Ammon Wrigley - "Jim"
The following is a transcription of a work by Saddleworth poet Ammon Wrigley (1861-1946).
Jim
- We played by stream and hedgerow,
- So light of foot and free;
- In a green farming valley,
- And happy days had we:
- But on a summer noonday
- Of sunshine, song and bloom,
- They laid Jim in a churchyard
- And deep down in a tomb.
- I think of those June mornings,
- When skies were cloudless blue;
- And we went out a-playing,
- Where the tall willows grew:
- And in a trout stream wading,
- Two lads my fancy sees,
- With sleeves rolled to the elbows,
- And legs bare to the knees.
- But Jim still haunts that valley,
- For love of days gone by,
- A sunny joyous spirit,
- Unseen by human eye:
- He roves with thrush and skylark,
- I hear him when they sing,
- He breathes in hawthorn blossom,
- And every lovely thing.