The Only Heaven I Do Know Of

I do not believe on an afterlife heaven since the heaven i know it is all around me
Every day on my walks in Nature such amazing beauty i do see
The white butterflies they are dancing above the flower beds and the sunlit trees
On a beautiful sunny day in late November with only a slight southerly breeze
My heaven it is all around me i walk in it's woods every day
The silver billed magpies are singing on the trees in the park by the bay
Late Spring in South Western Victoria is such a beautiful time of the year
The familiar song of the male blackbird is always a joy for to hear
A young calf in the nearby paddock is calling to her mother cow
The only heaven i do know of it is in the here and the now
The dark welcome swallows are chirping as fast as a car they do fly
In their pursuit of flying insects above me in the sunlit sky
So many people in the World to their god in heaven do pray
But the only heaven i do know of is where i am living today.

They Will Have Us To Blame

Without a healthy natural environment you cannot have a healthy nation
And there will be far less jobs for to work in for the future generation
That the economy is built on the natural environment seems only true to say
And for our bad environmental practices the future generations will have to pay
When we abuse the natural environment we rob the nation of it's soul
We have to stop mining fossil fuels and burning brown and black coal
We have to turn to renewable energy the gifts of sun and wind
To Mother Earth who feeds us we have not been a good friend
Far too many polluting factories in every big city and town
We would be better off and far healthier if all mines were closed down
And though Climate Change is a natural occurrence as everyone does know
Without a healthy natural environment the economy cannot grow
There will not be many jobs for the future generation which does seem a great shame
But for our bad environmental practices they will have us to blame.

You Will Be Dead Forever

Even the casual clothes we wear to some young people do seem out of fashion
Our better years long in the past we have lost the youthful passion
For life that we had years ago though we have not lost our desire for to keep living
Since few ever have a wish to die though time is unforgiving

Every baby is born with a soul as a fountain for joy and laughter
Though none has come back post bodily death for to tell of a life hereafter
When Life's Reaper comes reaping your way by your God you too will be forsaken
And from the eternal sleep of death none ever does awaken

It is said that Jesus Christ the son of God whose name lives on in glory
Was crucified and rose from the dead and so many believe this story
Yet many of those who believe in a God harbor a morbid fear of dying
They may say they believe in God's Kingdom in the sky but their fear of death says they are lying

Time on our lives does tick away and leaves us looking and feeling older
With loss of hair and age wrinkles and pains of back and shoulder
Some of us become thin and frail with age and others grow old and fatter
And our material gains at life's journey end to us then will not matter

Though most of us retain the lust for living we have lost our youthful passion
And even the casual clothes we wear nowadays seem out of fashion
From your greatest gift the gift of life eventually death you will sever
So live for as long as you can live for you will be dead forever.

I Have Not Seen Them For Years

I have not seen them for years my friends over there
Some of them like i did went to live elsewhere
And some of them with the deceased now does lay
For all of us there is a last night and day

Today i would be a stranger to many in and near Millstreet Town
Where i spent my best physical years when my hair was dark brown
But of my friends of the past only memories remain
And only in my visualizing i see them again

My journeys in life have brought me far south
Of the home of the rook and the badger and the brown river trout
And today even in Claraghatlea where i grew into a man
I may be a stranger to many in where my life's journey began

The friends of my younger years long past their physical prime
Like me they now would be showing the passing of time
And that i went my own way in life well may be so
But i retain good memories of the long ago

We live in the now and the past it has gone
And tomorrow will dawn and life does go on
And i may never again hear the lowing of a cow
In Spring in a field by old River Finnow.

You Have Not Harmed Anybody

You have not harmed anybody in any way
So why do you worry what others of you do say
And even if they speak untruths of you this gives you no reason to fear
Since of any wrongdoing your conscience is clear
In every village and city and town
There are people in their words who like to drag others down
For to meet one of their sort you do not have to walk far
Not even as far as your local public bar
There are some negative and small minded people for to give them their due
But the saying we are what we are does remain as ever true
It is a fact of life that everyone you know is not your friend
This is how we are why otherwise pretend
And since you have never harmed anybody any attention why bother to pay
Of the negative things of you that a few do say.

On Padraig Pearse's Visit To Millstreet

It has been one hundred years since Padraig Pearse came to Millstreet Town
A man wanted by the British as a leader of the rebellion against the soldiers of the Crown
Who were occupying Ireland then the feared and loathed black and tan
The brave leader of the nineteen sixteen rising in Dublin was quite an inspiring man

To most of the population of Ireland then but it does seem sad to say
That for his love of his Country Padraig Pearse with his life was made to pay
When he was one of those who was executed by the British as a revolutionary foe
After the failed Easter Rising in Dublin ninety nine years ago

After a speech in Millstreet Town he visited Howard's Railway Hotel
Though none living today of this historical occasion to tell
Where with Duhallow's Sinn Fein leaders he met with and did dine
In the pub now known as Corkery's co owned by a descendant of the original owners from the maternal line

Recently on the outer wall of Corkery's Bar by descendants of the original owners Margaret Moynihan and Noreen Corkery a plaque was unveiled
To commemorate Pearse's visit and Tom Meaney, Noel Buckley and Jerry Lehane and Fr Sean Tucker among others hailed
The visit of the brave man who remains a hero to many in the Ireland of today
In his case it was true that the good do not live for to grow old and gray

Since Padraig Pearse visited Millstreet a century of years in time has gone
And today life in the Town in view of Clara Mountain as usual goes on
Most of the babies back then in eternal rest now lay
And life goes on as usual and time as ever ticks away.

The Goldfinches Nest

Their twittering songs carry me far away
To the place where i first looked on the lamp of day
The birds of red around bill, dark brown, fawn and wings tipped with gold
Small feathered creatures of Nature beautiful to behold

Introduced by European man to Australia going back decades in time
Goldfinches have inspired artists and writers of song, story and rhyme
To sketch and write of these birds to lovers of Nature well known
Distinctive in their songs and appearance with ways of their own

I recall the first goldfinch nest i did see
Cup shaped among the leaves of low branch of a tree
Made of moss and lichen and lined with plant down
In the grove by my old home a mile from Millstreet Town

A nest built by the female this is the goldfinch way
With five speckled brown eggs of a palish gray
The male he would help her for to raise their young
The praises of goldfinches so many have sung

This beautiful memory with me does remain
That in my flights of fancy i often visit again
Of the goldfinches nest in the greenness of May
In the grove by my old home from here far away.