The green on the beautiful hillside
My Grandma Ida Mae knew them
But never a one did I hear
We never could talk about family
For she didn’t live anywhere near
Though I didn’t grow up knowing
I come from the Geoghegan clan
I feel lucky to have Irish blood
And proud to be who I am
Sláinte - Pops 2025
The Tao of Success
You can have some success
because of what you do
but ultimately fail
You can have some success
because of who you are
but ultimately fail
Balance is the key
be kind and work hard
have empathy and achieve goals
be trustworthy and follow through
be curious and celebrate others
Success is complex
but the yin and yang are
authenticity and reliability
Pops 2025
Dear St. Patrick
We need you in America
The land now full of snakes
Too late we may realize
What will be lost
When the snakes have done
Their worst
We need a St. Patrick
To rid us of the snakes
Who will that be?
Pops 2025
Lost Love
In the beginning of modern faith
It was all about love.
In the early days love ruled
Love over hate
Greater than faith or hope
Both internal qualities, but love is
The collective over the individual
“They will know we are christians by our love”
How do people see christians today?
Fighting for the christian right
Fighting the libs
Fighting for pro-life
Fighting against LGBTQ+
Fighting wokeness
As with any group
You can’t lump them all together
But as a community
Christians were about love
Until the hate came
And then there was a cult
A version of christians
Focused on hell
“Sinners in the hand of an angry god”
Hate the sin, love the sinner
Reduced simply to
Hate the sinner
Many embraced this version
Though some never retreated into it
But settled in to help where they could
Now a new uglier version appears
Red-hatted zealots, foaming at the mouth
For revenge and to reclaim lost glory
Not the glory of Jesus
But the glory of religious freedom
That early christians didn’t seek
And Jesus never experienced
And yet he never gave up on love
To bring love’s kingdom to earth
I’m not in the cult of evangelicalism
I don’t believe in hell or heaven
A finite life of love is enough
And so I believe in love
Its power to heal
Even in the darkest of times
Right now it’s a fight for humanity
To dare to feed the hungry
Care for the poor, the sick, the immigrant
To seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly
And even in this red-hat, deep-hate world
The true way hasn’t changed
There is no path to love
Love is the path
Pops 2025