The Finnow Flows To The Blackwater Poem by Francis Duggan

The Finnow flows to the Blackwater through places damp, rushy and green
And memories of what was are fading and I think of the beauty I've seen
When Spring arrived in her new green dress like a beautiful young beauty queen
And white snowdrops bloomed in their thousands on the mossy bank of the bohreen.

The dipper in the stream is singing in fancy his scratchy notes I hear
And when the old hill loses his snow hat one knows warmer weather is near
And brown wren in the hedgerow is singing the tiny one with the big bird song
Once heard he cannot be mistaken his voice again you will not get wrong.

The house sparrows on the barn rafters with feathers line their nest of hay
Though classified as songbirds they are chirpers they never stop chirping all day
And jackdaws draw sticks to the nest they are trying to build on the chimney top that the home owner with a long pole knock down
And thrushes, robins, blackbirds and finches are singing in the groves surrounding the Town.

The Finnow flows to the Blackwater on it's journey to the ocean shore
The river has flowed through many Seasons and the river flows forever more
And in fancy I still hear the dunnock his one note song one cannot mistake
On a bright and a breezy Spring morning on the hedgerow just after daybreak