Una hora menos

  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 ...

  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. 

  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. 

  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 out...

  The world will end 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  Humor, 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. 

  After we are gone A burnt and blasted country  It’s 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.  It’s 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. 

  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?

  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 savor.  Across the sea there’s a feast out there, July the fourth, Independence Day Honored 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. 

  One hundred thousand years ago One hundred    thousand years ago The weather disimproved  The winter first came sooner And then it lasted longer.  Stone Age man looked out his cave And faced a tough decision To stay within the family Or wander southwards sooner.  The wise men were approached Who examined stars and signs And warned against them leaving To a future land uncertain.  And so the others froze and died  Over years and generations This story only saved and    told By those who shunned the warnings.  Off they traveled south Unsure of what the future  When all the sound advice Was to stay inside and shelter.  Stone Age man’s replaced by iPhone guy But things are much the same  Mankind must face new climate change  And the lives that it will claim.  iPhone man will overcome  More by luck than by design Once again the poor will perish The rich will turn out fine.