Lourdes

Easter week
For a certain time
Meant one thing only
Lourdes HCPT
The shrine

Going there
Group 54
One week
Felt like family
We had children
To take
And look after
Hotel
In the street
Shops and cafes
River Gave
Quite deep
Dramatic mountains
Backdrop reaching high
Gavarnie ride
Valley in the sky

And the grotto cave
Mary’s place
Thronged yet silent
Candle flickering grace
Waters of the Gave
Passing by
Baths to visit
Come out fairly dry

Climbing up
For Stations of the Cross
Teaches us
Life is often hard
Don’t give up
Stay the course
Make friends
Love will see you through
Through to the end

The centre of it all
That came to me
Was Bernadette
Her simple constancy
What a lass
What a witness too
Died so young
Bernadette Soubirous

Brian Fahy
30 May 2021