On a tall beech that has seen many Seasons the distinctive caw of the gray crow <br />And swallows fly to and fro o'er the old fields where the ancient Araglen flow <br />On his journey to the Blackwater through old places as old as time <br />That inspired the bards of past centuries to poetry and song and to rhyme, <br />Old Araglen he is still flowing forever he will journey on <br />Through beautiful and green Duhallow though the poets who glorified him long gone <br />To the reaper who claims every mortal but the old river will never die <br />Mortality is not for old Araglen mortality is for such as I, <br />From Kiskeam it journeys through Cullen through fields and by many a hedgerow <br />I've seen him in flood bank high flowing when I was young decades ago <br />I've seen him on warm days in Summer as he babbled quietly along <br />On an alder tree by his green bank the chaffinch was singing his song <br />And still the old Araglen flows on through old places from here far away <br />Through green places in old Duhallow he babbles onwards night and day.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/where-the-ancient-araglen-flow/
