Memories

I have sung about the hills of Caherbarnagh and glorified those ancient Paps of Shrone And spoke about the lake of Gortavehy in bracken valley by a cliff of stone And memories from the past to me returning the skylark sing above the bracken ground I still stand on the slopes of Clara mountain and view the splendid scenery all around. I have raved about young females of Duhallow they live as always in my memory The years of absence has not made them older they still seem very beautiful to me Mary from Ballydesmond sweet as ever and the blond haired blue eyed rose of Derrinagree Annie from Kiskeam and Kate from Rockchapel and Jane whose mum and dad came from Tralee. The Finnow flow in quiet fields of Cloghoula from higher country it has journeyed down By groves and hedgerows that border Mountleader through Inchaleigh along by Millstreet Town Through the flatlands of Coomlogane it journey and through the rushy bogs of Claraghatlea To join with the Cails en route to the Blackwater on through Dooneen it twists and winds it's way. The sparrows pecking bread crumbs by the back door that housewife swept out from the kitchen floor And orange breast robin carolling on the cypress and jackdaw cackling on the sycamore And song thrush on the blackthorn is whistling and chaffinch singing on the willow tree They pipe their tunes in Mother Nature's garden and in Nature's garden they live wild and free. The past is history and gone forever and the future's all that matter some might say But people like to hang on to good memories and recall them as they grow old and gray And still i hear the snowy breasted dipper sing on a rock round where stream rapids flow And memories carry me to distant places across the miles and to the long ago.