Computerised World
The older we get the more we can teach
That learning for us is not out of reach
For back in the past we’d write on a pad
Of the things in our life that were happy or sad
But as the times passed, we started to type
A far distant world then Microsoft or Skype
And yet we’d converse across oceans so wide
By ship and by plane our letters would ride
But then came the computer with all of its might
To tell us of words that we didn’t spell right
And help us with grammar or where an apostrophe goes
And how in a letter we would come to a close
And now we can email across a cyber-world space
Even sending a picture to show off our face
What next can they think up in the years that’s ahead
Will our thoughts be transported without a word said?
And our minds computerised without going to school
And then super boosted they’d be nobody’s fool
There’d be nothing to learn, our knowledge so vast
Our minds overloaded from learning so fast
And computers we would be with no fun at all
And we hope that no virus with make our brains stall
As with old folks like us we’d know not the hour
When our screens just shut down as we run out of power
We’d be totally wiped out, all our data gone too
No way to reboot, it would be the finish of you
Cool Clear Water 4th September 2014 by/Tony Gorman
The mountains hung high over old Dublin town
And the rain raised the streams as they cascaded down
Over ledges so high as it gushed to the ground
Causing rainbows to form as it splashed all around
Filling up Bohernabreena with water so clean
Now some brightness has come to our Dark Rosaleen
For it glitters like silver as it’s pumped on its way
Reaching all destinations by night and by day
We remember long ago carrying water from wells
That we boiled up for use, some had stagnated smells
And bacteria was ripe and diseases were spread
Leaving people so ill and confined to their bed
But things have long changed from those days long gone by
As our reservoirs save all the rain from the sky
And its pumped into pipes and made safe for us all
As it flows out of taps like a small waterfall
Now it’s bottled and priced, mountain clear is the boast
And it’s mixed in our whiskey to be raised in a toast
And it’s used in our breweries in our Guinness and beer
And it’s offered in hospital when we come over queer
But it’s taken for granted in all in things that we do
As we use it in gallons when we’re flushing our loo
In some far off countries they’d kill for a taste
For a little of some of that water we waste
So how lucky we are that we can drink up our fill
Of all the cool water that flows down off our hills
From our Dublin Mountains with their beauty so green
Bringing pure liquid love to our Dark Rosaleen
How lucky we Dubliners have been to have a beautiful reservoir like Bohernabreena on our doorsteps.
The waterworks is situated only 12km from Dublin City Centre in the valley of Glenasmole at the foot of the Kiltipper Mountains.
Construction began in 1883 and was complete in 1886.
There are two reservoirs known as upper and lower reservoirs complete with a catchment area.
Peaty water from the surrounding hills is channelled around the upper reservoir and directed to the lower reservoir by a canal.
The Upper Reservoir provides the drinking water supply.
There are also new spillways which can be opened to take excess flood water.
My poem is a way of saying thanks to those who constructed Bohernabreena for a wonderful construction and for ensuring we had clean water in our homes since I was a lad many moons ago.