Basil Payne, Poet - Remembered and honored for St. Patrick's Day

When I was a student back in the early 1970's at Glamssboro State College, I was fortunate to have Basil Payne for my poetry teacher.  He was a poet in residence from Ireland.  His famous book was Another Kind of Optimism.  He was a brilliant, inspiring and compassionate man.  He died in February 2012 and I think of him often even after all these years for what I learned from him of kindness, warmth and a comradely humility not shown by many college teachers at that time.  He also inspired in me a love of poetry.  I would offer you a poem or a quote but I can't find my copy of his book.  I've ordered it again from amazon.com, and I couldn't find any of his poems on-line.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all the Irish and those who have benefited from the Irish in America and abroad.  Jo Ann (Irish ancestry:  McQuiston family from Northern Ireland, Scots Irish)