What Happened on St. David’s Day
In school, we sang:
“Oh, great St David, still we hear thee call us,
unto a life that knows no fear of death”.
It was a life which celebrated song, music, dance
and above all the power and the art of poetry.
Poems were written to exacting form
and the best awarded the highest of honours.
They were learnt by heart by children
who recited them in unison in front of an audience.
We sang about the mountains and the rivers
of the land we loved,
of the blackbird, the thrush, and the cuckoo,
of David of the White Rock,
of idle days in summertime
that lovers spent together,
and lullabies for babies.
We even celebrated the privy at the end of the garden
where the wind blew cold through the cracks,
every morning. ‘The little house ‘we called it.
We sang about loving and living life to the full
and the sound of the Golden Harp
that would sweeten our deaths.
We surrounded ourselves with daffodils
and we laughed a lot.
I really enjoyed this, Chris, lovely details of how you celebrated St David’s day
Thanks Gill. It’s nice to share happy memories.
Lovely details… and I love the wry juxtapositions of ‘little house’ and ‘Golden Harp / that would sweeten our deaths’.
Lovely poem Chris – something about the clear confident list of the things that were celebrated that actually gave me an uplifting feeling in the chest as I read it. Perfect that you then come off that a little with poignancy towards the end with the harp and the ‘little house’ with the wind blowing through the cracks. vivid!