Far Frae Oor Faithers Lann

Author: Lyle McCurdy

Date: 1995

Source: Ullans: The Magazine for Ulster-Scots, Nummer 3 Spring 1995

Tha aulder generation in their time

Like sheddoes cross tha fiel’s, drift on an’ fade

Lee airth the kenned an’ strangly hoult their ain

Frae planter stock afore them, no’ afeard

Tha rage o’ vengfu’ repparree, dourly

Aye doon tha years, the focht tha landlord’s greed,

We ir tha auld yins noo, last o’ oor line

Wi nane tae folla’, nane tae unnerstan’

Or feel ava what’s deep within tha hairt

Tha fem’ly line or jist a sense o’ place,

We ir tha last tae put oor sowls

Fur aince mair noo on this oor faithers lann

Weel watered wi’ their blind an’ sweit o’ toil

They hoult this airth mair precious than their leives

Noo sich a wee bit left of what aince wus

Seen on this fairm tha weel kenned names nae mair

Whaur new unminefu’ straingers full weel wauld

Tae wipe out clane as if it never wus

A femly’s history, wi ower twa centuries or mair

On rodden, pad, tree, stane and burn

An’ yet we’re strangers tae in this wee place

But barely minded, an’ places since weel kenned

A’ gugly changed be Times sae brutal face

An’ man’s destroyin’ han’, syne we wur weans.

Identify the fem’ly line or jist

This sense o’ place an’ anchors firmly set

Withoot them, only a drifting stranger

Amang the city’s grey unfeeling streets.

Lyle McCurdy

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