You Get To Know Birds

You get to know birds you do not get them wrong
The most of them distinctive in their chirps or their song
The most of them familiarized with you do know by sight
And they are quite recognizable even whilst in flight
A World without birds one dare not visualize
The enjoyment they give worth more to us than we realize
Sometimes we take them for granted and it does seem sad to say
That many species are facing extinction in the World of today
Some of them beautiful to look at others are songsters supreme
One of our gifts from Goddess Nature are birds it does seem
To get to know birds is a privilege indeed
In our woods, parks, backyards and gardens them we surely do need
For their beautiful songs and for keeping plague insects at bay
We love them and see them and hear them every day.

A Story Of Denny Penny Kelleher

The fields decked with wildflowers on that sunny sunday
And the hawthorns were cloaked in their white blossoms of May
The countryside lush and green Nature in her Spring bloom
On either side of the by road between Kilnamartyra and Macroom

A huge crowd had assembled for the road bowling score
For to watch Denny Penny Kelleher of Millstreet from the road to Rathmore
In a winner take all bets take on Muskerry's best
Both men in short shirt sleeves were prepared for the test

The Muskerry champion a strapping young man
In the prime of his life full of youthful elan
Gave his backers some confidence that he would beat
The great Denny who had pedalled his bike from Millstreet

Stocky Denny Penny his once brown hair then silver gray
Was clearly one who had known a far better day
Many present thought that to beat one more than twenty years his junior a bit much of him to ask
Though the ice cool Claraghatlea fellow undaunted by the task

But by three bowls of odds in a one sided score
Denny Penny had done what he had often done before
He had humbled one far younger in another great road bowling display
The old dog for the long road as some like to say

That evening in the Kilnamartyra Pub his fans lauded the Claraghatlea great
Denny Penny Kelleher who with them did celebrate
One who could drink all through the evening and remain on his feet
A legendary character the best of Millstreet

He left the Kilnamartyra pub just before sundown
And pedalled on his bike on the narrow road towards Millstreet Town
Into the freshening wind in the Spring moonlight
He reached his home in Claraghatlea after midnight

I tell you the story as it was told to me
Of a man who created his own history
A champion road bowler when in his life's prime
Though that is going back many decades in time.

For Our Own Survival

Due to habitat destruction and climate change their numbers do shrink
Many species of wildlife at extinction's brink
As dead as the dodo you hear people say
For many rare species things are looking that way
A sad World in the future for every girl and boy
They will not enjoy the things we used to enjoy
For them to view less of the wildborn and free
Will be a much more boring World to live in would you not agree?
What we do to other creatures we do unto our-selves in some sort of a way
More life species becoming endangered or extinct with every passing day
Many creatures that have brought us great pleasure future generations may not see
Their World a different World to live in than that enjoyed by you and me
The creatures we need for our own survival for us is all that seems to count
And all other things to us to nothing does amount.

Have You Ever Struggled

Have you ever struggled to choke back the tears
That yearned to flow for the long gone happy years
When you were fitter, healthier and younger and of life's worries free
Life never returns to what it used to be

Age has brought to you some wisdom but also self doubt
And you now worry of things you used not to worry about
The fear that comes with ageing of growing senile and death
For each one of us of air a final breath

Time eventually does become everyone's foe
You are not the person you were years ago
Anti ageing creams and hair dyes may help to cloak time's decay
But they will not lengthen your life span not even by a day

Your best years behind you and old age is ahead
Our life span in time seems short we will be forever dead
We worry about ageing and dementia and losing our mind
But happiness once lost few ever again seem to find.

The Land Of

The Land of great rivers and clear flowing streams
Her unrivalled beauty i see in my dreams
Her mountains and woodlands her fields evergreen
I wish i could write of the beauty i've seen
Of beautiful things like the lake by the hill
The birthplace of the ever babbling silver tongued rill
That flows to the river non-stop twenty four hours a day
To the distant ocean many miles away
The land of O Neill and the dauntless Red Hugh
And of Maeve of Connacht and Brian Boru
And Cuchullain and Ferdi going away back in time
The heroes of folklore and story and rhyme
The Romans named it Hibernia Land of Winter so historians say
The Country that is known as Ireland today.

Hannie Murphy

Cockhill's Hannie Murphy is at rest to day
Her remains in Drishane not far from the Finnow lay
Perhaps she is playing cards in Heaven from Earth far away
In forty five drives with Millstreet's best card players she did hold sway
A wonderful person as i do recall
Her lot will be my lot since death is for us all
I went to school with and played football with her only son Dan
And he like his mother a true gentleman
A kind and compassionate person and a pleasure to meet
And one who was never tainted by conceit
A huge loss to her family and many friends in Millstreet
Yet to live a good life is an honorable feat
In Cockhill in the flesh never to be seen again
But good memories of her with us will remain.

The Journey Too Daunting

Life is hard for most amateur writers they can only dream of wealth and fame
They are almost unknown on their own streets where few would even know them by name
And yet they do never stop writing their dreams in life they pursue
They live with publisher rejection dreams in life seldom come true
Literature is like life in general many must lose for one for to win
Though to try hard without being successful should never be deemed as a sin
In literature so many failures and only the successful few
You may add to that if you so wish go tell us something that is new
In human life few winners and so many losers that has always been the case
But to try hard without being successful ought never to be your disgrace
Those who give up on their dream admit to failure those who try hardest eventually succeed
For to become a successful writer patience and perserverance you do need
Not too many successful writers though all things in life are the same
For many the journey too daunting to wealth and to glory and fame.