Memory of My Father
Every old man I see
Reminds me of my father
When he had fallen in love with death
One time when sheaves were gathered.
That man I saw in Gardner Street
Stumbled on the kerb was one,
He stared at me half-eyed,
I might have been his son.
And I remember the musician
Faltering over his fiddle
In Bayswater, London,
He too set me the riddle.
Every old man I see
In October-coloured weather
Seems to say to me:
"I was once your father."
~~
Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967)
from A Soul for Sale, 1947
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada]
"Memory of My Father" read by Declan O'Connor.
Courtesy Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.
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