Write a Poem 2021 Prize-Giving - On-line Event Thursday 25th March 2021 - PDST
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Write a Poem 2021
Prize-Giving
On-line Event
Thursday 25th March 2021Please cite as: PDST, Write A Poem 2021 Prize-Giving, 2021
Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Table of Contents
Foreword 04
You are Not Alone – Stephanie Dunne 05
Restless – Maeve O’Connell 07
While the Rest of the World lay in Bed – Elise O’Brien 08
Bothar Buí – Cian Feeney 09
On My Own – Sarah McEvoy 10
There’s a planet in you – Rowan Beddows 12
Hope Buried Below the Ground – Tiarnán Kellegher 14
Twisted Tales – Orna O’Brien 15
Fields of Hope – Aimie Kerrigan 16
A Mans World – Saoirse Hoey 18
Snow Cold Winter – Onra Flynn 19
Lockdown Living – Elana Kilraine 20
3Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Foreword
The English Team, PDST, is delighted to take this opportunity to celebrate the wonderful
achievements of our students and teachers in the 2021 National Poetry Competition. We would
like to congratulate all entries to the competition for the high standard achieved.
We received almost 309 entries from schools all around the country, and it was exceptionally
difficult to choose the winning poems from so many worthy entries. The variety of themes and
creative use of language and form was as usual highly impressive. We hope that these young
poets continue to write more poetry, and we look forward to reading them in the future.
We would to thank all the teachers involved, for the giving of their time, guidance and
enthusiasm to these young writers, and encouraging them to embark on their creative journey.
We would also like to thank Margaret Mary Grant at Laois Education Centre for all her work in
ensuring the success of this year’s competition.
The English Team, PDST
Poetry is when an emotion has found
its thought and the thought has
found words
Robert Frost
4Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Senior - 1st Place
Title: You Are Not Alone
I know it feels like the world is ending,
However in reality the world is mending
Free from the poison of the modern world
The treatment of which we have simply observed
For countless years we have abused
Ruined, overworked and overused
This place that we refer to as home
We have taken control of, called it our own
So one good thing that we can't recreate
Is that the world is returning to its primitive state
I know it feels like you are trapped
As if your freedom has been attacked
Watching the clock go tick tock
In an ultimate deadlock
Confined to a single space
Enclosed, encompassed, encased
A nighthawk in a cage
Like an actor without their stage
A songbird without their song
It simply translates as wrong
Nowhere to go, nowhere to be
Nothing to do, no one to see
A change in life, but not a tragedy
As we can spend it with our family
I know it feels like you're in danger
You've become scared of every stranger
Counting regulations in your head
Memorising them in your bed
Unable to sleep
The nightmares seep
5Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
From the unforgiving night to the day
Listening to what everyone has to say
The news reports telling you the virus was contrived
The news reports telling you it was a complete surprise
Turn off your TV, switch off your phone
You'll be ok, just stay at home
I know it feels like your alone, overwhelmed defeated
Your hope has been completely depleted
Lost in a swirl of chronic anxiety
In this unfamiliar society
Watching the ruthless devastation
For which there is no consolation
The ones who are struggling to survive
The ones who didn't make it out alive
Each day the death toll feels multiplied
You feel as if all your tears have been cried
An issue that just will not be held accountable
And it seems to have become insurmountable
But throughout this crisis
Remember not that but this
The nameless heroes who fight against this pain
Who continue through the incessant rain
The people who fight day and night
So that another soul can see the daylight
The efforts made by each and all
To bring this to a complete stall
The ones who died shall always be remembered
Their lives and memories forever treasured
I know it all seems cruel but you must see
This is the greatest show of humanity
Student: Stephanie Dunne Presentation Secondary School,
Loughboy,
Co. Kilkenny
6Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Senior - 2nd Place
Title: Restless
Wallpaper, once floral now old
Breathe in the numbing cold.
Like ashes, dust lingers
Tracing patterns with enamel fingers.
The foundations are crumbling, the curtains stained
He who has gone, yet she remained.
On distressed wood, footsteps creak
Silence lay steadily, let no-one speak
An empty face, an ivory mind
Body is shattered, her soul confined.
Her skin, like porcelain cracks,
Yellow paint peels from walls
Fragmented memory promenade narrow halls
The kitchen faucet continues to drip.
Mould creep out a broken lip,
Until she’s enveloped, swallowed whole
Cling to life her wretched soul
The air is tick with melancholy
Lay down and rest her weary body.
Form far gone, yet she will stay,
Watch over others until the day
She will venture beyond the empty shell
And to the house she’ll bid farewell.
Student: Maeve O’Connell Christ King Secondary School,
South Douglas Road,
Cork
7Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Senior - 3rd Place
Title: While the Rest of the World lay in Bed
I woke up early this morning,
Before the world, it seemed,
And tiptoed silently out the door,
While my brother and sister still dreamed.
It appeared that mankind yet still slumbered,
Not a car, nor a soul I could see,
And I felt I had entered an Eden,
Just the vastness of nature, and me.
Two magpies swooped past me together,
Entwined in a start of day dance,
And they turned, and they stopped when they saw me,
With an almost incredulous glance.
The leaves from the trees whispered secrets,
As they fluttered along in my wake,
And more fell, like confetti of yellows and golds,
As the dawn slowly started to break.
The sun reached long fingers towards me,
To grasp at my hair, at my cheeks,
And it showed me the painting of sunrise,
Coloured brushes painting vivid streaks.
I woke up early this morning,
And saw the sky orange and red,
And learned all the secrets of nature,
While the rest of the world lay in bed.
Student: Elise O’Brien Mount Anville Secondary School,
14 Mount Anville Rd,
Mount Anville,
Dublin 14
8Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Senior - Highly Commended
Title: Bothar Buí
Everyone had the same thing to say about her
She raised the best Sons and the best Daughters
She was an amazing woman who did so much
I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I will miss her hugs
She was in the other room in a wooden box
With her hands held together holding a cross
Pictures of her family on the walls
Thinking back to when she used to say I was growing so tall
She won’t see me achieve all my goals
but I’ll think about her and hold pictures of her so close
I felt the pressure of the world on my shoulders
That weekend my mind had been hit by a boulder
I ran out the door because the stress got to me
and i began my walk down to Trá an Dóilín
Passing a line of people on their way to pay their respects
but before this none of them would come to visit
Each one of them said hi and asked where I was going
I needed a break, at this point my teardrops were showing
Walking I realised I’m going to miss going to Bothar Buí
back to Mamo’s house on a Saturday for a cup of tea
On my walk I had time to think about how she was blessing on this earth
but also how it hurts too much to go on without her
9Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
She might be gone but she lives on her children and their own
She might have left but we’ll never be alone
She lives on in our hearts, in our minds and in that house
Mary Ann Griffin’s light will never go out
Student: Cian Feeney School: Coláiste na Coiribe,
Ballyburke Rd,
Knochnacarra,
Galway
10Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Senior - Highly Commended
Title: On My Own
I've looked at the world
With wide opened eyes,
Eager to explore
And see what’s confined.
I’ve loved the idea
Of ‘on my own’,
See what I do
Under no one's control,
And though I’m young
With the heart of a child,
I’ve yearned for freedom,
An independence of kinds.
I’ve grown to listen
To ‘Do this’ ‘Do that’
And my future calls
With no ‘this’ or ‘that’.
I see a joy in ‘on my own’
No more a captive to rules and roams
Seeking wonder in
I and Me,
To what they call
Maturity.
I am young but mature for my age
For I hide something bigger under this child-like cage.
Student: Sarah McEvoy Ardscoil na Tríonóide,
Lower St Joseph’s Terrace,
Athy,
Co. Kildare
11Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Senior - Highly Commended
Title: There’s a planet in you
Twirl, Leap, Bound across the sky,
Wash away the impurities, say goodbye.
Watch the lights flickering, getting warmer,
Light the match, juggle it like a torch thrower.
Twist, Turn, Swirl around,
Forget about the things on the ground.
For they don’t care and they don’t matter,
So continue your dance, continue your clatter.
Rip, Tear, Shred the landscape,
Blizzard like a billowing cape.
Hear the roaring, the screaming, the shrieking,
Scrape across the country, your long arms shrilly whispering.
Push, Shove, Hurl away,
The short nights and each bright day.
Ship in a glass bottle, a storm inside,
So easy to break, one mistake and it’ll collide.
Deceive, Mask, Hide behind a facade,
Perform gracefully like a fraud.
Each tear a bloody scar across the land,
Leaving nothing but a wasteland.
Burst, Explode, Blaze the melting sky,
Each star doomed to die.
Smell the decay, the rot, the taint,
Hope and joy is getting faint.
12Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Exclaim, Lie, Say we still have time,
Each sound should be a crime.
Say you’re listening but you’re really not,
Lie that you fought or at least that’s what you thought.
Can’t, Won’t, Don’t you see?
There’s a planet in you, and there’s a planet in me.
But you won’t see and you won’t look,
And that’s why we’re still stuck on this page in the book.
Student: Rowan Beddows Villiers School,
North Circular Road,
Limerick
13Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Junior - 1st Place
Title: Hope Buried Below the Ground
What will we do
when we all come together?
Will we laugh and have fun, wear no masks
for displeasure?
Will we dance or will we sing,
or hug each other with great feeling?
Because we know what it’s like,
when negativity is the only meaning.
Restaurants will be open,
masks may be free,
because we battled this together,
we braved the storm of the sea.
So let us look forward, to hope
rising from the ground,
We will rise as one,
for there is light that is bound.
Student: Tiarnán Kellegher Mohill Community College,
Mohill,
Co Leitrim
14Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Junior - 2nd Place
Title: Twisted Tales
A tornado, he swept me off my feet
We could hardly wait ‘til the end of a week
Good witch bad witch
Our roles seemed to switch.
As emerald city we anticipate
Both doubtful ‘til we reached the gate.
The straw man unable to articulate
We his duplicate.
The tin man required a ticker
In our tiny tin house, we’d bicker.
The lion man fearful
As was I, given our past, unlawful.
The journey of Oz.
The journey of
us.
Student: Orna O’Brien Mount Saint Michael Secondary School,
Rosscarbery,
Co Cork
15Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Junior - 3rd Place
“Peace cannot be kept by force it can only be achieved by understanding”
- Albert Einstein
Title: Fields of Hope
He lays in a field filled with blooming wildflowers.
The gentle wind moves their flourishing petals.
The fear of the unknown,
The inevitability of death,
its unpredictability lingers on our planet like mother nature.
He takes a slow deep breath,
his diaphragm slowly expands,
filling his lungs with the saccharine, delicate, light aroma of the field.
It stays sweet in his mind like the aftermath of a compliment.
He lays on the overcrowded blades of grass,
letting the floral scents and vibrant colours bring him tranquillity.
A shuffling noise awakens his peace,
soft pitter pattering of small feet.
It's a lamb.
He envies its innocent, pure mind
Unaware of the evil lurking nearby,
its wool is as white as snow covered mountains.
His eyes are deep, black, wide with curiosity,
his pink nose twitches with uncertainty.
His wool is smooth.
Rippled.
Flowing like a sea over velvety cream sand.
16Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Night falls as the sun cowers to the horizon, he glances at its final moments of beauty.
He glares at the night sky draped with a curtain of darkness,
illuminated with bright gleaming, glittering stars.
The lamb disappears into the twilight
He shivers with the cold as the hairs stand up on his arms.
The colour slowly fades from his rosey cheeks
replaced by a ghostly shadow of his previous self .
However he is not fearful of the darkness.
It devours the land, like roots of a tree
dispersed like a labyrinth.
His thoughts are laborious.
In a world of constraints,
freedom is felt.
Synopsis
Student: Aimie Kerrigan Oakland’s Community College
Sr Senan Avenue,
Edenderry,
Co Offaly
17Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Junior - Highly Commended
Title: A Mans World
I am a girl,
Hair full of curls
I clean the house.
But I would rather be outside
Trimming the hedges.
But mother says
“That’s a man’s job”.
And father says
“If I try it will flop”.
I want to be outdoors but,
Instead I’m in doing chores.
Jack my brother has all the fun,
When I peel spuds one by one.
Hopefully one day they will see.
That I can cut down a tree.
Hopefully one day they will know.
I can mow the lawn as well as sow.
Hopefully one day I can do all the
Of the “men’s jobs’’.
Without being told
“Leave that to your brother”.
I am a girl.
Student: Saoirse Hoey Oaklands Community College,
Sr Senan Avenue,
Edenderry,
Co Offaly
18Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Junior - Highly Commended
Title: Snow Cold Winter
Snow cold winter is a beautiful sight.
Families driving home in the middle of the night.
My family is in Dublin thinking of me,
But they’re stuck inside due to Covid-19.
Its Christmas Eve, that amazing day.
Santa will come down my dirty chimney,
Or maybe he will come through my front door,
Or maybe nothing at all if you’re homeless or poor.
I go to sleep all snug in my bed.
I’m lucky I have one to lay my sleepy head.
I remember something I was told when I was young,
“Appreciate the little things because someone might not have one.”
Todays the day, it’s no longer Christmas eve.
It’s the day I open the present under the tree.
I run down the stairs to see what I’d find.
But I see two figures standing side by side.
Is it Santa and Mrs Claus?
No, it can’t be.
Its my grandparents from Dublin,
And they have come to see me.
Student: Onra Flynn Eureka School,
Kells,
Co Meath
19Write A Poem Prize-Giving 2021
Junior - Highly Commended
Title: Lockdown living
If we only knew then, what we know now,
Our world so changed, Will it change back somehow?
Conversation so different, new expressions the norm,
Social distance, hand sanitise, R-values, zoom calls.
New strains transmit, vulnerable hard hit,
contact tracing, mind racing, new vaccine for Covid19,
but behind our masks are we still seen?
Symptomatic,
you all better cocoon,
anti-masking clowns, we got no room,
This isolation can even break your heart,
Our loved ones all two metres apart.
Don’t be a dope, restrictions are here for a reason,
Common sense is not something you need a degree in!
So come on Covid, we’re coming to get ya,
Before you get us, our vaccine will smash ya,
We’ll get back to hanging out with our friends,
Laughing, joking …...... just plain everyday things.
Student: Elana Kilraine Mohill Community College,
Mohill,
Co Leitrim
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