In the land where death is real People lie and people steal People cheat and people thieve But it’s all coz they believe In a sudden end and in separation It is reinforced by years of education Not only in the school But by social rule Where they must obey Everything their elders say Only to grow up to be A repetition endlessly Instead of creative and new And everything they swore they would do When they were five years old No one has to be told To be pilot, to be king To be bird upon the wing But you have to be sold On being bad, on being “bold” And every child knows The phrase that everything goes The way it should be I love eternity As it presents myself Amidst “mental health” Challenges, they say I’m crazy But you know it doesn’t phase me When I’m twenty eight and in Dean Swift But the captivity was a gift As they try to sit me down And say that I will drown In all that is unwell It’s a byword for hell But I just don’t buy Everything they try To sell It’s a secret I never tell But I’m soaring high Something can never die And I will go to the lowest low If it means that someone else’s dreams Will wake before they shake By the bones and skin It’s not foolhardy to trust in Him He who moves the sky into spacious understanding He who shows the way without ever demanding That you should follow suit Oh, the world that we pollute With our constant pain That falls as acid rain Or bombs upon the children Instead of heartfulness to fill them With hope and with pride And gratitude that they’re alive I’m sorry to say That going the wrong way Means you must repent And all things are heaven sent Until you realise That every time someone cries It’s an echo of the sound That means God is around To show you where the deep Is something you can keep I didn’t know that I Was blessed until my Whole world was shaken But just like in a dream I waken And suddenly realise That nobody dies Not in the way we think But you don’t know water until you drink From that holy font It is everything I want And everything I never knew to ask I just dropped the mask And all was revealed I guess you could say that I was healed
The burning pain encases my soul And like the waves I roll and roll Until I crash to the floor And all I used to adore In verdant green Is part of what it means To walk in this skin And part of me’s in love with him As we age and pale Giving up what’s not for sale To the highest bidder It’s first come, first served and the weather Is just one more seasonal spin Do I let him in Coz he’s knocking down my door Hammering ever more and more As the years pass And I was outclassed In the long grass And today I went to Mass And felt that age old relief As I stepped back into belief As I stare at a man on a cross Thinking all is not lost Coz my Saviour died for me But He lived and that sets me free That Truth exists And quells the sound in the mists That grapple and let me go This cloud looks like it’s full of snow Or thundered might But Jesus loves me and I’m alright
Writing a poem for you Because God wanted me to And it happened when I was eleven Memories of you when I was seven And I woke in the night with a rhyme in my head I sat in the bathroom and instead Of writing it down I let the ocean drown Me with waves of grief And every day it’s beyond belief Because there’s no going back And you only know it when you lack A grandfather you love And their promises of above Don’t stem the catapulting might Of waking in the night With a poem at your pen If I could go back again I would pay tribute to you With love instead of falling into A mire that knows no end Did I really lose a friend And I stay around Kilglass Coz the memory last And your house is just across the road The years sped up but time slowed Down enough to let me look back And I found someone who goes by the name of Jack And he stills the storm in my bones Holds my hand through the all alones That stifle my voice I don’t scream by choice Just the horror of losing you Like I’ve become the void I stare into As if I could find you in my grief That the pain is a measure of the leaf I take out of your book Does the past take a second look Into the vast of the sky The Kingdom of Heaven that will never die
The Poetry Book 