May Has Come To The Cork And Kerry Border Poem by Francis Duggan

The birds sing on the Cork and Kerry border
I hear them pipe on hedge and bush and tree
And swallows wing to and fro above the lush fields
Of Gneeveguilla and Rathmore and Knocknagree.

The ancient peaks of Shrone and Caherbarnagh
Overlooking the Sliabh Luachra countryside
This was the land of great bards and musicians
Their fame lives on and now known Worldwide.

May has come to the Cork and Kerry border
And with her brought her wildflowers and her green
The hawthorn trees in white to pinkish blossoms
As beautiful as they have ever been

Above the hill the little lark is singing
He always pipes his sweetest notes in May
And in the mountain wood the magpie chatter
And male chaffinch he sings all through the day.

And the hooded crows detested by sheep farmers
On weak and frail new born lambs they prey
They build their nests of sticks high on the old trees
Unmistakeable in their cloaks of black and gray.

The young man from the Cork and Kerry border
He works in distant town for better pay
He fancy he can hear the robin singing
And Sliabh Luachra from him doesn't seem far away.

May has come to the Cork and Kerry border
And Nature's perfume wafting in the breeze
And cuckoo has returned from distant Country
And birds are piping on the leafy trees.