The Wise Elders Of My Young Years Poem by Francis Duggan

Though for many years their bones lay in Nature's bosom and in the flesh them I never more will see
Of them I have the finest mental pictures and they are living in my memory
They were the ageing mentors of my young years and insights on life from them I did gain
And until the Reaper claims the life's breath from me fond memories of them with me will remain
We owe so much to the wise elders of our young years though they were never famous and well known
In the ways of life they were our educators their wisdom placed them in a class of their own
They never travelled far beyond their homeplace or see much of the bigger World out there
The insights I gained from them I took with me when I left the homeplace for to live elsewhere
The wisest often not the most highly educated though wisdom belong to the insightful few
And in my young years I did know some wise people and I marveled at some of the things they knew,
They were so clever for unbookish people and their insights they were happy to pass down
To live on in the people who did know them even those who now live far from the hometown
From them I did gain many an insight and though the passing years have left me looking gray
For as long as I live I will not forget them and with fondness I remember them today.