I'Ve Broken A Promise I'Ve Made To Myself Poem by Francis Duggan

I've broken a promise I've made to myself
That I'd return to Ireland in the Spring
But without me grass will grow and flowers will bloom
And birds will build their nests and chirp and sing.

It's just that I do not have the air fare
So where I am I feel obliged to stay
Perhaps next year I may afford the trip
But in time a year can seem quite far away.

Don't get me wrong I like the Land I'm in
And I like the weather and the wildlife here
But like every migrant I too have the urge
To go back home in the Spring of the year.

To go back home when Spring is in the air
And frisky lambs in upland pasture play
And wildering flowers are peeping through the green
And woods turn green and leafier by the day.

I left that Land in search of wealth and fame
But wealth and fame keep on eluding me
And I keep on looking for the better life
But like most the better life I've yet to see.

I vowed to myself I'd go home last Spring
But circumstances then as they are now
Yet in my dreams I hear the chaffinch sing
And robin piping on the leafy bough.

I've broken a promise I've made to myself
That I'd return to Ireland in the Spring
But without me grass will grow and flowers will bloom
And birds will build their nests and chirp and sing.