'Christmas is coming; the goose is getting fat.

Please put a penny in the old mans’ hat.

If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will…

And there are among them composers of verses whom they call Bards; these singing to instruments similar to a lyre, applaud some, while they vituperate others. -- Diodorus Siculus, 8 BCE

All poets have the uncanny ability to tap into the realm of spirit. It is a gift…

Within the written she resides 

in quiet assurance of her place. 

Lithe and languid, with regal mien, 

she glides from the page bearing gifts.

The mantle, flowing through the ages,

envelops her in verity profound.

Gently musing all the while, 

in soft tones of…

Geneticists at Trinity College, Dublin have recently discovered that the Irish gene pool is the least diluted in all of Europe if not indeed, the world. They have also discovered that the Irish traveling people (tinkers) are purely…

Oh! to return to that time, place and space of yesterday's papers. Back when I was young, undaunted and sure of nothing, stronger than an oak, spellbound in innocence. Back when being seventeen was wide-eyed and ‘rarin to go, driven by the magical, heady arrogance of youth. Back to that time of transitional transmissions when the curtain was torn down, rent…

My writing has always been deeply influenced by the Irish writers whose inspiration prompted me to pick up the quill and follow in their footsteps.  This is my humble tribute to William Butler Yeats ...

I went down to the cool, dark woods,

when night owls were on the wing.

On earthly ghosts and raging floods

embraced my lonely…

I’ve been down in the green valley, the Holy place.

The one where the river flows ever onward to its birthplace, carrying the tortured history, winding slow with measured precision, to cast upon the ocean. Down where the sacred hills, those silent sentinels to the glorious but tragic past, keep watch in painful solitude. Down where the spirits keen and await each dawn…

"A writer is not interested in explaining reality. He’s only interested in capturing it.” ~ Brendan Kennelly.

 Inside my father's bones lie a million secrets.

 Secrets passed down the long chain from…