Happy St Patty's day!

It is a fine and sunny 60 degree day in NYC, and the revelers are already out in full swing. But I thought I would commemorate this Irish holiday differently... with POETRY. That's right kids, here's some WB Yeats for your Saint Patrick's Day pleasure. My favorites:

HE WISHES FOR CLOTHS OF HEAVEN

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with the golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams...

THE OLD MEN ADMIRING THEMSELVES IN THE WATER

I HEARD the old, old men say,

"Everything alters,

And one by one we drop away."

They had hands like claws, and their knees

Were twisted like the old thorn trees

By the waters.

I heard the old, old men say,

"All that's beautiful drifts away

Like the waters."

(c) William Butler Yeats

What I wouldn't give for a pint of Magners and to be traipsing across the Galway coastal countryside right now....