Francis Duggan Poems

George Crabbe wrote of hardship and poverty and woe
In the England he lived in a long time ago
But perhaps his poems might be more popular today
Had he looked at life in a less truthful way.
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Humans have walked on the Moon's surface and sent spaceships to Mars
And Humans have probed for life in Worlds beyond the Stars
But despite our Human achievements and our great lust for fame
The great force of Nature we never will tame
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We are part of her and to her we belong
And if you cannot love her with you something wrong
Every life form in the world she is known for to feed
We cannot live without her though us she does not need
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A difference in thinking between one of eighty and one of twenty three
The old man and the young man look at life differently
The young man looks forward to decades ahead
But the old man knows he soon will be with the dead
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Are you one who tends to ridicule others when them you criticize
Or above such ordinary behaviour are you one who tries to rise
And use your criticisms in a constructive way
Personal verbal attacks and criticism are different one might say.
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The fires in Victoria burning night and day
Through wooded and dry countryside they burn their way
For many fire affected Victorians it has been a terrible year
Of death and destruction such bad news to hear
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He comes from the Land of the brown grizzly bear
The ageing American with silver gray hair
From western Nebraska a long way from here
He looks fit and well for one in his seventieth year
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The years seem to fly and time ticking away
And what hair I have left on my head silver gray
And it goes without joy for me for to say
That I would be a stranger in Clara Today.
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The hills overlooking the old country town
From months of warm weather looking dry bare and brown
And the drought ravaged paddocks are thirsting for rain
And not a dropp of water in the roadside drain
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In my youth it flowed clean it was a beautiful waterway
That's what the old Warrnambool local did say
And for human progress he added there is some price to pay
The Hopkins is badly polluted today.
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