GABRIEL FITZMAURICE was born, in 1952, in the village of Moyvane, Co. Kerry where he still lives. For over thirty years he taught in the local primary school from which he retired as principal in 2007. He is author of more than sixty books, including collections of poetry in English and Irish as well as several collections of verse for children. He has translated extensively from the Irish and has edited a number of anthologies of poetry in English and Irish. He has published volumes of essays and collections of songs and ballads. Poems of his have been set to music and recorded by Brian Kennedy and performed by the RTÉ Cór na nÓg with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. An Honorary Member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts in Hungary, he is a recipient of the Listowel Writers’ Week John B. Keane Lifetime Achievement Award. He frequently broadcasts on radio and television on culture and the arts.
To My Son As He Leaves Home
Son, just to have you ’round the house is good,
The way you make your presence felt. I’ll miss
The way that being with you was drink and food;
The future beckons, now it’s come to this.
You’re leaving, son, I wish you all the best,
May every good that life can give be yours,
Stand firm, love, when life becomes a test,
Remember that the good you do endures.
You’re leaving, son, take all you need from me,
It’s freely given as it was when you
Needed me, a baby on my knee,
Needed me as to a man you grew.
I love you son, I shed a happy tear
As I let you go in faith and hope and fear.
To My Daughter, Pregnant
She brings me eggs from chickens she has reared,
Cabbages and carrots she has grown,
All the things about her for which I feared
Have come to naught: she's come into her own.
She brings me eggs from chickens she has reared,
Soon she'll be a mother. I rejoice.
Daughter, from the moment you appeared,
You gave me songs to sing in joyful voice.
Soon you’ll be a mother and you’ll give
Not eggs just but a grandchild to adore,
Another reason for a man to live
For a grandchild adds its blessings to our store.
Pregnant with the life in which you bloom,
You bless us with the child within your womb.
Copyright © Gabriel Fitzmaurice 2011
