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.