Francis Duggan Poems

As I walked out on a windy night along by the moonlit lane
Ribet ribet I heard them in the watery pond and drain
Tiny and shy amphibians Nature's forecasters of rain
Long after I have heard them their songs with me remain.
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Unrivalled as an English poet of Nature yet life for him it was far worse than hell
He lived for years and died in an asylum and the story of his life a tragic one to tell
He penned the poems destined to live forever and with the finest poets he can compare
And he will always be a Prince of Wordsmiths the peasant poet from Helpston poor John Clare.
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The World's great Empires have gone to decay
They rose and they fell and each had their day
And one Super Power rise as another does fall
And the small will grow great and the great become small.
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It's the flaws we have that only make us human
And the flaws we have are never hard to see
And if you can only look for flaws in others
How cynical a person you must be.
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Some of the girls I knew in my boyhood years in Millstreet in Duhallow
The wanderlust was in their young hearts and their dreams they did follow
To bigger Towns beyond the seas far from the Finnow and Blackwater
The saddened parents shed their tears for their migrating daughter.
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Do not tell me of your sorrows I've had sorrows of my own
And there are many others who more grief than us have known
And they do not tell the World of their sorrows at their loss
They just get on with living life and bear their heavy cross.
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He's only known the good times and all of the better things in life
And he's never had to sink a drain for to support his kids and wife
And he's a billionaire by right of birth and un-earned fame he's won
Because the Queen's his mother Prince Phillip's eldest son.
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The reason for divorce you've guessed right marriage without marriage there would not be divorce
With birds and animals things are so much different they make love and leave Nature take it's course
They do not have acrimonious breakups when their relationships end they merely go their way
Though some species are known to be faithful and until one die together they do stay.
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The barn owls the quiet hunting birds of the night
Seen often flying across country roads in motor car headlights
Brown uppers and unders a pale gray to white
Such beautiful birds and so graceful in flight.
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The goldfinches in small flocks they twitter and sing
And the fancy in me it somehow takes to wing
And i find myself back in the field by the hill
On a bright Summer's day by the clear mountain rill.
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