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My four year old writes better poetry than all of you , it's true .
In my child’s  gwatchy babble,  words are spun,
the secrets is joy, of play,  and of  fun.
Purity is not found in the chase or the climb,
But in the small, simple words that echo through time.
Hooshknee, we say, with a knowing glance,
Shows us the way to our happiest dance.

Let us not forget, as you craft and we mold,
That inspiration is fleeting, and life  should be bold.
In the words that they speak, in the sounds that they make,
Lies a purity we often forsake.
For in the small things, the fun and the free,
We find the magic we long to see.
Like us, you really want to be free.

The realm of unfettered youth where words are toys for play,
Where sounds are shaped and colors  do sway,
There came a day when her small voices rang,
Lifting  through the skreegy that the world tried to hang.
Gwatchy, they called, with a wink and a cheer,
A word like a spark that the mind now holds dear
Coolish, neat, a burst of delight,
A dance in the brain for the depths of the night.

And from this dawn, from the chaos and cheer,
Came skreegy, a word that we hold so near
A mark of the messy, the fractured, the torn,
Hooshknee hearts unpolished,  our souls reborn.
Oh, skreegy, they sang, with joy and with glee,
For not all that is broken fails to be free.

Then came Hooshknee, like a riddle in air,
A word that floats weightless, without a care,
A question unasked, a thought undefined,
A call to the unknown, a wonder confined.
Hooshknee, oh hoosh, a whisper so light,
A dance of indecision that ignites the rite.

We, the artists, toil with  might,
Chasing  lost purity’ but lost in the fight
rid the world’s  skreegy grime and restore the lost gleam,
To craft art with dignity, to hold onto the dream.
But the clutter of bias, the weight of our strife,
Dim the beauty of play, and the joy of your life.
That's only a scratch as to why she's so much better. she would school you all, if you'd only let her.

For in your learned bias, we hinder our soul,
Chasing success, we lose the true whole.
For in striving to succeed, you forget how to live,
And we rob our own hearts of what they could give.
But in Gwatchy and skreegy, we find the true key Hoosh , hoosh hoosh with one more Hooshknee
In the mess of the world you all created  we were meant to be free.
Especially a bright beautiful soul with an inner light like hers
Don't be hateful or jealous cause you let yours be poisoned and die
She is the light and the truth and doesn't even have to try.
Donall Dempsey Jan 2022
"AHHHH PADDY IS IT YOURSELF THAT'S IN IT?"
( In memory of Paddy Kavanagh )

"Howya Paddy!"
I address him
in the friendleist of terms

Paddy doesn't say a word
as not only is he dead
but a statue into the bargain

I switch to
thought-thinking
"Ahh that's better!" snaps Paddy

"I suppose ya couldn't
wipe that pigeon poo
from my left eye?"

he clocks on that
today I am
bicycle-less

"Where's the wheels?"
he asks gruffly
"Dead!" I almost cry  

"Dead is it
ya don't tell me!"
"Dead surely!"


"Cycling to an interview
I was so I was
and a posh car knocked me down!"

"Terrible,,,terrible!" Paddy sighs
"But sure tell me
did ya get the auld job!"

"Indeed I didn't and sure
wasn't it the interviewer
that knocked me down!"

"No...no!" he whistles
through his teeth
I hoosh a pigen off his head

we had a bit of a contretemps
about signalling
I said I had...he said I hadn't

"Listen..." says the statue softly
a drop of rain
landing on his chin

"Ya wouldn't read
one of me poems
ta me....would ya?"

"I would to be sure
sure isn't that the why
I've come here today!"

and so I begin
the daily ritual
turning my voice into his words

"Every old man I see..."
and I see his old ghost smile
"In October-coloured weather"

Seems to
say to me
I was once your father"

"Ahhh!" the statue says to me
"Yer a grand man...a grand man
so ya are!"
"Paddy" Kavanagh is one of John Coll's most prominent works of art, situated on the north bank of the Grand Canal on Mespil Road. The statue was built as part of the Dublin 1991 European City of Culture celebrations, unveiled by President Mary Robinson. It was inspired by his poem "Lines written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin".

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