Faithfulness

 I celebrate a man

I celebrate a man who was my teacher

Who adopted our ambitious class

I think of him as I listen to Beethoven 

He played for us in his spare time. 

I think of the afternoons he gave us

Training on the rugby pitch on narrow eves

When winter light vanished early

And mud was everywhere. 

It was more than lessons 

He was good to me and guided

The faltering steps in my career

He had my back in good times and in bad. 

Many years later and we became friends

The difference in age dissolved over time

Intrigued by a man who had stayed faithful

As the bark of Peter lurched and rolled. 

I could have been that man of course

Had he not suggested De La Salle was not for me

If I had not joined the strangest order

That still has me mystified. 

A tall and handsome man he had his chances

There was a woman he found attractive

But could not bring himself to break his word 

Fidelity meant everything to that generation. 

His latter years spent in empty corridors

For few had found the courage or the health

To join him on the journey

That led at last to eternity. 

The Ode to Joy has burst upon my screen

First heard in prefab classrooms in sixty nine, 

Gathers me up in ecstasy 

And leads me to believe that freedom will win out

Some day in dear Ukraine. 

In homage to Brother Thomas Durnin FSC

24/2/22