Ronnie McGinn's Poetry Page

Over a hundred years ago Thomas Babbington Macaulay, English poet, historian and author once said 'As civilization advances poetry almost necessary declines'. It can be argued that civilisation hasn't advanced as very much in the past hundred years. But certainly there is still a child and a savage in us all and because a poet keeps open the channels of communication in his own nature between civilized man and buried child and savage, he can reveal and draw on the hidden irrationality in human nature.

Fionan Cogan of Carrigaline, Co Cork, Ireland, brings the point home exquisitely, with a familiar ring, in his thought provoking poem.

Where's He On About?

In a land far away,
they got a shock one day,
when our boy came to town.
He hit the streets.
Walked all the beats.
Turned the place upside down.

Then sure, he came home,
with a sun-kissed skin tone,
added to the smile on his face.
For all the boys had to hear,
or anyone that would bend an ear,
the experience of the foreign place.

now this boy was let down.
Disappointed by a night on the town.
He was rightly caught,
just not sure by what.
Sure, he's really just a clown!

© Fionan Cogan