Handout 2 Texts of Students’ Poems
Second-hand Jumper
I think I share my soul
with an old man
a codger, a joker.
He was a dapper gent in his day
slyly hid a wooden pipe
married a quiet dark haired girl
who collected tokens for a bow
in a bowl
smuggled butter in her brassiere.
Her man shares his soul with me
his dark humour crinkles my eyes
his words burst forth from my own
my shoulders carry both our burdens.
Yet we are not world weary.
We are ready for the road
wrapped in this gorgeous jumper.
Celia Friel, Loreto Community School,
Milford, Co. Donegal
Emigration
Waves break on the shore
Pebbles and Shells there no more
Longing to return
Kyle Tiernan, Virginia College, Virginia, Co. Cavan
Love Signed 280 SE 4.5
I pressed down on the accelerator pedal,
no needs for brakes.
I sit here in my Mercedes 280 SE 4.5
in pure white,
Looking through my sunglasses
getting a sepia-coloured glimpse
of my pursuit.
Handgun knocking in the glovebox.
The cassette radio screams scandal.
The clock with no faces murmurs regret.
I sit silent.
My neon china-town purple-painted lips tighten.
I see him through my rear view
mirror.
He gives me a nostalgic smile and
revs his car closer to mine,
Driving his teeth through my windscreen-wiper heart.
The world outside my windows going by at
fifty frames per second.
All images pixilating into a straight line.
History flies by,
Carelessly turning the wheels like
a child pushing a pram.
Death is the hubcap on my bonnet,
As he serenades me with flowers,
Edged with lies
And Butterflies.
Sophie Cullen
Notre Dame Secondary School
Upper Churchtown Road
Churchtown
Dublin 14
5
The Colours of Southern India
Red
Sunsets and sunrises like
The tikka dots on women’s foreheads.
Red paste and flowers
In the market. Religion and life
Together joined. Passion and fruit,
Weddings and the henna designs
On the palms of girls about to be married.
The start and end to a perfect day!
Yellow
Warm three-dimensional light
Of the early post-dawn and
Pre-dusk hours. Flowers and grains,
Saffron and turmeric for decoration.
Adornment for the Lord Buddhas’s feet.
Lemons for use in pujas for fertility.
Hope and devotion
Black
Night. Evil spirits and thoughts rise
To the fore. Meditation
And passive contemplation
An end to the day-a small death.
Granite temple carvings,
Small windows in the dark,
And fire giving the soul
Hope for tomorrow.
White
Saris of Christian women,
Saris of widowed Hindu women,
Pure, chaste and fervent.
Strings of jasmine,
Rich maharajas’ palaces,
Lilies in ponds,
Jain temples and carvings,
Markings in ash paste on a
Vaishnavite Sadhu’s forehead.
Green
Rice paddies rolling like life-
Enchanching waves across the plains.
Colour of the freshness that follows
The annual monsoon
Life-giving waters to nurture
The crops. Symbol of good
In dance, token of fertility
Otherwise. Hope springs
Through its verdant shades.
Blue
Shimmering, reflecting, blue,
Water and ultra marine skies.
Hot light reflecting, waters retracting,
Sun and heat, life and energy.
Robin blue of the laundry,
Making its way into every village.
Krishna and his follies.
The blue of animism and of cosmos,
Deep blue of night sky,
Clothes drying. Symbol of life.
Multicolours
Crowds milling, chanting, laughing,
Life, life vibrating, in the multitude of souls,
Hot clothes and steaming bodies,
Heat and exuberance. Vitality, joy.
The plenitude of human experience.
Bodies packed together tightly.
Elephants, music and festivals,
Celebrating the joy of being alive.
Earth
Mother earth – the soul of the land
Mother India Brown,
Inundated with water,
The tidal wealth of the subcontinent,
Rich and pulsing with life.
Clay-coloured temple carvings-
Magnificent symbols of a past era.
A time when artists were revered
And the art of India a living,
Vibrant form of expression.
Brown and turgid at times,
Life blood of this world.
Akshaya Sivakumar
Coláiste Pobail Setanta
Phibblerestown
Clonee
Dublin 1
5