Category Archives: War and Peace

The Stokers

A freighter ploughs through heavy seas

Navigating oceans by degrees

Racing to bring precious cargo back

Convoyed to reduce the chance of attack

….

The war effort needs these crucial supplies

Ferried to Britain under pewter skies

Below in the cold and merciless deep

Lies a deadly enemy that does not sleep

….

U boats silently stalk their prey

Alert and watching night and day

Silent, merciless cylinders of steel

Torpedoes armed, aimed at the ship’s keel

….

In the freighter’s bowels, ‘neath bulkhead light

Stokers swing shovels in constant night

Sweat, coal dust, crippling heat, endured

Power for the engines must be assured

….

In the stern, the propeller churns

Boiling the sea, the ship tacks and turns

On the bridge the look-out is slack

Failing to spot the moon-silvered track

….

Hell is let loose near the water line

Two explosions rock the ship’s spine

Salt seas pour in with torrent strength

Alarms ring out along the ship’s length

….

The stokers know the emergency drill

But the deluged furnaces are quick to kill

“98 hands lost”, the official post

“Ship sunk within sight of the British coast”

Privateers

Oak for the timbers, rudder, keel and mast

Granite from Cornwall for the hold’s ballast

Jute for the ropes, when the mate shouts avast

Iron for chains and anchor once the die is cast

….

Canvas for the sails to push us on our way

Ship’s bell to signal watches and the hours of the day

Grog for the crew, just part of the pay

Tackle to be tightened on the aft mainstay

….

Barrels for the water, grog and other stores

Canon to fight pirates and enemies in wars

Telescope to find important distant shores

Gangplanks for the quayside, doubloons for the whores

….

Pressganged and willing, hardy men and true

Captain, mate and bosun, the rest of the crew

Cutlass, sword and dagger, all could run you through

Men scouring the seven seas, but not for the view

The Bell at the End of the World

Once more the cracked bell knolled
Beware this fate it told
No destiny sure as yours
Kept to your present course

It made its plaintive sound
To turn his path around
For most its call boomed clear
Use dialogue, not fear

Odd, though, to offer choice
In cold forged metal voice
When none was to be made
His path would not be swayed

His chosen mind-set steady
With finger poised and ready
Just one thing left to do
All sage advice eschew

A Brief History Of War

Some will recount from times before

That any countries wanting war

Sent soldiers to some other place

Engaging armies, face to face

 

Soon warships harried other fleets

And blasted forts on far flung seas

Then planes dealt death from out the blue

To faceless foes; and innocents too

 

Now leaders posture with sabres rattling

Distant missiles to do their battling

Madness called war; a button-press away

If inflated egos hold their sway

Stop the Deaths

It has to stop; it serves no end

Except to fuel a relentless trend

Religious difference, sectarian strife

Cannot justify taking life

 

We are all people, making our way

Our differences don’t give cause to slay

Calm hot tempers, counsel care

Terrorism leads nowhere.

To The Few

If you are a person, who can see a job through

And not seek to boast, about that which you do

If friends mark you out, as one who shares

And strangers describe you, as someone who cares

If you keep your own counsel, know your own mind

And try to help others, not just your own kind

If you love somebody else, with all your heart

And cannot be tempted, when set far apart

If you are a constant, when others should be

And, knowing their weakness, still have pity

If put in harm’s way, you help others first

And put under pressure, cannot be coerced

If knowing your faults, you try to improve

And not expect others, their flaws to remove

If just some of these facets apply well to you

You are a great person, And one of the few

The UK General Election

A cross put on a paper

Seems simple in a way

Amazing, then, that this small act

Empowers each to have a say

 

The outcome isn’t as I’d hoped for

I’m quite worried by the result

But I can accept the majority view

That’s what it means to be adult

 

Some people see it differently

Wanting to impose a new regime

Cars, bombs and knives as weapons

Murdering to achieve their dream

 

Let them not take away our rights

Hold our laws and freedoms dear

They must not win by violence

We will not live in fear

 

If society is built on values

With some common moral code

Life and liberty are the bedrock

And democracy the road

A Fundamental Truth

 

dark sky

We knew it was to happen

Somewhere within a crowd

More terror visited uselessly

To try to make us cowed

 

The carnage and the mayhem

The tragic loss of life

This time a home-made IED

Last time a car and knife

 

What sort of mind can plan this

How mad must someone be

To be a bomb, a murderer

A lunatic running free

 

This cause cannot be justified

Though perhaps I waste my breath

There is no place in paradise

Secured through others’ death