Thank you
Thank you for being
Here with me today
Thank you for giving me
The strength to live without a care
For bright is the day
I want you to share
And green is the grass on which we lay
Amid a beautiful summer day.
By Dolores Duffy

Wondering
Sometimes I sit and wonder why
All this time is passing by
On the streets all alone
No friends no family
Not even a home
I sit on the street
Heartbroken and cry
Hating the way people just pass me by
Trying to show them I’m a human being
But they only judge by what they’re seeing
But when I’m rich after being poor
People who were good to me
I’ll remember for sure.
Nicole Katie Murphy, aged 11

You’ll have to learn to keep up
I looked around and they had all gone
I was alone.
The lake was on my right
The wood on my left
Ahead the path disappeared
And the lake merged with the wood
I peered into the wood
It was thick, no light
I’m not going there.
I hurried along the shore
We had played at the lake
It was no longer my friend
Menacing clouds had darkened it.
My eyes searched the wood again
No way out
Where did we come through?
I was carrying my sandals and socks
A sock dropped in the water.
I bent down and squeezed the water out of it.
I looked up; there he was wearing his worried face.
“Come along,” he said. I ran towards my father
“Somebody must have been in a dream
You’ll have to learn to keep up with the others.”
He picked me up and strode through the trees.
“You’re nearly getting too heavy for me to carry,”
he said
“Your socks are gone,” my mother said,
“but you’re here.”
We all piled into the car
By Carmel McCarthy

Ducks on the Dodder
I see you often from Ball’s Bridge
The temperature at times like a fridge
You’re there in the rain, the snow and sleet
Icy water rushing through your webbed feet

How can you stand in the cold and rain
Do your feathers really keep out all the pain
What do you think of the damp and dirt
When you peck at the plastic does it not hurt

Bottles and rubbish you seem to ignore
You’ve learnt to avoid this hazard before
The river smells you stand there still
Why doesn’t it ever make you ill

You are rarely alone flocking together
Why don’t you go south better weather
Could it be minnows you seek to find
Flowing towards you nature so kind

Few people pause to watch your antic
Their days too busy and work too frantic
On week-ends and holy days we stay in bed
Sending you our plastic and rubbish instead
By Stephen Carter

Grandad
My Grandad died, when I was nine
Grandad I love, Grandad I miss

I pray for you every night
But I don’t see the bright light
Grandad I need, Grandad I hope to see you soon.

Now I am 13 I still cry
Why did you die?
By Tara Dent

Let Life Begin
Life begins at forty, so I hear
That’s why I’m looking forward, to next year
When everybody’s wishing me Happy Birthday,
There’s only one thing I’ll want to say,
Let Life Begin let it Begin
.
Life begins at forty so I’m told
That’s why I never worry ‘bout growing old
I know exactly what the act is,
I’ve had thirty nine years to practice
So! Let Life Begin let it Begin.

At 21 my life was full of fun
At 30 it took a dive
But at 40
I’m only coming alive

Life begins at forty so they say
And things keep getting better every day
Life can offer so much more
And I am just about to score
So ! Let Life Begin let it Begin.
By Michael Green

“Pull yourself together!”
In a pit of despair I once loomed,
Feeling so desperate, angry and doomed,
Not knowing why I had these thoughts in my head,
Selfishly wishing, that I was dead

“Pull yourself together!”
“What’s the matter with you?”
“Lying in bed with nothing to do”
“There was no trauma, no history of abuse”
“Stop crying so much, you have no excuse!!”

I don’t want your pity; I don’t need your shame,
But I wish you could feel, just an ounce of my pain.
I’m trying so hard; it’s just hard to shake,
I long for a normal life for God’s sake!
I know that you worry, but I’ll find my own way,
I’ll get to that
Place, that I’m at today.

Sometimes I still sink, but I’ll never go deep,
I’ve found a new strength and I want it for keeps,
I’ve realised now, that to be truly strong,
just accept your own
Faults and then move on,
For I’m living proof of complete succession,
That there is in fact life, for us after despression.
By J

Thunder
Mist moves across fields
And flowers shiver,
While petals turn inwards,
Reaching back to buds hiding
From thunder that shakes
Buildings around this place.
I feel torn apart but then
The sun shines, new strength
Comes from strange sources:
Seeds take root, trees grow
To great heights, making me
Wonder how I ever doubted
This force, this everlasting
Force that moves me on and on.
Mary Guckian

Miserére (Mount Carmel Hospital)
Oh Pain, my unwanted companion, be gone!
Unbidden, you came; unrivalled, you rule
My body, a play-thing that writhes at your will,
A puppet that answers each string that you pull,
Now darkness unequalled surrounds me as faster
I spin in a whirlpool of torture and pain.
Wracked and tormented, I beg God for comfort,
And know that my pleadings shall not be in vain,
As once in a garden You suffered Your torment,
Forgotten, neglected, You prayed there alone.
Bid pain– that relentless one– ever more leave me,
Not my will, dear Jesus, but Thy will be done.
By Marie McAuliffe

As always, we welcome contributions to
The Poetry Place, which can be sent to the
‘NewsFour’ offices at 15 Fitzwilliam Street,
Ringsend, Dublin 4.