Unsullied
The wind whistles it’s whispers to leaves blowing with the breeze,
Where the forest’s creatures can roam, truly free
Flocks of feathered songs perched on each and every tree.
Here life is free, to be carefree.
This, is where you don’t exist.
This is where we don’t exist.
Nature has nothing but nature in its midst,
Rid of man made structures and the societal disease,
Rivers and streams can just flow.
Nature, unsullied and at peace continues to grow.
Anjelica Foley
Where are Shadows
All day long,
What could go wrong.
They get louder and louder
So that you don’t hear
Anything else.
They move as you
And can work like a clock
In the sunshine.
They wander around
With you all day
And orbit around your feet.
At the end of each day
It melts with the end
And starts to talk.
All night long
They talk in your head
And give you ideas
That else you won’t had.
In the morning
It is little again
And follows me around.
The whole time
They in your ear,
But nobody hears.
The little over the world,
They always in ears
And give ideas.
Lena Kerschbaumer
The Shadows
Shadows never truly leave, they are always whispering and watching from a distance.
On a beautiful day they’re never far behind, but at night they are stuck in your mind.
Mistakes and guilt are intertwined with the dark shadows to get closer to their pray.
You try and clear your conscience but it makes the shadows hungrier
And the whispers stronger.
They creep up slowly, whispering from the ground.
As night falls, the shadows grow closer,
Slithering up your leg and gripping your back, where the whispers become louder.
With no light to protect you, the whispers turn to shouts.
The mistakes leave the shadows and attack when you’re alone.
In the dark they’re at their strongest and you become consumed by the shadows,
Your mind completely filled with mistakes and regret.
Until day light comes, when the mistakes return to the shadows,
Shouts become whispers, and the cycle starts again.
Tegan Farrell
I Sit and Think
I sit and think
I think I think and I think
Yet I still don’t find it useful
I have the capacity to hold everything
And anything yet I don’t see the capacity for me.
Get up, walk into a hollow building day in, day out, it’s meaningless
It’s empty yet so full,
The halls are full of words and noises,
It’s all white noise, the white noise I don’t listen to,
Empty, no purpose at all.
Is there even a purpose? For you?
For me? For anyone at all?
I sit and think
My mind is empty, blank yet so full
Thoughts racing through my mind.
I think I think and I think
Am I living or am I existing?
Am I asleep or am I awake?
I sit and think.
Lara Caldemir
Our Kitchen Table
This is the place I can go, where I can just be.
Where I can be with my favourite people,
Where my clothes don’t matter and what I do is my decision.
I don’t have to be a sheep or to follow or to act like anybody else.
This is where I feel comfortable and the people around me feel the same.
Where we come every night for the six o’clock dinner.
Where I have my first morning coffee or our late night tea.
Where our Christmas parties are had and birthday candles blown out.
Anon
Sharp Knives
The rain batters off the windows and rooftops of the neglected buildings
Teenagers are not comfortable to be who they are
From the age of eights kids can find a way to get their tiny hands on drugs
Where murder and violence has become common, un-mysterious
Here it is acceptable to use racial and sexual slurs
Social media taking away the best days of our lives
This is not what it used to be
This is Arklow… sharpen your knives.
Faye O’Sullivan
Dark Voices
Dark Voices come from the shadows of corners luring you to them.
Following you like a dog wanting to play but you ignore.
When Darkness falls at night the shadows take over.
And the night is their’s to command.
No one goes out In the fear of the dark shadows.
When the morning comes the Shadows that
Roamed the night flee to there corners
To obey the light.
What we don’t realise we all have that Dark, Black Shadow following us everyday.
We didn’t ask for them, they were there at our first breath and will follow us till death….
Sarah Lawlor
The Earth
To remember what it’s like to feel clean and to shine brighter than the sun itself
And to have peace in knowing it is home to life.
Home to life that answers her calls of pain
And don’t sit and watch on as oil and fumes pollute perfection which is her beauty.
The beauty was once an emerald mass filled with forgiveness
And selfless thoughts soothing anyone who ventures far enough into her delightful depths.
Wasting dulling days and numbing nights away touching the broken souls
Of those who’ve lost a place of security and peace to call their own.
She now calls for help and yet nobody comes,
Her furry casting her waves of emotions
And gales of revenge leaving carnage on her wakening.
That is what the earth dreams.
Michaela Moriarty
I Dream
I dream of a better time,
A time of prosperity of life without pain.
A life not feeling the constant suffering of those lost to the waves,
Or hear the cackles of those who bleed their waste.
Day by day I see floating remains lost to change,
I hear their families cry,
I dream that the Earth is no longer branded as a vessel of destruction,
But as a safe haven,
I dream that at age 15 I could dream of happy times.
But instead I dream of what should be reality,
A future.
Clodagh O’Sullivan
My Generation
My generation is just interested in phones, internet and social media.
It doesn’t matter if you are kind, funny or have a good character anymore.
It matters if you are rich and have the most expensive phones and designer clothes;
Like Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc.
This generation doesn’t care about their education.
They think their parents will pay forever for them.
My generation doesn’t know how it is to work and earn own money.
This generation is living in an own virtual world.
Everything what counts for them are likes and follower.
Flora Hohlfeld
Needs to be Heard
My generation’s voice needs to be heard,
My generation is the one who will have to change the things.
My generation has a lot of choices to do with a lot of possibilities.
My generation is considered as lazy because we have whatever we want,
Wherever we want, whenever we want,
My generation is considered as having too much things,
But the society where is living my generation gives a lot, is able to give a lot,
But the planet where is living my generation can’t give as much as the society;
The world where is living my generation is dying because of the past.
My generation is the one who will have to fight to have a future,
My generation’s voice needs to be heard.
Valentine Chastagner
Darkness
Darkness wants to eat human souls,
So he can hurt them.
He wants to set the world on fire ,
And destroy all that is left.
He wants to control everyone,
So he can take over the world.
He wants to devour all that is good and kind,
Without hesitation.
He wants to cover the world in darkness,
For all eternity.
Darkness wants to be able to live,
Without fear of the light.
But Darkness longs to be accepted,
By those who fear and hate him.
Anon
Where
This is where I grew up, the place that I was born into.
The family who were so delighted to see a small, delicate girl.
The parents who enjoyed my presence so much that they had another
And after that everything was okay.
Everything was so great that they once more had another.
And for a while everything remained untouched. We were perfect.
This is the house where secrets were shared and lessons were enforced.
The house where everything went wrong.
The roof has opened up and let the crows in.
This isn’t the place I grew up in.
The rain pours and droplets seep through the cracks.
Adults begin to shout and scream meaningless threats.
From the outside, we are still perfect.
We paint our faces every morning and demand that we’re okay.
Time is constant yet we say nothing has changed.
This isn’t the place where I want to remain.
Hannah Taylor
Social Media
Thinking and uploading to posts
Posting for likes
Likes are water to a model they need it
Likes are worth more than love to most
Hated people are socialist prey
Instagram and snapchat is where they hide
To ashamed to show a slight piece of reflection
To afraid of facing the truth of been over powered
They feast off the internet
They’re addicts off one taste of social media
Social media is a drug to this generation
They use their phones like 60s teenagers smoked cigarettes
They ran on nicotine
We run on internet
Schools fear us losing ourselves to the unknown
We fear losing our phones
We fear the reality
We fear ourselves
But we don’t fear others
We don’t fear the screen
Aoife Kelly
The Truest Remedies
The place you took your first step,
The garden stretches to infinity.
You ask your Dad for help on your school project,
And make-believe eternity
The old lady next door asks to borrow an egg,
In the morning or evening dim.
You were playing the wall and broke your leg,
Now your mind is focused on how you won’t be able to swim.
A new home full of joy,
The clean walls ready to be filled with new memories.
You meet the new neighbours,
A dog and a boy.
Set your mind at ease, the truest remedies.
Lauren Maguire
Families
Not all families are perfect
But all families are true
Each full of joy and respect
Enough to say thank you
When life is hard
Their hand is out
Acting as your bodyguard
Saying I’ll be there just let out a shout
Ciara Condren
Teenage Minds
I hate that our generation is obsessed with the lies,
That beauty is what you have or the width of your thighs.
I wish I wasn’t told what to be,
I wish I was judged on my personality.
I wish all my hard work would pay off,
That I wasn’t just another brick on a wall.
I wish people would listen and learn.
Because the people who believe “the older the wiser” have had their turn.
Old men and women sit deciding my fate,
Something has to change before it’s too late.
Anon
Life
Life is filled with nightmares and dreams,
Even when the moon shines and the sun beams.
Within this world are some powerful things,
But nothing as powerful as what the dream brings.
Lost in my dreams as it all seems too real,
When I come back to reality there’s nothing to feel.
Its the dream that pushes you,
To achieve the so called impossible,
Let the fire instead you,
Let you be happy as much as possible
Amy Mcdonald
Sitting Alone
Sitting alone
Sad music playing
Thinking about everything that has gone wrong
Thinking about the people you have lost
Forgiving too easily
Apologising when you’re the one that’s hurt
Missing someone who probably doesn’t care
Feeling lonely
Being alone.
Lily O’Toole
Tired
Tired of living in my generation,
Can never live up to peoples expectations,
Sick of living in a generation
Where if you don’t have an hour glass body,
You don’t have a good body,
Where if your waste isn’t perversely slender you’re fat,
Where if you don’t have big breasts or bum you’re too skinny
Or referred to as an ironing board,
Where if you show off some skin you’re a slut,
Where if your confident with your body your full of yourself,
Where your appearance represents your wallet,
Everybody is beautiful everyone has they’re own insecurities,
We’re not perfect no one on the earth’s surface is
Anon
I Begin
I begin to compare,
I am like a rocking chair.
Rocking forward and back,
Moving up and down,
I begin to lose my frown,
Turn that frown upside down.
I find the right side of life,
And have a happy life.
Leah Conway
Me
I am a girl who loves to laugh
I have a loving family who supports me
I fear noises in the middle of the night
I am a girl who loves to laugh.
I am a girl who loves to laugh
I love playing football
I pretend that I am a professional football player
I am a girl who loves to laugh.
I am a girl who loves to laugh
I try do my best in everything I do
My is really curly and my eyes are blue like the sky
I am a girl who loves to laugh
I am a girl who loves to laugh
I am a kind and funny girl
Who loves to laugh.
Niamh Fox
This Is Where Climate Change Destroying the Earth
The planet Earth that I live in and has a problem everything is changed
Because of climate change
Because everything is polluted in oceans
Glaciers are melting and Australia is burning
Billions of animals died because of high temperatures
And even the trees were cutting down
Because this is causing the climate change to spread in our planet
That’s all I want to tell you and I hope everything will be back to normal
Oliwia Stalewska
Mirrors
This mirror doesn’t show you.
Sure, it shows your exterior,
Your hair messy from the long day,
Your eyes searching for and analysing every “imperfection” they can find.
It shows your mouth frowning as you discover a new spot
Or line that you’re sure “wasn’t there this morning”.
It shows what you look like, but not you.
It doesn’t show all the people you’ve made laugh or smile.
It doesn’t show how you help others or console hurting fiends.
It doesn’t show your talents and skills of which you are praised so highly for.
All the battles you’ve overcome are invisible in the mirror.
You are so much more that a mirror doesn’t have the capability to show.
You are not as simple as a reflection.
Remember that.
Anon
My Generation
My generation is social media obsessed,
Sexism portraying boys as the so called ‘best’,
As girls are prayed upon,
While getting led on,
Boys are praised,
That’s just how they were raised,
While girls act as if they are not fazed,
By the cruel actions of boys,
While they use us like toys.
Keisha McBarron
Why?
Why can’t I be me?
Just floatin’ around like a bee.
You can’t get away from anything,
They always want to sting.
No matter what I do, its wrong they say,
Its time to tell them to hit the hay.
People in authority,
Parents, teachers,
They have a superiority,
They’ll always be the leaders.
I’m not trying to be wrong,
I just want to be strong.
And believe in myself and what I want,
Please, I beg, don’t taunt.
Anon
Untitled
I was just 6 years old,
Looking out into the freezing cold,
Watching the car drive away,
Tears dropped down my face which begged you to stay.
The months skipped by,
Until we could finally say hi.
Now I pack up my bags every week to see you,
Don’t worry that is what I will always do.
Zahra Murray
Busy
It feels as if everyone knows what they want.
It’s as if they know who they are, and worked it all out.
They’re so busy with what they want to do,
That sometimes they forget that I am here too.
You’ve got a pocket full of excuses that are well overused,
so asking for help is impossible to do.
You’re always so busy as if time is a race,
But all I can do is let you have your own pace.
Devika C.Mohan
Fireworks
Fireworks in sky stars,
Shining in dark eyes.
Ice, falling from the roof,
Melted by the light.
The shadow runs and jumps,
Into the puddle.
A game of colours,
Spilled in the sky,
While a bird is flying by.
This world is not lost.
Your time is not over yet.
Klara Upadeck
Growing Up
Growing up I hadn’t a care in the world,
I was young, I was naive I loved me for me.
I was quickly brought to a world where social media was a new daily routine,
Where I fail to realise there’s life beyond a screen.
In society today, we pick away at our differences and use it to define us,
It’s something we all do yet we rarely discuss.
I’ve learned to love who I am, and that’s ok,
Cause I’ll always be who I am no matter what they say.
Aoibhe Clarke
They Whisper
In always had this voice behind me
Telling me what I need
She always repeat what they say
She is a demon inside me
Battling against me
They whisper behind me
Your never good enough your never gonna be the same
I just want to let it go I just want to let it go
I m so tired of fighting
I stood in front of the mirror
Closing my eyes
Took a deep breath
I want to fight
After all I wasn’t born to die
Christina
Every Now and Again
I see you every now and again,
You look at me and smile but keep walking,
You don’t stop for a chat,
We don’t hug and laugh
You just smile and walk away
I remember all the times when we laughed until we cried
When we told each other secrets,
And trusted that we would keep them,
When you helped me through my darkest times,
And I helped you through yours,
But now you just smile and walk away,
And I hide my sadness with a hope that you’d stay
Anon
My Happiest Time
My happiest time would have to be the weekend
When I wake up on a Saturday, I wait for daylight to end
This feels like the longest wait of my life
Cause the best part of the weekend is when it gets to night
I pick my outfit, put on my make up and do my hair
Then meet up with my friends and we go where?
We go to Nicks to meet the boys and talk all night long
With lots of music, the speaker plays song after song
Nicks is the spot when we’re there it gets lit
But the next morning all I know is it’s never worth it
Emma Smith
The Darkness
What the darkness wants is to scare me,
To create a blind atmosphere and hide its devils.
To scare young children and encourage sleepless nights,
To create tension and anxiety as they toss and turn in their beds.
I try to hide or find a slight beam of light to save myself
But no one can’t be saved as every day
At the same time, darkness falls and there is no escape.
Anon
My First Day
My first day
My friends laughing
Our crazy lunch times
The songs we scream
Our teachers telling us to focus
Trying to hide the giggles
Our daily rants about the work,
Jobs and homework we have to do
Anon
Shooting Star
The sky was dark and my world stood still,
Day light had just ended and the sun lay behind the hill.
I had nothing to do but look to the sky,
I saw something bright through the corner of my eye.
I told my friend and she told me it was nothing,
But I was almost sure id found something.
It shot through the sky with beauty and grace,
My friend noticed the look of awe on my face.
But to my dismay the star was now gone,
To me the star was my black swan.
I know that the night sky had to end,
But this is something I tend to apprehend.
But in the morning the sun will rise,
And I will see beautiful clear skies.
Anon
Thirteen Too Many
The place where it all began,
Thirteen pairs of feet ran from the farmers fist.
In Ballycoogue, the Darcy’s playground, green fields were their barbies.
When I was young, I would listen to stories of how my mam Mam
‘Walked miles to get to school’ or ‘ how the eight girls squeezed into one double bed
And the 5 boys into a single.’
My large legacy provided me with not only more than 45 cousins but 45 friends.
“Thirteen too many,”
Granny and the family would joke but in my opinion, it was thirteen too little.
Katie Butler
My Generation
My generation are all the kids born in 2000 or after into a world destined to end in nothing.
We are forced to spend the best years of our lives,
And our entire childhood in a place where our intelligence is examined
And determined by how well we can remember and regurgitate words
That mean nothing to us
We are told as a generation that everything wrong with us
Is a result of spending too much time on our phones
But yet anytime a member of our generation brings up a serious subject,
Including the future or politics,
We are told we don’t know what we are taking about because we are just teenagers.
We are part of a generation where social media takes over people’s lives
And validation from strangers is what makes a person.
We are made to go to school, a place where no person I know likes,
And learn subjects we pick not because we are interested but as there isn’t enough choice.
To the students it is obvious the teachers are there to get paid,
Not to improve us, but yet if we look disinterested we get in trouble.
I think this generation is the worst generation so far but I think it will get worse and worse.
I think as long as no one is doing anything to help my generation in the context of schooling,
Mental health, or working,
My generation will continue to be known as “the useless, online and indoor generation.”
Anon
Our Generation
Stuck in your phone,
Nothing else to do,
Follow me like everyone else too,
Cmon keep up with my trend or else you will not attend.
Climate change is crying,
As we couldn’t even do the slightest change.
To help Australian bush fires, and say our good byes.
Social media is the new comedia,
With bullying purely in.
You think likes matter,
But really they are not the chatter.
Instagram has become the mirror,
In which you validate yourself.
Alannah Chell
Bedroom Walls
The first time I was brought home from the hospital.
The nights I’d cry out for my mam because the monster is under my bed again.
The nights I’d lay in bed restless and excited waiting for Santa to come.
All the sleepovers, pillow fights and secrets shared with my friends.
All the screaming and foot stomping tantrums I’d throw
When I didn’t get my own way.
All the hours spent at my desk writing notes and studying for school.
The days I’d lay in bed and pretend to be sick to get the day off school.
All the breakdowns I have had and the tears I have shed.
Every night when my parents would come into my room
And give me hugs and kisses goodnight.
These walls remember my entire life.
Lauryn Guilfoyle
My Generation
Phones, computers, tvs, iPads, Netflix, Snapchat, Instagram.
Is made to make you think you’re less than everyone else.
Is us trying to clean up the mess the last generation left behind.
Caring more about how many likes you get on Instagram than their own education.
Society telling us no matter what we do to try fit in we are never going to be accepted.
Being told to act like adults when we are treated like children.
Is people being made to make you feel like you’ll never be comfortable in your own skin.
Aoife Byrne
My Generation…
So judgemental about everyone and everything that you do.
Caring too much about other people’s opinions of you.
Girls making sure they are perfect enough to please others.
Having your head stuck in your phone ignoring the world around you.
Individuals trying to tackle climate change that was caused by the people who come before us.
A generation of people that are looked down upon by adults making us feel insecure.
People who are becoming lazy as technology is taking over how we do things.
Lauren Randall
I Love
I love babies
I really do
I don’t even care when they do a poo
Id clean it up without a care
I just love that they have no hair
Their little laughs make me so happy
Waddling around in their nappy
I just cant wait to be a mam
Pushing my baby around in a pram
I’ll love my child like no other
I just cant wait to be a mother
Aisling O’Connor
You Can
We are good
You can achieve lots of things
You can be what you want to be
You can have an education
Your not forced into anything
You can make a difference in the world
Australia is burning
Recycle your bottles
The ice caps are melting
If you don’t change it might be too late
And there is no turning back
Sophie Goode
Skin
Skin is weird, it’s soft and it’s hard, it’s smooth, it’s rough.
It contains us, it portrays us,
Our portrait is the face of us.
My race is white but my face is red, purple, black and blue.
My spots and scars and scabs and scrapes,
Tell a story on my face.
They join up into constellations,
A galaxy of beauty, gone wrong.
I gave up dairy, I eat my greens,
The water, the birth control, self control,
Yet I am still breaking out, my confidence breaking down.
Capitalism picks my mother’s pockets
For potions and lotions, pills and GP bills.
One day I will be beautiful but today,
I will scrub at my scars that don’t wash off,
And layer on the concealer, but I am sick to the teeth.
Anya Wilson
Liverpool
Liverpool is my team
I love to watch them play
In the premier and champions league
Every Saturday
The skipper is Jordan
Mane scoring goals
And Klopp the manager
Gives out all the roles.
Hendo runs from box to box
Salah speeds down the wing
The atmosphere is electric
When the Kop starts to sing
We play at home in Anfield
We sing You’ll Never Walk Alone
We dream of winning the premier league
And bringing the cup home
Tegan Doyle
Arklow
Arklows not the best place to be,
It’s a bit of a kip,
But it is a part of me.
This is my life,
Been here 16 years,
The towns kinda bad but suppose it’s alright.
My family is here,
All 30 of us,
Crazy they say that’s how we appear.
At the start of my poem I said arklow was bad,
But if you think about it it’s actually quite rad!
Caoimhe