A-Wandering a poem by Liam UiCearbhaill

Part of my love of poetry is in simply playing with the sounds and meanings of words. When I can combine it with themes from ancient Celtic tales I am even more pleased. This has always been one of my favorite poems. I originally published it as a poster, then included it in the first edition of Poetry's Purpose and (of course) in the revised edition. As with all of my poetry it is best appreciated if you say aloud.

This poem is in the collection Poetry's Purpose

Available for Kindle download at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YX2VZ78

Available in Printed version at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/uicearbhaill

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A-Wandering

If I should go a-wandering
A-wondering
A-lumbering
If I should go a-slumbering
All through the ancient woods

And find therein a meadow bright
On starry night
With Faery light
And they should not take all a-fright
But meet with me for good

And should I then come all undone
As rising sun
Is ending fun
And leave me sitting sad and glum
All in that meadow green?

Where flowers form a merry crown
With dew around
On daisyed ground
But still my mood is dark and brown
From missing what I’ve seen

Then shall I go a-stumbling
A-bumbling
A-crumbling
As to my home I’m trumbling
All through that sylvan gloom

And there I’ll find my measly hole
That teasing goal
My broken gaol
And there I’ll find my private Sheol
Swept on depressions broom

For once I have seen Faery land
With gladdened bands
And monarchs grand
For once on Faery Hill I’d stand
I’d never more have peace

Within this realm’s mundanity
Stupidity
Rapidity
Within this world’s lucidity
Nay! Sure I’d seek release

Frank and Angela - a poem by Liam UiCearbhaill (they said it could not be done)

 Frank and Angela

Frank and Angela

They were through

Frank was dumb

But Angela knew

Excitement was the

Thing she craved

But Frank was dull

As Marines are brave

Her eyes were green

Her hair was orange

And many evenings

Frank would bore Ang-

ela till her eyes

Bled tears

And so she left

To calm her fears

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This poem is in the collection Poetry's Purpose

Available for Kindle download at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YX2VZ78

Available in Printed version at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/uicearbhaill

Somehow, Somewhere, Somewhen, Somewhy - a poem by Liam UiCearbhaill

This poem was two years in the making. I have Tourette's Syndrome and, while I do not break into profanity when stressed, I do find myself stuck on certain phrases and words that stick to me like the song from a Disneyland Ride. The refrain from this poem was one such phrase that stuck with me for two years until I put it into this poem. Then, having packaged it appropriately, I did not have it constantly running through my brain anymore.

If you enjoy my poetry, please share the link, post a comment, or buy my book.

Thank you,

Liam UiCearbhaill

This poem is in the collection Poetry's Purpose

Available for Kindle download at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YX2VZ78

Available in Printed version at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/uicearbhaill

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Somehow, Somewhere, Somewhen, Somewhy

Somehow, somewhere, somewhen, somewhy

The world will change for you and I

The mean shall leave in a chartered boat

Across the deeps of space they’ll float

And all that they shall leave behind,

The good, the true, the clean, the kind

The poor shall rise up from their sheds

And take their place in silken beds

The sick shall be by health set free

And hospitals shall art stores be

Somehow, somewhere, somewhen, somewhy

The smog shall leave our tortured skies

The streams shall run with water clean

And slums shall sprout with forests green

The bison shall, with thunder, roam

In massive herds their former home

Dioxins, lead and DDT

Shall from our world forever flee

And greenhouse gases shall disperse,

The Mother’s balance reign on Earth

Somehow, somewhere, somewhen, somewhy

The children shall no longer cry

Their bellies full and raised in love

Without the scream, the hit, the snub

And valued shall their elders be

Those hoary heads give wisdom free

The White, the Brown, the Black, the Red

Shall leave their hatreds lying dead

Behind them in the road of life

And charge ahead, full free of strife

Somehow, somewhere, somewhen, somewhy

I may desert these dreams and lies

I may become a cynic true

And turn from skies of deepest blue

To grudgingly accept the fate

That comes to those who whine and hate

‘Til then I’ll hold that some sweet day

The world will find a better way

And pray that when my hope is gone

Some other fool will carry on

Dirt - a poem by Liam UiCearbhaill

My process for writing poetry is this; I keep a small notepad in my shirt pocket with a handy ball point pen. I put all sorts of things in those notepads, Serial numbers and model of computer equipment I am working on; ideas for stories I want to write; hours I have worked for a single client to be billed later; and poetry. When the muse strikes I want to take advantage of it. Occasionally, if I really like the piece or if I think it is timely, I will post it to my blog or to Facebook right away. More often I leave it on the page and ignore it. Later, when the pages are filled up, I get a new, blank notepad and I go through the old one. I transfer information I want to reference on a regular basis and I carefully transcribe all the poetry to files on my computer (I wish I had done that years ago, I lost a few good poems by not doing that).

I do not remember writing this poem. When I was reviewing poems to include in my revised edition I found this in the files of poems I had transferred from some notepad into the computer. I know it is mine because of where I found it and that it speaks in the poetic voice I have developed. I like it, so I included it in the collection. I hope you like it too!

I welcome comments, shares, subscriptions to my blog, and other signs of approval!

This poem is in the collection Poetry's Purpose

Available for Kindle download at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YX2VZ78

Available in Printed version at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/uicearbhaill

Also available at the Book Juggler in Willits:  http://www.thebookjuggler.com/index.php

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Dirt

The old man watched as the treasured earth slipped through his weathered hand

“’Tis sixty years I’ve walked these fields and tilled this patch of land

Since first my father said to me ‘Dirt is the stuff of life.

Husband it well, My Joy, My Son, and take the land to wife’”

He slowly stood with the ache of years and the glow of a man content.

“I’ve kept it well and my grandson now will keep it when I am spent.

I never thought of the land as mine, though my name is on the deed.

I’m only the one who tended the soil, in springtime spread the seed.

It belonged, I thought, to my great-grandson, and those who will follow him

I’ve kept it in trust for the sons of sons”, he said with an ancient grin.

I looked at the dirt, with its crust of frost, beneath that stark blue sky.

I thought of the man and his years of care and the future alive in his eye,

“But shall the world still be here when your great-grandson is old?

Or shall we have made it a barren waste, polluted and lifeless and cold?”

“Life can be found in this frozen soil, and hope can be found in Man.

We simply must live for our great-grandsons and husband for them the lands.”

Some thoughts on Genetic Modification

This started out as a response to an article my brother shared on Facebook which explored potential collaboration between Genetic Modification (specifically marker assisted breeding) and Organic Farming.

I have to admit to both a logical and an emotional reaction to Genetic Modification, and it is mixed. I would separate my issues on the basis of methodology, the specific purpose of the modification, and intellectual property rights.

Methodology:

Simple breeding, and marker assisted breeding do not bother me at all. Humans have been doing that in one form or another as long as we have been practicing agriculture and husbandry.

Transgenic implantation is another matter. With at least some of the earlier transgenic implantation the target gene was only part of what was implanted. They were often part of a bundle of genes, and the stuff that came with it may or may not have had an effect on the resulting organism. Even in the case of a well targeted implantation I would like to see the precautionary principle applied rigorously to these organisms. When introducing a mutation (which is essentially what is happening) that does not have many generations in similar organisms for study there may be long term or subtle effects that are not swiftly apparent.

Fully designed organisms, which I have found theorized and some references to early successes, bother me a lot. They do not have the safeguards of existing organisms to compare as a control group. They have no history on which to base reasonable predictions. I don't think we know enough to mess around with this field yet. We are children playing with grown up tinker toys.

Specific Purpose:

Modifications to improve the survival of a whole class of organisms, such as the work done to immunize oranges from a disease against which they contained no natural immunity, is troubling to me but justifiable. Jobs, economy, and nutrition would all be dramatically affected by the extinction of oranges. The search was made extensively for a variety that showed immunity, to no avail. Drastic measures were called for. I still strongly urge the precautionary principal be applied to the new organism because we do not know what other effect the implanted gene may have.

Modifications to improve the nutritive value of the organism, such as golden rice, though impressive and well motivated I find less justifiable. There are many cultivars of grain currently in existence that can provide similar nutritive value to golden rice, or can be combined with other foods to accomplish the same things, without the inherent risks I perceive in transgenic implantation. Spending our efforts on conserving heritage cultivars and landrace varieties, and searching through them for traits which can be hybridized through marker assisted breeding will, I believe, give us much greater value in the long run.

Modifications to better use chemicals, or to induce the organism to produce pesticides, such as 'Round-up Ready' or Bt corn, angers me because it creates the risk I have referenced above and multiplies it by the creation or encouragement of toxin use on our food sources. I do not always eat organic, though I much prefer to do so. I would far rather see insect damage on the food I eat then consume the toxins used to combat them. Bt toxin, sprayed on crops, is an organic pesticide that does not linger in the soil or the food. Bt toxin, produced organically by the food bearing organism, is present in the food when we eat it. Some evidence, which warrants further study, suggests the hypothesis that Bt implanted food may induce human intestinal bacteria to begin production of Bt toxin directly. That possibility greatly disturbs me. There are already cases in which the targeted pests and weeds for which the modifications developed a tolerance for the toxins (Bt and Round-up) such that further modifications became necessary. We need to find ways to avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides altogether through moving away from monoculture, moving towards no-till agriculture, and focusing on building healthy soil. The use of 'Round-up Ready' crops and Bt implanted crops is just as wrong-headed as expanding our use of coal and tar sands is in relationship to Global Climate Change.

Intellectual Property Rights

Perhaps the most disturbing element of Genetic Modification, to me, is the resulting patents on seeds and the restrictions on saving seeds. For at least the last 10,000 years humans practicing agriculture have saved seeds. During those millenia a great many civilizations have risen, dominated, collapsed, and disappeared. It is probable that our civilization will do the same (the growing weight of Climate Change, environmental toxicity, resource depletion, and damage to the oxygen cycle threaten to bring that about sooner rather than later if left unchecked). The trend to create life technologies that require high-tech maintenance over long generations is an act of arrogance only topped by allowing heritage varieties to go extinct. We threaten the survival of the survivors from our civilization. Seeds are our inheritance from the generations that have gone before, and they are the inheritance we leave to the generations that will follow us. We are, or should be, stewards of that inheritance and we need to treat them with the respect they are due.