Francis Duggan Poems

It's something you hear often very often the words you cannot keep a good man down
But some of those who say that too will also tell you that many losers live in every town,
To them success it goes with fame and money for their heroes they do not look too far
They judge you by the side of town you live in and they judge you by your home and motor car.
...

Along the side walk of the busy suburb all sorts of people walking to and fro
And up and down the street the cars are passing here in a place where noise pollution grow,
My thoughts go to a place of peace and beauty as near a place to heaven as I know
The larks are carolling above the rank grass where Powlett to the sea is crawling slow.
...

On a monday evening in late October the Clarke gang came to town
There was malice in their scornful eyes and anger in their frown
The cold, cold breath of Winter was in the twilight air
As Bill drove towards the jailhouse at the left of the town square.
...

Birds pipe their territorial melodies
On branches of the naked trees
And Winter's o'er and Summer's near
And pleasant youthful Spring is here.
...

All through his twenties to his mid thirties there were few as strong as he
Yet now that Ben is over fifty he's not the man he used to be
He could lay clay pipes all day long and drink 'til closing time
And few could match it with him when he was in his prime.
...

When I was a young fellow the Conways Tom and Joe
Played their acordions at dances and parties in Duhallow years ago
And Den Janie often played with them as the dancers took the floor
In Cullen and in Millstreet and Ballydaly and Rathmore.
...

I felt happy on that sunday
walking up the Chapel hill
And thinking of the coming monday
Made me feel more lonely still.
...

I watch his tears fall from the sky
Our evil sins cause him to cry
In a bright full moon I see his face
Watching o'er this Earthly place.
...

Mirko he comes from Slovenia no longer under Yugoslav control
And Mirko is an honest worker, an honest and hard working soul
He's seen more than forty Summers and his hair has turned to gray
But Mirko he looks a bit older, he looks older many a day.
...

Born and raised in Claraghatlea a mile from the town of Millstreet and admired and respected and widely known
And though he had lived for years in Bandon we used to claim him as one of our own
And as a primary school going boy in the fifties to this day I can recall
When Denny Owen the Politician was a Minister in Ireland's Dail.
...