This morning I heard stephen james smith recite his poem "Dublin, you are" These lines caught my ear

[TexasProgresive]

Dublin you say delish,

Dublin you are full of Polish

and Brazilians speaking Portuguese,

and now the Chinese

have turned Parnell Street into Chinatown,

Dublin don’t let them down.

Dublin don’t forget ‘no blacks, no dogs, no Irish’,

Dublin perish the thought of you being racist.

Dublin You are
by Stephen James Smith

for Dr. Kevin Wallace

commissioned by Dublin Culture Connests



Video links:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DublinConnects/videos/927157934039116

Youtube:

Other voices:

Dublin you are grey brick upon brick,

full of tarmac and hipster pricks?

Just face it all other places Pale in comparison,

you are more than some former Saxon garrison.

Dublin your warmth came too late for John Corrie.

Dublin are you even sorry?

Dublin you are divided by more than the Liffey,

You said YES to equality

and it’s about Blooming time.

Yet Dublin you always Proclaimed to cherish all!

Dublin your Panties are on Capel Street

compromising any Papal feats.

Dublin Jedward, awkward...

Dublin you are more than a settlement on the Poddle,

But Dublin what’s the craic with coddle?

It’s shite, why don’t we just admit it!

Dublin you brought back Sam again, but

Dublin when did you go from,

the clash of the ash, to exchanging gold for cash?

Dublin, Dyflin, Eblana, Baile Átha Cliath,

and 180 other tongues your citizens are using to name ya...

So céad míle fáilte to all.

Dublin where power is held by too few in the Dáil.

Dublin when will you revolt again?

1988 wasn’t your true millennium

despite the 50ps & milk bottles.

Dublin you’re mine, but I’m happy to share you.

Dublin from RTÉ, TCD, UCD, U2, SIPTU, IFSC

and acrimonious Temple Bar STDs, ODs & OMGs!

No longer the 2nd city, yet you play 2nd fiddle

to Google & Guinness,

to Facebook and unsociable twits.

Dublin look at yourself.

Dublin your tower blocks & tenements

are an excuse for a solution.

Dublin c’mere ‘till I tell ya

you can be more than,

rapid dirtbirds & banjaxed bowsies,

alrigh’ story bud & yeah sure it’s all good,

jaysis that’s scaldy,

Why Go Baldy,

I’m excira & delira,

Dublin I cry for ya!

Dublin you’re a tough bastard,

yet full of the softness of all of the people on your streets.

Margaret Dunne dancing on O’Connell Street,

The Diceman Tom McGinty miming on Grafton Street,

Pat Ingoldsby with his poems on Westmoreland Street,

and your Mollys, Malone, Ivers & Bloom.

To Daily-Sally-Sandy-Mounts...

From the gospel of Kelly, Drew, McKenna, & Sheahan,

to Borstal Boys like Brendan Behan

Two Gallants reJoycing, and Eveline looking out to sea.

Snow falling slowly on The Dead in Glasnevin

Glen & Markéta Once strolling,

to Christy Brown willfully controlling a foot

to paint pictures & poems,

to your heroines.

Brenda Fricker the city’s mother,

Maureen O'Hara an enchanting other.

Dublin you are boom & bust,

running Wilde & Swift

Dublin can I trust you?

Dublin your true blue is Harry Clark’s cobalt

Dublin from a Thin Lizzy, Dicey Reilly,

to a fluzzy in a jacuzzi God fearin’,

Dublin shooting down Veronica Guerin.

Dublin you are Bang-Bang, 40 coats,

Zozimus a blind street poet,

Dublin you are all of us,

and all who are yet to come,

so let's go to the Gravediggers and have a pint.

Dublin remember Stardust and all your waltzing lovers.

Dublin Big Jim’s arms are outstretched to a Risen People,

yet are we under the thumb again?

Dublin your GPO columns are scarred from The Crackle of gunshots.

Dublin your CCTV will never yield your essence like the shots

of Arthur Fields Man on Bridge.

You are the Poolbeg Towers,

and the poor shower

begging on Bachelor’s Walk.

Dublin you’re all talk, yet you have my attention,

from Robbie Keane to Paula Meehan.

Dublin’s Calling, ohh ahh Paul McGrath, while some say Up The RA

Dublin bridging caps with Joyce & Beckett

and finally to Rosie Hackett!

Dublin Paddy Finnegan was forced to sell

The Big Issue on your streets,

while Daffodil Mulligan was played to bodhrán beats.

Dublin you say delish,

Dublin you are full of Polish

and Brazilians speaking Portuguese,

and now the Chinese

have turned Parnell Street into Chinatown,

Dublin don’t let them down.

Dublin don’t forget ‘no blacks, no dogs, no Irish’,

Dublin perish the thought of you being racist.

Dublin Cú Chulainn has fled the GPO, and heading for Monto.

Dublin your bay embraces despite the Sellafield Sea,

and your mountains frame all your natural beauty,

Dublin a wailing banshee stricken with T.B.

Dublin you’re European, but could be Craggy Island in disguise?

Gabriel Conroy is heading west because of an epiphany.

Just sayin’ Dublin you only painted your post boxes green!

Is The Abbey doing all you’d dreamed?

Dublin you are Notorious for clampers, Senators & seagulls,

to Celtic Tiger & septic tanks

to singing Highkings & rampaging Vikings.

Dublin come here,

take me for a Teddy’s and a romantic stroll down the pier...

Dublin you are

a dancing place, a sprawling space

of villages and many faces on the edge

of an island that’s eroded by the Atlantic,

battling with being romanticized,

Dublin are you dynamic?

Struggling with identity?

Changing for the better?

Changing for us?

Dublin don’t be scared

to change.

Don’t be

scared!

We’re

with you.

Always.

Dublin.

My friend.

My home.

Mentioned

50 times

in this poem.

We live in you,

My city,

Mo chroí,

I love you,

Most of the time,

You see…

Dublin You Are,

Me!

https://www.stephenjamessmith.com/dublin-you-are

[FM123]

1. Wonderful poem.

I loved the lines toward the end:

Dublin don’t be scared

to change.

Don’t be

scared!

We’re

with you.

[TexasProgresive]

2. I just had to share it. It's like the traditional wedding vows

We love in good time and bad, in sickness and health, until death.

I'm feeling a bit maudlin this morning.

[cwydro]

3. I love Dublin.

Been there many times, was there last year.

Fantastic city.

[oasis]

4. Bravo

[Maeve]

5. Bookmarked to come back to again

Have not seen enough of Dublin...yet.

[TexasProgresive]

6. The only part of Dublin I ever saw was the airport while waiting for a plane to Cork City.

This poem hit me at a visceral level as a human. No matter what we tend to love our home place. And we should never give in to hate.

[Maeve]

7. We spent a day there--Stephen's Green, the GPO and several museums

And of course a picture of us in front of Molly Malone and me holding a bodhran (the bodhran player took the picture for us).
And back to the train station on a double-decker bus. We could have walked it, but a double-decker bus!

[TexasProgresive]

8. You know what they call Molly Malone?

Tart with a cart.
And then there's the sculpture of the River Liffey, The floozy in the Jacuzzi. You gotta love Irish wit, nothing or no one is sacred.

There's a shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes Set into a hillside on the way to Timoleague from Clonakilty. Some devote person reported that the statue of Mary nodded at them while in prayer. As usual with these things crowds flocked to the roadside shrine. Then some witty, maybe half witted, Irish guy hung a sign around the neck of the statue - OUT OF ORDER.

[Maeve]

9. Well, she does have a rather low neckline!

And the Millennium Spike (aka Spire of Dublin) is the Stiletto in the Ghetto...everything is a target of fun!

[TexasProgresive]

10. That's new to to me. I think it wa molly's neckline that inspired her nickname.