The Queen's visit to Ireland this past week

Listening to the Ocean Original oil on canvas by Helen Tilston

I found the video of the Queen and Aras an Uachtaireann(Dr. McAleese) laying the wreaths in "The Garden of Remembrance" the most significant and poignant part of Her visit to Ireland. The Garden of Remembrance is located right across from Parnell Tech (Dublin) and I went there often, before school, as I would get a ride with Bertie, my brother, to Dublin and had an hour to spare before classes. It memorializes the brutal killing of the young Irish men who lost their lives in the early days of Ireland's independence (1916 Rising).

I found this to be particularly emotional. I shed a tear and composed this short poem.

Here is my poem composed on Wednesday May 18th, 20111

Her Majesty Visits the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin May 2011

So much blood and so many tears

have been shed through the years

Today we stare in awe

but feelings are still quite raw

Hearts maimed, battered and broken

children felt what our parents left unspoken.

We speak a language that the stranger does not know

then how can they understand us.

Tread softy Your Majesty as you meet and greet

St. Patrick and the shamrock will guide your sacred feet

of is it (feat, fete)