Sunday, March 16, 2008

St. Patrick's Day



The Irish ignore anything they can't drink or punch.

Top o' the marnin' to ya. It's St. Patrick's Day. I'll be wearing green today to keep someone from pinching me. I am actually a Heinz 57 American. Part Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and American Indian (Native American). Those are the parts we claim anyway. I prefer the term Edenic-American. My roots go back to the Garden of Eden. Thus I am kin to all of the rest of you regardless of classification. I wrote a historical poem about St. Patrick several years ago and you might find it informative. He was Welsh by birth, but later went to Ireland to minister to my pagan ancestors, the Irish. We celebrate the day of his death, which I found a little different. The snakes were symbolic and probably referred to the Druids.


ST. PATRICK

Green beer and drunkenness,
clovers and Leprechauns,
singing and dancing to old
Celtic tunes.
Ireland the “Green Isle”,
the parish of Maewyn,
the bishop, converter, till 461.

March 17th, the day of his death
we celebrate now in secular mirth.
Captured at sixteen by Irish marauders,
sold into slavery,
a Welshman by birth.

He escaped after six years and
fled into Gaul,
where he studied with monks
Christianities’ tenets,
and fourteen years later he
answered the call.

Bishop to Ireland
he preached and converted.
Resisted by Druids,
arrested, escaping,
building schools,
and churches.
Metaphorically chasing,
the snakes from the land.

Maewyn the pagan,
St. Patrick, the Christian
served thirty years in
his mission to Ireland.
His vision,
to see his captors set free.


May you always walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings
right beside your door.


I'll be away from the old computer for a few days, so don't think I'm ignoring you. If I find a place to set up and post along the way I will do so. The post dates may be different from the day they appear, because, I think they show the day they were saved as a draft. Happy St. Patrick's Day.