JGHeraghty | Poetry

So.. I was walking up the road to my house a few days ago and the thought struck me. What if there is someone, just like me, who is as unrealistically keen about hearing about competition results as me. Who won? That's the question, buzzing around in my head when the result is due, any day, to the competition I have entered. So for those who are interested in the answer to "who won the Yeats' Poetry competition of 2014" for young people? which, unfortunately, cannot be found out from the internet (until now), it was me. Yes, for the second year in a row. I understand that makes me look a tad greedy and I almost feel guilty for not giving others, with the same talent, the chance to win, but I could never be happier. This year we were assigned the task of responding to Yeats' "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death." For the competition, the candidate had to take the perspective of a soldier and respond to the story of the poem. I thought, at first, that...

As it is Christmas, I should probably post a Christmas one. It's the most recent poem I've written and considering I was only given a half an hour to write it in one single English class.. It didn't turn out too bad! One thing about me is that I do like to take things into perspective. And, for that reason, in my opinion there are two sides to Christmas .. lights, presents and comfort in lives of luxury in the First World and then, juxtaposing that plain fact, we cease to acknowledge the darkness, poverty, starvation and unsuitable living conditions in which people in the Third World have to endure.. They do not get a Christmas like we do .. Christmas in the Dark Christmas is the time for heartbreaking Trócaire ads, The time when decorations are put up by Dads. Children are told stories of old. Broken souls sit in the cold. Big families arrange for big Christmas meals. Dust cover young, chapped heels. Santa and his reindeer fly across the sky. When yet another h...

This is my first poem to post because it was the first one to get recognised, and not just by anyone.. but by Poetry Ireland themselves on Yeats' Day 2013 . "Ireland 2013" was written to coinside with Yeats' famous 'September 1913.' Considering a century has gone by, the competition's challenge was to comprehend a comparison between Yeats' time and modern day Ireland. So that's what I've done. Ireland 2013 Yeats said romance was gone and dead, Back in the day when most tears were shed. Times when the IRA were up and strong, Days when they could be seen doing wrong. Not right now, when its just biased times; The next Love/Hate enlightening their "newest" crimes. Our time does differ from the old. And if Yeats could talk right now, a different story would be told. We're due a time when they all come home Cross the shores and along they come. Times when they are safe to stay, Unlike the war years when they were for...