April is the month of Poets

April is NaPoWriMo* which means its time for a special competition. You have to write 30 poems during the month of April, I'm taking part so I maybe a little quiet this month. Should you be interested you can see my completed and edited poems for the month here if your wondering why there's a few missing the event states that you have to complete 30 poems not submit them. In that folder are the ones I feel are worth being read.

Here's a sample

The Ballad of Big Bill

Born in 1869 was one William Haywood
By helping workers anyway he could
He determined to spend his life
Not on friends, sport or Wife
By lending us his calloused hand
He vowed we’d build a promised land.

Now William was no College Professor
Nor a staunch Moral Confessor.
He grew up big and strong
And rejected the beard long.
In fact Most working folk
On account of him being solid as an Oak
Dubbed our Will “Big Bill”

Big Bill began his rise to fame
Helping a Silver mine stake its claim.
Whilst picking at rock he listened to Ed Boyce
Ed’s speech would give Workers cause to rejoice.
Big Bill with the Western Federation of Miners
Staunch lads them, but their work could be finer.

In 1905 Big Bill really made his mark
That year Big Bill made his views stark.
Addressing over two hundred fellow travellers
Big Bill declared we were better than our masters.
The convention declared and its resolution heard,
That was the birth of the Industrial Workers of the World.

From the farm to the cotton mill
Every worker who had their fill
With the callous Capitalistic boss
And Union bureaucratic toss
Found a helping hand
From the folks in that Industrial Band.

“I only want to live to see the dream of the Red Labor International come true.
That’s all I want. That’s the I.W.W.”

*For the record, I hate the abbreviation but its catchy and I'm stuck with it.