Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland
Where would I like to be?
I’d like to be in Erris
For the sake of memory
To walk again the roads I walked
When all the world was young
And see again dear faces
Of loved ones who are gone
But life is not just memory
Life is future too
And grandsons now remind me
Of a life they will pursue
And I can be their anchor
As they set out in life
A founding love for every day
A strength for them in strife
And heaven they say embraces all
The future and the past
Christ Jesus is eternal now
A living that shall last
The happiness of memory
And future mystery
Is gathered in our life today
And joy is what will be
Brian Fahy
17 March 2023
+ My brother Michael reminds me that in our little Lancashire school on this day, when we sang the hymn to St Patrick, and came to the line ‘and now thou art high in the mansions above,’ we used to sing, ‘and now thou art high on the Manchester bus’.
Erris Poetry 