Going Places 1

Our most recent Poem of the Week, Billy Collins's 'Walking across the Atlantic', has been used in class by both Ronan Swift, who shared the animations on the Billy Collins Action Poet site with his Primary set, and Liam Canning, whose III form Junior Certificate pupils responded to 'Atlantic' by writing their own poems about 'Going Places.' We'll post some of these over the next couple of days.


Going Places, by Ji-won Lee

Red, orange, yellow, green,
Blue, indigo, violet.
The rainbow spans the mountain.
I wanted to put those seven colours
in my pocket and my heart,
something like a desire to possess.

I put up my hand and wriggled my five fingers.
But I couldn’t catch those colours.
Because it was too far away.
I ran and ran to get beside it.
I ran and looked up to the sky,
It was much more far away and
It started to disappear slowly.

Now I have lost my place to go.

Going Places, by Jessica Sheil

“Where are we going?”
“A place.”
The doors slammed shut.
Unfortunately I knew where I was going, but I wasn’t
Quite sure what would happen.
I wondered if I was going to my death.
I’m not afraid of death, I believe,
But I am afraid of pain.
They could take him away.

If they took him I could kill myself,
But it would seem almost unreasonable
To take my life so willingly when everyone
Else is trying their best to stay alive.

The doors opened and revealed light
And fresh air.
I was pushed out and handed my striped uniform
With a yellow star neatly sewn on.
There was a slight smirk on the man’s face
As they took him away.

They took him away…