Pool in the Bóithrín

by Pat Fitzgerald, posted in Poetry

Pool in the Bóithrín

Introduction

Somewhere along the bóithrín, after the rain has fallen and the world has quieted, a small pool forms where the water gathers still and clear. If you pause there long enough and closely, something gentle happens — the reflection looking back isn’t quite only yours anymore. It’s the boy who set out down this road with pockets full of dreams and no idea what the years would carry him through. And it’s the man who walked all those roads, who carried both the joy and the weariness, and kept going anyway.

We so often speak of our younger selves as if they’re gone — as if they never really left us at all? What if they are still walking right beside us, quiet and steady, waiting for us just to slow down enough to notice? Or that they live with us, like a memory that remains with us. This poem is that pause. It’s that moment of kindness between who we were and who we’ve become — remembering that it’s all one journey, all one soul, walking one road.

Lone traveler on a rainy road between moss-covered stone walls
A lone traveler pauses on a rain-soaked road winding through misty green mountains.

credit goes to ai image creation

Pool in the Bóithrín


He knelt where the rain had pooled in the lane,
still water reflecting a young face back —
eyes bright with roads not yet walked,
his days yet untouched by the weight of years.

His hair was still dark and his shoulders were strong.
No lines had been drawn where the sorrows would fall —
he carried the world like a hopeful new song,
with years stretching out and the days rolling on.

A breath stirred the water; the reflection swayed,
the young face grew faint as the years left their trace —
fine lines bore witness to all he had known,
the hands that had learned what it means to let go.

He touched the cold water; it trembled and shifted.
Neither one gone — one journey, one soul —
the boy didn’t vanish; the lantern still glowed,
that same light still lived in the man he’d become.

Weathered, gentle, and true,
he still carries dreams that the boy first knew.
One road, two travellers — neither apart,
they walked on, both young and old, at heart.

Copyright © 2026 Pat Fitzgerald
All Rights Reserved

A Brief Reflection

A week ago, I had an opportunity to listen to a song that struck me pretty deep. But for the life of me, I could not recall who it was from or what the song was called. It was of a man who mourned his younger days — he saw himself as young, feeling young. But the image that he saw in a mirror was an aged man looking back. This is where the idea of this poem came about and, with some playing about and much writing and editing, that poem came to be. But the story is slightly different to the actual song. We can mourn our youth when looking back as older folk, but true wisdom comes when one walks the road of life content with what life has brought you to this stage. Even with deep heart-felt losses in life, we can find a peace that settles much easier on a person.

A Word from the King

“The young man sees a thousand roads ahead; the old man sees the one that brought him home.”

Pat Fitzgerald — Poet

Your Thoughts

We can mourn our youth that passed us silently by. We can blame youth on being wasted on the young, and so on. But when we look back on our lives, we need to ask ourselves: Are we happy with the end result, given the roads travelled — some of which may have been less than desired — but where we are now, is it better than where it began? When we can walk life’s road with our younger selves hand in hand, as it were, alongside our more mature self, we should be more content with that result. Do you agree or disagree?

Author Note

If you notice any corrections or errors in this post, please do feel free to mention them in the comments. I do my best to keep everything accurate and tidy.

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14 thoughts on “Pool in the Bóithrín”

  1. Such a powerful read. I was thinking about how I feel about the road I have traveled. Maybe overthinking it as the road starts its descent to the final destination. There are things I missed out on, but I have gotten to live a comfortable life, not something some people have the privilege of doing. I am happy where I am.

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    1. Thank you Lisa, Believe it or not I had pretty much a similar experience. But I would have liked a far more comfortable or easier road in life and still in the beautiful countryside. also that My youngest got to see a longer life than the short walk he had in life.. BUT I am happy with where I am at this stage in life..

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      1. There are always ways it could have been better. I am trying to live in the present more so taking what little bit of happiness I can and calling it a win without ignoring everything I had to get through to get here.

        I like that you can see some happiness on your end, too.

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      2. That is an excellent way to take things in life.. We can never find a positive road looking back on negative times in life.. we can only enjoy life now and if we get called on as our time here comes, it is better to have enjoyed it with a smile than frown.. I have been working on a few positive quotes . lol

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  2. Wow, Pat!!! OMG! I think you are becoming the powerful and awesome type of writer that Hemingway became!!!! Just later on life’s journey!!!! Such a Great and compelling read!!

    I so love the way you have been letting the seeds of inspirations inside you start Blooming!!!! Keep up the great writing, Pat

    Chuck 😁🎁💖💕🌹

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    1. Thank you Chuck, for such wonderful comment.. I learned to write and this manner works for me and combined with a strict editing style, the poetry works out well.. So sorry to all, because I have some isp connection issues and is taking much longer than I would have liked.. yet this is a new ISP that I switched to.. But what a load of..*** Saying no more to avoid language that is colourful in nature..***

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    2. Thank you again Chuck, I had been without Internet access for a number of days after changing ISP’s and a slight fault that could not be repaired until after the weekend.. BUT glad to be back.. now to face this mountain of posts and not touched emials yet…..

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      1. Oh My, I feel your pain with having to deal with computer issues. No, fun! Happy you are finally past that!!
        Hope you’ve had a great day, Pat!!!
        😁✨👌👍

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  5. Brilliant and very much educative for so many different readers and fields, thank you.

    Actually I do not understand that “older we” vs “younger we” wording. The older one is the younger one would need to become, right? To keep curiousity swirling? Or by mere insight that childhood happiness was the best right? If happiness could only be collected by mind. Or do we become saturated with life, bitter, hopeless or just drift along? A comfortable life seems to encourage taking things for granted and then replaced by fresh things until it can’t anymore. A life seems to have tough phases but they transform our understanding of themselves over time and the better perception of better phases or quicker recovery from downs. There are no better teachers than trial and error, repetition and pain and fear. There are no better students than ones in love, laugh or loneliness or longing or loss.

    For me evaluating life is futile as a right choice or path may turn into wrong over time and then back to right again many times in life. Life is an individual and subjective marathon and not a mass-run with minimal common denominators like start, finish and metrics of success. Excurse: btw could success be defined as “failing above average?:)

    Life is way to hectic if taken serious and not unconditionally welcomed or accepted categoricqally until even that “yes” is forgotten and becomes stillness. Stubborness and inflexibility are key to never demand much from life. Laziness helps us realize that it is only a mistake if we really tried:))

    [A child is happiest. An old man is maybe satisfied wisely or happy foolishly/childishly.]

    There are no better or worse paths as we can never fully grasp the alternative choice’s weight until we walk it and must so. A choice between two ways to fail can feel better than a certain victory even. Certainity and worn paths increase some aspects while fading out other qualities. Hardships offer higher recovery appreciation if not taken as certainity and creating thereby self-fullfilling or self-programming loops of thoughts and feelings.

    In German we say Bildung/education leads to Verbildung/reducation by “learning” that we think we know things. An adult knowing 500 things will approach 1000 questions with that “set” or “structure” and a child tabula rasa mind will not know a single thing wrongly. 1000 fresh questions or 1000 questions + 500 bases to relate and align to and find and keep a common structure over the full cicle. Or lets try again: if there are a million things to be known: who will solve or know more – the one knowing 1000 things out of 1.000.000 OR the one not-knowing 999.000 things for sure? Positively unknowing or by strict doubt or self-criticism might have 999.000 chances to find a right answer. A knower will have 999.000 chances to being proven wrong on any of the 1000 bases and has to learn 999.000 questions in parallel to 1000 given understandings and constantly relate, integrate, reinstate etc. all of them. Maybe in life it is way safer to not know any of a million than to find fact nr. 1000 as untrue only afterwards. Truth may be more approximating uncertainity rather than finding/defining/measuring certainity/truth/facts.

    Ok I lost the red thread completely:)

    Saying ex-post that a choice was wrong assumes that a present time right would have been the same right if chosen back then. As if that shortcut would have worked. Maybe for some time and then caused new unforeseen mistakes that would have all the time to grow into new “better” insights afterwards.

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