Liverpool Tales from the Mersey Mouth - A book by John Williams

"This is a wonderful collection of writings by John Williams. While it isn't specifically about the Beatles, they are clearly a part of the story, along with the very fiber and fabric of the city that influenced him and them as well. The pieces are short, well written and filled with a delicious sense of humor that shines in the titles as well as the essays." Jan Perry, Cincinnati Post
"John Williams writes in the language of Liverpool, a Scouse scribe who brings to life the people and places, inner thoughts and outer images, the vigour and vitality and essentially, the iron humour of a unique city." Bill Harry, founder of Mersey Beat

Liverpool Poems

This is a sample of my poetry that had been consigned to poetry limbo for years. As Coleridge once remarked, "Poems are never finished, they are simply abandoned." Poetry is a solitary occupation and so I have never been part of any ink crowd. My poetry is a mixture of the formal, such as Villanelles, and free verse. Some of it is an attempt at a lyric form, and I suppose is more correctly called song. Poetry is a difficult medium for people as it presents a conflict of perception because it stems from an oral tradition thousands of years old, yet we insist on reading it as if it were prose and so we encounter problems of understanding. Poetry is nothing if not a motion picture show, a flowing stream of images carrying ideas in its meandering course. I hope you enjoy mine as it contains images of my life.

John Williams

Haikus

Hiaku on a breeze

Like a summer breeze

your soft whispered words of love

Made fragrant my air

Haiku on Isolation

Alone in the dark

I yearn for dawn's true love light

Yet suffer fire flies

Haiku on Birth

Branch and fruit divide

Now growing separation

Gives our world sweetness

Haiku on impulse

The thoughtless wind roars

rocking root and branch alike

while the sweet rose weeps

Haiku on Shockwaves

Without warnings shrill

Once cold earth splits asunder

Lava spews out warmth

Haiku on peach

Warm juice soaks my chin

summer floods my gaping mouth

Still I am thirsty

Haiku on lost beauty

Spent beauty takes flight

Blossoms drift on spring breeze warm

Cherries green peep forth

Haiku on snow

Feathery flakes fall

blanketing the sleeping earth

Spring’s eyes are tight closed

My thanks to Tim Kelly and Brigitte C for the new look to my site