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BLOOMSDAY 16 June, 2021
i.m. Paul Leon
“`He was courteous but very silent. He was good with children. His eyesight may have been impaired, but he had an ear open to the world.” This is how Alex Leon recalls James Joyce, who, between 1928 and 1939 was an almost daily visitor to his family’s flat on the rue Casimir-Perier in Paris. Joyce came to consult with Alex’s father, Paul Leon…” ‘The Irish Times’, Thu, Oct 29, 1998
A way, a lone, a last, a loved
Paul Léon murdered in 1942,
In Auschwitz, Oświęcim, Poland.
A Jew, he was Joyce’s friend,
The Joyce of Dublin & Galway,
Trieste, Zurich & Paris
And, off course, Anna L’Liffey,
She who riverrun on & on,
Even till the Finnegans’ wake.
Joyce lived in Paris for twenty years
He was poor but every time he had money
He always paid for everyone in every bar,
Every taxi, every restaurant.
