Other Writing

My name’s not Jams O’Donnell and I’m not from Dublin town

But a bona fide genius though they sought to do me down

In lounge bars and public the jealous did me slight

Merely idle scribblers yet lauded with high renown

They cry you don’t deserve us but we stage behind your back

And many’s a hack stole my page when I was rather tight

But when life looks black as the hour of night and my atoms are pale and wan

I rage to hell with the civil service fill up the Cruiskeen Lawn

To hell with the civil...

Time in life sorrow sinks deep

Preach me no lies easy but hollow

Steep learning curve no reason or rhyme

Wallow in disguise you just can’t reach

Fear is bleak what’s the point in tryin’

Cryin season’s this week or this year

But at the end of the day there’s always tomorrow

Love dances in perpetual motion

I may be gone but still at your side

When you smile, when you cry

Still holding your hand

When you wake, when you sleep

You can’t see me now, never mind

Because at the end of the day there’s always...

One evening fair I did repair to view sweet Belfast town

A maid I did meet beyond compare, comely, dark and tall

A raven-haired beauty, I said come tell me truly

What makes you frown and tears down your cheeks to fall?

I’m a worker in social care, kind sir, I labour all the day

I clean the old and spoon the food to spare their dignity

A haven for their memories, respite for their families

A prayer to lift their mood I’ll say to show affinity

But at night when my toil is over and wearily I fall

I...

A song lyric for my compadre Davy MacDonald - troubadour and all-round aesthete.

Men in suits with their powdered faces

With dirty money and laundered history

Spin their misery 'cause they hold the aces

Sin in their soul, god close to their heart

- but She’s in their wallet, She’s in the big wallet

- Their god’s in their wallet, She’s in the big wallet

Hate and hate their tattoo’d heart beat

See babies burning, hear mothers crying

No buyer’s remorse, the votes were churning

Just keep on lying, keep...