Patrick Kavanagh, the cantankerous poet who came to live in Dublin from the tough country life in County Monaghan, spent much time on Dublin's Grand Canal.

So much so that he was honoured with a bench and a statue on the waterway that runs from the River Liffey to the River Shannon.

In his Canal Bank Walk he starts Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal.

He wrote the poem after his treatment in 1955 for lung cancer, in which he had one of his lungs removed, during a summer of convalescing on the banks of the canal.

Panoramic Ireland spends much time also on the banks of the Grand Canal in Dublin, the very canal that Kavanagh loved so much, drawing inspiration also both before and after cancer treatment.

Remember to support local business this Christmas, buy a photo tour for yourself or a voucher for a friend.

Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal

Pouring redemption for me, that I do

The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,

Grow with nature again as before I grew.

The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third

Party to the couple kissing on an old seat,

And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word

Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat.

O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web

Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,

Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib

To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech

For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven

From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven.

Canal Bank Walk by Patrick Kavanagh