killing dolphins,
an antidote to evolution,
impotent as unworshipped deity,
the butchers go about their business.


& im sure that upon evenings,
they too return,
to families,
loosen buckles,
take dinner by the fireside,
& chew with their mouths open;
cradling infants upon their breast.
shielding their innocence.


starlight glides upon the waves,
constellations fearless in their immortality.
& that humbling perspecacity of thought,
that is haunting resonance,
giving way to dull thud & echo,
shields us from ourselves.


but hush,
no more of that,
for it is september,
& the cull begins again.
gerard 5 ~ november ~ 2009

reminders of mortality,
arrive so unexpectedly,
a life, short lived, tragically taken,
the death of a child in the autumn.


& in hushed tones, alone,
we remember the one,
whos unkept promise,
shall forever go a-begging.


just beyond this horizon,
just out of ear-shot,
a pregnant pause,
upon the moment of surrender.


& how, now, do we,
fill the stretch in the evening,
when words remain unspoken,
for fear of memories reprisal.


the horror of this thing,
reveals itself in son, in daughter,
& for now, all i know,
is i shall never be a father.


gerard 31/october/2009
gerard 31/october/2009

the sad fact about this, second, lisbon campaign is that the majority of, so-called, 'debate' has, in fact, consisted of an unhealthy mix of hyperbole and scaremongering.

with a treaty which is practically indecipherable and in these troubles times of recession and financial and ideological bankruptcy, people are susceptible to fears regarding their futures and that of their families. this has allowed the scaremongers free range.

so to put it simply,here are the reasons why i am voting 'NO': for a second time......

1/the death of democracy :
this referendum comes less than 18 months after the first one. therefore it is completely unnecessary as the people have already had their 'say' on it and their voice has been duly ignored by their 'government'. this trend which has arisen in ireland in recent times of a government presuming that it knows better than the people that elected them is extremely worrying. rather than returning to europe and, to all intents and purposes, apologising for the irish vote, they should have gone to europe and declared the treaty 'dead in the water'. if one country refuses to endorse it,the treaty fails. we HAVE spoken, our voice has been ignored. it is completely disingenuous for my 'goverment' to declare that it has addressed the electorates concerns when they have not spoken to each and every person who voted NO last time.

2/europe is pushing forward with neo-liberal capitalist economic policies. this ultimate and complete trust in the market has failed workers and failed societies throughout the union.
nowhere is this more evident than here in ireland. our local communities have been destroyed, our public services are in ruins, our government is practically bankrupt and unemployment is at its highest rate in the history of the state. our governments recent 'nama' solution is, simply put, a socialism for the rich. basically, keeping the state and the people out of banking etc until the banks fail and need our help.
then we are all expected to rally round and rescue them.thus the fundamental building blocks are exempt from the rules of the market place.
and how banks,the welfare of which is essential to the health of our economy and thus our society,are left in the hands of private,self interested individuals/companies is beyond belief. once the bail-out kicks in,what is to stop banks ruthlessly pursuing profits as they have before and causing exactly the same problems?

nothing.

3/ europe as a federal entity,wishes to enter the arms market and compete for arms trade on the world stage. as a pacifist and a stringent defender of neutrality i find this reprehensible.

4/ due to the 'shifting of power', if we vote 'yes' to lisbon,it is highly unlikely we will ever have the opportunity to vote in a european referendum again.

5/ ireland needs to look at what is best for its workers and their future working conditions. if we are to be in the market for multi-national jobs (and it seems that this is the ONLY hope our current goverment see of future irish employment as they are doing NOTHING to support and encourage indigenous industry) then we must realise that we will have to lower our standards to compete with cheaper economies within the european union. this will invariably affect the minimum wage and workers entitlements/conditions.

so finally to all voters, i would implore you to inform yourselves fully,investigate any claims i have made above fully before you cast your vote. do not be driven by false fears etc but rather as educated democrats do what is best for this great nation and its current and future citizens.

gerard/september 2009

his father was a fisherman,
heaving against the tide,
the call of the sea, so hard to resist,
& the land so easy to leave behind.

but the hidden depths of ocean beds,
send young men to their graves,
tempest tossed in torment,
forever lost upon the waves.

but whom amongst us has not dreamt,
of what lies beneath the deep?
death, the seas sad promise,
all sailors doomed to keep.

his father was a fisherman,
in tune with surf & gale,
and i knew him but for an instant,
before he once again, set sail.

gerard 27~september~2009

poem 18 'three sisters'

three sisters reside
in a hall full of mirrors,
patiently waiting
for wedding or wake,
"for gods sake" she says,
"always a bridesmaid these days"

their uncle sips tea
in a strange private reverie
"what has become of me?"
"wheres all i used to be?"
"for gods sake" he says,
"these damn dormant days"

three sisters preside
over stale wedding breakfast
relations wait patient
for wills to be tendered.
for gods sake we strive,
forgive us our sins
while we're still alive.

gerard 9th june 2009

poem 16

it got dark suddenly,
i called out for my mother
but she did not come.

so i went out into the garden,
barefoot,
alone
& afraid
& yet still, she did not come.

& all around me
was starlight.
it must have been november.
nobody tells me anything.

& it was just then i saw it,
a-swirling in the sky,
all yuletide reds,
buttercup yellows,
jack-o-lantern oranges,
cartwheel graces,
defying the void;
a catherine wheel.

there is no discernable twilight,
it gets dark suddenly.

& this is the way the day ends.

gerard may 2nd ~ 2009

how people live
in wasteland by the railtracks
out of sight
& out of mind
with the vermin.

& how people live
huddled in darkened corners far away from autumn sunlight
craving succour from a pint.

& how people live
long legged from verandas
languid in reclining sunset
drawing comfort
from a half smoked cigarette.

& how people live from conception to extinction,
in a world which has forgotten
how to notice their existence.


gerard ~ easter sunday ~ 11.34am ~ on the stanstead express......

so finally our great 'leader' steps up & deigns rethoric to be the order of the day & waxes lyrical to a room filled with irelands business elite. oh to be amongst one's own..... so what did he actually say?

 1/ he called for "community cohesion" : but Brian ole bean, you were part of, now in charge of, a goverment which promoted the valueless economic 'philosophy' of neo-liberal capitalism which pits neighbour against neighbour in a futile race to the 'top'; a 'goverment' which also allowed public services to be removed from numerous small towns & villages e.g. the post office,the garda station etc. (the post office, for many old people,was a social centre,a place to meet and chat at certain times in the week. consider; rural ireland needs its focal points,places which afford its people an opportunity to mingle and associate). a government which also saw fit to give planning permission to larger supermarkets/business parks on the outskirts of towns,which virtually destroyed smaller shops etc & removed valued business from a town centre. so perhaps this 'community cohesion' you call from sir has been decimated already by your 'government'?

2/ "citizens first,consumers next" brian, if you follow economic policies which encourage people to spend like theres no tomorrow, if you allow banks free reign to market products to financially ailing customers, if you allow inflation to spiral out of all control by encouraging greed as a market force then how can you expect people to act in an altruistic manner, to behave in a manner benefical to all? under the current 'goverment' we ve seen 'rip off ireland' flourish and been allowed nay encouraged to do so. an entire generation has been raised with this mind-set, ingrained with a sense of 'entitlement', how can you now get those young people to change their entire philosophy of life when you ve bred them to it? furthermore, they now see manipulative self interested bankers, who exploited decent irish people, rewarded with a bail out, while over worked nurses & teachers,operating in already under-funded public services, are told that it is they who have to tighten their belts? the arrogance of the elite is truly breathtaking.

 3/ "jobs, jobs, jobs have to be the priority" well,not necessarily brian. secure,well paid, quality jobs are what the people of this country need nay deserve. this recession has become the perfect opportunity for the workers of our once great nation to be exploited even further; part-time status, wage cuts, pension rights abused: a true goverment must ensure that this is not allowed to happen,that the lowest common denominator is not allowed to become the norm.

4/ "a valued way of living" : does this refer to a time when people could expect to have a 'job for life'? when our taxes from our wages paid for the essential services we,as a people, needed? when public companies strived to supply services for the people rather than employ capitalist thinking to consider how they could drain further 'stealth taxes' from the peoples pockets? we too long for those days brian, but thanks to policies employed by your current 'government', those days have long since past. so 'fair play' to you brian; bluster,gusto,good intention we suppose, a captive audience of like minded souls. but ultimately, full of sound and fury,signifying nothing.

 sur,ya have ta laff!

 dontcha......?

 PACIFIX

through the window,
the lights on the mid-western waver,
move slowly, avoiding the snowflakes,
but i'll never know where they're going.....

 in the distance.
it's 'let out' time in the factory.
the heartache of honest endeavour.
yet i'll never work for a living.....


 in my memory.
my mother, she plays the piano.
my father,he mangles the lyrics.
for a house without music is silent.....


& in the future.
i will speak a lot less than i used to.
with the devil to dwell in the details.
there's only so many ways to say nothing......


gerard ~ 3rd of february,in the year of our lord, 2009.

last week, Eircom (irelands chief telecommunications network, once owned by the people of ireland, now sadly privatised) announced its to close 2000 telephone boxes around the republic of ireland. such a short sighted measure has gone completely unrecognised by our sonambulistic govermenent who are currently 'gainfully' employed bailing water from The Good Ship 'Ireland' which they readily sank. a telephone box is a necessity in many small communities;ireland,by its very nature is still a rural country,small towns,small villages,rural communities centered around the pub at the cross roads etc. removing this vital service from the people of ireland should at least warrant discussion & debate in our houses of parliament or through the national media. but alas,silence. this dear friends,is another sad indictment of the flawed policies & lack of social vision our 'government' has shown in recent years. but perhaps they are silent because it was that self same goverment which convinced the irish people that it would be a GOOD thing to sell off the company into private hands. they even went as far as to use the national airwaves to convince us all to buy shares:in a company we already owned!?!
you couldnt make it up folks. and alas,many decent citizens who believed(god help us) that they could actually Trust their own goverment,went right ahead and bought those shares,shares which a couple of years later they were forced to sell as the company fell victim to a takeover bid. (senator shane ross is to be highly commended for being the most vocal of those who spoke out against this and gave a voice to the beleaguered shareholders i.e.the irish people).
when you take into consideration that this privitisation occured just as one of the greatest advances in telecommunications i.e. cell phones were becoming prevalent throughout society,you begin to think of how a well run public company could have made huge profits while providing a reasonably priced and reliable mobile phone service to the irish nation while providing much needed secure employment for irish people. & indeed those profits could be of some benefit to the current tax deficit our country finds itself mired in. & we might have retained those telephone boxes for those who need them.....

 {the garda station-gone. the post office-gone. the p&t box-gone. the corner shop-going,going...} irish rural life : closed.... forever.....?

 PACIFIX 3 February 2009