Francis Duggan Poems

I heard the black swans in the clear moonlit sky
As above the Town to the lake they did fly
To me they do have such a musical song
You hear them once and you never get them wrong.
...

Born in a tent in the gold fields of New South Wales Australia's greatest writer many say
And in his life time he had thousands of readers and he has millions of readers today
Afflicted by deafness and mental illness and cursed by alcoholism one well might say his life a tragedy
And like many good writers before and after he spent his last years in utter poverty.
...

If the radiator is boiling and you've got a sick car
And the sun blazes so hot it boils the roadway tar
And you are stuck by the highway and from home you are far
It's in moments like these you know who your friends are.
...

You are three years old Fiona at beginning of life's way
And I hope you had a good party and a wonderful birthday
Just a three year little lady and yet too young to know
That life's pathway isn't rosy thorns on life's pathway grow.
...

Had I a Fairy Godmother and if she came to me
And said I'll grant to you two favours what might those favours be?
I'd ask that I'd feel happy and live my life carefree
And my second wish a small cottage that overlook the sea.
...

Tom Kettle was a poet and a soldier he fell in Ginchy in nineteen sixteen
In his mid thirties he was quite a hero and though not big in the Irish literary scene
He is one who will ever be remembered the history of his life is living on
His poem to his young daughter is a beauty and he is not forgotten though long gone.
...

The myth of immortality by proof has been destroyed
The most influential people we have known about have died
Once the World's greatest army was led by Genghis Khan
Until the reaper claimed him he was a mortal man.
...

She's almost sixty years and she's still dancing and she is still known as the dancing queen
And she was a champion dancer in her twenties one of the finest dancers ever seen
And still she is a marvel on the dance floor and with dancers half her age she can compete
The passing years may have slowed her a little but there's still years of dancing in her dancing feet.
...

Happy Birthday to you Genevieve today you are twenty nine
And with age you have grown mellow like the good expensive wine
And on looking back a decade the years simply seemed to fly
And hope this tenth day of August is a day you will enjoy.
...

Some 50 kilometres out of the next country town
The miles of flat paddocks looking gray to brown
The hues of Australia are gray, brown and green
This great Land looks different to others you've seen.
...