Blackberry Joe 6 Poems written about Blackberry Joe
Beneath a bright September sun
On a sweet September day
The morning dew was falling
And all the world seemed gay;
A happy cycling party
Towards the hills did steer –
We little dream’t the tragedy
That loomed so near.
We stormed blunt Moel Famau
By rough, hard-going ways
With golden gorse and bracken
The moorlands were ablaze;
The view there from the summit
Did amply repay
Every dull and listless mile
We rode that day.
After many wild adventures
On slippery, skiddy grass
We crossed the Vale of Clwyd
And through the wooded pass
Of Nant-y-Garth did travel
To moorlands brown and red
(Dear Reader pause, and shed a tear
For Joe……..He’s dead!)
Twas in the Pass of Nant-y-Ffrith,
That wooded deep cut dale
That bites into the moorlands
‘Mid scenes that never stale
There in great profusion
Grew the ghastly things
That to all thoughtless gluttons
A sudden demise brings.
I falter as I tell you –
My eyes start growing dim
I stand transfixed in terror
Of the things that poisoned him
Poor Joe! This was his heaven –
He could not stand and wait
But rushed towards the bushes
That held the tempting bait.
We tried our best to stay him –
We pleaded hard to Joe
But he was fascinated –
He would not let them go:
The big black shining berries
That held the fatal grub
Went down the way they always do
To fill his copious tub.
At length our Joe desisted,
His face was deathly pale,
He fell into a stupor
In that peaceful vale
His great big baby eyes,
Were bursting from his head…
He shuddered then lay strangely quiet,
Poor Joe……He’s dead!
One day in sweet September,
The sun was in the west,
With tear dimmed eyes we slowly laid
Our Joe to rest
And then carved his epitaph
That other ones might know
And take a timely warning
From Blackberry Joe
Alleged Epitaph on Supposed grave of ‘Blackberry Joe’
Reader pause and shed ye teare
Upon ye dust that crumbles here
And as thou readeth think of me
And shun ye blasted blackberry tree