Meaning of Irish Portuguese
Both are on the Atlantic
With the cold sea winds blowing
Famine snatching lives
Grimly from the fields
I understand why the Irish left
Though I do not know
What they left behind
Moving south over
The tumbling blue-gray ocean
Madeira's another island
Limned by cliffs though
Black volcanic stone
Covered in flowers
The same small chapels
Now ringed by weeds
Why they left
I can't be sure
But I think I know
What they left behind
The two peoples' songs
Are not so different
Souls venturing out
Into the waves
To return or not
Or disappearing into
The green hills and valleys
And leaving behind
The memory of a song
Sung one midnight
The same white moon
Looking down
On the north Atlantic
The North African Atlantic
Through the clear air
You could see
Contours of gray mountains
On the distant lunar landscape
All that remained now
Were the melody
And the words
Some forgotten
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