They take their chain-saw armies
And cut down all the trees
To make a chair, a house and cash!
They need the wood for these.
But later, when they couldn’t breathe
And it was far too late to wonder
Oxygen comes from wondrous trees
They’re not just there to plunder.
The world survives by balance
We ignore that every day
And soon there may be no trees left
There’ll be a price to pay.
©JoeW – Trees, we should love them more…2021
Once more for animal lovers and children…
What a funny sight it would be
If an elephant really fell out of a tree
The mess it would make around the place
Would be nothing compared to the look on its face.
For elephants do not fall out of trees
They’re places for squirrels and birds and bees
But this was a special elephant you see
And he liked climbing tree after tree.
But he always fell with a mighty thud
Because of course, he was built like a pud!
His feet were large and his fingers well! None!
He used his trunk to really hang on
And of course his ears got in the way
He didn’t belong, well he was just so – grey.
The branches on which he sat would creak
When with his friends he played hide and seek
Who of course always looked up into the trees
Where their very large friend thought he hid if you please
Then he wobbled and shook and everyone could tell
As always the way he came down was, he fell.
©Joe Wilson – An elephant! Up a tree!…2015
No elephants were hurt in the writing of this poem.
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 wind was howling and the trees were bare
I called your name, there was no one there
The darkness gathered all around
And stillness – there was not a sound.
It was then I saw Him watching me
With eyes so sad that I could see
He felt the sorrow and sensed my pain
He knew I’d not see you again.
He surrounded me with a kindly peace
As if He knew there was no release
And all my tears welled up inside
Emotions that I’d tried to hide
All came tumbling, tumbling down
And fell like raindrops to the ground
And in that moment I think I knew
What He, Himself, had once been through.
I stood and looked into the night
Of Him there was no longer sight
And thus I left that Holy place
Myself at peace, and you in grace
And though my life will just go on
Forever now we’ll be as one
But when I go back to that place
I’ll hope to see His peaceful face.
©Joe Wilson – A Place of Tranquility 1994 (re-edited 2014)
Jovis on a Journey... 