Why does it Matter?
Why does it matter?
Why does it matter if you look good or you’re pretty or you behave well and ladylike?
Why does it matter if you are white, black, mixed race or Asian?
Why does it matter if you are straight, gay, bi, trans or anything and everything in between?
Why can’t we just matter?
Why can’t we just accept that we are all humans
And no one’s perfect
Everyone is different, beautiful, and unique.
Why does it matter?
Anna Savage
The Darkness
What the darkness wants is to take ownership of the night
For you cannot have more darkness
Only absence of light
But when the light starts to creep in
And the darkness starts to fade
The darkness hides quietly and secretly all throughout the day
You know the darkness is present
And is always here
What the darkness wants if for you to know it’s always near
Rhea Kennedy
Echoes
The tears of a screaming baby
Echo down these halls
The shouts of quarrelling parents
Knock against my bedroom walls
The screams of a battered mother
Crash against the neighbour’s house
The rattling of hard rock music
Bellows through the night
Footsteps creep down the empty halls
Floorboards creak and groan
Glass shatters on the kitchen floor
Bacon sizzles in the spitting pan
For a moment, I forget the sounds
Of my sister sitting in the corner
Of the sobbing world
Megan Keating, Jessica Power, and Katie Telford
The Ocean
She’s cold, she’s blue
She’s home to many secrets, intertwined between her waves
And along the ocean floor
She dreams of others
Finding and discovering new lands
She hides and creatures she protects under her blue veil
She’s calm, she’s compassionate
She dreams of the creatures,
Animals caught up in foreign objects filled with fear and terror
She’s strong, she’s vulnerable
She dreams, she dreams
Lucy Guinan
Dolly
She does not know.
But it still grows and grows and grows,
Seeps like blood and streaks, she won’t sleep,
Until she knows, won’t go home,
The dolly sits on the bedside locker,
Think she banged the front door knocker,
Whispered secrets she will scream,
Pristine, as the white sheets,
In a motel room, on sixth street,
She cracks,
Cracks,
Cracks, its crept
Eyes roll back in her head,
Crying neatly,
Broken arm, sharp edges, freaky
Eyes….
Where did she go?
Chloe Jacob
Grandad
Happy memories with my grandad
Remember his jokes
Remember when you were with us
Remember the day you left us
Remember the happy times
Remember the sad times
Remember our grief and pain
Remember the months you were in hospital
Remember the day you came home
Abi Phelan
Sadness in my Heart
What the darkness wants is for me to remember
To remember the pain I feel, the sadness in my heart
It wants me to remember the smile on your face
It wants me to remember the months you spent in a hospital bed
Before you left this world
The darkness is pulling me back to your smile
But the memories are too painful so I hide away in fear
Fear of remembering the pain I’m drowning in
Kate O Neill
I Am
I am a flower, once I was a seed,
Waiting to be hydrated by the rain on a spacy flowerpot.
The other seeds were waiting too, and were stuck to me like glue
But soon, they grew faster than me,
I cheered with them with glee
I soon grew tired of the other seeds growing
Instead of growing they were growing tall
Leah
The Sea Breeze
The sea breeze is cool
And relaxes my feet
And it seems refreshing to me,
But when lightning strikes
And the sea starts boiling
I have to take a step back,
I go to the embrace of my sister
Where it feels safe for me
Jenna Foley
Time
Time goes fast
Time goes slow
How long we have we’d never know
Tomorrow comes tomorrow goes
But don’t take it for granted cause we never know
Brooke Hanrahan
Fly Me
Fly me to the moon
Let me be the little spoon
Valentines is near
Make sure your feelings
Are clear
Do not disappear
Christmas is around
My love for you is found
We can put our own tree
Before you go and flee
My love for you is endless
Unfortunately, you’re on my best friends list
Sheenagh Whelan
Inspiration
Inspiration. What is it?
A thing that comes to us very slowly and then all at once
Providing us with question that then lead to answers
That light bulb moment where all you can hear are the thoughts spinning around your head
It occurs anytime anywhere
Inspiration is the 5% that gets us started
It’s the other 95%, what we do with the inspiration that counts.
The persistence to keep moving, keep going.
That what makes the inspiration worthwhile
That’s what it is all about
Anon
A Cry
I heard a cry
Was it near or far
Do they need my help
I have come this far
As I round the corner
Near the old church bend
I see a man on one knee
The woman cried out her happiness
In a loud squeal of glee
Anon
Scared of the Dark
The whispers at night when I’m on my own,
Only my scary demons would know.
I tried to understand what they say,
But only in my bed I want to stay.
I don’t know if it’s an illusion,
But I’m shore that it causes me an emotion.
Something is alive when the dark appears,
And it’s like another world made of fears.
Victòria. M Franco
Restless
I look at the ceiling at night and breathe,
I am left alone again with my thoughts,
Nothing is keeping this spinning ride at a stop,
Eventually darkness turns to light,
And yet again I’ve had another restless night.
Danielle Hennessy
Untitled
27th of April, what a night, crop top and jeans, dolled up to the highest,
4th of October, I swear I was sober, skin tight dresses, I was falling all over,
28th of September, was my first sight of someone that I seen, I knew there would be a fight,
18th of July, I was so sly, 4 at a time, I forgot the rest of the rhyme.
Sophia Papirova
Child Neglect
As the starved baby cries
Looking for some food
His mother and father
Are screaming at each other
The dog is locked outside
In the rain, just wanting shelter
No food in the bowl
Only water is that makes him last.
The little child sits in her bedroom
Having to listen to it every day
Vases being broken
Food burning and neglect
Leah Jacob
I Thought
I thought I loved you
I thought so…
Sometimes you convince yourself that you love someone,
You idolize them,
But suddenly they do something
Then in a moment in an instant…
Your fantasy of them that image you have of them crumbles,
Now all the love you felt goes up in smoke
You see them for what they really are.
I fell apart…
Lios
Glistening Brown Eyes
This is the room she took her first steps in,
As her first giggles broke at dawn,
Waking the parents up.
A mix of happiness and confusion on their faces.
The glistening brown eyes of the bright-eyed baby,
Her smile phasing the sun.
This is the room my child first walked in too,
And clapped his small little hands together
In happiness of getting a small red car.
Sofia Zukh
Summer
Summer is crap unless you don’t make it crap
Rehearsing for a college musical
Dooleys, chips, sketching it to the park
Going to see the fireworks in Tra in the dark
Fighting drunk people to see the parade
Got the bus home past curfew
My mum didn’t notice phew
Anon