Willesden London
Where he died
So very faraway
But he’s coming home in a coffin box
Finally home to stay
Willesden London
Crowded house
Endless streets and roads
Houses, houses everywhere
Work and heavy loads
Willesden London
All his years
Working with his hands
A little flat at end of day
Home in foreign land
But now the sun is shining
And Termoncarragh calls
The wide Atlantic ocean
The lake and wild bird calls
The ancient graveyard waiting
Settled down at last
The wind and wave to bless him now
His future and his past
Willesden London
Now no more
Will hear his light footfall
He is home among his own
At the wide Atlantic wall
Termoncarragh blessed height
Look out west and see
The man who loved you coming home
Where he deserves to be
Brian Fahy
3 March 2022
+ Every day I read the death notices on Midwest Radio Ireland. I am funny like that. Today I read about a Jim Ruddy, of Ardoone, Belmullet, who lived his life in London, but whose remains will come back to Erris for burial in Termoncarragh cemetery. I do not know the man, but I know the place. It is isolated, beautiful and remote, on the Mullet Peninsula, and commands a fine view of the Atlantic Ocean. The contrast to London could not be greater. It deserves a poem.
Erris Poetry 