seen midst gape
At all the pain that I was given
That left my heart so feelings driven
So even now I search release
Yet nightly I can find no peace
The Glock must now go in my mouth
My life has gone completely south…
BANG!!!!
©Joe Wilson – Bang…2016
Etched deep in human nature found
Is not the plight of others bound
In loneliness, they cry out.
Fallen by the way, so many
Whose lives could change with love, if any
In loneliness, they cry out.
Is not the plight of others found
In depths so low there is no sound
In loneliness, they cry out.
Whose lives could change with love, if any
Caught in cultural hegemony
In loneliness, they cry out.
In depths so low there is no sound
Trampled far beneath the ground
In loneliness, they cry out.
And God, who is their single friend
Such failings He must ever end
In loneliness, they cry out.
Trampled far beneath the ground
Etched deep in human nature found
In loneliness, they cry out.
©Joe Wilson – Lauds…(the 3rd morning)…2016
If this is it
Then so shall it be
Such is final.
Leave it as it is.
I am but a swine
Cast out by my own.
Even in the heat of pain
I will regroup and fight.
The slash of swords I will withstand
Withstand.
Until such time as it is no more.
And then, who cares
I want to live.
©Joe Wilson – Me…(Aku) a tribute to Chairil Anwar (1922-1949)
This fine Indonesian poet died the year I was born.
Most of his work was censored.
In life as in so many things
Mercy needs angelic wings.
Forgiveness, the rarest gift.
Could we all not better choose
Those who sadly, often lose.
Forgiveness, the rarest gift.
Mercy needs angelic wings
A darker soul yet sometimes sings.
Forgiveness, the rarest gift.
Those who sadly, often lose
Fail to see the hidden clues.
Forgiveness, the rarest gift.
A darker soul yet sometimes sings
A peace will fall as new day brings.
Forgiveness, the rarest gift.
And God will watch and study all
To see what madness will befall.
Forgiveness, the rarest gift.
A peace will fall as new day brings
In life as in so many things.
Forgiveness, the rarest gift.
©Joe Wilson – Lauds…(2nd morning)…2016
The peacock proud, pushed out his chest
As giant bullfrogs croak their best.
Alone, yet never lonely.
Dawn breaks and day now beckons
To work we soon will go in seconds.
Alone, yet never lonely.
As giant bullfrogs croak their best
The factory bells succumb their test.
Alone, yet never lonely.
To work we soon will go in seconds
God looks on all of Life and reckons.
Alone, yet never lonely.
The factory bells succumb their test
As life begins anew with zest.
Alone, yet never lonely.
And God will watch the nations’ health
For there He knows is real wealth.
Alone, yet never lonely.
As life begins anew with zest
The peacock proud, pushed out his chest.
Alone, yet never lonely.
©Joe Wilson – Lauds…2016 (with full appreciation of W H Auden)
Battered by life, yet courageous still, he struggled with each step as he climbed up that hill. He lived all alone, he was now eighty-one, for his beloved wife Alice had long since passed on. And the shop in the village is at the top of the hill, he walked up there slowly on odd weekdays still.
He promised his Alice that he’d never give in, though it was hard he took it on the chin. And to her memory he climbed up the hill every week, not saying much, he’d no breath left to speak. But there was another good reason why he went up like that, the cemetery’s up there and he went for a chat. With his Alice, who he loved for the whole of his life, who made him so happy while she was his wife.
He carried his bag with a flask filled with tea, and a small pack of biscuits which he ate about three. Together they chose a nice spot near a tree, where a bench had been placed by the council you see. He sat down and chatted to his Alice with a smile, and then listened as she answered him after a while. He knew that some people must have thought he was daft, he told this to Alice and together they laughed.
After a while he gathered his things and then said his goodbyes as he now turned to leave. There was always a teardrop that fell from his face that he wiped away slowly on the edge of his sleeve.
He carried on like this for so many years, until finally he too turned to dust, but the message he left with his Alice for us, is we should love for ever, we just really must.
©Joe Wilson – Beyond that hill…2016
Down long dark paths e’er wanders he in search of peace from woe. He travels on with troubled brow, his features etched with worry so. Solutions none can this man find, to ease his troubled soul, yet stills strides he down darkened paths, his searching now beyond control. And now within his mind he’s lost, he knows not where to turn. Those darkened paths are in his head, his mind’s in Hell, he’s sure he’ll burn.
But peace when finally it came, was not from thoughts inside, but when he faced the truth in death, his God was by his side. With surety he never felt, in life he’d been uncertain, beyond the worrying of man, was glory past that curtain.
©Joe Wilson – Paradise reframed…2016
(with apologies to John Milton 1608 – 1674)
Would that I could lift a heart
That’s fallen to the floor
That I could love and cherish it
For now and evermore.
Would that I could do that small thing
Before my frail heart breaks
Please let me do that caring thing
In love for both our sakes.
No words you need to utter here
Yet silent you’re torn apart
So I will bend and pick it up
And mend your broken heart.
©Joe Wilson – It can be mended…2016
And so once more he looked at her, as he had so often before. He looked at her with love in his eyes as she walked right out of the door. She always said that she wouldn’t stay, but they met so long ago, that he never even thought of it. He just didn’t think she’d go.
And now he sits alone at night at a table set for one, her perfume lingers in the air but all her things are gone. The wardrobe now is not crammed full, her shoes no longer there. The mirrors and her hairbrush, nor even a single hair.
They’d argued many times before, such little tiny things. This time it couldn’t be resolved, the pain of it still stings. Neither one would yield at all, it then got out of hand. And bitter words then followed which neither could understand.
So thus it seemed that all this time their life had not been real, the things she thought she had once felt, she didn’t really feel. All the things she had at first, all the sense of thrill. She had to go she told him although she loved him still.
And so he waits for her return, in patient solitude. He said he’d always wait for her, whatever she pursued. But knocks on the door are infrequent and keys in the latch are none. He sadly, looks in the wardrobe and knows she will always be gone.
©Joe Wilson – An empty wardrobe…2016
Shine bright moon
And light my way
I’ve travelled far
Since yesterday.
Through war-filled places
Where men do fight
Where children die
Such frightful sight.
I’ve crossed the seas
Where creatures swim
Whose only enemy
Is sadly him.
Him, the human
Killing machine
Who takes so much
It feels obscene.
And over lands
Where people starve
If we took less
Their pain might halve.
And into homes
Where children hurt
Where parents treat them
Just like dirt.
Dark street corners
Where women sell
As weep they try
To escape their Hell.
So shine bright moon
And light my way
Iniquities
Leave much to say.
And should I fail
Along the strive
Please light a path
For others to drive.
But there are those
Whose gentle soul
Has lit a beacon
As was their role.
For history’s filled
With souls like theirs
Whose aim in life
Was equal shares.
Yet sadly life
Treats them so ill
Their guiding path
Silent, still.
But guide the mean
Where e’er we find
To better ways
That are more kind.
Perhaps then we
Would feel so skilled
As lives as ours
Would be fulfilled.
So yes! Shine moon
And light their way
As they strive to chase
Such pain away…
©Joe Wilson – A light to guide us…2016
Jovis on a Journey... 