Last impressions

  Let him with fifty shirts Let him with fifty shirts  Give one to him with none He will not even miss it But the poor man will.  Three meals a day Is all a body needs A roof above our heads Will peace and comfort keep.  It cannot be said too often Enough is the key to heaven May the middle way be our guide With faithful friends by our side.  We will never head to bed  Unless there is peace instead Of bad feelings and anger Let good and patience conquer.  Christmas means so much to many  Regardless of our faiths let’s agree It’s a time for hope and resolution To make the infant year a new beginning. 

  I believe in E God for me is E It’s always E for me E is short for Espree Is how we came to be.  Espree is like Espirit Sounding quite the same Both are moving spirits The source of life we claim.  E is like the glue That binds the world together Espree is free to roam Through time and farthest galaxies.  E is supremely lofty But giggly all the same  E is the source of fun Of joy and helpless laughter.  E lives in every man  At times it’s hard to see E is kind and patient The source of love and beauty.  The Gaelic ‘spraoi’ sounds like spree Means fun and games and joy  Where E resides there’s laughter  Sharing, caring, daring.  E is in adventure, Not only at the end But in the middle and the start Of every fence we mend.  No need to pray to E It’s present in all moments  Except when evil stalks  Evil marks its absence.  E moves back in when evil tires As tire it must and will E is always there He’s always keepi...

  In song In song I hear the singers voice In verse I hear my own Or better, none at all Your inner voice and inner heart  Will best declaim the lines No longer mine but yours  And silence, sweet silence Best describes the wordless joy That good poems bring.  Words like incense on the altar Smell divine when burnt inside The thurible of love.  Nothing more to say now Nothing more to add The Spirit has moved up and on. 

  Credo - Dec 2024 What I believe has evolved over my 73 years in what I would hope is a logical and considered way.  It may appear on the face of it that I have moved from orthodox Catholicism to liberal agnosticism in a gigantic reversal. But for me the two positions are not that different in essence and for me there is a consistent spiritual journey.  I have moved from being serenely religious to nervously agnostic.  I have moved from religion to spirituality.  I believe religion is the attempt by mankind over the ages to express spirituality and to understand and respond to the internal and external world.  I am well disposed to religions but I feel it is fair to observe they are mostly determined by their geography and time in history. Indeed many religions see their role as a development of prior, less developed beliefs.  I think in the 21st century we have a knowledge of ourselves and the world that debunks many religious ‘facts’.  Where re...

  Dun Leary December.   December in Dun Leary And the weather’s all confused The pier fills with more people Than a July afternoon.  Some in dark raincoats Who didn’t get the memo But the forecast is just right The sun is warm, the breeze is light.  Track suits are the favored By young men with big biceps While leggings hug the legs  Of comely shapely maidens.  Small sailboats in the harbour Sail round in smallish circles Their white sails a bulging With the first clean winds of winter.  The ferry ploughs ahead Blasting on his horn From Dublins North Wall Barreling to the East.  The waters blue of Scotsman’s Bay Beside the beach at Sandycove Round the corner the chilly Forty Foot In the safe surrounds of summer houses.  Elegant houses with verandahs Where the wealthy over summered  From urban Merrion Square When Britannia ruled the waves.  On to Joyce’s tower Whose pilgrims come in June Where brave souls bathe in Winter Where Dublin...