“Beggar At the Window”

The latest by Pete St. John. What follows is the Mission Statement for the book:

It’s true, I am of Ireland
My home, my land, my life
And my times are confirmation
Of its magic and its strife
It’s all there in the songs we sing
And the music in our lives
Is the freedom of expression
That we need, as it survives
The myths and dreams and fantasies
Of our lawless human thought
The sound of peace for the common man
That so many lives have bought.
What is written here, once happened
And the wounded voice is mine
So much for understanding
And the ravages of time.
It says in living memory
And it haunts the sentient hearts
Of our divided peoples;
Is unanswered by our arts.

The gun is not the answer
But its sceptre words can’t match
For it always was and will be
That the gun is in the thatch.
It’s there because we put it there
With our culture of the gun
And time will not remove it
That is our task to be done.

What was taken must be given back
In one form or another
And man’s imagination
Stop the killing of his brother.
So I write these words in iron ink
And I’ll try to make them sing
It is all I have to offer
And it’s such a paltry thing
Against the willful violence
And the words that caused the sin.
I’m the beggar at the window
I’m the music coming in …

EXCERPT:

Farewell My Derry Love

I walk the road again, my love
Where we walked hand in hand
And kissed all through the lovers’ rain
In our green and pleasant land …

Along the Foyle in secret time
When passion graced our forms
How many dreams we shared, my love
Now gone like summer storms.

Chorus
So kiss me once for frienship’s sake
And kiss me again for your great love of life
And one last kiss for the love we could not ‘tend
For I will love you ‘ till the end.