Fad Saoil Ciogal Amhráin Song Cycle

A song cycle is a collections of poems set to music, ordered in a deliberate sequence and thematically linked. It is an attempt to compose music that best expresses the mood and emotional content of a given poem, employing one's own fund of melody, an understanding of the natural rhythms and nuances of the language and a conviction that the marriage of music and poetry is true nourishment for the soul. Fad Saoil comprises fourteen poems fro ma book of poetry by the same name by Joe Steve ó Neachtain. - Johnny Óg Connolly 

This collection includes a CD and a booklet in which the text of each poem is given as well as a short explanatory note in English, which gives a deeper context and insight into each poem. 

Fógra 

Don bhás amháin

is eol fad saoil,

ní as m'aois

atá mé ag goirm,

ach chum mé 

cúpla dán le cois

ar eagla go bhfaighinn

aois Choilm 

This first short poem serves as a prologue. Having told us in the introduction to the collection that his aim was to write a poem for every year of his life to date, the poet justifies the inclusion of a few extra verses as insurance for fear he might reach the age of Colm de Bhailís, a centenarian from Lettermullen who died 64 days shy of his 110th birthday. The next four poems tell of the poet's childhood, often idyllic but not without hardship.