Francis Duggan Poems

He was a bloke from the Strezlecki Ranges of sturdy build and quite a rugged man
And he did not wish to grow old and feeble and to die of old age not in his life plan
In his nineteenth year he left the Gippsland highlands and to the Queensland outback made his way
And he worked in shearing sheds as a gun shearer where honest sweat is shed for every pay.
...

Doris has the most amazing memory although she's over eighty frail and gray
And she tells such marvellous stories of South Africa her Homeland thousands of sea miles away
She well may spend her last days in Australia and far from her Home -land she well may die
But her soul will return to that distant Country far distant even as the crow might fly.
...

His restless spirit takes him to new places he feels happy to be on the road again
The currawongs are piping on the gum trees the large dark birds who sing before and during rain
Tomorrow he will be driving through New South Wales like migratory bird heading for his wintering ground
Driving far north out of the southern Winter for the warm tropics of north Queensland he is bound.
...

On the gum tree on the road side I can hear the unmelodious crow
Cawing in the gathering twilight his voice I have come to know
He doesn't seem worried by the weather though it has rained for most of the day
He is proclaiming his borders and Spring doesn't seem that far away.
...

Janine Amanda is turning forty but her beauty with her remain
And the happiness of a carefree girl into her mid life she retain
And in the Shire of Yarra Ranges she makes a new friend every day
Always down to earth and friendly she's a charmer one might say.
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I've travelled far from the fields near Ballydaly and that green country west of Millstreet Town
And as in Duhallow far beyond Duhallow's borders for every up in life there is a down,
I left in search of fame and fortune but found neither though than me there are many far more poor
And without me life goes on by Clara mountain and birds sing on the hedgerows of Annagloor.
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She cannot be forty you are kidding me
Maitri looks younger at most thirty three
Why appearance the true facts of age can belie
Is something that has caused me to wonder why?
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From recent rains the woodland path was greasy up along the wooded hill
And the freshening winds of mid afternoon blew with a wintery chill
And in Doongalla east of Melbourne the white cockies did call
In that quiet old mountain woodland where the stringybarks stand tall.
...

Casey the musician lay dying in his van
And time was running out for the old travelling man
His sons and his daughters sobbed by his death bed
Till in a faint whisper their dying dad to them said.
...

Just for a moment of uncontrolled rage
He must live like captive creature in a cage
He's deemed too dangerous to be let walk free
And mingle with human society.
...