Take Heart

Dedicated to my friends, the best fighters I know
.
When you are down and you feel all is lost;
When all around you is nothing but blame;
When all you have endured bears a high cost;
Take heart because you’re still in the game.

Some think it’s only a victory to win,
And some never settle for second best;
But their game is not the one you’re in,
Take heart because you face a sterner test.

You face the sterner test and you overcome,
And you kept dignity throughout the bout;
Though there are hurdles you do not succumb,
Take heart for your trust dispels any doubt.

And when you think things are beyond a try,
When you think you’ve done it all before,
Remember, it takes courage to just cry,
Take heart setbacks are nothing to deplore.

Take heart for all things ever ebb and flow,
Take heart for when dark there also follows light,
Take heart for out of tough things you shall grow,
And you shall grow because you fought the fight.

Beast

All of a sudden it lunged at me
This huge black beast
Growling and fiercely terrifying ,
Its razor sharp claws,
Swiping out at me
And I on the ground
Using my heels to push myself away from it
Instead of getting on my feet
And calmly saying
I am not afraid
I have claws too.

Tear

Keep me in your heart,
Till I or love are gone,
Then let me out
Like a homeless tear,
Upon your cheek,
Sweetheart.

Holiday

I have fifty in my sight.

Say that’s one a week
For fifty weeks -
That’s not too ambitious;
I’ll still have two weeks off for holidays;
I need a break;
I intend to go to Rome this year -
I promised myself I would;
I’ll spend the first week in the old city,
Visit St Peter’s Basilica
And the Colosseum,
Obviously climb the Spanish Steps,
I’ve always wanted to to that;
Maybe toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain
So I’ll go back;
The second week I’ll spend exploring the country;
And after that, I’ll quite happily start writing
About the things I haven’t done yet;
But first, I need a holiday.

Faith

From tar-black waters I draw in my net:
Tonight the sea has chosen not to love;
Oh how it has angered since I first set
Out, then ’twas a reflection of heaven above.
Now boat and I are battered by wild waves,
And I know not if I shall homeward return;
I know not if lives like mine God saves,
And it frightens me. I frown, O falsehood, I mourn -
And wonder whether or not he will reach out his arm,
And steer me to, or from, a watery grave.
Dear God, grant it be so that I come to no harm,
Oh say this life was not just for death gave.
And if not, if this be my time, then I go unafraid,
For I have lived well and loved much:
Moreso, I have learnt that a man such as thou made,
If he has faith, has enough.

Declan O’Reilly

The flowers are but brief to cherish

The flowers are but brief to cherish
And our regard once gone is scant;
From the moment we do perish,
Our life's worth is no more plant.

We carry no roots to the earth,
No pledge that we shall bloom next year,
Our seasons come with sad and mirth,
Both shine and storm we have to bear.

We are as flowers out of soil,
We have such a short time to grow;
Ere winter comes to end our toil,
Love what you have before it go.

Love that life for ‘tis a short show,
Ours is not to exist ahead;
For we are as fleeting as snow,
And that of life, this much we dread.

The flowers are but brief to cherish,
And we are as brief as them still,
From the moment we do perish,
All we were is all the space we fill.

Declan O'Reilly

Lament

Dear Nation, we bow our heads as we tread;
Our heart’s are heavy, our spirit near broke;
No eulogy from plinth or alter were read,
And yet it is among the distressed spoke;
The young state had died, her virtue is gone;
Her colours shames, hang like a white flag;
We mourn all the ideals our forebears won;
The wolves of Europe have killed the great stag;
And we weep. We weep as the despair gets worse,
We weep for those that deteriorate most,
Our hope is as spent as our squandered purse;
We swore to be free, it is no more boast
We chain those that gave less than they could give -
With this, our one curse. We will not forgive.

Declan O’Reilly