Just An Ageing Poetaster Poem by Francis Duggan

In many years of scribbling I've penned reams of doggerel
But of any great adventures in my life I do not have to tell
Just your Mr Average fellow who knows of life's hard slog
Though always fiercely on the side of the poor underdog.

I once had poetic aspirations and to poetic greatness did aspire
And some of the old poets of my younger years I greatly did admire
But I was young and foolish then for that was years ago
And dreams don't always come true as I have come to know

The poetasters are many and the true poets only few
Those words today still relevant and those words were always true
To every poet and would be poet those words must still apply
And the one who first made this statement a far wiser one than I.

Had I the gifts of a poet to Nature I'd pen a song
My Goddess and Earth Mother my bond to her still strong
I loved her in my childhood years and I love her still today
I do not have another God for to kneel to and to pray.

White flowers on the pittosporum and pink blooms on the plum tree
And birds sing in the sunshine and beauty surrounds me
And I sense Spring is coming 'tis less than a week away
A time of youth and beauty though I grow old
and gray.

Just an ageing poetaster who once had dreams of fame
A wild boy of the sixties the years have left me tame
Still the cause of the underdog I always will embrace
And I only look for the good in every creed and race.