A Co. Kerry Bachelor

I’ve a few fields by the river

a bit of bogland full of rush

where the snipe come to winter

and a wild hedge for the thrush

a few Belgian blue bullocks

cows with sucklers their milk to drain

a donkey to keep them company

when they shelter from the rain

I keep a nate little garden

in the haggard with a limed white wall

and I wakes early in the morning

when the cock his brood do call

I didn't bother with electricity

and I keeps an open fire

sure it gives me a bit of company

before I’am ready to retire

I loves the bit of bacon

I fattens a pig or two

I cures the legs and smokes

them, up chimney’s  flue

I’ve often dreamt of sharing this

with a woman that would be inclined

but they fear that she’d take half of it

would drive me clane off me mind

and so I sits and pokes the fire

and watches how it’s embers glows

Tis the nearest thing to loving

this bachelor ever knows

If me mother had died earlier

there might have been half a chance

but before she signed the farm over

their wasn't room for some romance

Jasus if I brought a girly home

she make a show of me

she wouldn't lave her even sit a while

to drink a pot a tea

ah! she was a good mother

don't get me wrong

but if I played a different tune

she’d sing the same auld song

She gone now God bless her

I’am left here on me own

her mass card said she's dead

10 years how the time has flown

soon I suppose I'll  share her grave

while the cousins sell off the land

tis a poor return for the drudgery

and the loneliness I understand.

My love is black with golden hair.

My love is black with golden hair
a see through dress she slips inside
I long to taste her straight away
but patients rule, I must abide
I caress her skin thats wet like dew
kiss soft the foam upon her head
See the bubble stars that rise
through the window of her bed
I could spend the night with her
talking the hind legs off a stool
she has teased me all along
made me a mumbling, stumbling fool
 If I spend too long with her
my legs no longer can take me home
she lays me down in a field
of quilted grass with pillow stone.
I love her taste upon my tongue
the way she always invites me in
to spend a little time with her
and drink the dark taste of sin
She fills me up with deep regret
the unfilled tasks gives gentle stir
for I have loved her constantly
and  given up my life to her.
I never counted up the cost
time, troubles, the rows, despair
for I have loved her ebony colour
and every strand of her blond hair.
So when knock time day it comes
when fires of love burns too intense
I will leave her to another man
now she's emptied my pockets
of  pounds and pence.
Alone, she will not abandon me
but tempt me with a dream so pure
that when I’am in my darkest days
my love for her will seem a cure
Parched I am, with loss, loves longing
to kiss again those lips I missed
for I know the dangers of the folly
the cravings for her lips I kissed.
I'd drink you down my lovely
Till you'd make my thoughts spin
Your juice of black delights me
With songs I'll make you grin.
But then you make me stumble
You seduce me to your trap
The trickles of your beauty
Spills slowly from  silver tap.
Your barrel’s full of laughter
are company when friends are gone
And only your darkness lives
Where the lights of family shone
I lay with you in the gutter
You rock me still to sleep
When I take the cap off you
Your loveliness makes me weep
I tried to stay away from you
your perfumes proved too strong.
I regret the life I waste'd
With all it's rights and wrongs.
Darkened day clouds over me
in cold clay coffin I’am checked
you’ve staggered me to my funeral
with a priestly collar on your neck
you pour me in a timber box
with a gold plastic cross upon its cover
a mourner lays you down beside me
for he knew I was once your lover.
They raise a glass to my sweet lass
and the twists and turns we made
To her black and creamy beauty
to her light and all her shade
to the way I held her to my mouth
with my fingers round her waist
and the way I’d drank her beauty in
to savor that dark Guinness taste.

Snowfalls

Snowfalls
like swans feathers
from a sky of grey.
Footprints lead me on my way,
Birds skip and lift like notes
across the page of canvass white,
all is crisp and new.
Hand in glove
I walk with you.
Fresh the look
Its new clothes on
Pianissimo strings
it’s plaintive song.
The dog runs, plays and rolls
Can we too renew our souls
Cover them snug in blanket white
Let them kiss and play
By winking candle light.

Snows they melt and turn to slush
I tried to tell you, but you said hush
You showed me a snowdrop
Its white flower head bent
and whispered “look what
God has sent”
For each everyday a new surprise
a miracle if we only open eyes
To see the wonder all around
With treasured messages
to be found.

T'was the night before christmas

Twas the night before christmas
and all through the house
not a creature moved not even a mouse.
No decorations hung no tree illuminated
A father desparate for news of his daughter,
Like a bombs ticking clock waited.
Gone now over a silly thing, a misplaced word.
Five christmas’s since have past
His wife died broken hearted
from a grief that couldn’t last.

Drugged ,dead, or gone
to find his daughter lost,
he searches on and on
No mater what the cost
He knocks and looks in guttered lanes
he peers his eyes through window panes.
His fingers frozen blue and cold
his heart more frozen anxious still
but he will not quench the fire of love
Nor swallow the bitter, give up pill.

He searches everyday
in every crowd her face he scans
wishing for a sacred miricle
or magicians magic weaving wands.
He asked a beggar, he asked a fool
he asked the headmaster of the school.
He showed a picture of her smiling face
to a redlight lady dressed in lace,
she told him of an girl called Angel
with wings of blue upon her back
who had a face like his daughter face
Although its smile it somehow lacked.

She brought him to a seedy place
where painted faces sell their flesh
For Dollar or by the Pound.
If he was lucky ‘tis there,
plying a rough trade she’ll be found.
He climbed up a riggity, shadowy
creaking, winding, stairs
with every step repeating prayers.
A man with tweed and trilby hat
finished buisness scampered down
His wrinkles on his forehead
grew in furrowed frown.

The dark, the smells,
the klennex in the cubicles
He closed the door to the world he new
Slipped the coins into the slot
liked roman soldiers he gambled
For Gods garment with his lot
He bent and peeked the visor opened
it’s hazy aperture he saw through
A mane of black A naked back
and the red and blue tattoo
With angels wings
of a bird
whose voice was choked
and no longer sings
his eyes
began to burn with tears
As time up bell it rings.
Her eyes of blue were
were not fresh, he saw
Glazed stale fish kind
looked red and raw
but he had found her at last
and so he didnt mind
He knocked, as a father knocks
He called her name but she couldnt hear
His face was wet with happiness
From warm loving tear.
He asked for a private time
and the door lady thought
she knew his mind
but he had always understood
that love was real and kind.
So they met in a darked room
with a bed, red light, and a dirty wall
and he put his arms around her
and she answered to his call
and put his coat around her wings
and flew her out the door
they left that day and had a christmas
Like they never had before.
For her lips tasted true fathers love
And he forgot the years they lost
They both never looked behind
and they never counted up the cost.
For true love never gives up
Like a river that runs to the sea of blue
Read this story and rememeber hope
For that father, Mother, girl
Just might be you.

Grace o Malley (Pirate Queen) Granuaile

Fair-well for now my Grainuile

I must Hoist again the canvas sail

And the harbour I leave

May it safe thee keep

May it rock you in it’s arms a sleep.

My black haired raven

My pirate queen

The brightest jewel

I’ve ever seen

My beacon of light on the stormy sea

Sail safely home again to me.

Spanish ships bring Spanish wine

Jewels and silkes and spices fine

And slaves as black as kilkenny stone

And yellow birds that sing alone

To you their cheerful merry note

To blush your cheeks

Like the poems I wrote

Of my undying love of thee

Of your smiles and songs that

captured me.

You’ve gained great fortune

From the Armada’s stricken fleet

I’ve laid them down before your feet

Gold and silver and precious Jewels

Armor undressed from the Sásanacht fools

But I’ve no time for wealth like this

For wealth me is in your kiss.

I’ll take the helm

And sail my boat

And waves they pound

Like the words I wrote

To explain the constant

Thumping pain

‘til buried in your arms

I’am yet again

The sky is blue

And land is near

And on my cheek a silver tear

Or maybe just some salt sea brine

To remind That 

once you were mine.

The ages of man

From 20 to 30 if a man lives right
It’s once in the morning
and twice in the night
From 30 to 40
If he’s still lives right
He misses the morning
and sometimes the night
From 40 to 50
It’s just now and then
From 50 to 60
its’s Gods know when
from 60 to 70
if he’s still inclined
It begins to get erratic
but it’s still in his mind
His sporting days are over
His light is nearly out
What used to be his sex appeal
Is now his water spout
It used to be embarrassing
To make the thing behave
For nearly every morning
It stood and watched him shave
But now that it’s getting older
It sure gives him the blues
To have it dangling down his leg
And watch him clean his shoes.

When Your Blue and Bear Your Soul

When you’re blue and bear you soul
And all your worries take their toll
When the path you walk is fog and ice
Oh would’nt it be nice, so nice
To have someone to hold your hand
Not give advice but understand
Remember time will be, when his time will come
You’ll hold his hand when he can’t walk or run
And you will be his guiding star
When clouds obscure it from a far
And times will be when blind lead blind
But hand in hand you two don’t mind
So if some time your feeling blue
Reach out to a friend you once knew
And together some how the fog will clear
Cause friendship will cut in half the fear
And soon again you’ll laugh and smile
But be patient It’ll take a while.