I met him first in college
I seminarian
Reading the poems of Robert Burns
Randy contrarian
No sight of lassies there for me
All sights agrarian
But the words he wrote brought life to me
A lowly church librarian
He had a voice – that is his power
Though some thought him barbarian
And leaving children here and there
Did not seem egalitarian
But full of feeling full of love
I reckon him a rare one
And today is Robert Burns’ day
And worth the celebration
In later times my son at school
Recited a Burns’ creation
He gie’d it laldy there that day
I smiled in recognition
And now today down from my shelf
A book a presentation
A gift that Margaret gave to me
Time I gave attention
The Greatest Poems the title of
A book by Andrew O’Hagan
And once again Burns comes alive
Here in my little station
And ‘To a mouse’ and Honesty
I’ll read with admiration
‘A man’s a man for a’ that’
And `a parcel of rogues in a nation’
He was like us in so many ways
A walking contradiction
But he was human most of all
Heart-warming fact no fiction
A gift for friendship full of life
Yet hardship his condition
His early death brings us to grief
His memory our mission
Brian Fahy
25 January 2022
Erris Poetry 