April sunshine, April showers,
April birds and April bees;
April of the opening flowers;
April, month of melodies!
Never do the fields look fresher,
Never do the bird-songs ring
With a truer, deeper pleasure
Than in this sweet month of spring.

Delicate and sweet and tender
Is the croon of April’s breeze,
To the corn-spears rising slender,
To the bushes, plants, and trees.
April’s joy the wild birds capture,
And enshrine in gladsome lays;
Bosoms thrill with rapture,
While they carol April’s praise.

April voices call me ever
To abandon desk and shop
For the green-banked shining river,
For the heath-clad mountain top.
April sunshine, April showers,
April birds, and April bees,
April of the opening flowers,
April, month of melodies.

Michael Mullin
‘The Bard of Foremass’
Foremass Lower, Sixmilecross, Co. Tyrone.