Commissioned Poems

Mankind is quite relentless in it’s quest to find a way,
To improve upon the lifestyle we enjoyed just yesterday.
But it seems an unjust parody from the hands of father fate,
Those who pioneer the new ways are often met with hate.

Suspicion and derision are rewards for those who dare,
To challenge the establishment, just because they care.
It is only in the judgement that is brought by passing years,
That their work is justly greeted by a grateful nations cheers.

And so one Sister Kenny, with her gift of healing hands,
Fought a lone relentless battle with the leaders of our land.
Would a simple untrained bush nurse ever live to play her part?
Could she prove to doubting sceptics what she new in her heart?

With compassion for the sufferers, and a dose of common sense,
She waged her war on polio and formulated a defence.

But despite her oft providing what she thought was ample proof,
The medical fraternity remained aghast and quiet aloof.

Another may have faltered, may have wavered from their goal,
But defeat was never courted in this caring nurses soul.

“For what’s the price of losing, when young children cry at night,

And you hold their salvation if you have the strength to fight.”

But alas a nation floundered, when it should have held her hand,
And this angel of salvation was forced to leave our land.
Forced to wage her war exiled from the country of her birth.

Forced to seek another culture that would recognise her worth.

And what’s the count on courage that she needed all those years?
Through disappointment and rejection, and crippled children’s fears.

And what’s the spark that drove her, and what set her apart?
What was it fuelled the fire that was burning in her heart?

But thank God, as history shows us she was to win her fight
She won the sceptics over and she proved that she was right
Lit a candle in the darkness, that shone bright through many lands
This simple untrained bush nurse with her gift of “healing hands”

© Gary Fogarty