Rejected Verses 41-50

 41.Hotel earth, where last guest has just checked out 

 

Our dear world is dying

There is no denying

Murdered by men

Scheming and craven.

 

Can a world though recover

If there's no one to bother?

The answer is yes

Sadly, now without mankind.                                                 

 

No voice to announce

Our final farewell

On a planet fallen speechless

With no one to tell.

 

It didn't come easy

To finish mankind

We tried every trick

That came to our mind.

 

Is it a terrible thing -

For the last human being

To whisper goodbye

That no one could hear.

 

Good night son of man

Sleep softly on

Drift on dreamless sleep

In night without morn.

 

To be fair, all the odds

Were against you, poor sod

If it hadn't been this

It would have been that.

 

But you narrowed your chances

With nuclear advances

Not to mention the mess

Of industrial cess.

 

You redoubled your bets

At the last chance saloon

You can live on this earth

But not on the moon

 

Don't blame the leaders

You so carelessly chose

Please look inside

At a heart grown cold

 

While whispering lies

Of soft comfort to children

While mortgaging to hell

Their lives and their planet.

 

Sleep on my dear children

The die has been cast

The dawn is not coming                                                                 

The night's here to last.

 

 

 

 

 

42.The only child 

 

Lonely he played on summer beaches

Bereft of siblings to fight or play with

He craved the company of strangers

While sitting on the shopfront wall.

 

Seeking solace in half heard conversations

Of older, rugby hardened boys

Mesmerized by the untouchable beauty

Of the giggling convent girls.

 

While leaning on a Raleigh bike

Bright racing green and new

Shining brightly in the April sun

Of innocent, suburban Sixty-Two.

 

 

Many hours spent looking, waiting

Invisible to the older crew

Anonymous to them he knew

 

His other friends, more confident

With countless siblings to spare

Enjoyed the quiet freedoms of his home

Endless hours without a care.

 

Even after many years

The yearning never leaves

To share the noise and bustle

To enjoy the laughter and endure the tears.

 

 

 

 

 

43.Month’s Mind 

 

Guardian Angel mind us

Keep us in the Light

Steer us ever closer

To a future that is bright.                                                                        

 

Dearest Angel keep us

Safe with all your might

Light up our lives and loves

Stay closer day and night.

 

The sun is rising warmly

Above the Wexford sea

A peace is also rising

Embracing you and me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

44. Summer springs back 

 

The warm summer sun

Heals the aging winter bones

Renews Gods contract with mankind.

 

We were running out of hope again

After a dreary year

We thought would never end

 

But end it did

And swung around when least expected

As it always does

But we forget it.

 

At last the sun is shining

All is now forgiven

As the birds cry loudly

Above Our Lady’s lake.

 

Easter’s empty promises

In frigid April are restored

And June smiles kindly on our souls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 45. Young Niels 

 

It’s a June afternoon

It’s a Sunday in summer                                                                  

Beneath the wind turbines of Carne

That sweep above with a whoosh.

 

The bench that bids us remember

Young Niels from Denmark who worked here

Looking out over a blue sea like St. Vogue

Who found God here long before us.

 

Much have we travelled

But little has changed

In this quiet corner of Carne,

This tiny postcard of Paradise.

 

Rest peacefully Niels now as we sit

Looking out to sea on your bench

Your adopted country has embraced you

These windmills your marker henceforth.

 

 

 

 

46.Less is more 

A poem with a single verse
Is all I can remember
For me there's nothing worse
Than stanzas never ending.
A line once learned in school
A constant friend, a lifelong tool.
The poetry that stays with me
Is just a line or three
Enough for me a simple thought
A prize remaining once caught.

 

 

47.AFinal Smile

 

A final smile before we die
That's how we stay till time is nigh
A peaceful and a happy death
Ends this life and starts the next.                                                             

Our atoms spill out into space
Twixt good and evil it's a race
To claim a prize that's binary
Accepted or rejected heartily.

Eternity is only there
For those who crave and those who care
Others far prefer honestly
To sleep in silence eternally.

 

48. A cloistered life

She lived a life of stoic cheer
Rising in the early morn
To praise the Lord and greet the dawn
In a granite convent on a green hillside.

Not for her a man or bairn
Though she often wished for all the same
The little comforts that ease the pain
Along this pilgrim way.

Always with a cheerful smile
Always with a word of hope
Even when her heart was broke
When God was distant and she forlorn. 

What inspired this life of service?
To undertake this Via Crucis?
To deny her loves and suppress her wishes
All to support her silent Sisters?

Soldiers brave who die in wars
Die but once in a blaze of glory
But to die each day a thousand times
Is a very different story.

An heroic life, misunderstood
By the great majority of men
A life that spans life and death
The present and all eternity.

 

 

                  

                                                                                          

49.Quietly 

Quietly it's done
Without great fuss or problem
The words are left unspoken
The deeds do all the talking.

A smile, a touch, a hug is all
It takes for simple transformation
The spirit shines and the soul accepts
When speech is wanting.

 

 50. Words 

Many are the things we said and meant
Words that sounded right and decent
‘See you soon’ ‘I’ll write or call’
But life moves on and intentions fall.

She waved and cried and pressed the tissue
Her eyes so sad said ‘how I’ll miss you’
As from the station the train pulls out
And her carriage hastens along the track.

His heart is broken yet he waves back
Across the days and months and years
Now another boyfriend dries her tears.