What Is It All When All Is Told?

In September 2024, Barb and Jack Thompson visited Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. One stop was to the Molanna View Dairy Farm near Kilmallock, owned and operated by the Fenton family. The milking parlor was a double-8 herringbone design, used to milk the 230 head of Holsteins twice a day. The octogenarian-owner Paddy Fenton showed us around, talking all the time. He stopped near the barnyard gate, turned toward us, and recited from memory, the most beautiful Irish poem, befitting any Scots-Irish funeral service. Here it is.

O What is it all when all is told?
This ceaseless toiling for fame and gold
The fleeting joy of bitter tears.
We're only here for a few short years.
Nothing's our own save the silent past,
Loving or hating--nothing can last.
Each pathway leads to a silent fold
O What is it all when all is told?

What is it all a grassy mound
Where day or night there is never a sound
Save the soft low moan of the fanning breeze
As it lovingly rustles the silent trees.
Or a thoughtful friend with a whispered prayer
May sometimes break the stillness there
Then hurry away from the gloom and the cold.
O What is it all when all is told?

What is it all just passing true
A cross for me and a cross for you.
Ours seems heavy while others seem light
But God in the end makes all things right.
He tempts the mind with loving care
He knows the burden that each can bear
Then turns life's grey into loving gold
O What is it all when all is told?