Four-leaf clover sonnets

Four-leaf clover sonnets about Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, and poetry by Joey Leahy Connolly.
 
A Sonnet for Saint Patrick’s Day

green gewgaws start appearing in variety stores before Valentine’s Day
green leprechaun t-shirts, shamrock ties, and hats sold by the score
plenty of green beer everywhere even a green river runs in Chicago today
New York’s parade has Irish pipes, policemen, marching bands, and more
over in Erin folks used to get up and go to morning Mass in a local church
they would eat a simple meal of beef, potatoes, tea, and Irish soda bread
many Irish will leave the big green scene commercial machine in the lurch
while from underneath ladies wool scarves peeks hair of beautiful red
St. Patrick departed the Emerald Isle over fourteen hundred years ago
kidnapped in Scotland and brought as a slave to Erin when a young boy
after six years he escaped to return to Scotland in a boat he could row
he later returned to Ireland bringing Druids Irish Catholic guilt and joy
now Patrick is used as an excuse for people to drink booze like a fish
from green beer to Irish whiskey dear—they all wish they were Irish
 
Haiku Sonnet for Hibernia

peat brown liquid a four leaf shamrock Kelly on the green
peat brown liquid tempting tongue finished with work
peat brown liquid  a pub down the block a pint for balance
peat brown liquid Guinness and poteen no reason to shirk
uilleann pipes and acapella ballads from Seamus Ennis
Chieftains great Irish music heard around the world
songs of history humor fighting dancing and love
over which the Orange White and Green flag unfurled
poetry is heard in every village street pub and church
poetry is heard in around above and beyond the noise
poetry is heard from the countryside lovely girls *wren boys
poetry is heard love lasts forever some left in the lurch
for centuries thousands of known and unknown greats
20thcentury James Joyce to Seamus Heaney & W.B. Yeats

* See Sligo Heritage about this ancient ‘wren boys’ custom still practiced today on St. Stephen’s Day, the day after Christmas.

The Old Sot and the Old Sod
—an Irish-American reverie
 
if I should pass out think but this of me
that there’s a small corner of this old pub
that is forever Ireland and will always be
a place you can eat some decent pub grub
outside is Ireland the sot is aware he’s back there
in his present drunken state tasting Irish cheese
more Irish fare washed down with a shot and a beer
a corned beef cabbage plate he’ll have a pint or two
drink it right away a drop now of Tullamore Dew
no less takes him back his thoughts by Ireland given
his earphones sing with Irish harps and songs today
Laoise Kelly, Teada, Seamus Ennis, all sing and play
his heart is resting and at peace in an Irish heaven
who is he, why its me Joey Connolly, poetry driven
 
L & G Legit Wedded Be

one fine sunny day in the month of May
into city and village voting booth
voters turned out for a new wedding way
came the aged, the married, and the youth
results were about a 60 / 40 split
pro voters topped with more than half of it
knowing this new form of legal marriage
may not result in a baby carriage
from Dublin, Cork, Limerick to Galway
now some couples can make their wedding plan
since they legalized gay marriage today
when woman weds woman and man weds man
those critical of Ireland take note
people spoke with a democratic vote

*Ireland legalizes gay marriage, a sonnet written on May 24, 2015.