Where I First Looked Poem by Francis Duggan

Where i first looked on the lamp of day
In distance from there i now live far away
Claraghatlea my first home place near the Town of Millstreet
In the green countryside where the waterways meet

But in my visualizations i hear and i see
The red breasted robin on a leafy birch tree
Singing his familiar song in the twilight gray
Just after sundown on a balmy evening in May

Where mine years ago was a familiar face
Today i would be a stranger to many in my first home place
I have not been there for thirty years that seems a long time
And i am many decades past my physical prime

I used to say i would go home for to grow old and die
But for now to say this may well be a lie
Since i no longer yearn for the what used to be
It does seem that nostalgia it has died in me

Far south of Millstreet Town where i went to Primary school
In this coastal countryside by the City of Warrnambool
I have found contentment in my twilight years
And for the what used to be i have shed my last tears.