Poems of Friends

By Charles Wylie

Charles Wylie has been quietly badgered for years by family and friends to publish his poetry, so here we have some about friends. (Please let me know if we are still friends after you read what I've written.)

Of all the pleasant things in the world to do, dining with friends comes second only to dining with family. Some of what follows germinated over the dinner table after a memorable remark by the unwary.

Charles reckons that if he can write poetry then so can almost anyone else. he hopes that readers will be inpired to have a go. What are you waiting for? I'm sure you can do better than this, and it's certainly a lot of fun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles Wylie
• Release date: Dec 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311274168

Charles Wylie

Charles Wylie is a professional British seaman and an amateur dinghy and yacht sailor. He is the luckiest man on the planet, being husband to Jean, father of four, grandfather to nine and godfather to ten. Poetry is a hobby, together with sailing, chess, Scottish Country Dancing, languages, and a variety of other pursuits. He is tickled pink to have been headhunted at the age of 78. As a seaman he had visited all the continents in ships by the age of 21 at over 50 ports and had survived his destroyer being bombed in the Korean War when only just 17 years old. He attributes a reasonable command of the English language to his education at Taunton's Grammar School in Southampton, which set him up for life in four short years. He is particularly grateful to the Royal Navy for its having been a father figure and a source of immense pride for over 65 years. The navy promoted him 10 times, but because he started as a Boy Seaman that means he achieved only the modest rank of Commander (happy with that.) His naval friends (to whom he pays equal respect) range from Able Seamen to Admirals.He is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, a Freeman of the City of London and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.His poetry was written for himself (and occasionally for family or friends) and is published now after many years of friendly badgering by dear ones. Self-publishing through Smashwords was chosen because he is confident that no modern publisher would want to publish his generally old-fashioned rhyming and scanning verses.Charles is a happy man, much blessed.

Book preview

Cover design by www.jeremytaylor.eu

Sailor/Poet Series One

LOVE (23 poems)

Sailor/Poet Series Two

FRIENDS (44 poems)

MYSTERY (56 poems)

NATURE (29 poems)

PARTING AND GRIEF (29 poems)

Sailor/Poet Series Three

FAITH & FAMILY (56 poems)

FUN (40 poems)

HEROES & INDIGNATION

THE SEA (36 poems)

Memoires

First Words, Last Words (to be published in 2014)

What others are saying about 'Poems of Friends'

(Prior to first publication)

You really should publish your poems.

-Many chums. (All my friends are kindly.)

There's should be a comma at the end of the seventh line…

-A helpful nit-picker.

Please let me know the moment you publish your books. Promise?

-Avril.

Not bad.

-My wife. (Well, she would, wouldn't she?)

Please send your own comments to:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

eBooksByCharlesWylie

What others are saying about 'Poems of Friends'

Introduction

Poems of Friends

Weekend Break

The Jays' Ruby Wedding

NYE Olympics

Welcome To The Borrowed Time Club

Carling Darlings

Keith's 70th

Have a Heart

Xanadu Revisited

Duty Bound

If Y'All Aind-Ever Bee-un T'Tayksus

Country Wedding

The Titchfield Carlings

Team McSweeney

New Life For The Mill

Sorry I Can't Be There

Why The Gulls Cry At Kenton

A Hunting We Will Go

Kyra

Nigela Damascena

Officer Of The Watch

Cherry & Heather

Retirement

Good Grief Nan

A Poem & A Walnut Whip

How lovely To Be Fifty

Another Friend Gone

March Twins

Grieve A Little

The Bestest Gift

Salutations To Jill Hitchen

The Plea Of The Moby J

Mallotus Villosus

Julian's Shedfield Daisy

After The Memorial Mass

The Modest Family Man & Postscript

Le Coquelicot Normand Solitaire

Holiday in Normandy

Let's Have A Fun Day

Nursing Home

Our Fang Farrier

Dilemma

Graham Hurley - Author

Arctic Star

Where are you, Sharky?

About the author

Acknowledgements

A word from the author about you

Warning

eBooks by Charles Wylie

Author's email address

INTRODUCTION:

Have you tried writing poetry? It's great fun, and if I can do it, anyone can. With any luck, these verses of mine will get you going. If you want to see what an ordinary mortal can do, then read on. You don't have to be anyone special to be able to put your thoughts down in poetry. I've collected mine under the headings of LOVE, FRIENDS, MYSTERY, NATURE, PARTING & GRIEF, FAITH & FAMILY, FUN, HEROES & INDIGNATION, and THE SEA (I'm a sailor/poet.

By the way, nearly all of them rhyme and scan in the good old-fashioned style.

This book by Charles Wylie ( ) holds some of over 240 poems published in 9 books in three series (1, 2 and 3). Series 1 contains just one free book (of LOVE poems) to whet your appetite. The other two series contain over 150 and 170 poems respectively. See the list of other books at the end.

The author (see ‘About the author’ at the back) makes no claim to literary excellence, but wrote all the poems for his own satisfaction. Charles claims that some of them have merit, but all have been included (warts and all) for the sake of completeness, at the request of family and friends. Unusually, most of the poems have a short introduction to widen the reader’s experience. Here we go, then; just turn the page.

Poems of Friends

(Most of my poems are preceded by notes intended to enhance the reader's understanding and enjoyment of the verses.)

Note. Friendship! In the early 1960s eight of us, four couples, met in Malta when the men were serving in ships of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet. Thirty-odd years later we were still friends, and, indeed still meet every New Year’s Eve for a party. Were you the Americans who joined in? Wisley is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society. Humph was Humphrey Littleton, praised by Satchmo as Britain’s greatest trumpeter. George was George Melly – an old trouper. Kenny Ball is my favourite jazzman.

WEEKEND BREAK

By Charles Wylie 17 Oct 1995

Hello, you poor old b*gg*r; you made it then, at last.

How good to be deflated by my favourite iconoclast.

If it weren’t for that new heart job just three short years ago

He’d be pushing up the daisies, unhurt by lum-ba-go.

We were four wed couples,