Francis Duggan Poems

He has travelled in the World for three decades or more
From New Zealand's South Island to the Artic shore
He has been all through Asia and lived and worked in Japan
A true World citizen a well travelled man.
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John Clare was a student of Nature yet he did not have a degree
On natural sciences or animal behaviour, botany or ornithology
A poor man from Helpston in England born into extreme poverty
Yet of all of the great poets of Nature can you name me one greater than he?
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He doesn't feel his is a superior race
Nor is he not your average patriot though he has a sense of place
He never has travelled far from his Hometown
And he has never yearned for wealth and renown.
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In Millstreet in green old Duhallow where into manhood I did grow
Life surely goes on as usual and the Seasons to there come and go
And through lush fields and old rushy meadows and by many a leafy hedgerow
The old Finnow from the high country down to the great Blackwater flow.
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Broken down by the freeway traffic buzzing to and fro
Between the big towns at the peak hour slow
For the RACV I feel obliged to wait
My old car has not been running smoothly of late.
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Who knows in years from now I may be like the old bloke in the wheelchair
Pushed by his old wife along the street he is in need of love and care
The independence that he once enjoyed from him forever gone
But till the reaper claims the life from him he feels he must live on,
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We are told that we have got freedom yet not freedom to do as we like
There are places we are not allowed to walk in or where we cannot ride a push bike
Which means that our freedom is so called since we cannot even walk where we please
Ours is such a limited freedom we are not as free as a breeze.
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I saw her the dark haired beauty with the Latin eyes of brown
Out walking in the wind and rain on the sidewalks of Belgrave Town
The sky was dark and overcast the deciduous trees were bare
And the chilly nip of Winter in the June morning air.
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Perhaps I will never more see him we shook hands in saying goodbye
He seems to be getting quite feeble he turned seventy four last July
He suffers of asthma and emphysema the years on him are taking toll
Time does not wait for anybody and growing old is beyond our control,
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It receives from you far more than it gives back and your last coin from you it will take
And it has caused many a marital breakup as well as disappointment and heartache
For those who dream of making a quick fortune addictive behaviour is it's prey
One of the chief causes of suicide all over the World of today.
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