A November Dawn Poem by Francis Duggan

Where the overnight frost have left the fields looking gray
The dark rooks are cawing on bare trees far away
And the shy redwings chirp on the windswept hedgerow
At a time of the year when grass refuse to grow.

In the cold gray chill of a November dawn
The salmon are swimming upriver to spawn
In the silent fields by the old country town
They travel upstream as the flood is going down.

The starlings in unison turn as they fly
And a chilly wind blows in the wintery sky
In my flights of fancy such things I do see
The November mornings are living in me.

The past may be gone something everyone know
But the memories come with us to where-ever we go
In the farmyard cattle bellowing for hay
In the cold gray dawn of a November day.

The past may be gone but the memories remain
And in fancy we visit old places again
Flood waters are gurgling in the roadside drain
And the gray sky is pregnant with dark clouds of rain.