It was the night before
My cousin John got married
Down in Binghamstown
Inside Belmullet
We had settled for a jar
A band began to play
The oldest band
I ever saw by far
There was accordion
There was fiddle there was drums
And three old men
As lively as you please
They played away that night
The sea beside them
Blacksod Bay
Pure Atlantic breeze
Forty years and more
Since that music
Stirred my heart
And caused my feet to dance
Gone but not forgotten
Are those old men
I record their memory
A long ago romance
Today I still listen to the music
The kind that people gather round to play
Irish music Folk and American country
And Cajun too
That stuff blows me away
When life is lost for words
In joy or sorrow
When someone sings a song
To break your heart
When a fiddle starts to play
The Stack of Barley
Get up and dance
And show that life is art
Brian Fahy
3 June 2021
Erris Poetry 