As a youth

 As a youth 

As a youth he could not sit still

He couldn’t walk but run

Though he took his time appearing

in nineteen fifty one. 


Beneath a holy mountain

Reflected in Clew Bay

With a scattering of islands

For every single day. 


He led the boys and girls

Up to the Holy Altar

On First Communion Day 

Left his partner in a canter. 


Nearly seventy years on

And life has slowed down

Sitting with a stoop

Gone the days of cock a hoop. 


Happy memories looking back

At the years that came between

The rugby fields of Churchtown 

The squash courts later on. 


The bracing mountain walks

The stretch along the sand

The pilgrims way in Spain

The joy of pleasant company. 


Now all left behind

In the corner of the mind

Happy that they happened

They come alive again. 

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