Sitting on the soft sand
Sitting on the soft sand
The sky is showing off
Clouds of gold brighten
Just as the twilight calls.
Precious, light filled evening
Bookending a day
That nearly slipped away
Before this firework started.
The tide is lapping on the shore
Brave swimmers still defy the cold
Children’s cries float down the beach
Mark summer break in full swing.
The clouds have turned to russet now
Tinged with yellow edges
The ferry’s passed - the beach has emptied
This summer’s our to savour.
Across the sea there’s a feast out there,
July the fourth, Independence Day
Honoured more in the breach
Than in well scripted observance.
The people of Kyiv now fall asleep
Unsure what the morrow brings
They know what independence means
They shed their blood to show it.
Above the sea
Above the sea at White Rock
Embraced by Killiney bay
We sit and watch the bathers
This glorious July day
Time seems stopped
Recalling happy hours
When minutes weren’t rationed
When hope lay in the future.
Girls are sneaking looks at boys
Who struggle not to gaze
The frisson of the fresh sea water
The thrill of glances shared.
All is pure and innocent
So happy and so harmless
On this delicious day
We’ve come to sit and stay
With togs still wet,
As we summon up the courage
To match their elan
As they dive into the water
Like a Baptism that promises
New life and new beginnings
Fresh in an old world tired
Of bad news and everything.
We will celebrate this summer sun
Warm winds caress with more to come
Whatever could we need or want
When all is given freely?
After we are gone
A burnt and blasted country
Its arms outstretched across a barren land
Charred crops lie listless in the fields
Man and beast seek shelter from the midday sun.
The giver of all green life now turned destroyer
Blazing in an unrelenting sky
A chalky sun shows no tender mercy
While tiny insects curl up and die.
Let’s not blame man for he’s been feckless
From the dawn of time and Eden’s Garden
Let’s not expect a change of tune
When the only song he knows is this one.
The world will turn long after we are gone
And file our small chapter in its history
When men were briefly here and then no longer
And far the planet travels lonely on.
Its lovely path bisects the universe
It charts a course past moons and stars
A story still alive and beautiful
That lasts ten billion years or more.
End of world
The world will end some day
Even though we pray for life eternal
Against all the evidence
Against the feel of common sense.
Puny man will bring it sooner
Than it otherwise might be
But when you count ten billion years
Ten thousand years slips easily.
Our only future remains the same
To return to stars whence we came
Our future is assured in galaxies
That mirror echoes of our brief sojourn.
For all our sins, and they are many
We added to this universe
Humour, music and compassion
In a pattern traveling wide
Those values never die
But bring a rhythm and a sense
Beyond black holes and impermanence
Across the Milky Way.
Our swan song is a chorus
Heard across the galaxies
Light years beyond our little station
Part of a cosmic balance sheet.
We shall not weep for fallen comrades
For in truth we all must fall
One day whether young or old
There is no Justice in the stars.
Look Beyond
Look beyond this world my child
When city lights have dimmed
When darkness gains the upper hand
Long after the end and last stand
Your spirit will shine night and day
In a journey through the stars
Beyond our tiny galaxy
To the outer shores of time and space.
Look beyond our short life my child
To when our spirit free and wild
Can dance in rhythm with the ages
Time itself our partner in the waltz.
Science tells us that two atoms
Will continue to affect each other
Millions of miles apart and hurtling
To the furthest edges of the universe
Science always stranger than fiction
Reveals a reality more miraculous
Than our wildest dreams and imagination
Confounding priests and atheists alike.
Eye hath not seen nor ear heard
The marvels beneath the microscope
The modest miracles of the day
And the gleaming secrets of the night.
Nada te turbe my child
Let nothing disturb your peace
Nor Gods on high nor man below
For your spirit will outlive them all.
The early tractor
The early tractor labors in the fields
Glowing summer yellow beside the sea
That sighs this July morning
While birds are chirping in the eaves.
All is fine and all is well in Wexford
The radio stays silent, unaware
Of things of import up the motorway
Ignorance is bliss and silence even better.
The smell of coffee climbs the stairs
To the bedroom window open wide
Upon a scene of cars arriving
To the beach with togs for swimming.
Silence broken now by cries of laughter
Anticipation for the younger ones
A happy day spent on the beach
Fun for all, care exiled.
Covid’s banished for the present
As families return to normal
Catch up on two years lost
Make these present moments last.
The ferry glides
The ferry glides along a twilight sea
Against a sky that’s fading slowly
It slips in silence like a gracious swan
Into a summer night that is encroaching.
The beach lies deserted almost
With just a family in the distance
Walking dogs while absorbing
The ozone that the tide releases.
Back in the campsite children laugh and play
They’re waiting at the chipper for their tea
Their parents sit in shorts enjoying pints
They sadly missed in previous years.
Ireland has recovered, or so it seems
Gone the fear of greeting others
Two years of Covid leaving scars
Two long years we never will recover.
Do not go worried
Do not go worried into that good night
Old age can brighten up each start of day
Take, take the blessing of the evening Light
Embrace a morrow when the sun shines bright.
There comes a time to set down arms
Against the fight for life when death
Is but the gentle friend that takes us
To the other side where sorrow dies.
Where life continues on, but differently
Where all that’s left of us is love
Spinning towards remote infinity
As we embrace a new eternity.
There comes a time for sweet surrender
To relax and slip into the slumber
The day is done and work is over
Work clothes lay tidy in the corner.
The time has come to walk into the Light
That has guided us by day and night
Everything we’ve borrowed now returned
As we pass with nothing whence we came.
Freed of all possessions that weigh us down
Up the soul can rise like featherdown
Embraced by bonds of concern and care
Tethered tight to those whose love we share.
With thanks/apologies to Dylan Thomas and Cardinal Newman.
