Francis Duggan Poems

From mid to late Summer the dandelions bloom
By dykes and by ditches by the road to Macroom
The old fields are looking so lush and so green
And Nature's beauty is everywhere for to be seen
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To be as good a person as I can be
And treat others as I would want them to treat me
To know how to receive and to know how to give
And to respect self and others and live and let live
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For my sins against others to Karma I must pay
If not in the immediate future then in some future day
What goes around does come around applies to everyone
To Karma we will have to pay for wrongs to others done
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In the land of the saltpans that look white as snow
Of very few creatures where saltbush does grow
The bones of the Dreamtime people in their hidden graves lay
In the deserted Coorong from here far away
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The bond to our Earth Mother in most of us is strong
As is in the blind earthworm or as is in the bird of song
But what I am about to say most would dismiss as wrong
That we are part of Nature and to her we do belong.
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I believe in equality that none is born a fool
Though I was dunce of the classroom in Millstreet Primary School
But dunce is a put down word used by ignoramus kind
And in every town and village such people you will find
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One might say I've travelled far from my old home
But I've not been to Paris or Berlin or Rome
And though I live far from where I first saw light of day
I've not been to Capetown, Baghdad or Bombay,
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In the damp rushy fields near the Town of Millstreet
Where the Cails from Kippagh and the Finnow does meet
I grew to love Nature when I was a boy
And learning about her I still do enjoy
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Above the mudflats of McLoughlins Beach from here far away
The eastern curlews are piping today
Their flute like notes so melodious and clear
The pleasant memory of such to my thoughts ever near
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For my years of life success I cannot show
Though from living a few things I can claim to know
And one is from life we earn what we receive
On such an assumption I am one who believe
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