Poet’s Corner by John J. Burns 

FREEWHEELER NEWS 

February 2020 / March 2020 

Page 19 

IRELAND 

Half Irish New Yorker, that I am; who in many midnight dreams, saw green fields in multi shades sliced by your fish filled streams; and once – at a dreamt rainbow’s end, saw little men dancing
about a gold filled pot it did portend. 

And who – upon waking from a dream perused a poem to see,
if the lakeside cabin I‘d serenely dreamt lay by Yeats’ lake in Innisfree;
and who-flew to you to find for sure, 

the root and cause of your broad allure. 

Driving north from Dublin City to Cashel’s Rock, through Tralee Town and Kerry’s Ring,
in many pubs I paused to sing;
and drink black beer with friendly folks, who with a smile,
and blarney laced with blessed jokes, beckoned me to stay awhile. 

’Twas twixt these pleasant party times
I hunted your history and my bloodlines,
and so came to learn of your famine ships
on which your folks fled hunger
and oppressive Brits,
to shores far off from your County Cork,
-in my grandfather’s case, to my dear New York, where they found opportunity and built new lives,
in their adopted countries-where now your beauty thrives. 

And now I know that by intellect and charm,
your diaspora dealt our world no cause for alarm; for from all that I saw while visiting your shore Ireland, I’m prouder now that I’m Irish than ever before. 

John J. Burns (Copyright December 2013) Author of “Lifebeats” A Collection of Poems by John J. Burns available in Kindle version by searching Amazon.Com