Francis Duggan Poems

The weather quite warm though the sun not shining today
And from the nearby paddock the sweet scent of hay
Comes wafting to me in the mild evening breeze
Gently rustling it's way through the bushes and trees
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As long as our memory does serve us well
We all have our stories of life for to tell
I cannot vouch for the story i am about to tell you
Though that miracles can happen i know to be true
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My thoughts often go to a far away Spring
To the leafy groves when the nesting birds sing
And the little brown lark from the bracken does fly
For to sing his song in the clouds of the sky
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Another Football Season has already begun
Where thirty six young men in their life's prime after one ball do run
And tackle the one with the football and drag him to the ground
Where so many men fight for one ball is there sense to be found
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They meet by the milk bar in the mid morning of Saturday
The old blokes wearing hats that the years have left gray
They talk for an hour or more since they have lots to say
About politics and football and the prices of livestock and hay
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I was never much use at Gaelic Football
And at Hurling and Soccer i was of little or no use at all
And at running i always was well off of the pace
In any race i never finished in a place
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I grew to love Nature when i was a boy
And learning of her ways today i enjoy
And of Nature i learn new things every day
We do learn as we live it does seem this way
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The dry hills of South Belgrave from days of warm weather the color of hay
And few birds are singing in Birdsland today
And from the wood on the hill on the old decaying trees
The bell like chirps of the bellbirds is floating in the breeze
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Am i any better one of millions who eat meat
Than the creatures that others kill for me to eat
Since like them i was born to life for to die
This is a fact of Nature and fact does not lie
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It is true the past in the gone forever with Johnny fading memories only remain
Of the February snows of the Boggeraghs and Duhallow in the rain
And old Allow from rain swollen bank high in waters of brown
Raging on towards the Blackwater in the fields by Kanturk Town
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