People in School
What is up with people in school?
Every person wants to be cool
And so all the students are now daring
To make rude jokes and even start swearing,
Yet I have a question: how is it right
To curse, make butt jokes and get into fights?
It makes some laugh yet it can hurt others
When you make some jokes about their mothers
This needs to stop now, it can’t go on further
We all must go back to being good workers
Adam Clinton
Battle Armour
Walk the catwalk, get judged. That is what school looks like to us.
“Just walk to class, there’s nothing to discuss”
The hallways become narrow and long,
A short walk feels like forever, you need to be strong.
The glares, stares, even the stairs. It takes forever.
“It doesn’t matter whatsoever”
You feel exposed and vulnerable, you can’t protect yourself.
You feel as breakable as grannys delph.
Build your armour, wear your crown.
Or else you will drown.
Wear your pins, colour your hair.
Whatever you do, don’t go bare.
Schools meant to be a place to learn
Not a place for people to burn.
If you’re Gay, Bi, Lesbian, Straight, Aro or Ace
If you learn at your own pace.
If you’re dyslexic or autistic.
Just remember to be charismatic.
If you have ADHD or dyslexia.
Just remember you belong in this area.
To learn and exceed.
Remember to be a noble steed.
If you’re anxious or depressed
Just remember to try your best.
School is for education, not a catwalk.
So wear your armour
Win the battle.
Lucia Waters Rowland
In My Life
In my life I haven’t had anything or anyone, apart from kindness.
It’s hard to describe what he looks like but when you see him you’ll know.
He walks with me in the night and keeps me warm in the snow.
Even when I’m starving he comforts me.
Kindness loves me and he loves everyone he sees,
But some people just won’t let that be.
They don’t turn him down when he shows them grace
But will not share his embrace.
I look around today and see so many people like that
Who won’t even spare change for an old man’s snack.
Cormac Geraghty
Granny’s Kitchen
We grew up together here
Remember the million cups of tea
Our laughter rising through the air
Our joy and distress discussed in this room
Problems solved and sadness destroyed
All our happy memories recounted one by one
Our matching pyjamas
The toothpaste material we all learned to sew with
Silage excitement and the neighbours visiting
Mario cart and so much screaming
While Grandad quietly exited the kitchen
Baking bread and making pancakes
Playing cards and fighting over spoons
Watching Mrs Browns Boys and so much Fair city
Donedeal and Wordscapes and our live in tailor
Last minute calls down to move the cattle
The fish and the budgies
The spinning chair and counting the money
Our dancing and singing will be remembered forever
But most of all our family and the time we spent together
Emma Jackson
Out of Town
The birds sing at dawn
The flowers bloom in spring
Tea is poured and craic is had
The dogs howl at night
Cows huddle together in the cold of winter
The hot stove warms up your icy feet after a morning of work
The evening sun rises
And your day begins
Catherine O’Reilly
Remember
The whole class laughing
The teacher giving out
All the failed tests
The endless detentions
Remember the prison
Of school
Sophie Healy
Melody
All I can feel are individual bullets,
The boy to my back’s right side keyboard click,
The girl to my left’s whisper and hair flick.
Even someone’s hand swift through an almost mullet.
I can’t think of their face or even name,
And when it comes up I’m left with blame,
The more I push the less that come like a pipe in rust,
All that I hear are the words of men long left to dust,
Or of trivia seemingly random.
A musical rush of memory coming in tandem
My body can’t let out that melody,
Or risk seeming a class S oddity.
All I can feel are individual bullets,
The boy to my back’s right side keyboard click,
The girl to my left’s whisper and hair flick.
Even someone’s hand swift through an almost mullet.
I can’t think of their face or even name,
And when it comes up I’m left with blame,
The more I push the less that come like a pipe in rust,
All that I hear are the words of men long left to dust,
Or of trivia seemingly random.
A musical rush of memory coming in tandem
My body can’t let out that melody,
Or risk seeming a class oddity.
Cian Gibbons
They Say
They say nowadays
Its easy to be queer
That because of the law changing we have it easy
And sure, it may be easier
Then a hundred years ago
When the church ruled
And you could be put away
Just for being gay
But growing up queer
Is still so scary
Because of parents
Who don’t understand
And peers who think its weird
“It’s fine just don’t flirt with me”
You’re really not my type
And just because I’m not on death row
Doesn’t mean
I’m not scared
Because kids can be so cruel
But adults can be too
And my dad’s not invited to my wedding,
Cause he would vote it down
But he’s not homophobic
Cause it’s fine
But “marriage is between a man and a woman”
The way god defined.
I can’t look at a woman
Without feeling like a creep
So I don’t tell friends
About my crushes,
Cause I can’t stand the guilt.
Anon
What is Death?
Is it really just a sleep from which you never wake up?
Do you notice it?
Every cell in your brain slowing down
The feeling of consciousness slipping away
Isn’t that just sleep?
But this isn’t sleep,
In sleep your brain remains always active in forgettable dreams
But in death it stops completely, at least that’s what it seems
We wake up everyday but what if we didn’t?
What if we went to sleep and never awoke
Would it feel like fire at the end of a spoke
Or would it be different, soft, like wool from sheep
A nice final experience before your final sleep
You know it probably just slips away, unnoticed, uncaring
I mean, it’s not like the universe is ever sparing
Why think of death when we can think of life?
Be free of stress, be free of strife
Life is fleeting, enjoy it, have fun
We’re always moving, like water from a creek,
There are so many things we can find out, death is not one
Because after all, the dead don’t speak
Fionn McManamon
These Walls
Wrongdoing
What you did.
They know
The stolen silky bars.
The knocked pearly white teeth.
How you monopolised when you shouldn’t have.
The forbidden adult treats.
Words that were spat.
All your wrongdoing.
None of your good deeds
They remember…
But who cares, really?
Liam Kelly
Secrets
The shadows whisper in the corner of the room
Discussing everything about you, from you darkest secrets to
How you clean a room, the shows whisper about every step you take
They whisper about every decision you ever make, the good and the bad
Every thought you say out loud, they know everything about you
They watch over as if they are guardian angels but you do not know if that is true
These shadows watch you from the corner of the room but
You will never see them in the darkness of the room
Conor Howley
Croke Park
This is where
History is made
Where on a Sunday in September
82,000 flow in with high hopes
That they will come away victorious
Where balls are caught and scores are kicked
Where penalties are saved and the winner is picked
Where one team wins with happy delight
And the other goes home having lost the fight
This is Croke Park
Barry Gaughan
Where
I come to learn
I meet people
My dreams could shatter
I come from
My dreams could come true
I could make things happen
Anything could happen in my life
Could happen in my family
Patrick Carden
The Ocean
Children playing in shimmering waters
Gaudy wealth dancing cocktails in hand on billionaire yachts
Life surging through the currents, as plentiful as can be
The deep heart of itself
Untouched by human hands
A dream of freedom
From the sickness of land
Sarah Tighe
My Dog
At the age of 15,
I got a dog called Alex,
He tries to eat my toffee,
He has black shiny fur,
That isn’t as long as it were,
And eyes as brown as coffee.
Every morning we boil him some eggs,
So that the fur stays shiny on his legs,
He doesn’t like flies,
Don’t ask us why,
But we still love him the same.
Emma Reddy
Untitled
Playing in the rain
Playing in the snow
You go on anyway
With friend or foe
Trophies to be won
Tears to be shed
Sure its only a game
So its said
Anon
Sport
Sport is like war,
You may come out sore,
You fight till the end,
Attack and defend,
Enemies are found,
On the battleground,
Some won’t survive,
Others will thrive.
Niall Coggins
Things I like
I like sunsets that look like paintings
I like the first sip of water after training
I like kind strangers that make your day a bit better
I like happy hour
I like the feeling of the sun
I like being tan
It’s not the thing that makes you like them
It’s the feeling you get from it
Claudia Lee
Atlantic
My eyes ate her art lips,
Her gold hair shined the bright it could
And it dazzled me
I could not see,
I couldn’t see her looking at me,
She was looking black,
The black that separated me from her,
Black made her blind
But now she is waking from that coma she used to have,
That spot is leaving her
But I can’t be there,
She can’t be here.
Poseidon wants us far because he puts his seas,
His huge seas in the middle of us.
I’m scared, I’m scared that she’ll come back into coma,
She will,
But this time I won’t be there to wake her.
Vera Maria
FIFA
So I sit there
Holding a piece of plastic in my hands
Pressing different pieces of plastic
to make a piece of glass make different colours move around
It sounds boring
It’s called playing FIFA
I’m good at it
I could be doing homework
I could be socialising with real life people
I could be using the internet to learn different things about the world and its history
Or doing an online course to learn different things to give myself a better future
But no
I’m playing FIFA instead
Some say its dead, they’ve grown out of it,
But I still play it
Why?
Because I like football.
Leon Galvin
Sport
Sport is like a battlefield,
You protect your goal with a human shield,
On the pitch friends become foes,
As the scorer glows.
Celebrate a big win,
By popping open a tin,
Anon
Dark and Stormy Night
It was a dark and stormy night
I was out walking with my best friend on a dark road,
Before we went for the walk, we went to the shop
It was cold so we needed jackets
We seen a strange shadow with a bright light moving in the distance
We didn’t know what it was but we were scared
As it came closer we turned around and ran
The quicker we ran, the closer the light came towards us
We suspected it was a man out walking,
Next thing we knew, we could feel something grabbing us
Pulling us into the bushes,
It was our friend celine who came to save us
Along with her bodyguard billy.
Sinead Sweeney
Untitled
We don’t know what to write
Cause we’re not very bright
We’ve learnt a lot
And we’ve had a bop.
Anon
Untitled
Amy doesn’t want to be ginger,
Ava wants a good figure,
John is ginger,
Ava is a fake blonde,
John wont correspond,
Amy likes boys that play for Connacht,
Ava follows Adams command,
John needs a wo
John McDonnell, Ava Cronin, & Amy McCormick
In the Rain
Outside in the rain, I forget about pain,
It washes off me, sand into the sea.
In the wet season, you can see the clouds coming,
A storm from the west, will I pass this test.
Waves on the beach, a message I try to preach,
Way down under, I still can’t escape the thunder.
The summer goes, rain turns to snow,
But above the clouds is the pain, forever it will remain.
Kian Meyerik
A Game
A game takes me away for this place
A second to breathe away from this stressful place
Can bring me to a new state
A place where there is no stakes
A place where I can express myself with the custom character I made myself
Build a world I made myself the only thing stopping me is myself
Leo Kelly
Untitled
Cathal is my name,
Sport is my game,
War is my aim,
And pain is my gain,
Down with the haters,
Up with the laters,
Cowards are the haters,
Cathal is a later.
Cathal Finnerty
Friendship
Paula is from Spain
She came on a plane
She doesn’t like rain
I thought she couldn’t talk
But I gave her insta a stalk
We are now best friends
A friendship that doesn’t ends
Megan Fox
Do not Hide
My name is Declan
I am dyslexic
Can’t spell write
But ya I’m bright
Wave after wave
Haters keep coming
Push them aside
Just do not hide
Be kind to one another
People say
Mean thing grow
But do not show
Declan Tolan
Sixteen and Never Been Kissed
“Sixteen and never been kissed”,
My mother said to me the other day
She didn’t realise how that felt
She didn’t realise what she had done
“It was only a rhyme,” she said, seeing the look on my face
It was only a rhyme…
And God knows to some it is.
How was she to know that it would hurt so much?
That that very thing has haunted me ever since
I realised that I’m at the age where it’s expected.
Because I am.
And I have been for the last three years.
Anon
Untitled
I don’t know what to write,
I don’t know what to do.
Going through the motions in life,
Probably similar to you.
Playing music is an escape,
A type of “happy place”.
Reading books is not the norm,
I don’t really conform.
I do love my life though,
I’m know I’m learning from mistakes,
My friends and family will guide me,
And show the right path for my sake.
Anon
As I Sit
As I sit in school,
On this wet and gloomy day,
I try to imagine a warm day in May,
Running in the fields,
Not having a care in the world,
Back when life was simple,
Yesterday,
All my problems seemed so far away,
Brian Reilly
Hobby
Having a hobby you like is as good as gold,
The time enjoyed will never get old.
Whether it’s singing, dancing or playing games,
You’ll remember the time spent then most people’s names.
No matter what happens in life, you’ll have a hobby for enjoyment,
Some even help to get employment.
So a hobby is as important as school in itself,
Get one now to help out oneself.
Marty Hughes
Goat
A goat,
In a boat,
That is afloat,
What a dote,
Wearing a coat,
He left a note.
Nadine Carey
DISCO
Makeup scattered all over the floor
Music I’ve never heard before
Laughter coming from all around
Voices coming from the background
Standing out in the cold
Didn’t bring a coat I won’t be told
Shouting in each other’s ears
Music is too loud to hear
Now it’s nearly time to go
Where are my friends do not know
On the phone I have to nag
All I want is a spice bag
Bronagh Foley
KFC
Half a dog called Hollie
She is very jolly
She likes to eat chicken
Its finger licking
Its finger licking good
Like spuds
Kayla Anderson