The Knot in your Chest
That knot in your chest
That lump in your throat,
When the teacher asks a question,
To the silent sullen class,
With their legs spread across each other over two seats,
All she can see is eyes looking back at her.
That knot in your chest is your voice
And that lump in your throat is it trying to escape.
For a word to formulate
Because you know the answer
And you’ve got so much shit to say
But you’re not going to say it.
Not today.
You didn’t yesterday.
But you might tomorrow.
Your voice will stay behind those eyes
Because silence is the classes only unity.
And you’re not going to break it,
Until one day, everyone’s going to start talking at once,
And nobody is going to be able to hear
What anybody is saying.
Lambing
I feel it…
I feel the wind chill that hits me in the open sided shed
And as the sheep lay in the straw
I say to myself I would much rather be in my bed
I pull a second lamb from the ewe cold and stiff as could be.
I lay it down beside its other dead twin. It’s such a pity to see.
And as I stepped away from the ewe I look up to the night skies
I see thick white snowflakes nestle in front of my eyes.
I sigh, the ewes and lambs can’t go out yet.
It’s far too cold and last week it was too wet.
And as I step back towards my bed, I feel hopeless.
The weather has been terrible but I have to focus.
The lambing is not yet done, there are more to come
Now that I think of it lambing has barely begun.
Lambing is hard for farmers far and near
The weather makes it a very tough career
And as the cold wind hit me again I thought
That’s why you shouldn’t lamb early in the new year.
“Lockdown Kicks”
We run into the darkness,
Hair flying behind us we beam with happiness.
Laughing,
Screaming with exhilaration,
White lines whip by,
The world is a blur of streetlights and stars,
This when you truly feel alive
Here Again
I’m sitting here again
On the floor
With the light creeping in
Staring at the dust floating in the air
Watching it swim gracefully in the air
The light is blinding but I still watch
Much like with you,
It hurt but I kept you around
Is it you who changed?
Or was it me?
I think it was both, most definitely
Who are We? Really?
“I am what I am, and I am proud!”
A phrase that they throw around and makes us say loud,
Although we might not believe it we shout it to the crowd.
We shout to the so called “God’s” we think we must appease,
The ones if we satisfy, we think we might get some release.
How come the ones we look to, on their pedestals, are so hard to please.
They fake acceptance, trying to make us feel a certain way.
They try to makes us happy every single day,
As if they even cared anyways.
If instead of controlling us they tried listening with their ears,
We’d all be able to say “I AM WHO I AM!” without any fears.
We wouldn’t have to hide our true selves or our silent tears.
Stoicism
As a stoic
There is no need to be heroic
Although gods might not exist
Living a life of virtue should be on your bucket list
Caring about things our of your control
Is like trying to move the planet as a whole
Being betrayed is the worst thing in the world
Never retaliate to keep your heart pure in gold
Memento Mori Remember Death
In this Room
In this room full of students,
Silence surrounds
A class that barely speaks giving the task to write
But with no words to put to paper seems a challenge.
Blank minds look round this hall,
Looking for ideas something. Anything.
Suddenly ideas hit,
And now,
Relief surrounds.
Society’s Demands
They call him violent now,
But they’re the ones who said boys should be boys.
They call her anorexic now,
But they’re the ones that told her to be skinny is to be beautiful.
They call him weak now,
For crying when he’s upset.
They call her bitchy now,
For not allowing herself to be degraded.
The generations before us have set the pace,
For little boys to be tough bullies,
And little girls to be soft princesses.
When they grow up and try to break the pattern,
Let their nature override the ‘nurturing’ that has taken place,
They get beat back down to society’s demands.
We Are
We are masked
We are hidden
We are controlled by the system
We are told what to think and say
Are own thoughts are getting washed away
We are young
We are foolish
We have got a big scary life ahead of us
And We are told these are the best days of our lives
The Sad Truth
Wake up, eat, sleep and repeat;
The essential ingredients to survive,
But yet much more is expected of us,
they wonder why the system is failing,
but it’s so evidently clear that people are broken,
We give our lives away to labour and work,
We unreasonably punish ourselves from the things we love,
And by the time this Sad Truth comes to realisation it is too late.
This Generation’s Hand
People say that these are the best years of your life,
All I see is constant criticism and ridicule,
You have to achieve and get the points,
While you maintain a perfect image and social status,
The pressure put on you feels as if it’s a knife
There is no room for mistakes but you are still meant to thrive,
Your parents say how lucky you are,
That you have went through life with not as much as a scar,
But they will never understand,
What it’s like to live in this generations hand.
The Say
“You’re too young” they say as they enjoy themselves
“You’re too old they say” as they watch the children play
“You’re old enough to know” something that we were never taught
Expected to know something we were never taught
“Weren’t you young once?” Drifts hopelessly to unhearing ears
A different time apparently
Where you were expected to know something
That can only be taught
“You’re old enough to know”
I Am
I am the darkness that keeps you up at night,
I am the fear during an exam,
I am the laughter that puts you down,
I am the voice that says, “You can’t”,
I am the regret after messaging,
I am the loneliness after a breakup,
I am the thing we all wish we were without,
I am anxiety.
Open your Eyes
I am white, you are black
What difference does it make?
All the lives they take,
Just because you are a different race
Why is there so much hate?
The protectors fail to protect them,
But they would protect me.
The colour of their skin makes a white woman clutch her purse when she walks by,
And all they wanted to say was hi!
Black lives do matter more than your opinions,
No more blood should be spilled when all they’re asking for is our union.
Their humans just like all of us and should be treated that way,
Not convicted of crimes that are full of lies.
Black lives do matter. Open your eyes.
Another Day
Another day in Dublin passes
Young kids expelled from classes
Propelled home by dreams of exotic grasses
Decked out in Goose and Nike
That swoosh so hypnotic
By night they’re standing on street corners
Abusing foreigners
All of a sudden hands are landing
Its escalates but its too late
See these kids have no understanding
Once used, a knife can’t be taken back
It all goes black and just like that
Another kid in Dublin passes
Pandemic
A word we heard a lot this year
It’s how we live it’s all we hear
Stuck in a bubble with nowhere to go
When will it end we don’t know
We all feel restricted we all feel alone
Just want to go back to what we’ve always known
Sometimes all we want is cry
Hopefully soon enough we will wave goodbye
Summer
Beaches are near
And Covid is out of fear,
This is the year we will have a sense of normality
Friends and family
With sunshine and happiness
The year was a mess but never the less
This summer will be the best
Friends are here and the beach is near
This school year just may go
The Universe
The universe is massive,
And we are but a tiny speck
It goes for trillions of miles
To get across it would be quite a trek
It has so many wonderful and beautiful sights
An infinite amount we cant imagine
To see just one would be an absolute delight
But to do this we’ll have to hope and hope
As it’s so far above us yet all around us
Untitled
I am just an average teenager in school
Where everybody thinks they’re so cool
From people thinking they’re rock solid
To people doing drugs until they vomit
Rolling from house to house
Trying to catch the cat and mouse
But after all I’m just an average teenager in school
The Morning it Happened
I woke up quick
To the weeping lions roar
To race the incline
To see what I was summoned for
The keepers of the land
Stood side by side
And a chill went down
My cub hide
The poachers had
Gotten lioness as I slept
And brought her to
The land of death
The pack all arrived to the den
Forever in our hearts
I love and will see you again
Our Generation
Guns and violence is all we see,
Police shoot there, police shoot here,
Another human to be gone so near,
To when they were born, it’s so unfair,
If only everyone could get along,
And end racism once and for all.
Untitled
Why am I expected to do so well all the time
To not have one struggle and just get on with life
Because that’s life, so everyone says,
To stop complaining you don’t always get your way.
But I do have struggles, some every day,
I worry about what I look like, if my friends even like me, my weight.
Why do I have to be compared to others?
I’m not good all the time but how do you know they aren’t either.
Countryside Mornings
Early wake up calls,
The cows are waiting,
The birds are singing,
Silence all around.
Tired eyes,
All wrapped up,
A moo in the distance,
Pure happiness.
I Am
I am the light that fights against the dark
I am the hope that brings you happiness
I am that feeling you can’t describe
I am the love that’s unbreakable
I am attainable but impossible to attain
I am something you can’t see but you can feel
I am something that I can’t even explain myself
Hide, Hide
Hide, hide,
Hide away.
Do not see the light of day,
Cause people do not know what you’re like
And you don’t know what to say.
Hide, hide,
Hide away.
Put on your mask and you’ll be fine,
But do not show your other side,
Cause people won’t get what you are like.
Space and a Ball
Why is football the beautiful game?
It’s because out on the pitch we are all the same,
No matter your race, age, sex, ethnicity
The best part is the game’s simplicity,
The reason it’s the most beautiful game of all
Is all you need is some space and a ball.
From Rice to Beckham
Manchester to Birmingham
The thing that unites us all
is that we all started with just space and a ball.
Teenager
Being a teenager is hard
School is always creeping behind you
That essay isn’t being written
And you have other stuff to worry about too
When you arrive home
You go to bed and count sheep
But as you toss and turn
You know you should be asleep
Sometimes when we’re tired in school
We are always given out to
It’s not our fault that we are tired
Hours of sleep, the majority, only have a few
Every Morning
Every morning starts the same,
Get up get dressed get out of the house
Eat the breakfast so your mam won’t kill ya
Make small talk just to appear happy
Go to school say hello to your friends
Knowing right we’ll youd rather be in bed
Get on with the day it’ll b okay
Well that’s what they say anyway.
Covid-19
Covid-19 it drives us mad
I can’t lie in some ways it makes me sad
At the very start, I thought it was cool
Because it got us months off school
I was very wrong though with all the people dying
I couldn’t help think of all them poor people crying
A Mask
There was a guy
He was a funny
Everyone was friends with him
But they didn’t see
The pain in his eyes
Having to put up a mask
So they could be happy
When he wasn’t
Pay Day/Final Day
The economy is boomin
Global extinction is looming.
Carbon is released to the air
Not a polar bear to spare.
Life is on its knees
Jesus Christ where are the bees?
All because of humanity
So obsessed with prosperity.
Pressure
There was a lad
He was one
Of the lads
He was pressured
Until he snapped
It was under
The pressure of society
That he gave up on
Poetry Skills
I have wrote five paragraphs here and deleted them all
My poetry skills are acc quite shockingly good but that will stay
I mean the words I say but I don’t say the words I mean
I let my feelings out when I step foot on the playing field
Not on a page
Not in a paragraph
Not in my sentences
Not in my words
Lush Green Fields
The lush green fields surround my home,
I wake up each morning to the birds grown,
Work is always plentiful; there is never time for the phone,
But the countryside is an amazing place and I proud to call it my home.
2021
Greed is taking over the world,
Girls are scared of boys and boys are fed up with girls,
COVID is still ruining our lives,
Meanwhile people are casually walking around with knives,
Global warming is taking a turn for the worst,
And animals are wrongly getting tested first,
When will people feel the remorse?
And when will our world change its current course.
Someone
Someone great
Someone fair
Someone who will always be there
Something sweet
Something kind
Something that’s not too hard to find
Is a friend that will always be by your side
From the First Day
From the first day, I met you
I knew right away
With your blue silver eyes you blew me away
Bit by bit I started to fall
Only to realise I’d crash Into a wall
A year went by but I couldn’t move on
But she was there to catch me when I fall
This is goodbye at least I think for now
Hopefully we’ll meet some time around
Nowhere to Go
I come from a land riddled with COVID
Nowhere to go
5 km here 5 km there
2 meters here 6 foot there
Sanitise this disinfect that
I am the soul of the COVID party
Keep it going
It will never stop
My Best Friend
You arrived only young and I was four
Little did you know how much you were adored
From then until now has been a whole 12 years
By my side with your cute floppy ears.
I hope you know your impact on me
Making me laugh attacking the bees
Your my best friend and always will be
I love you forever and always my lil baby
Everyone
Everyone fighting
Everyone shouting
People sad
people mad
Makes me depressed
Mams not impressed
When I’m happy
I’m very yappy
You can’t achieve
If you don’t believe
Home
I come from a small towns-land,
It is quite peaceful there,
The neighbours are grand,
Hearing noisy cars is quite rare.
My sister is a pain, my brother a delight,
We own a lovely farm just down the road,
Fishing in the river, the midgets might bite,
Walking alone at night, you might get a small fright!
Untitled
Cut was paper thin,
Blood flowed down
Like red velvet snakes,
All I felt was ecstasy
Hearing his agonising screams,
Vengeance and violence is all I knew,
Oh the regret I felt watching him from my pew
Live
Live like a student
Be up at seven in school by eight,
Never get a break at this rate,
Covids here, which means masks and a lot more,
You never know what’s next in store.
A Tree
I can see a tree
And its the most wonderful thing to be
The outstretched green field overlooks the wood
Where its density marked by thick mud
The sun comes up over the hill
Nothing only but to give you will
A Chore
I wake up to the birds chirping
To find out it’s my mam calling me for school
I dread walking into the regular rule
School for me is a chore
It is really quite a bore
The Rose
The rose the rose
Look how it grows
The way it hangs
Oh look how it hangs it’s head
Oh look
The rose is dead
Mine
Whether he’s 19 or 61, he’ll be mine,
Whether he’s good for me or not, he’ll be mine,
Whether he has a receding hairline or no hair at all, he’ll be mine,
Whether he’s a school dropout or a roofer, he’ll be mine,
Even if he can’t stand me and my obnoxious sense of humour, he’ll be mine.
My hubby
Nothing to Do
School is boring nothing to do
Learning pointless information
For jobs that don’t require this useless stuff
Just for the sake of getting points to go to a course
Even though learning poetry has nothing to do
With treating patients in a nursing home
Life
The dog walks
The cat climbs
The bird flies
The fish swim
The bees make honey
The wasps are murderous beings of hate
The bears are grizzly
And the humans always find a new way to kill each other
Straight White Male
The “straight white male”
Is the most discriminated person
On the planet
Everyone assumes there narrow minded
They’re not easily offended
This makes them easy to insult
They are accepting
So stop getting on to them
School is Tough
School is tough and that’s no lie,
And sometimes you may worry over a boy,
Friends can be fake,
It’s not a piece of cake,
They make say things that’s not the case,
So you find out they are two faced,
But something I always like to remember,
Is life is hard but it can only get better.
Curled Up
Curled up on somebody else’s couch
Is a place I don’t wanna be
Is like a uniform to me
Wreck less at breakfast
Is a common theme in their house
The cat meows and dog barks
And the wife screams and the husband shouts
Home is where I must go
Where she makes a pot of tea
Oh mom put on the fire
And turn up mtv
Hold me close and tell me it’ll be alright
And that dad, will come home tonight
A Dance
There once was a lad called Lance
And he really enjoyed to dance
So he went to a competition in France
He went on to the stage with a strong stance
And he was hoping to advance
But the judges said he hadn’t a chance
Alas
With school back alas
Tis a shame as I’l miss the grass
Restrictions everywhere you look
Real world isnt found in a book
With a break around the corner
The rake is my real earner
A Place
I come from a home in the countryside.
Where it is wet and cold
I come from a farm that has some sheds
I come from a place that has cows
I grew up around fields and trees
School
School is fun
School is cool
I’m going so I don’t end up like a fool.
I like to learn
I like to write
And pray I will end up alright
The Life
4th year has really flown by
Leaving cert incoming I think I might cry
Engineering is the job I want to have
School is nearly over and by god, I’m glad
Once I’m out it will all be over
But then I’ll have taxes and bills and I may try stay sober
My Dog
My dog is my everything,
Everywhere I go she is always beside me
My dog is very funny,
Because every time I mention the word walk,
She is jumping up and down with excitement,
My dog is my defender,
Because every time someone walks by, she barks to protect me,
My dog is very special to me,
Because I wouldn’t know what to do without her.
Untitled
There was a boy named Jason
And he was amazin’
One day he met a magician
And got turned into a raisin
And asked him once he asked him twice
The magician said fine
And turned him into a grain of rice
School
School is sad
School is boring
School makes me mad
And leaves me snoring
I like my friends
So I have to go
Can’t wait till it ends
And I can go
A Guy
A guy was walking
He stepped in
A puddle
It was deep
But he
Was tall
It turns
Out it was
A lake
Of slurry
Untitled
The grass is green
The sky is blue
My hair is blond
The flowers bloom
It all happens Saturday afternoon
What is School?
What is school?
It’s so uncool
It makes me drool
Until I fill up a pool
Teachers are demanding
And not understanding
They like to go ranting
And give me a spanking
But it’s me they should be thanking
For saving their job as they get a banking
The People
The people
Are people
When people
People
The
People
And
Thats
Ran
I ran
With a fan
Beside a van
Eating a can
With a man
Called Dan
Cooking with a pan
While trying to visit my nan
The Big Dog
The big dog
Sat on a log
Way out in the forest,
The dog is the strongest
To have ever lived in these forests
And will live forevermore…
Let me Go
He won’t let us go
All I want to do
Is go play golf
But he won’t let me go
Yo
Wet and Cold
I come from a home in the countryside.
Where it is wet and cold
I come from a farm that has some sheds
I come from a place that has cows
I grew up around fields and trees
Untitled
There was a man
He drank a can of beer
Then he ran
Away from a deer
That he had tricked
The deer was mad
The man got kicked
The deer no longer felt bad
Up and Down
Up and down pegs lane
Only got myself to blame
Down towards the Clody river
Just because I seem to differ
School
I go to school everyday
Where I see my friends and play,
The classes are long and the breaks are short,
It is all worth it in the end,
When you finally get around the bend
And you are free to go once again.
My Cat
He was born last summer in the warm night
Who knew he’d be such a fight
He’s the cheekiest cat I’ve ever came across
I’ll never forget him meowing at the moss
He tends to growl and sit like a dog
He even comes on walks in the fog
He is a very cool cat and means the very most to me
Even when the drives the crazy out of me
The Wasp
The wasp came
The wasp stayed
It came near
I ran in fear
I came back
With a flammenwerfer
The wasp died
And so did my family
In the Press
Hanging in the press was a long red dress
It was in such a mess after been wore by my sister Tess
That went to a party in Lough ness to meet a friend or two I guess.
Fern
Ferns gas is the game,
We’re the best in the game,
We’re back after COVID
And we’re gonna win,
C’mon ferns on the Bois