Francis Duggan Poems

Since late seventy three i have been a rhymer and for much longer than that a rhyming buff
And i am one who has done a lot of rhyming i have penned pages and pages of stuff
I used to daydream that i would be a writer one seen to be worthy of the title of poet
Though i never became one worthy of literary of note
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Every morning i hear them in the park nearby in the gray of daybreak
The calls of the magpie larks none can mistake
Some name them by their distinctive song of pee wee
They build their cup shaped nest of mud on low branch of tree
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Where i was born and raised few nowadays would know me
Yet a Claraghatlea fellow is all i can be
A Claraghatlea fellow west of Millstreet Town
Where i used to live when my hair was dark brown
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What goes around comes around as some do say
And for my sins against others the price i must pay
Those who believe in Karma see life in this way
If human law does not get you Karma will one day
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My wonder of Nature only seems to grow
And so little about her i can claim to know
Yet she does have a lesson for me every day
We do never stop learning as some like to say
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In a World where impressionable people make small gods of elite sports people and football players
And where the majority of the wealth and assets is owned by a small number of billionaires
And the gap between the wealthy and the poor is growing wider by the day
In a fair and equal Human World it would never be this way
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He lives far south of his northern first homeland the cliffs of Hibernia's shore
And even further south of Duhallow and Sliabh Luachra the man from the road to Rathmore
He is far from Clara and Caherbarnagh and Gortavehy the old hill of stone
And trhe famous twin hills of Sliabh Luachra known to many as the Paps of Shrone
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He lived as a poet of the people with a rhyming style of his own
Winthrop Mackworth Praed is one who lives in his verses and his legend through the decades has grown
I do enjoy reading his readable verses they just seem to bubble along
His distinctive rhyme without his name to it once familiarized with it's author one should never get wrong
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Of late in my mind i feel confused and i blame this on the A B C
From listening to people on radio who seem far more clever than me
People known and admired by many some of them with uni degrees
The famous of the early twenty first century who command high appearance fees
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The salvos are always helping people of helping in need
The homeless and hungry they shelter and feed
Thank God for the Salvos the poor homeless old lady does say
When i needed help they did not turn me away
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