John's Song (excerpt from chapter 2 of Our Lady of Knock: At Father Kell's)

On the hillside my love dances
where the wind tosses back
her black and wavy hair;
Her eyes laugh
glimmering like shimmering fish on a blue pond
She lays down on a grassy knoll
of wildflowers blooming;
I wish I were the green grass to lay her head upon,
I wish I were the robin to sing her a merry song.

Alas, my true love has left me
and found another land
and cast my soft heart
to dry on the salty strand.