The untimely death circa 1995 of Professor Thomas Augustine Martin, known as "the boy from Ballinamore" (Co. Leitrim)evoked glowing tributes from friends and colleagues and admirers, among them The Minister for Education Niamh Breathnach and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. Born in 1935, Professor "Gus" Martin was considered a brillant and passionate teacher. He was Chairman of the Abbey Theatre, of the Yeats Summer School, Sligo, and of the Joyce Summer School. How he loved poetry, and, oh, how he loved to sing! His talented student, Barry Currivan, composed this touching poem as a celebration of a life cut too short, a life who impacted his own in a very meaningful way. ECHOINGS It is too late to thank you, Gus, To show appreciation, For the debt I feel I owe to you, For my English education. The news of your departure, Fell heavy on my ears, And sent my mind a tumbling, To my adolescent years. The sounds and smells of schooldays, Prompted memories with a jab. Pencil parings, India rubber, Ammonia in the lab. The aroma of the school bag, Long forgotten, again was mine. And the sight of one bedraggled tome, "Martin..." Soundings' on the spine. Between "Birth of a Modern Ireland," And logarithmic tables, Nestled your collection, Of insight, lore and fables. Between unlikely bed fellows, Mathematical fact, and history. A deferential calculus Of love and death and mystery. A doodled-on, dog-eared, bashed up book, Passed on from older brothers. That in my mind stands starkly Above so many others. For it showed the route, To greater truths, Than Math's or history told. To the secret parts Of human hearts, And the treasures they might hold. Travelling time, unravelling rhymes, Romantic, deep and lyrical. The Narrative and the epic, The blank and metaphysical. >From the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, Shakespeare's poetical feats, Milton's poems of hope, The satires of Pope, The Odes of Shelly and Keats. Through assonance, simile, metaphor, Above all through devilish rhyme. The thoughts these men got off their chest, Became lodged so deeply in mine. And so, though schooldays, are long gone, I still learn from their instruction. And I thank you Augustine Martin. Thank you for the introduction. -- Barry Currivan