John Joy Bell Poems

For many years I've watched the ships a-sailing to and fro,
The mighty ships, the little ships, the speedy and the slow:
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I’d rather be a cyclist
Than any other beast,
For thou he slays but never stays
Upon the slain to feast.
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'Nearly home, nearly home!' says the screw that whips the foam,
And the engine is a-throbbing like a heart,
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I've never traveled for more'n a day,
I never was one to roam,
But I likes to sit on the busy quay,
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One afternoon when the sun was hot
I takes a snooze on the quay;
An' a kink in my neck I must ha' got,
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A rare good life I've surely had
In fifty year at sea;
A finer life, I tells ye, lad,
I don't believe could be,
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Glad folk and sad folk, rich folk and poor,
Folk that doubt if they'll come back and folk that whisper 'sure!'
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