Day Close

Day Close

Turn and face the sunset if you dare.

Don’t look for play of light in air

Or one day’s death to usher in another yet more fair.

Turn and see truth

Truth in all majesty

Unencumbered in strength

Strong over daily oppression – depression

Drawing and lifting besetting frustration

As cool of the evening

Lifts heat of the sunlight

And lulls in the coming

Of darkness the healer.

Turn, see a moment

Never repeated

Fixed in the day as the time of its parting.

Fixed in all time as this day’s departing

Returning no more.

Turn, see peace

The sun and the earth and you

Bound by peace, that companionship not of this world.

Trees wane and fade

The far hills stoop into nothingness

The grass lays back

Still tremor of cypress, awed at the spectacle.

The sun,

The sun pours down his molten end

In a hazy hush at the rim of the world.

The clouds in turmoiled glory

In a silent impassioned ecstasy

Lie near my face.

Evening cool soothing the brow

Chilling the back’s sweat

Hair lifting

With the spirit of that frozen, fervent flame.

Richard Morriss (Zimbabwe)

August 1961

The will to live

The Will to Live

Silently someone just learned to forgive,

While a man with a voice screamed "Die!"

My heart cries loudly "live, live, live!"

And my head turns away from the lie.

We're not all destined for fame abroad,

With stars in our hopeful eyes

But some will find their sweet reward

As the fire of this life dies.

Frustration turns its restless blade

With all its vain intent,

While in my breast the knowledge lays

Of what the master meant.

Charisma fueled by selfish pride

Is like its cousin fame

And only fools who trust in lies

Will fan the rampant flame.

But secret flows the whispering brook

Determined, to the sea.

And when my dreams like clouds have fled

My will returns to thee.

Joe Morriss

 22nd September 2014

Skin to Skin

"Skin to Skin"
Bonded from the beginning
Your first cry
Your mothers tears dried
My Son

Blood red
Angry Clashes
Angst and anguish
The door slams
You leave
We grieve

Yea tho I walk through the valley of shadow,
How I wish I had spared the rod
Your road is long and winding
My eyes are wet with crying

Skin to Skin
To hold you close again
Beyond the rugged cross
All will be alright

Joyful reunion
An open door
Ring and Robe
Firstborn of many brothers.

Come home tonight.

Joe Morriss

9th September 2014

Through the open window

The airplane drones sleepily overhead, and
With it you awake to the day.
Through the open window
Morning breathes her first breath
Silver brightness tinged with golden ray

See them playing in the garden
Hear their happy laughter as they pass
The same endless day, 
Year after year
When the lark sings
And you walk through the long meadow grass.

Moments like these are like a window
You can almost see through it to times gone by
Back to every summer you remember
Childhood at it's zenith
And framed in the window
The bright blue sky.

Joe Morriss

24th May 2010

Golden moments

Golden Moments

They call these moments golden,
And if bathed in the light of summer,
Then so they are.

They call these moments golden,
And if refined through years of love,
Then so they are.

They call these moments golden,
And if the gathering of a plentiful harvest,
Then so they are.

For what could be more like gold,
Than two loyal hearts,
Who have stood the test of time?

Trusting and sharing,
The precious and the painful,
But more than this,
Taking each step together.

Faithfully having and holding,
Till the setting of life's sun,
Cherishing each moment
Till the day's long work is done.

They call these moments golden,
And if enjoying them with you,
Then so they are.


For Mum & Dad on their 50th wedding anniversary.

Joe Morriss

July 2014

Summer

Sultry Summer sun
What secrets you must hide
Basking and complete
in your bright, hot sky

The day has been long
From first light to noontide
But now you wear your hazy-halo lazily
Dazzling like a gold coin
On dusk's deep blue velvet

The morning was like a glass
Turned to catch and mirror your flashing glance
The cold air
Soon dried by your relentless glare

All across the field
The green grass withers at your stare
Burnt stalks tinder dry
fading fast in the furnace heat

Hard worked for riches and all man's toil
Is lost in a dry and crusty soil
But here also stands a tree
Heavily verdant and full bodied
Its leafy boughs weighed down with promise
Laden with welcome shade

O crown of the seasons
Though short lived
Your reign is full of power
You ride out like a victor in his finest hour

Across heaven's vault
Golden orb in your hand
Purging and scouring
With your righteous brand.

Joe Morriss

2007

Lament

Lament

Where are the heroes of old?
Gone to their graves,
grey and grizzled.
Worried about their humanity
And concerned more with unravelled mysteries
Than unfurling banners.

Where are the knights, the chargers?
Men of honour and valour,
Gone to their maidens, sweet and comely.
Less show of power
More taken with the fragrance of flowers.

Where are the bards and men of song?
Gone to the bars, their convictions long gone,
Where there was once iron in the soul
Now nothing remains
just a heart black as coal.

Joe Morriss

July 2014