Colm Keegan, a poet, and Emma, a librarian from the Lexicon library in Dun Laoghaire, came to talk to TYs about the partnership between DLR Lexicon library and Creative Ireland. The main point of the talk was to encourage students to join the creative writing programme for Teens. The suggested age group is 15-17. The programme consists of 2 groups. One group is creative writing with Colm, and the other is graphic art and visual storytelling with Tríona Farrell.
Colm began with explaining what poetry was. He told them how most of his poems are created by just a simple moment he experienced. He spoke about how poetry can be derived from the past. He then asked the TYs what they thought poetry meant. As the TYs answered the question, the students got to have an insight into how their fellow classmates view poetry.
Some said ‘It is like a rhythm of words’, and ‘It’s like a song without any music,’ and ‘It’s a short story’.
After the explanation of a poem, he read out his own poem, inspired by his daughter skateboarding for the first time during Spring. For the last ten minutes of the talk, he asked the students to write a poem inspired by Love, Anger, or a special memory.
One of the poems written by a student inspired by a special memory:
A Special Memory
I didn’t know how long I wanted chapters
But I knew it would be gory.
I wanted to add some characters that people could relate to
some broken, some full of glory.
My story is based on Roman times
Eldritch gods stuck in binds.
Broken sirens and wounded harpies
Needing others who were not so lovely.
Silent pains never exchange yet consistent masks stay the same.
The world splitting open to form a new,
Place for gods and creatures of blue.
A god goes and favours a child,
Spares her from more pain.
Takes a hold of her body to make it go away.
Everyone split but never apart.
Their world becoming a new piece of art.