Nostalgic Memories Of Old Clara Mountain Poem by Francis Duggan

Overlooking Duhallow and Sliabh Luachra and overlooking Millstreet Town
How often in my younger years I remember I often climbed to Clara's Cross and ran all the way down
Through the high fields of Claramore and Claraghatlea but back then I was in my prime
And I too have grown that much slower my master is old father time.

Centuries before the first Humans arrived in Ireland old Clara Hill stood on the higher ground
And even centuries before the birth of the first dinosaur he overlooked the Countryside for miles around
And the old hills that stretch into Sliabh Luachra Caherbarnagh and Goddess Anu's breasts in Shrone
And overlooking the mountain lake at Gortavehy the ancient hill that has a face of stone.

Nostalgic memories of old Clara Mountain will be with me until the day I die
In fancy I can hear the brown lark singing above the bracken in the morning sky
'Twill always be the mountain of my Childhood the old hill in Duhallow far away
In dreams I see the fog roll o'er the bracken in late evening of a rainy Spring day.

One can leave the mountain but the mountain follow the old hill till your end with you will stay
The savage loves his native shore I recall a wise old sage long years ago did say
And nostalgic memories of Clara Mountain are still with me and I often see him when I visualize
And I hear the brown lark carolling o'er the bracken in early morning just after sunrise.