The Less I Know I Know Poem by Francis Duggan

I grew up close to Nature see animals give birth
And i learned just a tiny bit about our Mother Earth
And close to the Goddess of Nature into manhood i did grow
But the more i learn of Nature the less i know i know

About the Natural World all around us everywhere
And though often in the moonlight in Spring evenings i heard the mother hare
Calling out to her leverets from me she was upwind
Next day I'd search the meadow for them though them I'd never find.

I searched the meadow for them a hectare of ground
But never any trace of them and them i never found
And never any sign of them though i knew that they were there
I could not even learn about the secrets of the hare.

In the twilight of the evening from a branch of tree nearby
I watched the badgers clean out their sett as darkness cloaked the sky
And then they brought in dried grass they kept their home so clean
And i could only marvel at the thing that i had seen.

I often heard the curlews o'er the brown bogland in May
And though an old man told me green brown blotched eggs they lay
I never did find their nest though i felt it was nearby
Their secret of survival to be secretive and shy.

I grew up close to Nature i was a country boy
And i got to know a little about creatures that run and fly
And i thought that i knew Nature well but in hindsight i recall
That Mother Nature keeps her secrets well hidden from us all.