I decided to write this poem during Snow Patrol's performance of Run at their SSE concert in December 2018.
As Gary sang I was taken back to March 2009 at the same venue. Janice's mother was gravely ill and during this song I reached for Janice's hand and the words were somehow lamentation and catharsis for the loss we were experiencing.
As I recollected that 2009 performance in 2018, sitting beside my wife and daughters, I realised that this was our band. We all love Snow Patrol. We all love Run. Our friend Iain co-wrote it, for goodness sake.
As the entire SSE sang, every hand in the Belfast air, I thought that the crowd were singing out with pride for their boys who had done good! It was like the pride of a national anthem.
Turning back to the personal I thought, as all the Stockies sang, that if I had the ending to this life that allowed my family to be gathered around my bed then I want them to be singing Run... what a way to cross from this life into the next!
Chest of a city stuck out
To fuel the filling of lungs
No sound ever sounds sweeter
Than the unity of our Belfast tongues
All hands held up to carry
The weight of homecoming pride
We should make it the national anthem
And pray this oneness never subsides.
As the smart phone candles flicker
Reach your melancholy hand across
Feel melody swathe and sooth your soul
In the sad space of our loss
Let the verse suck in our pain
The chorus breathe out our grief
Then that tender thrumming riff
Throw out flecks of light and belief
So, in my time of dying
When my body doesn’t have long
Let our souls run, run for our lives
And one last time, sing this song…
“Light up, light up
As if you had a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear.”