Terry’ O Donnell: Final Resting Place
picture Kelley BoltonStanding on the crest of the graveyard hill
In the midst of God’s gift of nature’s bounty
There stood an open grave –
Its soil freshly turned towards the atmosphere
To my right St Eugene’s Chapel nestled in a quilt of green fields
Where labouring hands tending their livelihood
Still to pay homage to a friend’s last journey
Dotted here and there within stone walls
Lambs and ewes frolicked and jumped
Beyond, Bessie Bell rose magnificently
Clouds scuttled across a bruised sky
Wind stirred the collar of my coat
Yet its cold breath of November couldn’t dispel my awe
At the beauty of the landscape at Glen Knock;
Terry’s final resting place
A man of many good deeds in parish and in far flung fields
Who took what others cast aside
And brought it to where it enriched children’s lives
Worshippers he knew well by name:
His family: good neighbours, old friends, new acquaintances
Stood in prayerful harmony
Shoulder high they bore him over familiar ground
To his final resting place
A wistful elegy reminds its St Cecelia’s Day
An appropriate day for a man of pen,
Of song of verse to come to rest amongst his ancestral kin
When they meet him at Golden Gate
There’ll be song and verse in the O Donnell heavenly clan this night
I cast my eye upon the mound of clay
That stood in silent testimony
From dust you came and dust you shall return
It was time
Time for Terry to take his music to a higher plane
Leave his earthly body on Glen Knock Hill
For his beloved wife and family
A consoling place for them to come
And chat a while with him
As the new oak gently rested within
A soothing whisper carried on the wind.
“Welcome, you’re welcome grandson dear
You lovingly tended your grandfather and me.
No weeds did you let spread
Above our heads these many years”
I felt his smile upon the air
He was at his Heavenly rest
The weak winter sun caught the turn of the spade
The sods of green fell softly affirming
A new journey had begun for Terry O Donnell
Gemma Hill 2020 ©
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