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Water comes from a tapFood comes from a shopThat’s the way it’s beenAll my lifeBut when I went to IrelandAt my mammy’s house to stayI learned a different truthA truer way Water comes from the riverFood comes from the groundThat’s the truthHow it all beginsAnd cattle lived beside themUnder the same roofTheir body heatTo keepContinue reading “Flowing Water”

Yes there are folk who can harm usThere are bullies and robbers and cheatsSituations that can alarm usFear of failure despair or defeat There are arguments, pressure annoyanceThere are days when nothing goes rightTimes that seem out of balanceBehaviour that gives us a fright There are people overcome by disasterVolcanoes tsunamis and warOvercome by thingsContinue reading “Saving Your Soul”

It’s a lovely open spaceClapham CommonWalked around it on a Christmas dayPlayed football many SaturdaysIn the SeventiesEnjoyed a pintIn the Windmill PubSaid morning massFor the convent nunsThe days when I was youngAnd making hay It’s the flight path into HeathrowIn the skyRed London busesTrundling on byBusy streams of trafficBut quiet on the greenPaths lead roundContinue reading “Walking Home”

I sat inside this house and felt‘I’m home’After travelling so longSo many yearsI was visitingMargaret and MichaelThey at work at schoolI at kitchen tableHome is here I left my homeWhen only 11 years oldAnd never felt at homeFrom that day onYears in monastery buildingsBed and board and brewBut never had the feelingIt’s my own AContinue reading “Home”

Not everyone’s as good as you are, BrianWords my dear old father said to meI’ve forgotten the conversationBut those words ring in my earsHe knew a thing or two did my old man I was schooled in goodnessScripture prayerFormed into a priestAtmosphere so rareDidn’t know a thing about the worldHad never met with argument orContinue reading “Sheep and Wolves”

Nine years I’ve lived aloneSince Margaret diedA testing timeBut a while now since I’ve criedThe days have settled downI am contentedly aloneNot lonely as I wasI feel at home I am blessed in my neighboursIn my sonI am blessed in healthStill time to runAnd the arrival of two boysTwo grandsons of my ownBrings added joyToContinue reading “The Sum Of Generations”

He runs at people very fastHe runs and runs aroundSometimes he’s trippedSometimes he fallsSometimes he goes to ground He’s very good at what he doesA footballer supremeOften abused un-sportinglyThe Sterling boy Raheem Now penalties are quite an artThe getting them I meanWith every body watching nowAnd the powerful TV screen It used to be badContinue reading “He Touched Me”

The journey westward every yearSteam train to HolyheadTravelling in the black of nightWhere will be my bed? Up the gangway to the shipDown to cabins tightSleep away the dreamy hoursWake to a lovely sight Dun Laoghaire harbour welcomingIrish breakfast tooTrain to Westland Row in timeThe Westport train is due Long day’s travel through the fieldsFinallyContinue reading “Into The West”

Write down his nameNow strike it outSaid Danaher to his manThe writing of the nameAs real as bloodThe striking outA punishmentA fist into the faceQuiet Man look outUnderstood? Our namesWe write on paperWhen first we go to schoolThose marksThe most personal we makeWritten on our copy bookThe first of many moreWe hope to make ourContinue reading “Written In Heaven”

He was a little priestPhysically smallI knew him for a fortnightSalford wayLooked after his little parishQuiet as a mouseA modern John VianneyYou might say I gave a missionVisited his peoplePreached as best I couldGod help us allHis housekeeperAn old and foreign ladySurvivor of the warStrict withal He had a holy ritualOn a SaturdayInvolving whiskyAnd aContinue reading “A Good Priest”

Tall girls, with big servesCan seem to over powerBut a feel for touch and timingAnd your name is Ons JabeurCan turn that on its head Remember battleship BismarckArmed with guns of thunderTill a biplane’s torpedoBlew its plans asunderInstead It’s David and GoliathThe giant and the boyThe roaring force brought to earthBy a sling just likeContinue reading “David And Goliath”

The crowd the expectation was too muchEveryone looking, watching what you doThis crowd a courtly crowd and kindBut still a fiery spotlight onto you At first she had played with free abandonSo young so happy to be thereBut now the world is talkingFocus all on youGive me air please God give me air Crowds needContinue reading “On Seeing The Crowds”

I studied Greek and LatinAt the schoolSeminary classics was the ruleGot top marks in GreekReally loved it tooLatin a close secondReally cool At that ageMy dad was down the pit14 years of ageDown the mineNever saw daylight sometimesOn a three day weekPoorly paidThe conditions of the time I went off to PerthAnd ‘left the world’SeriouslyContinue reading “The Road You Travel”

A blanket bogTo east and southThe sea to north and westAn isolated people right enoughMy mother’s home place – ErrisThe land that time forgotHardy people friendly peopleTough An Irish walker – PraegerWalked the Bangor TrailAnd spoke about the feelings that unfoldIt makes you feel so tinyAlone in nature’s graspAnd yet it throws you forwardTo beContinue reading “Erris Beo”

The cruelties of historyLie before usThe evil that men doWe see it clearIn the pages of yesterdayIs writtenThe Stalin and the HitlerBeria Monsters of an ageNo longer with usBuried with the cruelty they cravedYet warnings to the presentLook around youThere are victims stillOf people so depraved The protest that I makeCannot be partedFrom the dailyContinue reading “Good And Evil”