On Seeing Goldfinches Poem by Francis Duggan

So beautiful to look at in the sun of a Winter's day
They feed upon the thistle seeds by the fence by the roadway
A small flock of goldfinches in red and fawn and gold
In their beautiful colours so lovely to behold.

How often in the sunshine of a distant and long gone Spring
On the hedgerows of the old fields i heard their kin birds sing
I love them for their beauty and their familiar twittering song
You see them once and hear them and you never again get them wrong.

In the sunshine in the old fields of the Summer in July
In the hedgerows until nightfall nestling birds for food did cry
And just learning about Nature was a thing i did enjoy
Far more than the school class-room as a primary school going boy.

The goldfinches by the roadway stirred up old memories
Of old fields by distant mountains far beyond the northern seas
Where i first experienced daylight and where my life's journey began
And where i fell in love with Nature as i grew into a man.