The promise

He promised you fruit

You gave it your all

You dug in deep and hit bedrock soil

For the second or maybe third time

The harder the storms the deeper the roots

So what became of all your toil?

Bury me

By the old walnut tree

That was your creed

You lived through the years

Thrown up by that seed

But what's left to dig?

30 maybe 40 summers

Who was counting?

Eternity in the blossom

Heaven in the branches

But the devil knows how to kill

Bringing deathly chill

Uprooted

Ripped up

Every shovelful

Thrown back in your face

Come back round the paddock

Well find you that place

Dig around the stones

And bury you by the old walnut tree

If it's still there.

Joe Morriss 2016

If there's a way

Do you want to known by me

To be seen and be heard?

Do you want to be loved by me?

Just say the word.

Any little thing for you

To be followed and served.

Do you want to be king for me

Is that so absurd?

Yes I want to be close to you

To have and to hold

I want to be there for you

So rugged and bold

There's nothing I wouldn't dare to do

I just need to be told

The queen of my heart you'll be

Even as we grow old.

So if there's a time for us

Made perfect by grace

And if there's a place for us

To meet face to face

A kingdom of love and trust

Just show me the way

I'll pray God for both of us

To be there today.

Joe Morriss
May 2019

Paradise lost

These heady days of balmy breeze

The ocean waves and swaying trees

The pure white sand and Crystal blue

If only what we saw was true . 

These days of hardship nights of tears,  enough to make the strongest fear 

The tropic heat that burns my skin

The dusty streets of shanty tin

These barefoot crowds with shifting eyes

Remind me that we peddled lies

And left them in their run down city

While preachers taught them grace and pity

So children cry to the crescent moon

And look around an empty room

We stuff ourselves to overfed

While all they crave is daily bread

And all around black poverty

Serves the whim of white luxury

I wish that we were truly free

To create a world of harmony

So many fly from lands afar

To bask in the heat of proud Africa.

But when they've spent their plundered gold

They leave this paradise lost and cold .

Joe Morriss

Mombasa , Kenya 2019

Circles broken

A circle unbroken

Joined hands welcome more

Her childhood friends in days of yore

Where sunfilled eyes

And pretty dresses

Begged no disguise

With flowing tresses

She laughed and sang

The playful round

Loves sweetest pang

Her joyful sound

As a girl she was

The apples eye

No need to rest

Till lullaby

The heart of God

Neath blissful sky

No need to ask

Or question why

But circles cease to spin

And hands that held grow thin

And endings come

Where they once begin

The shoulder tossed

And tear brimmed eye

Where trustt is lost

In the long goodbye

The tresses fall

and curl and die

The dresses torn

Loves heart belie

The circle trod now stands alone

And every heart has flitted home

Yet here she stands

That little girl

With every pleat

And every curl

No more to dance

Play hand to hand

And laughter fades

On summers strand

The hours of night A restless heart

The names of those who must depart

Called out into the voiceless dark

Where only hope and angels hark

The circle turns

And flowers grow

Where once the friends she used to know

Played happily every summers day

Before their dear ones went away.

So hold her hand and whisper love

Dry the tear, let  memory stay

Reach out your hands to god above

And circles joined will turn again.

Joe inspired 19.1.19

Travel and travail

The morning sun sparks in the east

The salty sand dry and crisp

Already warm as I walk across the breach

And whisps of smoke skip

From fires liong lit

The first step of many

And many steps becomes a mantra

The day hard as it is long

And longed for rest among the throng

As we travel along

Alone or in a crowd

The loss is felt

As if home was not ours

And the hours and days away from

All that we knew which has now gone

So our journey is longing

And believing

That wholeness awaits

And the eternal city

Will open it's gates

To a wandering son

The Earth beneath the blade

Is blood soaked soil

Unyielding to toil

Red as the setting sun

Parched valley of bitter dreams

Yet each promise I hear

Rings in my ear

So i cut deeper and find hope springs

The torrent rises

To meet my tears

Uncertain future

Broken past

To be with you at last

Is all my joy

The fruit of loves labour

adorns this wilderness path.

Joe Morriiss

October 2018

Saying goodbye to autumn

Oh hello autumn

You took me by surprise

I mean completely

I was absorbed in sunlight hours

Then right before my eyes

The fading hedgerow

The trees I noticed briefly

Were beginning to rust

Why was it such a shock

To see your annual demise

Oh dear nature

Dont go

Don't grow old

You're crown is tarnished

I was engrossed with the gold

Fading sunlight

Slants toward evening

And the gnats buzz with less vigour

The surge of Summers health has all but vanished

And shadows cast a leaner figure

Drying and brittle foliage

And the silvering of age

I watch with sadness

And try , and try

To accept this stage

Oh autumn

Frail of hand and week of eye

I try to understand you

All I can do is cry

The brightest colours

Come at last

A final giving of your life filled heart.

Come then

Your here

I cannot deny

The sun sparkled so briefly

Beneath your youthful sky

But the signs are all there,

Oh dear autumn

I can't say goodbye.

Joe morriss

September 2018

Child of the wilderness

The long awaited breeze

Breathes on a parched land

She is in the desert

He takes hold of her hand

The earth moistens it's cracked mouth

And fills her lips with sheeting rain

Levanter from the south

Carried her off in captive pain

She is a child of the wilderness

Light of touch and deep of hue

The scorching sun shines through braided tresses

Woven in  blood Scarlett and baptized in lapis blue

Hiding in the outcrop of the eagles Rock

She drinks her fill of the brackish spring

Strength returns and runs amock

Through racked burning veins

It's a wonderful thing

Here a garden is planted

Gracefully granted In the heart of her trouble

The ground cleared of rubble.

An oasis starting to bear fruit from healthy root

Her saviour is embraced by loving arms

As he arrives on the back of the wind

His train rests neath shaded palms

Then the journey home begins

I heard tell of this as the fire pit embers rippled in the time between dark and light

When the playful breeze tugs the the tent zip

Where tales of that which is just and right

Bring strength to the weary Traveller

Unravelling my blanket

I looked up at the starry wilderness

Find me I whisper into the night breeze

For I too am lost

Joe Morriss

August 13th 2018

Hosea ch2 v14