I Left Claraghatlea

For flag or for Country i never would die

If i did tell you differently this would be a lie

I am just an old bloke who retains a sense of place

Though today there to many mine would be a stranger's face

Claraghatlea in Millstreet in Duhallow where i first saw light of day

Though there i was one who did not choose to stay

I have not forgotten the what used to be

The old fields i loved lived in my memory

Where i grew to love Nature when i was a boy 

And learning of her ways today i enjoy

And of Nature so much to learn it does seem this way

We never stop learning as the wise one did say

It was my yearn for wander that lured me far south

Of the fields of the badger and waterways of the brown trout

To the home of koala, echidna and wallaby and grey kangaroo

And emu, corella and yellow tailed black cockatoo

I envy those who do at home choose to stay

In the place they grew up in they grow old and grey

A rare one the migrant who does not think of his or her first home

For the Londoner it is London and for the Roman it is Rome

In my visualizations a few kilometres from the Town of  Millstreet

I walk through the fields to where the waterways meet

I left Claraghatlea but it did not leave me

Today it is living in my memory.