The powerful wind...

The wind howled like a banshee that terrible day
It had argued with everything it left in its wake
It whipped up the sea to a thick grey mist
Through the windows the view was dark and opaque.

And over the crash of the huge black waves
Screaming yet so faint, their voices pathetic
As they slowly succumbed to the cold Irish Sea
In a storm that had raged with power kinetic.

And the gathering orca had much to enjoy
As they filled up their bellies from the dead
While the sharks in the shipping line boardroom
Sought to rip off the families instead.

One hundred and forty three souls were lost
Neither ship nor a person survived
But it’s said in a storm in the cold Irish Sea
You can hear the last calls that were cried.

©Joe Wilson – The powerful wind…2018

The National Health Service

When I was born the National Health Service was just a month shy of its first birthday. I was duly registered and given an NHS number which has stayed with me all my life, until more recent changes in record keeping were brought about by a much more modern digital technology.

What a wonderful service it has been too. Obviously, one can only speak from one’s own experiences, and mine have been typical in most ways, and yet untypical in others. My father died when I was in my early teens, my mother when I was in my thirties. Whilst both were cared for by the National Health Service, sadly neither of them saw the benefits of a modern service such as we have today. The same must be said for at least two of my late brothers. I however, have been helped tremendously by a much more up to date service that has quite frankly saved my life twice, the first time unquestionably, the second time quite probably. My wife has been helped greatly too by our health service, as have my beloved children, where even now the benefit is being felt.

My family is just one of many in this country that has reaped major benefits from the wonderful carer that is the National Health Service, our glorious NHS. It is the envy of the world. Indeed people come from all over the world to absorb some of its beneficence and get well.

So I ask this. Why is this current government doing so much to undermine what is a part of the very fabric of our society? Why did the last Not-Real-Labour government do so much in that direction too…PFI (need one say more?)?

The National Health Service belongs to the people of the United Kingdom, it does not belong to the here today, gone tomorrow government, which incidentally, also belongs to the people of the United Kingdom.  HANDS OFF! GIVE IT BACK! 

Words of love and faith…

So tired I drift in long deep sleep
In thoughts of you that keep me warm
Inside a place of peaceful dreams
I find you in ethereal form.

And holding hands in sweet repose
Retelling words of love and faith
While wrapped in dream-like timeless mist
My arms enfold to keep you safe.

As wakefulness returns at dawn
No longer are you there to see
But opened eyes can now reveal
Your earthly form lies next to me.

Retelling words of love and faith
And wrapped in ageless passion we
With open eyes and open hearts
Who else but you could be with me.

©Joe Wilson – Words of love and faith…2015

For all eternity...

This reckless place that is my mind
That shows me much, though oft I’m blind
Has nonetheless led me to you
A glorious, amazing thing to do.
And that alone brings other pain
That I might not see you again
For as we age our body’s tire
I say ‘who cares’, I call me liar.
But side by side we love and chat
Laughing, remembering this and that
And in your tender arms in bliss
O Lord please let us go like this.

For all eternity we will stay
As lovers, as we are today.

©Joe Wilson – For all eternity…2015

The Weeping Book...

He opened the binding of The Weeping Book
curiousity piqued, he needed to look
but how he wished he had never seen
the horrors therein that were so obscene.

The guilt of man along the passage of time
senseless slaughter without reason or rhyme
each page he turned ill had been done
by book possessed he ventured on.

The rape and pillage of those years before
children the victims of violent war
races were mixed, the one good thing
vicious hecklers of bigotry sing.

On and on through the pages now
the hurt caused pain behind his brow
saints and sinners all listed here
their sins for all to see quite clear.

He saw the vilest sins of history's pain
enslavement of those for other's gain
let loose man's done some terrible things
hope's voice is quelled by vicious stings.

The Weeping Book so perfect in name
from front to end it's full of shame
and he a priest of noble birth
would find before day's end, his worth.

No water passed his lips, nor food
his mind so troubled by soured mood
and then the page on which he gazed
revealed the future of a man gone crazed.

No change could he make to the book
transfixed at his poor fate he'd look
and as he pushed the dagger deep
as fate revealed he went to sleep.

The Weeping Book then slammed tight shut
till guilty man next came and put
his hand upon the tome's dark cover
then his sad fate he'd soon discover.





©Joe Wilson – The Weeping Book…2014

The wine bottle corks...

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…

See more at: http://allpoetry.com/poem/11438825-The-Wine-Bottle-Corks-by-Joe-Wilson#sthash.XZNI097X.dpuf

The Fall...

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?

©Joe Wilson – The Fall…2015

Where once there were docks…

The docks are so barren now, where once there was such fare
there’s no more shipbuilding, the work’s just not there
and yet when I think, when I dream, I can hear
all the fine sailing vessels that have long since passed here.

The docks were so mighty, all the work, all the men
it’s sad now to think, we’ll not see them again
and yet, if you think of the sails and the ropes
we’ll carry on dreaming, we won’t lose our hopes.

The docks stand so quiet, no stevedores can be seen
no lightermen move barges through the channels in between
and yet if you dream, you can still hear the sails
it’s a heart-lifting sound, the excitement never fails.

©Joe Wilson – Where once there were docks…

To sail...

I’d love to sail o’er the powerful sea, to sail to the end of time
and meet amazing people and be thankful in every rime
the pull on the sails, the feel of the rope and the salty sea
and a good fast ship to sail in, would be enough for me.

I’d love to sail and never stop, see the world in its symmetry
and watch the mighty albatross as it’s shadow flies over me
as the pull from the sea and the wind drive me on
and the cobwebs and quietude of the normal are gone.

I’d love to sail round Equator’s girth, and sail right back again
and read accounts of sailing men, who sailed this way back then
for the pull of the sea and a driving wind, and with all the sails unfurled
would make me the happiest of men in our strange water-filled world.

©Joe Wilson – To sail… 2015

With the aid of a telescope…

I’d love to sail the seven seas, I’d sail them all with you
And we would have adventures and fill our lives with mirth we two
And the spray would catch our faces as we looked across the sea
And gulls and whales and dolphins, companions they would be.

I’d love to sail to Zanzibar, and to islands in the sun
And search for a tree called the Cinnabar, as we sail the seas for fun
And the spray would fill our senses, while the sky would be so blue
And the stars at night would guide us, as around the world we flew.

I’d love to sail round the southern capes, and the frozen world where penguins go
Where all the ice shines in the sun, and the land is covered in soft white snow
And the spray would strike our faces, but our hearts would be filled with hope
And with stars and a map to guide us, and the aid of our telescope.

©Joe Wilson – With the aid of a telescope…2015

The winter struggle...

Winter creeps across the land
where mighty oaks and birch trees stand
and insects hid beneath the ground
face certain death if they are found
by mice or rats…and foxes too
nature’s food chain survival glue.

But up above the canopy
buzzards hunt by two or three
they square the ground on high patrol
in search of rabbit or tasty vole
life’s bitter struggle is borne this way
the same tomorrow as yesterday.

And as the winter creep moves on
the weakest creatures now all gone
rats and rabbits…mice and voles
bed down for winter in food-stocked holes
yet o’er the land where we draw breath
there’s barely sign of this fight with death.

©Joe Wilson – The winter struggle…2015

Beneath a tree deep in thought…

He sat beneath the acacia tree
and watched the world go by
its green-golden leaves bouncing joyously
while the breeze caused a rustling sigh.
He thought about life as he’d lived it
as a son, and a father, and as a man
and he smiled at some of the memories
he remembered from when his journey began.

Playing with his brothers as a toddler
and his sister who’d cared for him so
he hoped they’d all known how he loved them
not often enough said years ago.
There’d been plenty of sadness on his journey
they lost their father, grandparents they hardly knew
he lost some friends on the way that he’d never forget
and sadly, there was his beloved brother too.

But sitting there under this particular tree
looking over his little back lawn
her face came into his mind now
it swept in as if on the wind-borne.
She’d come into his life as a saviour
he knew he’d been blessed all along
while he was a weak selfish person
she was so beautiful, and witty and strong.

Their first years together she’d carried him
thinking back he’d always known it was true
how he wished he’d been a much better person
“But you’re good”, she said, “and I chose you.”
The children came along and life really changed
no time then for the fast social whirl
yet neither would have chosen a different life
than the joy from their boy and their girl.

Some hardships inevitably changed things
but they carefully steered their way through
and their love remained strong as expected
the most important ingredient between two.
Their children grew up, made roads for themselves
after tenuous steps they too settled down
now the grandchildren help keep them both youthful
with such fun and energy that astounds.

So he sits there under the acacia
and the memories linger awhile
there’s thankfully so many happy memories
that recall always causes a smile.
Then he reaches across as the wind blows
a silver hair falling out of place
he pushes it away and back over her ear
as he kisses her still lovely face.

©Joe Wilson – Beneath a tree  deep in thought

My heart aches...

My heart aches, but not for you
For you nestle here beside me
Lying peacefully in my arms
Head resting on my chest
And I am in Heaven.

My heart aches, but at your presence
For I have never deserved you
I couldn’t have imagined
You could love me as you do
And yet you really do.

My heart aches, but for our parting
For I must go and yet may never
See your beloved face again
And my heart breaks in pieces
As now I leave this final time.

©Joe Wilson – My heart aches… 2014

Growing in love...

As a boy he'd not really imagined
What his life would be like as a man
He'd had lots of dreams like all boys did
But he'd hoped he could be Superman.

But of course life doesn't turn out quite like that
And he'd moved through his youth at a pace
As a man he'd set forth and in a grown way
Got a job and joined the rat race.

On the way he met a woman and she loved him
A woman who still has such grace
They bought a small house in a village
And lived life at a much slower pace .

The rat race proved too much for his taste
He got out and then slowed down his life
He wrote down his thoughts each and every day
And he spent more precious time with his wife.

Many years have passed by in the village
The shop's gone, and the Post Office too
And some of their old friends aren't alive any more
And they think of them fondly, they do.

They're getting on now as age takes the years
They still love each other more each day
And they're happy they chose to live this life
For them it was always the way.

©Joe Wilson - Growing in love...2014

God Tried, he really did [A Poem for Peace]

He stirred, as from an ancient sleep
To look in horror at the deep
And painful scars across the land
And He began to understand
What Man had done: what legacy
Had come to pass, had come to be
And He did think what must be done
It would need help from everyone
To make this planet whole again
He sent His Son; and his twelve men
To go in PEACE and spread the word
To say that killing is absurd.
And years have passed: it hasn't stopped
The blood spills out: so much has dropped
It stains the land that we have claimed
Please; it's time to be ashamed
We have to find a better way
Everyone must stand and say
Enough's enough! It has to stop
We mustn't waste another drop
The planet must again be whole
We need to exercise control
Beneath the skin we all are one
The boy you kill could be my son
I couldn't cope with that. Could you?
Put down your guns; and I will to.
And we will make a better place
To house the SINGLE human race.

©Joe Wilson - God Tried, he really did [A Poem for Peace]
I donated this poem to the International Society of Poets who in turn
donated it to The United Nations to join the other 40,000 poems that
made up 'The longest poem in the world'. It is a poem for PEACE.