Purple Lady Poetry

Verse 1
In his own home, where the voices would reach
But his words bent away from our clipped English speech,
And the rhythm he carried fell strange to the ear,
Stood my father, a stranger though living right here.

Pre-Chorus
Every word that he spoke
Felt a world far away,
In a house full of voices
He had nought to say.

Chorus
Oh, the foreigner living in his own home,
Where the silence grew tall and the stories unknown,
With a heart full of places we’d never been shown,
He was close as our breath but forever alone.

Verse 2
In his own home, where his children would hide
From the Irishness carried with justified pride,
We followed the fashions, the language, the tone
Of a world that would ask him to stand there alone.

Pre-Chorus
And the years hurried on
Like the tide on the shore,
Leaving words left unsaid
On a far distant shore.

Chorus
Oh, the foreigner living in his own home,
Where the silence grew tall and the stories unknown,
With a heart full of places we’d never been shown,
He was close as our breath but forever alone.

Bridge
What did he feel in the space inbetween?
In the pauses where questions had quietly been?
What tales did he carry like stones in his hand,
Of a green distant shore and a faraway land?

Verse 3 (Soft)
In his own home he guarded the past,
Letting silence hold tight where the memories were cast,
For the words that might free him were never quite known,
And the foreigner stayed in the place he called home.

Final Chorus
Oh, the foreigner living in his own home,
Where the silence grew tall and the stories unknown,
If the stories were spoken, the distance might fall—
And the foreigner never be foreign at all.