When I Hear Poem by Francis Duggan

When i hear a blackbird singing it takes me far away
To the green groves of Duhallow in the prime of Spring in May
When the snowdrops, primroses and bluebells are on the ditch of the bohreen
And Nature's flowers in abundance in the old fields to be seen
And the cattle out of farmyard sheds from months of eating silage and hay
On the nutritious young grass are gaining weight by the day
And the hawthorns cloaked in fragile blooms of palish white to gray
The past may be gone forever but the memories of it till death does stay
And as long as the gift of memory is yours for to retain
The mental images of the past till death with you will remain
Though time brings with it changes and few things seem to last
Our marvelous gift of memory our only link to the past
When i hear a blackbird singing in the gloam after sundown
In my thoughts the birds are singing in a grove by Millstreet Town