Tunisia and another 28 bloodstained bodies

I've been there in the killing fields
Of the random bullet and the bomb
Seen the mothers grenade torn flesh
And tried to stem the flow of the blood
Of the innocent

I did my share of causing
Children to weep at night
Of mothers mourning now dead sons
Who felt the final bite

I could shed the tears for this ****** pointless day
But the tears are long since gone, tears no longer flow

All in the name of a cause
How many more have to die?

I don't care anymore
About long held childhood dreams
Just give me my fields and my forests
Or a rocky perch o'er looking the sea
It's in such places that I can gather my thoughts
And write the words in my mind
Its in such places that I can get lost
Forget the rest of mankind
Here in the solitude away from turmoil
Here my mind is at rest
The smell of the pine trees or the sound of the waves
Tis in such a place you can lay down and rest

To all members of Hellopoetry
(Not just my followers and friends)
Well that's another year behind us,
Another year of both good and bad
Another year of both happy and sad
A year in which I've seen friendships blossom
A year in which I've seen verbal abuse
But also love in equal measure
Verbal abuse! Yes and I've dealt out my share
Also a year in which I chose to set my challenges
Which in their turn gave us six dailies
You wrote the poems and so the credits go to you
This has been a year when I have seen young writers blossom
A year when grumpy old men like me are coming to the end
And so what does the future hold for this great site
In the coming year?
A new year when we can encompass the world
Arms linked with poetry both good and perhaps not so good
A new year when humility and not over inflated egos
Are paramount
Unfortunately I don't believe that will ever happen
You know when I used to teach several years ago
I never had failures in my classes
I had students who weren't quite as good as some others
They weren't derided because of it but were encouraged
To try in another way
Criticism yes but constructive criticism
And that in an ideal world is how this site should be
The strong helping and encouraging the less strong
Can we all work towards that goal
The majority here already do so

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and my heartfelt wishes for the coming new year


Joe

I live for the love of the south country,my gently rolling downs



A glimpse of the sea through the pine trees, The sweet songs of the birds all arround



My heart belongs in the south country where I grew up as a child



Where I wandered the field and the forests and studied the things in the wild



My life is here in the south country, here I can sit and take note



I can then share my thoughts with my friends here and show them the words that I wrote



You can bury me here in the south country with a tree standing over my grave



I need no long drawn out service just a place that nature has made

Throw away the writing pad and pencil
Chuck the lexicon in the bin
Just open up your minds
And let imagination just flood in

You don't need to ponder deepest thoughts
Will this be right or wrong
Just let your heart speak out the words
Just write that brand new song

Dont worry if its not quite right
Punctuation not in place
Spelling mistake a missing dot
Well **** that's no disgrace

Just write the words that fill your mind
And swamp your every sense
Throw away the rule book
Don't let your mind be bent

Under loved
Underfed
Under paid
Under wanted

But hey life's good

You know for several weeks, even months
I lost the inspiration to put pen to paper
But since coming  back here my mind is overflowing once more

Life is such  simple thing
But now overburdened  by technical things

Nature is such a simple process
But now overburdened by genetic improvisation

Love, the most simple and natural  process of all
But now overburdened by the  need to outdo the girl next door

Keep it simple for a better life

Just sitting here in my tent
No radio, trying to do everything on my phone
Did I say peaceful? In my tree there's an owl.
Nothing strange about that you might say
Well this ones got the biggest mouth on it
That I've ever heard
Never eaten an owl before but this ones pushing its luck
Earlier today I had a few hours fishing and yes I did catch a few
I also watched dragon flies of ever colour
and the aptly named damsel flies dancing on the breeze
No choreography but still perfect synchronisation
There's so much wild life here and it's easier to spot now the leaves are falling
Multi coloured snow, russet, red, yellowy green, browns
Like autumnal snow drifts round my feet.
You know even if I could I would never harm that old owl
After all he belongs here while I'm just a guest
I like it here under this tree

I cast my mind back to my formative years
the simple life of a child, no real dangers or fears

No play stations or TV we made our own fun
Our playgrounds the fields and the forests under the sun

I often think back to those halcyon days
When we had unwritten rules about the way that we played

Eleven years old and wasps in a cloud
fourty eight stings later and boy did I howl

Now aged fourteen and a change for the best
Two years of training as a professional chef

At sixteen years old and a big change had begun
because I decided to make the army my home

Two brothers before me had taken up arms
and if needed would fight to keep our country from harm

Nineteen and still innocent in a strange foreign land
a place of death and destruction,  sharp rocks,  burning sand

I still have the dreams about what I did, things I saw
I guess such things happen when teenagers go to war

Twenty two and another change in my life
because I'm no longer single,  I now have a wife

On valentines day in 74
the midwife delivered a son to my door

A miracle of nature this beautiful boy
the first time I held him my heart filled with joy

And so long years passed, the good and the bad
at fourty from the army I parted, neither happy nor sad

I had travelled to lands I would never have seen
if I hadn't chosen to wear khaki and green

So at forty I made another life change
and decided to enter the security game

Several years later I decided to teach
to pass on the knowledge that others did seek

Well now approaching my sixty seventh year
its time to embark on another career

It's time to relax and grow gracefully old
a time to take up my pen so my story gets told

He was an old man to us children
Long unkempt white hair
But brown wrinkled skin from hours
spent in wind rain and sun
He spent his time wandering the country paths
and woodland trails
Our parents said we should keep away
but we weren't scared
We found his home in the bushes overlooking
the road leading into town
A tatty threadbare tent just big enough for one
containing a couple of blankets and a well worn
army greatcoat
At school we used to have lessons about nature study
but that old man was better than any teacher I ever had
He would spend what seemed like hours
talking to us kids
Where honey came from, what wild plants were good to eat
and the ones to avoid
He knew the lives and habits of just about every wild
animal and bird
Then one day he was gone, we never did find out where
His tent and few bits were removed by the authorities
And within months that patch in the bushes had grown over.

I look back on those early years and wonder if it was that
old man who gave me my love of nature.

Oh!! So why do you find the word Christmas offensive?

Because it's not a festival I believe in and therefore I consider it to be an insult

I see, so if I lived in your country and said I didn't like the name of one of your festivals what would happen?

You would be punished for insulting our country and our beliefs

So perhaps you should be punished for saying what you said

No of course not, you have freedom of speech in your country so I can say what I like

You live in that big house with the expensive car on the drive don't you? You must have a very good job

I do not work, your government pays for everything I have

I see, and do you think that's right

Of course it's right

What would happen to me if I asked for the same things in your country?

You would be classed as a beggar, if you couldn't support yourself then you would have nowhere to live, that's how it should be

When the troubles of the world are crushing you
And you lose all hope
Trust me with your life
I'll keep it safe for you

When you're in that tunnel of dark despair
See no distant gleam of light
Place your life in my hands
I'll keep it safe for you

When the avalanche roars above your head
And the path has disappeared
Trust me with your future
I'll keep it safe for you

I was born in fire
Earth my reason to live

But I am neither
I see great poets here, people of education
Education that I can only dream about
Well I don't need that
You see
My greatest gift is honesty
My simple words written in an honest way
Who is the greater man
He with the fine education, wealth, a fine home
Or the simple man who tills the fields
From dawn till dusk in all weathers
Thus to ensure that the educated wealthy man
Never starves

A **** is just a gentle thing that gives the body ease
It warms the bedclothes and drives away the fleas

**Think about it

But there is always the funny side to war

Just four of us about 3000 feet up on the side of a mountain
Our home an overhang in the rocks
With a great slab of fallen rock in front
Perfect and the only other residents scorpions, centipedes and camel spiders
About 2am, time for a shovel reccee
( never done in daylight)
Anyway a brilliant full moon
No grey shades just black and white
Drop my shorts and squat
Straight onto a cammel thorn bush
Not a problem except those thorns could be an inch long
Oh what fun my mates had with a pair of pliers

Night radio watch, silent, eirie, nervous
After all we were in their territory
A rattling banging noise just a few yards away
******* bricks I put 32 rounds of 9 mil
In there from my sterling
I killed every cooking *** we had and the cooker
The cat ran out without a mark

Though you be many miles away
We'll never be apart
I just reach out my hand
To feel the beating of your hearts

They shout, applaud and clap
When my poetry I express aloud
But the minute that my back is turned
They speak words of hate and scorn
Oh fickle friends with hearts and minds so split
Do thee not feel a tinge of guilt
Can you not have an honest word
Speak the truth about noun and verb
So word the honesty in your thought
The verbal ******* counts for nought
Just let the poets write

When my Molly crossed the rainbow bridge
And I said my last goodbye
I  kissed her on her small black head
As tear drops filled my eyes

The Molly dog was a part of me
And always by my side
Smelly and wet in my sleeping bag
Beneath a moonlit sky

She went so quick that little dog
We never got to have one last walk
In places she loved to go
One deep sigh and she was gone
And my tears began to flow

Three years ago I lost her
But still the pain wont leave
My Molly was always a part of me
But now her ghost walks by my side

I will always have the memories of that
Mollie dog I loved you then and I love you still
RIP my Mollie dog

When I was a kid Christmas started on about 20th December
It was a time of surprise, of belief
The anticipating of what was to come
Sadly now Christmas starts in early October
Shops filled with baubles
Second rate American films about Christmas
Where has the Christmas we knew gone?

For many long years I have wandered
Many long miles I have roamed
But a voice in my head is now calling
Calling me back to my south country home.

I have walked in your tropical forests
Experienced the hot desert sun
Climbed the high mountains snow capped peaks
In your lakes and blue seas I have swum

Now a voice is calling me back
Back to the place of my birth
Once more to walk in the pine woods
Under blue skies and warm summer sun

Many years ago I did leave
A youth so fearless and bold
Now I hear my south country calling me back
To the place where I can grow gracefully old

I will never forget all the friends I have made
As I wandered your far distant shores
And if ever you visit my south country
You’ll find a welcome sign over my door

I say I think because I'm losing track. People thought my last poem was part of the challenge.

Anyway here's the brief

Memory lane
Freedom
Tranquility

Sorry, I dont have your eloquent turn of phrase,
I'm self educated, no university degree
I can only write the simple words within my head
But are they any less than the words here that I have read
I read here stanzas that make no sence
Long diatribes of useless words
YEAH so sorry I don't have the knack
To pour out words of meaningless crap
And so what is left for me
Writing simple, clear and free
No university education, I'm self taught
But are you really better than me

This is fact not fiction

Malta in the second war a target of both Berlin and Rome
For months upon this burnt brown isle the vicious bombs rained down
Then came the time in Mosta town a miracle occured
A bomb went through the historic dome of Mosta's famous church
Yes, through the dome it hammered, hit the wall, rolled out the door
But god was kindly on that day as the bomb lay on the floor
600 souls were in that church on the day the bomb burst through
Not a single person hurt and so the miracle grew
I don't believe in god, they had someone on their side
Without that famous miracle 600 might have died
I have been in that church seen the patch in the famous dome
Seen the scar above the door, the damage the bomb had done
Tis now a place of peace the famous Mosta Dome
But I have been in there my friends and seen the replica bomb

Thus was the miracle of Mosta

Like many of you I'm getting fed up
With all the petty points scoring **** on this site
Some of you are brilliant classical writers
Some just write for love
I'm just a simple man
Very little education
But surely we are here for the same thing,
The love of words and the structure of words
You might have a doctorate
The very best money can buy
While I, like very many here have nothing
But does that really make you better than me/us
NO, it doesn't
I see you here on the same level as squabbling children
And yet you are supposed to be adults
ADULTS!!! What a ******* laugh
For the most parts spoiled ******* brats
All trying to score points

This IS a poetry site, ******* well grow up and use it as such

Aspects of love
Love, love changes everything
If I live or if I die
Yes love changes everything
Real love
Not passionate nights
Naked and entwined
More the goodnight kiss
The gentle touch
The joining of two minds
Yes love, love changes everything
The mutual joining of two souls
Yes love, love changes everything
And makes you mine
To forever hold

When darkness descends
And doubts fill your mind
Love will always prevail

I met a friend this morning,  she was looking rather low
I said this will never do, to the doc you have to go
The doc was quite confounded by the symptoms he found there
Her eyes were large and round and dust was in her hair
He said I know not whats the problem an answer I cant get
He suggested I'd do better if I took her to see a vet
and so I did
The vet got so excited to have a human in his care
He prodded and he poked, took a sample of her hair
Manipulated,  twisted,  tested every bone
Pulled out a giant stethoscope and listened to her tum
He turned to me, shook his head he was looking rather glum
Then he whipped out a thermometer and shoved it up her ***
Suddenly he turned again, shouting out with glee
I will go down in history as the first man ever
To discover a woman
Who's got mad cow desease

But cry for Sandy Hook
Paris
Cry for those yet to die
At this time of peace that we call Christmas
Yes, weep the bitter tears
Shed by mothers, father's, brothers and sisters
Weep because in this new world of peace
The tears you weep of bitter salt
Might well be the tears you weep for you