I don’t know what to do I just know I want to do something for you And if they’re bombing the crossing, people shelter there And I don’t know if they care If they see their targets as human beings With lives, with loves, with pains worth freeing And you would think the great illness would have brought us together Instead of this winter weather That always rains in the Middle East Another father, another doctor, another deceased And if this is not genocide Then I don’t know how anyone can hide Behind the rule of law And the great thaw That seems to be underway I know what the people say It’s everybody’s business when something’s on the line But something corporate is hard to define As the wounded dance along and entwine Protesting that everything’s fine But it’s not Have you forgot That mystery must always break into the unknown And when the grass has grown Will people look back with mute silence Divesting their own part in the violence By mild complicity As the anger comes to your city In the guise of something new We’re all interconnected and that means you
There is a space that holds the pain Like the sky holds the rain And it’s a grand expanse Like how the leaves dance In the wind Like how my heart sparkled when he grinned And it’s not just errant love Or the loss of peace or the birth of a dove With an olive branch Sometimes I feel like I live on a cattle ranch Where people are always reigning me in And the bank tells me I must “begin” I dunno, the fuck that means When once upon a time the dreams That were bricks and mortar bound Were found to be unsound And the country was austerified And I’m not sure but I think they lied When the whole thing was on the verge of collapse The whole territory identified on the maps That say where things are But they can’t categorise the star That burns in the midnight blue An old king hidden in the heart of you And they tell you to grow up and they tell you to cop on But I can’t get over what is never gone What just remains In spite of the stains As the tears streak down my cheek I’m in class and I get weak And I feel the faint coming on And I wait too long To steady the ship And some people may shoot from the hip I’ve always been straight down the line I always tell the doctors I’m fine When they doubt what I am I don’t think they have ever heard the can As it’s kicked down the road Doireann Fox asked me because I think it showed And I always wanted to tell her the height of admire Was held in my heart for hers on fire And it’s been so many years And I’ve kicked back with spirits and beers But they never seem to come near To the euphoria and the bliss Of the one thing nobody can miss
Don’t lose your humanity when you grow up Remember you were founded on love Like every good city And there is self pity And there is blame But know the name That is given to you Is not all there is when they ask what is true And I put a flower in the shield of the riot policeman Because I know that only open hearts can Remind a solider what he really is Not a function of what it means to merely exist As a job or as a duty There is beauty Within every man No matter what he can Entertain When he seeks salvation in vain In the trigger of the gun And the false notion that he is the only one Who feels this way But everything will eventually pass away But do you realise what is eternal in the now And if you do then what will you allow To happen on your watch Do you keep one eye on the clock As you hear it tick your life away And you gather sand because you cannot stay In an earthen grain And is it wrong that I see the pain In their mocking eyes As they disguise Their despair At having to go in there And break what someone else built But now the milk is spilt And do we cry or do we clean it up Do we make it worse or do we love And hold the hand of the screaming baby Is that what it takes to save me?
What can I do I’m just a speck of dust Born on a spy Wednesday that I can’t trust And do I really betray the saviour Or is it just something I pray for As I sit in St. Mel’s Cathedral And wonder if there is really a thing so evil As what we’ve been taught exists But I was flung into the mists And there was no option but to face the darkness I give who I was a parting kiss As I step out of her skin And into the one I’m walking in And I’m scared of death and revolution Because once an idea became a final solution That rested on the destruction And some babies are born by suction As mothers die just to give life And women sacrifice to be someone’s wife And men on the front Call those they hate some kind of cunt As they get their guns ready to fire Will humanity ever tire Of pulling the trigger As we only get bigger On a planet that stays the same size And people must show they’re having the time of their lives Or they do not exist And is it any wonder that I’m pissed Or that we have a crisis of suicide When it means so little to be alive The price that hangs above our head So vapid that some would rather be dead Than face into the storm I choose to weather And wouldn’t we all rather be lying in the heather Soaking in the moor But the poor Echo in my mind And ask me not to leave them behind And wealth is not a measure of riches So I just kick it with my bitches And find a way to keep what is precious in me Even if it means that I don’t let anyone see The cog that turns my wheel Must I repeat, don’t be ruled by what you feel In the age of Iraq And an atrocity you cannot take back Not as hard as you try There are those who send the wounded to die As a salve for what they need to do And I passed a homeless man who had not one but two Limbs amputated And I may be educated But I can never know how that feels And something in me just reels As the veteran sings And thanks me heartily for the things I give to him Money and a smile but how could a country win When we are one humanity And consciousness knows only one way to be And that is to embrace the other For every man is my brother And holds my empty hands As the hourglass is spilling sands Onto an eternal beach What does Earth School teach?
I feel like human again now there’s a chink in the chain And you know you’re from Ireland if you trust the rain To always fall There used to be a Berlin Wall To separate the East from West Like they separate me from the one who knows me best And they trap me in a cage So I let it rage on a page All the good they ever did Was just to confirm that I’m His Am I crazy Do I let it faze me Or just let it raise me From the dead And I lay in my bed In Dean Swift And Emmett said whisht Don’t worry your little head And he all but winked at me instead As I lay there and just stared But I dared To cross a line That was so fine As a pen with a nib Can I ad lib And find a quote That I could float Did you know that I wished You were not a star that I missed As I shoot past your gate And I may have learned to hate The gatekeepers at the door But you’re something I adore And the fallaway floor Let’s me out again I call it men But really it’s human kind And women want equality But it’s revenge that’s on my mind For the guy that took me down And now it’s an ocean that I drown In my wide open air Is there any proof that I was there When the final crack of the whip Split my lip And I bleed words into the abyss Why do I still miss Someone who did that to me And if you’re chained to the sky are you free Like Dylan says I’m not sure anyone is listening anyways
Is world peace just an errant thought And can I be bought As I watch the children die in Gaza And the feminists are full of bravada But they herald a movie about a drink And deck themselves out in pink While I watch an atomic bomb descend The kind of suffering you cannot mend And we raise man up high But what happens when he starts to die By his own hand Individually when people don’t understand Or as a collective in the fires of war As we look on and wonder what it’s for And some say freedom and other need secure But I was locked behind a closed door And they fastened the key Far away from me So I couldn’t get at it How could I tell them I flat to the mat it As I watch Sinéad walk up and down the hall So I copy her coz fuck it all And they’ve got their notes and pens Figure that out, fuck you, amen I walk backwards when I’m talking to that nurse She says find a new way so I rehearse How I can mime the way I feel I say I feel sick and the Gavisgon is real And pink in a little cup I take it like a drug That might do me some good And they try to draw blood From a turnip but I laugh when I’m in the bathroom Coz I’m high on the sounds of doom And they come and knock every fifteen minutes “Just doing the check”, that’s the way innit And there was nice shampoo left by someone else I just found out it’s Israeli and bad for your health So I don’t buy it in the shop And you can say I’m anti semetic but I’m not I’m just pissed off as hell That you don’t see the humans you tell To move to the south and into Rafah, refugees And you would have them on their knees Just so you could be taller than them As if the Bible means that it happens again Every great flood and plague of locusts But I think you may have lost your focus Coz the Arab population Have as much right to an education As the highest scholar in the land The Sufi poets that understand Things I can’t put my finger upon And my words will live on after I’m gone To bear witness and say A just war is not okay And at the break of day Peace will come to land on the bay
Why do I see myself in Gaza Like there’s something Irish about Barack Obama Plaza And I just drive these roads like there’s somewhere I’m going But is there truth to it, there’s no way of knowing And there was a famine that was inflicted And tenants that were evicted From they only place that they knew Could provide food for you I look at the images of suffering In my history books and feel the storm worsening Inside myself and felt The kind of anger that injustice dealt Now I look at my screen and see A child with no way to be free In this life And people worry about a wife That might stray And I wonder what made them that way As their hearts are hard and unforgiving And hell comes for the living As they scream and cry Or just accept that they’re going to die And I cannot lie That I’m afraid of remuneration Some kind of unwanted compensation For all the words that I write Because half of it is shite And could never measure up to All that I want to be for you Some kind of presence in the absence Of a leader as buildings are collapsing Under the weight of what they do not know Know that I will never let you go Not to be alone in this fight It’s bandages in the twilight
I get this feeling, it’s like an irritation And it has me running to his station To see what I can’t download But the road Turns and I can’t see What he ever meant for me When he changed his tune Turned his head with me in the room And I know I can’t be mad Should let him off with the feeling bad Because I feel the spiral That has somehow gone viral On YouTube And even the coolest dude Is susceptible to The weakness of being open to A failing of words And following the herds Like a basket case That some demon somewhere wants to erase I stepped into the stream And the nightmare of a dream Came to show its face Did I really need to embrace The lowest of form So that I could be warm When he’d look at me I can’t hide the gaze that just see Into mystery And he thinks he so complex and he is so proud Of all that he does not say out loud But its echoing from you Like a ripple as I dip my toe into The river we were Before you met the ocean of her When you plunged into its frigid storm Did you remember the moment we were born In some distant haze Not I look as your gaze Tries to rest on me on the sand But I could never be that land Not when it’s arid and dry And I never did mean to make you cry It’s just I’m plush and green And I take the one seat ahead of the scream That violates lines And you’ve said it before, like a thousand times How you love it when She whispers prayers like an amen And I’m sure you do Pull needles though The jumper you embroider And I hope you enjoy her But don’t blame me for the why The resolve you never had to die In a fiery fuse I look at you two and I just bruise In the place where the picture meets my skin And then I walk into a room and meet him And he’s just like you But a bit more dangerous and outspoken too If that could be real Possible that I could feel That way again In a hall of willing men Who open their palms To me like they are giving alms To the girl I was for what I’ve become I was beautiful when I was young
I’m letting the monstrous go, the one that tried to eat me But it could not defeat me Because I hold Jesus in my core And I know who loves me more As they batter me with clubs and stones As I beg them to just leave me alone And Barry smirks and grins But I don’t have so much time for him Because I feel the pulverise try to latch a grasp And the asp Bites but does not sting And no diamond ring Is forthcoming But I like who I’m becoming As the doctor looks at me with plaintive distress And if I had to guess I’d say that she fears death But then she deals with it every day, I must not forget And tries to stave it off every way she can But I accept that every man Must one day give way to the sea And let the spirit become what it’s always been to me As natural as breathing or being born Why do the people look so forlorn As they contemplate A realm they cannot estimate With the power of the mind I let go all that I’m leaving behind And I feel myself losing it But I think that I’m choosing it As I walk towards the sun I realise that I’m the One
There is an empire nobody sees And it has everyone on their knees Struggling to make ends meet As people try to die on their feet Through the beauty blogs Or the city that the pollution smogs But never good enough is the refrain And you can only ever paper over the pain As we try to keep everything in frame So we can keep up with a name That we have identified as ours And the powers That be pull tight on the rein As someone else takes the blame For what is beyond the pale You can’t buy what is not up for sale And I watch the horrors encompass the whole And you may not be able to steal their soul But you sure can make their body hurt Make them long for death and what’s worse Is you do it in the name of the free But you sure as fuck do not do it for me As I balk and retreat And admit total defeat In a war that can’t be won Watch a mother sacrifice her son For some hidden clause The video skips when I hit pause On the show And I cannot let go Of everything I’ve come to be And a man down on one knee Is not my salvation Neither is my education So pulverised and perfect, true But I didn’t do it for you As I let the wind go slack The years you waste you can’t get back
The tribesmen of the highlands in Scottish weather As they walk though the mountainous air that only does them better Than any city smog could know And people think they know better so They denigrate what seems like dust But there’s something in their freedom that I trust As they scream their battle cry And head into war to die As they face a foreign foe For the kingdom that they know Living on the brilliant expanse Of the wind that makes the leaves dance And I don’t want to make no enemy Out of grey modernity And what those people have become Mixing genes with ancestors that have known some Of the brutal blow of a sword Or the things they think of for which there is not a word To describe the horror inflict And the end may come quick Or it may come slow But I just wanna say I don’t think they know What they profess to And I see the Celt in you
The line I shouldn’t cross Tries to tell me who’s boss With it’s threats and warnings And just because it’s storming Doesn’t mean that’s not how it’s meant to be Is the weather messing with me And I hear the call of Frances deep Behind every promise that I keep Somewhere int he wood Of the lines of feeling good As I surfed that wave And all the people I was going to save With my wilderness heart And the love that God had set apart For you and I But does the water die When it slips through your fingers And are the bringers Of the other side Really merchants of doom All I can say is I know when you’re in the room Coz I feel you before I see you But there are days I wouldn’t want to be you As I feel the current pushing forth Past the boundaries of no remorse And you found a safe haven with her And I don’t want to risk it on what we were So I can’t be your friend Coz I’m only ever waiting for it to end So we can take up where we left off And in that kind of love someone must pay the cost Of losing what they thought to hold So I put the letters in bold I love you but I’m letting you go I’ll hold on forever though, just so you know
The forest child in me Is longing for the rivers to let her go free As I take refuge on the beach That someone thought to teach Me was there And I’m so grateful and I care About what will happen to this next generation Will it be beyond an education As I meditate And something puts me in another state Where I can fly And I am not afraid to die Into incandescent blue Just because you Clutch onto fear Doesn’t meant that love is not near Ready to abide And something in me hide Away this secret deathless realm From the people who would submerge the helm Like the girl with the degree In deciding what to do with me When I confess That everything in that red dress Always felt the same And she knows my name But she doesn’t get my soul If I told her each wave roll Would she understand And I decide to forgive my man
It’s a nightmare we’re all dreaming And somewhere the children are screaming And it aches in my heart and it pulls at my soul Something crushes the begging bowl And flattens the land The hills and valleys that used to understand All the movement and all the sighs I watch a brother break as his sibling dies And his wails of pain seem all to familiar to me Because I know the crushing weight of the sea As it pummels the shore What is left to adore In this broken world And if I am just a girl How do I effect change But I watch the stars rearrange Every season in the sky As I ask God why He could allow such things And if the spirit has wings Does it fly away from here When it’s separated from the ones we hold dear In a man made disaster And there is no plaster Than can fix bullet holes And we’re all just supposed to play our roles In this great big cosmic machine And I thank God that it is just a dream As I rouse to wake The people that die for humanity’s sake I feel something break And go free in me Are we doomed to repeat history Or can we be the change we want to see If there’s a man in the mirror it starts with me
I got lost in the third eye blues And everything called me to pay my dues But I didn’t have any money Though I’m wealthy as fuck, honey I slot the puzzle piece into the jar As I wonder what you are And the nomad in me looks for change But it’s not the kind that rattles when you’re outta range It’s the kind that breaks like the sun Across the sky and over everyone And I play the perfect princess I know to whom I must address That painful moniker And you’ve all already met her Somewhere in my early teens When I was still staring across moonbeams Into the stars I shook against the prison bars And she had the key I didn’t realise that she was locking me In there Or if I did I didn’t care Because she used to make me laugh But when she shattered the glass she didn’t do it by half And I let it go, forgiveness now I’m good at that but some remains somehow Like a grain of sand in the oyster shell I grit my teeth as I wish her well And I’ve lots of secrets I will never tell Well not to her, not now, though she rings the bell That signals me to come But, hun I’m not Pavlov’s dog And in the fire there’s a log Burning more than well enough to keep me warm And though you brought the storm I don’t hate you And fair play to the men who date you They have more steel than me But nothing is more real than eternity And it’s something that will not break So though you shake Everything in sight I still give a shite
There is pain and there is peace And there is a moment where both cease To mean anything at all And I’m staring at a wall Just tap tapping my pen And I feel it all again And it is as though the universe rehearse The plaid shirt poetry in my verse As it speaks to me through life And I always thought I’d be a wife But that doesn’t seem to be my thing I would prefer truth over a ring And I can’t condense this immaculate soul Into something that is just a role For there is love and there is joy But can I tie myself to a boy Forevermore And forsake the soul I adore Or is there a way he can open the expanse So that both our spirits will dance Together in unison But he just chooses to get his gun And shoot at cacti in the desert I question his poor self worth But he doesn’t seem to be inclined to rise And settles like sand at the bottom of my eyes And the glass is half empty, never full I bathe his wounds with cotton wool So it will not inflict too much pain But how can a man stand this much rain And I know the fields are green so There is much that will grow And an abundance of fertility And for all his virility I can’t put my finger on what isn’t gone I just know I can’t ignore our song As I pull back from the book and gram Some metaverse serving someone’s plan In the ether It’s not me either It’s a seed to sow I hold on, just so you know And though you beg me to let go It’s just not in my make up So why don’t you just wake up And see the sky above your head it will keep you from the dread That forms moats around your castles And I know you want a girl with tassels But I don’t think that’s what I am I said to him as I hold his hand And in confusion iridescent blue Meets my own in a new hue
I try to block the truth from reaching me And all the universe is teaching me Has to turn into a baseball bat Instead of the original welcome mat He offered me love in the extreme And though it was a part of the dream It had something real to it too And I realised I was in love with you But I turned away Because what is it that people say We are too different to make it work And you are bathed in the hurt You’ve spent your whole life accumulate And you’ve let it make you hate People you don’t understand But you’re beautiful and I love you, man And I know the dial will turn to spin on me So I let you go free And I feel your resignation and resolution But you know that is no solution So I have to intervene Did you hear me scream When my brain came apart in two That was life splitting me from you And we both fragmented into an entangled particle And people start to call me “some article” But I don’t mind Because I have not left you behind You’re still in my soul Like the bed of truth and rock and roll And it doesn’t matter, come what may I’ll sing this song to you and you’ll wake and say I love you Laura And as I read your aura It will speak volumes of colour And all that made you duller Will lift and release And we will make that beast Retract into its cave Go back into the dark so grave Like the boy I could not save He became the man I crave
I don’t know what we were But I know I don’t wanna fight with her But I feel her get my back up When I offer her love And she slaps my hand Like the hourglass isn’t pouring sand And all of us into the ocean Why are you afraid to show emotion Is it just me Or is it the dragon that was set free Two decades ago And somewhere amidst the snow The annals of us are preserved I try to keep my cool but I am unnerved By the sheer lack of the sea In the meadows that lap against me And I can’t make it better and I can’t mend What she never broke but doesn’t intend To rectify There is a part of us that can never die And a part that does day by day I wonder why she is that way And the reason seems clear But she doesn’t know how I hold her dear And is it my lot to be unknown And only have my true colours shown When a stranger just walks into my days And tells me I’m free in so many ways And he thinks I hate him, I can hear him sigh But the mists move the mountains and I cry Out with the fear of it But he’s alcohol and I take a sip And find myself head of heels Like I’m lost on instagram reels Just trying to find my source I am not a child of divorce But I know the fracture when the world splits Or the chasm that opens when death hits You hard in the gut And someone you love things you’re in a rut But I would never leave the flowerbed Above the grave that marks your head So I’ll just let you know That I was not born to let go
It’s the little things Like wedding rings And fire that ignite And I hear that you like What you see And when the person is me I blush and then sigh And I don’t say goodbye To you again Coz I’ve made my peace with the notion of men How you can’t show affection Without them wanting to add you to their collection Of dolls sitting on the wall But that isn’t me at all Except when I’m walking by the rows And the feeling shows As I smirk And I didn’t think that this would work But it does And the story starts because I let you in the door When I’m walking on the ground floor Of the building grey But the door unlocks when you say Hello to me I didn’t think that I would be Clutching at straws at thirty three
I walked on the eggshells of not knowing where to look Should I do this one by the book Or throw the rules out of the window I know she has her eyes on him though As I spy her through my eyeglass And we both agree that Darragh is class And maybe I shouldn’t mention his name But he’ll only see this when I’m way high and fame Has taken me to the door Of all the people I love but mo stór Let me tell you you were epic And I hope I didn’t wreck it And that somewhere in your heart You still have me on start And hit go every now and then I look up and worship as you say Amen To the starshot in my eyes I almost dropped the disguise When she asked me which guy I liked And my courage almost spiked But then I just deflect I think she knows though, I suspect And it was over ten years ago Time passes (most people don’t know) But something’s eternal, something’s ever there Like the way I know you care As we walk the dark path into the grounds Of the apartment complex and all the sounds Fall to the silence of our footsteps I cried that night into my own regret And it was one of the first few days I started writing again In the end something begin And I went chasing after Haley’s comet But someone else is already on it So I just wrote this note to say I still think of you, okay Even if it’s though the moonbeams And the dresses that are ripped at the seams Because they took their cutting scissors to them Still, I wish I could play you again
There are childhood haunts They rise up and grip And I am myself when I let the mask slip Like Keyz and I playing Freespace And all the years that went to waste Just soaking in the sun When I met the man I love I run And I don’t know why that is Because I’ve always been his And if I could only explain to her What we were I think she could understand It wasn’t like I had anything planned I just know what soul speaks And I count the years, months and weeks Since we’ve last talked Since you walked And the demons sat on the edge of my consciousness The doctor said I was “in distress” But he doesn’t know jack And I want my freedom back The freedom to feel, to wreak havoc or hell Without people telling me I’m unwell As they submerge what’s only tide And try to kill what is alive In me But I’ll always be This girl of colour and plunging dark It’s from the night where rises the spark And it visits me again and again One day it’s a bird, next it’s men And then I realise I won’t settle Thorny as a rose and stinging like a nettle But somehow singing like a kettle When you put me on boil Or is that just what it is to be a Coyle
I could tell that he wanted to die And I just wanted to tell him not to cry But how can I be of use How can I be the proof That life is worth living And there's nothing that needs forgiving You are innocent, pure And I trust in that place in you, for sure But you don't believe me and I watch you turn away And I am lost for words to say Just know that I will be here, here And I will make it crystal clear That I am not going anywhere So don't you dare Depart these lands Because someone understands Even if she blushes when you smile Even if she'd watch you for a long while Even if she'd make pain into art And wait before she gives you her heart Even though it's yours for the taking And I'm not faking I'm just shy and a little afraid And you're so bright I seek the shade So I can look out from there And make sure you know I care I count every step you take To me and with each one I hope you wake To the notion that love is true And that it will always be in me for you
Why do I get to sit by my fire While the people in the Middle East tire Of being ignored by the Western world And I’m just a girl What difference can I make I am not one to shake Out the tree Of indignity And revolutionise The way the hope dies And the children, the children, the children bleed And I know that all they need Is some warm food in their bellies No waiting til after dinner to give them jellies And there’s a protest dying Somewhere a mother is crying Over her son And I wish I could be the one To soothe the pain But the rain Doesn’t fall when you need it to We are told there’s nothing we can do As the educated eejits make bombs of war I don’t know what it’s for If not to destroy How can you teach a boy That he shouldn’t push that button red But the temptation overcomes instead Because to expand your land Is the fuel to the demand Of a heart never satisfied I don’t know but I think that the truth died
Death stalks even the most fertile of land I would go as far as to say you can only understand Life if you’ve had a little loss Not just make up and candy floss To keep yourself looking young And your song is sung When you’re eight one And looking in the mirror That girl you once were, do you hear her “She was a good age”, that’s what they say But I still blame God for taking you away Just a little too soon And I’m in the room And I’m crying, screaming And if I am only dreaming Then why does it hurt so much Why does it feel that all the love I’ve ever had has departed No second chances, only heavy hearted Ways and means And moonbeams Sing to me of you Something about white light and what it can do To free a soul I know you were old And I was twenty nine And I should be fine But I’m not So I take the last shot That has ever been fired And I only fall asleep when I’m tired From all the crying and wailing against What God whispers to me is heaven sent And she never had to experience covid or crisis Had angels around her when she shut her eyelids And it’s selfish but the pain Is the only thing that remain In me for you Because all the blue Of the sky has absorbed you in And maybe now you are with him Somewhere in the serene And seventeen Is come again When you lose someone, a really good friend But you find yourself among the debris And if anyone is looking for me You should let them know That I always follow where you go And into the mystic, into the free I’m still here but something has left me Like a bomb shattered house that loses its frame Like a sage who goes by a different name Like the winter that bursts into spring Like waking up to everything
Dead bodies and machine gun eyes I think they believe the lies That they are fed And when they lie in bed They must stop the truth from reaching them And life must be teaching them How to bear the weight they’ve been gifted I sweat in my jumper that’s been thrifted From some nearby store And I just wanted to change it more But how do you compete with belief And you just feel relief When it falls away from you It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what to do What matters is that you’re wiling to be led Not blind opposition to what’s being said And I watch Ben Gvir shout his refrain Does he even know the pain He’s in and so inflicts They say that some day wars will be fought with sticks After we’ve destroyed ourselves Why do you put them in cells If they are brother and sister tide Please leave the Palestinians alive You’ve done enough And, God knows, it wasn’t out of love It was to feed that old demon That’s always dreaming He will rule the world And what does it matter what says this girl Who is just a child of Irish rain And our own kind of particular pain As we live on the land Our ancestors once couldn’t understand As it was stolen from beneath them Until someone bequeath them Their own patch of ground And do you hear the sound Of the child cry Why must I be the one to let her die?
We watch it unfold before our eyes Another day, another Palestinian dies And their culture is erased like it has no meaning And the people are not dreaming Because it’s no nightmare But a reality that would scare The most stoic into submission I don’t need anyone’s permission To say what I feel to be true The end of the genocide starts with you And I, as we raise a voice to lift the blockade So that the only shade The children know is that of a tree Palestine is forever free No matter the walls and doors Checkpoints and bombed out floors But a spirit nothing can kill If I know anything it’s that Love never will Ever be defeated And my courage has not retreated Far enough that I will not say I can see another way For the tide to beat the shore You are not alone, mo stór
One avenue I remember you had a sly eye And I toyed with the idea Of you being my guy And you were sweet And gave me strength I don’t remember Where the self consciousness went As you look at me I can see the stars Cave Like all my prison bars And I wonder where you be And how you are Remember the night I picked you up in my car And you looked so jazzed And I felt so fly I’m in love And I don’t know why And you stared in my eyes When I dropped you off I hope we’re still friends And all is not lost And I wonder if I could Kick back with you I dunno if you Still want me to That I could be your Jess Is this too cringey You bought me a drink Was I too stingy With my affection As we open our hearts There was no ending So the magic starts And the years roll by Like a filofax And you told me To relax As I worried A frayed line of thread Leave me thinking Of you instead And I wonder what You would say if you Knew all That I’ve been through Would it mar the image You seem to have of me You always seem to Just give it to me free As we laugh The bursting joy Saw you turn Man from a boy And I always clicked So you would know that I Hold you close Somewhere that can never die And I wonder if you Have a woman now And if there’s still Space for me somehow Coz I want you to know It’s more than a crush And I know it’s been a decade But we don’t have to rush Just find our way What do you say Could we vibe Like back in the day And if I look to you Would you look away Coz I really Want you to stay And make a fortress That can’t be stormed Keep a place So the bed is warmed As I hold your arm And we kiss I should be glad You gave me something to miss In your forest pure And your deep brown eyes You kind of know my heart And it’s no surprise That you had it all Planned out in your mind And I didn’t mean To leave you behind It’s just days were dark And I scared myself With the storms in A teacup I spilt as I knelt And you were so casual And so on fire You took my hand And lifted me higher And I haven’t forgotten The good you do I just don’t know What to say to you Coz I love you with The full of my heart And I want to close The gap that keeps us apart And I’d call your name Across the expanse If I thought that you Would be down to dance And kiss like you Are still in the club You have all I am In your arms, love And I’d love To be your equal If I’ve written a history Would you be the sequel To a place Where all is calm Is our distance Just a false alarm That can be quieted By your soothing breath You’ve gotta know It’s not over yet And I hold you In a place so dear No matter the clouds The sky is clear
I’ve somehow always known this feeling And it left me reeling When you told me that I was crazy And it didn’t faze me But I decided to get a second opinion So I fled to the city Let them assess every little bit of me And admit me to Stella Ward It was as though someone crucified the bird That had been singing within me And they try to begin me With a meal of chicken and gruel And I walked into a room, the floor smelt like school I dunno if it was the plastic floor Or the way they paint the exit door But it just reminded me of being three And terrified of what they had in store for me And as the years advanced I learned that I don’t have to dance If I don’t want to But I was always compelled by you To act as the role provides It’s as though I’m not even alive But just a cartoon cutout or a silhouette And somehow I have managed not to forget Just who I am All these years under the plan That aims to rob us of humanity And it did its best to take it from me With pills and booze With the winning and the knowing how to lose Somehow in the middle of the sea I realised it wasn’t for me And that there is another way to live That I could forgive All that had been done In my name by everyone And I just watch on a screen How the children scream And cry over a parent murdered from the sky Unprepared and forced to die To depart the form Now babies clutch bodies no longer warm And the saltwater flows from their eyes While we just say, my, how time flies As we get old and grey And pray That we’ll have a safe departure In Gaza they mourn the martyr Under a mountain of rubble We have known the same trouble On our island It’s on file and Making someone rich somewhere As they wonder do we care About the force of might And like every candlelight The dark departs When it sees what is burning in your heart I see a kind of constant flame Just whisper it when they call your name And as you step to the stage Let love be your kind of rage
I thought God could only ever be found In the complete absence of sound In the silence that descends On my room as the riverbends From lavender to primrose and flame And I wake up from my name And it all seems so perfect, true Til I met you And it all cascaded down You wanted to run my town So you could have a girl in the wings And, my, you love the way she sings But you don’t understand her And you demand her To be as you would please Up on her tiptoes or down on her knees But neither one will ever be me So I let you go free Though I love you with all of my heart I won’t make pain just to make art Or love Or fit like a glove Into a biological cog I dream of a fire burning a log While we lie on the rug before it And you know I would adore it A blanket made just for two But it never was me and you We spit fire into each other’s veins And in the aftermath cleaned up the bloodstains On the carpet where we fought It was in darkness that the ring was wrought And cascaded into eternity You asked me to burn with thee But I let go that crime And am absorbed into the sublime And even if they don’t get me here It doesn’t mean I’ll run to you dear If you make a fool of me When I just wanted life school and mystery To encompass all we were I dropped the glass when I saw her And it broke and shattered on the floor You don’t even hide that you adore Another pair of eyes And my trust in you dies Slowly but surely in the awe That you could begin the Great Thaw
Did you make a mistake telling me to go to hell And now all you want to shout is that you wish me well After all the evidence to the contrary Now you hold vigils and pray to Mother Mary But you don’t find any answers there At least not the ones that make you care And I spilled truth like ink All over the kitchen sink And you balked at its black, viscous flavour And I looked at you as though you were my saviour But you only saw the war And you crucified me for What you sought to keep Now it haunts you in your sleep And you can’t get my voice out of your mind It whispers to you as to what you’ve left behind And your bed is warm But you look so forlorn At the shape that sleeps beside you in the sheets And you wonder if two people ever meet On a level playing field And I feel you hate me so I yield To the tide of going away It isn’t indifference that made me sway And let the ribbon float into the air It’s because I loved the man that was there
The grief crumples me like a deck of cards And no one knows how hard It got in the midst of the night And I contemplated the death of the light Coz everywhere I looked it was black And the dealer stack Everything against me My best friend resents me And that person that wants to take me down Looks like she runs this town As she commands the sea And turns the whole tide upon me And as it rushes and consumes Something pulls me from those rooms Into a place I’ve never been But somehow had already seen Maybe in a dream or through a past life And every man looks for a wife When he reaches a certain age I just reach for the page Because the immortal hue Has stopped shining from you It’s like you buried it somewhere When you say that I just don’t care And it’s impossible to get through to you So I say goodbye too As you hang up the phone Could you just leave me alone?
I watch the Palestinian children die And why do I get to cry When their eyes are dry And a parent weeps over the corpse While soldiers laugh with no remorse And the commanders drop another bomb Where has our humanity gone Do we not see ourselves in the other See our sister and brother In every battered storm front of war And I just look at her And see the death that I know The pain life has visited upon me slow That must be experienced by the masses Or as they’re designated - the lower classes While I sit and sup my tea Knowing full well that it could be me If I lived a hundred and eighty years ago When the British starved us slow To death And there is a memory that does not forget It’s held like generational pain And I resonate with the acid rain That falls from white phosphorus plumes Into lungs and living rooms And burns into skin and sears People with images of those they hold dear Suffering and crucified In every single one who’s died Is the hidden heat Of the love that makes my heart beat And no claims of anti-semetic Can make me subscribe to the rhetoric That justify the claims of war When the dust settles what will all this be for And will we survive another spin of the wheel That makes us deny what we feel So we are capable of The worst of what I’ve listed above
What is the call of New York And why is there a fork In the road and on the table And I am not able To leave it all behind Even if I must go out of my mind Or be labelled as such Because I love you so much And I couldn’t be there when you died Because the man asked me how I am and I cried So I got locked up in St. Pat’s again And it may be the will of men To contain what they don’t understand But I look at you and you just say “it’s grand, I won’t leave you a grá mo chroí” And even though my broken knee Falls to the floor I know there’s more Than just screaming into the air “She’s not there, she’s not there” And it was all I could do not to hit my head off the wall And they console me but I fall Into their lap and rebel against the constraint Of being okay with the colour she paint Because everyone has their own way But I must do what she say If I’m not to be medicated And I may be educated But it has been the work of my life To make sure I don’t become a wife And go down with the ship Or the forests that they equip With cutting trees And the birds and the bees Buzz around my head But I would give it all up just to lay in bed And mourn And look forlorn Because all that shattered glass Never got me an A in class It only ever drew blood Now I’m standing in the wood Trying to catch the soul that escape And the red cape Couldn’t stop the passage of time And my only crime Was trying to pause the air Now I look at your chair and you’re not there
I dreamed about you last night You were as fragile as a butterfly And it was like in real life I just had to watch you die And yet you do not leave me here You kiss me like you always did, dear On my forehead or on my cheek And when I used to feel weak I would run to your side I would hide And then let you find me And you didn’t mind me Being a little bit strange And all the peace rearrange To atoms that say that you are gone But your song Will have life as long as I am breathing You were always something I was needing As I would lie into you And at fifteen I watched you Washing the dishes at the sink And all I could do was think Of what would happen the day you died If I would break like waves of tears I cried And I insulated myself Under the veil of mental health Because I can’t shatter again And there are legions of men Who would take my hand And make me “understand” What true love means But it’s insubstantial as the stuff of dreams And you are wholly really And even though you’ve left I still feel You in my veins and blood Like when I was lying in the wood And I felt the soul of the trees Kiss me when I’m on my knees And I know that your prayers save me Even when I cave, we Will always be a two by two And it’s not up to someone forgetting you It’s something that you always are You are not on some far distant star You are in my heart And in this instant we are not apart
How about goodbye And you made me feel like I wanna die So I close the door Pretend I don’t love you anymore But I do It’s always you Amid the curtains pulled And the pain, it dulled As the years passed But I wanted it to last So I would have something to hold onto But your love stuck like glue In my heart And though we are miles apart And time and space None of it is gone to waste Because I would do it a thousand times over Just to find your four leafed clover Growing in the grass And I loved to learn in class But nobody taught me a lesson like you I’m just not sure I wanted to Let you go And I know That everyone dies And the child cries When her grandfather passes And it’s the wisdom of the masses To mourn and then move on But there is a hole where he is gone And nothing can repair it I dare it To swallow me whole But my soul Just grows more vast And life asked Me to be free So I let go and eternity Came to kiss my lips In the middle of an eclipse Where all was night But in the darkness shone a light And nothing can drench it Nothing can quench it No pulling thread Can unmake where I made my bed
It’s one to remember This night we’re losing our clothes I know that you weren’t The path I chose But I still feel So entwined And I’ve a tendency To call you mine As you break out in laughter It’s a sudden joy I think I’ve fallen In love with a boy As he innocently regales Me with tales Of him at the pit I didn’t know back then But this is It And I’ve found my shore The holy one that I adore And years pass Like we’re flicking a canvas Like you’re wearing shoes And holding up like Atlas And I know you’ve a woman And I respect her claim But I still love The sound of your name Against mine And we’re just wasting time Getting lost in love And the Holy Spirit is a dove To come down on me Do you think we could be Or is it just something I have to let go It’s not kosher, I know And you’ve got so many flaws And my winter never thaws To break out into spring But I would give you everything If you don’t think to ask I’ll let you in, at last
We could all be under earth pretty soon Am I the only one who hears the noise in the room When it’s silent as hell And there’s all these people wishing me well But I can’t help but feel that it all pull asunder The rattling windows to the sound of thunder As it all caves in And who would win When the triumph is naught It’s like some disease that we’ve caught That makes us capable to kill And at will The degenerate Comes to pull apart the state Of affairs and of the mind I swore I would leave no one behind
I watch the images of bombed out bars And burnt out cars On city streets And I know that the heat Is born from a fervour deep and true I feel it in me and I see it in you And somehow peace has found a way To hold and that’s the order of the day It’s been 800 years And so many women have cried tears Over lost sons And I could be the one To finally unpeel The way they made our nation feel As they circumscribe the land And say this must be tilled by hand And no more than so many yards I don’t even know how hard It must have been And my dream Has been rocked Like the walls made up by people locked In Connemara by the rule of the day To hell or to Connaught, isn’t that the way And we can bark orders and we can make decrees But that Ireland isn’t me It’s something other It’s living and breathing for your brother And dying with hands crushed together Nowadays we just complain about the weather But the sadness is embedded in the roots Of the great tree that began as shoots From the fertile soil I feel my blood boil When someone talks about English rule The things they taught us in school About how to bend and break And why they did it for our sake And we must be respectful, too Because they are human just like you Then someone utters a word And just like that the bird Of hatred is born Because the fire of fear is still warm And glowing embers Not everyone knows but the heart remembers Even when the mind forgets And it’s not over yet Not till the trauma storm Has made the people realise they warm Their hands on the coals of the past And in some ways people are classed In the stratosphere I feel the time near When we must stand up and be counted Oh, what has it amounted To but this Heaven is in the first kiss
She can’t stop running interference And though I held her dear once I can’t keep up this spin Why don’t you keep that aspect of yourself for him Like you’ve been trained to do But I never will be you In all this mountainous thunder And taking a number To be what you are Has every star Been categorised And every sunset a way the day dies I don’t know about your aching pain As it tries to force me to stand in the rain Because you got wet From a time you cannot forget All the lights shine But forever will never be mine As long as I pick up after you I feel cold at the sound of your laughter too Because it rings of disdain And your aching stain On the carpet or sheet There must have been a reason we meet By universal design But know that I cannot call mine What only pulverises And she surmises That I’m cutting, direct The words she hurls haven’t changed me yet But I just feel this sigh Coming on like a longing goodbye As I wonder why She never understood jack And now she cannot take it back
There’s darker than that in the shadows And the girl rebelled on All Hallow’s Eve and there were claps of thunder I saw them taking my number So I ran and ran Now no one can Reach me And no matter what they teach me I cannot unsee the truth That perforated the wisdom of my youth They try to placate Say; find a perfect date Find a man you can settle down with Though it might be hard coz you’re such a bitch But I don’t care anyway I just sway With the leaves in the trees As everyone believes that down on your knees Is the way to free But it just isn’t me And the man is beautiful, the man is real But he just closes down how I feel And say’s to me on the phone Goodbye, Laura, now I’m alone As the bombs go off And I pay the cost For the rattling rain That hammers my doorstep again And again and again I can’t reasonably blame the weather on men But then I do I just blame you For casting me out For casting aspersions and self doubt On who I am And if I’ve any choice as to who I can Love, it will never be you Even if your baby blue Is enticing My soul is advicing Me to depart I do it all with solemn heart
I edit the muse Because I feel the ruse Is too obvious to everyone around So quiet as a mouse I don’t make a sound Til it implodes And everyone goads Me til a break in my mental health Is the cards that I am dealt I smile into the sun And I look for the one Meanwhile, on the run I end what was never begun And I look to him for salvation He hasn’t got any I thought he had the truth But it’s just one of the many And something he spouts To eschew his self doubt I look within And I find a power greater than him Deep in my soul He could make all the waves roll But he can’t command the sea Or make a woman out of me Just coz he’s a man He kicks the can Down the road And the car slowed To see what he was doing I’m no girl for the pursuing So I let it go I’m not sure if he ever got it though
I delved into the dark of night And somehow I came out alright Like that bright blue rose I wandered the streets and I chose Life over death But I cannot forget The things I saw And I blame everything on the great thaw And I took a comic worth 50 cent Out of a box and away I went But I felt bad and I repaid The charity for my shade And you can say it was poor mental health But I still felt the cards were dealt Harshly and I take a couple hundred euro And leave it in an envelope to secure ya In my attempt at redemption I actually never told the priest at the intervention But it was because I had forgotten And because I sensed I was not well gotten By that particular son of Christ So I said what I could splice And took my shit and ran And the only place that can Fail to make a demon of me Is the place where the hellish ghouls were set free And they came to devour what they could I swore that they wanted blood And the psychiatrist said it was just my mind And that sanity was only something I could find In pills and therapy But the silence gets the best of me When I sit across from a nurse Asking me how it might have hurt And all I can think is that his eyes are oceans And they convey seafaring waves of emotion And if he was a colour it would be green Like the t-shirt he wears and all we could have been If only he had been single And I had been coherent enough to mingle But I take the easy route As my lover plays the flute Somewhere far away and I see That it’s only cloaking the mystery To realise That even the beautiful dies When faced with its own fragility I let them wound the hurt in me
The Angel burst through my skin And in that moment I was One with Him The impervious, the crystalline And some people do hard time Trying to live up to A purpose they are longing to Embody And shoddy I wander the streets Til something in me meets The end of the road So I lay down the load And ask to be taken to the sky It is not the same as to die I whisper to Stephen That there are things I can’t help believing And I tell him that I write He flexes his eyebrows and I wonder if the sight Will ever leave my mind That he did not leave me behind In that moment true Like she had done too In the moments that we held And she weld Her steel to the iron It masks the way I’m lying About all I am And the plan Scares me to death And I spill the regret That I’ve been holding in my soul To someone who would roll The waves upon my shore He shone on me like an open door And in the midst of that smile I was okay for a while
Half of the town is missing in Bermuda You could search for a reason but it would elude ya Why the history of partition and pain Became as common in Ireland as rain And I fight to hold my rebel spirit Under control so that no one might hear it Because I have the heart of the Gael And my soul is not up for sale And my blood used to boil When I would read history about our sweat and toil Under the rule Of the English that we learned in school Had us under the thumb And they would kill anyone who would not succumb To the heavy weight of oppression And it is my confession That some part of me bears generational hate For all of the acts that left us in that state The people I would love to be kin To if they hadn’t died of the sin Of merely ceasing to exist As the loyal service of a crown that I missed When they educate You to clean your dinner plate Or you will die If you do not want to lie Then stand up and be counted As the people who stood up and shouted Against the lashing of hail And the plantation fail To convert an adequate number Now I see Palestine and their hunger As they have no bread Because they are controlled by land, sea and air instead Of the freshness of home Do we as a tribe leave them alone To face the mountain of world Built on the conquering of the girl In the soul of us all Someone wants to build a brick wall To keep the Mexicans out But I don’t trust a word out of his mouth Because the land is free And it does not belong to me But I to it The Native American’s in the place where I sit At the altar of pride It is not okay that I hide When I have the privilege to say The conquering is not okay When you consider the truth The civilised nations to play the brute And inflict Themselves on a future I would rather quit In the innocent stain I can see it happening again As the world turn But will the world burn If we do nothing to stall The advance of the darkness that answers the call Of the nomad or thief I look to the sky and its blessed relief Just to know That there is a space that will not let go And though they fly through the air And I have been there I can’t set a flag On a cloud so that I can brag That I now own it I used to resent but I have grown it Into simmering wisdom I watch the auspices of power and the Great Schism Split us into a prism of light That we are all one is the message of life And bear no hate for your enemy Coz you walk in his shoes and you discover you’re free To love enough not to be pulled low Enough to wish him to die slow In the mists of time If I could forgive would that be a crime For the sake of pure love And all of the Gaelic in the place where I stood My ground in this sacred place If you don’t know you can read it in my face
The closeted feminist But now can I resist All the chains they put on me Say I must believe if I wanna be free Coz I don’t take sides And love just abides And lush is the grass of verdant green And what is carried out in the name of the queen As she sits on her throne I’m just myself when I’m on my own With no moniker And I don’t wanna be her Of stand alone pride I trust in the rush of being alive Do you see what I paint At the sight of blood I get faint And I waver every time I see Proof of what I don’t feel is me Can you just let go I’m not what you say I am, you know And how we’ve been trained But your conditioning is in vain As I collect All the things you say are wrecked Do you get what I mean Is this life but a dream Coz you can’t rely On everything that is destined to die And I Stand up just to let go Pull the needle through on the bed I sew Til it’s all but done I don’t think I am the only one To feel the heady weight of foolish glee You can stay on time, but it wouldn’t be me
I was trapped in a chasm of my own making And there’s no telling what you’re forsaking When you let the riverbed run itself And label me with poor mental health For daring to see the truth of the matter It’s about facing your demons or calling me a mad hatter And Power is thin and lost I get the sense he paid the cost For his education And now his profession is elimination Of anything like a shoot of green But he doesn’t see the roots in between The folds of soil He tells me who I am and my blood starts to boil Psychosis or manic depression But it is my confession That I have never known an altered state In anything except the boy that I date On the sly And it’s all getting by In the rocky shore Could you not close the door When I let you in Because you are not him And I need to be open to The water that is flowing through
I found beauty in the trauma And the flora and fauna Were hidden from me In the dark forest of history And she enclosed me with a snare It was almost as if I wasn’t there When she sent the splinter into my side Did she really not want me to be alive Because she did her best to trump the card Did she realise she made things so very hard And I was just a teen But I wanted to exit the dream By any ways and means And I’m sewing a dress but the seams Keep busting and they won’t fit And there are no boys I want to hit On anymore The dark expanse was the door Into a greater purveyance And the conveyance Was suffering and pain Til I opened my arms to the rain And instead of getting wet A sun broke that I cannot forget In my darkest night I became the light Of the only and ever one If you feel you are coming undone Then you are on the right track And somehow I cannot go back To what I was I know this because I have tried And I hide My new found skin With everyone except with him He just touched me paper thin And I realised destiny was a sin I long to make with his touch And I love him so very much Though he may never know I thought he should so I let the bird go And fly across the sea To where he lay in grey mystery Just pondering a solace But it was a volatile Explosion in the moment of us And though it hurt I still trust In the infinity that we are If you burn then let that star Combust in its own atmosphere That’s how you know that God is near
If I don’t write it now I never will Why does our skill In that department go unrewarded Like an email that remains unforwarded And we conform to all kinds of stereotype When we step out of bounds it really isn’t nice As we’re met with the lashings of society Come on now, it can’t be just me Because to be female means meek and compliant Not subject to feelings that are violent And rude and loud and unfettered In an avenue that cannot be bettered And there is so little discourse so I take to the web To find out what I’m missing instead But all this passion in the astral plane May be in vain If I cannot make real All the beauty that I feel In our encounter as we roll the dice And I am so much more than nice When it comes to red and blue Cold meets warm and me and you In the winter of my life I found something beyond the strife And I may never be a wife But I’m letting go the night As the only place to share I step forward and I dare To break the silent vow That we all follow somehow In case we would betray Ourselves and what we’ve put away For safe keeping But I amn’t sleeping When I cover the sin The simple joy of me and him
I know that he and I Will always be one here, we will never die Like all bodies are destined to But I found heaven in you And it’s something that cannot be taken away Not even when comes the day That the great forgive must let us go As we travel into mists we do not know But I was bought and sold The moment I saw solid gold Shine from his eyes And I know though he tries He cannot separate Me from the place where we equate Everything we ever were To the trust he found in her And in us It’s not just lust It is a spiralling spark That shines even brighter in the dark So much so that I wish for my old days When I was lost in so many ways And the balance I’ve found And the solid ground Only distances the despair I loved because you were there
The canyon always called to me The vast open space a rhythm to be set free And I see people fall in the miles of my imagination As they stand on the edge of the station Taking selfies in the light And Marge says they’re just not right Because there is a death toll But somehow I found my soul Overlooking the vast red rock Spelling out all that I am not I couldn’t stop staring And there was all that preparing For what I’m facing into And I just thought of you And how your soul looked the same As the ocean I cannot name That pulses inside of me There was a part of me that was set free The moment you chose to come close And you look as white as a ghost And thin and on edge But I would like to be there instead Of the absence that you know And you have her and you Have me I didn’t mean to set you free I just couldn’t stay by the shore Hoping for something more To be revealed And then it stealed Into what I am You were never part of the plan But you’re a welcome adjunct And I feel like I’ve been on punkd! To think I could find a soul That matches the way that my waves roll I never thought I would discover The arms of such a lover
The Poetry Book 