The purpose of Poetslife is to promote the art and discipline of American Tactical Civil Defense for families and small businesses and to contribute practical American civil defense preparedness guidance for all Americans through my articles in the The American Civil Defense Association (TACDA.ORG) Journal of Civil Defense and leadership as the volunteer Vice President of TACDA.

9/16/2021

Eamon Patrick's Poem and St. Patrick's Mountain Ireland

 Eamon Patrick’s Poem

 

Kicking your mother

from inside the liquid

universe of the womb

I feel so crippled

and broken

when considering

I have so much to teach you

and only the remaining

lifetime to do so.

 

It is hopeless, really,

except these two gems

that came down from a long, long,

line of men and women who survived

centuries of Viking invasions

whose barbarity was only surpassed

by the neighbor invader

who considered genocide

by the rule of law

such a jolly good adventure

and stole all the food

in the very middle

of the famine of all famines.

 

Through it all,

your ancestors survived

tenaciously creative

and green as moss

on the back of a stone

on the gentle Shannon River

and these two gems skip across

that great river to the Delaware

where once, when wondering

of ancestral roots I asked my father,

“Dad, what is it to be American?”

 

“Work.” “What?” I asked.

“Work.” he repeated. 

“Your grandfather worked.

I worked.  You’ll work.”

“That’s all?” “That’s all.” he answered.

 

“Then what is it to be Irish?”

“Hilarity.” He didn’t miss a beat again.

“Hilarity.  You gotta make ‘em laugh.”

So, there it is Eamon Patrick. 

 

If God takes me

before I get to teach you

all you need to know,

let these two words suffice: 

work and hilarity.

 

Work and hilarity

saved your people

over centuries of warfare, pestilence,

invasion, slavery, defeat, and famine

and eventually defeated

the greatest power on earth

so that I could write you this poem.

 

Work and hilarity

can carry you to the universe

and to the other planets

and when you find

a particularly hard planet,

name it “Work,”

and when you find

an especially funny planet,

name it “Hilarity.” 

No matter what the planet or year,

work and hilarity are in your genes

as am I, and all my dreams. 

 

Germantown, MD

February 10, 1996
































St. Patrick’s Prayer

May you arise each day
Through a might strength
The invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the three-ness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

May you arise each day
Through the strength of heaven –
Light of sun. Radiance of moon.
Splendor of fie, Speed of lighting,
Swiftness of wind, Depth of sea,
Stability of earth, Firmness of rock.

May you arise each day
Through God’s strength to pilot you,
God’s hand to guard you,
God’s shield to protect you,
God’s host to save you,
From snare of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From all who shall wish you ill,
Afar and near,
Alone and in multitude.

Christ to shield you this day
So that there come to you
Abundance of reward
Christ with you, Christ before you,
Christ behind you, Christ in you,
Christ beneath you, Christ above you,
Christ when you lie down,
Christ when you sit
Christ when you arise,

Christ in the heart of every
Person who thinks of you.
Christ in the mouth of everyone
Who speaks of you,
Christ in every eye that sees you,

Christ in every ear that hears you.