Premier Writing aims to showcase the best poetry and short fiction by new and emerging writers from across Ireland. Our debut instalment features three poems by Katy Croke from Tipperary.
Poetry
The Pearl Bracelet
Sometimes I feel like an actor, a protagonist,
Cast into a carnival of misery, as incongruent as a field filled with dying daisies;
As if in a room filled with laughter; alone with a heart full of pain –
Struck by the arrow from a trusted bow.
Feeling alone in this rat race,
The robin may fly high, free from the embers of the heating earth,
the yacht may sail free, Leaving behind simple trickles of white vanishing waves,
alas we are bound to the earth — shackled with leather straps, bewildered.
This world casts a shadow on its former self,
Its essence of goodness, cloaked with the thick smoke of war and hatred,
Until all that is left is individual souls — as wasteless and disconnected as
Loose beads rolling apart from the smashed up pearl bracelet.
To Matter
There is such a thing you see, as mattering
Not to matter as a thing, to matter as a non-thing
Abstract it is
To matter is to take up space
To relate – objects must move around you because you matter
They cannot go through
To hold in one’s arms, to pick up, to put down
To be seen, to receive attention –
That is to matter
To exist as a being – where heads collide to see you
Where flashes flash, where tears drip down, where hearts open
That is to matter
Not grades, not cars, not shoes, not things – none of that is matter
Where matter matters is where space is being taken up
Heart space!
Nameless
Who is “she” or “her” as they called me
What does that even mean?
A pronoun, a title – nameless
Three simple letters –
Used neatly to evade an identity
There is somebody there
Believe it or not
Rip off that mask
Leave traces og glue on that pained face
Strip away that role;
Showing nothing but bare cold skin
Goosebumps bulging,
Hair standing on edge
Cold with
Existential fear
Naked – vulnerable – courageous
Here I am
This is me
Open your eyes and witness
The authentic colour of my soul
The true sound of my heart
And the real light of my eyes
This is where the magic happens.
About the author:
Katy Croke is a member of Thurles Poetry Group, and is the clinical manager of Jigsaw Tipperary, the youth mental health organisation for 12 – 25 year olds. She lives in New Inn.
Please see our Premier Writing page for details of how to submit your poetry or short fiction.
Loughtagalla Times 
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