Accomplished Newry poet, James Patterson has been good enough to offer a few of his works for publication here, and we are honoured and delighted. I know the ‘seed and breed’ of the man, as we’d say locally, and am delighted to make the acquaintance of the third generation. I do hope I was not the inspiration for this first poem of his!
Three likely candidates!
McParland’s Elder
That gammy wretch of wrinkled read, Of glassy Gullion grade, Was once the swaggering stallion steed Of tack and tender trade;
The surly brood of bygone brave, The glim’ring heat of haste – That very species, shrewd, unshav’d Was one time truth of taste; A Sapphire-cobalt winking shred Of mantle shuffling frame – Are years passed by, for us to say ‘My, my, oh what a shame’?
…
On the other hand, with that allusion to Gullion, could it be Santanta he is writing of?