It Is Only In Fancy

It is only in fancy now i can hear a cow
Lowing in an old field by the River Finnow
On a balmy evening in July before sundown
In the green countryside just west of Millstreet Town

The great gift of memory it is a wonderful thing
And it is only in fancy i can hear the robin sing
In the warmth of the sun on a leafy birch tree
The memories of what was are living in me

I can only visualize my youthful elan
In the far away place that i became a man
Where i grew to love Nature when i was a boy
And learning of her ways today i enjoy

It is only in fancy i can hear the silver tongued rill
Babbling in the moonlight down the field by the hill
On it's way to the river to the sea far away
In a voice never silent by night or by day

And only in fancy of late i have seen
Nature's primroses, snowdrops and bluebells on the ditch of bohreen
When the hawthorns are cloaked in blooms of white to gray
And the old fields are in their wildflowers of the May

And the contented cattle chewing their cuds on lush grass do lay
In the warmth of the sun on a pleasant Spring day
Memories of the past of the forever gone
And the now is all that does matter and life does go on

Yes the past it has gone and only the memories remain
Of what used to be but cannot be again
In the backyard i am returned to the present by the song of the pee wee
A bird of the now i often hear and see.