It May Be Cool Back There By Clara Mountain

It may be cool back there by Clara mountain Quite cool indeed for the first week of May Still wild cock pheasant cucks amongst the rushes And birds sing on the hedgerows all the day. And cuckoo's voice re-echo through the woodlands And swallows o'er the fields wing to and fro And Springs have not changed much by Clara mountain Since I was young some forty years ago. In mountain stream I hear the dipper singing And sparrow to her nest draw strands of hay And black faced lambs in high fields by the mountain Around their grazing mothers romp and play. The farmer say his cows are down in milk yield Grass growth is slow and Spring is late this year But when I was a young boy in Claraghatlea North Similar words I often used to hear But Summer came to be followed by Autumn And for his cows farmer had fodder till next Spring And jackdaw flew with sticks to nest on chimney And from April on nest building birds did sing. It may be cool back there by Clara mountain But skylark in the rain clouds sing and fly And Springs have not changed much in old Duhallow In more than forty years since I was a school going boy.