THE KILKENNY INVOLVEMENT CENTRE AND RECOVERY COLLEGE SOUTH EAST HAVE PRODUCED A WONDERFUL ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY AND PROSE. ‘WHITE TWINE AND OLD SUITCASES’ COMPRISES OF 128 PAGES AND 60 AUTHORS AND IS COMPLEMENTED BY SOME WONDERFUL PHOTOS AND ARTWORK BY TASK CAMERA CLUB. IT IS PRINTED BY MODERN PRINTERS. IT IS DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED READING FOR ALL LOVERS OF POETRY. THE KILKENNY OBSERVER IS HAPPY TO RUN THE POEMS EACH WEEK TO PROMOTE CREATIVE WRITING AND TO HIGHLIGHT THESE WONDERFUL CENTRES. AVAILABLE IN ALL KILKENNY BOOK SHOPS. €10
A Letter to my Future Daughter
You will make waves, darling.
They will not be water
But they will be fire.
You will scorch the earth, my love,
Where others refuse to tread
Or give up and pack up
You will raise your head
And continue on.
Where others will walk the line
You will follow your own path.
And where others wear gold and crowns
You will wear courage, loudly.
My love,
You will be extraordinary.
You will be five hundred stars in the night sky
And you will wonder why
You ever bothered
Wonder what they think about you.
Raise your head, and follow through.
A struck match, you wait
To set this world ablaze.
Isobel Tiernan
John and the Frog
John knew a frog called Charlie
down by the small round pond
and on afternoons when the sun was hot
and no one was around
they’d sit by the pool for hours on end
the frog on a leaf
the boy in the sand
and talk to each other as boys and frogs do
of jelly and tadpoles and homework and zoos
and if John was unhappy or puzzled or sad
he’d tell Charlie about it and Charlie’d say ‘Gad’
‘Well that’s true’ or ‘How awful’ or ‘I say what a cod’
his expression was smiling and strikingly odd
and John sat there nodding the whole summer long
and grew nineteen inches and became very strong
Now that he’s bigger
he thinks it’s a joke
when his young brother Billy said
‘John, that frog spoke!’
Mike Watts
The Hump of the Week
On Wednesday evenings after
the supper, my father would
gather himself and drive
up the road to Manogue’s shop
for the paper.
He would come back with the
‘Kilkenny People’, a few groceries
And two bags of cheese and onion
crisps for my sister
and I.
Or two bars of chocolate or two
of something. Later we discovered
a wrapper in his jacket pocket.
He had a bar of his own
on the way home.
And why wouldn’t he?
‘The hump of the week,’
he would say,
‘We’re over the hump
of the week.’
Martha Woodcock
