Each evening, from now until the end of Reading Ireland Month, I am going to post a

piece of work by some of my favourite Irish poets. Enjoy x

Going Without Saying by Bernard O’Donaghue

i.m. Joe Flynn

 

It is a great pity we don’t know

When the dead are going to die

So that, over a last companionable

Drink, we could tell them

How much we liked them.

 

Happy the man who, dying, can

Place his hand on his heart and say:

‘At least I didn’t neglect to tell

The thrush how beautifully she sings.’