So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland

March 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is national identity, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17, and Purim, which fell on March 11 and 12.

Today’s poem is a Saint Patrick's Day poem about letting go the dream of a purely Irish Ireland.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

So let it go, that mythic Ireland!

Treasure the past, but let it, let it go!

Perhaps it was at one time wholly our land --

All of it -- but that was long ago.

The time when states were nations is now ending.

Races know no borders; people move

In search of life, their clothes and colors blending

Cultures that must now their presence prove.

Know, then, that not politics, but art,

'Mid neighbors various in faith and race,

Sustains a people's history and heart,

Dependent more on ritual than place.

As on St. Patrick's Day we march in green,

Yet we must let go the blood-drenched dream.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/soleti.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: National Identity

March 13: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been

March 14: Praised Be Those Who Remember to Remember

March 15: Let There Be One Race – The Human Race

March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland

March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland