Home » Poems » Best » Ray Moody » Best Ray Moody Poems

Best Poems Written by Ray Moody

Below are the all-time best Ray Moody poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Ray Moody Poem

I Came Back To You In September

I came back to you in September
you were quiet then
still,
like you used to be,
when men were men
and I was just a child

When the smell of the fish docks
mingled well with the stench of the slaughter from the cattle market
and an early morning crescendo of hooters 
meant work
And you had to go 	
When your father
and my father 
crowded down on the docks
desperate to catch the foreman's looks

And from where so many fathers 
were turned away
broken
yet unbitter men

Returning home like so often you did
to pray and dream of better days than these
and you hoped that things would change
but for you
you knew
that they never would.

And then the war came
and I was sent away to fight for my country
this country
the one which had kept us all alive on a few pence a week
and I left behind the smell of the fish docks
the reek of the slaughter
to earn my place in that world
Your world

And one day I returned
fell in love and made love
amongst the ruined ashes of what once was
of what could never be again
I lay planning out my life while the bombs fell

And I sat amidst the solitude of that old terraced house
frightened to death by that silence
that stillness
as ceaseless clocks 
ticked slowly away
an era
an end
and I looked at your face
and tried so hard not to see my own

And I returned to that war
that cruel bloody war
fighting one inside me even greater than that one could ever have been
but that war ends
and I returned to that war
your bloody war
the one you pretended you never saw

And the world returned to the smell of the fish docks
the reek of the slaughter
to that broken down world
full of broken down lives
grey faced men 
greeting
faceless, shapeless wives

And long before faces could ever begin to smile
you died 
quietly giving up on your life 
like you had so many years before
and I died
as they buried you in an already forgotten part of that world
and I could linger there no longer
and left behind the smell of the fish docks
the reek of that slaughter

And I came back to you in September
back to stare at a world which once was
and yet could never be again

Only a few old buildings remained
standing empty and silent 
like when the bombs came
and I looked into that face
and tried so desperately not to see my own

And I stood aloof to a world which could no longer reach me
yet still I trembled
lest some derelict echo from the past drew me back into that world
that old cruel world
where all men ever wanted to be was men

And yet how I loved you in September
as time once more stood still
and oh 
how I loved that stillness
as I returned to where childish laughter once filled empty spaces
places where I had so long ago ceased to dream

Amidst the dark dancing shadows 
where love becomes so physical 
that the poet's dreams are so finally shattered

And on the cracked broken pavements where the bombs fell
where you fell
where we all fell
so many years before

And silent leaves fall on your grave
on my grave
like falling tears
my tears
for so many wasted years

I came back to your in September
you were quiet then
still,
like you used to be,
when men were men and I was just a child.

Details | Ray Moody Poem

Hero Worship

Steve Säid
None so brave
Did on so many occasions 
save
Me from the bullies
Who
For far too many
Their school days ruin

Steve Säid
Jet black hair swept back
Coffee coloured skin
Immaculate

Steve Säid
How the girls did swoon
Oh,  how I wished I could have been like you

Ray Moody

Details | Ray Moody Poem

I Really Did Like You Susan Fewster

I really did like you Susan Fewster.
 Even when I said, 'Well I don't like her!'
 When you were absent from school that day 
 And your classmates made me aware
 When they told me that you liked me and I blurted out, 
 'Well I don't like her!'
 Please forgive me, I was childish, 
 I was shy and I really, really did care

 My mouth may have blurted out those words, 
 But my heart said something else,
 I was just embarrassed, young and stupid, 
 And I thought that's what 
 Boys were supposed to say

 But I really did like you Susan Fewster
 You were the modernist girl in 3B
 But I was shocked and maybe a little amazed that day 
 When your friends said 
 That you actually liked me
 Because there were so many other boys in the class
 Good looking and full of swagger
 And I sadly regret that day when I plunged teenage loves young dagger

 And your 'friends' just couldn't wait to tell you 
 Those hurtful words I said 
 Each word hammering the anvil 
 And left ringing in my head
 And after that day you tried to show,
 Your dislike for me
 But just before you left the school I had one last opportunity 
 To say the words, to put things right, but I just sat there silently, 
 Childishly believing that you might actually show some pity for me

 And it's haunted me through the years as 
 I've thought about 
 Those cruel words I said
 At such a tender age, killing love stone dead
 So finally, here are the words that I truly always wanted to say, 
 That I really did like you Susan Fewster
 You were the modernist girl in 3B
 You were pretty, you were lovely
 And I'm glad that you once had a moment for me.