Tag: Shannon

Shannon

Your blue eyes linger

With your impish grin

Your dark hair wavers

The joy that’s within

5,000 days is too long my girl

Much too long

Time to come home

At the end of this song

 

You play in the meadow

With sun in your hair

You shout at your sister

With barely a care

5,000 days is too long my girl

Much too long

Time to come home

At the end of this song

 

Your voice resonates

In the caverns of my mind

Your tears wash away

What was left behind

5,000 days is too long my girl

Much too long

Time to come home

At the end of this song

 

You run over the sand

Your buckets to fill

We sit and watch blithly

From the side of the hill

5,000 days is too long my girl

Much too long

Time to come home

At the end of this song

 

We walk the old wall

Along by the farm

You scream with laughter

Safe in my arm

5,000 days is too long my girl

Much too long

Time to come home

At the end of this song

 

Now 11 years have passed

The memories remain

It’s time to come home

It’s the end of the game

5,000 days is too long my girl

Much too long

Time to come home

It’s the end of the song

 

 

Forever Young

MY eldest son has just celebrated his 30th birthday and suddenly I feel very old indeed.
Meanwhile, my youngest boy is still only 12 years-old. He provides a natural counter-balance as I stumble through my late 50s.
To state that he keeps me young is a barbed understatement.
My life revolves around him and my wife, as in turns we fetch and carry him to rugby, football, cricket, taekwondo and choir. And as parents we cheer his successes and chastise when needed. Coming up in the next seven days is a school Oscar ceremony (where he has won an Oscar!) a pop choir event, a village summer fete at his old primary school… oh and a trip to the dentist!
But his very being also teaches me my real age. He can run circles around me with any new technology, I cannot understand the music he listens to, far less name any of the artists and I am constantly exhausted.
Would I change things?
Never!
I wrote out the lyrics and recorded this song by Bob Dylan for all my beautiful children. So Ben, Tan, Rhia, Shannon and Nathan… this is for you… and me!

Poem: Don’t Look Away

Sionnan I love you dearly

Don’t look away

I never left you

Sionnan I long to see you

Don’t look away

I am still waiting

Sionnan I long to hear you

Don’t look away

I still need you

Sionnan I long to hold you

Don’t look away

I am not leaving

Sionnan I long to kiss you

Don’t look away

I am not running

Sionnan I long to sense you

Don’t look away

I am still pleading

Sionnan I will not leave you

Don’t look away

This is your father.