We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.
-WB Yeats, The Stolen Child
Heavenly Father,
I call on You right now in a special way.
It is thru Your power that I was created.
Every breath I take,
Every morning I wake,
and every moment of every hour
I live under Your power.
Father, I ask You now to touch me
with that same power.
For, if You created me from nothing,
You can certainly recreate me.
Fill me […]
Hi All,
After almost two months of delays, my new book, Festival Legends: Songs & Stories (www.songsandstories.net) has finally arrived. The book is 389 pages of the great stories, histories, pivotal meetings and life long influences of modern Irish music legends like Tommy Makem, Danny Doyle, Liam Clancy, Johnny McEvoy, Brendan Shine, The Dublin City Ramblers, […]
Sometimes we ache for love so badly, even just companionship. As we get older, get burned, get loved, we learn to accept what we can, not settle for less than we need, and venture out on the limb. We go slower but we still venture out, full of hope.
A Fantastic original tune by Alan […]
Another favorite song, talks of emigration, he final goodbye.
RED IS THE ROSE
Traditional tune, author unknown
Chorus:
Red is the rose that in yonder garden grows
Fair is the lily of the valley
Clear is the water that flows from the Boyne
But my love is fairer than any.
Come over the hills, my bonnie Irish lass
Come over the hills to your […]
A fantastic tune, recorded by many, most notably Makem & Clancy. Really read the words, it is so well written - conveying so much in so few words.
THE DUTCHMAN
by Michael Peter Smith
The dutchman’s not the kind of man
To keep his thumb jammed in the dam that holds his dreams in
But that’s a secret only Margaret […]
eelin’ Son of A Bitchy again, on a Sunday no less. I went to mass today, as I do most every Sunday. I take it seriously and pray deeply when I am there. I am conflicted mentally at something I see, week after week, because we are […]
Moving Bricks
Moving Bricks
by John OBrien, Jr.
Moving bricks, bring out the bugs
and the creepy crawlies of my dirt and mind
Fingernails stuffed, stained,
back strained.
Cheap little tools that separate under no stress,
my contemplation does that too.
Fresh cut grass, the very smell of summer,
chases hard after spring -
never quite catching, sometimes passing,
Ebb and flow, before temporarily falling back
under a […]
Suicide is Painless
In college, I used to meet an eclectic group of friends most days around 6 in the cafeteria for dinner. I like eclectic. M*A*S*H* was always on the TV and we used to always sing the theme song along with it (just think college kids being obnoxious). I found myself singing it yesterday […]
The Medicine of Ali
by John OBrien, Jr.
Don’t Cry for me, Argentina,
I mean, man-boy
arcane references whisper;
of similarities,
of great hopes earthquaked to new parameters,
urgency of life demanding life altering contributions
from those already life altered themselves.
DaVinci has no code, just shtick
Yet Muhammed and Allah and Emmanuel are just names for
God is With Us.
supports and surprises - and […]